Everton slumped to a 2-0 defeat at home to Newcastle United yesterday lunchtime and I think Carlo Ancelotti’s decision to change his defence contributed to the loss.
The defeat at Goodison Park 24 hours ago has put a significant, but hopefully only a temporary dent in the hopes of Everton securing European football.
It was a very poor and frustrating performance and the Toffees attack was lacklustre and well below par creating few real opportunities after a decent opening to the match. And the chronic lack of options on the bench when the Blues needed an attacking spark to get back into the game, was highlighted for all to see.
However, it was the defence that ultimately failed as the Blues new bogeyman Callum Wilson netted twice late on to again secure all the points for the Magpies just as he did when the two sides met back at the beginning of November last year.
As expected Ancelotti decided to restore his two first-choice specialist full-backs to the team as Seamus Coleman and Lucas Digne came back into their familiar positions.
On paper, this was not an unreasonable decision to make. After all before the match most of us probably anticipated Everton being on the front foot the majority of the time and therefore having the two attacking full-backs operating on the flanks was logical, assuming that was the case.
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But leaving Mason Holgate and Ben Godfrey out after they had done so well recently (especially Godfrey who has been a revelation at left-back) meant his central defensive pair of Micheal Keane and Yerry Mina lacked the pace and cover outside that they have become accustomed to recently.
And as it turned out the Toffees were actually under more pressure thoughout the game than had been anticipated. Rather than his customary defensive posture, Magpies boss Steve Bruce was more adventurous in his tactics and his team played in a much more attacking way.
Newcastle competed well in midfield albeit quite brutally at times and they outnumbered the Blues who again played in a 4-2-3-1 formation, which didn’t really work.
Unsuprisingly Everton missed Allan’s defensive strength and work-rate in midfield with Gylfi Sigurdsson largely annoymous alongside Abdoulaye Doucoure. On balance I would have even preferred Andre Gomes to continue there next to the returning Frenchman.
Wilson played a bit wider in the formation that Bruce went with in a sort of split striker system with Ryan Fraser alongside him. Their pace and movement were a constant thorn in the side of the home team’s defence as was Allan Saint-Maximin when he came on in Fraser’s place.
Wilson’s two goals also both involved defensive errors as he was unmarked to head in the first and then having hit the post, he was again in too much space to slot home the second and sink Everton.
Again, while I understand why Ancelotti changed his defence and perhaps he also wanted to rest Holgate and Godfrey, they were missed yesterday.
Having found a largly successful and very consistently solid back four, I think the Toffees boss should stick with it and then he can try and find the right attacking balance to graft onto that base. At the very least Godfrey’s pace and man-marking ability has to be in the team perhaps alongside Keane at centre-back.
Well that’s five points now dropped by Everton in the last two Premier League matches with an awkward trip to Leeds United up next. A very big improvement all-round on yesterday’s performance will be needed for the Blues to take anything from that game.