Everton vs Wolves: Marco Silva says ‘he will not make any excuses’ as pressure mounts
Outplayed, outfought and outthought, almost from kick-off, against the newly-promoted visitors, Everton fell to their seventh defeat in the last nine league games
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Your support makes all the difference.It was safe to say, in the wake of another Everton disappointment against Wolves, that Marco Silva’s honeymoon period as manager of the famous old Merseyside club is well and truly over.
In fact - and to stretch the metaphor a little further - while reports of Silva’s job status being under any sort of real scrutiny from the powers that be may be wildly premature, there is little doubt that many Evertonians are already contacting divorce lawyers and looking around for their next potential partner.
Outplayed, outfought and outthought, almost from kick-off, against the newly-promoted visitors, Everton fell to their seventh defeat in the last nine league games and were booed off at the end of each half.
There has been no outright hostility towards the Portuguese coach yet - as there was towards the end of Sam Allardyce’s tenure last season - but how far away is that sort of response, with Manchester City next up at Goodison on Wednesday?
“Of course, of course I understand that,” said Silva. “I am not here to find excuses or whine about something, of course I understand there will be questions about me
.“When everything goes well, they say good things about the manager and when something is wrong it is normal as well that the manager gets pressure.
“It is a normal question when you have this type of job. For me it is something that you know happens, to be honest with you.
“For me the most important thing is what you can do as a player and a team, not to talk about individual things. It is not the way to change things and not the way you can change the situation.
“My job is to show them clearly what they are doing, and what they are doing wrong on the pitch. To help them know why and understand why, even if you prepare and understand the plan, why you are doing always the same mistakes.”
Silva has been here before and, his greatest detractors will point out, his reputation to date in English football is not based on very much hard evidence.
Hull improved, briefly, under his management before falling to an inevitable relegation in his five months in charge in 2017 and Watford was a schizophrenic half-season pit stop that started brilliantly and flamed out just as spectacularly - largely because of his flirtation with Everton.
Now, after a bright start, Everton are sliding down the league table and with one home league win since late November. In total, in his 77 games in English football, Silva has won 27.
But worse than basic statistics, Everton’s players - many of whom are the legacy of previous managers, of course - simply do not look up to the task against motivated and talented opposition such as Wolves.
“For me, motivation is like obligation,” said Silva. “When you are professional and working in a club like Everton, the obligation is to be motivated, to be focused.
“You can perform well and you can have a fantastic afternoon, and everything comes good to you. But if not then the players are on the pitch and they have to solve the problem in that moment with our plan.
“So when you are talking to me about ambition or motivation or focus, then to me that is the obligation of the player.
“When you come one Sunday with it all and then the next Saturday it's not there any more than to me that is where the obligation is: you have to be consistent. And I agree, we are not being consistent during this season. We are paying a lot because of that.”
A Ruben Neves penalty, after a disastrous Leighton Baines foul, was equalised by Andre Gomes before Raul Jimenez and Leo Dendoncker saw Wolves comfortably home. If that was tough for an Everton side lacking confidence and direction, Manchester City’s visit promises even worse.
“We don't find easy games, this game wasn't easy for sure,” said Silva. “Then we follow with another tough game and we have to react.
“But we have the quality to do that. We have to understand this situation and react in the right way, and I am here to understand why and there are decisions I have to take.”
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