Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Everton following the first Merseyside Derby at Hill Dickinson Stadium
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David Moyes’ Merseyside Derby record is not very good, and he’s got to be a bit braver. If Everton had a real go at Liverpool, tried to push them and got beat, then we’d probably accept it a bit more.
While we did that early on, towards the end if felt like we were thinking: “Let’s just get in with a draw, we’ll be fine with that.”
Can David Moyes learn a lesson here? Liverpool made five substitutions and just one was forced whereas we made three substitutions with two of those forced.
It showed. If anyone was going to win that game in stoppage time, then it was always going to be Liverpool.
We were sitting off and getting deeper and deeper. Everton just needed to stop their momentum and could have brought Tim Iroegbunam on to bring some fresh legs.
David Moyes has done brilliantly since he returned to the football club, but certain elements of the fanbase have often complained how his subs can be a bit too late. We gave him credit a few weeks ago when he made some earlier substitutions and it worked, so hopefully he’ll start doing that more often and trust the lads on the bench to come on and do a job for him.
The sun was out, it was a typical derby, fast and ferocious, and we just ran out of steam. I’m really surprised that Moyes and his coaching staff seemingly couldn’t spot that as they needed to make a change with Liverpool getting on top of us.
Now you come away from it thinking that the manager was happy to play for a draw. Playing 90 minutes is hard, playing 101 minutes is even harder.
A lot of Evertonians went into this fixture feeling a lot more positive about their team’s chances and the pre-match stuff like the coach welcome and tifo was unbelievable – another fantastic effort from the 1878s – but then it’s up to the players to respond. We hoped they could rise to the occasion and for the first 20 minutes or so, I thought we were head and shoulders the better team.
We found our rhythm quite early on and Beto’s header forced a good save from Giorgi Mamardashvili although his one v one was absolutely shocking for a striker. He did well to get the run and the keeper probably helps him by staying on his line, but you’ve got to show a lot more composure than that.
It’s a big occasion, but that’s what he’s been brought to the football club for, and you’ve got to at least hit the target a force the keeper to make a save. The ball almost hit the corner flag and I think I was on my knees at that point!
The home fans were still willing the players on though as they could smell blood and it’s about time we did that. We got the goal and the ground went absolutely berserk and for a few moments, it was a wonderful feeling but then VAR gets involved and it’s cancelled out for offside.
From then, it sort of shocked us. We sat back, made a mistake, being too passive with what was a bit of a panic clearance from Jake O’Brien.
Liverpool were clever with Everton’s disallowed goal. They got up the pitch, fast and all in a line.
If that was us in reverse, we’d still be on the edge of the box, waiting for the second phase to come back in. Liverpool took the gamble in going: “Let’s be brave and get up the pitch as quickly as we can.”
We need to learn, while we soak up pressure and we’re really good at being compact, you don’t want to be doing it two or three times when you could just do it once and receive the ball back. If Everton did that, it would help our midfielders like James Garner, Idrissa Gueye and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to get closer to their opponents to make it tighter and more difficult for them.
When we’re sitting deep, Liverpool’s midfield could do anything they wanted. Nobody for Liverpool was even running in behind.
I get it if they had a Michael Owen, a Luis Suarez or a Fernando Torres like they’ve had in the past who would want to spin and run in behind, but they didn’t have anyone like that, so why were our players standing so deep? They could have got themselves 10-15 yards further forwards to give our midfielders the opportunity to win the ball back.
Dwight McNeil should have been a lot cosier on the ball. He did a soft back pass to nobody, but if he’d have taken a touch or played it inside, Idrissa Gueye was through for a counter-attack.
Unfortunately, he made a sloppy mistake, Liverpool showed their quality and punished us. If we want to be playing in Europe and challenging in the next few years, that’s what happens when you make mistakes against top teams and unfortunately, we weren’t punishing Liverpool when they made mistakes.
After that, we just needed to get in for half-time. Liverpool started to get a little bit of rhythm while we were dropping deep and giving them a lot of space.
Having reset at the break, we started asking questions again and I felt we could overrun them as they wouldn’t be up to the battle if Everton could get the next goal. It was a good combination between Vitalii Mykolenko, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Beto to get the equaliser but unfortunately from that moment onwards, we seemed to sit back.
James Garner was going to ground far too often, panicking in situations, like he needed to win the ball straightaway. Gueye was getting picked off a little bit, and our players looked tired.
When Mamardashvili was forced off injured after Beto’s goal, the first thing Everton should have been thinking was to test Liverpool’s third choice keeper Freddie Woodman. They needed to play for corners and wide free-kicks or deliver some long throw-ins – be a bit cute and clever.
We didn’t though and just tried to play the same way. Ndiaye had a shot that was a comfortable save for him but apart from that, we weren’t exploiting a potential significant weakness in the opposition side and I came away from the game wondering why we weren’t a bit braver.
We only had one corner in the whole match. They’re really afraid of us from set-pieces, we’ve seen it so many times over the years from Duncan Ferguson to Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
They don’t like the hustle and bustle. The equaliser in the last home derby from James Tarkowski came from getting the ball into the box and popping the question but we didn’t do that in the latter stages.
Unfortunately, the corner that brought Liverpool’s winning goal came from space in the midfield because we were leggy. They had an opportunity to have a shot because nobody was closing down and it’s come off O’Brien’s heel for a corner.
Tarkowski was outmuscled and because Jordan Pickford is too busy messing about, the ball just goes over his hand. Liverpool had been really dangerous from the corners, but in the first half we defended them well, especially Beto who got back and cleared a couple.
To lose a derby is horrible, but to lose from virtually the final kick of the game is even worse.
Moyes needs to learn from Slot when it comes to referees
After the game, David Moyes came out moaning about the referee and he’s done that quite a lot but what Arne Slot did, and others like Alex Ferguson have also done in the past, is to pre-empt it all the week before. Chris Kavanagh has now gone four consecutive matches without booking a single Liverpool player.
Even before the derby, that was obviously three. I’m not saying their players deserved to be shown yellow cards in previous fixtures but it’s a fact so put it out there and make the suggestion that he’s potentially being soft on them.
How Virgil van Dijk’s challenge on Idrissa Gueye is not a yellow card I do not know, it’s the easiest one you’ll ever see, but then it’s Jordan Pickford who ends up getting booked, complaining about it. If you have a defender on a booking, then that totally changes how you’re going to play.
As a team, you can try and exploit him then. Tell Beto to get at him, because another foul and he’s off the pitch.
There’s no point in snarling about a referee’s decisions after the game. You can’t do anything about that.
Just look at the number of tactical fouls that Liverpool were making, and they were getting away with it. Yet Kavanagh was very quick on the whistle every time an Everton player did any kind of tiny little challenge.
We didn’t get the penalty either. Looking at the incident at the time, I thought Curtis Jones was far too physical.
As David Moyes has said, I don’t think Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has even seen him on his left. He ran off a different player, and he’s been impeded in the area.
Why would he want to go down? Some people have said it would be a soft penalty, but I don’t care. Anywhere else on the pitch, that’s a free-kick.
Never mind a supposed high bar. We’ve seen lesser penalties given this season, and again it comes down to the referee.