Everton will be have a tricky trip to Burnley, at Turf Moor this weekend, where most teams have found it difficult to score owing to the home team’s astute defending. Despite starting their season brightly with convincing wins in the first 3 matches, Everton have slowed down owing to shock losses to Bournemouth and Norwich, which has been followed by consecutive draws since then.
Under Ronald Koeman, the club have shown sparks of brilliance this season. No other Everton manager has managed to obtain more points in their first eight games like Koeman. The club sit in sixth position with 15 points. Only Martinez had attained this benchmark as he had the same number of points.
However, despite having a balanced side adept in all the defence, midfield and attacking positions, Everton are experiencing a goal drought in the last few matches. They will look to wipe that away against Burnley who have scored in all their last 18 games against Everton.
A positive news would be that Everton have won their last three matches against Burnley, which the Toffees could latch on to return to winning ways. Over that, Burnley will come to the game after back-to-back defeats to Arsenal and Southampton.
Defence
Koeman plays a back line of 4 with Oviedo, Williams, Jagielka and Coleman, who has more or less shown disciplined defending till now. The fact that Everton have only conceded 6 goals in eight outings clearly reflects that their problem is at the frontline, who are struggling to find the back of the net.
The pair of Jagielka and Williams have been quite assuring. In their last match against City, they both counted a total 9 successful interceptions managing a draw for their team.
Their star performer has obviously been Stekelenburg, whose confidence is sky high after keeping his team in the team with back-to-back penalties.
Midfield
Koeman has taken quite a defensive approach sticking to Gueye, Barry and Cleverley, by dropping the likes of Barkley and Mirallas. It might have been a crucial reason why the goals have dried up at the front. However, the likes of Gueye and Cleverley provides the team with the defensive support that Koeman likes.
Attack
Romelo Lukaku has been at the centre of Koeman’s play and the Belgian has not disappointed his manager with 6 goals in 8 games already. Yannick Bolasie and Gerard Deulofeu have been pretty decent assists-wise, however, they have failed to score. Bolasie has set up Lukaku three times.
