Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium following Everton's 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace
James Tarkowski and Jordan Pickford after Crystal Palace's second goal against Everton at Selhurst Park on May 10, 2026
James Tarkowski and Jordan Pickford after Crystal Palace's second goal against Everton at Selhurst Park on May 10, 2026(Image: Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
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It was always going to be a long stretch for Everton to get Europe and it looks like that’s gone now after failing to beat Crystal Palace. The lack of leadership and ruthlessness in this team is not going to get you where you want to be.
You’ve still got to go for it because you don’t know what could happen, but there was talk of it at Finch Farm. David Moyes put a marker down to the players that this club should be competing for Europe.
This is the kind of safe, mid-table season we all hoped for after what has gone on in recent years, but as results unfold elsewhere, you start thinking there are opportunities and if the team can just win games at crucial times then they can be in a much better position, but we never take full advantage of that.
How do we become more ruthless to get there? Is that a change of style? I’m not too sure.
We need a change of mentality though because our record against the bottom seven clubs is pathetic, we’ve now dropped 19 points against them. The starting line-up hasn’t changed much for a couple of years now, have these players hit their limit and it needs a full reshuffle?
An opportunity has arisen this season because Chelsea, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur are all struggling. It was a chance to be there, and it looks like we won’t take it.
We’ve had no real excuses. We haven’t been playing in Europe with lots of midweek games and we haven’t been on a cup run.
The only things you can point to is moving to a new stadium and a few difficult kick-off times. We’ve only won five games since the turn of the calendar year and out of 18 matches, that’s not good enough.
I’ve praised Everton’s players when they’ve raised their games against the top teams in the table like Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City and we should have beaten Pep Guardiola’s side, but ever since the last break, the same issues have been reoccurring. We started really well and went a goal up, but we need to be ruthless.
I don’t want us to leave the door open. We need to go for the jugular and when you’re on top of teams you need to keep punishing them, but we don’t.
It’s another game that we’re walking away from feeling frustrated and disappointed. Another lead has been squandered with a game we’ve not been able to take maximum points from.
Questions need to be asked over why does it keep on happening? Crystal Palace could have gone on and won the game in the end.
They played on Thursday night and should have been tired, yet their manager came out and said about how he felt they looked fresher than Everton. That’s what I warned about last week, because we’ve had a week to prepare, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be an easier game.
We enjoyed a perfect start, going one-nil up early on, but I could already see what was happening as we just retreated and invited more pressure onto us. Palace were able to get into a rhythm, started causing us problems and we let them get a foot on the ball.
There’s a group of players here who keep reverting to reset. Once they go ahead or they start getting on top of an opponent, they think that’s enough and go back into their old ways.
The backline was so deep all game. That invites pressure on and makes it difficult for our midfield to get anywhere near to their midfield, and they’ve got players in there who like to dictate things.
We were forcing mistakes from them at first but then we just retreated as the game went on. The goal was coming from Palace.
Again, it’s from a mistake. There’s a dangled foot from Michael Keane and he’s thrown his body in the way, but we should have been nowhere near that 18-yard box.
We need to be braver and by that, I mean Keane and James Tarkowski playing higher and giving our midfield the opportunity to win second balls.
Some people are blaming the manager, and some people are blaming the players, but we’ve seen this happen from before David Moyes came back to the club. It happened under Sean Dyche and other previous managers.
I blame the players. David Moyes is not telling Keane to make a poor clearance.
He’s not telling Iliman Ndiaye and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to miss those chances. The players need to step up and take accountability.
He’s not telling Keane and Tarkowski to not mark the most dangerous man on the pitch, who has come on fresh. He wasn’t telling them not to mark Erling Haaland in the previous game.
David Moyes isn’t telling Charly Alcaraz to head the ball the wrong way in stoppage time against Manchester City or not close down Jeremy Doku while having his hands behind his back. He’s not telling three players to all run up the pitch while City are pushing for a last-gasp equaliser – the players are letting David Moyes down.
Opponents are clever and exploit our weak spots, like putting long balls over Vitalii Mykolenko’s head. Ismaila Sarr had a diving header for Crystal Palace inside the six-yard box yet Tarkowski, Keane and Jake O’Brien were all two or three yards off him, standing in a line with none of them marking him.
That’s not David Moyes. That’s the three players on the pitch not taking accountability.
Tarkowski has done it a lot this season. He always drops off and tries to protect the goal – just mark the man, stop the threat, trust your keeper, he’s England’s number one.
Can somebody please mark the man in the centre by the goal? It’s not rocket science, it’s basics for a defender.
There was a bit of a disagreement after the second equaliser. At first I thought it was Tarkowski, but when you look at it again, it’s Keane.
He can see all of what’s going on. Tarkowski has been dragged a bit wide, but Keane is stood behind him, so he’s doing nothing.
To his left is their main striker [Jean-Philippe Mateta] who has come on and is unmarked. Conceding goals is disappointing, there’s always someone to blame, a mistake somewhere, I get that, but for the first 23 games of the season, we were averaging around one goal per game conceded but now it’s two.
Merlin Rohl probably got a bit of stick for not stopping the cross from Tyrick Mitchell for Palace’s second equaliser but if I’m a centre-half and see a midfielder trying to stop a cross, I’m going to think that he’s probably not going to manage it because it’s not his main position. He’s been put in a one-v-one situation against a player who is pretty fast and has shown danger.
James Garner could have come across and helped him more but that back four have got to expect there is a good chance that the ball is coming in. Yes, Rohl has gone with the wrong leg and should have done better but crosses happen and the main guy for Palace is free on his own to do what he wants and that’s unacceptable at any level of football.
I think we all know where we need to improve. If we get two full-backs who can get forward and involved in the game while also being good defensively, I think that will transform how we go about things.
We’re missing Jack Grealish who can hold the ball up and make it stick up front for a few seconds to help us get up the pitch and we’re also missing Jarrad Branthwaite at the other end because we know he enables us to play further forward. Because Jarrad isn’t fit, that doesn’t mean we need to retreat though.
Everton need to be cute and clever like Arsenal to get decisions
VAR has been a huge talking point this season and probably one of the biggest decisions in history made by using the technology ensured Arsenal beat West Ham United. I could see by the laws of the game it was a foul on the goalkeeper but like the grappling we saw in the Everton game against Manchester City, we were told that was going to be clamped down on.
The inconsistency is what is really frustrating for fans. It’s killing the game for me.
Yes, it’s a foul on the goalkeeper, but then there were four or five other fouls before that even happened. Tomas Soucek gets dragged to the floor, Gabriel is grabbing shirts, Leandro Trossard is grappling.
It was a big decision for West Ham and the check went on for more than four minutes. You’re thinking: “If it goes on for so long, is the mistake clear and obvious?”
Arsenal have been at it themselves all season and we’ve seen Jordan Pickford impeded in similar circumstances. If Arsenal are getting beat, Raya is catching that ball 100% and getting them up the pitch but he knows that it’s going to be looked at.
My friends from abroad are saying it’s horrendous in the Premier League. It’s not good to watch.
What’s the solution? Do we have to find more creative ideas like playing short corners, or do we just have to remember that football is a contact sport.
Could James Tarkowski have been stronger in the derby at Hill Dickinson Stadium? Yes, he probably could have.
But was he getting dragged with two arms? Yes, he was.
VAR didn’t spot that. It didn’t spot the two arms on his shoulders from two different Liverpool players.
If it had been disallowed, then they’d have probably found the words to say: “Pulling on the shoulder.”
In contrast, Everton’s game at Crystal Palace is yet another one where none of our opponents’ players were booked. Are we not being clever enough?
Imagine being a full-back on a yellow card with Ndiaye running at you? Why aren’t we thinking that way?
All credit to Mikel Arteta, a former team-mate of mine at Rangers and ex-Everton player, he’s got an opportunity to win the Premier League title now because his Arsenal team have found ways to improve their chances. They lost their head-to-head at Manchester City last month, but they’ve come up with solutions and that’s what we need to do in terms of being cute and clever.