Striking the right balance
Everton have had to wait over two months for their main striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin to start a match but you wonder just how long they’d have had to play here to actually score a goal. The Blues number nine, who had been missing ever since he picked up what Frank Lampard described as “a freak injury” on the eve of the campaign before returning with a couple of cameo displays off the bench in the previous two defeats against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, did offer a different dimension up front but his team-mates largely failed to exploit it.
There were a couple of efforts of note, one in each half, but again it was woefully slim pickings. Before the break, Calvert-Lewin headed over from a Demarai Gray corner-kick while after the interval he forced a save from Nick Pope’s legs when played through by Alex Iwobi but it wouldn’t have counted as one of those now typically late flags for offside was raised.
The arguments over just how much Newcastle United fans and Evertonians have in common might be long and hard but both fanbases appreciate an aerially-dominant centre-forward and St James’ Park, a ground which has a statue of Alan Shearer, the Premier League’s all-time leading goalscorer at the front entrance, is also a venue where Calvert-Lewin had netted four times on his previous three visits. The Yorkshireman is arguably the best header of the ball among his peers when it comes to strikers currently operating in the English top flight but that becomes a wasted talent when his colleagues just aren’t getting the necessary supply line into him.
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Now that this Everton side, that are alarmingly short of goals in other areas, have got their biggest scoring threat back on the pitch, they quickly need to start playing to his strengths as they’ve been woefully toothless in the final third in these two away games over the past week.
England’s number one
A banner in the home end proclaimed Nick Pope to be “England’s number one” but while in reality, Newcastle United’s goalkeeper is just one of several pretenders to Jordan Pickford’s throne, the manner in which this match panned out made any real comparison between the pair largely redundant. Former Sunderland player Pickford, who always seems to be treated like a pantomime villain on trips to St James’ Park, will no doubt be scrutinised as he is with every goal he concedes but in truth it was an inch-perfect strike and he dealt with everything else that came his way.
It’s been observed that almost all the goals Everton have conceded so far this season have come from self-inflicted errors in some way but while Lampard was disappointed with how his side defended this one, sometimes you just have to applaud a piece of inspired skill. With Newcastle’s new-found wealth after their Saudi takeover, Almiron was one of the players who looked as if he could have been surplus to requirements over the summer and a potential move to Goodison Park was even mooted as a possible destination for him and while there seemed little appetite among Blues for that back then, the Paraguayan, who has five goals so far this season – including four in the last four games – provided the kind of moment of magic that Everton crave so much right now.
Pickford made have made a rare error at Tottenham at the weekend, but the lack of respect he's shown in many quarters - even beyond his usual dinosaur-suited detractors (yes, there was a fully-grown person inside a T-Rex costume in the Gallowgate End) - remains staggering. An article from none other than the BBC on the day of this game proclaimed: "The Everton goalkeeper has been Gareth Southgate’s trusted number one dating back to his heroics at the 2018 tournament in Russia. But such is the strength in depth Southgate has to choose from in every position these days, there are plenty of arguments that Pickford’s spot in the 26-man squad shouldn't be guaranteed."
Really? That seems staggering but the man who really is head and shoulders above his rivals when it comes to choices between the sticks for the Three Lions, deserves credit here for the way he kept his cool and displayed the increased maturity that has improved his game over the past year or so.
Midfield mix
When Frank Lampard first became Everton manager, he struggled just to field two central midfielders in his starting line-up but while question marks remain on quality, the Blues boss certainly has quantity now, which begs the question as to just how long the incumbent trio will remain in place given he has just as many options in reserve. The contrasting attributes of Idrissa Gueye, Amadou Onana and Alex Iwobi seemed to offer the best balance to the side but as time goes on, it might end up being more a case of horses for courses.
Lampard and his staff have been eagerly talking up the progress of James Garner, their final signing of the summer, in recent weeks and after building up his fitness after his deadline day move from Manchester United, he appears to be increasingly showing himself to be a player for now as well as just the future. The Birkenhead-born starlet gives Everton an increased passing range from deep when he’s on the pitch and with every outing, looks to be building a stronger case for inclusion.
Revived in a central role, Alex Iwobi has been one of the biggest success stories since Lampard’s appointment in terms of his dramatic upturn in fortunes but the Nigerian has found himself on the periphery of proceedings in two tough away days over the past week. Idrissa Gueye has been doing the tasks we all know he can perform so well but his lapses in possession have proven costly at times while Amadou Onana continues to offer so much but despite his huge price tag, at just 21, like Garner, he is very much a work in progress and is on a steep learning curve in terms of realising just how physical opponents in English football will be and will allowed to be by referees.
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