5 take-aways from Everton 0 Aston Villa 1

Duncan Ferguson couldn’t repeat his heroics of November 2019 when he took temporary charge of Everton again against Aston Villa on Saturday.

Back then he beat Chelsea 3-1 in a invigorating display, unfortunately this time Everton played much like a team should without a permanent manager and only one win in their last 9 league games.

A combative, energised Everton display was counter acted with frantic poor passing and lack of creativity in the final third. Steven Gerrard on the other hand had his Aston Villa side well drilled and in the first half probably deserved the lead they did get in injury time.

To rub salt into the wounds Lucas Digne produced the delivery from a right hand side corner to assist Emiliano Buendia’s near post headed goal in first half injury time. Earlier in the season Rafa Benitez had taken Digne off corner taking duty’s much to the surprise of the Goodison faithful.

In the second half there was no doubt Everton were the better side, after no shots in the first half they produced 15 in the second half. The issue was only one of these shots was on target from a Ben Godfrey header. Other good chances were wasted as Villa were quite happy to sit in and hold on to what they had.

The following pages are going to breakdown and analyse areas of the team selection and individual performances plus the fans sit in protest after the game, starting with Ferguson’s starting line up and tactics.

Ferguson’s selection and tactics contribute to poor first half performance

1. Duncan’s Selection & Tactics

The streets around Goodison Park had been more lively than previous weeks. Duncan Ferguson being in temporary charge again meant Evertonians had something to be passionate about again.

The pubs near Goodison had been given a memo by Ferguson to buy everyone a drink on him, a ploy to get Goodison rocking or more of a statement to say I’m one of you. More of the latter I think as the atmosphere with Steven Gerrard and Lucas Digne back would have been lively anyway.

This enthusiasm and passion may have been slightly diluted when the teamsheets dropped. Neither of the new full back signings were in the squad at all, Seamus Coleman dropped to the bench in favour of JonJoe Kenny and a two man midfield which had been one of Rafa Benitez’s questioned tactics.

Another interesting aspect was giving Yerry Mina the captaincy. Ferguson’s options were limited however, but this seemed a strange choice with Mina having missed many games through injury this season. Jordan Pickford or Abdoulaye Doucoure were surely more sensible options in what was always going to be a competitive game.

The two man midfield was again overran in the first half, although Doucoure did well to intercept many Villa attacks.

With Villa’s full backs being the only width options both Kenny and Ben Godfrey seemed a little bit confused in whether to defend the full back or the midfielders inside. More on Kenny especially on the next slide.

With the midfield numbers Villa took advantage to get Ramsay, Buendia and Coutinho on the ball at every opportunity. This meant Everton were also limited to get the ball up the field quickly and efficiently. Therefore Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin hardly had any service in the first half.

Only when Anthony Gordon came on for Andros Townsend did Everton start making good chances. The right hand side was very immobile until this point, Gordon come on and gave life to the attack.

Also the decision to start Mason Holgate was a big question mark and again didn’t really pay off. Surely Jarrad Branthwaite when ready has to be given a chance? This may not have been Ferguson’s first choice as an injury niggle to Vitaliy Mykolenko prevented him from being in the matchday squad. Also Nathan Patterson was mysteriously absent for unknown reasons.

Tactically Ferguson didn’t really match up with Villa’s system and this probably cost Everton momentum in the first half. Whether Allan, who did well when he replaced Andre Gomes, was not quite fully fit after missing most of training all last week due to a positive Covid test we do not know, but it seems the option was there to play a midfield three.

In the second half Everton got the ball up to Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison quicker and more often. Demarai Gray had been well marshalled by Matt Cash, although Cash should have been booked earlier than he was, and Gordon got the ball in useful areas so much in the last 20 minutes it was a surprise an equaliser did not come.

While Everton had more fight and were more combative than recently the players were clearly lacking in confidence and creativity. Ferguson could not fix these shortcomings in a few days, the question is will he still be in charge for the next game against Brentford in the FA Cup in two weeks?

My thoughts are that after today’s defeat the owner Farhad Moshiri will seek to get someone in before the Brentford cup game. After that there is three crucial league fixtures where points will be required which mean whoever the new manager is they will need to hit the ground running.

Kenny produces an abject display in Villa defeat

JonJoe Kenny cannot start again for Everton

In recent weeks JonJoe Kenny has been included in the Everton starting line up due to Rafa Benitez’s fatuation with a 5 man defence with wing backs. The right wing back position does suit Kenny and he has more freedom to go forward.

However when you play a back four, as we have seen before, Kenny is very limited and his constant hesitation was clear for everyone to see.

Seamus Coleman was available against Villa and with Nathan Patterson absent surely Coleman should have filled in against a dynamic Villa midfield.

Kenny seemed not to know whether to go inside to cover one of Villa’s creative midfielders or stay with Lucas Digne. This indecision showed several times when Digne had time to get a cross in or Buendia especially had time inside to create an opportunity.

Going forward Kenny lacked any conviction and it was no surprise Everton tried to use the left hand flank more in the first half. With Andros Townsend in front of him, a left footer, Kenny should have been able to overlap with Digne the only direct opponent playing out wide. Instead Kenny hardly went over the halfway line and his passing was poor, this was seen by losing possession with careless balls forward more than once in the first half.

With Coleman and Patterson also vying for the right back starting slot I would not be surprised to see Kenny sent out on loan like last season when he went to Celtic a year ago. However this tedious display will certainly not have clubs clamouring to call his agent on Monday morning.

Gordon produces MOTM for Everton display in less than 40 minutes

Anthony Gordon must start

Anthony Gordon once again was the bright spark in an otherwise huff and puff Everton performance against Aston Villa. This was despite the young winger only coming off the bench in the 56th minute and replacing a worryingly poor Andros Townsend.

Once Gordon came on Everton had a real spark, which also enabled Demarai Gray more space on the other flank, and he produced stats more expecting of a 90 minute performance as you can see below:

There seems to be a real fearlessness in Gordon’s performances this season and for me it was disappointing not to see him start in front of Townsend who has been injured and flattered to deceive since his good start to the season.

In fact the right hand side should have seen Coleman and Gordon start, in a game of fine margins I think Everton could have won the game with this combination.

Gordon also produced many good set piece deliveries in his 38 minute cameo and Everton should have taken advantage of at least one of these.

Going forward Gordon has to start, because at the moment with Gray, he looks the only creativity the Blues have in the team.

Everton need DCL & Richarlison to sharpen up sharpish

DCL & Richarlison lacking sharpness

This certainly is not a criticism of either Dominic Calvert-Lewin or Richarlison, but Everton really need there star forwards to get sharp and do so quickly.

With Calvert-Lewin having missed over four months with injury and Richarlison having a couple of niggles already this season, Everton have struggled to get a grip in any games this season since September. It is understandable they lack match sharpness and with strikers this is essential to have to be on form.

This was evident throughout the game against Aston Villa, although the scraps that they were being served up in the first half certainly didn’t help them get any sharper.

However in the second half both missed chances we have seen them take in recent seasons. Richarlison missed a great headed chance quite early in the second half when he got too much on the ball when a glancing header would have scored. Calvert-Lewin missed a more difficult chance later on from a beautiful Anthony Gordon cross just on the six yard box, but again we have seen him take these opportunities before.

Everton, whoever the manager will be in the coming weeks, will need these two to get back to some of the form they showed last season.

Without Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin firing Everton will struggle to get ahead in games, something they haven’t done in the league since playing Watford at home in October, a game they went to amazingly lose 5-2 anyway.

Fans protest at the board as Kenwright fronts up outside Goodison

Fans sit in protest

As we had already advertised on this page earlier in the week when we discussed the 27 Years Campaign, a fans group, The Originals 1878, had organised a sit in protest after the Aston Villa game.

Despite Farhad Moshiri’s statement to the Everton fans the day before the game the fans still protested after the game at the poor management of the club over the last few years.

Hundreds stayed in at Goodison Park to voice and demonstrate there anger at the lack of planning, communication and vision in Moshiri’s time at the club, and the dysfunctional workings of his board.

Many national media outlets have reported this protest and the exposure it has gained will only drive the Everton fans on further with the 27 Years Campaign planning further action in the coming weeks.

Also outside the main stand at Goodison Park, Bill Kenwright replied to fans anger at him after the match with many videos like the one below from the 27 Years Campaign circulating on social media:

Another interesting development was the presence of Kia Joorabchian in the Directors Box for the game today.

While some will say he had players he is the agent for, this will only add fuel to the fire that Moshiri has Joorabchian quite involved in the club. As reported Joorabchian even got one of his clients on the vacant manager interview list earlier in the week.

It is a crucial two weeks for Moshiri with currently no manager, no football structure back of house, no medical team and no scouting team in situ.

Some could say this is one of the most crucial spells an owner has had in the history of this great football club. If Moshiri and the much maligned board doesn’t get it right then relegation is a better bet than staying up.