Everton: 5 things Rafa Benitez must do to get Everton fans on his side

Negative starts have to stop for Everton to flourish

Tactics

Everton have fell behind in so many games this season it feels like we are playing with a -1 goal handicap when we kick off.

It has happened so many times you must look at why? This starts with the manager and how he sets the team up. As you’ve seen above the formation change recently has contributed to this, but Everton have been conceding goals first since the first day of the season. In fact only two league wins have seen us score first, at home to Norwich and away to Brighton.

Everton have only scored in the first half of 28% of games this season, compared with 67% in the second half, via footystats.org. This again suggests a manager setting out a team to contain at the start of the game, as the stat that we score every 70 minutes in a league game this season backs up.

Abdoulaye Doucoure seems to be more disciplined in the first half of games and then let off his lead when we are a goal behind or a win is attainable.

We’ve averaged 40% possession so far in the Premier League, via footystats.org, this season so clearly we are never going to be a possession based team controlling the game. With the pace of Demarai Gray and Richarlison this is not a tactical issue, however we seem to not press high up or intensively enough in most games.

The pressure to come back after conceding is immense and will not appease the fans. Therefore Rafa Benitez has to tactically change the mindset and momentum of the team, most of these first half setbacks come at home too which is strange considering the emotion of the return of crowds at the start of the season especially.

The fixtures coming up really will see if Benitez can learn and develop his troops, because falling a goal down is not a tactic you want to continue.