This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
There are a multitude of reasons to explain Marco Silva’s decline at Everton, some of which are well within his control.
The Portuguese manager’s failure to determine his strongest starting XI has been problematic, forcing Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Moise Kean and Cenk Tosun to rotate in the centre-forward berth at a rate that disrupts efforts to establish any sense of cohesion in Everton’s attacking build up play.
A lack of mettle to come back from behind has been a defining and prevalent problem, while his frostiness in the media has created a metaphorical barrier between fans and supporters, rendering him as something of a detached outsider and a difficult figure to enthuse over.
But elements of chance that are decided by forces beyond Silva’s control have also gone against him.
Idrissa Gueye was arguably Everton’s most indispensable player in the 2018/19 campaign despite the fact rumours linking him with a move to PSG persisted throughout the season. He eventually scooped the club’s Player’s Player of the Year award accolade along with Lucas Digne and that was no less than he deserved for his contribution.
The inevitable move to the French capital eventually went through in the summer, though, and that gave Marcel Brands one of his most important missions to date: to seek the signing of an adequate replacement.
In came Jean-Philippe Gbamin for a £25m fee, a player who completed 2.6 tackles per game on average in the 2017/18 Bundesliga campaign and 1.6 in 2018/19.
There was an expectation that the Ivory Coast international would seamlessly slot into Gueye’s role and provide the level of coverage his predecessor had consistently managed. But just as his career on Merseyside was beginning to get underway, he suffered an injury blow which has ruled him out until the new year.
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His prolonged absence could ultimately define the Toffees’ season and contribute to Silva’s dismissal. Morgan Schneiderlin is the only other natural holding midfielder but the disparity between him and Gueye is verging on embarrassing for a player who was once deemed good enough for Manchester United.
The former Watford boss has experimented with different combinations in midfield and recently Tom Davies has enjoyed a revival but, in the absence of a natural holding player to patrol in front of the back four, no consistent winning formula has been struck.
Fabian Delph’s ongoing and unsuccessful endeavour to change the composition of his body parts from glass to something more robust have only solidified the problem.
Everton only need to take a quick glance across Merseyside and digest the brilliance of Fabinho in Liverpool’s pivot role to place their own situation with Gbamin into context. Fernandinho and Rodri at Manchester City and Declan Rice at West Ham, meanwhile, equally offer pertinent examples.
The problems at Goodison Park run much deeper than one absentee who still has to prove himself in this division, but the setback of Gueye’s departure in the summer combined with Gbamin’s injury have left the under-fire boss without a core component of his machine.
With the Merseyside derby looming on Wednesday night, Silva must prepare his midfield to combat the threat of Liverpool’s relentless and dynamic midfield trio without the man who was seemingly signed to offer the best resistance to such threats.
The 42-year-old has made mistakes and deserves the scrutiny but it would be criminal to overlook Gbamin’s absence as a contributing factor in his demise.
