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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
Marco Silva was impressed with his players in Everton’s League Cup victory over Lincoln City, but they will need to show much more if they are to achieve anything this season.
What did he say
Everton fell behind after 21 seconds against the Imps and although the game was level with 20 minutes to spare, Silva was able to rely on new signing Alex Iwobi to nudge his side in front.
The Toffees eventually ran out 4-2 winners, leaving their manager satisfied with what he labelled a professional performance, implying that all that matters in the cup is a victory.
Speaking to Evertontv, Silva said: “Our team showed one important thing in my opinion – apart from the attitude, commitment and desire – we showed personality.
“We respected ourselves, we respected our fans, we respected the competition.
“It was a good performance in some moments. But, for me, the most important thing was our players were serious, they showed they are very good professionals and they won the game.”
There were further positives for the Portuguese man to take, with his side finally displaying an attacking threat by scoring four, whilst new signings Moise Kean and Djibril Sidibe were handed their first starts, allowing them to get valuable minutes under their belt.
Lucas Digne also continued to impress with a goal and an assist, but there are areas which still require improvement and certain persisting trends, namely their lack of creativity.
More than spirit needed for top-six
There has been much speculation over the summer about Everton’s chances of breaking into the top 6, but so far they have continued to underperform in attack, as they did for much of last season in which they scored only 54 league goals. Pertinently, that was 11 goals below the lowest tally of a top-six club.
Despite playing against a team two divisions below, Everton were uninspiring for large spells. It took until the 81st minute for the Toffees to score from open play and that served to intensify the feeling that they are yet to discover the type of fluid attacking form they’ll need to breach the top-six.
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Showing personality, as Silva alludes to, will only get this Everton team so far. Their forward players lack the quality of their rivals in the top-six – Arsenal’s willingness to let Iwobi join the Toffees suggests as much.
Too often they will struggle to break down teams, as they have shown in each of their matches so far, and that is what will separate them from the top teams.
Kean and Iwboi have shown glimpses of his quality while Gylfi Sigurdsson and Richarlison are proven at the club, but are this quartet even as good as the attacking quartets West Ham and Leicester have to offer?
Time will tell but Silva will need much more than spirit to take the Merseysiders in the right direction this season.
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