Ronald Koeman cannot change much before January

Monday, 16 October, 2017 9comments  |  Jump to most recent

There is a lot of negativity towards Ronald Koeman from Everton fans at the moment, and I can understand why he is under so much pressure, writes Kevin Kilbane.

Normally, I would say it is too early to get rid of the manager and you could argue Koeman just needs time for some of his summer signings to adjust and also that if he tweaks a couple of things, they will improve.

But the problem for Koeman is that I don't see anything changing with the way Everton are playing under him until they can sign players in January.

» Read the full article at BBC Sport



Reader Comments (9)

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Stan Schofield
1 Posted 16/10/2017 at 15:43:32
There is a lot that Ronald Koeman could change before January. He could change his team set-up and tactics, and his man-management. But he won't, so he needs to go asap.
Paul Hewitt
2 Posted 16/10/2017 at 21:13:02
We can't wait till January. By then, we will be out of Europe, the League Cup, and probably be in the bottom 3.
Neil Carter
3 Posted 16/10/2017 at 22:08:23
If Koeman can't change much – then change Koeman for someone who can!!!
Victor Jones
4 Posted 16/10/2017 at 22:14:25
He will need to start changing things around before January. That is not rocket science. That's stone cold fact. If we have only say managed to double our points tally by January (and that is no guarantee), then we are in trouble. Big trouble.

And come January, who would Koeman then bring in? Is Giroud our saviour?Who would even want to sign for a team in a relegation battle?

We need results now. We need changes now.

Koeman Out. He's taking Everton nowhere but down. I think that this guy would even struggle to get Everton results in the Championship. January will come and go. Then it will all be about the summer. And then next season. Then the season after that. And on it goes. It never stops. This is Everton, 1997... 2007... 2017... and so it goes. On and on. The circle of failure.

So forget about January (just for now). Get Unsworth and Royle in. Even if it's only for a quick fix. Get some sort of a plan. Get some youngsters playing regularly. Get some passion. Get some pace. Get some wins under our belt. Even if, as I have said, this is only a quick fix. It has to be better than what we are now seeing. Anything has to be better. Any of us could pick a better team. Most youngsters touted on TW usually don't let anybody down when they get a game... then they are dropped.

But the one guy who has the power to change everything, for some reason, doesn't want to do so. I just don't get Koeman. What is he trying to do? And no real guarantees about January. It just might be too late. It might just be too late for Everton Football Club. The fight back needs to start now.

Kunal Desai
5 Posted 16/10/2017 at 22:41:18
4 games, 4 more games for this man. Can you honestly see a turn around against Lyon, Arsenal and Chelsea? No. Get rid asap.
Pete Clarke
6 Posted 16/10/2017 at 23:18:26
My opinion is that Ronald Koeman is not a very good tactician, organiser, and lacks good personal man management skills. We actually need a manager with all of these and more.

Now let's be honest: if Ron does manage to steady the ship and start getting results, he will be off in a flash to manage Holland or Barca C team or whatever so what is the point in hanging on to him?

The greater danger is clear to see and that's the relegation battle he is taking us into.

Anthony Dwyer
7 Posted 16/10/2017 at 23:43:09
Spending can't just be the answer.

We have strikers they're just not Lukaku, but 90% of the Premier League is made up of teams without strikers like Lukaku.

What forwards would we take from West Brom for example, they have no one special yet there miles better equipped for the season than us.

This is Koeman's team, there's no excuses really. He's bought poorly, and even the first season he was here he chased duds like Gabiadini, Kone (Sunderland) and Sissoko. Truth be known we would have spunked another £100m there!

His squad is simply unbalanced, his tactics are naive and his man management skills are zero. We're basically paying someone £6m a year to piss and moan about how average we are, and kiss Rooney's arse for putting a pen in when he's our highest paid player ever.

Time to find someone with answers, methinks.

Anthony Newell
8 Posted 17/10/2017 at 17:32:56
"Normally, I would say it is too early to get rid of the manager"

Why does he bottle it and not go the full distance:

"But in this case, and taking into consideration:

the amount of money spent,
the players bought, price paid and suitability of such,
the poor performances,
the league position the club finds itself in,
the unwillingness of the manager to adapt,
the poor man-management ability,
the need to stay in the top flight...

there is no other choice."

Kevin Field
9 Posted 19/10/2017 at 23:03:40
Victor 4 – I love the idea of Unsie and Royle as a temporary fix, a combination of a striker and defender as the coaching team; an Elastoplast to stop the current flow.

However, we need a manager with proven pedigree of winning things and someone who knows how to win major trophies. Knows how to build teams towards that goal.

Instead, we went for Koeman who talks a good game, has a vision, and got two teams into Europe (including us). And I presume the thought process was that he was on the verge of a big success and he'll push on to the next level with us.

Sadly, I don't think he is going to, however much I'd like him to.

Tonight (Thurs 19th) he looked like a frustrated, angry figure, who cannot get his team to do what he wants. It's painful to see that it is just not there. He seems hamstrung by the choices he and in part Walsh has made with regard to purchases.

They took a gamble at getting goals from around the team, going for players who had scored goals regularly for their teams instead of a proven Premier League or other competitive league goal scorer (apart from Sigurdsson). Sadly, that idea has backfired, drastically and spectacularly.

A long-term view is that these players have scored goals elsewhere and they haven't suddenly become bad players; it takes time to adjust. We should also couple that with good players returning slowly to provide depth and pace. And we'll buy a striker in January – possibly?

I don't think Koeman can arrest this teams failings, the confidence of lack of it, picking the right players in their best roles, repetition of the same tactics. It is his techniques that have brought us to this point. Applying the same thing again and again and not getting results is a proven way towards failure. And that is all it is.

There are scientifically proven theories around failure. Rule number one is learning from the failure. Martinez couldn't. And then they hit a wall, you can see it in all managers who are about to get the chop, no matter what they do, it just doesn't work. I saw that tonight in Koeman.

There is still time to win something this season. Personally I'd write off the Europa League (that's been done for us) and look towards the FA Cup and a high as possible Premier League finish.

And perhaps we do that with a new manager.


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