Andre Gomes, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Bernard all started for Everton as they were beaten by Southampton in the Premier League.
Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas has claimed that Evertont trio, Andre Gomes, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Bernard were just ‘running around’ during their 2-1 defeat at Southampton on Saturday.
Marco Silva opted to start the three forward-thinking players at St Mary’s but they, along with the team, produced a lacklustre display on the road.
Academy product James Ward-Prowse opened the scoring for his side five minutes into the second half before Lucas Digne’s own goal doubled the Saints advantage.
Sigurdsson did pull one back in stoppage time, but that wasn’t enough as former Arsenal striker Nicholas was critical of Everton’s attacking display.
“Gomes and Sigurdsson are technically gifted,” Nicholas told Soccer Saturday on 19/01/2019 at 5:40 pm. “They just look like they are running around. He [Gomes] is getting involved in things that he shouldn’t be getting involved in.
“And it seems as though they have lost their way. Bernard is another. Nice technical player, does really nice things, but it seems they are working and working and this is all they are prepared to do.”
Both Gomes and Bernard were substituted by Silva with striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin coming on for Gomes after 57 minutes and Theo Walcott replacing Bernard with 15 minutes left on the clock in a like for like change.
But none of that seemed to work as the Toffees have now lost four out of their last five away matches and have fallen into the bottom half of the Premier League table.
Over the course of the season, Bernard has provided four assists for his teammates, but he is yet to find the back of the net in the league.
For midfielder Gomes, he has only provided one assist in a deep-lying playmaker role, with eight goal Sigurdsson playing higher up the pitch than the on-loan Barcelona man.
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