Everton could be brave and take a risk on new manager
Unsuprisingly, we are still waiting for news on who the new manager of Everton will be after Frank Lampard’s eventual sacking on Monday.
The media rumour mill continues to churn with a wide range of names being touted as possible contenders for the Everton job.
However, the odds do seem to be narrowing and the three names who seem most often to be talked of now, are Marcelo Bielsa, Sean Dyche and Sam Allardyce, although other names are cropping up.
Two of these come from the staple of English coaches who err on the side of caution and a defensively solid, seemingly uncomplicated approach.
I don’t actually think either are just simply about an old-fashioned long-ball tactical style. They are in truth quite open and innovative in their way of coaching and managing.
But still, both men are certainly pragmatic specialists in managing teams that are struggling down the wrong end of the table (especially Allardyce) and battling, largely successfully, against the drop.
To opt for either of these men means going for a pretty conventional, low-risk option to try and secure safety in the short-term, although of course that’s not guaranteed.
The other favoured contender is very different type of football coach, the Argentine Bielsa.
He would certainly represent a significant switch in culture and approach from the numerous past managers of this club.
Because if you think about the majority of previous managers at Everton under Farhad Moshiri’s ownership, they have generally tended to be ultimately more conservative in their mentality.
Certainly, Lampard’s predecessor Rafa Benitez was exactly that. And in truth, although he is a highly decorated and shrewd coach, Carlo Ancelotti is also essentially from the same mold.
Ancelotti’s immediate predecessor Marco Silva was supposed to be a more progressive young coach, although he struggled to show it until late in his time in charge.
And of course, the man who came before him, Allardyce, is as we all know, very much a conservative-minded coach. That was also true of the man he had replaced, Ronald Koeman.
Bielsa is quite different. He favours a much more aggresive, attacking, almost kamikaze style of football than any of his predecessors and one that involves a high-risk all-or-nothing strategy to secure results.
This would be a departure from the general trend of selecting coaches who have largely come from a more orthodox tradition in the game.
The Argentine does fit the archetype for the Toffees’ in recent years in one respect; that he is to some extent a ‘big-name’ manager, the type of coach that Moshiri is always seemingly so obsessed with hiring.
There are though reports this evening that talks with the Argentine have reached an impasse and that any hopes the club have for him to take the reigns at Goodison Park, could well be over.
While I’m not convinced that Bielsa is the right man at the moment, perhaps if he did agree to take over his sort of approach might be the best way to go.
The Blues’ may as well go all out to try and salvage their Premier League status with aggresion and determination rather than just limp towards an ignominous relegation.
After all, in some ways there’s not a lot of point in just trying to be hard to beat for the remainder of the season.
Everton need wins, probably six or seven in total, and simply playing to avoid defeat and pick up solitary points whether home or away, really won’t do it.
The one other younger coach being touted as a potential candidate, whose approach would represent a much more risky and attacking choice, is West Brom’s Carlos Corberan.
However, he appears to have ruled himself out of the running and so the Toffees would have to look somewhere else for a similar type of candidate.
While it might be a gamble to go for a relative unknown, possibly from a club in the lower leagues, it did work once before when David Moyes took over in 2002. Might history repeat itself?
Alongside many Evertonians, I have though precious little faith in the people running this football club to make the right decision given their terrible track record.
But, I don’t envy them either because it’s arguably the most important managerial choice of manager in the club’s history. Obviously, if they get this wrong again, Everton will be relegated.