A recap. Everton under Allardyce:
West Ham (H) won 4-0 (Allardyce seems to count this as his era even though Unsworth was in charge but his appointment could have galvanised the players, so I'll give him this one)
Huddersfield (H) won 2-0
Appollon Limassol (A) won 3-0. Europa League, played a lot of kids against a bunch of Cypriots
Liverpool (A) drew 1-1, very fortunately.
Newcastle (A) won 1-0
Swansea (H) won 3-1
Chelsea (H) drew 0-0
West Brom (A) drew 0-0
Bournemouth (A) lost 1-2 and played badly
Man Utd (H) lost 0-2
Liverpool (A) lost 1-2 but played reasonably well
Spurs (A) lost 0-4, pathetically.
In the first 6 of these 12 matches Everton didn't play that well on the whole, but were tighter defensively, got good results - no defeats - and moved out of trouble in the league. In the second 6 they got a hard fought home draw with Chelsea and put in a decent performance in the Anfield cup tie but otherwise have been just as poor as they were pre-Allardyce. They have lost their best home grown player (maybe best player) since Wayne Rooney's original emergence, Ross Barkley and are slumped back in the league. OK, they are still 9th but 4 points behind the club above whereas they are precariously perched with 6 teams within 4 points of them, the lowest (Newcastle and Brighton) being very much in the relegation fight.
Don't get me wrong, I'm confident Everton will survive in the Premier League this year. After all, with 27 points from 23 matches an average of a point a game from here - normally relegation form - would probably make them safe by several points. And it is still very early days for Allardyce and his team, Craig Shakespeare and the short fat fella whose name I still don't like to mention.
But I question whether, other than the players initially trying a bit harder (I know they get paid a lot but it's human nature) there has been much improvement. The results have been broadly what you might expect. In the first 6 games the fixtures were easy, bar Liverpool away, where they got lucky. West Ham were awful at the time and have improved since; Huddersfield, Newcastle and Swansea some of the weakest ever Premier League sides. In the second six the fixtures have been harder: Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool and Spurs away. The disappointment was only getting one point from the West Brom and Bournemouth matches, even though they were both away.
Over the 12 games I can't see much Allardyce effect in terms of results, it seems to me it's just the way the fixtures have panned out.
The next 6 games are a more mixed bag: West Brom, Leicester and Crystal Palace at home, Arsenal, Watford and Burnley away. Leicester and Palace are looking quite strong recently and West Brom have got their first win in living memory (ok, since August). Watford started strongly but have gone flat, Burnley will still be hard at their place. This run might tell us more.
But it will be ok because we've signed a centre forward, a young (ish)Turk, Cenk Tosun. Won't it?
I hope his arrival helps, but I am worried by a stat that my son pointed out when he was signed. Yes Tosun had scored 8 goals in the Turkish Super-Lig this season. But so has Arouna Kone, who didn't exactly set fires alight in his time at Everton. And Kone is playing for Sivasspor, a weaker team than Besiktas, where Tosun played. Hmmm.
Yesterday against Spurs Tosun looked as if he could throw his weight around a bit and let the centre backs "know he's there". Maybe the idea is to soften them up before bringing on Calvert-Lewin, who looks to have more pace. In which case we need to not be losing 3-0 by that time....
At the moment I'm struggling to see that either Allardyce or Tosun are going to be the saviour, though they may help us to cement mid table safety. Disappointing after the progress of the previous 10 years or so but better than the alternative.
Maybe Everton need a witch doctor*.
*an obtuse reference to the bizarre story that Romelu Lukaku might sue Everton and/or it's major shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, who was quoted as saying that Everton met Lukaku's financial demands and he was 99% certain to sign a new contract until he spoke to a witch doctor (!?). Which upset Lukaku because he's a Catholic. Aaaargh - another snowflake!!
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