Five steps that led to Rafa Benitez being sacked as Everton manager

Rafa Benitez has been sacked as Everton manager but what brought him to this point just half a season into his reign?

Here are five factors why he departed Goodison Park after a mere six months in charge.

Results

Forget what outsiders are saying about Everton and Evertonians not taking to Benitez because he’s a former Liverpool manager, he was sacked because results have not been good enough – nowhere near good enough.

One win from the last 13 Premier League matches – and as glorious as that was, the Blues were only actually ahead against Arsenal for the last few seconds – is an alarming sequence.

Pep Guardiola or indeed any manager in the world would be in serious trouble of losing the Everton job after such a rotten run.

As much as the most-humiliating moment was the 4-1 Merseyside Derby defeat when Liverpool fans chanted Benitez’s name mockingly at Goodison Park it’s the losses to some of the division’s lesser lights that have brought the Spaniard so close to the chopping block.

The 5-2 capitulation at Goodison Park to a Watford side without a win in four who’d lost 5-0 at home to Liverpool a week before when Everton had been ahead until 12 minutes before full-time, the 1-0 defeat to Brentford who hadn’t won in their previous five Premier League fixtures; a 3-1 loss at Crystal Palace who hadn’t won in their four matches before; a 3-2 home loss to Brighton & Hove Albion who’d won one of their previous 13 and now 2-1 defeat at Norwich City who’d lost their last six Premier League fixtures on the bounce and were without a goal in the competition since November.

Individual errors

Everton’s players – some of who have also played under Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce and Marco Silva who were all sacked – also have to shoulder their share of the blame here.

They’ve consistently under-performed for a number of seasons now or failed to build on encouraging situations.

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The Blues had eight internationals among their starting XI at Carrow Road and a squad – which on paper at least – should be at least comfortably mid-table in the Premier League.

However, this term there have been a sequence of individual errors by Everton players that have cost them goals.

From Ben Godfrey’s kamikaze back pass at Wolverhampton Wanderers; Tom Davies going from hero to villain against Watford; Andros Townsend’s high challenge that handed Brentford a penalty; captain Seamus Coleman giving the ball away cheaply against both Liverpool and Crystal Palace plus Michael Keane’s latest misjudgement against Norwich City, there have been a catalogue of bloopers.

Tactics

For a manager who came with a reputation of possessing meticulous attention to detail, Benitez has made what seems to be some strange tactical decisions throughout the campaign.

He was always known as a defensively solid coach but Everton’s calamitous record on conceding goals from set-pieces continues to dog them and varying systems of zonal marking, man marking and hybrid approaches have not stopped the rot.

A reluctance to go with three men in midfield at times when it seemed obvious in certain matches that the Blues were being overrun in the middle has been curious while other formations have also raised eyebrows.

Benitez went with five at the back at home to Brighton & Hove Albion – deploying captain Coleman as a square peg in a round hole on the left in an unfamiliar position that brought back painful memories of his debut when Everton suffered a club record European defeat 5-0 at Benfica – while he repeated the trick against Championship strugglers Hull City in the FA Cup.

At Carrow Road he switched to an old-school 4-4-2 but the strike partnership of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Salomon Rondon proved largely impotent.

Injuries

The list of absentees in the Everton squad has been the main mitigating circumstance for Benitez.

Last season, Calvert-Lewin netted 21 goals in all competitions but after bagging his third in as many outings away to Brighton & Hove Albion back in August, he missed the next four months of action due to a quadriceps injury.

Benitez’s two main summer signings Townsend and Demarai Gray had both been brought in with the intention of providing a supply line of crosses for the Blues centre-forward who has developed into possibly the most-aerially dominant player in his position in the Premier League.

The fact that such a focal point was missing from the side until the turn of the calendar year, was a major setback.

Abdoulaye Doucoure suffered a toe injury at a time when he was enjoying a rich vein of form while Yerry Mina has been out for more than half Everton’s matches – a trend that reflects his time at the club as a whole.

Without this spine of the team, Benitez’s men have struggled and understudies such as Rondon, who has netted just one in 15 games, have not proven to be adequate replacements.

The Rafalution

With bold statements like eighth place “means nothing to me” and claims that a 5% improvement across the board from everyone could bring significant gains, perhaps Benitez tried to do too much too soon in his attempts to make changes at Everton despite his insistence that "Rome wasn't built in a day".

Lucas Digne became the latest in a long line of players over the years to fall out with the 61-year-old and has left the club after what became a very public spat while the manager didn’t seem to fancy James Rodriguez from the start even though Allan had shown there could be life after Carlo Ancelotti at Goodison Park for the Italian’s buys.

Former director of football Marcel Brands was another major figure last seen at the infamous ‘demolition derby’ on December 1 with his parting shot being a dramatic verbal exchange with an angry fan.

Ironically the Dutchman’s departure seemed to strengthen Benitez’s position as he was left in sole charge of transfer policy.

Everton’s popular director of medical services Danny Donachie, son of FA Cup-winning manager Joe Royle’s assistant Willie Donachie, departed the club in November with Benitez having initially brought James Harley in as head of sports science in July, before Cristian Fernandez joined as a fitness rehabilitation coach in October amid a staffing review.

It seemed telling then that Donachie should take to social media on Sunday to issue a cryptic tweet about “How people treat you is their karma.”