Koeman needs our failing forwards to deliver

It’s been over a month since Everton last won a match, but given the last result vs Manchester City was a positive one, it doesn’t feel that bad. Add into that the fact there was an international break in between then it’s not as bad as it sounds.

Since the 17th of September and our 3-1 victory vs Middlesbrough, it hasn’t been quite so rosy in the garden for Ronald Koeman. We got knocked out of the cup by Norwich, lost to Bournemouth and drew to Crystal Palace. Ending the winless run at Man City was always going to be tough, and so it proved. The next match however is against Burnley, which is the kind of match you should expect to be winning if you want to qualify for Europe.

Expectations grew significantly after that match against Middlesbrough, with hopes that we’d be challenging with the biggest teams in the league. Our squad however most likely won’t allow for that to happen, and there was always going to be a drop off. Expectations have now gone down to realistic levels, but the hope of a great season is still there. It’s important for Everton to be as high as possible in the table in January to be in a better position to attract high quality players.

Clearly there was a struggle in the summer with that. No matter how big a club Everton are, or how big Evertonians think we are, finishing 11th with no European football is a hard sell. Chelsea managed to do it with finishing just one place ahead of us, but they did win the league in 2015. It’s hoped that we can vastly improve on our league position from last season and in turn that should help us to recruit the players that we want.

To do that you obviously need to win football matches, something that Everton haven’t been doing recently. The keeper is having a great start to his Everton career, the defence looks good, the holding midfield looks good and we have one of the best young strikers in Europe. The players between Lukaku and that holding midfield however have been a huge let down. As previously written, I thought, and still do think, that buying Yannick Bolasie was poor business, Kevin Mirallas started the season well but his inconsistency has struck again and Ross Barkley and Gerard Deulofeu have been awful.

Koeman has recently said that he wants more production from his attacking midfielders and has set Bolasie with a target of scoring double figures this season. Considering the Congolese player has scored only nine times in 96 Premier League matches, I think that’s unlikely. Under Koeman Mirallas has had a fresh start, but after a few decent matches at the start of the season he has tailed off. He needs to be more consistent or he’ll once again find himself on the sidelines. Barkley’s exclusion from the team is entirely justified and his lack of impact after a bright first few games has been horrible to watch. A huge disappointment, and one which has gone under the radar due to Barkley’s struggles has been Deulofeu. Evertonians were delighted when he signed from Barcelona and were worried that is he played well, that Barca would activate their buy-back clause. It’s fair to say that Barcelona are a very long way from even considering that.

Those attackers have the chance to make their mark and seal a spot in the side. None of them are doing that at the moment meaning any one of them could find themselves on the bench. If Everton want to get back to winning ways then they need at least two of the three to have a good game. Recently it’s been none. The Burnley match gives a chance for Everton to return to winning ways. Koeman has shown that every player needs to earn their place, hopefully the players picked can start justifying their selection, because at the moment a few might be looking over their shoulders in January at their possible replacement.