On each side of the draw when Everton played West Ham last week, the feelings were completely different. Evertonians were disappointed in a lacklustre team, some even crying out for the sale of Lukaku in the summer (wut?). Though I was disappointed in not coming away with 3 points, I do not share the feelings of the general reaction, and here’s why.
Bilic gave an interview afterwards, stating he was beaming with pride for his team, going as far as calling his team “11 lions” in homage to the players giving their all. Everton were criticised for starting slow which is something I refute, it was a case of West Ham bringing their all defensively, and that not being matched by Everton showing their best offensively.
West Ham number 4, Nordtveit, had the game of his life, not giving Barkley a single second on the ball. At one point Holgate pressed forwards and Nordtveit sprinted out of position, successfully tackled him, then sprinted back to the deep midfield. Such rigorous structural work made it difficult for Schneiderlin to release anyone, and impossible for Barkley to do anything effective.
Despite this, we did have good passing technique around the box at times, but it just wasn’t enough to unlock the tight West Ham formation. Lukaku was invisible due to the excellent work off the ball by the West Ham defense, and he could be tired after being the main man in a long season, fair enough.
There are some positives to take though, Barry showed he can still be useful, he came on and contributed to build up play better than Schneiderlin could all game, just a different approach opened things up a bit. Huge praise goes to Holgate and Calvert-Lewin, at one point when we had West Ham pinned back, Holgate decided to go central in defense and looked like a leader on his own.
There was a moment when Holgate pinged it cross field to the left wing and found Baines, at this moment you could find Calvert-Lewin actually covering the right back position. Every time I see him play I rate him more and more, his mobility around the pitch is impressive, and most importantly it is intelligent. He would fit right into a Klopp team, he could potentially be used to lead the high press one day, and looks like he could be good at it.
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Lookman also looked composed and dangerous in the box, West Ham could not deal with his dribbling skill, while Williams was an absolute warrior in defending set pieces and organising the team defensively. So, not all bad at least, but we need to do better against Chelsea if we hope to finish above Arsenal.
Up the Ev.