How Everton can learn from Reds title

It’s been the elephant in the room since Thursday and I haven’t mentioned it until now, but unfortunately Liverpool are the Premier League champions. So can and should Everton learn anything from their neighbours’ irritating title success?

This is a difficult question of course for any Everton fan to address! First of all though, we’ve got to acknowledge that, hard as it is to admit, Liverpool deserve to be champions.

So what if anything can the Toffees learn from their achievement?

Well the first critical thing to say is that their success underlines the importance of creating stability and sticking to a plan from the top down and throughout the club.

Back at the end of the 2014-15 season, Liverpool were in a better position than Everton in terms of the league standings. They had finished 6th after being runners-up the previous campaign, while the Blues finished 11th under Roberto Martinez, fifteen points behind them.

However, the Reds were a long way off being competitive at the top of the league, as they were eight points off the Champions League positions and a full 25 points behind champions Chelsea.

So with Brendan Rogers leaving that summer and their midfield talisman Steven Gerrard in decline, Liverpool were at a critical moment for their future direction.

The clubs owners knew they had to create a stable structure for the long-term that would enable them to rebuild the team over the course of three to four seasons.

They recruited Jurgen Klopp to replace Rogers, shortly after he had won the German title with Borussia Dortmund, on a long-term deal.

The owners were willing to give him time and critically to stick with him in his first few seasons, even as Liverpool lost a succession of cup finals and were way off the pace in the Premier League.

However, crucially for the club financially and in their ability to attract better talent, Champions League football was secured on the last day of the 2016-17 season.

At this time though Manchester City under their new high-profile coach, Pep Guardiola and his Barcelona-style tactics, were ready to take over the league and seemed likely to dominate it for the foreseeable future.

Klopp is strong believer in a positive, pressing style of play and creating pressure up front as the best way to both attack and defend.

At first though, his Liverpool teams were often inconsistent, as Klopp lacked the personnel to make these tactics work properly. Liverpool played some great attacking football but were very vulnerable defensively, something he seemed unable to effectively address.

As late as the 2017-18 season, Liverpool were still conceding a lot of goals. Despite a sensational campaign from Mohamed Salah, they finished 25 points adrift of title winners Man City, (as far back from the champions as when Klopp arrived), and lost another big game as Real Madrid beat them 3-1 in the Champions League final.

So how did they bridge such a huge gap so quickly? Basically two reasons: the signings of centre-back Virgil van Dijk and perhaps most importantly, Brazilian goalkeeper Allison Becker.

Klopp didn’t change his tactics , but he finally found the two players he needed to make his system work, when van Dijk and then Allison arrived for a combined fee of nearly £200 million. Ultimately, while tactics, formations and systems can be important, football really is about having the necessary talent and a coach with the ability to get the best out of it.

This spending was largely possible because Liverpool had sold Phlippe Coutinho to Barcelona for the crazy sum of £142 million in January 2018. Coutinho was a superb attacking talent, but when he wanted away to Spain, Klopp made the decision to cash in on him and reshape his team.

The Liverpool manager had finally accepted that he had to spend big on his defence to turn his team into champions. Now he had the two players who could allow him to make his high-tempo pressing game really work.

So what does all this mean for Everton? The Toffees need to recognise the importance of creating real stability and a winning culture. They also need to back their chosen manager with a clear long-term plan, which in footballing terms is basically four to five years.

Now that the Blues have Carlo Ancelotti as their first-team manager – the man that Farhad Moshiri has always apparently wanted at Goodison Park – on a long-term deal, and a well-regarded Director of Football in Marcel Brands, they can create that environment for success.

All the noises coming out of Goodison Park, indicate that the club are determined to do this and that after a succession of failed attempts to find the right man and create the right structure under Moshiri, Everton now have their man and the support in place.

More from Prince Rupert's Tower

• Everton 0 Arsenal 1: Blues fall to third home defeat
• Further chaos in Everton takeover as other lenders not keen on 777 Partners
• Everton need repeat of Arsenal win to kick-start their season on Sunday
• More madness at Everton as Moshiri now agrees to sell club to 777 Partners
• Everton takeover talk cools after UK govt doubts and further questions

Most of all, the Blues need outstanding talent on the pitch of course and they also must be prepared to still spend big when Ancelotti is determined to get a player or two who could fundamentally improve his team.

Ancelotti’s arrival has seen the Toffees linked with a succession of players who would otherwise never be mentioned as potential signings. Most of them are fanciful for sure, but if the Italian wants a player he believes can make a big difference, Everton must do everything to get him.

Moshiri has backed his previous managers with plenty of cash, but there was always a sense that the Blues sometimes seemed to be buying anyone, because now for the first time, they could!

Having done this for several years, unfortunately the club are in considerable debt and perilously close to breaking Financial Fair Play rules. So spending will have to be more dependent on getting those players on big wages off the books, that Ancelotti doesn’t see in his future plans.

The club have certainly stepped up their efforts to do this with a number of quick recent departures and this is only likely to continue through the summer.

So finally then, let’s hope this is a prelude to Everton really building something substantial. Maybe too their neighbours’ success can spur the club on so that in two or three seasons time, perhaps the league title will rightly return at long last, to the blue half of Merseyside.