Yesterday was another example of Everton dropping points against a so-called ‘lesser team’ which is becoming a problem. Maybe they needed to do more at Watford last week where it looked like Richarlison was trying to do everything on his own but you can never win the game by yourself but this issue is especially pertinent at Goodison Park.
We’ve seen this side beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United at home this season, while we earnt a credible draw against Tottenham and were unlucky against Man City. But on the other side of things, we’ve lost to Wolves, Watford, Brighton and now Brentford at Goodison. On Thursday we need to go out and play on the front foot and not sit in. The results against Chelsea and Manchester United were huge and the team have shown their ability to pick up wins. We do well against better teams with their big players because you can sit back but this year we’ve really struggled to dominate possession in the other matches. I’m not big on possession stats as for me it’s all about goals but we need to create more opportunities.
We panicked in midfield yesterday with Andre Gomes and Abdoulaye Doucoure - maybe it was the nerves and the pressure of it all. We needed a bit more composure and rhythm in there and put two or three passes together but we were too frantic.
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Everton owe Crystal Palace
It was a bad day at Selhurst Park back in March in the FA Cup quarter-final. We had an opportunity to go to Wembley and we got beaten 4-0 and were completely overrun. That should be in the players’ minds that we owe Crystal Palace one and need a good performance. I don’t know whether we lost that due to will, desire or if it was just sport, but the players would’ve been really disappointed and embarrassed about that result. We’ve got a chance to put it right on Thursday.
Frank Lampard’s defensive troubles
I felt for Jarrad Branthwaite yesterday as a 19-year-old. But I believe he’ll recover - he’ll have had his ups and downs to get to where he is now and he’ll bounce back. However, there’s no doubt that it adds to Frank Lampard’s defensive troubles with Yerry Mina, Ben Godfrey and Michael Keane all missing the defeat to Brentford.
My fingers are crossed Keane comes back in but if he’s unavailable it’s worrying times. You look at the bench, the under 23s and if those guys are out, who comes into the starting line-up? Mason Holgate played in midfield when Everton were struggling for numbers before and there are lots of players that have played in a number of positions. Lampard will be hoping that Keane is available and although I don’t really like five at the back, it seems that Frank gets the best out of his available players with that.
If he is fit and recovered from illness, I’d line up him, Holgate and Seamus Coleman in a back three with Vitaliy Mykolenko and Alex Iwobi at wing back. Iwobi has put in a huge shift there and that’s helped us a lot. But that does mean possession wise we might struggle in the middle which we have done in the majority of games and we’ve been dominated far too often.
Positivity for Thursday
I’m very nervous but you’ve always got to feel optimistic at Goodison. It’s going to be about our ability to be brave enough to receive the ball to go and do our jobs. We need to be aggressive - I want my full backs to stop crosses, wingers to put balls in and the midfielders to keep the ball. It’s hard work pressing on the front foot and closing teams town but that’s your job. We’ve got to do that all over the pitch and force Palace to make mistakes and not allow them the space to dictate the game - it’s happened far too often.
We need to learn our lesson. We’re playing a deep back four or five and they need to play higher up so the midfield has the opportunity to get closer to the ball and tighter to their midfield. We have got to have more shots on goal - how many chances can we create? How many crosses can we stop? Palace have got some key players who can hurt you - tricky wingers who will drive forward but we’ve got to push them back because they won’t want to go back the other way towards their own goal.
Most importantly we need Goodison rocking. 40,000 people, booing every time they touch the ball and cheering every time we get it. We’ve got to have the possession to dominate the game but also have that desire to win the ball back and hopefully we can break down the opposition and get the result we need.
