After an impressive undefeated start to the season that stretched across eight fixtures, Everton have lost each of their previous two matches in a rather uninspired fashion.
The fallout from their 2-1 defeat at St James’ Park was pragmatic, as it had been seven days earlier following the loss to Southampton. After all, the Blues still find themselves third in the table and just three points behind rivals Liverpool at the top.
Additionally, Carlo Ancelotti’s men were without key players such as James Rodriguez, Richarlison, Seamus Coleman and Lucas Digne in Sunday’s clash with Newcastle.
The absence of these key profiles reminded us just how important each is to this Everton side, as without them, the inefficiencies of the players forced to step up in their place were distinctly exposed.
There were a number of candidates who dominated the collective frustrated conversations amongst Evertonians after the match, however, it was midfielder Andre Gomes who perhaps attracted the most discourse.
The Portuguese international has been splitting the Everton fan base for some time now. Some value him as an elegant passer who can be crucial in build-up play, whilst others opine he lacks any true influence, invisible without the ball and unremarkable with it.
No matter which side of the fence you sit, there was certainly a case that on Sunday, he was the latter rather than the former.
Before being substituted just after the hour mark, he’d made just one tackle and two successful possession pressures out of 16 attempts. This equated to a success rate of around 12.5%, only Jonjoe Kenny posted a lower pressure success rate for Everton on the day.
Things weren’t much better when he was in possession. He completed just 22 passes in the match, four fewer than substitute Bernard who managed 26, despite playing half the number of minutes than the former-Barcelona man.
Additionally, with ball carries, he managed to progress the ball a total of 50 yards towards the Newcastle goal, again for comparison, Alex Iwobi managed a total of 64 progressive yards despite coming on in the 77th minute.
Perhaps most crucially though, it was his laboured attempted to clear the ball from a Newcastle corner that led to Callum Wilson being caught with his swinging leg, resulting in a penalty for the home side 11 minutes into the second half. Although it looked soft, it was a penalty by the letter of the law and ultimately proved decisive on the day.
In different circumstances, this performance could have been written off as a one-off. Yet the reality is, his influence has been fairly non-existent for some time now.
Last season, of all the Everton players who played 800+ league minutes, he ranked 10th for shot-creating actions, 8th for tackles won and 16th for successful pressures made. He has also failed to register a single shot on target since the 2018/19 season.
This seems to capture a player who doesn’t contribute a whole lot both with or without the ball, which coincides with what we often see in his performances.
Even his harshest of critic won’t deny that when his tail is up, he can put in fairly rousing performances. Yet, too often, he’s simply a player that doesn’t do enough to push the needle towards a victory for Everton.
Ancelotti already has a number of these type of players in the squad, and the Italian coach was forced to rely on too many of them in the Blues two most recent matches. It, therefore, should come as no surprise that Everton failed to secure a result in either.
