Thierry Henry: Everton boss Ronald Koeman has survived sticky patches in his career and Toffees should keep the faith
Thierry Henry reckons under-fire Toffees boss should be given time to turn things around at Goodison Park
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RONALD KOEMAN teams do tend to go through streaks.
At Southampton, during his final season, he had one win in ten mid-season but they bounced back to win seven out of nine at the end of the campaign to sneak into Europe.
Last season with Everton it was the same. They won five on the bounce at the start of the season and then won one in 11. Then they won five in eight.
There needs to be patience. All these managers getting sacked so early in the season is mad.
I know with all the money in the game everyone demands success straight away. But give the guy a chance. Look at Carlo Ancelotti at Bayern — but that’s the way it is. It’s become normal.
Well, you can’t sack 22 players can you? As soon as the season starts, bookmakers have a ‘sack race’.
That was never a thing.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s first season with Man United wasn’t glorious but they stuck with him and we all know that story.
Yes, Koeman has been at Everton for a little while but it’s still the beginning of the season and he’s had a summer of change.
Let’s not forget his achievements. He’s led both Everton and Southampton to the Europa League. That deserves credit and should surely buy him time. Also, Everton have played four of the top six already and three away.
That’s a brutal run. Yes, Burnley have been to Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea and they are sixth — not 16th.
But Everton’s games have been back to back. I also think Everton were unlucky to lose against United.
And they are the only team to take points off City.
Koeman has turned around bad runs before and I think he can do it again — given time.
Everton transfer news
NOW I’m an assistant coach rather than a player I see the other side of it.
Everything is lumped on the manager — he has to front up, take the criticism from fans, the press. As a player, you turn up, do the training, do the drills, go home.
The coach has to plan the session, review the session, deal with the media, the staff, make sure players are OK, deal with discipline, protect a player and if needs be, take a bullet for him.
But who cares about the coach? It’s tough when you have to front up for everyone.
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EVERTON fans are just realising how important Romelu Lukaku was to them.
They need a Lukaku, a player who grabs key goals from only a few chances. I never really felt the whole stadium was with him at Goodison Park.
But while there were question marks over him, it’s blindingly obvious they are missing him BIG time.
With him they might have turned a couple of their defeats this season into wins or at least grabbed a
point here or there.
But they didn’t exactly give him away. They picked up £75million— but it shows players as good as
Lukaku are not easy to replace no matter how much cash changed hands. People say Everton didn’t sign a replacement striker — but they did!
They bought forward Sandro Ramirez from Malaga where he scored 14 goals in 30 La Liga games last season.
They also have Wayne Rooney and Gylfi Sigurdsson. Maybe this season they have to share the goals around a bit. If one man isn’t going to get 30, three have to get ten.