Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium following Everton's 3-3 draw with Manchester City
liverpoolecho
We should be talking about Everton’s most significant win at Hill Dickinson Stadium to date now but instead it’s more disappointment after victory was snatched away from us in the final seconds against Manchester City.
People might point to it being the third consecutive game that Everton have conceded in stoppage time, but it seems obvious to me that our games are being refereed in a different way to the manner being adopted for other teams in the Premier League. If referees had done the right things and made what both I and many Evertonians believe to be the correct decisions over the last three matches then we would have picked up more points and could have been sitting pretty in the race for Europe, rather than playing catch-up in the race.
Goals change games. Goals change atmospheres in stadiums.
We saw that in the Merseyside Derby when Iliman Ndiaye’s effort was disallowed and then less than a couple of minutes later, Liverpool go down the other end of the pitch and score – a two-goal swing in a matter of moments in an historic fixture. Then we had the handball at West Ham United that everybody apart from those making the decisions thought was blatant.
I know that both teams scored after that moment, but if that had been given, then the home side, who are in the thick of a relegation battle, might have thought that the world was against them and their heads could have dropped. Instead, they recovered from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s equaliser to go on and win the game.
Now we’ve seen it again against Manchester City. I’ve had time to rewatch the incident and their captain Bernardo Silva pulls Merlin Rohl to the ground and despite what they say about it on VAR, it isn’t just before the corner-kick is taken and “the ball is dead.”
It’s another stonewall penalty for Everton that hasn’t been given and we’ve seen plenty of similar ones this season that were awarded, including one for a tug in Nottingham Forest’s 3-1 win at Chelsea the very same day. Most of us would have taken a point against Manchester City before kick-off but when you’re two goals up on 81 minutes and don’t come away with the win, it’s a bitter pill to swallow.
The first half had been very disappointing as we seemed to show City’s players too much respect. We know that they’ve got a collection of world-class individuals in their side and they’re going for the title, but when you back off and let players of that ilk play triangles around you then you’re always going to be on the back foot.
It was a moment of great quality from Jeremy Doku to open the scoring – both his goals were to be fair – but by the end of the first 45 minutes, it was similar to the derby in that we just needed half-time to come and give us an opportunity to reset. Everton did that after the break and after City getting an early corner in the second, we did well to get back into it, even if the crucial moment came from a mistake with Marc Guehi’s back pass.
Assistant referees putting their flags up late for offsides these days has become one of my pet hates, but this one couldn’t wait to raise the flag for Thierno Barry before he’d put the ball in the back of the net. I haven’t seen that for ages but fortunately VAR overturned it, the goal was given and it was game on.
It felt like the roof came off Hill Dickinson Stadium when Jake O’Brien headed Everton in front and for once it was pleasing to see our players seemingly smelling some blood as Manchester City, for all their amazing quality, were shellshocked and for a while they struggled to cope with both our team and our crowd.
I don’t know if that was a shot or a cross from Merlin Rohl for Everton’s third goal, but it ends up being perfectly placed for Barry to beat the offside trap. All of a sudden, we’re two goals up and in a seemingly comfortable position.
Talking of which, I found myself in a different seat than my usual spec for the first time and I was situated just behind the home dugout. I could hear David Moyes trying to issue instructions to his players at this point and he was trying to tell them to: “Keep it tight.”
However, despite his best efforts, those instructions didn’t seem to make it onto the pitch because we were left wide open for Erling Haaland to pull a goal back in the first attack straight from Manchester City’s kick-off. These are the moments where you have to be switched on, where you have to keep your focus but that wasn’t the case.
James Tarkowski and Michael Keane weren’t set and Erling Haaland just runs between them far too easily. He’s one of the best centre-forwards in the world and we all know he’s the type of player who you can seemingly keep quiet for 89 minutes, but then he punishes you by taking his one chance, but Everton did not do enough to stop him on this occasion.
Then finally we come to Manchester City’s equaliser in the last few seconds of stoppage time. With Everton now having been hit by a sucker punch in three straight matches, fingers are being pointed, but we need to be more cute and clever in these situations and improve our game management.
There’s a moment in the build-up where Ndiaye – who was lively in the second half but really should have scored twice from one-on-one situations – tries to cut inside rather than sticking the ball towards the corner flag and eating up some precious seconds. Then Charly Alcaraz has a header on the counter-attack and instead of trying to nod it towards the corner, again to waste some time, he attempts to flick it to Barry who would have been offside anyway because opposition goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was still running back from going upfield for a corner-kick.
These are the times where you have to show your game intelligence to see things out. Similarly, when James Garner has Rayan Cherki running at him in the move that ultimately leads to the corner from which City score from, he has to take him down.
I mentioned how I felt that Garner went to ground too easily on too many occasions in the previous home match against Liverpool, but here, in the dying seconds, when he’s not even on a booking, he just has to sense the danger and stop his opponent.
Like I’ve already said, it’s another great finish from Doku but we’re guilty of ball watching again. Nathan Patterson loses his footing and then I’m not quite sure what Alcaraz is trying to do, because while you’ve got to stand your ground, you’ve also got to move forwards, otherwise the player taking the shot just uses you as a mannequin, which is what happens, resulting in a shot that leaves Jordan Pickford with no chance.