Ronald Koeman: a sticky situation for Everton’s number one.

With talk of the top teams of the Premier League getting stronger and widening the gap from those further down the table, alarm bells must be ringing at Goodison Park. After a less than savoury start – placing Everton just three points above the dreaded relegation zone – Koeman’s future is under severe scrutiny.

The Dutchman was enlisted at Everton for the 2016/17 season following a couple of disappointing seasons by Everton’s (rightfully so) high standards, the previous two seasons. In his first season at Goodison Park, Ronald’s Everton finished an impressive 7^th and also gained qualification to the Europa League. It was set up to be a promising following season.

However, over the course of the summer transfer period, Koeman lost his main man up top, Romelu Lukaku. An obvious blow to the club but Koeman spent the handsome transfer fee to bolster the squad. With some solid signings coming in such as Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jordan Pickford, the loss of Lukaku didn’t seem so drastic after all.

The Toffees even got off to a decent start. Three points on the opening game of the season is always a massive morale boost. On top of this, they are currently the only team to have forced Manchester City to drop points, drawing 1-1 back when aspirations were much higher for Evertonians. Despite this, they have only managed eight points from the same number of games and as a result, sit perilously above the relegation zone by a mere three points.

After making it to the group stages of the Europa league, Everton are finding European football much more challenging than it realistically should be. Koeman has stated that it is simply not good enough and that they’re not performing at levels to successfully meet their expectations.

The pressure is piling on for the Dutchman to improve performances. He claims that he works with pressure all the time, whether that’s from external or internal sources. He has so far had enough support to keep his job and to prove it is just a poor start to the season. How long will he be given to fix things? If things carry on as they are, it could be sooner rather than later for the Dutchman.

Written by Sam Brazier.