Kurt Zouma and Michael Keane stated in defence as Everton were comfortably beaten by Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
Garth Crooks has claimed that Everton’s defensive duo Kurt Zouma and Michael Keane ‘really struggled’ during their side’s 3-1 defeat against Wolves at Goodison Park.
Marco Silva’s side were outplayed by the Midlands outfit, with Ruben Neves, Raul Jimenez and Leander Dendoncker all getting on the scoresheet for the away team.
Both Zouma and Keane, who played at the heart of the club’s defence, picked up yellow cards during the game as they were unable to nullify the attacking threat of Wolves.
As a result of that, they slipped to a damaging defeat against the recently-promoted side, with BBC pundit Crooks providing a simple assessment of Everton’s performance.
“Gomes tried to get Everton back into the game,” Crooks told Final Score on BBC One on 02/02/2019. “But Wolves were outstanding. Zouma and Keane really struggled.”
While Everton have been able to display some attacking threat in games, their defensive struggles throughout the season continue to mount.
The Merseyside club have scored 36 goals and conceded the same amount of goals from their 25 league matches this term [BBC Sport] – only free-scoring Bournemouth have shipped in more from the teams currently in the top 10.
Over the course of the season, Zouma has played 21 Premier League matches at centre-back for Everton, helping them secure five clean sheets along the way, according to transfermarkt.
As for former Manchester United graduate Keane, he has played two games more than his teammate and been a more regular feature in defence for Silva this season, according to transfermarkt.
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