Kevin Kilbane believes Ronald Koeman faces an uphill battle to avoid the sack at Everton.

The Dutchman is the odds-on favourite to be the next Premier League manager to leave his position following Craig Shakespeare’s exit from Leicester City.

Kilbane told the BBC that he thinks Koeman will find it difficult to improve Everton’s fortunes over the coming weeks.

“The team’s confidence is clearly low, which is something the manager can address, but their other big issue is a lack of creativity – and I don’t know where that will come from at present,” he said.

“A lot of Koeman’s attacking players are very similar so, whoever comes into the side, they are not going to produce anything dramatically different to what they are doing at present.

“The situation will only change when the transfer window opens and they add to their squad, but the question is whether Koeman can hang on to his job for that long.

“Watching Everton – fifth bottom of the league with eight points from eight games – is disappointing at the moment and some fans have already made it clear they think his time is up.

“If performances stay the same and Everton find themselves deeper in relegation trouble then, given they spent £140 million over the summer, their struggles will not be tolerated at board level either.”

Everton’s 1-1 draw at Brighton at the weekend left them 16th in the table, just two points above the relegation zone.

The Toffees face a difficult run of fixtures over the next couple of weeks, starting with Thursday’s Europa League tie at home to Lyon.

Arsenal are the visitors to Goodison Park in the league on Sunday, before Koeman takes his side to Chelsea next Wednesday in the EFL Cup.

Everton round off the month with a trip to Leicester in the Premier League on October 29.

In their current form it’s difficult to see Everton emerging from that run of games unscathed, and the pressure is sure to mount on the board to take action if things don’t improve soon.