Mitch Freeley

After a season to forget under Sam Allardyce, Everton will be looking to push into the European places under new boss Marco Silva. The first order of business for Silva will be to change the brand of football at Goodison Park and move away from the attritional style under Big Sam. 

It will be interesting to see how Silva steps up at Everton, the ambitious Portuguese coach was dismissed from his former club Watford after being illegally approached by Everton to replace Ronald Koeman. After managing Hull & Watford in the Premier League, the expectation will be on the 41-year old manager to deliver. After showing glimpses of playing attractive football at his former sides, Silva must put in consistent performances otherwise the natives could get restless. 

After splashing the cash last summer, it’s been relatively quiet on the transfer front so far. Silva has already picked up his number one target in the form of Richarlison from former club Watford. The young Brazilian impressed in the first half of the season with Watford, before having his head turned with a move to Everton. Now it’s all been finalized, expect the 21-year old attacker to play a major role for his new side. After moving on central defender Ashley Williams, expect Everton to be in the market for a central defender before the transfer window closes. 

Transfers (at the time of publishing)

Ins- Richarlison [Everton] £35m, Lucas Digne [Barcelona] £18m

Outs- Wayne Rooney [DC United] Free, Ramiro Funes Mori [Villarreal] Undisclosed, Jose Baxter [Oldham] Free, Callum Dyson [Plymouth] Free, Conor Grant [Plymouth] Free, Davy Klaassen [Werder Bremen] Undisclosed, Luke Garbutt [Oxford] Loan, Ashley Williams [Stoke] Loan

First Five Premier League Fixtures

11/08/18 Wolves Vs Everton-19:30- beIN SPORTS CONNECT
18/08/18 Everton Vs Southampton-17:00- beIN SPORTS CONNECT
25/08/18 Bournemouth Vs Everton -17:00- beIN SPORTS CONNECT
01/09/18 Everton Vs Huddersfield -17:00- beIN SPORTS CONNECT
16/09/18 Everton Vs West Ham -18:00- beIN SPORTS CONNECT

Fan View- Adam Partlington- @PartAdam on Twitter presenter on Grand Old Team - Twitter @grandoldteam

How has the summer transfer window been?  At the time of writing, we've signed Richarlison and Lucas Digne. Many have laughed at the reported fee for Richarlison, but I happen to think that at 21 and with bags of potential, he could be a very good signing. I spoke to former Watford captain Gavin Mahon for our podcast recently and he spoke highly of the Brazilian too. Digne comes with a good pedigree, and probably will want more game time so both parties will benefit. This will be the beginning of the end for Leighton Baines, though. 

Wayne Rooney has left for the United States, Davy Klaassen has gone to Germany and Funes Mori is now in Spain. Of course, Evertonians on social media (particularly that hysterical platform known as Twitter) have already gone into meltdown about the lack of incomings. I'm not overly concerned just yet, I think this summer was always going to be about moving the dead wood and getting more out of some of the players we signed last season. Brands and Silva need to be given time to identify the right targets, it's not easy because we've had the World Cup and the window shuts before the season starts, but I'd rather they didn't rush. Here's the thing, last summer we went crazy and spent loads and look how that went? I still think we'll bring in a centre-half, a midfielder and probably a striker before the deadline. 

Player to watch?  Ademola Lookman if we keep him. The doubt surrounding his future is partly Allardyce's fault for sending him out on loan to RB Leipzig.  Now they [RB Leipzig] have seen how good he is and made him feel loved and it sounds like he is looking for a way out of Merseyside. But if he does stay at Everton, you'll be writing more about him this season. I also think Gylfi Sigurosson may prove some people wrong. 

How’s the manager going to do?  I have no idea. I just hope that if things don't go well the tide doesn't turn on him too quickly. Evertonians have to give him time. We've bounced from manager to manager for a while now and things need to settle. I think he'll introduce a more counter-attacking style and we'll be dangerous on the break. His sides look to move the ball quickly and burst forward when they win back possession, so it'll suit us. 

Dream season?  Beating the Reds and ending our devastating trophy drought. 

Premier League finish?  Realistically, I think we can aim to be the best of the rest and get 7th. We'll be fighting against the likes of West Ham, Wolves and maybe Newcastle for that place.

beIN SPORTS Prediction- 9
(Note this is an average of the predictions from the beIN SPORTS team)

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