Everton 0-1 Leeds: 3 things Everton learnt from an unfortunate defeat

Here are 3 things Everton fans have learned from this disappointing result.

Everton had to face the music as they played a very well-managed Leeds United who managed to grab their first Premier League win at Goodison Park with a 1-0 victory due to a goal from Leeds’ new signing Raphinha.

1. Everton can’t handle a high-press

One thing all Everton fans will have noticed throughout the 90 minutes was that the Toffees clearly struggle when facing heavy pressure, we saw this in the Southampton game and this point was only exploited more by Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds.

Leeds were able to constantly win the ball throughout the game and this was shown by how much the Everton players lost possession throughout the game. Five Everton players lost the ball more than 10 times in this game, with James Rodriguez being dispossessed a huge 19 times.

Everton refused to change their approach throughout the game and were punished countlessly for it, it was obvious throughout that Leeds were the better side and should’ve scored more than the 1 goal.

The worst part about this was that a lot of Everton fans, me included, expected this to happen, one thing fans didn’t expect was the lack of passion that the Blues’ players showed compared to the Whites, especially in the midfield. Leeds were able to target a poorly performing Abdoulaye Doucoure on multiple occasions, with Leeds’ Kalvin Phillips controlling the midfield with relative ease.

One very clear thing is that Everton need to be drilled to play against the high-press, it’s the only way the Toffees will be able to pick up points against teams like Leeds and Liverpool, not to mention the other teams that may now notice Everton’s poor performances when being put under heavy pressure and try to incorporate that into their gameplan against the Blues.