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Cardiff v Everton: Blues must win after break

By Matt Townsend

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 24: Joe Ralls of Cardiff City and Idrissa Gueye of Everton clash during the Premier League match between Everton FC and Cardiff City at Goodison Park on November 24, 2018 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 24: Joe Ralls of Cardiff City and Idrissa Gueye of Everton clash during the Premier League match between Everton FC and Cardiff City at Goodison Park on November 24, 2018 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) /
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So after a long break between Premier League games, Everton travel to South Wales tomorrow night to play Cardiff City, in a match that they must win.

Now we’ve said that before haven’t we? But this game has to be one that Everton target for a desperately needed three points.

I’m not disrespecting Cardiff City, however the Toffees must look at this game in the context of the sequence of fixtures that the Blues have coming up.

The Toffees have a Merseyside derby next up followed by matches against Newcastle United and then Chelsea. After that the Blues also have games against Arsenal and Manchester United coming up. Given all that, these matches against teams like Cardiff are especially important.

It seems such a long time since Everton last played a Premier League game, a 1-0 defeat at Watford back on the 9th February.

The Blues form has been awful over recent weeks, and Toffees fans can only hope that this extended break might have helped the team address some of the pressing issues with their performances.

Everton’s efforts have been a groundhog day of repeat performances. Wasteful in attack and undone far too easily in defence, especially at set-pieces, and ending up usually with a defeat.

Cardiff, as you would expect from a Neil Warnock side, are a team with  a physical presence and play a direct, often defensive football. So this makes it probably a tricky fixture for Everton, even if they were in good form.

Having said that Cardiff have been poor at home particularly, while they have produced their better performances generally away from home.

Key to success in this match, (if not in every game), is that Everton take their chances. Far too often the Blues have been so wasteful in front of goal.

In many of the matches they have lost recently the Toffees have had the chances to at least take something from the game and failed to do so. It’s a chronic problem that the team must address, starting tonight.

In other news, Everton have been linked with a possible move for the PSG full-back Thomas Meunier. The Belgian right-back has lost his place in the French champions’ team and might be available this summer.

In the article he’s quoted as saying he would be prepared to take what he regards as a ‘step down’ to join the Blues. This kind of comment might not endear him to some Evertonians.

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But I have previously argued that the Toffees need a another right-back. It’s obvious that Seamus Coleman is not the player he was a few seasons ago and Jon-jo Kenny is still a young, raw and developing player.

This rumour is also interesting in that it involves PSG, a club that were supposedly interested in signing Blues midfielder Idrissa Gueye in January. Although of course he ended up staying.

The Senegal player also apparently wants to leave Goodison Park and that might make some sort of swap deal a possibility in the summer transfer window, if PSG are still interested. We will of course have to wait and see.