Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium following Everton's goalless draw with Aston Villa
The fact that most Evertonians came out of the goalless draw with Aston Villa disappointed shows how far we've come in a relatively short space of time under David Moyes. Ahead of the game, I was surprised to hear how it was the first time that Jack Grealish had been named Premier League Player of the Month. But given the number of stars who came into the division this summer, I was absolutely made up for him to be rewarded for his displays.
There were moments in the Aston Villa game when he tried to be a bit too clever in the final third, attempting an extra pass in the final third here and there. Sometimes, you’ve just got to pop the question.
I thought Iliman Ndiaye looked absolutely magic again on the other side, especially in the first half. While he’s been brilliant in terms of getting fans out of their seats, can he just improve with that final pass or shot?
He just seemed to be a little off-balance at times when he was going to shoot. But his work rate and his ability to dribble with the ball, going past two players and making it look so effortlessly, it’s easy on the eye but as a former left-back myself, my knees are sore in the stands just watching him – I twinge when he twists and turns his opponents and think: “Ow!”
Can Grealish improve and start getting goals? Can Ndiaye start providing assists? You want to see your players getting better and raising their levels as the season goes on.
Both myself and a lot of fans were excited going into the game because of our positive performances leading up to the international week. We knew it was going to be a tough fixture though against Aston Villa given what they’ve done over the past couple of seasons, pushing for European spots and our record against them hasn’t been that good, I thought it was going to be a massive marker for us to see where we actually are and how much we’ve improved under David Moyes.While we were confident that we were going to play well, we were against a top quality side who have got internationals all over the pitch. Villa have struggled so far this term, with what might be seen as something of a hangover for missing out on a Champions League place, but you’d expect them to produce a reaction. We didn’t want to be the soft touch like we’d been in the past when a team or a player needed a goal to get their season back on track, it would be against Everton.
To be fair, I thought, especially in the first half, we were fantastic, we were bossing the game and creating opportunities, so it was disappointing that we couldn’t find the net as the stadium would have erupted. Our inter-linking play was causing Villa all sorts of problems and although I didn’t think we hit the heights as much in the second half, we should probably credit our opponents for reacting a bit more to the situation.
There are obviously still areas we can improve in. I thought Jordan Pickford’s kicking was a bit unnecessarily wild again, putting ourselves under pressure with sloppy passes out of play.
On so many occasions in recent seasons when we’ve been struggling and trying to cling on for a result, time seems to last forever but this felt like the opposite as I looked up at the clock and thought: ‘Oh no, there’s only 10 minutes left,’ and then all of a sudden, it’s was stoppage time. We were on top and the only team who was going to win the game was ourselves, but that’s football and their keeper, Emiliano Martinez, came back into the starting line-up and made a few world-class saves to deny us three points.
There’s been something of a question mark over who Moyes is going to start up front. Beto was picked at Leeds, then Thierno Barry got his opportunity and then Beto scored against Mansfield Town and Wolves, so he got the nod.
He’s getting in the right areas, but strikers do miss opportunities. Erling Haaland, the best striker in world football, misses chances, but he tends to find another opportunity to get the ball in the back of the net.
It wasn’t Beto’s day, but we’ve got big games coming up and he causes teams problems as he roughs them up and causes a lot of difficulties. However, he needs help and I think that means team-mates playing a bit closer to him, so hopefully David Moyes can find a way to get that midfield supporting his striker.
Those moments, especially early on, were down to Beto’s own quality and confidence though. He needs to be a bit more composed when it comes to finding the back of the net.
Ref justice again with Hooper
Some of the referee’s decisions frustrated the whole stadium – especially the players. He put a marker down when I thought James Tarkowski did a fantastic challenge and it looked like he’d waved on and we were going to break on the counter-attack, but then he pulled it back for a foul.
It was a tough challenge, but in my eyes, it was a fair challenge. Football is a contact sport and I thought Simon Hooper’s display broke our momentum so many times.
Villa players were moaning about any little bit of contact and he was breaking the play down by whistling, but then he wasn’t consistent given the amount of times that Jack Grealish was having his shoulder pulled. The assistant should be stepping in if it’s on the referee’s blind side but because he was getting frustrated, Jack ended up receiving a yellow card.