Losing a derby game is one thing, but being schooled by your local rivals on your own turf is another matter entirely. As the Everton fans who had to sit through the painful 4-1 defeat to Liverpool will confirm.
Whereas Everton approached the game in the midst of a seven-game winless run in the Premier League, Liverpool did so off the back of consecutive 4-0 victories over Arsenal and Southampton. The result was entirely predictable, but the manner of it exposed the chasm that exists between the two clubs while piling yet more pressure on the troubled Rafa Benitez.
The 61-year-old was up against it as soon as he took over at Goodison Park, his association with Liverpool and past comments about Everton being a “small club” have been a stubborn stain on his reputation with the fans that he has been unable to scrub off. It didn’t help him that the travelling supporters, rather than the home ones, serenaded him from the away end during the Merseyside derby at Goodison.
His cause certainly hasn’t been helped by rotten luck on the injury front. The spine of Everton’s team – Yerry Mina in defence, Abdoulaye Doucoure in midfield, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison in attack – has been absent for large chunks of the campaign, which allied to the club’s parsimony in the summer transfer window has left a shell of a squad for Benitez to work with.
Trying as the circumstances have been, though, the statistics make for truly grim reading for Benitez. Only the bottom two Norwich and Newcastle have an inferior goal difference than Everton; no club has taken fewer points over the past eight matches than their two; the 4-1 defeat to Liverpool was the first time in 39 years that Everton have conceded four times at home against their city rivals.
Although there are merits to Benitez’s argument that “changing managers didn’t work” for Everton prior to his arrival, it is becoming increasingly difficult to see how he survives this slump. The problem that Farhad Moshiri, Marcel Brands and the other key decision-makers at Everton have if they do decide to part company with Benitez is who comes next?
Since Moshiri’s takeover in 2016, Everton have lurched from Ronald Koeman to Sam Allardyce to Marco Silva to Carlo Ancelotti to Benitez, without managing to find the right coach to take them forward. Should Benitez follow the others in packing up his belongings at Finch Farm, here are some of the candidates who could replace him.
Next Everton manager odds
- Kasper Hjulmand – 3-1
- Nuno Espirito Santo – 9-2
- Duncan Ferguson – 6-1
- Frank Lampard – 6-1
- Graham Potter – 9-1
- Lucien Favre – 10-1
- Daniel Farke – 10-1
- Scott Parker – 12-1
- Wayne Rooney – 14-1
- Ernesto Valverde – 14-1
- Ruud van Nistelrooy – 17-1
- John Terry – 17-1
- Thomas Frank – 20-1
- Bruno Lage – 20-1
*Odds via Betfair and correct on 2 December
Kasper Hjulmand
Kasper Hjulmand’s stock has risen to such an extent in 2021 that he is regarded as the front-runner for the job should it become available. Hjulmand was praised for steering the Denmark squad to the semi-final of Euro 2020 after suffering the trauma of seeing Christian Eriksen have a cardiac arrest in their opening game before leading the side to automatic qualification for the World Cup. Prior to taking the Denmark job, Hjulmand managed FC Nordsjaelland in his homeland across two stints as well as Mainz 05 in Germany, although he recently ruled himself out of the running for the Aston Villa job.
Nuno Espirito Santo
Nuno Espirito Santo’s disastrous 17-game spell in charge of Tottenham followed on from a disappointing end to what was an otherwise hugely successful spell at Wolves. Nuno led Wolves to the Championship title before securing back-to-back seventh-place finishes in the Premier League before they slipped to 13th in the table last season.
Duncan Ferguson
A legendary figure during his playing days, Duncan “Big Dunc” Ferguson scored 72 goals in 273 appearances for the Blues across two separate spells during the 1990s and early 2000s. Since 2014, Ferguson has been on the first-team coaching staff at the club, had a spell as caretaker manager following Silva’s sacking in 2019 and been Ancelotti’s assistant. During his four-game spell as manager, Ferguson famously brought Moise Kean on as a substitute in a game against Manchester United, before taking him off again 18 minutes later.
Frank Lampard
Frank Lampard held talks with Norwich City after Daniel Farke was dismissed last month, before dropping out of the race. The former Chelsea boss has been out of management for almost a year after being sacked last January. Lampard has gained plaudits for developing young players like Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori, Reece James and Tammy Abraham during his spells in charge of Derby and Chelsea.
Wayne Rooney
Everton have prised managers away from rival Premier League clubs (Ronald Koeman from Southampton and Marco Silva from Watford), appointed big-name managers in Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez and in Sam Allardyce, hired an experienced, steady pair of hands at a difficult time. They haven’t yet gone down the club legend route. Wayne Rooney has had some baptism of fire in his first managerial stint at Derby County and may jump at the chance to return to his boyhood club.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3FZ9NPk
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