Everton fans in the Transfer Tavern have been bemoaning their side’s woeful run of form this week, which took another turn for the worse on Thursday night.
Ronald Koeman’s men were beaten 3-0 by Tottenham on Saturday to suffer a second successive Premier League defeat, and things got worse for the Toffees in the Europa League as Atalanta inflicted back-to-back 3-0 defeats on the Merseyside giants.
That leaves manager Koeman with plenty to think about going into another tricky encounter this afternoon, a trip to table-toppers Manchester United.
And although it is still early days in the campaign, and they have had a testing run of fixtures, Everton are crisis-bound if things do not change rapidly at the club over the coming weeks, starting today at Old Trafford.
Ultimately, much of that can be pinned down to their summer transfer business which, although saw them spend in excess of £100 million, has left them short in certain areas of the squad, and indeed increased expectations to unprecedented heights.
Star striker Romelu Lukaku was sold to United, and replaced by a combination of Wayne Rooney and Sandro Ramirez – the former who hasn’t exceeded 20 league goals since 2012, the latter who has never played in England before.
Yes, it’s remarkably difficult to replace someone who has scored 87 goals in four seasons, and the above two are fine players who will score goals for Everton, but the money was clearly there to focus their efforts on further forward options, given they spent several millions on midfielders.
The Toffees also brought in Michael Keane from Burnley, but remain with Ashley Williams and Phil Jagielka as the other main centre-backs, both of whom are over 30, and the latter of which struggled immensely at times last season.
Nonetheless, there were still people expecting Everton to challenge the top six this term, while in reality seventh is again the best they could probably hope for, as well as maybe a cup run.
And the failings of the summer window have materialised in their start to the season.
Yes, the fixture computer hasn’t been kind to them, having faced Manchester City, Chelsea, and Tottenham all in the first few weeks, but the manner of the performances, especially the latter two, will be of great concern – after all, they would have been looking to match these sides this term.
Add in a defensive horror show at Atalanta on Thursday night, and Everton are staring at a crisis.
They created next to nothing in the 2-0 loss at Chelsea, were poor against Spurs, and even worse against Atalanta – the Europa League qualifying hasn’t helped their season preparations, but Koeman and the side would have known that prior to the campaign.
Ultimately, Everton have been outplayed by sides they were striving to match this season. They spent over £100 million in the summer to try and bridge that gap, but they have looked way off, arguably further than they were last term.
And the window failings are already beginning to catch them out, and could plunge them into an early-season crisis if things continue in the same vain.
Undoubtedly, it’s going to be tough at Old Trafford this afternoon, with United flying high and thus expected to win, but it’s the performance that matters just as much, if not more, for Everton later today.
A repeat of their efforts at Manchester City wouldn’t go amiss – that was a dogged, resilient Everton we haven’t seen since.
Yet another lacklustre display would take them a step closer to crisis even at this early stage of the campaign.
