Everton v Spurs: what Blues side will turn up?

For the first time this season Everton are playing on a Sunday afternoon as they take on Tottenham Hotspur at Goodison Park.

I am finding it harder and harder to write these match previews as Everton slip and slide from one game to the next with no apparent strategy, consistency and cohesiveness to their game.

I also feel increasingly disillusioned about the club’s future. There seems to be absolutely no definable direction to the club and once more this season feels like it’s already nearly lost.

Most worryingly of all, there are also no signs or indications that the board at Everton have any intention of getting to grips with the situation and making a change in manager. This is essential to any hopes of progress going forward.

So with no decision on Marco Silva’s future, we go from one match to the next with no one having any clue as to what will happen next what Toffees team will turn up this week.

Now we play Spurs in a Sunday game that feels impossible to call. Will the Everton side that battered West Ham two weeks ago show up? Or will the pathetic and lacklustre team that capitulated at Brighton last weekend, be the team we see on Sunday?

It’s also very difficult to know what players Silva will pick and where he will play them at any time. His endless tinkering and changes don’t indicate a clear sense of direction or indeed, confidence in his players.

But then if the manager doesn’t know his optimum side and system, then how can his players find the consistency and form to produce their best?

Don’t get me wrong I don’t have anything personally against Silva. I think he would be a perfectly fine manager of a lower Premier League team that was basically going nowhere and simply treading water… wait a second that sounds like Everton!!

Seriously, I don’t feel any malice towards him, but it seems that he is simply not up to the job of taking a club that still harbours ambitions of success and achievement to a position of real competitiveness.

I’m really getting fed up with repeating this stuff but if Everton still want to be that club, than a change must be made, and now.

Turning to Sunday’s match, and in theory the Blues actually probably have a better chance of a win than they would have they were travelling to one of those lower league teams that the Toffees so often struggle against.

Spurs play the kind of progressive football that tends to suit the Toffees and gives their players the kind of space and opportunity that they enjoy. There is also a definite element of the Blues players raising their game against the ‘better’ sides at home.

The north London club have been having a difficult season themselves as the aura of the past few campaigns appears to be rubbing off.

Key past performers like Harry Kane and Dele Alli have been well under par and the lack of substantial investment in recent years appears to be catching up with the club.

As an aside this is a warning to Everton. Spurs have been focussing on funding and building a brand new state-of-the-art stadium while also trying to break into the top four and win something. This is supposedly the strategy that the Toffees are adopting as they look to build their new ground.

Having said all this, Everton are usually the perfect team for a struggling side to play and given how Spurs demolished the Toffees last season they might well be seeing this trip as a good one for their season.

So I want to see the Blues adopt an aggressive and energetic approach and take the game to Tottenham not letting them settle and get on top in the game. Because despite their problems, they do still have the weapons to hurt the Blues heavily.

Yet again I would also want to see Everton play a 4-3-3; how many times have I and many others said that though!!

At the back, I would like to Mason Holgate get a start alongside Yerry Mina at centre-back, assuming he is fit to play.

Holgate is a player I have felt could still have a future in the Premier League, and recently he has shown evidence he might be beginning to progress as had been hoped he would when he first broke into Everton’s team.

He has the pace to recover well and is very comfortable on the ball. I also like his feistiness, something incidentally that I don’t feel enough of the Blues players possess. Given Michael Keane’s struggles it could be a good call.

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In midfield I think there might be a case to be made for Fabian Delph starting alongside Andre Gomes and Alex Iwobi. Delph would add some defensive strength and savvy although Tom Davies has played well so I wouldn’t push this too hard.

Up front then I want to see Moise Kean get a start again playing in that fluid front three with Richarlison and Theo Walcott who has done enough to keep his place.

Well there we go that’s my team for Sunday. A prediction? I’ve long since given up on doing that with this team! I don’t like saying so but ‘m really not sure I even want a win because it seems to me that only a massive on-field crisis will force the hand of the board to make a decision…