Robbie Savage makes ‘fascinating’ Everton World Cup claim after Premier League defeat v Wolves
Robbie Savage believes Everton struggled in their Premier League defeat to Wolves due to the Toffees having a low number of players representing their countries in Qatar.
Only four players made the trip to the World Cup, with Jordan Pickford playing the most minutes after featuring in every moment of England’s run to the quarter-final.
Savage has suggested the Toffees’ sluggish performance could well have been down to their lack of representation at the competition.
“I’ve got a table that looks at how many minutes players from each club played at the World Cup,” said Savage (BBC Sport 5 Live, 10m 21s, 26 December).
“It’s a fascinating stat with Manchester City first, Manchester United second, Tottenham third. Everton only had 824 minutes played at the World Cup, that’s all. Which is fascinating, and does that explain the performance today?”
Doesn’t add up
It’s an interesting thought from Savage, but it can be immediately shot down by Wolves only having five players present at the World Cup and featuring for a similar amount of time. It didn’t seem to have an impact on them during their display at Goodison Park.
Something has to change and quickly if the Toffees want to avoid another relegation battle towards the end of the campaign. Worryingly, this season there seems to be a tightly bunched group of teams, some of which are steadily improving.
Wolves have a new manager and are looking to be aggressive in the transfer window, Nottingham Forest are finding their feet, and West Ham spent significant money in the summer and should have enough to drag themselves out of it.
The board have to be proactive in January and look to add a goalscorer to Frank Lampard’s options. However, it looks like departures will have to take place first, with the Daily Mail suggesting (25 December) up to four players could depart to allow for the right players to join the club.