Everton return to Premier League action this weekend when they take on Leicester City at the King Power Stadium. The Blues head to the Midlands still searching for their league win of the season.
Sean Dyche’s side were once again guilty of throwing a 2-0 lead against Aston Villa last weekend. After goals from Dwight McNeil and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the Blues eventually fell to a disappointing 3-2 defeat.
The Blues then crashed out the Carabao Cup after a shoot-out with fellow Premier League strugglers Southampton on Tuesday night. And with both of those games in mind, along with the upcoming clash against the Foxes, our Everton jury have returned to have their say.
It was the moment that the Goodison crowd finally turned. Supporters looked on in disbelief before making their feelings known with loud booing. With 62 minutes on the clock, Everton still had a strong chance of beating a weakened, recently promoted Southampton side and progressing to the next round of the League Cup.
And then Sean Dyche decided to take off the only recognised striker Everton had on the pitch, Beto, and replace him with the 39-year-old left back Ashley Young. Even worse, he brought on Jack Harrison to supply the crosses to the forward he had just removed from the field! Even the players looked bewildered, trying to understand the logic of the move.
Tuesday night was possibly the final cup tie to be played at Goodison Park, and supporters deserved better. Exiting the competition at home, with only 25% possession, did not show the Old Lady the respect she deserves. But it came as no surprise to those who have watched Everton continually implode this season under a manager who seems to have no idea how to change the game in Everton’s favour.
It was so predictable that the Blues would lose the penalty shootout; after all, we have lost the last 6 times that it has gone to sudden death. It was also inevitable that Ashley Young would miss the decisive penalty. And why did Sean Dyche not bring on Jordan Pickford, who has an excellent record of saving penalties, for Joao Virginia? Surely that was an obvious call to make.
The air of resignation, rather than anger, that enveloped Goodison at the end sent a clear message. Everton’s displays have been so abysmal this season that most fans have been numbed into stupefied silent acceptance. The attendance was over 4,000 less than the previous round, another indication of dissatisfaction.
And that is understandable. Sean Dyche’s key strength has been to organise defences and grind out results. This season those tactics have not worked, and it cannot all be down to the absence of Jarrad Branthwaite. Once again at Aston Villa last Saturday, Everton contrived to throw away a 2-goal lead and lose 3-2 for their second consecutive game.
Everton have conceded 13 goals in 4 league games, an average of 3.25 goals per match. That lack of defensive solidity will send a team down. These are worrying times at Goodison, and we have endured far too many of them recently. The fans have lost all belief; the players seem bemused by the tactics and game plan and appear to have lost all confidence in the manager. Losing is accepted far too easily.
Everton must respond with a win at Leicester City on Saturday. Defeat here is unthinkable. But with no coherent strategy at any level of the club, no leadership on or off the pitch, and a manager who cannot get his tactics, team selection, or substitutions right, Everton are a club on the road to nowhere. Except, possibly, The Championship.
Luke Davies – Same old Everton
As good as Aston Villa are, there’s no excuse for not being able to hold onto a two-goal lead. After some astute attacking play, the Toffees found themselves two up at Villa Park, but Ollie Watkins’ desire to score and Michael Keane’s seemingly inability to stop him proved ominous heading into the second half.
As usual with Everton, as soon as the opposition showed signs of a fightback, they folded, and by 58 minutes – with a huge helping hand from Jack Harrison – Watkins had his second to level proceedings.
Yes, what came next was a spectacular goal from Jhon Duran, but Dominic Calvert-Lewin could’ve had Everton 3-1 up but somehow forgot that a striker’s job is to put the ball in the back of the net; it’s that indecisiveness in his game that frustrates me – he tries to score rather than thinking, ‘I am scoring this chance,’ like many of the top scorers do. You could argue with confidence that he rounds Emi Martinez, but he’d already scored in the game and netted against Bournemouth a fortnight ago, so how much more confidence does he need?
If you stamp the Villa game as one ‘one that got away,’ you are wrong; no excuses are needed in our current situation. Moving onto the Southampton game, it followed the usual flat atmosphere and lack of cutting edge that most early cup games do. The Saints dominated the ball but did very little with it, eventually scoring from a set-piece.
It almost felt inevitable that the game would go to penalties, and after some fantastic spot kicks, it was Ashley Young who was the unlucky man. The dreaded strikes from 12-yards are a lottery, but in the 90 minutes, it’s difficult to see what Sean Dyche is trying to do.
But, as the old adage goes, ‘There’s always the next game.’ This time against Leicester City, the King Power has been the scene of some crucial nights in recent years; the 2-2 when Jordan Pickford saved James Maddison’s penalty to secure a crucial point in 2023. The year before, Mason Holgate was the matchwinner after a Vitalii Mykolenko stunner; another crucial three points in the relegation fight.
The Foxes don’t look great by any means, but they have a goalscorer in Jamie Vardy. If we stop the former England man, that would go a long way to a positive result. If we had points on the board, I’d take a draw, but currently this is an opportunity to secure all three. Sort yourselves out, Everton.
Alex McMonnies – The Foxes will be licking their lips ahead of this match
The miserable start to the 2024/25 season continues for Everton. While very little was expected of the trip down to Birmingham to face Aston Villa, the manner in which the Toffees fell to defeat on Saturday evening was cause for concern as they became only the second club in Premier League history to lose two consecutive matches in which they took a two-goal lead.
While it wasn’t quite as unforgivable as the dramatic loss of control they suffered late on against Bournemouth, the levels of frustration were still immensely high for those away supporters filing out of Villa Park. Those frustrations were only exacerbated on Tuesday evening as the Blues crashed out of the Carabao Cup at the third round stage, losing on penalties to Southampton after a tepid performance in which they afforded the visitors far too much respect.
The relationship between the fanbase and Sean Dyche only becomes more fragmented, and with each defeat, it becomes more and more difficult to make excuses for the manager. With that said, I still feel it is far too early in the season to even consider pulling the trigger. We started last season in a similarly poor fashion, and yet we were still able to stem the tide pretty quickly.
The quality of the opponents Everton have had to face so far this campaign don’t seem to have been taken into account very much, but the fact is almost all of the more winnable games are still to come. That starts on Saturday with a trip to face Leicester City. It’s unclear at this moment in time which players will be available for selection at the King Power Stadium, but even if the Toffees are far from full strength, just as they were on Tuesday, a win is very much needed.
The Foxes will be licking their lips ahead of this match, viewing it as their very own opportunity to earn their first league win of the season, so Everton will need to be absolutely ruthless against Steve Cooper’s side. A win on Saturday could well serve as a springboard for the rest of Everton’s season, just as their 3-1 victory away at Brentford did last term, and the following fixtures could allow the Toffees to go on a winning run and ease any worries of relegation in the final season at Goodison Park. Sometimes it just takes one win.