Everton are the big underachievers this season and they are now sitting at the wrong end of the Premiership table. Nobody knows what is happening to the team that achieved a fifth-place finish last term thanks to some impressive performances in the second part of the season and the only logical answer is that numerous injury problems are finally getting the best of them. But not everything is logical in football today. You could argue that the situation was the same last term, but let me remind you the Toffees had been eliminated from Europe early into the season. At the moment, David Moyes’ team are largely struggling to cope with the busy schedule.

The team didn’t see too many changes this summer, although the excellent defensive partnership between Jagielka and Lescott was broken with the former picking up serious injury and the latter leaving the club. Nevertheless, if anyone can repeat the heroics of the pair, it’s Distain and Yobo so I don’t see the problem there.

Midfield area was boosted with Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, while the attack gained a lot with the return of Saha and Yakubu from injuries, which leaves the hectic schedule and continues problems with injuries as the main reasons for the poor results.

David Moyes didn’t have a big squad to begin with and when injuries started mounting, it was always going to be a problem. Due to the aforementioned injury problems, the boss didn’t have the luxury of rotating his players during the hectic schedule since he often had 10 or 11 players unavailable. The fans had high hopes for the first big European game after a while and they flocked to Lisbon to see the Toffees play might Benfica and you can imagine their disappointment after their team conceded five goals. David Moyes had fielded a very strong squad in that game but his side never stood a chance against fitter, sharper and fresher Eagles.

Everton simply don’t have big enough squad to balance between Europa League and the Premiership, not with so many players on the sidelines. Elimination from the Carling Cup was a blessing in disguise, but I feel the boss need to fully commit to one competition this season or risk turning this season into a big disappointment. The things are bound to improve once they come to terms with all the problems but I really can’t see how Everton could save this season. I hope to be proved wrong.