Everton suffered a 2-0 home defeat to Manchester United.
Former Everton midfielder Peter Reid has told BeIN Sports that his old side lacked both “strength and pace” in the Toffees’ 2-0 defeat to Manchester United on New Year’s Day.
Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard both scored superb curling efforts from the edge of the area in the second half to down Sam Allardyce’s side, with Everton putting up little fight against Jose Mourinho’s men.
Everton failed to muster a single shot on target with Jordan Pickford kept busy in between the sticks for entirety of the afternoon, producing wonderful saves to keep out Lingard, Paul Pogba and Juan Mata.
Reid, who played for Everton for seven years during his playing career between 1982 and 1989, claimed Allardyce’s tactics were wrong as he believes the Toffees would have found using a high press more effective.
“I thought they were poor,” Reid said. “Once Manchester United stepped it up, there were only going to be one winner. They lacked strength and pace. I don’t think Everton have got the ammunition, that’s not good enough.”
“I can understand Sam coming in and keeping it tight, but in front of a crowd that wanted to get behind the team, sometimes its best to get on the front foot and they didn’t.
“In the first half, Bolasie got crosses in, there was nobody in the box. He’s playing a centre-forward and he doesn’t get in the box, or Rooney from the middle of the park. Have a high press at home.”
The defeat leaves the Toffees in ninth but they are now 10 points adrift of sixth-placed Tottenham, who have two games in hand. Allardyce has seen his side fail to win in four games, scoring just once in that time.
He will be hoping for a response on Friday night as Everton travel across Merseyside to Anfield for the second time this season to face Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in the FA Cup third round.
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