Everton: 3 things we learned from toothless 1-0 loss to Brentford

Everton manager Rafa Benitez’s Poor Game Management

To clarify, poor game management applies to this game, and it also doesn’t mean Rafa is a bad manager, but in the Brentford match, he had an atrocious time at the dugout. Rafa only used one sub, replacing Andros Townsend with Demarai Gray, a good substitute, but arguably the wrong player left the pitch as Townsend has proven to have a big impact on Everton’s counter-attacks, and him and Gray play very well when paired together, he also offers a lot more end product than Iwobi, who has proven during his time at Everton that he is an extremely frustrating player.

The main issue with Rafa’s game management is his constant persistence with previously mentioned Rondon when he had Cenk Tosun, Simms and Dobbin on the bench, who all would have probably had more of an impact than Rondon, it also was a perfect opportunity for the two academy players to prove themselves with a breakout performance to rescue a point or even a win for the Toffees.

The Merseysiders also seemed to only really get into the game during the second half, something that has happened consistently with the Toffees this season, with Rafa telling the team to turn things up during the second half, but with almost all of Everton’s attack either injured or on the bench returning from injury, Rafa should have told the team to try to get into the game as early as possible, instead of just expecting another comeback from the side.

Rafa will need to try to keep the mistakes to a minimum if he plans on keeping his job at Everton during this gauntlet of tough fixtures.