It’s fair to say that this season hasn’t really gone to plan for Everton and their boss Roberto Martinez.

The race for a ‘Top Four’ spot hasn’t been this fierce in a long time, yet the Toffee’s are actually closer to the relegation zone than they are to the Champions League places. Actually they are precariously close to the dreaded drop zone, only three points separate them and eighteenth placed Hull City.

Everton were also dumped out of the FA Cup after a heroic battle with West Ham United, one of the sides that are actually fighting for a ‘Top Four’ finish.

But the season isn’t a write off just yet.

Firstly, they need to secure Premier League survival. That shouldn’t be an extremely difficult task, given their vastly talented squad. But obviously they still need to pick up the points, teams such as Leeds and Newcastle weren’t too big to go down.

Players like Ross Barkley, Kevin Mirallas and Aiden McGeady need to step up and give the club more consistent top-class performances. Given his £28m fee and his form last year, Everton would have expected more than six goals from Belgian hitman Romelu Lukaku so far this term.

Really the next goal for the league would be a top ten finish. Getting past tenth could be a struggle as Swansea (ninth) are already eight points ahead of the Toffees but its a goal that could see the players go all out for points from now to the end of season. If the only goal is to survive then the season could end as soon as Everton reach thirty-eight points.

Another realistic but tough goal would be to go all out and try and win the Europa League. Now others will have a similar hope like; Inter Milan, Tottenham, Roma, Ajax, Sevilla and Merseyside rivals Liverpool. But given a bit of luck, there is no reason why this Evertonian side can’t go all the way to Warsaw this season.

Getting that piece of silverware would at least give the season some significance. It would give the clubs coffers a timely boosted and help bridge the gap of finishing higher up the Premier League. Lifting their first European trophy in thirty years would also give their fans something to shout about. Although they will still need to find the right formula to get results during the weekend as well as during the week.

For long-term planning Roberto Martinez needs to strength at the back.

Tim Howard had a fantastic World Cup with the US last summer but he hasn’t managed to carry that form on at club level this year. That said he has been missed as of late through injury and a more able back up needs to be brought in.

In the full-back areas they are fine but centrally they now appear to be weak. Out of the four main centre-backs only John Stones is under thirty. All four have suffered from plenty of injuries too.

At thirty-seven the time may be upon Sylvain Distin to take a back seat and let Martinez bring in a new first team partner for either Stones or Phil Jagielka. as your first back-up it’s imperative that you remain fit and that has never been the case with Antolin Alcaraz since he arrived at Goodison in 2013.

When Martinez was at Wigan, he struggled to get the balance right between a fluid frontline and a dodgy defence. That may be happening again at Everton if the Spaniard doesn’t change things this month or in the summer. He has to bring in new defensive blood to strengthen up the backline and not make the same mistakes he made at Wigan.

So as you can see, things need to be done at Everton, if they’re going to see some improvement to the dire first half of the season. But not all is lost. With some reinvigorating changes to personnel and a bit of fortune then maybe just maybe Everton can finish the season with a bang and have a brighter immediate future.

Posted on January 17th, 2015 by scott
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