Talking tactics: Chelsea faces Marco Silva and his recurring nightmare

Chelsea travel to face Everton before the international break. What tactics can be expected by Marco Silva in his recurring nightmare brought to life?

Everton desperately wanted Marco Silva. His fast start at Watford coupled with Ronaldo Koeman’s awful start made them think the impossible: that they could swipe Silva from Watford just games into his tenure.

That proved impossible and Everton eventually defaulted to Big Sam Allardyce. Meanwhile, Silva’s Watford spiraled, he was sacked, and the club blamed Everton. A few months later, Allardyce departed having saved another club from relegation but while drawing the scorn of the fans for the boring style of play.

So things got better for Everton right? Well no not actually. Everton has virtually the same record this season with only Silva as they did with an extremely poor Koeman and boring Allardyce. It is not all Silva’s fault, but Everton will have felt as though they got swindled (especially as they look at how well Watford is doing with Silva’s replacement, Javi Gracia).

Now, Everton’s woes are not all Silva’s fault for a reason. The squad is a Frankenstein monster of styles that clearly shows how many owners, sporting directors, and managers they have had over recent seasons. In that sense, they are similar to West Ham United, but the manager is the difference when it comes to the product on the field.

West Ham is a Frankenstein squad too, but Manuel Pellegrini decided on one style of play and if the players with big prices did not fit that style it was simply too bad. Silva has not done the same. Silva chops and changes his lineup, formation, and style constantly and it has caused his Frankenstein squad to look disjointed and confused on the pitch.

Against bigger teams, Everton tends to go into a 4-4-1-1 or 4-2-3-1 to clog up their end of the pitch and counter with speed. They tried something like that against Chelsea earlier this season but were only able to clog up their half. The counters simply did not come in a 0-0 draw.

But it is worth noting that as all over the place as Everton are, they can show up on big occasions. Against Liverpool a few weeks ago, they looked incredibly solid and could have got more out of it than a 0-0 draw. The next match against Newcastle they went out in the first half with similar conviction and took a two goal lead. The issue was that in the second half, they went back to the old Everton who looked to be learning how to play football and they conceded three to Rafa Benitez’s side in an embarrassing loss.

What does all that mean for Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea? Likely that Everton will come looking to frustrate Chelsea with men behind the ball and counters in behind. Sarri will have seen his side fail to beat a better side in Wolverhampton last week doing the same. If he took the right lessons from that match and instilled the right confidence in Chelsea, then this result should be more favorable.

But still, it seems difficult to completely discount Silva and Everton. They have had a poor season, but there is a sense that there is something lurking under the surface. Chelsea should be fine but as always they need to be careful just in case Silva pulls a trick out of his sleeve.