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Everton's attack lacks a focal point while attacks increase on Ronald Koeman

The club’s relationship with Romelu Lukaku was loveless and this blurred judgement, particularly on the terraces, relating to his abilities and importance. Everton are missing him badly

Simon Hughes
Friday 29 September 2017 10:50 BST
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Despite the club's summer splurge, Everton have looked directionless this season
Despite the club's summer splurge, Everton have looked directionless this season

On a day when a survey, albeit one involving fewer than 5,000 participants, suggested Evertonians were the joint second most likely set of supporters in the Premier League to vote for Leave in the EU referendum, what many would claim to be Brexit football was served briefly at Goodison Park.

High in to the Merseyside sky the ball soared; Jordan Pickford's goal kick eventually plummeting towards the opposition's 18-yard box. The stadium gasped at the possibilities, would Wayne Rooney, free of his marker, be able to first control and then finish or would he rip a volley first time towards the Park End?

Rooney was able to do neither but Goodison applauded anyway, for this type of speculation, this type of unpredictability is either conditioned in the psyche of the surroundings to the point of requirement or - rather less definitively - it is simply what spectators want to see a bit more of.

It did not matter so much that the score remained Everton 0, Apollon Limassol 1; that Everton, indeed, were losing at home to the eighth best team in the Cypriot league. Pickford's kick was a long pass rather than a hoof and it had broken from the routine of Everton's outfielders only looking 'sideways and backwards' as manager Ronald Koeman later recognised.

The pressure is gathering on Koeman who was not alone in his record spend this summer gone, though it seemed to mean more at Everton because for so long they have been behind the game in terms of when they recruit and, this time round, they were ahead.

This was before it was announced, of course, that Romelu Lukaku had joined Manchester United, Everton’s leading goalscorer in each of the previous four seasons – and their leading scorer in the Premier League era.

The club’s relationship with Lukaku was loveless and this blurred judgement, particularly on the terraces, relating to his abilities and importance. Everton are missing him badly.

Everton are missing Lukaku's presence up front 

After his departure, there was a serious attempt to pursue Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud as well as Burnley’s Andre Gray and Bournemouth’s Joshua King, though Giroud was settled in London, while Gray and King did not get the impression from Koeman nor Walsh they were being signed as first choice, especially since Everton had already bought Rooney and had committed a record transfer fee on Gylfi Sigurdsson and both were expected to play the majority of games.

Everton, then, did not have a number 9 in the truest sense, one befitting of the club’s traditions, a tradition which links Joe Royle to Bob Latchford, Latchford to Andy Gray, Gray to Graeme Sharp, Sharp to Duncan Ferguson, Ferguson to Kevin Campbell, Campbell back to Ferguson, Ferguson – to some degree – to Marouane Fellaini and most recently, Fellaini to Lukaku.

Sandro Ramírez currently holds the number 9 shirt but he is yet to score for Everton in eight appearances and he is struggling to shift the impression that he is nothing more than a head-down type of runner rather than someone who acts as a target and has the ability to bring others into the game. There is more to be encouraged about by the development of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, whose pace, athleticism and increased strength has been the one clear positive of Everton’s campaign so far, though there have been moments where his greenness has revealed itself.

Sandro Ramirez is yet to get off the mark for Everton

The wider level of threat being posed by Everton was reflected in the corner count last night, a statistic Apollon won by five to two. Everton have been reasonably assured in possession during most of their fixtures this season – even in the defeats – but when you don’t have a centre-forward occupying the thoughts of at least two centre-halves, the system can break down quickly, especially when there is no width in the midfield and limitations at full back.

Koeman is trying to figure out how to deal with Seamus Coleman’s absence through serious injury on the right, while Leighton Baines has become more cautious in supporting the attack like he used to from the left, perhaps because of age but perhaps also because he is mindful of the mistakes being made elsewhere in defence and he thinks he needs to be there for cover.

The pressure is on for Koeman at Goodison Park

Koeman rescued his first season at Everton by introducing Tom Davies along with his energy and enthusiasm to the first team while unlocking Ross Barkley’s creativity by asking very little of him in a defensive sense. The signing of Davy Klaassen as well as Sigurdsson and Rooney has reduced Davies’s involvement so far, and Barkley’s injury and contract impasse means he’s now far from Koeman’s thoughts – especially with so many options in that area of the field in front of him.

Evertonians say their manager always felt like a short-term appointment. There is no sense from the boardroom that patience is running out with Koeman but if he does not address the structural flaws of this team quickly, the chances of him being able to claim this as a year of progression will diminish. From there, recent history has suggested Goodison will speak its mind.

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