Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium following Everton's 3-2 win over Newcastle United
liverpoolecho
I think we were all shocked to see Dwight McNeil back in Everton’s starting line-up at St James’ Park but both his selection and subsequent performance against Newcastle United are harsh lessons to those players that he’s keeping out of the side.
McNeil getting picked was the big talking point. He’s had the disappointment of not being able to get his deadline day move to Crystal Palace in an attempt to get more regular football, but he’s showed his professionalism.
He’s got in front of the manager’s eyes and that’s a significant factor for the players who are behind him in the pecking order. For a couple of weeks, he was out in the cold and not even in the squad, but it looks like he’s got himself back in through his work rate, professionalism and attitude.
Dwight’s doing things the right way. He’s not sulking and moping around, as he knows that will be a bad look for him with potential future clubs.
He needed to get back playing football, playing the game he loves, regardless of what shirt he’s putting on. As David Moyes said, Everton are paying his wages, but you’ve got to give McNeil credit for his response.
He did well for the second goal with a lovely touch and a great shot, ahead of Beto scoring from the rebound. He did tire – which was to be expected – and that was the only little thing that you could question the manager over, asking whether we could have made the substitutions a bit earlier as we were starting to get overrun and Newcastle’s fans and players were gaining in their belief.
While we were defending well, they got a lot of crosses into the box. Maybe if we’d have been up against better personnel, we might have been punished sooner.
It was a fantastic win for David Moyes and the players. As I’ve already said, beforehand, a lot of the talking points online surrounded what was yet another surprising starting line-up from David Moyes.
There was a lot of toing and froing about which players fans expect to see. However, it’s difficult for fans as we only see snippets whereas David Moyes and his coaching staff see these players for many hours every day.
They can see what their mentality is like and the full gamut of how they’re training and how fit they are. You’ve got to trust David Moyes’ judgement, he’s a top-class manager with huge experience and he knows who he can trust.
Maybe he has favourites, but every manager does. On paper, it looked a very defensive-minded team, but straight from the off, Everton’s players were up for it.
They showed intent and willingness to get forward and create opportunities, making it difficult for Newcastle. It was really refreshing to see, and we got the early goal, learning from the corner-kicks against Manchester United that were all the same.
It appeared like they’d gone back to Finch Farm and worked on something else. That will be really pleasing for David Moyes and the coaching staff, that such efforts are finally paying dividends.
We were a bit unfortunate conceding the goal, but that’s a hole that we always seem to have. The work rate was fantastic to try and win the ball back, but we got drawn into ball watching as if you look at Idrissa Gueye, his eyes are drawn to the ball, and he leaves the area open for them to exploit.
Newcastle got the ball out wide and fed it into the middle very quickly, so it was difficult for Gueye to get back, but that shows how sometimes you’ve just got to have a bit of patience and stay in your positions, rather than go chasing. Teams don’t always exploit this, but Newcastle got lucky with the deflection off Jarrad Branthwaite and there was nothing Jordan Pickford could do.
In the past, we’ve been left lamenting Everton self-destructing in such moments. Maybe we’d bemoan our bad luck and think it’s not going to be our day.
What I was really pleased about was the reaction, to get back in front again quickly. It shows the togetherness of the team, that they believe they can beat anyone, especially on the road.
When we were pegged back a second time, you feared it really was going to be another of those occasions when we deserved more but only got the draw. You’ve got to give the players credit for bouncing back again.
Anthony Gordon lost the ball to Iliman Ndiaye and it was a great passage of play. It was a fantastic run from Thierno Barry, and I’d said in my column that he needs to start getting across defenders and getting himself into danger zones.
You don’t expect him to score with his backside, but you take it.
Before that, I thought Beto was fantastic, he put a lot of effort in and was really strong.
We saw the good and bad of Beto. Whether the ball was out or not, he made that missed chance himself through his determination and strength.
He just seemed to slow down too much and couldn’t find the corner. Thankfully, it didn’t end up costing us.
Strikers are always going to miss chances, but you also need to take your opportunities when they come your way and as David Moyes has said to Thierno Barry, if you’re not scoring, not providing assists and not doing what the managers wants from you in that position, then you won’t be starting. Beto has now got to grab that opportunity as it’s difficult being a squad player.
I was also made up to see Branthwaite return to centre-back. While he was assured at left-back and did well, he’s our best centre-back and we want him to be in the heart of defence.
He’s got an outside chance of securing an England World Cup squad – given that he was out for eight months, it’s going to be a push – but if he is going to do it, he needs to be playing in his favoured position to catch the eye of Thomas Tuchel. When he first came back against Leeds United, the calmness and composure he showed on the ball had us thinking “wow, we’ve missed this,” but I thought he produced his best performance since he returned at Newcastle.
Pickford's save took your breath away
Jordan Pickford’s save at Newcastle was unbelievable, it took your breath away. When you see it live, it makes you go “what’s just happened there?”
I couldn’t believe my eyes what I’d just witnessed. I thought his save at Manchester United was of a similar calibre though – this is not the first time that Jordan has pulled off a save of such magnitude.
James Garner and some of the other players, all put their hands on their heads in shock and disbelief at what they’d just witnessed. Sandro Tonali could not have hit the volley any sweeter and he must have thought he was going to burst the net.
Not only was Jordan able to get a touch on the ball, but he possessed a strong hand to flick it on to the ball, which was amazing. He’ll be really pleased to have thwarted a rival whose fans always give him plenty of stick.
He frustrates me at times and puts us under pressure with his antics and kicking, but “wow,” it’s up there for save of the season. He’s just shown his quality again and shown why he’s far and away the best English goalkeeper right now.
Nobody expected Everton to be here - but now I want more
Everton are second only to table-topping Arsenal when it comes to away wins in the Premier League and that’s a fantastic statistic for David Moyes. He’ll be scratching his head, wondering why they’ve not been able to replicate such results at Hill Dickinson Stadium, but we’ve now got an opportunity to turn that around against Burnley.
The supporters who are travelling all around the country are getting the best of the Blues and the best of David Moyes, really enjoying the away days. Unfortunately, there’s nearly 50,000 other fans who aren’t experiencing that.
If you flipped those records around, all those little hiccups and niggly bits and pieces that the new stadium was always going to bring, nobody would be talking about them very much at all. When you’re not winning football games, you start to look for excuses here and there.
We’ve not been the best team when it comes to playing two games in a short space of time, but you want to be and you want to get used to that with the dream of getting into Europe. Let’s use the squad in the correct manner and hopefully the standard of performance can match what we’ve been seeing away.
Burnley were unlucky on Saturday. They scored three but they could have scored five.
We’ve got to be able to express ourselves at home and get the fans on their feet. To do that, we’ll need to start fast and try to cause them problems, showing them why we’re Everton Football Club and pushing for Europe.
No Evertonian was expecting to have reached 40 points so soon this season. After the relegation battles of recent years, we just didn’t want to be looking over our shoulders.
But that’s where we find ourselves now, on the cusp of challenging for Europe. I was greedy as a player, and now I’m greedy as a fan again, so I want more.
If we can just turn it up a little bit, we might be able to get there, but we’ve got tough fixtures ahead.