Struggling Everton sack Marco Silva a day after Merseyside derby misery

Everton, mired in a relegation battle, have fired manager Marco Silva less than 24 hours after losing 5-2 to rivals Liverpool.

Everton losing to Liverpool – particularly this Liverpool  – at Anfield on Wednesday wasn’t all that surprising. The way they lost, however, giving up five goals to their bitter rivals, combined with the relegation fight they find themselves in, was enough to end Marco Silva’s tenure with the Toffees.

Silva was sacked on Thursday afternoon, the club confirmed. His time on the blue side of Liverpool lasted just a season and a half.

The real reason Silva was fired is because Everton are languishing in 18th position, sitting in the relegation zone as the season nears its midway point. It’s an unacceptable position for a club that finished eighth the past two seasons and seventh the year before that.

It’s also a near-historic bad start for the club.

Under Silva, Everton had the fourth-worst goal difference in the league, scoring 16 and conceding 27 in 15 matches.

The underlying numbers, however, to point to room for improvement, as Everton are currently 10th in expected goals (19.3 xG) and ninth in expected goals against (20.4 xGA), via FBref.com and StatsBomb. On the balance of the chances they’ve created, the Toffees should be solidly mid-table, unfortunately for them and for Silva, they have far-underperformed those chances.

To add insult to Wednesday’s 5-2 embarrassment, Blues fans in the UK had to watch former boss Roberto Martinez – now managing Belgium – do commentary of the Merseyside Derby and preach patience.

The favorite to take over is reportedly another former manager, David Moyes. Moyes spent 11 years with the Toffees before leaving for an ill-fated stint at Manchester United. He had brief tenures with Real Sociedad in Spain and then Sunderland and West Ham back in England, but has not managed since 2018.

Whoever ends up replacing Silva will have a tough road ahead. Everton host fourth-place Chelsea this weekend, travel to old Trafford the following week, face a flying Leiceister City side in the League Cup quarterfinals, then host Arsenal. A Boxing Day visit from Burnley is the next time that the Toffees will face a fellow bottom-half team as things currently stand.

While Everton don’t have the stature of struggling giants like Manchester United or Arsenal, they are a club with expectations firmly in the top-half of the Premier League table.

When Everton next face Liverpool, whether in January’s FA Cup tie or March’s league return date, the Toffees still won’t be favored to get a result against the runaway league leaders. Silva’s sacking, however, shows that the expectations are to be closer to their first-place rivals than the drop zone the next time a Merseyside derby rolls around.