Early season honeymoon over for Everton

After a superb start to the 2020-21 season, Everton have now slipped to two consecutive defeats away from home as the Blues were beaten 2-1 at Newcastle United this afternoon.

This was a dreadful game and the worst performance of the season from Everton. Again, as they were last weekend, the Toffees were sluggish, lacking conviction and creativity and didn’t deserve anything from the match.

Not that Newcastle were much better. As expected they set up in the usual cautious, conservative way not to lose and to be fair, achieved that objective.

Before the game started Carlo Ancelotti sprung several selection surprises, the most unexpected of which was giving on-loan goalkeeper Robin Olsen has first start in a Toffees shirt.

After having been his number one throughout his tenure as Everton boss and long before that, England keeper Jordan Pickford was dropped for this game.

Olsen was probably the Blues man-of-the-match making several excellent stops when he was called into action. The fact the Swedish goalkeeper was his side’s best player, says everything you need to know about the Toffees’ performance.

To be honest Olsen wasn’t actually needed very often though as neither side created much, especially in a drab and utterly forgettable first half.

Ancelotti picked a strange team with a surfeit of midfielders as alongside Allan, Aboulaye Doucoure and Fabian Delph, he also had Gylfi Sigurdsson and Andre Gomes in the side!

This meant Everton had five players in the middle and it left the team lacking pace and width and meant Dominic Calvert-Lewin had to plow a lonely furrow up front. It was a really odd team selection that I personally don’t understand at all.

Having such a packed midfield and no natural width, meant the Toffees played in a slow, ponderous way and stifled the ability of the side to create chances. While as a result, Calvert-Lewin was isolated and unable to have any impact on the game.

Why Ancelotti didn’t at least give Anthony Gordon a chance to show if he could offer that width and attacking outlet, is very strange and surprising.

It isn’t as though their opponents are bristling with attacking talent or intent. As if to underline this, Newcastle themselves lined up with three centre-backs.

In the first forty-five minutes, neither team seemed likely to score and the match looked like it would finish goalless. Then early in the second half Gomes tangled with Magpies forward Callum Wilson in the box, he went down and the referee awarded the penalty.

The England striker scored giving Newcastle a barely deserved lead. It was a classically soft penalty and added to another weekend of doubtful decisions.

The home side came close to adding a second soon afterwards and Olsen had to make a good save to keep the score at 1-0.

Everton were still not really in the game and at last Ancelotti decided to make changes. First Bernard came on for the ineffectual Gomes and then the Italian took off both his young full-backs Jonjo Kenny and Niels Nkounkou replacing them with Alex Iwobi and Cenk Tosun respectively.

The fact that the Blues only had Tosun to bring on as another striker, shows the lack of depth and resources up front with Moise Kean on loan at PSG and no one else brought in before the transfer window closed.

These substitutions didn’t revive Everton, which was not at all surprising and it was Newcastle who scored again as their two ex-Bournemouth players Wilson and Ryan Fraser linked up for Wilson’s second.

That was basically game over as the Toffees didn’t look able to turn this match around at any point. Iwobi did somewhat inadvertently provide a chance for Calvert-Lewin to add yet another goal of a tremendously productive campaign. But it was merely consolation.

As well as the almost total lack of attacking creativity, the Blues conceded another two goals. That’s now three Premier League games in a row they’ve let in two and the sixth time this season already. Ancelotti needs to find a way to sort out these defensive lapses quickly.

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This game was another warning sign after last week’s defeat at Southampton. It showed that while Everton have made significant progress this season and the new signings, especially Rodriguez, have dramatically improved the team’s attacking potential, the squad lacks depth and has too many mediocre players.

The absence of the Colombian and his Brazilian team mate was starkly exposed and the Toffees had no one who was able to get hold of the game, dictate and create like Rodriguez or offer the kind of pace, movement and drive of Richarlison in support of Calvert-Lewin.

The fact that Ancelotti didn’t feel convinced by any of his other attacking options, only underlines the paper-thin quality of the squad.

This season’s honeymoon is now definitely over. Rodriguez will hopefully be back for the visit of Manchester United next, while Richarlison serves the last part of his suspension in that match. On the evidence of this latest dispiriting loss, their return won’t come a moment too soon.