With Frank De Boer the first managerial casualty in the Premier League, football fans English football must be asking themselves, who is next?
With Slaven Bilic Mark Hughes and Antonio Conte bookmakers favourite to face the axe earlier in the season, one potential name has been sounded out due to his and the clubs latest mishaps. Everton manager Ronald Koeman has had a frustrating few weeks, with damaging defeats in the league and Europe has put mounted pressure on him.
His position is not helped from the high spending in the summer, so the question asked here is Ronald Koeman under pressure from facing the sack?
Excessive Summer Spending
Koeman and Everton embarked on a summer of high spending, with over 140 million pounds spent on new arrivals.
Though selling Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United for 90 million (includes bonuses and add-ons to the fee) assisted the high spending, Everton were the fourth highest spenders in the league (behind Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United).
While those clubs are fighting for the title, Everton are only expected to challenge for the top four. Although its early days still, Everton’s start has not been impressive and are shipping goals for fun in recent weeks and are sitting in the bottom three.
Brand of Football
As mentioned above, Everton have struggled over the past few games.
One factor can be their style of play under Koeman. Everton last win in the league came on the opening day of the season, a one nil win over Stoke. Since then, Everton have struggled to break teams down as they only scored two league goals all season.
Although, one can argue they have played the best teams in the country in previous weeks (Manchester City, Chelsea, Spurs and Manchester United) and do not have a recognise striker in their ranks, Everton’s manner in those games were far from impressive. A drubbing by Spurs and United without reply suggest Everton are still far from challenging the bigger teams in the country for the Champions League qualification spots.
Second Season Syndrome.
It can be difficult for managers to repeat the standards they achieved in the previous season.
With the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Manuel Pellegrini winning the league in their first season and Chris Hughton keeping Norwich in the Premier League before getting the boot suggest there is little room for failure.
For Koeman, this is what he is facing in the early stages of his second season.
The new owners of the club are ambitious and expect an improved performance from their seventh place finish from the season before. If Koeman fails to turn around the poor recent performance, he may be out the door before the season has concluded.
Koeman’s Pedigree
Although it is easy for one to point out and pick on the negative aspects of Koeman latest endeavours, one must point at the success he had as a coach before his arrival at Goodison in 2016.
Koeman has won the Eredivisie three times (Ajax and PSV), the Spanish cup with Valencia and the Super Cup in both the Netherlands and Portugal.
Additionally, Koeman had two successful seasons at Southampton, finishing seventh and sixth respectively from his two seasons in charge. These achievements and successes suggest Koeman is more than capable of turning Everton’s recent fortunes around and propel them up the table.
Verdict
Overall, Ronald Koeman is under pressure but the idea of him of getting the sack is off the mark.
The season is still young and although he has spent big in the summer, it takes time for new players to understand one another and function properly as a unit. Furthermore, Koeman has the pedigree to change his side into a tough and attacking side.
But, with managers losing their jobs after a few disappointing results, Koeman must be wary that no one is safe in the modern world of football.
Written by James Reidy
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