Encouragement for owners of Leicester’s FPL assets after dire Everton display

Everton 0-2 Norwich City

• Goals: Todd Cantwell (£4.6m), Dennis Srbeny (£5.2m)
• Assists: Teemu Pukki (£6.6m)
• Bonus: Tim Krul (£4.5m) x3, Cantwell x2, Srbeny x1

Rumours of an imminent Marco Silva departure have been swirling ever since Everton’s defeat to Norwich City on Saturday but, at the time of writing, the ex-Watford head coach still remains in charge at Goodison Park.

The cynics amongst us who own the likes of Jamie Vardy (£9.7m), James Maddison (£7.6m) and Ricardo Pereira (£6.4m) will perhaps be hoping it stays that way until Gameweek 14 has passed.

Leicester City host the Toffees next Sunday and the sad truth is that many of us would probably prefer it if Vardy and co were facing a Silva-led Everton side at present, rather than a team potentially benefitting from the fabled “new manager bounce”.

The Merseyside club are not a completely terrible side, let’s say that first: Everton had dominated Southampton in Gameweek 12 and were deserving of a point against Spurs a week before that.

But this latest loss was a morale-sapping, fan-infuriating defeat to a side who were previously winless away from home.

Norwich had conceded at least two goals in ten of their previous 12 fixtures but didn’t allow their hosts a single ‘big chance’ on Saturday.

The Canaries hadn’t scored an away goal since the opening day of the season, either, but beat Jordan Pickford (£5.5m) on two occasions as the atmosphere on Merseyside turned poisonous.

Everton did have their chances: Theo Walcott (£6.2m) and Cenk Tosun (£5.7m) flashed first-half efforts wide, while Tim Krul (£4.5m) made decent low stops from Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.5m) and Tosun after the interval.

Krul walked away with maximum bonus points after this fixture but in reality, not one of the seven shots he saved would have been expected to beat the Dutch goalkeeper.

While all of that gives encouragement to owners of Leicester defenders ahead of next weekend’s clash, there were even more positive signs for the likes of Vardy as Everton conceded several chances to Daniel Farke’s troops.

Pickford had to deny Onel Hernandez (£5.3m) in a one-on-one situation in the first half before Todd Cantwell (£4.6m) whistled a deflected shot narrowly over just before the break.

Cantwell then latched onto to a Teemu Pukki (£6.6m) pass to break the deadlock on 54 minutes before Dennis Srbeny (£5.2m) sealed the win in stoppage time, with Sam Byram (£4.4m) wasting a glorious headed chance in between those two strikes.

Speaking after the match, Marco Silva said:

It was a difficult afternoon, very disappointing for all of us and our fans. We have to respect all the reactions. I can imagine how [the fans] felt. The message is that I respect what they are feeling, for sure.

We expected this type of game, with Norwich having strong organisation and being compact. We had to play faster, move forwards quickly to disorganise them. We didn’t do that in the first half.

We started the second half in a different way, quicker and trying to create more chances. But we made a mistake to concede the first goal and everything was more difficult even if we had enough time to change things. We started to be so nervous, not being calm in our play or taking the right decisions.

But we cannot be happy with the quality of our performance, even if we created some chances.

Richarlison (£7.9m) was sporadically lively and Seamus Coleman (£5.3m) offered a threat down the right flank upon his introduction but this may have been the swansong for Everton assets in our Fantasy squads for the foreseeable future – and not just because of the result.

The Toffees’ next five matches are against Leicester, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, while they also travel to Manchester City on New Year’s Day.

Norwich’s own fixtures are a mixed bag and Fantasy managers may want to see continued improvement before we revisit the bargain buys of early-2019/20: these were, after all, Pukki and Cantwell’s first attacking returns since Gameweek 5.

Cantwell was back in the starting XI after his recent benching but was operating on the right flank, rather than on the left where we have seen him for much of the campaign.

Any renewed interest in the budget FPL midfielder has to be put on ice for now, though, as he picked up an ankle injury against the Toffees and was later seen sporting a protective boot.

Cantwell himself said after full-time:

It’s just precautionary. I got a bit of a kick on it and it’s obviously not in the best shape at the moment but I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.

It was no surprise that Norwich looked more solid with an actual centre-half playing alongside Ben Godfrey (£4.4m) and two bona fide defensive midfielders in front of the back four, with the fit-again Christoph Zimmermann‘s (£4.4m) return allowing Alex Tettey (£4.5m) to move further forward.

Farke said after full-time:

It is important to have Ben and Christoph back and fully fit. You could see it also enabled me to change to a three-man formation at the end because I had the players available to alter the balance and keep the pressure away from our goal. From now we deserve a bit more luck in this area.

It is no coincidence that we have kept a clean sheet or that he was a big part of what we did last season. If I am honest when you have to play without your club captain, Grant Hanley, without your most experienced player on this level, Timm Klose, and without Christoph, who was our leader last season when he was unbelievable, it is not easy.

The injuries defensively were a massive problem for me but you can’t keep mentioning it in public too much, because you need to keep the players going and to give them trust. They are not stupid. They know like I do that you need a solid defence to be stable so during the international break it was a big boost to see Ben and Christoph fully fit.

This was more or less the first time we could play the lads in their best positions, people like Alex Tettey and Tom Trybull, who are important for our midfield balance. You sensed the lift it gave the rest of the lads.

A lifted, perhaps more defensively sound Norwich side is bad news for one man, of course: under-fire Arsenal boss Unai Emery takes his troops to Carrow Road in Gameweek 14.

Owners of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) et al indeed may be less confident of this fixture than they were this time last week, although the Gunners’ frontline ought to be more of a test for Norwich’s defence than Everton were.

Everton XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Sidibe (Coleman 66′), Mina, Holgate, Digne; Schneiderlin (Iwobi 58′), Davies; Walcott (Calvert-Lewin 66′), Sigurdsson, Richarlison; Tosun.

Norwich City XI (4-2-3-1): Krul; Aarons, Zimmermann, Godfrey, Byram; Tettey, Trybull; Cantwell (Buendia 80′), McLean (Amadou 88′), Hernandez; Pukki (Srbeny 90′).

Members Analysis

Gameweek 13 – FPL Match Reports

• West Ham United 2-3 Tottenham Hotspur
• Arsenal 2-2 Southampton
• AFC Bournemouth 1-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
• Brighton & Hove Albion 0-2 Leicester City
• Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool
• Everton 0-2 Norwich City
• Watford 0-3 Burnley
• Manchester City 2-1 Chelsea
• Sheffield United 3-3 Manchester United
• Aston Villa 2-0 Newcastle United

Nominated for ‘Best in Fantasy Football – Editorial’ at the Football Content Awards 2020

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