Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium following Everton's 3-1 win over Coventry City
Thierno Barry and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall celebrate during Everton's 3-1 win over Coventry City
Thierno Barry and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall celebrate during Everton's 3-1 win over Coventry City
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It felt strange coming home on Friday following Everton’s 3-1 win over Coventry City, watching a couple of incidents that I thought looked iffy when I was watching it live. A few decisions actually went our way with Vitalii Mykolenko very lucky, as was James Tarkowski.
So, I can understand the Coventry and Frank Lampard frustrations here and there, but as David Moyes said, we’ve had so many incidents go against us, it’s about time something went in our favour. While I thought we were lucky in the big moments, that’s well overdue and long may it continue because we’re not used to it being a Blue and for things to go our way.
I was expecting a tough game against a team that has got a bit of confidence you can score goals, so that was my concern before kick-off.
Jake O’Brien played right-back against Newcastle and I thought he did well, like they all did, and it was a great team performance, but I think when Newcastle started pushing for that equaliser, he did let a few crosses in here and there. At home you want to be on the front foot.
You want to be more proactive and I think that that line-up was probably the one that the majority of Evertonians were wishing for. Unfortunately, after about five or 10 minutes, it didn’t seem to be working and I don’t think it was down to the personnel.
I think it was just more down to what I think David Moyes had spoke about after the game Monday night and then playing on Friday night. You’ve still got a few days to recover and get back into it but it just felt that we looked a bit leggy, standoffish, passive in our play.
There were too many touches on the ball and slow build-up play while they were breaking our lines far too easily. We were giving them far too much respect and that’s what I keep calling for, especially at home, I don’t want to give any opposition respect, you’ve got to make it hard and a difficult for them.
You’ve got to force errors and force mistakes from the opposition and we never did that enough. You could see Coventry really growing as the game was going. They were getting opportunities, they were going through our midfield far too easy.
That was a huge concern but the most important thing obviously was that we came away with smiles on our faces and we got the win, and I think to finish on a positive from this group of games since the last international break is huge.
When we went a goal behind, we started playing the ball faster, sharper and forcing the issue. Why does that keep on happening? That’s the big question mark.
Why have we got to wait for something to happen to force a reaction? Why can’t we just be ruthless from the start and not give the opposition leads or having a scare before it wakes us up and we start playing our football.
I think the equaliser was most important moment. When we equalised almost straight away, it changed the whole stadium.
When we went one-nil down, all the Evertonians thought: 'Here we go again'. Every time we have an opportunity, we seem to blow it and that was probably in the thoughts of the people in the ground.
Fortunately enough, we started to show the quality and the speed needed to get back into the game and that equaliser totally changed the momentum. Obviously the fans got behind the players and they responded.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall again scored a fantastic goal. But because he plays that little bit further up, he’s obviously not involved in the build-up play round about the middle of the picture and we don’t seem to have that type of player who can drive forward with the ball.
I think Hayden Hackney, when he comes on, he’s the type of player who can do that. So, I think that’s another question mark for David Moyes, is Hackney the one to choose if you want to start controlling games a bit more.
We had back-to-back defeats against Chelsea against Arsenal and they’re both strong teams but I think it was the manner that really frustrated a lot of Evertonians. There were a couple of tough games on the horizon against Newcastle, including a big cup tie, so the pressure was really on David Moyes.
After those back-to-back defeats, it did feel like as case of where is this season get going to be in these next couple of games and it was a huge challenge to keep it alive. The manager answered all those questions by getting three wins on the spin.
It’s remarkable given the size of the squad he’s got compared to everyone else in the league. David Moyes keeps on pushing the players, if you want to get into the starting line-up, you’ve got to get in his face at Finch Farm and show it in training every day.
Barry knows what Everton fans want now
Thierno Barry had already matched his goals total for last season going into the Coventry City game and now he is on double figures – it’s brilliant. You see all the highlights of all these goal reels and look they’re not spectacular goals but we don’t care and most importantly Barry won’t care, he's there.
He’s finding the right areas for the tap-ins. He’s in the danger zone.
He knows what the opposition don’t want and it’s up to the players to start feeding Barry and using him to the best of his ability. I thought the first goal was a prime example of we tried to get the ball to him but for the second opportunity, the delivery was much better.
If you give him the service, it looks like he’s going to find the net and that’s going to give him massive confidence because. While Evertonians might smirk about the type of goals he scored off his backside or his torso, I saw a statistic that he’s only scored one goal from further than 11 yards out and that was from the shot from James Tarkowski that deflected off him and went in.
Then you look at the paper, you see the top goalscorers and he’s got the double figures next to his name and that will give him conference to go and to go and achieve more goals for us and for himself.
I think it started to click for him against Coventry. He started bullying the centre halves.
When he first came to the Premier League, he was probably a little bit in awe of the physicality of it, defenders were pushing him and was never really settled.
I think for 20 minutes after his first goal, you could see him growing in confidence. He brushed off the centre-half, set the play and spun.
He knows what he needs to do to go to get the fans up and they were cheering when he did a tackle. He understands what it’s like to wear the royal blue shirt now and have the fans singing his name.
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