What you saw today is why Everton won’t succeed twelve months from now.
When we’re scrambling around for deals in the last week of August in 2027 and again starting another campaign with an unbalanced and dysfunctional squad, you witnessed the cause in real-time [at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday](/reports/46198.html).
And it goes back further. What you saw last season, is why we aren’t succeeding now. What you saw in 2018 , 2021 and 2023 is why the club failed time after time thereafter.
Every campaign is a placeholder, beset by past errors of judgement and ambition crushed by self-imposed limitations.
It comes down to a pretty abysmal use of the squad which proves costly not only in terms of final league standing but how the team looks heading into another new season.
Players, for a long while in recent Everton history, haven’t been given a proper run after showing positive signs while others don’t get a look in at all. Being honest, if it continues, I wouldn’t blame any player for having a word with his agent and pushing for a move.
Why this season is David Moyes not playing Jake O’Brien? Why are we not giving Tyler Dibling real faith in his ability by keeping him when he performs well? Why on Saturday was Hayden Hackney left on the bench and a player who has only recently returned from injury given the nod ahead of him? It was a decision which directly led to Chelsea’s second goal and a defeat for Everton. But it’s not the first such instance and it won’t be the last.
So, looking at the specifics…
Jake O’Brien arrived at Goodison Park from French giants Lyon with a strong reputation. The defender’s first Everton manager cited his lack of Premier League experience as a reason not to play him before Moyes deployed him at right-back.
At centre-back, O’Brien helped the Blues to wins and clean sheets away at Forest and Villa last season. His reward? Back to full-back and now, out the team and unused.
Michael Keane, who the stats show doesn’t have the same positive impact on the defence, is preferred ahead of him right now.
Two and a bit seasons O’Brien has been here and what is there to show for it, both for the player and the club itself? We haven’t established a strong centre-back pairing and he’s never had a sustained run in his position.
Who could blame O’Brien wanting to move on and not waste his time on the bench? Yet should he depart, Everton will need to replace him while Keane and James Tarkowski will both be 34 next season. Where is the planning? Where is the foresight?
Any smart club would have paired O’Brien with Jarrad Branthwaite at the back a long while ago now. Alas, not Everton and while a solution is ignored, a problem it will become soon enough.
Hackney, meanwhile, was the Championship Player of the Season last time out and has played nearly 200 games for Middlesbrough in the second tier. And yet, you get the sense Moyes isn’t ready to trust him fully. Instead, he’ll have to earn his stripes warming up on the side of the pitch while Everton fail to win games. Of course, Hackney has only been here a few months but his showings point to a player who can influence matches.
To play Christian Nørgaard, who has barely kicked in a ball in a year, ahead of Hackney on Saturday was a baffling decision. The latter would have got us on the front foot in search of an equaliser. The former was clearly not fit and gave away the free-kick that sealed the defeat by Chelsea.
Then there’s Tyler Dibling and Tyrique George. It’s like we don’t know what to do with talented footballers. There is such an emphasis on experience and trust that we seemingly stick with players based on age alone while the expressive players who dare try to make stuff happen must wait their turn. Harrison Armstrong seems to have secured his spot, for now, but this seems an exception to the rule.
When it comes to someone like Dibling, I say to mates that Everton often remind me of that Steve Buscemi ‘How do you do fellow kids?’ gif. It was the cool, right move to do but really, we’re not down with the sensible sides. Like, Everton will sign a supreme English talent in a way the lauded, forward-thinking Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth would buy a player from South America or the French second division, but then have absolutely zero idea what to do with him.
While those aforementioned clubs would throw the player in, with a deep awareness of how he fits into their starting XI and knowing full-well exactly his best attributes and position long before landing him, it feels like Everton are convinced 18-months on the bench observing our dire play is the way to go or, failing that, a two-year loan to Derby County, getting kicked by Championship defenders.
If Dibling doesn’t become a regular, you can already see how the story plays out. Double figures for RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga, regular goals and assists in Europe and then a Manchester United or Chelsea reaping the rewards after Dibling was given a stage to shine on away from the Everton dugout.
The club was the same with Ademola Lookman nearly a decade ago. Sure, he isn’t a world-beater but he’s played at a higher level than Everton in recent times but rather than play him, believe in him, we were certain he wasn’t ready. With each week and month that passes, the harder it becomes to bed these youngsters in.
There seems to be a real fear to just let players play. It’s why Adam Aznou is in Spain right now. We don’t allow for trust to grow and in reality, the left-back’s loan to Malaga is seemingly just kicking the can down the road before we take a loss on him next summer before he ultimately, in time, plays regularly in the Champions League for another club, considered one of Europe’s top young left-backs, again, by 2030. You can see it a mile off.
Moyes also appears to have a rigid outlook on sticking with players who have specific attributes and he shoehorns them into different positions. Like Merlin Rohl on the right wing ahead of, you know, actually wingers. Because he’s a strong runner, he seems to get given the nod despite being caught unawares and out of position on the regular as it doesn’t come naturally being out there.
Of course, Moyes sees the players in training everyday and will have his solid reasons for his selection choices. From a fan perspective, it’s all subjective but more and more, some of the decisions are looking objectively off.
Remember last season too? Dwight McNeil wasn’t playing and nearly moved to Crystal Palace in January. After that switch didn’t happen, he became a regular, starting ahead of players with a supposed future at the club. Completely non-sensical. There was zero logic to it.
The management of the team set-up is so obtuse at times and it’s going to hurt us, not only this season, but in the summer and future campaigns too. Players won’t be happy missing out if the team is dropping points and moves will happen. All the while, the squad is getting smaller and smaller, lacking numbers but also quality.
As it stands, you aren’t laying any foundations. You aren’t allowing the roots to take hold. You’re using short-term solutions for today’s problems with no thought for how the team needs to develop for the future.
I long for the day Everton sees what is staring the club right in the face and cottons on to what makes for a sustainably successful football team that competes, plays with no fear, bids to win every game and ultimately, lifts trophies.
Give players you have invested in the chance to improve with actual game time in their preferred position and they may just thrive at Hill Dickinson and not elsewhere.
Until that happens, every season will be a placeholder, Everton ambling through the here and now with the same old tired set-ups and failing to nurture a team that can grow together and achieve real glory.
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