FULLTIME THOUGHTS: The Blues simply do not have enough incision in the opposing half. That’s three games without scoring, and three goals scored in their last six games. A wasted opportunity to pick up three points with much, much tougher games on the horizon.
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90+5’ – Boos ring out as the final whistle goes.
90+2’ – Young cross, over both DCL and Beto, falls to Myko whose shot is blocked for a corner. Young inswinger, cleared. Back into the box, Tarky finds Beto and his shot is blocked! That was the game right there.
90’ – Beto wins a foul as he tries to keep the ball near the left sideline. There will only be four minutes added on and Goodison is unhappy.
Branthwaite gets his head to the freekick but it goes wide of the far post.
88’ – Everton with a lot of sideways passing as Brentford settle into a defensive shape, and eventually the Bees can relieve the pressure with a misplaced pass.
83’ – Tarky spots Beto’s run behind the line, finds him and the striker whips around and shoots, but it’s wild.
Myko finds McNeil with a long diagonal, the Everton midfielder puts it on his left foot and shoots, bobbles its way to the goalie.
81’ – Janelt cuts Ndiaye down about thirty yards away from goal in a central-ish position. Young is standing over it, tries to drop it around the penalty spot but no Everton runners were near it. Wasted.
79’ – McNeil has now switched to the right, sets up Young for a cross.. Beto gets to it but his positioning is all wrong and the header is wayward. Ugh.
Brentford win a freekick on the edge of the Everton defensive third, and the visitors are taking their time with it. Inswinger that Pickford takes after wasting a minute, and the Blues are away again.
78’ – Looking like an aggressive 4-4-2 now, with McNeil and Ndiaye on the wings and pressing up. Haven’t seen Beto and DCL working well as a striking pairing before, is this the day it all changes?
77’ – McNeil cross into the box, Beto nods it goalwards but little power or placement, and Flekken takes.
Now Ndiaye dances his way in on the right, but again his cutback cannot find a blue shirt.
75’ – Myko lets the ball run on the left, McNeil’s deep cross is played back across goal from Ndiaye, and no one to follow up. With two strikers on the pitch, how does that happen?
71’ – Again Lindstrom with a good cross, it comes to McNeil who tees up Mykolenko for a cross, way overhit. Ugh.
Igor Thiago and Schade coming on for the Bees, Wissa and Damsgaard off.
Attacking subs for the Blues too, with Doucoure and Lindstrom off, and Mangala and Beto on.
68’ – With Lewis-Potter being so aggressive from the left back position, it’s bizarre the Blues haven’t been piling the pressure on in that area. Young finally steps up and gets a corner from a blocked cross.
McNeil inswinger, and Flekken claims it well.
66’ – McNeil again, about twenty something yards out, fizzes it well wide with his left foot.
Chance for the Blues to break at pace and Lindstrom with a poor ball gives it away.
63’ – Counter for the Bees and Lewis-Potter was in acres of space on the left, Pickford saves his shot, rebound falls to Jensen who blazes over. Everton survive.
62’ – Beautiful set-up move there and a sequence of about a dozen passes ends with Ndiaye cushioning a ball into the penalty box and Myko rushing a right-foot shot off his ankle and over the bar.
57’ – Shot from Lindstrom is not far over. Now the Blues have a corner on the right, and Flekken punches over for another corner.
Taken short, Myko tries to cross and it’s blocked, and now Brentford have the ball and will try to bleed the clock down.
55’ – Ahh there’s the Dominic Calvert-Lewin we know, offside again.
The Blues are seeing plenty of the ball and are moving it around well too. Ndiaye being fluid in the #10 position is certainly helping.
Young’s deep ball into the box and Ndiaye goes sliding in.. oooh ball gets stuck under his legs.
52’ – Ndiaye in space in the left channel, but can’t get a shot off and Flekken is out quick. Collins stamps on his own goalie, and the Bees fans at Goodison want action taken against Ndiaye?!
50’ – Gana fizzes another shot, this one is on target and Flekken puts it out for a corner! Corner taken, partly cleared, and then Lindstrom is offside.
47’ – Looks like Ndiaye is in the #10 role now with McNeil wide on the left. What was that Dyche was saying in his presser about Ndiaye playing through the middle?
46’ – Second half underway!
Halftime Thoughts – The Blues certainly started the game hot and should have been a goal up, but the visitors have had their own chances too. How will the hosts adjust to being a man up though, and can they press home the advantage?
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45+3’ – The Blues are holding the Bees in, and Gueye tries another speculative shot, wide.
There’s the halftime whistle.
45’ – Everton are pressing now, Ndiaye jinks about on the right, ball comes to Myko who tries a shot, blocked.
Three minutes to be added on.
39’ – Cross into the Everton box, Pinnock heads back across the goal and two unmarked Bees get to the ball first and somehow they don’t score? Norgaard did crash into Pickford who is down on the ground, studs into the goalie’s ankle.
Referee Chris Kavanagh will review for a red card offence, and does send off the Bees player. That’s not really fair, I will say. He was going for the ball.
Anyways, that’s Brentford down to ten men now. We should have a few minutes added on here.
37’ – What is this defence doing? A long ball to Wissa who runs completely free between the two centerhalves, Pickford out quick and saves one-on-one!
Corner taken short, pinged into the box, the Blues can’t really clear the ball and the visitors have another corner. Everton do well to clear.
35’ – Tarky blocks a strong shot from Damsgaard. Corner from the Everton left, Tarky clears well. The Blues have a chance to break but the ball doesn’t have the required power to get to Doucs who has to turn back to receive it.
33’ – Ndiaye does not get enough credit for his defensive work. He chased down Mbeumo and won the ball, and that ends up with DCL setting up McNeil for a shot from outside the box that is deflected just wide of goal.
McNeil inswinger is too close to the goalie.
30’ – Rapturous applause as Everton coolly play through an aggressive Bees press. Tarky finds Gana who charges up through the middle, but a shot attempt is blocked.
28’ – Another possession on the right after a foul on Gana ends up in a corner. Way too deep from McNeil and Tarky cannot rein it in.
27’ – Now McNeil sets DCL free in the right channel, he is pushed a bit wide of goal and tries a low shot, Flekken saves with his foot!
Corner is deep, Tarky puts it back into the box and Flekken makes a meal of it, and the ref agrees he was impeded.
25’ – Everton look satisfied to sit back and hit the visitors on the counter.
20’ – If only McNeil had a right foot. Great run through the middle for the Everton player, beats Damsgaard and under pressure from Collins can only put his shot tamely wide.
16’ – Another long throw and Branthwaite can’t make solid contact, corner. These long throws have been problematic early on. Taken short, and then whipped in but the Blues hold off the Bees.
15’ – Pinnock fouls DCL, freekick on the right. Lindstrom low into the box, and the Bees can clear.
13’ – Tarky slices a clearance, and puts it out for a throw-in. Long throw for the visitors, the Blues can’t clear their lines and van den Berg’s volley fizzes wide of the far post.
11’ – No Ndiaye jinks his way into the box, cutback looking for a teammate but Brentford clear.
Now DCL makes a run and wins a corner on the left, but he was offside.
10’ – Brentford attack and Wissa free on the Everton left, looked offside, his ball into the box eludes Janelt and Pickford gathers.
8’ – Two straight quick counter attacks, and once again the Blues are unable to get a shot on goal.
6’ – Corner into the box this time, and eventually another shot from Gueye, but it goes wide.
4’ – Now Ndiaye wriggles his way through three players and fires off a shot, wide. Looks like a corner. Taken short on the left, ball eventually into the box is cleared. Gana pings a speculative shot goalwards, DCL deflects it with his back to goal.. and Flekken with a brilliant save puts it out for another corner.
3’ – Ndiaye looking very lively, sets up Myko for a cross that is overhit.
2’ – Some early possession for the Blues.
1’ – Underway at Goodison!
Everton – Dyche starts both Branthwaite and McNeil, with Lindstrom keeping his place too.
Brentford – Frank has his trio of injured players available, Mbeumo, Wissa and Pinnock.
With the last international break of the year now behind us, Everton are back in action with Brentford visiting Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon.
The Toffees appear to have corrected their early season leaky defence, but the goals do seem to have dried up on the attacking end as well. Everton have scored just twice in their last five Premier League games, and their (lack of) creativity has been quite obvious as well.
Dwight McNeil and Jarrad Branthwaite both appear to be fit again, and will likely greatly influence the scoreline tonight, especially if Everton can fashion a win with Sean Dyche currently holding a three-to-none edge over Thomas Frank since taking over the reins at the Blues.
Competition: Premier League Matchweek 12
Date and start time: Saturday, November 22nd at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m ET / 3:00 p.m. BST
Stadium: Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
Capacity: 39,572
Weather: 54°F/12°C, showers, 25% chance of precipitation, 14 mph winds
TV: Peacock – United States; N/A – United Kingdom; Fubo – Canada, beIN Sports HD 2, SuperSport Football Plus ROA, Optus Sport, Astro Premier League 3
Radio: evertontv, BBC Radio 5 Live
Live stream: Fubo, ESPN Play Sur, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, Disney+ South America, RUSH, Disney+ Hotstar, JioTV,
Gamethread: There will be a live blog for this game, with our coverage continuing after the final whistle with the match recap and reaction.
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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com
The Blues have three straight wins over the Bees, including the double last season beating them 3-1 away before securing a tight 1-0 home win with an Idrissa Gueye beauty in late April to ensure safety from relegation.
