Everton have found a balance in attack and Marco Silva should stick to it

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Marco Silva lives to fight for another week after breaking Everton’s terrible run on Saturday.

Everton went into the game against West Ham United with immense pressure on their shoulders. Marco Silva’s tenure at the club could well have ended had the Toffees failed to win on Saturday but Bernard and Gylfi Sigurdsson’s goals keep him on board for another week at the very least.

Silva was brave going into the game as he made five changes to the side. Sigurdsson was benched after a poor start to the campaign and Alex Iwobi was given the responsibility of playing in the number 10 position. Both Moise Kean and Dominic Calvert-Lewin were dropped and Richarlison started up top with Bernard and Theo Walcott either side of him.

This made Everton’s attacking quartet as flexible as it can possibly get with all four players capable of playing in any of the forward positions. Iwobi and Richarlison were constantly on the move which forced both of West Ham’s centre-halves to move with them.

Their movement made it easy for Bernard and Walcott to find space in and around the final third and the Hammers struggled to get hold of the ball as a result. Theo Walcott rattled the crossbar from outside the box while Richarlison and Iwobi also had good chances to get on the score sheet.

Walcott also picked up the assist to Bernard’s opener which went under the radar due to the Brazilian’s brilliant piece of skill to make something out of nothing. The former Arsenal man’s pass was inch-perfect and deserves a lot of credit. His performance on the whole brought back memories of a younger Walcott who had the ability to change games on his own.

Sigurdsson’s late goal gives Marco Silva a needless headache ahead of the game against Brighton next weekend but the answer is simple. Everton have no reason to change their starting line up and Sigurdsson, despite his ability to create chances and score from distance, disrupts the attacking balance that worked so well against West Ham on Saturday.