Sam Allardyce: five key things for Everton’s new manager to address

Sort out the defence

“We have been conceding goals for fun,” was David Unsworth’s assessment of his six weeks in charge and Sam Allardyce, based on his work at ailing clubs, should at least be able to introduce some rigidity to the backline and prevent Everton’s recent resemblance to a rugby team arranged on a diagonal. Whether he can do much to rescue Phil Jagielka’s career or put the suddenly vulnerable Ashley Williams back on track remains to be seen. The greatest worry is that Michael Keane appears to have been affected by the chaos around him and no longer looks the assured performer he was at Burnley. With Ramiro Funes Mori long‑term injured and Mason Holgate just back, Everton have problems in central defence and are not exactly secure elsewhere. Allardyce in the past has been critical of Leighton Baines, who, like Keane, is injured and though Jonjoe Kenny looks the part the dependable Seamus Coleman has been sorely missed at right-back all season.

Find a goalscorer

This really should not have been too difficult with the £75m rising to £95m Everton received for Romelu Lukaku, but Ronald Koeman’s warnings about the need for a replacement went unheeded and once the window closed Everton were always likely to be in trouble. It opens again in a month’s time and the club will simply have to spend, because all the evidence of the past four months suggests Wayne Rooney, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Sandro Ramírez and Oumar Niasse cannot score enough goals between them to keep Everton afloat. Allardyce must first decide which, if any, of that quartet is worth a regular place for the half-dozen games in December, bearing in mind Rooney’s hat-trick against West Ham came from midfield, and consider whether more could be coaxed from support players such as Kevin Mirallas or Ademola Lookman. While money to spend in January will have been high on Allardyce’s list of priorities, Everton are not in a position to wait for the cavalry to arrive – they need to improve their scoring and winning rate right now.

Work out who is boss

To an extent Allardyce can just busy himself with improving results on the pitch and not worry too much about Everton’s boardroom direction or lack of it. Yet if he plans to stick around and not just step in as a firefighter it is bound to have come to his attention that certain tensions have arisen between the men supposed to be running the club. Not just Farhad Moshiri and Bill Kenwright, who are not believed to see eye to eye on where Everton should be looking for new players and managers, but Steve Walsh, the director of football, who has overseen a less than coherent transfer strategy. No one quite seems to know where the finger of blame should be pointed. This is not only part of the problem but it possibly explains why Everton were linked with such a bafflingly diverse set of managerial candidates when they attempted to replace Koeman. Each man seems to have different ideas, so it is probably as well Allardyce has strong views of his own. He knows he is not everyone’s cup of tea but he is used to working that way.

Choose a No10

Everton have too many, as you might have heard. In addition to Gylfi Sigurdsson, Rooney and Davy Klaassen, there is also forgotten man Ross Barkley, who is widely thought to be recovering from injury in order to join Chelsea but could easily come back into the fold if Allardyce is prepared to be more conciliatory than his predecessor. If Chelsea are still interested Everton could probably use the money, but this is a club prepared to chase Sigurdsson all summer before handing over a record £45m to Swansea, only to play him out of position. That was Koeman’s doing but Allardyce now has a chance to do something more sensible, such as not only giving the Icelander a run in his proper position but attempting to build a team around him. With Barkley in contractual dispute, Klaassen far from convincing and Rooney not getting any younger, Sigurdsson remains the most logical option for the future, for all that Rooney sparkled against West Ham. The formation in midweek had Sigurdsson out on the left and Rooney so withdrawn in the middle he was playing from his own half but Allardyce will need to test it against stronger opposition before being convinced.

Survive the derby

News that Allardyce might bring Sammy Lee along as a coaching assistant caused something approaching apoplexy in the blue half of Merseyside. It has yet to be confirmed, though if nothing else it proved Allardyce is smarter than he looks. Suddenly the suitability of the former Bolton, West Ham and England manager for the Everton job was no longer an issue. It paled beside the realisation Everton were now so desperate they were ready to contemplate the almost perversely provocative recruitment of a former Anfield favourite. Of all the assistant coaches in all the world why would Everton consider one synonymous with Liverpool? Lee has followed Allardyce around a bit in recent seasons and has worked for several clubs since Liverpool but to say Everton fans are aghast at the possibility of him turning up among the blue ranks for next week’s derby would be to understate the matter considerably. Feelings are running high; Allardyce already faced a tough task in his first away game without turning Anfield into a tinderbox.