10 stats that sum up why Everton had to fire Koeman

Everton fired Ronald Koeman earlier today, and only the blissful ignorant will be surprised that the Toffees pulled the plug on what has been a most expensive experiment so far.

After a honeymoon-ish first season under the Dutchman where the Blues ended up seventh, a lot of money was spent over the offseason in the hopes that Everton could finally break into the top six.

However, the signs were already there last season that the Toffees lucked into seventh place more than anything else, and despite flashing the cash the squad as a whole is poorer this year, and in the end Koeman simply had to go.

1 - 69 goals scored in 47 Premier League games

That doesn’t look like a bad record, until you realize that 25 of those goals came from Romelu Lukaku, and no single player had more than 5 after that.

This season it was even worse, with Everton only having two different Premier League goalscorers - Wayne Rooney and Oumar Niasse.

2 - 17 Games Played, 6 Wins 4 Draws and 7 Losses

This is not the start to the highly-anticipated 2017-18 season that Everton were looking for. Some of the wins padding this total are from the Europa League qualifiers.

In the Premier League alone, Everton only had 8 points from 9 games, with 7 goals scored and 18 goals against. That was never going to cut it.

3 - 2 Wins, 5 Draws, 10 Losses against top six sides

To be in the top six Everton need to beat the top six. They came nowhere near that in the 16 months Koeman was in charge, with only 17 goals scored and a whopping 38 goals against.

4 Overall record of 58 games managed, 24 Wins, 14 Draws and 20 Losses

While his 40% win record puts him in second place for win percentage among Everton managers in the Premier League, the financial outlay he was presented with required much better numbers overall.

5 - £218m spent on players in three transfer windows

After spending £77m in his first year at Everton, Koeman oversaw a further £141m splashed out over the summer. While the Blues are improved in many positions, the imbalance in the squad is what eventually did the manager in.

6 - Terrible away record of 4 Wins, 9 Draws and 12 Losses

Everton simply could not win away from home throughout the Dutchman’s entire tenure. The Blues falling behind almost always resulted in a loss, and the inability to hold firm on the road was unacceptable.

Just in the Premier League -

7 - 12 substitutions before 65 minutes in 9 Premier League games

If ever you needed a stat that a manager was consistently making bad starting XI selections, or was being forced into changes after being overwhelmed, then this is it.

To top that, Koeman made 19 starting team changes from game to game - this is somehow defensible since he was trying to rotate the squad, but the issue at hand is that the manager had no idea what his best team was.

8 - A surprisingly good 18 Wins, 5 Draws, 6 Losses home record

Koeman did oversee a record breaking 8 straight home wins in the Premier League in the calendar year 2017, but that home dominance only served to magnify the team’s away woes even more.

This record is not including Arsenal loss, which makes it 15 wins in 24 games, for a 62.5% win percentage, keeping him in third place for the Premier League & First Division eras.

9 - 8.7 xG and 12.6 xA

When compared to the 7 goals actually scored and 18 goals actually conceded, this expected goals stat doesn’t look too bad. But considering the League average of 10.4, it is clear to see that neither the attack nor the defence is up to par.

10 - 30 shots, 14 on target, 68% possession, 5 goals scored

The statline above looks very good doesn’t it? That’s a game a team completely dominated, right?

Well, the only problem with that data is that was Arsenal’s boxscore from yesterday. Yes, they basically had 30 attempts at goal, 14 were on target and if Jordan Pickford was not in outstanding form the humiliation would have been much worse.