Jamie Carragher directs blame for Everton mess, notes painful ‘irony’ on former Toffees manager
Farhad Moshiri is to blame for most of the mess at Everton, but the players must be responsible for being in the relegation battle, says Jamie Carragher.
The club owner has been in charge for six years and has overseen a massive turnover in players, managers and other staff, to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds.
But the major downturn in form on the pitch this season has left the Toffees in genuine danger of a first ever relegation from the Premier League, with six games to go.
In his column for The Telegraph Carragher said: “The conservative estimate is that Moshiri has invested £500 million on the squad and assortment of managers. The more the team has stood still – and now gone backwards – the clearer it has been that the problem has been as much about his erratic ownership style as the coaches.
“No-one can ignore the irony if Marco Silva – an emerging, promising young manager who was desperate for more time at Goodison Park – leads Fulham into the Premier League and takes Everton’s place.
“Every aspect of the football operation Moshiri as kept chopping and changing has failed.
“The recruitment from the top down and the lack of a structure facilitating on-field success has created a mess.
“Moshiri’s failings have been well-documented, but even amid all the valid criticism of him it is difficult to look beyond the players for Everton’s situation this season.”
Race to the bottom
It is more likely a build up of cumulative factors that has led the club to the point it is at now, rather than any one trigger.
But as the man in charge of the decisions, or in charge of those who make the decisions, all rounds eventually lead to Moshiri.
The players’ form has not been good enough, clearly, but better groups of players than this one in the history of football have had a major dip in form due to the environment they were operating in.
The point about Silva only partially stands up, as when he left there were a number of similarities to the current situation under Frank Lampard.
The club had just lost the Merseyside derby, were in the relegation zone, and were in bad form despite mitigating factors when the Portuguese was sacked in December 2019.
It sounds very similar to now, but the crucial point then was there was plenty of time to rectify the situation.
Lampard is supposed to be the man who rectifies the Rafael Benitez situation this year, but he is fast running out of time.
Injuries and refereeing decisions have worked against him, but the fact that the club is repeating such negative positions when Moshiri is the common denominator suggests he is primarily responsible.
In other Everton news, one Liverpool legend says a Toffees player was “trembling in his boots” at Anfield.
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