Marco Silva refusing to make radical changes amid Everton slump

Everton manager Marco Silva insists he has not made any major changes to his game plan in order to arrest their slump.

Since the start of December the Toffees have won three and lost nine of their 14 Premier League matches and have lost five of the last six in all competitions.

Just 16 goals have been scored in that spell, a tally which includes five in one match at Burnley on Boxing Day.

They also have the worst record in the top-flight for letting in goals from free-kicks and corners, with 13 of their 39 league goals conceded from set-pieces.

It has added up to a three-month malaise which has left the club closer to the bottom three (nine points) than the top six (17).

However, rather than looking at making significant changes, Silva insists his current philosophy just needs better application to be successful and that is what he has been focusing on in the last 16 days without a match.

“Radical? No. because if in February you try to change everything radically that means everything we did doesn’t make sense,” said the manager when asked whether he had considered shaking things up during their long break.

“If you did very good things the first three or four months we have to understand why we started to not do the same.

“It is clear to me the details are making a big, big difference in our results.

“We are losing points and not achieving the good results in some moments because of the detail and so you have to work more and more, to be more consistent within the team.

“I am not happy with our results (but) to change radically, no.”

Everton head to Cardiff, who are just one point above the bottom three and were hammered 5-1 by Watford on Friday, in what is a must-win match for them if they are to halt their decline, especially with a Merseyside derby to come at the weekend.

“It is a really important game. We must show we can change the last results and it is a good opportunity for us,” Silva added.

“That does not mean it will be an easy match. If it’s a must-win or not, let’s see during the match.

“We have to prove that we want to achieve good results and turn results again back to us and to look for our players to play with a different confidence.”