Everton are struggling badly under Marco Silva, losing two Premier League games in a row.
Michael Ball has hit at Everton and believes Marco Silva’s ’embarrassing’ side is a polar opposite of the ferocious overachievers who constantly shocked the Premier League during the heady days of David Moyes, speaking to the Liverpool Echo.
The days when Everton were perennial challengers for a top six finish, even flirting with the Champions League, seem a long time ago.
Moyes put together a fearsome Toffees team on a shoestring budget, a side full of character and spirit who possessed a handy knack of bloodying the noses of the top flight’s established elite.
In stark contrast, Silva has created a team which appears to wilt under the slightest pressure, despite having access to the sort of funds that Moyes could have only dreamed of during the austerity years of Bill Kenwright.
No wonder Ball, who played for Everton between 1996 and 2001, is pining for the good old days.
“We’ve spent all this money, we always seem to think we’re favourites and just have to turn up. It’s the opposite of the David Moyes era when we were often greater than the sum of our parts,” said Ball, a player who was never lacking in commitment during his time on the pitch.
“We’d be the underdogs but the crowd would be up for it and get behind the team. Now we’ve supposedly got better players on paper but they’re not going out on the pitch and proving it.
“It looked like Sunday League football at the end of Saturday’s game with about seven forwards in one team.
“If we weren’t so frustrated it would be laughable – this is a Premier League team – it’s embarrassing.”
Ball was speaking with that 2-0 home defeat to Sheffield United fresh in his mind. The Toffees somehow contrived to lose by two clear goals against a side who managed a single shot on target with the increasingly error-prone Yerry Mina putting through his own net at the end of a dismal first half.
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