For me its not strictly the manager's fault, but he must shoulder a decent proportion of the blame. He has the authority to change the team however he wants with respect to formation, style and starting eleven.
However, its much, much deeper than that at Everton. We all know it is. Why be in denial, and for Christ's sake why keep calling the manager a 'fraud'? He's not a fraud....he may well be out of his depth or tactically naïve, or he may just be struggling to get his concepts over to the squad (all of which in a black and white world will likely lead to him being dismissed of his duties), but a fraud he isn't. I didn't think Blues would lower themselves to that.
Our issue is lack of character, belief, confidence and balls. Simple as that. We have had, and continue to breed a losing, soft-arse mentality.
The players are getting away with murder on the whole. There are seasoned professionals in that starting line-up that are simply playing atrociously, not learning and not adapting. The team has no backbone....its spineless. It has no on-the-pitch leader to drag games and players by the scruff of the neck and not allow them to hide. We scapegoat players for the wrong reasons.....Sigurdsson gets grief yet he's our most able and fittest player. I watched Mina wilt yesterday physically and mentally because they had a bruiser of a centre forward roughing it up a bit and the weather was unpleasant. I think of the less-talented centre halves we've had over the years who would have ripped the forward a new one rather than let him beat them in every challenge. He cried off at half time and sulked on the bench for the rest of it.
For the next few games we need to man-up and fight tooth and nail for the points. We need players who will commit 100% to every tackle, every challenge and turn every 40:60 into a 70:30 for us. I'd get McCarthy back in the side, leave Zouma in and if he's fit Beni Baningame. Tackle anything that moves and get the crowd up for it with some ferocious tackling. Everton are a pushover...we know it, and everyone knows it. Theres only 11 people who can change that in the 90 minutes and that isn't the manager.