da aviator aposta： In today’s Everton roundup, we take a look at what’s going on surrounding the Toffees. Tim Cahill discusses Everton’s problems after the loss to Sheffield United, Marco Silva believes his side looked ‘nervous’ in the defeat, and scouts are sent out to report on Yussef Poulson.
Cahill on Everton
da supremo： Report: During his appearance on BBC’s Match of the Day, former Everton man Cahill was critical of his old team, saying: “Sheffield United forced Everton out wide. They had bodies around the ball. Anywhere there was danger, it got snuffed out by Chris Wilder’s men.
“Everton had to play sideways into areas where Sheffield United wanted them. They wanted to show them outside and Everton were static up front. There was no creativity for Everton. There were 30 crosses in the game. If you do that you would like to think you could get your head on one of them.”
Verdict: Cahill’s worries are clear to see. Silva’s men have scored just five league goals so far this season, three of which came in one game in the win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. As a result, the Toffees have now gone three out of the six league games without scoring and familiar problems emerged against the Blades.
The statistics show that the Toffees had 70% of the ball and registered 16 shots. However, only three of them were on target. Silva believes his side ‘didn’t deserve the result’, but with no real threat throughout the game and just high statistics to their name, it is hard to agree with the Everton boss.
Club keeping an eye on Poulson
Report: As reported by the Express, the Toffees have sent scouts out to Germany to report on RB Leipzig man Yussuf Poulsen. The report suggests Silva has ordered his scouts to make another check on the forward, after watching him last year.
Verdict: As previously mentioned, scoring goals has been a real problem for Everton so far this season, and Poulsen could well be the solution. He netted 15 in the Bundesliga during the last campaign, and although he’s totted up just one in the German top flight so far this term, he’s also applied two assists – and provided a setup in the Champions League.
Capable of playing across the front three, as he’s done already this season, his mixture of goals and creativity could solve a few key problems for the Merseysides in the final third. Of course, Silva will need to get to January to actually benefit from the 25-year-old’s attacking prowess, which is by no means guaranteed based on Everton’s start to the campaign.
‘No reason to play football so nervous’, says Silva
Report: As told by the Daily Mail, the Everton boss was disappointed and highly critical of his side’s loss to the Blades: “After we scored the own goal, even if in my opinion it looked like a foul on Jordan Pickford, we didn’t have reasons to play football so nervous for the 50 minutes after that. No reason.
“We were seven months unbeaten at home, we had won our last six games here and the supporters were behind us but we didn’t perform in the second half. You can’t handle normal pressure and make the right decisions if you are so nervous.”
Verdict: After now failing to score in three out of six league games, and conceding nine goals, Silva needs to turn things around. Last season, Everton ended up finishing eighth, but after bringing in the likes of Moise Kean, Alex Iwobi and Fabian Delph during the summer, improvement this time around is needed.
The picture of Goodison Park towards the end of the defeat at the weekend told you all you need to know. Hundreds of fans had left after Lys Mousset’s late goal, whilst Everton finished the game with a number of forwards on the pitch but still only registered three shots on target throughout the 90 minutes.
Right now it seems Silva is just one or two negative results away from a crisis and with the champions up next, things could get messy very quickly at Goodison Park.