Everton are currently in the middle of an infuriating spell of form where they are doing their best to turn seemingly..."/> Everton are currently in the middle of an infuriating spell of form where they are doing their best to turn seemingly..."/> Everton are currently in the middle of an infuriating spell of form where they are doing their best to turn seemingly..."/>
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Five Improvements Everton Must Make

By Steve Nicholls

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Everton are currently in the middle of an infuriating spell of form where they are doing their best to turn seemingly nailed-on wins into hardly believable draws, but how can the Blues reverse their fortunes?

Here are five points that may provide some answers for Roberto Martinez.

Replace Tim Howard

When Tim Howard picked up an injury at the start of the calendar year Joel Robles came in and kept a succession of impressive clean sheets and looked like an upgrade on the American stopper with his assured displays.

Howard has been poor once more in 2015-16 and it is obvious to most observers that the back four lacks confidence in him and it is having a negative knock-on effect.

The sooner Robles gets the nod, the better.

Concentration

Sometimes a poor run of form or a bad result can be down to tactical reasons and sometimes it can just be because of the players’ attitude.

The latter has certainly been evident in the last few weeks as far as the Toffees are concerned, as they have criminally and unforgivably switched off when they have had precarious leads against competitive teams who could easily peg them back.

After the Bournemouth debacle, how on earth the players didn’t learn to maintain their focus from minute one to ninety against Norwich is a mystery – will they ever learn, or will we keep hearing the same insincere soundbites after every self-induced collapse?

Move Stones To Defensive Midfield

In the summer a lot of Everton fans balked at the idea of purchasing Scott Dann and selling John Stones, with the Blues rejecting an offer of nearly £40m for the latter and not going in with a double-figured sum for the Crystal Palace man.

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Stones is a fan favourite and is classy on the ball and coming out of defence but the hard truth is thus – he is not that good of a defender, with the likes of Dann a much more assured presence at the back.

Much like David Luiz, he is a very talented ball player and good reader of the game, but there are much better central defenders out there who actually do the dirty, unappreciated work.

Stones’ attributes are tailor-made to the defensive midfield position – it can’t hurt to try it.

Corner Frailties

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times – Everton are lousy at corners.

The way Roberto Martinez talks about them indicates he barely registers them as part of the sport and more of a gimmick than anything else.

Whether it be defending or attacking them, the former Wigan boss needs to start treating corner situations more seriously because they are costing his side dearly and have done ever since he took over.

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Defending From The Front

Leicester are the Toffees’ next opponents in the Premier League and anyone that watched the Foxes’ victory over Chelsea on Monday night will have quickly identified why they are currently leading the division.

It is not just the attacking talents of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez – it is the work rate and relentless pressing tactic Claudio Ranieri’s men employ with regularity.

They never let an opponent settle regardless of the score and make life hard for whoever they are playing, whereas Martinez’s men seem to have a habit of letting their opponents off the hook time after time after time.

Next: Norwich vs Everton Preview

With the quality the Blues have at their disposal, if they were to take a leaf out of Leicester’s book and engage in a intense, honest style of play that was full of hard graft, results such as the ones that occurred at Bournemouth and Norwich simply wouldn’t happen.

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