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Benitez puts faith in ‘details’ to turn around Everton fortunes

By Matt Townsend

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 23: Everton manager Rafael Benítez talks to Demarai Gray during the Premier League match between Everton and Watford at Goodison Park on October 23, 2021 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 23: Everton manager Rafael Benítez talks to Demarai Gray during the Premier League match between Everton and Watford at Goodison Park on October 23, 2021 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images) /
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As his Everton side get ready to face Wolves tonight manager Rafa Benitez has been speaking about how he can turn around the team’s fortunes.

The Everton boss maybe got a bit of a rude awakening last Saturday to the reality of some of his players capacity to produce totally abject performances almost out of the blue.

That Watford defeat was perhaps the most depressing and worrying than many of the other similar heavy and embarrasing losses in the past.

For tonight’s match Benitez has a few decisions to make as regards his team selection given that he is still without key players Yerry Mina, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Whatever team he does pick those players must show much greater resolve and commitment and cut out the sort of absurd, basic errors that cost the Toffees five goals against the Hornets.

Benitez has been discussing how he will try and turn around the recent slump in form that has seen Everton lose their last two home games.

The Blues boss believes that the problem is not fundamentally a lack of the right kind of mental strength or workrate, but rather it is about getting all the details right and executing properly consistently week-in-week-out.

This has always been a key quality of the Spaniard’s coaching career and he has excelled at preparing teams meticulously. He has a history of winning one off cup ties in particular through excellent tactics and a shrewd understanding of his opponents.

We’ve already seen examples of this during the season and Benitez’s return to basics emphasising pace, width and a relatively simple attacking gameplan have brought benefits.

But, while there were signs of significant improvement early on this season, last Saturday’s defeat and the manner of it was very similar to past examples of collapses and it’s that worrying trend we’ve seen again and again over the past few years.

Well, tonight we will see if over a week to work on those detials and iron out the problems that plagued Everton last weekend have made a positive difference to the side’s performance.

But while of course I hope the manager is correct, I fear that it might not be that straightforward to solve and without further major surgery on this squad these sorts of performances will inevitably happen again.