Everton in free-fall after latest loss

This afternoon at Goodison Park Everton went down to a third consecutive defeat in the Premier League as the Blues lost 1-3 to Manchester United. So was that good start to the season just a mirage?

It’s certainly beginning to look that way as Everton subsided to another depressing defeat today making it three on the bounce now. The Blues haven’t won a single game since they’ve returned from the international break and have claimed one solitary point.

In some ways this was the worst and most worrying of that hat-trick of losses. Unlike at Southampton and especially Newcastle, the Toffees had something approaching a full-strength side this afternoon and yet still turned in another poor and inadequate performance.

There can be few excuses about missing lots of key players, as apart from the still suspended Richarlison, the Blues had everyone else back, including James Rodriguez, both first-choice full-backs and even Mason Holgate who returned to central defence after his pre-season injury.

Once again though this match emphasised the fundamental importance of Everton’s Brazilian attacker to how this team plays.

Without his speed, strength, powerful running from the left and his goal-scoring threat, opponents can focus on shutting off the supply from James Rodriguez to Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the knowledge that the Toffees don’t have another outlet nearly as effective.

Richarlison’s fellow countryman Bernard was given the task of filling in for him today and at first it seemed like it might work out. After a decent start Bernard calmly and expertly slotted home for a one nil lead. Then it all went wrong in the space of just a few minutes.

Once more the Blues defending was at fault for what was a simple equalising goal. United left-back Luke Shaw put in a good cross but Bruno Fernandes was unmarked to head it in too easily. Conceding such simple and preventable goals is just not good enough.

Shaw in fact was a constant thorn in the Toffees side today and his importance to United’s attacking play underlines a trend in recent games in which teams seek to exploit the right side of Everton’s team.

Opponents have attacked the space behind Rodriguez and sought to exploit the Colombian’s habit of drifting inside and not always tracking back, which puts the Blues defence under additional pressure. Liverpool did this to good effect in the derby last month and Southampton also exploited this weakness.

Obviously Rodriguez has not been bought for his defensive spadework, but to create and score goals. However, the fact he doesn’t always support his full-back effectively means that whoever is playing behind him tends to be under a lot more pressure if the opponent has the means to exploit this. Also the Blues right-back can’t therefore contribute as much in attacking support in turn.

There’s another way in which this impacts on the Toffees. Without Richarlison, opposing sides know there isn’t same threat coming from Everton’s own left hand side so they can attack freely down their left, push the left-back high up and their defence isn’t faced with the same problem of being stretched and exposed on both flanks.

Back to the game and once again though it was the Blues defence that was found wanting as United scored another goal soon after Fernandes’ first. Again the Portuguese was heavily involved as his ball in appeared to to be touched by Marcus Rashford as it went in although Fernandes has been credited. Another easy goal.

From this point on Everton never looked likely to get back in it and despite a good start to the second half there was precious little being created.

Rodriguez had one shot but didn’t get into the match and couldn’t stamp his authority on the game. At the moment he is struggling for full fitness and doesn’t look the player he did before the first international break.

After his bright start Bernard had less influence and once more Gylfi Sigurdsson contributed nothing of note in midfield before he was replaced by Alex Iwobi.

Everton had some late pressure and Abdoulaye Doucoure fluffed two great chances late on, the second of which he really should have scored. Predictably enough United then went down the other end and grabbed a third with seconds remaining.

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The lack of attacking verve and creativity in the Toffees performance is a concern, but again what comes out of this defeat most of all for me, are the ever-present defensive frailties. Another three goals conceded today to add to the total. If Everton can’t stem this flow of goals then they’ll achieve nothing, no matter how much attacking talent they have.

Although Pickford couldn’t be directly blamed for any of the goals, he had another game in which he had some dodgy moments. I just don’t understand why Robin Olsen didn’t keep his place as he had shown much greater authority and consistency between the sticks at Newcastle United.

Carlo Ancelotti spoke about the defensive problems he is facing, but despite this and the work that he must be doing on the training ground, these issues haven’t gone away. Everton now haven’t kept a clean sheet in the Premier League since the opening day of the season!

The first international break checked the Toffees winning early momentum, as I feared it might. Let’s hope this one coming gives the manager and his players a chance to re-focus and rediscover that form. If not, on the evidence of this game I don’t know where the next win is coming from.