Make no bones about it last night was awful. What worries me is the sheer inevitability of it. I knew we would lose that game and you could have predicted exactly how the game would pan out.
There is a lack of fight and desire around the players currently. Barry gets slagged off a lot by fans on here, but he is one of the few who looks like he gives a care for what’s going on. McCarthy runs through brick walls and is immune from any of the following criticisms. As I said in another thread, I’ve never seen an Everton player with such will to win which is in such sharp contrast to the players around him.
I don’t normally like singling players out but last night was a shambles. I will start with Lukaku. His pass for their second goal is appalling. It is a lack of care. It’s not a one off either, he fails to hold the ball up very well. When you are struggling as a side, you need your front man to at the very least hold the ball up when he gets good possession played into him. I can’t really knock his goal return this season. However I worry we have signed a striker who looks good in a top side that make chances for him, but in a side that is struggling is a bit of a liability.
~ Next is Kone, again just gave the ball away too often. He passed the ball away once and there was no reaction. (much like Lukaku for their second goal) no attempt to chase back. It seems like there is a casual acceptance of failure that has crept in. I miscontrol/give away a pass/miss a header/ don’t mark my man and a shrug of the shoulders comes on as if someone else can deal with the problem. Mirallas balloons a free kick high over the bar and starts having a pop at somebody else after it’s done.
Aaron Lennon doesn’t seem particularly interested whether we win or lose. Barkley has been poor. The list could go on. What worries me is that you have players like Garbutt (who again did well last night but was exposed) and are being shown up because some of the more senior pro’s are not performing as they ought to be. I do worry about the pressure being placed upon the likes of Garbutt and Stones though (as well Barkley) is going to drag their performances down. It’s hard when you look at the body language to draw any conclusion other than he has lost elements of the dressing room. Whatever happens significant changes need to come in the summer. We have to get back to basics.
Of keeping clean sheets. His biggest mistake has been dropping Robles for Howard. Once again Howard let in the first goal that was very saveable. It is hard to put into words just how poor a decision it was to restore Howard.
