Wednesday 6 January 2016 08:43, UK
Roberto Martinez's Everton continue to entertain the neutrals but following their 1-1 draw with Tottenham on Super Sunday, they remain in the bottom half of the Premier League table. What's the problem? We take a look at the stats...
"We shouldn't be in this situation," said Romelu Lukaku prior to Everton's 1-1 draw with Tottenham on Sunday. Given that no player has scored more Premier League goals than the striker this season, his confusion is understandable.
"As a team we know we should be higher," added Lukaku. "We have a lot of potential and a lot of experience too. We are a team that should be fighting for the top four or top six. But at the moment it's not going the way we want." The key question is a simple one. Why?
Impressive in attack
Everton's attacking numbers are impressive. Martinez's men are the third highest scorers in the Premier League this season behind Manchester City and Leicester. In fact, the rest of the top five top scorers are the current top four in the table.
Delve deeper and Everton are creating quality chances too. According to Opta, when it comes to clear-cut chances, Everton rank fourth - behind the Premier League's top three of Arsenal, Leicester and Manchester City. It's Everton who are the anomaly.
Problems in defence
The issues for Everton are at the other end of the pitch. They have the worst defensive home record of any team in the Premier League, having conceded three more than anyone else. Everton's only Premier League clean sheet at Goodison Park came against bottom club Aston Villa.
"I think a big part of it is that they're missing Phil Jagielka," says Jamie Carragher. "But it also comes from the manager. If you go back to his Wigan teams, they always conceded lots of goals. This is a different Everton to the David Moyes teams that were more solid but maybe not as easy on the eye.
"There's nothing wrong with trying to play good football but there are certain times in a game, and the perfect example is the Stoke game, where you go 3-2 up with 15 minutes to go and you maybe have to change then. You become more solid and more difficult to beat." Be more pragmatic?
"You'd never associate that word with Roberto Martinez but they have to add a touch of that because they are massively underachieving," says Carragher. "They should be knocking on the door for top six and getting into Europe. But until they stop conceding goals it's not going to happen."
Too easy to play against
The statistics would suggest that these defensive problems are not a coincidence. Everton have faced the fifth-most shots on target of any team in the division. Once more, it's telling that the three teams who've conceded the most shots on target are the current bottom three in the table.
There are other signs that Everton are not doing enough to stop the opposition playing. While Leicester have the most interceptions of any Premier League team, indicative of how difficult they are to play against, only Norwich have made fewer interceptions than Everton.
Making life difficult for themselves?
Graeme Souness believes Everton are guilty of overplaying too. "You have got to mix it up," says Souness. "In the first 15 minutes, get the ball behind the opposition. Keep the game stretched. Then, when it settles, instead of one of your back-four players going to launch it, play it into midfield.
You've got to mix it up and become less predictable.
"If you go from the first minute trying to fire everything into midfield when the tempo is up and everybody is aggressive and ready for the fight, you're going to lose the ball. You could see today, they gave the initiative to the opposition. You've got to mix it up and become less predictable."
In doing so, Everton are inviting pressure. It's something of a trait of Martinez sides. When Wigan were relegated under Martinez, they made more errors leading to goals than any other team with their total of 834 failed passes inside their own half being 60 more than anyone else.
Some of these mistakes are being repeated at Goodison Park. Everton rank fourth for errors leading to shots this season. Once again, it's revealing that Leicester have made the fewest such errors. It seems that there is some merit in minimising the risks.
Is their strength their weakness?
Martinez will not want to curb the risk-taking that makes Everton so good to watch. His team have made more dribbles than any other Premier League side this season - completing 256 of them, nine more than leaders Arsenal.
The concern is that 17 of those dribbles have come from centre-back John Stones. In fact, one of them came deep inside his own penalty area against Tottenham, something that left one ex-England defender unimpressed. "I've said this before about John Stones," said Carragher.
"People come back at me and say, 'Oh, typical English mentality, it's about time we had a player who steps out with the ball'. I've had five or six foreign managers and not one of them would want me - or any defender - to be doing Cruyff turns in the six-yard box.
"Hopefully Roberto Martinez is telling him that." The worry for supporters is that there's no great belief that their coach will be saying any such thing. Everton will continue to entertain. But could the solidity once taken for granted during the Moyes era continue to seep away?
