Everton suffered yet more injury blows as they went down to a 2-0 defeat yesterday to Leicester City at Goodison Park.
As well as a chastening loss to the Foxes, Everton might have lost two key midfielders to injury and unsuprisingly, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, again.
I’m absolutely sick of Calvert-Lewin’s endless injuries. He is hardly ever fit and now it looks very likely that he will be missing for the last Premier League game at Bournemouth before the World Cup break, as it seems as though he’s got a hamstring problem.
It’s absolutely crazy to be relying on such a player for virtually all your goals and this strategy is once again coming back to bite this team, hard.
The situation with Idrissa Gueye and Amadou Onana is also unclear. Hopefully, neither are out for long, although both are major doubts for Bournemouth.
All this made it a day to forget yesterday for the Toffees’.
Leicester dominated the match at Goodison and deservedly won with goals from Youri Tielemans and Harvey Barnes.
The Blues’ were very poor throughout and never really got going until later in the second half when they pressed for an equaliser before Barnes breakaway goal settled it.
Once again the passing was erratic with Everton giving the ball away cheaply too often and there was yet again no consistent goal threat either.
To some extent this disjointed performance was perhaps just one of those days and maybe too partly the consequence of these injury disruptions, which undermined the home team from the first half onwards.
But, the real issues were once again exposed. The lack of attacking threat in this side and the propensity to keep giving the ball away so easily.
Calvert-Lewin’s latest injury underlines once more the absolute fallacy of relying for goals on a player with such physical fragility and an ever-growing history of long-term injury problems.
Along with so many other Everton supporters, I was desperate for the club to get at least two more forwards in during the summer transfer window.
Instead they appeared to dither and in the end only signed Neal Maupay. He is now once again going to be asked to carry this team’s powder puff attack with Calvert-Lewin’s likely absence.
I fear that this lack of attacking options is going to fatally undermine the season. The Blues’ have a solid defence, even though they did concede two goals last night, and they have lived off that defence all through the campaign.
But, if the midfield is also disrupted with injury and is failing to keep the ball successfully, that defence will be under more and more pressure.
This issue will be further compounded by the lack of attacking threat to keep opponents honest, as was seen starkly yesterday.
Leicester played like they didn’t have much to worry about at the back, despite their defensive problems, and could play through the home team without much real concern about losing the ball and any serious counter-attacking threat from the Toffees’.
There’s not much that Frank Lampard can really do to change this until the January transfer window, especially without Calvert-Lewin in the side. Although he did miss another good chance, something he’s so often guilty of.
But, it is now absolutely imperative that the club bring in at least one forward and ideally two, in the New Year window.
If they don’t, I think we will be facing another very long relegation fight in the second half of the season and this team can’t ride their luck forever.