Everton spent the fourth most in the Premier League this summer and yet there lack of pace is a massive concern.
Ronald Koeman, manager of Everton, gives instructions to this team during the Premier League match at Manchester City.
It has been a big summer for Everton and their manager Ronald Koeman, with 10 new players signed for a what the Telegraph reports to be a combined £144.9m. Only Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United spent more.
On the pitch things started well, with Wayne Rooney returning to his boyhood club after 13 years as one of those new signings to score the only goal in an opening day victory over Stoke City.
Everton striker Wayne Rooney celebrates scoring his team’s goal during the English Premier League football match against Manchester City.
A sole Rooney strike almost repeated the feat against City the following week, who were only rescued by a late Raheem Sterling equaliser. A 2-0 defeat to the champions at Stamford Bridge before the international break was disappointing, but not embarrassing.
However, while on the face of it that loss to the Blues was no cause for panic, it did expose a significant problem for Koeman that has not been addressed in a bumper window of spending – a lack of pace.
The Dutchman has so far this season done away with the 4-2-3-1 system used by the Toffees for so long and adopted the trend of a 3-4-3 formation that utilises wing-backs. Yet with Seamus Coleman out for the foreseeable future with a fractured leg, Mason Holgate occupied one flank while Leighton Baines was on the other.
Leighton Baines of Everton gives his team instructions during the Premier League match against Chelsea.
Neither man has the pace required to be a truly dangerous attacking outlet like Kyle Walker and Danny Rose at Tottenham Hotspur last year, for example. As a full-back in a four-man defence that is less of an issue, but with no wingers ahead of them it becomes one.
Elsewhere on the pitch it is the same story. Long gone are the days of Rooney’s marauding runs and while Sandro Ramirez needs time to settle in at Goodison Park, it doesn’t look like that will be part of his game either.
Club record £45m signing Gylfi Sigurdsson makes a habit of unlocking defences with key passes, but he needs runners in behind to do so. With no one providing that the Merseysiders look very one-dimensional and predictable, albeit with a solid defence.
There is pace in the squad in the shape of Yannick Bolasie, Ademola Lookman and Nikola Vlasic, but with the former out until the new year and the latter two both 19-years-old and down the pecking order for a starting place currently, Koeman has some thinking to do about his tactics.
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