[FM20] The Everton Rebuild: Changing the Mentality

[ShaunG95]

https://twitter.com/footballdaily/status/1282305692192460801?s=20

 

Following Seamus Coleman's comments yesterday, I have decied to start a save that focuses on rebuilding the team with more favourable personalities. 'Negative' personalities will be discarded from the squad and model pros will be embedded to mentor younger players.

There are many players I have sold that I have an attachment to in real life, so although the overhaul is drastic, I wouldn't say it is necessarily realistic in terms of my own allegiances to said players as a supporter of Everton.

 

Transfers Out

Richarlison to Leicester - £30m

DCL to Newcastle - £15m rising to £35m over terms

Mason Holgate to AC Milan - £15m rising to £30m over terms

Tom Davies to DL Pro - £15m rising to £30m over terms

Bernard to Guangzhou Evergrande - £30m

Theo Walcott to Shanghai Shenhua - £15m

Seamus Coleman to Burnley - £12m

Morgan Schneiderlin to Tianjin Teda - £3.8m

Oumar Niasse to CSKA Moscow - £3.8m

Anthony Gordon to Wolves - £2.5m

 

Loans Out

Andre Gomes to Man Utd

Yerry Mina to to Sevilla

 

Transfers In

Marasha Kumbulla - £20m rising to £50m over terms

Dominik Szoboszlai - £20m rising to £40m over terms

Steven Sessegnon - £12.5m rising to £32.5m over terms

Noah Katterbach - £5m rising to £15m over terms

Kenneth Taylor - £7.5m rising to £15m over terms

Marcus Dewhurst - £7.5m rising to £15m over terms

Antonio Marin - £5m rising to £11m over terms

Yusuf Demir - £3.5m rising to £10m over terms

Jorrit Hendrix - £5m rising to £10m over terms

Viktor Fischer - £4.5m

Karol Fila - £1m rising to £3.5m over terms

 

Signings under £1m

 

Rober, Jesus Vazquez, Amadou Diallo, Lucho Gonzalez, Rodrigo Palacio, Devyne Rensch, Adam Hlozek, Darren Fletcher, Gorka Iraizoz and Rayan Ait Nouri (loan).

 

In essence, a lot of comings and goings. I tried offloading Jordan Pickford but there was limited interest as he is on astronomical wages, I've no doubt he will be sold in January. Josko Gvardiol is also arriving in January for a few of £5m rising to £12m.

 

Starting Eleven

Provisionally, I see this as the starting eleven for most of the campaign. Szoboszlai, Marin and Demir will be starters no doubt eventually but the ideology is for them to be mentored first and foremost so that their development can be maximised. Palacio is responsible for mentoring Marin and Demir whereas Darren Fletcher is mentoring Szoboszlai as well as Kenneth Taylor.

I have deliberately tried to sign as many ambidextrous players as possible as I want to see how effective a lineup with a lot of either footed players will be in the long-term. In my next post, I will update on how the first season goes. There will be a few more younger players signed who fit this philosophy (Filip Stevanovic, Rayan Cherki, Chris Mochrie and Romano Postema are players I like the look of).

Edited July 15, 2020 by ShaunG95

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Good luck in the save, interesting idea but I do feel like your current team is worst then the one you started with but that is just my opinion.

[ShaunG95]

41 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Good luck in the save, interesting idea but I do feel like your current team is worst then the one you started with but that is just my opinion.

Very valid point but the idea is that these players are starters for this season to (hopefully) impart some of their professionalism etc.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 minute ago, ShaunG95 said:

Very valid point but the idea is that these players are starters for this season to (hopefully) impart some of their professionalism etc.

Yeah hopefully it works out ok for you.

[ShaunG95]

August

Premier League: Man Utd 1-1 Everton (Rashford pen 33; Fischer 73)

Premier League: Everton 2-0 Aston Villa (Digne 4, Rober 84)

Premier League: Everton 6-0 Southampton (Palacio 9, 56, 58, Fischer 13, Rober 42, Fletcher 48)

Carabao Cup: Aston Villa p1-1 Everton (Baston pen 42; Palacio 56)

Premier League: Crystal Palace 1-1 Everton (Schlupp 18; Kean 87)

Productive month which was slightly soured by the early cup exit to Villa. As we both started second-string lineups, it was a poor game. Gylfi Sigurdsson missed a penalty whereas they scored all of theirs in the shootout. Four goals for Palacio, not bad for 37!

 

September

Premier League: Everton 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Palacio 13, Marin 65; Kane 8, Son 15)

Premier League: Watford 0-4 Everton (Fischer 5, Iwobi 12, Hendrix 26, Palacio 74)

Premier League: Everton 4-3 Arsenal (Iwobi 2, Palacio 76, Mari o.g. 81, Fletcher 90+2; Mari 24, Aubameyang 31, Tierney 52)

Wonderkid Antonio Marin scored his first goal for the club to share the spoils with Spurs while we managed to emphatically overcome their North London rivals Arsenal in a game that saw us 3-1 down.

 

October

Premier League: Liverpool 2-0 Everton (Alexander Arnold 50, Lallana 86)

Premier League: Everton 1-2 Newcastle United (Palacio 13; Schar pen 6, Calvert-Lewin 14)

Premier League: West Ham 0-0 Everton

Didn't get going whatsoever this month, it was a tough ask to get anything at Anfield given the clear distinction in playing quality but we played quite well up until the first goal. Equally, I was devastated to lose at home to Newcastle, we hardly created any chances which was the primary concern. Their abject performance resulted in a rollicking at the end of not only the Newcastle game but the West Ham game too.

 

November

Premier League: Sheff Utd 3-3 Everton (Mousset 4, 27, O'Connell 22; Fletcher 5, Palacio 31, Keane 58)

Premier League: Everton 4-1 Bournemouth (Sigurdsson 7, Palacio 57, Fischer 74, Iwobi 88; King 20)

Premier League: Leicester 2-3 Everton (Evans 7, Perez 56; Baines 26, Palacio 54, Iwobi 89)

Premier League: Everton 0-2 Chelsea (Dewhurst o.g. 16, Kovacic 69)

We really struggled against Sheffield United, Dewhurst seemed to crumble against his old side. We bounced back with good wins against Bournemouth and Leicester respectively but title chasers Chelsea humbled us to round off November.

 

December

Premier League: Everton 1-2 Wolves (Sigurdsson pen 74; Jimenez 9, Coady 55)

Premier League: Man City 3-0 Everton (Jesus 29, Silva 36, 41)

Premier League: Everton 3-0 Brighton (Hendrix 13, Rober 56, Sigurdsson 80)

Premier League: Norwich 4-3 Everton (Buendia 4, 24, Pukki 31, Hernandez 79; Keane 3, Fischer 23, Demir 82)

Premier League: Burnley 0-1 Everton (Sigurdsson pen 82)

Premier League: Everton 5-0 West Ham (Rober 7, 31, Fischer 58, Marin 62, Palacio 84)

I was inconsolable after that Wolves game, we were horrendous at the back - Michael Keane pleaded for game time and rewarded us with two poor performances against them and then Man City. We changed our fortunes somewhat against Brighton and snatched a victory against Burnley whereas the West Ham game really put us in good stead for the new year. We finished the calendar year in 8th which was meeting the boards expectations who gave me an extra £30m to dabble with in the transfer market.

[ShaunG95]

Transfers In

The signings may all looks like colossal fees on paper but we remained in budget by negotiating most of them over the next three seasons. Alas, it was methodical as I do not intend to purchase many players beyond this first season. Ramos and Dantas are model citizens, the latter was an absolute steal and is a player I've wanted to use most of the year. Mochrie, Postema and Cherki follow the ambidextrous ethos and well, Esposito is Esposito. Matthew Ryan was a signing that I felt I had to make to replace Pickford as Dewhurst was not ready for Premier League football. I found that out the hard way in some games. Ryan also has a good personality which is valuable to the long-term project.

 

Transfers Out

I was a little bit hesitant to loan out Kean but he simply hadn't started enough games for us and I felt he needed the game time. Lossl was recalled from his loan at Huddersfield and we shrewdly sold him to Brighton as they looked to replace Matthew Ryan. Pickford and Delph did not have any interest in the summer window so it was inevitable they would leave during this window. Ideally, both will be sold in the summer.

[ShaunG95]

January

FA Cup: Preston 2-4 Everton (Sinclair 88, Harrop 90; Marin 29, Postema 39, Ramos 48, Kumbulla 90+4)

Premier League: Arsenal 3-2 Everton (Ceballos 16, Torreira 27, Tierney 70; Sigurdsson 59, Hendrix 90+4)

Premier League: Everton 1-4 Liverpool (Palacio 51; Salah 24, 63, Mane 45, Firmino 90+2)

Premier League: Newcastle 0-1 Everton (Fischer 57)

Premier League: Everton 0-0 Burnley

FA Cup: Everton 1-2 Liverpool (Esposito pen 35; Mane 10, Salah 42)

Quick summary: Postema and Ramos arrived firing, we couldn't even lay a finger on Liverpool at Goodison and we stole one win in the league against Newcastle.

 

February

Premier League: Aston Villa 1-2 Everton (Chong 19; Palacio 69, Postema 79)

Premier League: Everton 2-0 Man Utd (Esposito 9, Hendrix 60)

Premier League: Everton 3-0 Norwich (Digne 14, Esposito 81, Fischer 84)

Premier League: Brighton 2-4 Everton (Gross 26, March 49; Sigurdsson pen 2, Kumbulla 4, Gonzalez 9, Marin 89)

100% record! I think the Man Utd game served to change our fortunes somewhat, we were dominant.

 

March

Premier League: Everton 3-2 Man City (Fischer 26, Iwobi 36, Ramos 90+2; Aguero pen 45, 71)

Premier League: Wolves 2-1 Everton (Jota 83, Gibbs-White 87; Kumbulla 78)

Premier League: Everton 2-1 Leicester (Sigurdsson pen 31, Palacio 47; Albrighton 77)

Superb result at home to City, arguably our best win of the season however Wolves sent us back down to earth once again. I changed formation to get the goal in the first place but I think our defensive line was too high and Nuno's side exploited that. We continued our good run against Leicester quite comfortably however.

 

April

Premier League: Chelsea 3-4 Everton (Mount 44, Everton 70, Emerson 81; Keane 27, Fischer 54, Rober 59, Sessegnon 90+2)

Premier League: Everton 4-1 Sheff Utd (Sigurdsson pen 14, Diallo 30, 83, O'Connell o.g. 62; Sharp 32)

Premier League: Bournemouth 1-0 Everton (Jahanbakhsh 60)

Premier League: Everton 1-0 Crystal Palace (Palacio 1)

Wow! That Chelsea game was superb, we largely overperformed in this one and somehow Sessegnon found himself in a goalscoring position to win the game from right-back. Really enjoyed Diallo's double against Sheff Utd, he will be one to watch for the future. He can play in any attacking midfield position and has some great potential. Palacio also broke a club record that was set by Louis Saha's FA Cup final goal. Saha's goal stood at 25 seconds whereas Palacio's goal against Crystal Palace was scored in 11 seconds.

 

May

Premier League: Southampton 3-2 Everton (Bertrand 17, 88, Adams 90+4; Fischer 64, Iwobi 81)

Premier League: Everton 2-1 Watford (Sigurdsson 5, Marin 79; Deeney 52)

Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Everton (Fernandes 20, Meling 27)

Couldn't believe the blinder Bertrand played against us, he scored a cracking volley and then a free-kick. After taking the lead, I hoped we would hold on but our defensive frailties were exposed as goal shy Che Adams won the game for the Saints. I was also delighted to see Marin's winner against Watford as no doubt he will become an important player for the club over the coming years. Unfortunately the players were on their jollies against Spurs as we limped to a 7th placed finish.

 

Our league finish meant that we did not get a European place but I think that was probably beneficial for us as we were predicted to finish in the top-half, which we did and our quality of players who have been trained in England is limited - that would inevitably have gone against us. So realistically, I think we performed as well as we could have done given the circumstances but ultimately we need to cut out some of the losses for next season.

In my next post I will screenshot some of our best players from the season.

Edited July 15, 2020 by ShaunG95

[Maw74]

That is a good season, unlucky not to get a European place, who won the cup? Just wondering why England only have 2 in Europa League.

[ShaunG95]

2 hours ago, Maw74 said:

That is a good season, unlucky not to get a European place, who won the cup? Just wondering why England only have 2 in Europa League.

Sheffield United just beat Arsenal in the FA Cup final to secure the third Europa League berth. Liverpool won the Carabao.

[ShaunG95]

1) Lucas Digne

Lucas Digne finished the season as our best performer, I'm currently weighing up a £65m for him from Arsenal. I am tempted to sell as he isn't necessarily a player that will improve. He finished with a 7.33 average rating for the season in all competitions.

 

2) Jorrit Hendrix

Newly appointed captain Jorrit Hendrix was solid at centre-back, Everton lacked a left-sided centre-back as it was so he offered a great deal of versatility for the season. The idea is that he is the central mentor in the squad over the next 5+ years, no doubt his playing time will wind down when Josko Gvardiol develops but he was an astute addition. He finished with a 7.19 average rating for the season in all competitions.

 

3) Darren Fletcher

Although his physical attributes are frankly decimated, Darren Fletcher finished on a respectable 7.10 average rating in all competitions. His contribution as a mentor alone is enough as numerous of the young bucks have benefited from his influence.

 

4) Rodrigo Palacio

Rodrigo Palacio is always, always a reliable signing, as well as being an exceptional mentor. He scored 15 in 33(1) appearances in the league and finished with a 7.02 average rating.

 

5) Viktor Fischer

Viktor Fischer is so cheap at the start of the game and the level of quality you get out of him is superb, he has some really useful traits to place as a striker or inside forward from the left. Having managed both him and Richarlison at Everton this year, Fischer is much more consistent - providing injuries do not start to trouble him. As well as filling my ambidextrous quota, he scored 11 goals and assisted 4 times in 33(2) appearances from the AML position. Fischer also got a 7.01 average rating.

[ShaunG95]

2020/21

Transfers In

Ricardo Neto from Braga for £2m (£4.5m) 

Dani Ramirez from Lech Poznan for £1.5m

Benjamin Nygren from KRC Genk for £25m (3 year installments)

Pedro Neto from Wolves for £32m (3 year installments)

Vitaliy Mykolenko from Dynamo Kyiv for £27.5m (3 year installments)

Jeroen Zoet from PSV for £10m (3 year installments)

Total - £120m

 

Transfers Out

Senior Players

Lucas Digne to Arsenal for £65m

Kieran Dowell to West Brom for £3.6m (£4.4m)

Cenk Tosun to Stade Rennais for £5.5m (£6.5m)

Mo Besic to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors for £6.25m (£7.75m)

Fabian Delph to Hellas Verona for £5m

Yannick Bolasie to VfB Stuttgart for £10m

Yerry Mina to Crystal Palace for £15m

Jonjoe Kenny to Brighton for £20m

Jean-Philippe Gbamin to Hertha BSC for £25m

Andre Gomes to Hertha BSC for £23.5m (£26m)

Sandro to AC Milan for £25m

Jordan Pickford to Atalanta for £13m (£14.5m)

Alex Iwobi to Wolves for £45m

Michael Keane to West Ham for £15m

 

U23/U18 Players

Lewis Gibson to Southampton for £7.5m

Lewis Dobbin to Norwich for £5m (£8.5m)

Alex Denny to Watford for £3.5m

Jack McIntyre to West Brom for £2.5m

Jonathan Anderson to Notts Forest for £2.5m

Tom Cannon to Brighton for £2m

Harry Hagan to Swansea for £1.5m (£2.5m)

Manasse Mampala to Wigan for £1.5m

Others for £8m total

Total - £314m

Edited July 17, 2020 by ShaunG95

[ShaunG95]

August

Premier League: Arsenal 1-4 Arsenal (Palacio 53; Xhaka 9, Lacazette 23, 24, Mkhitaryan 73)

Premier League: Southampton 2-0 Everton (Candreva 6, Djenepo 81)

Premier League: Everton 1-0 Man Utd (Kumbulla 68)

Carabao Cup: Everton 4-1 Derby County (Taylor 25, 43, Rensch 30, Diallo 37; Sibley 82)

Premier League: Norwich 3-0 Everton (Soares 33, Cantwell 40, Godfrey 90+2)

Shocking start to the season. I felt like we were on the receiving end of screamers in almost every game which was becoming tiresome. However, I did think a tactical change led to dip in form. As we sold Iwobi, we opted to start Pedro Neto on the right as an inverted winger/inside forward, often alternating between those roles and it wasn't really working.

 

September

Premier League: Everton 3-1 Newcastle United (Gonzalez 9, Neto 74, Postema 84; Almiron 39)

Premier League: Liverpool 2-0 Everton (Salah 20, Diaz 64)

Carabao Cup: Man Utd 5-0 Everton (Wan-Bissaka 9, Rashford 10, Greenwood 34, Fernandes 51, Martial pen 88)

Premier League: Everton 4-0 Fulham (Marin 18, 81, Neto 51, Esposito pen 69)

We redeemed ourselves against struggling Newcastle but Liverpool and Man Utd proved too strong for us away from home. Liverpool are proving so difficult to get anything out of in this save as they retained the Champions League in the first season as well as winning the Premier League and Carabao Cup. It was promising to return to winning ways against Fulham who were somehow performing even poorer than ourselves in the league.

 

October

Premier League: Sheffield Utd 3-3 Everton (Esposito 27, Neto 46, Ramirez 57)

Premier League: Everton 5-2 Brentford (Kumbulla 45, Esposito 75, Fischer 78, Mykolenko 85, Ramos 90+2; Romeu 7, Baptiste 35)

Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Everton (Esposito 8)

A short but sweet set of fixtures. We continued our struggles against Sheffield United domestically but managed a superb comeback against Brentford and later came away with a rare win at Spurs.

 

November

Premier League: Everton 0-2 Wolves (Iwobi 76, Moutinho 90)

Premier League: Bournemouth 1-2 Everton (Lazaro 30; Neto 2, Esposito 14)

Premier League: Everton 0-2 Chelsea (Willian 5, Mount 47)

Premier League: Leicester 3-0 Everton (Deulofeu 20, Luperto 29, Soyuncu 87)

After this month, I was becoming increasingly concerned that the sack loomed over me. On any save as Everton manager, I've never quite been this bad at home. A lot of it has been down to not converting chances which led me to finally drop goal-shy Rodrigo Palacio who was seemingly past it at this point. Esposito was developing nicely so it only seemed fair to give the young Italian the nod in the striker berth.

 

December

Premier League: West Ham 2-1 Everton (Haller 54, Fornals 74; Esposito 5)

Premier League: Everton 3-2 Burnley (Sigurdsson pen 4, Esposito 35, Fischer 45+3; Brownhill 70, Doku 83)

Premier League: Notts Forest 1-2 Everton (Grabban 10; Dantas 73, 82)

Premier League: Everton 1-4 Man City (Neto 32; Cancelo 8, Aguero 67, Luis 90+1, Partey 90+3)

Premier League: Crystal Palace 0-0 Everton

Premier League: Everton 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Esposito 65, 75; Sule 76, Ndombele 90)

We entered the New Year in 9th position. I finally decided to steer away from using some of the more senior players in favour of the younger guard and although we ended the month with 2 points from 3 games, there were signs of improvement. Tiago Dantas was becoming a star playmakers, Pedro Neto was increasing his output and Esposito was carrying the team. I was gutted to draw with Spurs as we frankly outplayed them, only to be outdone by two set pieces. Alas, we move.