With a poor festive and New Year for Everton when it comes to both performances, deficiencies in our play and results, the pressure has clearly mounting for manager Marco Silva.
With some pundits ready to tear strips of the Portuguese gaffer, along with plenty of fans, there are those willing to show some more patience believing that sticking with the current gaffer – given earlier positives in the season – will reap a greater reward as we look to build for the future, and following defeat to Watford last weekend, BT Sport’s Premier League Tonight panel of Steve McManaman, Rachel Brown-Finnis and Owen Hargreaves had a decent discussion recently, as per the sportsman.
"They should be seventh, not in the big six but the next best team."
Owen Hargreaves discusses Everton's underwhelming season so far…#PLTonight pic.twitter.com/sYgzHPsPut
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 9, 2019
Hargreaves:
“The players that Silva has signed are absolute belters. They are still living with the past regimes and the results are poor. I think it’s a bit harsh on Everton because they only lost 1-0 at Watford. They can play better but it feels like a club in transition.”
McManaman:
“There’s no progression. Finishing in mid-table hides their problems. They are 32 points behind Liverpool which is astonishing really. That gap is too much. Over the last couple of years they’ve stagnated – players and managers have come and gone. They can’t be hiring and firing managers and hoping it’s going to click because it’s not the answer.”
Brown-Finnis:
“Silva has not done very much with his previous teams in England yet he is the guy that Everton have earmarked to take the club forward. I think they will stick with him.”
Mixed thoughts in some ways, but the trend is Everton have been treading water for a number of years, so why is the consensus that it should all change during one season?
It takes time, everyone knows the issues in the squad and where we lack and undoubtedly we need to strengthen, but we also need to grow our own and be sustainable.
That doesn’t happen overnight and in lurching again in a panic because we have hit a bad spell doesn’t actually serve a longer term purpose. The club have invested heavily in players for the future, surely we should give a manager the time to develop them further so there is a future, rather than short term gain and a stalling.