Marco Silva’s first season in charge at Everton was a bit of a strange one. It can quite easily be split into thirds, with each third highlighting different positives and negatives from the campaign.

It all began with a fairly promising start. However, this promise shone more through team performances than individual results. Silva’s impact on the style of football and team philosophy became evident from an early stage, and so too was the contrast in football played by this side, and the dull Allardyce side of the previous season. Despite this, an incapability to successfully mark zonally from set pieces, as well as two red cards in the first three weeks didn’t help with momentum nor results. Furthermore, an early exit of the League Cup following an annoyingly weak team selection further frustrated Evertonians.

A terrific away win at Leicester (featuring a Gyfli Sigurdsson wondergoal) was perhaps the best win of this first third of the season, however this win was soon followed by consecutive away games against some of the league’s best. A questionable penalty decision led to a disappointing defeat at Old Trafford, before the blues gained a deserved draw at Stamford Bridge. The next away game was the game at Anfield. We all know what happened here, and so won’t dwell on it for too long, but this game certainly seemed like a turning point in to the decline of both performances and results.

Before the first derby, Everton stood at an impressive sixth place after thirteen games. This first period of the season can perhaps be defined by the performances being even better than the results would suggest.

Following the 1-0 defeat at Anfield, confidence, performances, and results all seemed to deteriorate for a frustratingly long period of time. Silva’s men picked up just three wins in the next fourteen league games. They lost nine of these games, and dropped to ninth place following this very poor third of the season. The high-pressing football had gone, and so too had the creativity and goals, whilst the defence remained leaky. No one was quite sure who should be playing up front either, and the worsening atmosphere at Goodison saw a growing amount of fans calling for a Silva sacking.

The poor form wasn’t helped by Silva’s reluctancy to rotate the squad during the busy Christmas period, with many Evertonians believing this further negatively impacted on results at this stage of the season. The new year didn’t bring much cheer either, with the end of January seeing Everton crash out of the FA Cup following a defeat to Millwall, before three more defeats in the league.

This dismal part of the season wasn’t over until the end of February. A seventeen day break saw the players look refreshed, and better than they had all season. This final third of the season was certainly the best, and most enjoyable for everyone involved with the club. A much better performance in a 3-0 win against Cardiff began the resurgence in form, as well as providing a good warm-up for the derby at Goodison.

The cauldron of noise at Goodison, alongside a hard-working Everton side both played their part in a well contested draw against the title-chasing Liverpool. This result seemed to boost the confidence of both players and fans alike, and led to a strong finish to the season for Marco Silva’s men.

Although a few blips of inconsistency remained in these final eleven league games, eight clean sheets, as well as impressive wins over Chelsea, Arsenal, and Man United have contributed to a very pleasing conclusion of Marco Silva’s first season in charge.

During these games, Everton proved that they can more than compete with some ‘top six’ sides, and if the form of the last third of the season is continued throughout the 2019/2020, there’s no reason why Silva shouldn’t be looking at pushing for a top six finish next season.

Billy Minshall