Another Merseyside derby ends, and we can safely say that that was one of the most boring by far. Neither side deserved the victory as hardly any chances were taken and there was nothing Steven Gerrard done that was amazing but if you watched the game on Sky Sports, he was probably the best player on the pitch (which he wasn’t). Anyway, the game was poor and Everton’s ‘negativity’ cost them the chance to grab all three points. Why were Everton so poor, in possession and without it? Why was nothing created? Here are some of the statistics that show Everton’s poor performance.
No Pressure
Here is Everton’s heat map from the match. Last week, I posted an article about Phil Jagielka’s performance against Crystal Palace and mentioned about Everton’s deep defending working in the fixture; today nothing sparked from the backline. John Stones and Phil Jagielka’s deep defence did work against Liverpool, but nothing was created from a single defender or midfielder in the fixture. There is also a massive big gap in the heat map in the final third of the pitch – which is where the ‘number 10’ (usually Ross Barkley) was meant to be. This shows that the 4-3-3 formation, which is what The Toffees started with today, doesn’t suit the team in anyway, shape or form. Steven Naismith was the only player who I saw putting pressure on the Liverpool defence, Romelu Lukaku was non-existent in the final third.
Starting Three Defensive Midfielders
A big negative from the game was starting with three defensive midfielders (Muhamed Besic, James McCarthy and Gareth Barry). They were all way to deep on the pitch, the three defensive midfielders made just 13.43% of all of their touches COMBINED on the field in the final third, making 31.34% in the defensive third. Because there was no pressure from the forward, this let players such Jordan Henderson, Philippe Coutinho and Joe Allen the space and time to create chances and not worry about anything coming from the Everton forward line.
The three midfielders didn’t make a massive impact either, not one chance being created from all three, 9 tackles out of 19 being successful (47%) and wining just two aerial duels.
Ross Barkley needed to come on 25 minutes earlier, not on the 85th minute. The moment Barkley came on, he created the best chance of the match, Seamus Coleman running in and forcing a save from Simon Mignolet. He made an opportunity within a few touches, Muhamed Besic, James McCarthy and Gareth Barry couldn’t do that in the entire 90 minutes.
Substitutions
This hasn’t been a negative just from the match; it’s been a negative all season. Roberto Martinez made three substitutions (very rare), but only one of them he made was correct – taking off Kevin Mirallas and putting on Aaron Lennon. The Belgian had created just one chance all game and had only 22 touches on the pitch, only one being inside the Liverpool penalty area. Bringing on Aaron Lennon was the only positive change in the match, the other two was just simply wrong.
Roberto Martinez needed to bring Ross Barkley on, but his timing was so poor. He came on in the 85th minute replacing Steven Naismith, but by the time he came on it was way to late. The worst substitute however was bringing on Antoin Alcaraz. The only reason why I could see Muhamed Besic going off was the allow the full-backs to drive forward more, otherwise what the heck was Roberto Martinez thinking? Surely it was more logical to take off Gareth Barry (who was poor all game) or James McCarthy who wasn’t full fit, than Muhamed Besic, our only midfielder who looked ‘fresh’. It was a poor decision. No disrespect to Antolin, but he isn’t an impact substitute, he isn’t going to come on and finish off a perfectly passing move from Everton to win the derby is he? He should’ve brought on Arouna Kone, who holds the ball-up well and is a great finisher. Frustrating management again from Martinez.
Passing Tempo
Once again – our passing tempo was dire. There wasn’t any pace in it, it was just slow, painful passing around the back and boring the fans to death. Our top pass combinations between players was Bryan Oviedo to Muhamed Besic (18 passes), Phil Jagielka to Bryan Oviedo, John Stones to Seamus Coleman (both 16 passes), Seamus Coleman to John Stones (14 passes), John Stones to Phil Jagielka (12 passes) and Phil Jagielka back to John Stones (11 passes). This is a real concern for me because it allows forwards to be constant pressure on our defence – therefore creating mistakes and that is what’s causing so many goals to go in.
Another issue about this subject is that it allows opposition defenders plenty of time to re-organize and get into shape before we can expose the dangerous areas. This is why we haven’t scored hardly any ‘second-phase’ goals this season, which is where the ball is cleared from one area and we go back and attempt to put the ball into the back of the net.
Our passing was diabolical, no creativity, not pace, just passing around the defensive third, maybe into midfield, long ball from Joel Robles attempting to find Romelu Lukaku and losing possession. Nothing special.
Roberto Martinez said in his post-match interview: “The tempo was typical of a Merseyside derby.” I don’t understand what he means by ‘typical’, if he means that it is always slow with no creativity then he is spot-on.
Conclusion
A weeks build-up, expecting to see goals, red cards, great football… but to be honest it was very poor. There was no inspiration or passion shown by the Everton side, there wasn’t any fight either. We were way to deep, inviting pressure and when we had possession, we didn’t use it either. It’s a shame as I thought that the performance against Crystal Palace could put our season back on track. Although our strong defensive remained as strong, there wasn’t any tempo, any pressure and our substitutions were all wrong. However, we need to remain positive. We’re making fewer and fewer mistakes each game, Joel Robles is improving match-by-match and we have kept three consecutive clean sheets for the first time since October 2013. Things are starting to improve, very slowly, but a win in midweek will give us a massive morale boost.
Up the toffees.
Stats via Squawka and FourFourTwo
Joel Parker
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