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Oumar Niasse celebrates his first Everton goal with Jonjoe Kenny, left, Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman. Fans would welcome a similar selection to the one that vanquished Sunderland, littered with youthful energy, for Saturday’s visit of Bournemouth.
Oumar Niasse celebrates his first Everton goal on Wednesday with Jonjoe Kenny, left, Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman. Photograph: Tony McArdle - Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images
Oumar Niasse celebrates his first Everton goal on Wednesday with Jonjoe Kenny, left, Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman. Photograph: Tony McArdle - Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images

Everton sense chance to clear their heads after weeks of muddled thinking

This article is more than 6 years old

Bournemouth are the visitors on Saturday, with Ronald Koeman’s side in improved spirits after the midweek League Cup win over Sunderland

There was a small victory for perseverance at Goodison Park on Wednesday when Oumar Niasse received a rousing reception from the home crowd and returned the compliment with a fine first goal for Everton. There was also no clearer indication of Ronald Koeman’s predicament or his club’s muddled transfer strategy than the chant of “Oumar, Oumar” that echoed around the old ground against Sunderland.

Everton added seven players to their senior squad this summer at a cost of almost £140m. Yet here was Koeman, having decided to withdraw the 20-year-old Dominic Calvert-Lewin, turning for the first time as Everton manager to a striker he told to find another club after 45 minutes of a pre-season friendly against Jablonec 14 months earlier.

Niasse, of course, did not depart six months after his £13.5m arrival from Lokomotiv Moscow and found himself banished to the under-23s, without a locker and ordered to stay away from the first-team changing room at Finch Farm before enjoying a successful loan spell at Hull City. He almost left permanently last month only for a proposed transfer to Crystal Palace to collapse on deadline day. Suddenly he was playing in the Carabao Cup for one of the biggest spenders in the summer window; a reward for his positive attitude in training, admitted Koeman, and a glaring symbol of Everton’s failure to replace Romelu Lukaku despite having time and money at their disposal.

“I knew we couldn’t get the striker that we wanted maybe two or three days before the end of the transfer window,” said the Everton manager, who targeted Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud at the start of the summer. “It was all about whether we signed the fourth, fifth or sixth option – yes or no – and that wasn’t what we wanted. So then we spoke about the situation if we don’t sign a striker. We have Sandro [Ramírez, the £5.2m signing from Málaga], we have Dominic and we had the possibility for Niasse. We didn’t want to go for the other options, that’s true, and it’s too early to say what will happen in January.”

Everton did spend £68.6m on Davy Klaassen and Gylfi Sigurdsson, with six weeks spent negotiating with Swansea City for the Iceland international, in addition to bringing back Wayne Rooney from Manchester United. No established Premier League strikers but plenty of options for the No10 role, and imbalance has been an inevitable feature of Everton’s performances, as well as a distinct lack of pace and threat. Koeman, who had persisted with a pedestrian team before Wednesday, also wanted competition and cover for Leighton Baines at left-back. In its absence, the right-back Mason Holgate was deployed there against Simon Grayson’s side as Jonjoe Kenny made his long-awaited full debut in defence.

Koeman has cited a lack of confidence, integrating so many new faces and a demanding schedule that brought consecutive league games against Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United on top of Europa League commitments as contributing to the flat start. Valid arguments all. He has also railed against José Mourinho’s claim that Everton should be aiming for a top-four finish this seasonafter such heavy investment. Unrealistic, retorted Koeman. “It’s crazy to put pressure on the team by saying we need to finish top four,” he added this week. “In my opinion it’s ridiculous.”

It is not unrealistic, however, to expect a club who have spent almost £170m this calender year to avoid such abject results as the 3-0 defeats by Spurs and Atalanta, to prioritise more than damage-limitation exercises at Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge, and a manager of Koeman’s experience to have a clearer idea of his preferred and most effective side.

Sunderland brought respite after a run of four successive defeats with no goals scored and 12 conceded. The Carabao Cup also made it easier for Koeman to rest big names, rotate his squad and inject youthful energy into the team. It will require a big call to do likewise against Bournemouth on Saturday but the supporters who cheered Niasse in midweek are unlikely to object.

“Tell me one manager who doesn’t have difficult or tough periods,” Koeman said. “Every season you have a period and let’s hope we have put ours to the back and can now go forward. I had a difficult time at Valencia but you can’t compare Valencia with Everton or Southampton or Benfica or PSV because that was really difficult and it was a revolution with a new stadium that was not built and still isn’t finished, I believe. That was the wrong club at the wrong time, but even when it is a negative period it is a learning point.

“The most important thing, and this is for every manager, is the connection with the players. If you feel you still have that good connection with the players and you think they are committed then that is the key point. The rest is all about decisions that don’t belong to the manager. But the connection with the players, the feeling with the players, that is the most important thing. I don’t have any reason to doubt my connection with the players at Everton. I believe in good results and winning games because of the quality we have in our squad.”

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