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Liverpool 2 Everton 0: Blues back to reality after derby defeat

By Matt Townsend

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 13: Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool FC tackles Dwight McNeil of Everton FC during the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Everton FC at Anfield on February 13, 2023 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 13: Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool FC tackles Dwight McNeil of Everton FC during the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Everton FC at Anfield on February 13, 2023 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images) /
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Everton were beaten 2-0 by Liverpool in last night’s derby, Sean Dyche’s second game in charge, to quickly bring the Blues’ back down to earth.

After a fine win over Arsenal, when optimism began to creep back in, Dyche’s Everton were soundly beaten by their neighbours in a match that highlighted all the reasons why this Toffees’ team is struggling so much.

In particular of course, once again the away side lacked any goal threat even when they had the ball and could build attacks.

Without Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Everton simply cannot threaten opposing sides with any consistency and their chances of scoring a goal, let alone winning a game, is extremely limited.

Ellis Simms worked hard and was quite effective in the air, but he was left isolated and had no support either. This was a strange decision by the manager for me.

I thought that if Simms played he needed someone alongside him (either Demarai Gray or Neal Maupay) to have any chance of being genuinely effective.

The obvious truth that yesterday’s game exposed, was that whatever improvements to the team Dyche manages to make overall, he cannot keep this club up unless Calvert-Lewin stays fit.

That is a truly terrifying thought and underlines the scale of the challenge because given his recent past history, Calvert-Lewin simply won’t stay healthy for the rest of the season.

To quickly review last night’s match (if we must!) the Blues’ were totally second best all game and should probably have lost by more goals in the end. There was also once more no fight or determination to try and upset their opponents at all.

Liverpool counter-attacked quickly every time the Toffees’ lost possession and easily cut through the vistors midfield and defence, exposing how poorly this Everton side copes with what is now called ‘transition’.

The derby also seems to be a game that is on a sort of loop in which the same kind of mistakes occur again and again.

We saw a Jordan Pickford error yet again lead to a goal and once more the Blues’ enabled a struggling opposition player, Cody Gakpo, to finally open his Liverpool account.

It seems every time this team plays Liverpool away from home they lose all composure and capacity to make sound and make error-free decisions.

The worrying thing is that this sort of limp and lacklustre performance from this group of players is just what we’ve seen time and again with one manager and then another following a bright start to their reign. Will the same thing happen with Dyche?

Anyway, that’s another season’s derbies over and done with. I never look forward to these matches anymore so I’m actually glad it’s done and dusted with for another year.

It could be the last one for a while too. Because, unless he can find an effective alternative gameplan to cope without Calvert-Lewin, I don’t think it will matter what Dyche does with the rest of the team, Everton will be relegated at the end of this season.