It’s been a resolutely grim start to the season for Everton, especially disappointing considering that the team had amassed a 48-point haul last term — before deductions imposed for financial breaches by the club. A reasonable summer transfer window, in which many – but not all – weak areas in the squad were reinforced, suggested that Blues fans could look forward to a stress-free mid-table finish.
Hardly the stuff of dreams, but after trekking through the parched wasteland of the past few years, the prospect of a boring season of mediocrity, heading towards the oasis that will be the new Everton Stadium, was welcome. It hasn’t quite worked out that way, however. Instead, the team has won only once this term — and that against fourth-tier outfit Doncaster Rovers.
Smashed by both Brighton and Tottenham Hotspur and beaten when leading handily against Bournemouth and Aston Villa, Tuesday’s meek exit from the EFL Cup, at Goodison Park, to newly-promoted Southampton, almost went by the wayside by way of comparison. The pressure is now firmly on Sean Dyche to reverse the team’s fortunes.
That task begins this afternoon, with a visit to Leicester City.
Form
The East Midlands outfit fell out of the top flight at the end of the 2022/23 season, in which they finished 18th, two points and one place behind Everton. Cue an exodus of talent, with names such as James Maddison, Harvey Barnes, Youri Tielemans and Timothy Castagne heading for the exit door, as the club looked to shed big wages and raise funds. Enzo Maresca was brought in to negotiate a route back up to the Premier League and did so at the first time of asking, winning the Championship title by a point, ahead of Ipswich Town.
The Italian was coaxed away to big-spending Chelsea in the summer, leaving the Foxes to replace him with ex-Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper. They’ve spent relatively modestly to support the new man — €87m, balanced against €35.4m in sales. The latter sum was entirely raised from the sale of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, a key man in their promotion campaign, to Maresca’s Chelsea. Otherwise, the club shed a few players on free transfers, the most noteworthy being Kelechi Iheanacho, once linked to Everton.
Arriving to boost Cooper’s squad were a host of players — nine in all, most of whom have played a part in the early part of the season. Heavily involved have been young winger Abdul Fatawu Issahaku (€17m from Sporting Club de Portugal), Atalanta centre half Caleb Okili (€14m), veteran forward Jordan Ayew from Crystal Palace (€5.9m), Spurs midfielder Oliver Skipp (€23.5m), winger Bobby De Cordova-Reid (loan, from Fulham) and teenage Brighton attacking midfielder Facundo Buonanotte, also on loan.
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Leicester kicked off the campaign with a creditable home draw with Spurs, a game in which they’d looked out of their depth and hopelessly passive, but rallied in the second half. A close, but clear away loss to Fulham followed, and then the Midlanders crushed League Two side Tranmere Rovers 4-0 in an EFL Cup tie. They ran Villa close in losing at the King Power Stadium and last time out led Palace by two goals, before being pegged back via a penalty kick in added time. The Foxes sit in 15th place in the embryonic league standings.
Style of Play
Cooper has implemented a 4-2-3-1 formation so far this season, though did switch it up to a 3-4-3 for the trip to the Cottagers in week two. While at Nottingham Forest he preferred to play on the front foot, with control of the ball, but shifted quite dramatically in the Premier League, to a more conservative approach. The tougher it got at Forest, the more defensive they became and Cooper looks to be setting up in a similar way with his new side.
