Southampton v Everton: 5 takeaways as Away Day Blues Strike Again

Gomes produces one of the worst midfield displays in woeful second half

2. Everton’s powder puff midfield

Everton and Lampard’s day started to go downhill from the moment Allan picked up a first half booking halfway through the period for breaking up a Southampton counter attack, which was pretty much their first one of the match.

Soon after Allan was pulled up for another foul on the edge of the area which produced the first of many saves from Pickford when not surprisingly James Ward-Prowse produced a good direct free kick. The alarm bells were ringing and everyone knew one more Allan foul and he would have first use of the away changing room showers.

It was of no great surprise that Lampard took Allan off at half time to protect having eleven players on the pitch. Gomes replaced the Brazilian which left a worryingly weak physical Everton midfield with Donny Van De Beek.

While there was worry, Everton fans would not have quite believed the performance of Gomes in the second half. He gave the ball away for the first Southampton goal and left the Everton defence exposed to Armstrong’s space and time to finish at the near post.

That was not the only time Gomes gave the ball away in a display that one of the worst seen in recent times. This one moment below summed up Gomes performance:

Once Southampton had the dominance there was no doubt they would overrun the powder puff Everton midfield, the Saints midfield pounced and pressed more intensely. Gomes and Van De Beek had no answer, even in the away end there were calls to take Gomes off only twenty minutes after coming on.

Again Lampard did have limited options with Abdoulaye Doucoure just making his comeback from a groin injury. Surely he will have to tactically switch to a midfield three when Doucoure is available again.

Van De Beek had nowhere as much influence in the game as he did against Leeds last week, and once Allan went off Southampton knew if they could stop the Dutchman then they would probably see out a comfortable three points.

Alex Iwobi gave another wholehearted performance, which was more than you could say of others, and certainly was unlucky to be subbed off halfway through the second half for Andros Townsend who had little impact with a tiring Coleman not able to offer much support.

Continued on next page….