Sport
How far can Everton go in the 2020/21 season?
Everton are joint top of the Premier League with a perfect record of three wins from three, with Carlo Ancelotti’s new-look Toffees extremely impressive in the opening weeks of the season. Their new signings have flown out of the blocks, the squad seem happy and the manager seems confident. So how far can Everton go this season?
James Rodriguez has arguably been the best player in the league so far, with the Colombia playmaker looking a great fit for Everton, having previously played for Ancelotti at both Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. The arrival of Rodriguez was part of a wholesale replacement of Everton’s midfield, with Allan joining from another of Ancelotti’s old clubs, Napoli, while Abdoulaye Doucoure was snapped up from Watford after their relegation to the Championship.
As New York Times football writer Rory Smith pointed out on social media recently, conditions could be perfect for a shock winner of the Premier League this season, with fixture congestion worse than ever for teams competing in the Champions League. So are Everton the real deal – and could they even challenge for the 2020-21 title?
Rodriguez taking Everton to new levels
Everton have not finished in the top six of the Premier League since 2013-14, when Roberto Martinez maintained the momentum built up during the successful David Moyes era.
Moyes, who does not get the credit he deserves for the outstanding job he did at Goodison Park, recorded seven straight finishes in the top eight while in charge of Everton, earning the chance to succeed Alex Ferguson, his fellow Scot, at Manchester United. Moyes also took Everton into the top four for the first time since the club’s glory days in the 1980s.
Even under Moyes, though, Everton did not sign players of Rodriguez’s level. He is the first undoubtedly world-class player to don the blue shirt since Wayne Rooney broke through as an extremely explosive teenager – and that was more than 15 years ago.
Having Rodriguez as a team-mate will encourage other Everton players to raise their game to meet his level. Let’s take inconsistent striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin as an example.The 23-year-old struggled for goals in the post-lockdown period of last season but has retained Ancelotti’s faith, scoring five times in three Premier League games this term, including bagging a hat-trick of close-range finishes in the 5-2 demolition of 10-man West Brom.
Only Jamie Vardy has been as prolific in the early weeks of the season, earning Calvert-Lewin, who hit the winner for England in the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup final three years ago, his first call up to the England squad.
Having Rodriguez in the supply line can only help Calvert-Lewin, who is on track to beat the 13 Premier League goals he scored last season, as well as Richarlison, another who has started the season in great form for the Toffees.
Richarlison has hit 13 goals in successive seasons so will provide another good threat. In attack at least, Everton look in good shape to celebrate their best season for several years.
How far can Everton go and what it holding them back still?
It is at the other end of the pitch where Everton might have some problems if they are serious about finishing in the top six, or perhaps even better, this term.
They conceded twice in a thrilling 5-2 Carabao Cup win over League One side Fleetwood Town, with England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford at fault for both goals, and the steely resilience shown in their opening-weekend 1-0 win at Tottenham has been lacking in their games played since.
Letting in five goals in three games is not the mark of an elite defence and Pickford continues to be a problem for Everton, forcing Ancelotti to regularly defend him in media appearances.
According to the Premier League’s official website, Pickford has made 13 errors leading to goals in his career so far – the same as Manchester United’s no1 David de Gea – although the Spaniard has played more than twice as many games in the top-flight.
Pickford should enjoy better protection this season with Allan succeeding the excellent Idrissa Gueye in midfield, but the central defensive partnership of Yerry Mina and Michael Keane in front of the under-fire goalkeeper can also be error-prone.
The header scored by Cheikhou Kouyate for Crystal Palace from an Andros Townsend corner was preventable and the lack of clean sheets will eventually cost Everton unless they tighten up.
Plugging a top-class new midfield into an Everton team led by an elite manager in Ancelotti has given the Toffees hope, but the upcoming Merseyside derby at home to champions Liverpool will show whether or not they are in fact the real deal.
So how far can Everton go? It depends how much more they are willing to invest in the Carlo Ancelloti project but it has certainly been a very positive start.
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