Gary Neville shares new Everton relegation verdict after midweek development at Leeds United
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville admits Everton are in “deep trouble” in the Premier League relegation battle but things could change dramatically in the coming weeks.
Everton missed the chance to move out of the relegation zone after an entertaining 2-2 draw with Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Monday night [1 May]
The two relegation-threatened clubs started the game in the bottom three but a point was enough to drag Leicester out of the drop zone on goal difference, while Everton stay 19th, one point behind 17th-placed Leeds.
And Neville speaking on his The Gary Neville podcast [3 May] admits he is fearing the worst for both Everton and Leeds United even after both clubs made “desperate” managerial changes this season with the latest change coming on Wednesday [3 May] after former Toffees boss Sam Allardyce replaced Javi Gracia in the Elland Road dugout.
He said [18m:32sec]: “Things are getting more desperate now.
“I think it’s to do with the fact that they commit when they’re in the Premier League, they want to be in the league obviously, and they’ve worked hard to get there but the desperation to stay there is off the scale for some of them.
“And I think, Leeds United and Everton are in deep deep trouble, I had Bournemouth three or four weeks ago, wow, how well they’ve done, but they’ve gone, they’re out of it so now you’re looking at Everton, at Leicester City and Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Southampton, there’s going to be one or two huge clubs that go down.
“And the pain that will cause will be significant. The ramifications, we don’t know yet.
“I really enjoyed the game on Monday night, thought it was fantastic to watch but I think Leicester will just stay up. I said Everton, Forest and Southampton and I’ll still stay with that but it could easily be Leeds United instead of Everton.”
Worrying form
It is now eight games without a Premier League win for Sean Dyche’s men and just one win in their last eleven which leaves them still rooted to the relegation spots with just four games left of their disastrous season to go.
While much has been made about the lack of goals Everton have endured this season – currently the worst in the division with just 27 goals scored from 34 games – it is their defending which will have pragmatic coach Dyche increasingly worried as they look to claim another unlikely safety miracle come to the end of the month.
Everton have conceded a whopping 15 goals from their last nine Premier League games leaving many to question why the former Burnley boss is still persisting in starting his former Turf Moor defender Michael Keane over Conor Coady alongside James Tarkowski.
None of the Toffees star players are on fire right now. Who can Dyche call upon to consistently perform and deliver over the next weeks to get the club out of this sorry mess? It’s hard to come up with a player who can provide that telling impetus the club desperately crave.
Neville is absolutely right, Everton are in deep trouble, but so are Leeds. With the Whites facing such an excruciating run of fixtures over the next few weeks, the Toffees may only need to better their results to topple them in the table. Huge task amidst such worrying form.