Everton 2020-21 review: a massive opportunity missed

Now to that deadful home form. Eight defeats and four draws at Goodison Park is a terrible record and means a staggering total of twenty eight points were lost at the Grand Old Lady! Claiming just ten of those points would have got them a Champions League place, that’s a measure of the missed opportunity this season has represented.

So what went wrong? Just as with this team’s away performances and results, the lack of fans played a big part in this, perhaps even a decisive one. After all Everton were unbeaten at Goodison when there were fans back for a brief period in December and then right at the end of the season.

But is that the whole story because every club had to cope without their home support and apart from the relegated teams, basically the Blues record was the worst in the League.

And in many of those home defeats the performances were utterly abysmal with the players showing neither the determination, ambition or quality to beat a succession of sides much lower down the table than them.

A catastrohic series of defeats to Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle again, Fulham, Burnley and just recently Sheffield United have proved sobering for supporters and so costly for the team.

By the end of the campaign it was almost comical as opposing sides came to the Grand Old Lady got a one goal lead and then sat on it while the home team crumbled and slumped to what seemed inevitable defeat.

Ancelotti has to take some of the blame as he kept chopping and changing the team and formation in his vain search for answers.

But the primary responsibility must be with the players. They have too often shown no desire or commitment to the cause and in game after game seemed to just accept the latest loss almost with a literal shrug of the shoulders.

That and the lack of leadership both on and off the poitch seemed as much of a reason for the terrible results as a lack of ability, although there are plenty of questions there too.

In particular players like Alex Iwobi, Andre Gomes and Glyfi Sigurdsson were too often annonymous or just plain poor and had hugely inconsistent seasons. These players lack the drive, energy, pace and quality necessary for Everton to compete properly in the Premier League.

Once again this campaign has highlighted how many truly ordinary players are still picking up a big wage at Goodison Park while continually failing to perform.

But as well as moving out these players and bringing in better quality footballers with those missing qualities they also have to define how they want to play and make sure they have the right players to make their chosen football philosophy work.