Everton player ratings vs Burnley: Holgate underwhelming, Allan shaky in embarrassing loss

Everton crumbled to a 2-1 defeat, their seventh home defeat this season

Carlo Ancelotti has come full circle as Everton face Burnley at Goodison Park which was Ancelotti’s first game in charge as Toffees manager after taking over the reins on the blue half of Merseyside. Depleted in midfield after Abdoulaye Doucoure’s injury, Ancelotti named the trio of Allan, Andre Gomes and Tom Davies in the midfield. The Frenchman’s energy would be duly missed but Ancelotti was confident that Davies can do the required job as he did during Allan’s absence.

James Rodriguez was left out of the squad whereas Gylfi Sigurdsson was left out of the starting lineup as the Iceman didn’t train at full strength after having problems in the last game. Everton lined up in a 4-4-2 diamond formation as they looked to break the Burnley low block with Iwobi playing behind the striker duo of Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Earlier in the game, Everton’s narrow formation often forced them to operate and create centrally rather than explore wide spaces. As a ramification to the 2-0 goal deficit, Everton switched the formation sending Iwobi on the right wing and Gomes on the left. Calvert-Lewin pulled one back but it still was an embarrassing night for the Toffees putting a huge question mark over Everton’s top four hopes.

Here are the Everton player ratings:

Jordan Pickford – 5

Jordan Pickford had no chance to save the Chris Wood effort as the New Zealand international smashed it neatly far from Pickford’s reach. The Englishman was only a spectator as Dwight McNeil’s scrumptious strike rattled Everton and gave Burnley a two goal lead.

To make matters worse, he picked up an injury while diving to stop a Johann Berg Gudmundsson shot. Th Englishman tried to shake it off but 10 minutes later he was taken off for inexperienced Joao Virginia, who made his Premier League debut