Everton manager Marco Silva has launched an extraordinary attack on his predecessor Sam Allardyce’s style of football and claimed Richarlison would have hated it.
The Portuguese replaced Allardyce at Goodison Park this summer, and he has claimed the former Toffees boss’s tactics limited the impact of Saturday’s match winner Gylfi Sigurdsson last season.
The 6ft 1in Iceland international [Source: Transfermarkt] scored a sublime winner against Leicester, and Silva believes that wouldn’t have been possible under Allardyce, while also pointed out Richarlison would not have been suited to Allardyce’s style.
“I cannot talk to you about last season because I was not here and it is not fair – I know his quality and I know he is playing in a different role,” Silva told the Liverpool Echo.
“Our style is completely different to the style of last season. It fits his profile as a player. If you have one player like Gylfi and you are always playing direct balls – direct ball and prepare for the second ball, direct ball and prepare for a second ball – that’s not for Gylfi. It’s not for Richarlison either.”
OPINION
Nobody expected Silva to come out with this after Saturday’s game. Obviously he favours an attacking style of football whereas Allardyce is more pragmatic, so there was bound to be conflict there, but it feels slightly unfair for Silva to criticise Allardyce in this way. Having said that, he is correct. Allardyce’s style, while it got the desired result at Goodison Park last term, didn’t suit Sigurdsson. The Iceland star was having to do more defensive work and wasn’t encouraged as much as he is by Silva when going forward. We saw many subdued performances from the former Swansea City man as a result last season. It’s been a sea change since Silva came in, though. The Portuguese has succeeded in getting the best out of his most talented player and results have picked up as a consequence. Sigurdsson’s strike against Leicester was simply superb, a sure fire goal of the season contender, and Silva’s right, he probably wouldn’t have gone for that under Allardyce.