Very frustrating match to lose and United had it far too easy. It was really unclear what we were trying to do for the most part. We tried passing it out on occasion but when it became obvious we couldn't keep the ball, we then didn't think to push Onana right up for the more direct route from goal kicks, instead inexplicably aiming at the likes of Maupay. There is a major aerial deficiency with their two centre halves and we never once tried to exploit it until DcL came on.
When a team doesn't have to do anything special to win a match at Goodison and just simply need to capitalise off of our errors, you know it's been a bad day at the office. The midfield really were the catalyst for our loss, all three were really poor in and out of possession after we scored the first goal. They've been a huge factor in our good defensive record so far so hopefully yesterday was just a blip and they're back to their best against Spurs, we'll get thrashed if they aren't.
Coleman and Gordon gave us a very mediocre right-side too, absolutely nothing came from that area all game for us until McNeil came on and whipped a couple of balls in. I was really concerned when Patterson got injured and whilst I was relieved his injury wasn't as bad as first feared, I'm still counting down the days until he's back.
Good to see Dom back and a nice cameo from Garner were the main positives from last night, not to mention the undeniable mentality improvement that saw us lay siege to their goal at the end trying to nick what would have been an underserved point. Whilst it was too little, too late, it' certainly something we didn't see at this stage last season when we were chasing results.
