Going down without a fight
One thing Sean Dyche will – quite rightly – demand from all his teams is commitment so on his first Merseyside derby and first fixture away from Goodison Park, the new Everton manager will surely be bitterly disappointed that his players went down without a fight. Never mind a snood or a hat – two items the new boss has banned squad members from wearing in training as they’re not allowed in matches – Everton didn’t so much as lay a glove on Liverpool in this insipid surrender less than a mile from their home where they’d inflicted a first defeat since September on Premier League leaders Arsenal just nine days earlier.
If only the Blues had shown the same kind of battling qualities in general play as when they sparked into life five minutes from the end when irked by Andy Robertson’s moment of petulance. The game had already been lost with the result beyond doubt when Jordan Pickford – who was booked alongside the Scot – waded in and both sets of players and substitutes joined the handbags in what was an unsavoury and unnecessary pantomime scuffle that didn’t reflect positively on either side in terms of its pettiness.
