There was always going to be a rebuilding job required to recover from Koemaggedon. I mean honestly: Bolasie Schneiderlin Siggurdson Sandro Klaasen Williams Vlasic all in and Stones Lukaku Barkley out. It’s the biggest demolition job done on any squad in premier league history given the money involved.
What is more worrying though is that the culture of the club seems to persist whichever players we bring in. The players above are undoubtedly very very poor. Lukaku Stones and Barkley weren’t poor but all were part of teams capable of giving awful performances. Richarlison Digne Mina Sidibe were not poor before they joined Everton but now seemed to have just been sucked into the existing culture of the club of apathy and regression. We’ve been saying we need to shift players out of the squad since Martinez’s second season but there’s barely a player left in the squad now from that period yet the culture has stayed the same.
Who is to say that Ancelotti and Brands don’t go and bring in 5 players we would consider to be very good only for them to have no discernible impact on Everton’s team? When players join Liverpool they get better and better, faster, stronger, less injury prone, more consistent. When they join Everton they get slower, weaker, more injury prone, and worse.
Richarlison is still a good player but he is a shadow of the player who nonchalantly curled in that goal away at Wolves in Silva’s first game. He was fast, powerful, skilful, he looked so dangerous running all sorts of lines right across the front three, aggressive in the air, and with the flair of a Brazilian winger. He looked a cut above every player in our team. Now if he takes more than two touches he usually loses possession. His ice seems to have gone, his finishing composure is non existent. Apart from being good at getting into the right positions to put the ball in the net he’s virtually useless on any other aspect of play. Where’s the player who went away to Brazil and curled in a debut brace like it was nothing to him?
Digne has regressed from being the premier league’s best left back to perhaps not even being Everton’s best left back behind a player that wasn’t good enough 3 seasons ago.
Sidibe looked like a French international when he joined us, fast strong, good on the ball, now he looks like a complete donkey.
Where is the Bernard who slalomed past the Leicester defence? Who gave Alexander Arnold the run around at Anfield? He’s making Leon Osman look like Iniesta now.
Yerry Mina, Colombian World Cup icon who could turn up half fit away at Stamford Bridge and Anfield and still be the best player on the pitch, dominant in the air, good on the deck with both feet, strong in the tackle, now looks like a complete and utter carthorse who couldn’t even get the ball under control at any point.
These were good players. Cenk Tosun was a good player. He’s still a good player for Turkey, he scored regularly at Champions league level for Besiktas, he looks like a pub team player for us.
The only players I would say have improved at Everton since Martinez left are Idrissa Gueye, Mason Holgate and Calvert Lewin. That’s a terrible ratio, three players out of how many that have passed through these squads recently.
I hope this turns around under Ancelotti and finally with a bit of world class coaching these players can actually improve, but if the cancerous core of the issues at this club are not dealt with then Ancelotti can buy who he wants and put them out in whatever formation and whatever instructions he likes and they will continue to be completely hopeless.
I know we disagree on this point but I think talent wise Brands has recruited well. When these players came in everyone was excited at names like Mina Gomes Digne Bernard Kean. What Brands needs to sort out is why Everton have the worst coaching standards in the premier league.
