EVERTON COULD BE TOP, BUT THEY ARE TOO SLOPPY AT THE BACK
THEY could be top. It really is that simple. Everton, with extra gumption and a little more shrewdness, would now be rubbing shoulders with their neighbours at the Premier League’s summit.
Nobody is suggesting they are title challengers, but Everton had a chance before the first international break to take maximum points from their opening four games, just as Liverpool, Chelsea and Watford have done.
Instead, they have one win and six points. To realise why, look no further than minute 34 against Huddersfield Town on Saturday.
It was here that Everton, who had not been troubled, surrendered a corner. Chris Lowe’s setpiece was accurate, Marco Silva’s defenders stood passive in their zones and Philip Billing rose purposefully to plant a header past Jordan Pickford.
Though Dominic Calvert-Lewin swiftly restored parity, the damage was done.
Under Silva, Everton have conceded seven goals in all competitions so far and, alarmingly, six of them have been via set-pieces. Billing simply did what Rotherham’s Will Vaulks had done four days earlier in the Carabao Cup at Goodison Park.
These are early days but a trait that was apparent at Hull and Watford appears to have followed Silva to Merseyside. It is admirable that he wants to play exciting, adventurous football, but it will mean nothing if the back door is left wide open with zonal marking.
‘Everyone has got their own different ways that they like to set up from a corner,’ said Pickford, whose frustration was etched all over his face. ‘The main thing is not to concede and we have conceded too many. It’s cost us four points in the past two games. We need to sort it out.
‘We will work hard on the training ground when we get back from
international duty. He (Silva) is massive on offensive set-plays too and we have scored a couple of goals that way. If we can keep scoring and stop conceding, that’s how you win games.’
And here was a game Everton expected to win. The slight bumps in the road they experienced at Bournemouth and Wolves — drawing matches in which they led — could have been soothed had they capitalised on the arrival of Huddersfield.
That they did not was down to naivety, and the booing that broke out in some parts of the stadium at the final whistle was not aimed solely at the erratic refereeing of Stuart Attwell; the wailing was a realisation that six points after four fixtures should really have been double that tally. Things, you would expect, will improve when Silva has Phil Jagielka, who is recovering from cartilage surgery, Colombia international yerry mina and michael Keane available. yet will more personnel make that much of a difference?
Watford shipped 44 goals under Silva, 17 of which came from setpieces; Hull were breached 36 times while he was in charge, 14 of those were via dead balls. The percentage for both clubs was more than 38 per cent.
The Premier League’s total of goals conceded from set-pieces last season was 27.4 per cent. It is a worry.
Everton, be clear, have potential under Silva. The crowd want to buy into his regime and it is early days for everyone. But against opponents who dug in and made no apology for making life difficult — ‘It’s about points and how you get them,’ said their manager, David Wagner — they faltered.
Silva is happy the international break has arrived so he can clear a medical room that has got very busy very quickly but, more than anything, so he can plot the next stages of the campaign and take them with confidence.
Pickford is adamant they will do so provided they banish the errors.
‘We have the ability to play the kind of football the gaffer wants — good football, good on the eye,’ he said.
‘We have just got to trust ourselves to do it and, if we do, it will be easier. It doesn’t happen overnight but that’s why we train hard every day. We want to make it easier on a Saturday.’