It was an early exit from the Carabao Cup for Everton, which is all the more concerning as the gap between tropies continues to grow year after year.
Everton are a long way from winning the Premier League or being involved in the Champions League, so these domestic cups are the way through for the Toffees, especially having seen clubs like Newcastle and Crystal Palace hoist silverware in those types of competitions last year.
And so it was disappointing to see David Moyes make so many changes for last night's trip to Wolves. Not because the squad doesn't need to be rotated, but because the manager got the tactics wrong when he made a host of alterations to the lineup.
Instead, he forced club captain Seamus Coleman to play out of position at left back rather than giving Adam Aznou, who is either hurt or way behind the proverbial eight ball, a chance to show what he can do. He also weakened his midfield by not having another option to cover for Idrissa Gana Gueye, who certainly deserves the rest. This issue has been known for months now.
There was no sense of a coherent plan for what he wanted his players to do, and you could see it on the pitch, even on television. There was a fair amount of players who clearly didn't know what was expected of them or where they were supposed to be from one minute to the next.
Sure, some of this is what happens when you rotate a squad so heavily for a match like this, but Wolves made similar choices and still managed a generally coherent match.
All that means is that Moyes didn't properly prepare his players for this match, or that there wasn't a clearly delineated plan, leaving even more veteran players like James Tarkowski and Michael Keane looking lost at times.
Ultimately, Moyes will probably get it right more often than not. You don't get to manage at this level for as long as he has if you don't. But this is now two matches in a row where he didn't get the set up right from the opening kickoff, which led to his team having to take a loss in the match.
Everton will improve as the season goes along and the players grow more and more accustomed to one another. But given the depth of the squad as a whole, the club cannot afford too many managerial stinkers like this one.