Prince Rupert's Tower
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Everton sink to new derby low

By Matt Townsend

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - JANUARY 05: Curtis Jones of Liverpool battles for possession with Djibril Sidibe of Everton during the FA Cup Third Round match between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield on January 05, 2020 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - JANUARY 05: Curtis Jones of Liverpool battles for possession with Djibril Sidibe of Everton during the FA Cup Third Round match between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield on January 05, 2020 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) /
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Utterly, utterly dreadful. In this afternoon’s FA cup Merseyside derby, Everton somehow managed to sink to a new low as the Blues deservedly lost 1-0 to a Reds team filled with teenagers!

I really don’t know how on earth to write a match review of this latest pathetic and appalling Everton defeat to our neighbours. That was the most embarrassing derby defeat I have ever witnessed in all my life, and that’s saying something.

I can’t bring myself to talk much about the match itself, I suppose at least this month we only lost by one goal!

The performance from those players who were in Everton shirts today is a complete disgrace to all those great players who have worn royal blue in the past.

Just recently we saw the release of a film, Howards Way’, charting the incredible transformation of the Toffees under the late, great Howard Kendall in the eighties. I wonder what the stars of that film would have made of this parody of a football team?

What worries me most of all, is that this performance was turned in by players managed by one of the best coaches in the modern game, Carlo Ancelotti. If the fact he’s sitting in the dugout can’t inspire them to produce their best, then who the hell can?!

How must Ancelotti himself be feeling this evening. He can be in absolutely no doubt now about how much work he will have to do to turn this around. I wouldn’t be totally surprised if he resigned tomorrow claiming he was sold a false set of goods!!

During the long, slow, agonising decline of the team under his predecessor Marco Silva, there was talk about whether the manager was mainly to blame for the anemic efforts produced or if in fact the players themselves were just as responsible.

After tonight’s dreadful game, we can be in no doubt that it’s certainly the players too. I just do not understand how they can be so astonishingly inconsistent and lackadaisical in so many games.

It’s obvious that whoever turns out for the Blues has a massive psychological barrier when playing Liverpool. It’s not just this set of players who have failed to beat that lot. But there is something really disturbing about the mental state of this group of footballers.

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They seem to have lost this game before they take to the field. No one is able to take control of lead them.

There are players in this side who have obvious talent: Lucas Digne, Djibril Sidibe, Richarlison, Dominic Calvert-Lewin. So why can’t they ever produce it when it really matters? It’s mind-boggling.

Too many of these players seem to be going backwards. Digne seems to be going totally in the wrong direction and Jordan Pickford, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin revert to type producing their worst whenever we play this lot.

If I were the manager, I would be fining all those players who played today for the utter garbage that was this derby performance. Nothing more to say.