A Makeshift Back Four Holds Up
The Blues were hit with injuries in a couple of key areas during the run-up to Saturday’s game against Newcastle United, losing both star central defender Jarrad Branthwaite – only a week after his much-heralded return – along with left back Vitalii Mykolenko. Utility man Ashley Young was shifted from right back to cover the left side of the defence again — providing plenty of early season proof of the wisdom in extending his contract by a year during the summer. In for Branthwaite, in a decision that should have surprised absolutely nobody, was Michael Keane.
The 31-year-old, whose contract expires next June, is not everybody’s cup of tea and plenty (including me) see no sense in starting him ahead of moderately expensive new signing Jake O’Brien, but we may as well get used to it. The former Olympique Lyonnais man – who racked up over 2,800 minutes in France last season – continues to ride the pine, watching a player with no long-term future at Everton granted all the game time, missing out on valuable opportunities to get up to speed in the Premier League. At some point, Branthwaite will find fitness and Jake will spend the rest of the campaign watching him and James Tarkowski instead. I guess we have to hope he can improve by osmosis.
Keane, a target of much online vitriol, is an honest professional, with qualities obviously valued by Sean Dyche. It’s still a strange state of affairs for him to be ahead of the Irishman in the depth chart though. Either O’Brien is way off the player he showed himself to be last term, which appears unlikely, or the manager wasn’t keen on him from the outset and the defender has been imposed on him by director of football Kevin Thelwell. Dyche is on record as saying he won’t play someone who’s brought in and that he didn’t want, so we could be witnessing this play out now, and this is bad for both Everton and O’Brien.
Saying all that, Keane played fine at the weekend. He won both his aerial duels, made three interceptions, eight clearances and covered effectively, as the Toffees were opened up with some regularity. Again, when paired with Tarkowski he put in the superior performance of the two. He’s not a terrible defender at all, but this solid showing does not eliminate the vast amount of evidence which shows he should not a starting centre back for this club. His weaknesses are well-established, consistency has been in short supply for several years and he does not gel at all with his former Burnley colleague. Should Branthwaite continue to be absent, the argument in favour of O’Brien still stands.
Young continued his reliable run in the side, whereas on the right James Garner was again deployed as a makeshift fullback. Newcastle focused on him, as could be expected, but the career midfielder stood up well under the pressure. His passing wasn’t great (a 72% completion rate), but matches the team as a whole and although he missed on both his crossing attempts, he nailed one perfectly for Abdoulaye Doucoure to nod home — if only the Malian had been able to stay onside. Defensively, he lead the team with eleven ball recoveries, a combined seven tackles and interceptions and was only dribbled past once from five attempts. I’d argued for the 23-year-old to be used here last term and he’s showing signs that he’s getting to grips with the position.
The Balance is Still Off
Everton’s lineup contained no surprises, with the only optional change made by Dyche being the decision to replace Jesper Lindstrom with Jack Harrison — who’d contributed effectively from the bench during the previous match. Unfortunately, the on-loan Leeds United winger was again unable to provide a meaningful contribution as a starter. The Blues offence was largely nonexistent, but Harrison was particularly anonymous, contributing no key involvements, and winning only two of nine ground duels. Off the ball, he was dribbled past twice and made just two tackles and interceptions combined. With the hosts sitting deep, he lacks the pace to threaten on the counter.
The attacking quartet failed to combine all game. Each may as well have been playing in isolation. Time and again Jordan Pickford, or the defence hammered long balls towards the approximate location of Dominic Calvert-Lewin. The Everton striker did his best, but could only win four of 13 aerial duels — unsurprising, considering he was marshalled much of the time by giant Magpies defender Dan Burn. When DCL was successful, his knockdowns or flick-ons rarely found a teammate, so distant from them was he. The Toffees were so passive, so deep and starved of the ball that a front line lacking much genuine pace was unable to make much impact.
Iliman Ndiaye, again operating on the left wing, was the hosts’ sole outlet. The 24-year-old was inevitably swarmed by opposition players whenever he received the ball, but he was still able to make some headway. The 24-year-old contested an amazing 15 ground duels, winning eight and attempted ten dribbles, succeeding in half of them. He also won three fouls, but despite this effort, Ndiaye was unable to do any real damage as even his successes ultimately led to a loss of possession. It seemed as though he had to beat three visiting players to get anywhere, such was the lack of any support from teammates.
If the attack was ineffective – 0.52 of Everton’s 0.67 xG (Expected Goals) came from the same incident in the 67th minute: a shot from DCL and a wild follow-up by Idrissa Gueye – then the midfield was a problem, as anticipated. Doucoure and Orel Mangala had performed ably in the previous two games, but against Newcastle’s midfield trio of Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton and Sandro Tonali, they were outmanned and outmanoeuvred. Ostensibly, it’s the job of Dwight McNeil, operating in an advance central area, to drop in and contribute defensively, but the winger has not mastered this aspect of the role, or has not been instructed to do so. This is an issue that is sure to be exploited by future opponents.
Taking That Final Step Forward
More than 20 months into the Dyche era as Everton manager, the question remains: how far can he go? When the former long-serving Burnley boss arrived in post, at the end of January 2023, his brief was a simple one: guide the team clear of relegation and in this, he performed admirably. Last term, gaps in a threadbare squad were patched to some extent and the manager was able to produce some strong peaks – amidst concerning, lengthy furrows of dreadful form – but ultimately to guide the club to a safe mid-table finish, despite points sanctions imposed by the Premier League.
The question over the summer was: would Dyche be able to take that next step, having stabilized the ship and then put it on a steady course over the previous 18 months? Again, weak areas of the squad were addressed, reinforcements brought in and – despite the job not being completed (fullback being a particular problem) – Everton were unquestionably a strengthened outfit. Branthwaite had been retained as a cornerstone to the team’s defence. Additional attacking talent had arrived and the midfield looked in good shape — despite the loss of Amadou Onana, who Dyche had never fully been able to get the most out of anyway.
Entering the final year of his contract at Everton, Dyche seemed to be in a decent position to prove his worth to any potential new owners, who would certainly require more than a back to the wall, firefighting approach from the manager. Few aspiration club owners want to be associated with that kind of survivalist football. Advocates of Dyche claim that he has been stifled by the limitations of the teams he’s taken charge of and so has fostered a defensive, cautious style of play that’s now become synonymous with him. Well, this season has been his chance to show that this particular leopard has new spots and so far, he’s failed.
Newcastle are a good side, but they aren’t truly elite, so watching the Toffees set up negatively at Goodison Park, with the intent purely to navigate the 90 minutes in as risk-free a manner as possible, was as demoralizing as it was dull. The hosts managed just 13 touches in the opposition area on Saturday, against 43 for the Magpies. Of their eight efforts on goal, six came from outside the penalty area and none inside the six-yard box; all but two of Newcastle’s 14 shots were taken from relatively close range.
Should the Friedkin Group be successfully approved as owners of Everton, which appears almost certain and probably by early December, then will Dyche be the man they look to to lead the venerable club into a bold, bright new era? As it stands, it seems unlikely. So far, the 53-year-old has proven incapable of throwing off the self-imposed shackles of caution that define him as a boss suited to helming a team of limited prospects and ambition. He’s running out of time to show his prospective new employers that there’s more than one dimension to him. Further outings such as the one on Saturday, which displayed a complete lack of bravery and the desire to entertain the home crowd, will doom him to oblivion.
Statistics provided courtesy of fbref.com, fotmob.com and sofascore.com