Team indiscipline could cost Everton

It looks as though Everton are going to contest Lucas Digne’s red card at Southampton. Will the team’s growing problems with indiscipline cost the club success this season?

The Everton full-back left his studs on the calf of Southampton defender Kyle Walker-Peters in a second half challenge as the Blues slumped to their first defeat of the season.

Manager Carlo Ancelotti has said the club will be appealing the Frenchman’s sending off amidst claims that it was an unintentional incident and didn’t merit a straight red card.

Before going any further it needs to be said that whether or not Digne intended his foul on Kyle Walker-Peters, he did appear to go after him and it was another challenge that certainly looked very bad on TV.

And coming just a week after Richarlison’s dreadful tackle on Thiago at the end of the Merseyside derby, it has potentially left the Toffees without key players as they face back-to-back Premier League matches against Newcastle United, Manchester United and then Fulham.

I’m not sure why these incidents keep happening as I obviously don’t believe there is a collective intention among the Everton players to cause harm to opponents, despite what some have said.

The club don’t need to take seriously lectures from ex-players like Graeme Souness or Martin Keown about what is or isn’t fair tackling or appropriate behaviour on the pitch!

However, both players’ red cards do seem the result of a rush of blood and a loss of control that is concerning and needs to be urgently addressed.

I thought that in Richarlison’s case he was getting away from the sort of petulant fouls and diving that sometimes charaterised his early days at Goodison Park, but maybe not. Digne isn’t a dirty player either and Sunday’s incident seemed out of character.

One thing I am sure of, is that Ancelotti will not be encouraging this kind of thing and must be extremely frustrated at all this unnecessary diversion and controversy.

The Toffees have been winning praise so far this campaign for the quality of their football and the attacking philosophy that has been in evidence.

These past few weeks have dented that impression and given further fuel to the rather obvious bias against the club in some quarters of the media.

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In addition these players getting sent off is possibly going to seriously disrupt Everton’s momentum and could undermine the terrific start that the Blues have made to the season.

I think there is a real danger of that happening. Players of the quality and experience of Richarlison and Digne are basically impossible to replace, as the game on Sunday exposed very clearly.

Without the calibre of performance they consistently produce and with other key players like James Rodriguez and Allan also perhaps a little under-par, there was against Southampton a relapse to the sort of performance that we saw too often last season.

After such a bright and promising start, we certainly don’t want to see a reversion to last season’s poverty of play and poor results. Having so many crucial players missing for preventable reasons, will potentially lead to just that outcome.