Is there any chance Everton can end poor run against dangerous Foxes

After scrapping past Hull City last night in the FA Cup, Everton next take on Leicester City in the re-scheduled Premier League match that was due to be played before the New Year.

As Tuesday’s game looms, the season continues to lurch on with Everton seemingly stuck in a run of form amongst the worst that I can remember from this football club.

And, that’s saying something as Blues’ fans have seen some dreadful runs of defeats down the years, especially in the Premier League era.

The Toffees’ have won one league fixture since the end of September, that 2-1 win at Goodison Park against Arsenal on the 6th of December.

That’s a absolutely terrible run of results which includes eight defeats in twelves games, truly relegation form.

At any other club the manager would have been long gone before now, but instead at Everton the Director of Football was sacrificed and Rafa Benitez continues to be in charge of the first-team.

Once again his tactics at Hull baffled and dismayed many including me. Playing a poor Championship side that had struggled badly to score goals recently, he again decided to play three at the back and shift some of his defensive players around once more.

I have written that playing three central defenders can be useful, if you have the right players to make it work and are playing a very good side like say Manchester City, that is going to largly monopolise the ball and dominate the game.

But, it’s not necessary against a mediocre side from a division below you. It left the midfield short of numbers and as so often this season the Blues’ started very slowly and allowed their opponents to take early control of the match.

It’s so difficult to compete and set the early pace and tempo of a match if you set-up from the kick-off to defend deeply and in numbers and concede the initiative to your opposition.

On top of that the team conceded a goal almost before the fans, including the travelling Evertonians (many of whom made their feelings about Benitez very clear) had got comfortable in their seats.

Whatever this team are doing in training when it comes to set-plays it’s clearly not working. And, the Toffees’ conceded a headed goal yet again, this time less than sixty seconds into the game.

It’s very easy for opposing sides to play this Everton team, you just need to force a few corners and put your tallest players up in the box and hey presto you’ve got a goal. It’s an obvious thing to say, but this problem has to be sorted out and soon.

Against Leicester on Tuesday, I want to see the Blues’ play a 4-3-3 with a strong midfield that can compete against the Foxes busy and industrious players Youri Tielemans and Wildfred Ndidi.

Hopefully, Dominic Calvert-Lewin will also be able to return after he was rested against Hull. The England man’s constant injury issues are becoming a real problem particularly because Benitez’s whole strategy is so dependent on him.

The manager wants to play a counter-attacking style that pivots around a centre-forward ideal at leading the line physically, holding the ball up and bringing others into the attack.

Without him though Salomon Rondon, who again started against the Tigers, hasn’t been anything like as effective and once more last night laboured to have any real influence on the match.

The other alternative Richarlison is a good forward, but while he can play up front on his own he prefers, and is much more effective, playing off a proper centre-forward like Calvert-Lewin.

One other player who is becoming increasingly indespensible to Everton’s cause is Anthony Gordon. The youth team graduate had another excellent match against Hull creating one goal and contributing a ‘pre-assist’ for another.

Let’s hope that the other wide attacker Demarai Gray also shakes off his knock and is fit for the game as his pace, workrate, movement and finishing is also crucial to this team.

Tuesday’s opponents have had a very mixed campaign with a poor start and recently they’ve managed wins followed by defeats and then wins again. This topsy-turvy season has continued and in their last seven games have lost four and won three.

As usual Jamie Vardy is their main goalscoring threat although James Maddison has returned to something like the sort of form that got him an England call-up.

As this match is at Goodison Park it should be a winnable one for Everton, but if Leicester turn up and produce their best it could easily go very badly for the home team.

This fixture is the start of a reasonble set of games, at least on paper with the Toffees’ playing Norwich City as well as Brentford and Newcastle United. A win would be a very long overdue one but I’m not at all optimistic.