A Shakespearean tragedy with Merseyful implications

Since taking over at Leicester City, Craig Shakespeare has produced the sixth most points in the English Premier League, one more than Koeman’s Everton. He also ripped the soul out of Sevilla’s season in a way that I’d never actually seen before.

Going into that knockout tie, Sevilla had a decent argument for finishing top two in La Liga, and they completely sputtered and did basically nothing after that.

Shakespeare just lost his job. It’s completely understandable if he turns to the folks at King Power stadium and ask them Et tu, Brute? But as a famous English author once said: “Though those who are betray’d do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor stands in worse case of woe.” Leicester City will certainly realize after this change that the fault was not in their stars, but in themselves.

So with a fairly capable English manager on the market, and discussion of Koeman out swirling, it is time to consider whether the fit here is good. At this moment for Everton, we know what we are, but we know not what we may become. This team is still talented, but we are at the point in the season where we begin to truly find out what we are to be or not to be. Sometimes we find solace even in losses, but Everton is well past that point.

Shakespeare is not an experienced manager, and that is, admittedly, his knock, but he has been a better manager both in Europe and at home than Ronald Koeman in the brief window of time they’ve coached in the same league and he’s done far more with less talent and far less budget. He plays a practical style that gets results as opposed to the delusional philosophically driven nonsense we’ve been watching this season.

When sorrows come, they come not in single spies, but in battalions, and Everton has its sorrows aplenty. Statistically speaking, a coaching change alone rarely solves the issues with sporting teams (more on that in another article) but we do need to make a change, and Shakespeare has shown he can salvage a season for an ambitious Premier League club. It may not be a long term notion, but it can right the ship in the mean time. Extremities are the triers of spirits, and things are extremely trying right now.

I know Everton fans probably want something flashier or more established than Craig Shakespeare, but as the old saying goes ‘there’s small choice in rotten apples.’