Everton suffered their second defeat in a week after losing 1-0 to Bournemouth on the weekend.
Everton’s week has gone from bad to worse, following a shock mid-week exit from the EFL cup to Norwich, the Blues also lost their first Premier League game of the season under Ronald Koeman.
Before the weekend, Everton sat second in the league with 13 points from a possible 15 – there best ever start to the Premier League season. After a shocking performance to Norwich, the Blues were expected to pick themselves up and secure three points against Bournemouth.
That didn’t happen and the manner in which the Blues played was worrying, it was a game where the Toffees were expected to do well. Just when people were starting to talk about the possibility of Everton doing a Leicester, the Blues last two games have shown no signs of that happening.
Here’s three talking points from Everton’s weekend defeat to Bournemouth:
A lack of squad depth
Everton’s Seamus Coleman in action with Bournemouth’s Jordon Ibe
Everton are a team who can be dangerous on their day, but the Blues main problem lie within their squad. Against Norwich, Koeman made six changes. It was noticeable how weak the Blues fringe players are. On the weekend, Koeman stuck with the winning side that beat Middlesbrough, making just one change with Bryan Oviedo coming in for an injured Leighton Baines.
Although the Blues Xl have caused many teams problems this season, it was clear to see against Bournemouth that the Toffees are thin on quality, therefore the Blues will struggle to find consistency week to week. Everton’s bench is weak. Koeman will regret not bringing in more players in the summer; January transfer window must be a busy month for the Blues, if Everton were to have any real chance of qualifying for Europe.
The Blues performance showed similarities to last season
Bournemouth’s Harry Arter in action with Everton’s Gareth Barry
Everton fans have a right to be frustrated, if the Blues want European football then they have to win against teams below them. The Blues are still yet to play any of the top teams, and after this weekend’s performance, the Toffees will be easily beaten. Teams like Liverpool and Manchester City have pace in abundance, Everton are miles away from their rivals here.
Everton were out played by a struggling Bournemouth side that made the win against the Blues look easy. It will suddenly be a real test on Friday when the Blues face Crystal Palace, a vital game for Koeman to convince fans that this season will be different.
Barkley, Deulofeu and Lukaku are over-hyped
Ronald Koeman made mistakes by making substitutions too late and the wrong ones. Ross Barkley should have been off at half-time, a player who has constantly been talked about as having so much potential.
Barkley has failed to make any real impact, his performance was vindication for England boss Sam Allardyce that he made the right decision in not selecting the midfielder in his squad.
Tom Cleverley has not got the ability to influence a match, it’s about time Koeman gave some of Everton’s young players a chance – as they are bound to do better than Cleverley.
Gerard Deulofeu and Romelu Lukaku were also poor – at times Lukaku looked like he didn’t want to be on the pitch. It’s okay saying Koeman is trying to get over his philosophy – but you need the players clever enough and determined enough to take it on board and sadly, Everton have too many players not capable of doing this.
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