For some strange reason we, as football fans, are always optimistic about getting a win regardless of whom our team faces. OK, Everton aren’t a fantastic footballing team so perhaps we should be optimistic about turning them over at our place, after all if we are to stay up it will only be down to our home form as our away record is nothing short of shambolic. Though having said that Everton aren’t fourth in the league because of lucky results, they’re a good football team, nothing spectacular, but a good solid team in which everyone knows precisely what their role is.
When you contrast that to our team there was only ever going to be one winner. As we’ve come to expect from Keane he played a 4-5-1 formation, which apparently is a 4-3-3 on the attack though it was difficult to see that on today’s display. Danny Collins came straight back into left back, replacing Danny Higginbotham who dropped straight out of the team. Grant Leadbitter was in for Andy Reid and Anthony Stokes returned to the team.
The first half was poor from both sides and it was clear for all to see that the 4-5-1 formation was a waste of time. Whenever we had possession the only option was to pump the ball up to Kenwyne Jones, who as shown again today is poor when he comes up against a strong centre half and only really looked interested in the game in the latter stages of the second half. There were a few times when it looked like we may kick on and take the game to Everton, with Stokes and Leadbitter looking the liveliest.
The first half was flat from both teams, Everton didn’t get the ball down and pass like top teams, instead they kicked deep balls into our half. Having said that it is a lot better to play football in the oppositions half rather than spread the ball along the back four time after time.
The only real incident of note came just before half time when Cahill’s header from an Arteta corner was cleared off the line by Anthony Stokes and the subsequent rebound was put over from Andy Johnson. If anything the first half showed us that Everton were there for the taking, it was up to the lads to show what they’ve got.
Half Time: 0-0
Perhaps the players didn’t realise Everton were there for the taking, but David Moyes must have known as his team came out with more urgency to their play. Ten minutes into the second half and Everton had their lead. Andy Johnson somehow managed to beat Evans in the air and headed past a helpless Craig Gordon. From that point on it was a case of ‘come and score past us’. Although we did get forward more than the first half we were suffering the same problem as we have done all season, we have nothing going forward and it’s as simple as that. No doubt people will blame refereeing decisions for our position or having no luck, but at the end of the day we shouldn’t need to rely on these two factors to win football games.
To be fair to the lads they did try to make things happen but we are seriously lacking in quality and in some cases sense. Rade Prica and Grant Leadbitter trying audacious attempts from 35-yards out is just insane, they were never going to beat Howard from there, it would have been more useful to spread the ball wide to keep things going. Although we had a few good attempts on goal at the end we didn’t do enough to win the game or get a draw in all honesty.
Full Time: 0-1
Attendance: 42,595
Thanks to Barnsley’s win over Chelsea on Saturday and my naivety as a football fan, I’ll no doubt be optimistic of us scraping a win against Chelsea next weekend.
