Everton produced a very disappointing performance at Bournemouth last night as they were soundly beaten 4-1 in the first of two consecutive fixtures against the Cherries.
This was another truly awful night for Everton as they were ultimately blown away by Bournemouth meaning the Toffees’ are out of the Carabao Cup early, yet again.
To be honest you have to wonder why the Blues’ bother with this competition as they almost always bow out early, often with embarrasing ease as they did last night.
The first thing to say is that this was a completely different starting eleven from the one seen at Goodison Park against Leicester City.
Frank Lampard made a lot of changes, some forced on him of course through injury, some for other reasons and it certainly showed. I don’t understand this and I don’t think it helped at all.
These decisions undermined any recent consistency that had been built up, especially at the back, and the manager’s reverting to a back three again was also was a negative step.
Why switch from a defensive formation that has been working reasonably well? If it was just to give players who’ve not played a game recently a chance, that’s not a good enough reason.
Lampard’s prioirty should be to attempt to progress in any competition and in theory anyway try and win a trophy not give squad players a run out to keep them happy.
So, there were plenty of senior players in that side like Yerry Mina, Micheal Keane, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Tom Davies to name just a few.
Youngsters like Stanley Mills or Tom Cannon, who might have hoped for a game given the context and all these changes, had to be content with places on the bench.
Those senior players, rather than giving Lampard a selection headache with their performances, instead reminded us why they haven’t been starting in the Premier League.
The Toffees’ players displayed all those basic errors in concentration and awareness that were so much a feature of these individuals over the last few seasons and which we’ve seen many times before in countless past games.
And lets not forget the home side were also pretty much a scratch team with a lot of changes themselves and their reserves looked a lot more focused, determined and clinical in front of goal.
Trying to find positives, the Blues’ did have periods of control and plenty of possession, more in fact than the home side, and things improved up front when Lampard made changes relatively early bringing on Alex Iwobi, Demarai Gray and Dwight McNeil. But, the attack was still far too weak and unthreatening.
And, individual errors once more cost Everton dear with clumsy and fumbling performances from individuals like Keane and Doucoure proving so costly again.
So, this is yet another campaign which feels like it is effectively over and will now boil down to a slog for Premier League respectability or possibly again, another battle against relegation.
Next up of course it’s Bournemouth away once more in the Toffees’ final Premier League fixture before the World Cup kicks off. Any chance this group of players can turn up and give Evertonians something to enjoy before the month long break?