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Marco Silva on the brink of Everton sack as club's patience wears thin
Marco Silva has been left on the brink of losing his job after Everton’s dramatic VAR-intervened defeat away to Leicester City.
The Everton manager’s position is to be discussed by the club’s hierarchy on Monday and it may be that he even goes before Wednesday’s Merseyside derby away to Liverpool.
It had been expected that Silva would remain in charge for that game and that is still likely to be the case. Everton, who have wanted to support him, desperately want to give Silva time in the hope that he will turn the club’s fortunes around. But there is now increasing doubt.
Despite an apparently improved performance against high-flying Leicester, Telegraph Sport has been told that senior figures involved with the club were furious at his substitutions and change of formation which will count against the Portuguese.
With Leicester dominating at 1-1 Silva withdrew Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Alex Iwobi and introduced Morgan Schneiderlin and Moise Kean as he switched from a 5-4-1 which had frustrated the home side to 5-3-2. Substitute Kelechi Iheanacho then scored the winner, after the 90thminute, which was initially ruled out for offside before replays showed that he had been played on by Yerry Mina.
Silva looked stunned on the touchline as Leicester celebrated wildly with Everton chairman Bill Kenwright, who was sat alongside chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale in the directors box, shaking his head slowly at the final whistle.
In fairness Kenwright’s reaction may have been simply because of the cruel nature of the defeat, that leaves Everton just one place outside the relegation zone, although he and Barrett-Baxendale were involved in discussions after last weekend’s terrible 2-0 defeat at home to Norwich City as to whether Silva should be sacked then.
It was eventually decided, with majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri and director of football Marcel Brands also taking part in the talks, to give Silva two or three games more but although Everton did play better they still lost. After the game Silva was asked directly whether he expected to remain in charge. “I’m not the right person (to ask),” he said. “Many, many times I have answered to you that I am not the right person to speak every time about that. I know what I am doing. I know what is my job and tomorrow will be a new day for me, another day for me to prepare the next training session and everything for the next match. I am not the right person to answer to you every time about that situation.”
Following the sacking of Unai Emery by Arsenal on Friday and Sunday’s dismissal by Watford of Quique Sanchez Flores then Silva has been under severe scrutiny especially as the other manager under most pressure, West Ham’s Manuel Pellegrini, gained a surprise win away to Chelsea on Saturday.
Although Everton have been loath to sack the manager Brands stopped short of endorsing Silva when he spoke to the club’s website at the end of last week. The club has been considering candidates should they feel compelled to dismiss him with former manager David Moyes having his backers although Everton are aware fans may not want him to return. It may well be that the absence of a credible replacement means that Silva survives a little longer.
Silva insisted that the players remained fully behind him with the defeat blamed on individual errors. “I never had doubts about,” he said. “Some of you ask me about what I can say but I told you, you have to show with actions in the game and not with words. They are always working really hard to get the results. It’s a tough moment for our dressing room. It (the defeat) was harsh. But the first thing I told them is keep their heads up because these type of mistakes happen but we have to try and avoid them.
"What I can tell is about our performance. The things we did - some not so good, but about pressure or not, is not important for me. When you are manager there is always pressure and results will decide. For the players the fans were supporting them, the players are fighting with the commitment they want to see."
Everton remain in 17th place just two points outside the bottom three but, also, only six points off fifth-place Tottenham Hotspur in what is an extremely tight league. However after significant investment the club is understandably expecting a far greater return than to be involved in a relegation fight although that could quickly change.
The nature of Leicester’s winning goal seemed to sum up Silva’s lack of luck at present as he also deals with key injuries in midfield. "The VAR goal is not a moment to talk about the situation,” he said. “It was tough for us and our fans. It was a decision, and maybe in some seconds before we should have made better decisions.” He will now be hoping that Everton do not make the decision to dispense with him.
