Everton need a new manager, and they could do a lot worse than following this advice.
Ronald Koeman was sacked as Everton manager on Monday, following their 5-2 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday. The Toffees have won just two of their 13 games this season, and are currently in the bottom three. The club spent heavily in the summer transfer market, forking out close to £150m to sign new players such as Gylfi Sigurdsson, Jordan Pickford and Michael Keane, but have looked disjointed, slow and unbalanced all season.
Their failure to adequately replace Romelu Lukaku has proved particularly costly, and Koeman departs just 16 months after joining the club from Southampton.
David Unsworth, the former Everton defender, has taken temporary charge of the first-team as the club looks for Koeman’s permanent successor. According to The Guardian, Burnley manager Sean Dyche, former Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel and Carlo Ancelotti have all been linked with the role, as has Watford manager Marco Silva. While Unsworth reportedly wants the role on a permanent basis.
Jamie Carragher reckons Everton should wait and try appoint Silva at the end of the season, and we’re inclined to agree with him. The former Liverpool defender, who was an Everton supporter as a child, has said that the Watford manager “has something about him” after impressing for the Hornets and Hull City last season.
“Everton are now faced with two options,” Carragher writes for The Daily Telegraph.
“Replace Koeman immediately, which makes Sean Dyche look the most realistic target. Or give Under-23 manager David Unsworth temporary charge, trust him to banish any relegation fears and wait until the end of the season to appoint full-time when there will be far more options available, which could bring a target like Marco Silva into the equation. My choice would be Silva, who in a short period at Hull and Watford has shown he has something about him. The kind of star quality Moshiri thought Koeman had nine league games ago.”
Carragher’s suggestion to appoint Silva makes a lot of sense. The Portuguese manager has helped Watford to sixth in the Premier League, and he almost prevented Hull from being relegated last season. Silva seems destined to manage a Premier League club with European ambitions, he is tactically astute, he has got the most out of the squads at Watford and Hull and his players speak highly of him. Carragher also writes that he felt Everton sacked Koeman too soon and they should have given him until Christmas to try improve the club’s fortunes.
