Football365’s early winner: Ronald Koeman
Date published: Wednesday 14th December 2016 10:52
If you could have done one of those tiresome mannequin challenges after 20 minutes at Goodison Park, you would have found tens of thousands of fans in despair at this new Everton, very much like the old Everton – slow, soft and reactive. You may have found more than a few of those tens of thousands ready to frogmarch Ronald Koeman straight out of the ground, having bought into the excitement of the Dutchman’s arrival only to find everything a little flat and a little uninspiring. You may also have found an exasperated Koeman happy to leave, having been sold the dream of an ambitious club and finding instead a collection of tired, uninspired footballers. You may not have noticed that the Everton players had intentionally stood still.
Then something changed. Was the catalyst a crunching challenge from James McCarthy, a logic-defying leap from the average-sized Enner Valencia, an enthusiastic press from Ross Barkley, or a combination of all three? Suddenly there was movement, there was aggression, there was desire; the crowd reacted and the noise was louder than the collective tutting that had gone before. This is how midweek home games against superior opposition are supposed to feel – visceral, passionate and uncomfortable for the opposition team. Something had clicked.
Koeman was our ‘manager to watch’ this week because he needed a performance more than any other. He needed a signature win, he needed a moment that said ‘this is better’ and ideally, he needed it before Liverpool come to visit on Monday. Fans will now stream into Goodison Park with an optimism that was entirely missing when they arrived on Tuesday, while the players will have a recent memory of what a ridiculous amount of effort can achieve. “We go again,” are the only words Koeman will need on Monday.
At Goodison Park, even despite 20 poor minutes, Everton ran more (in terms of both distance and speed) and tackled more than during any other Premier League game at Goodison Park this season. Idrissa Gueye was the N’Golo Kante-style machine he threatened to be back in August, Valencia defied all expectations with a performance of energy and verve on the right, McCarthy ran and pressed and ran and pressed and tackled and Ross Barkley did his finest impression of a young, talented, energetic link man between midfield and striker; he should do it more often.
Koeman’s change of formation to a 4-3-3 and four changes since the nadir of their early-season form at Watford on Saturday looked like madness when roughly half the side made a mistake in the disastrous minute before Alexis Sanchez’s goal, but then looked like genius in the final frantic minute when Everton hung on for glorious victory. Thankfully, history is written by the victors and nobody will remember by Monday that Everton had initially looked cowed and aimless. Koeman himself used the word ‘shocking’.
The road still looks long for the former Southampton manager, whose unenviable task if to find a style that can dominate the plankton of the Premier League and yet make life difficult for teams with greater resources of quality. Such is the difficulty of managing a team that naturally sits in seventh. Away defeats to Watford and Burnley suggest that the former may till be a long way off, but remaining unbeaten at home after visits from Tottenham, Manchester United and Arsenal suggest that one part of the puzzle is at least possible to complete.
Sarah Winterburn
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