The Downfall of Ronald Koeman

Bradley Cates Reports,

Ronald Koeman’s tenure as Everton manager lasted 496 days. During his time at the club, Everton have spent nearly a quarter of a billion pounds. £150 million of which were spent last summer. Ronald Koeman, like Roberto Martinez, had a great first season. But also like Roberto Martinez, he had a disaster afterwards and fans quickly turned on him.

In spite of a fantastic home record last season, Everton’s poor away record more or less evened it out. Everton fans wanted the club to break the top 6, and now they have money, they felt that it can be achievable. The task was made harder following the sale of Romelu Lukaku and fans desperately wanted them to sign a top-class striker as the signings of Wayne Rooney and Sandro Ramirez as well as the deadline day signing from the previous summer Dominic Calvert-Lewin are not good enough to be classed as such. Olivier Giroud was the one Koeman wanted but he decided to stay. After that, the club didn’t seem to have a plan B. But why did Everton have to wait for Giroud to make a decision on his then-questionable future when there were other players available like, for example, Javier Hernandez and Kelechi Iheanacho? Both would have been great signings for Everton, but they ended up joining West Ham and Leicester respectively instead. The blame there lies with not only Koeman, but Steve Walsh and the board as well.

The lack of a top-class striker was evident in Everton’s abysmal start to the season. Not just that but Everton’s lack of attacking threat as a whole. So far in the Premier League this season, Everton had 59 shots from the inside the area but only 6 resulted in goals – a success rate of just 10.2%. Only Southampton, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace have a worse success rate. Dominic Calvert-Lewin in particular had 16 shots from inside the area but scored no goals. Everton had their chances but they didn’t make the most of them. With a top-class striker, it could have been entirely different.

Another problem is tactics. Ronald Koeman just didn’t have a plan. All he did was change the formation over and over again and hoped for the best.

Opponents Formation
Ruzomberok 4-2-3-1
Ruzomberok 3-4-1-2
Stoke 3-4-2-1
Hajduk Split 4-2-3-1
Manchester City 3-4-2-1
Hajduk Split 4-2-3-1
Chelsea 3-4-2-1
Tottenham 4-2-3-1
Atalanta 4-2-3-1
Manchester United 3-4-2-1
Sunderland 4-2-3-1
Bournemouth 4-2-3-1
Apollon Limassol 4-2-3-1
Burnley 4-2-3-1
Brighton 4-2-3-1
Lyon 4-1-4-1
Arsenal 3-4-2-1

The players had difficulty gelling at the start of the season, but they are still having difficulty gelling now. But how can they gel when the formation almost always changes and there’s no plan? The tactics were too defensive and there was no width. Everton fell behind in 11 of their last 12 games in all competitions. The one game they didn’t fall behind in was against Sunderland. And when they fell behind, they didn’t bounce back and believe they could still win. The one time they did, they relied on a player Ronald Koeman refused to give a locker to. The mess Everton were in on the pitch is shown below.

Everton had a difficult start fixtures-wise – they had to play Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester United and Arsenal in their first 9 league games. They were bound to be difficult games but that doesn’t mean they weren’t beatable. Burnley managed 5 points out of 12 away from home against Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City (plus 3 points at Goodison!). Everton only managed 1 point against the top 6 teams. Everton’s performances against the teams on paper they should have beaten were also below par. And their overall performance in the Europa League group stage was awful. Before this season, Ronald Koeman won only 3 of his previous 25 European matches. Was the writing on the wall but we just walked past it?

The final nail in the coffin was the Arsenal game. Purely for this statistic alone.

Everton are currently in the relegation zone and virtually out of Europe because of dreadful tactics, players being at sixes and sevens (especially in some games where they easily could have conceded six or seven) and zero killer instinct. Some people might say that Ronald Koeman was let go too early. Some might say Steve Walsh and the board were more to blame for not signing the right players. However, in order for a manager to succeed, they need to relish these challenges and sort out a plan that suits the team and stick with it, play players who actually play in those positions and believe there’s no such thing as “expected defeats.”

Everton have spent £150 million to be a laughing stock. The fans deserve better. And it’s vital that Koeman’s successor turns things round.