OPINION
Many Everton fans will be concerned about Marco Silva being able to improve his side’s form in the coming weeks given that a lot of their problems have come in regards to set-pieces.
Richard Keys highlighted a stat about Silva’s management career in the Premier League so far in order to point out that a top-flight English side managed by Portuguese manager have previously been associated with being terrible at defending set-pieces.
Everton concede another set-piece goal. Only 2 teams in PL history have had a worse record conceding from set-pieces at this stage of the season – Hull and Watford – both managed by Marco Silva. ????
— Richard Keys (@richardajkeys) February 7, 2019
“Everton concede another set-piece goal,” tweeted Keys on his verified Twitter account.
“Only 2 teams in PL history have had a worse record conceding from set-pieces at this stage of the season – Hull and Watford – both managed by Marco Silva.”
Keys highlighting this worrying stat will only concern Toffees fans as you feel their ineptness in regards to defending set-pieces is costing them results and will be an area that their opponents can easily attempt to expose.
While the broadcaster was slightly misleading as at this stage in this season when at Hull he’d only been there a month so their set-piece problem proceeded him, the author of Opta Joe’s Yearbook Duncan Alexander’s clarification of the stat still wasn’t reassuring.
Silva has the most overall since he came to the PL but not most at three different clubs and not the most after 25 games at any club (that’s Spurs in 07-08 with 20)
— Duncan Alexander (@oilysailor) February 7, 2019
“Silva has the most overall since he came to the PL but not most at three different clubs and not the most after 25 games at any club (that’s Spurs in 07-08 with 20),” tweeted Alexander.
Terrible defending of set-pieces has plagued the Toffees in recent weeks and was not only seen against Manchester City on Wednesday but arguably the reason why they crashed out of the FA Cup courtesy of Millwall.
With it being a clear weakpoint of the Toffees’ current team, supporters of Everton will be concerned that no improvement in that area is bound to happen as Silva has previously proven it’s not his strong point.
If the Toffees’ continue being poor at the back from set-pieces then you can only envision them continuing to drop points even if they improve in other areas.