Nothing but a win was required against this West Brom side who’ve only won once in the league since August. 1 win in 5 months in the league. Imagine supporting them. Poor bastards. Then again imagine supporting us at this moment in time. Allardyce said after last week’s thrashing by Spurs that we, “need to be more boring”. Well congratulations fella cos you certainly succeeded at Goodison yesterday.
The squad looked half decent on paper. Holgate and Williams back together at centre half but our everlasting search for a left back continues so the pain of watching Cuco Martina trying to defend also had to reluctantly continue. McCarthy and Schneiderlin partnered in the middle, 2 holding midfielders against West Brom certainly had a chance of Allardyce being successful in his quest to make us even worse than we already are. On a positive note our front 4 looked threatening, pacey, skilful etc. Vlasic made an unexpected start on the left as Walcott was handed his debut at right mid. Sigurðsson was finally playing in his own position and Tosun was handed his home debut. Come on Everton.
7 minutes was all it took for my hopes of a first win in 7 league games to be shattered into pieces. A high ball through the very heart of our nonexistent defence gave Rodriguez the chance to put the baggies 1 up and he made no mistake. Fuck off. 1-0 down at home to an Alan Pardew team inside 7 minutes, you couldn’t make it up. That was it for the first half, other than when Kenny had our first shot on target this year and the whole Gwladys Street rose to their feet and started cheering. What a fuckin shit show we’ve become. Boos rang round the ground at half time, unsurprisingly. Genuinely the worst half of football I’ve ever witnessed. I nearly went the pub with me cousin but I thought I might as well stay cos Everton, no matter how shit they are, always give you that tiny bit of hope. Bolasie was on for Vlasic at the start of the second half and I only just managed to talk myself into staying.
A heartbreaking moment on 55 minutes saw McCarthy make a last ditch tackle on Rondon just as he was about to have a shot. What seemed like a fantastic, goal saving tackle turned into Pickford and the West Brom striker signal to the ref to stop the game and bring on a stretcher. What made it even worse a moment was then seeing Rondon in tears on the pitch and being comforted by his manager and teammates. We all knew straight away that this was a serious one; a double leg break just after returning from a lengthy injury must be so heavy. Poor lad. No surprise that it was Schneiderlin who gave the ball away which lead to the incident.
Not only Schneiderlin but the whole team yesterday found were physically incapable of playing a simple 10 yard pass. We could barely string 3 passes together. We’re atrocious.
Then a huge talking point in the game saw Tosun replaced by Niasse. Boos rang from all 4 corners of the ground, hopefully aimed at Allardyce. Although I didn’t boo myself, I can understand why. Being 1-0 down and pushing for an equaliser surely requires as many attacking players as possible? Nope. Not Allardyce. Striker off, striker on.
And what do you know, less than a minute after coming on the pitch, Niasse was on the score sheet for his 6th of the season. A lovely flowing move saw Walcott head a Rooney pass back across goal and Niasse was there to twat it home from about 2 yards out. A lovely bit of play. Apparently, without his goals, we’d be 8 point worse off in the league which puts us joint 19th. Now he might be one of the worst technical footballers I’ve ever had to watch but he’s probably kept us up.
Could we build on this now and push for a winner? In fact it was quite the opposite. West Brom seemed the more likely and if Rondon was more clinical he could easily have scored 3 or 4 in the last 20 minutes of the game. He nearly won it for the baggies in the 96th minute when he curled a beautiful 20 yard strike past a helpless Pickford, against the crossbar. A let off.
West Brom were the better side and probably deserved all 3 points. Gareth Barry would still be my number one choice for our midfield. No matter how old he is he had the best footballing brain on the pitch yesterday, he was cool and composed under pressure and hardly put a foot wrong. Morgan Schneiderlin on the other hand, was absolute Chernobyl. Everything he did was bad and why he started over Gueye is beyond me. Cuco Martina needs replacing more than anything this club has ever needed. Forget about the stadium for now lads and just sign a fucking left back ey? What’s Alessandro Pistone up to these days?
Still 9th in the league though, somehow. Just goes to show that we might be shit but so is everyone else apart from City, United, Chelsea and the murderers. No game next weekend, so if you’re reading this do me a favour and go on the ale and forget about Everton for the weekend, summed up perfectly by @FalconBlues1878.
You could have randomly selected 11 lads from the Gwladys Street yesterday and they’d have put up more of a fight than those players did. Not one of them is arsed about the club, they’re just there for their paycheck. Sat on the bench? No worries cos they’re still earning a ludicrous amount of money.
Football’s on its arse and the money’s ruined it, it’s taken the heart and soul out of the game. The only passion you get in football anymore is on the terraces because fans go and watch their beloved team out of choice, not because they’re getting paid. You won’t find anymore passionate and loyal fans than Everton fans but that interest is being drained out of us because the players on the pitch aren’t even half as arsed as the fans in the ground.
Not even Everton this, but the premier league in general has become a business and money’s more important than football. Fans that follow their team, take time out of their day and spend their hard earned money on transport, food, bevvies and tickets are right at the bottom of the pyramid, because the club doesn’t benefit as much as those who spend their money on a Sky subscription.
Yesterday was the first time I’ve ever been in Goodison and thought to myself “I can’t even be arsed being here”. I love Everton and I’ll continue going the match until it’s impossible for me to do so but it’s depressing seeing the decline in passion on the pitch and fight for the badge. Looking back at videos and watching how past players used to celebrate goals makes me miss it all. Leon Osman in the last minute at home to Portsmouth sticks out for me, the ground fell. Radzinski against Southampton, Johnson against Arsenal, back in the day where the club mattered more to the players than money did. Ah well ey?
@joewhitehead__
About The Author
