There’s no disgrace in losing 3-1 to Manchester City, even if a humbling defeat to Liverpool on Wednesday night has etched away at the invincible aura of Pep Guardiola’s ferociously flowing side.
And yet, Everton’s modest performance against the Premier League’s champions in waiting last weekend creates an anxious backdrop heading into this Saturday’s Merseyside derby, one that could prove to be an incredibly costly ninety minutes for Sam Alladryce.
Although Big Sam has no doubt improved the Toffees since inheriting a relegation-threatened campaign and misshapen squad from Ronald Koeman, a significant section of Everton fans are still unconvinced by the direction he’s taken the first team in, and concerned by how an uninspiring brand of football appears to have curtailed the ambitions of a club that threatened to disrupt the Premier League’s top six upon the emergence of Farhad Moshiri.
And for some Everton fans, the Merseyside derby could well be the final straw. Liverpool’s impressive season makes Everton’s own debasing campaign that much more difficult to endure, not to mention the fact the Reds’ attacking football rivals the gorgeous glamour of City’s whereas the Toffees’ philosophy is more closely aligned with Burnley or Brighton’s.
While Allardyce has taken Everton away from the relegation race, he hasn’t actually brought them much closer to Liverpool or any of the Big Six clubs, and a defeat to City in which Everton recorded just 18% possession at home has been one of many painful reminders of that this term. In many ways though, the key issue isn’t what’s happening right now – it’s what it suggests for the future, and how it questions whether Allardyce should be trusted to oversee Everton’s most free-spending era in the transfer market.
Indeed, in spite of how impressive Liverpool have been this season, improving with every stage of the campaign, Allardyce can’t afford another passive performance against a top side – but especially against Everton’s most bitter rivals.
There must be a tangible positive for Everton fans to cling onto, a cause for optimism looking into next season, and even though he has already fulfilled his season brief of ensuring Premier League survival, that’s why this Merseyside derby feels so make-or-break for Allardyce. A good performance will convince doubters, another bad one against a heavyweight team will only reinforce pejorative opinions.
The problem though, is that Allardyce has only rarely shown a capacity to beat the top teams, and it’s been a real problem for him at Goodison too. Throughout his managerial career, he’s averaged just 0.7 points per game against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United – a decent return for a manager mostly in charge of relegation-threatened clubs, yet not the kind of return that suggests Allardyce would consistently beat them if put in charge of a top side with the financial backing to bring in top talents.
At Everton, that issue has only amplified. From the six encounters in which they’ve faced Big Six teams in all competitions under Allardyce, Everton have failed to win any of them, avoiding defeat in just two, or score more than one goal, culminating an aggregate scoreline of 13-4. No doubt, this problem existed at Everton before Allardyce – it was a 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal that cost Koeman his job – but it nonetheless falls into a narrative of how Big Sam can at best maintain the usual seventh-place status quo at Everton, rather than truly take the club forward.
And for a manager who prides himself on pragmatic game-plans, there isn’t really one forthcoming for Saturday’s game. Against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, Allardyce set up to contain with a back five but was punished dearly; against City last weekend, he actually fielded an incredibly offensive-minded line-up – the kind of team selection fans want to see with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Theo Walcott, Yannick Bolasie and Wayne Rooney all supporting Cenk Tosun – yet still suffered a humbling loss as Everton failed to muster up a half-decent performance.
Accordingly, it’s hard to tell quite where Allardyce goes from here. He knows this Everton side isn’t solid enough to consistently soak up pressure and hit Liverpool on the counter-attack; but he also knows anything loosely resembling an open game plays directly into Jurgen Klopp’s hands.
That’s as much a consequence of the players at his disposal as the tactics Allardyce has used against top teams this season, but not every Everton fan will see it that way. Expectations remain high at Goodison, and there’s still not much evidence to suggest the former England boss can match them in the long-term.
Heading into the summer transfer window, this might well be what dictates the strength of Allardyce’s hand. To what extent will Moshiri and Kenwright financially back a manager who already appears to have lost his mandate amongst the fans, especially if he can’t prove he knows how to beat the calibre of teams Everton will need to next season to break into the top four?
Alternatively, how much will a win in the Merseyside derby arrest those concerns, and how much will it bring unconvinced supporters back onside? That, of course, affects the kind of time Allardyce is given at the start of 2018/19 as well.
Everton’s season may well be over, but there’s still plenty for Allardyce to play for on Saturday.
[ad_pod ]
