BETO: DRAWS ARE NO GOOD
We need Portu-goals... and fast, says striker
FORMER KFC server Beto reckons he can add the spice to prevent Everton’s season from sliding into the waste bin.
The striker has only been on the starting menu seven times in the league since his £26million move from Udinese last summer.
But two goals in his last three games might give Sean Dyche – an unsmiling Colonel Sanders – something to chew over as he contemplates a season that is proving very unpalatable.
Beto (circled above) served up an equaliser that was as easy as counting drumsticks after home keeper Neto let a whole bucketful slip through his fingers.
It counted for little since Seamus Coleman’s own goal (top left) minutes later was even softer, but at least Beto appears to carry an appetite for goals.
Everton have only scored eight times in 12 winless league matches going back to middecember but Beto said: “I feel I am developing with every single session and every single game.
“Whether I play 90 minutes or only 45, I feel like I am developing well. I just want to get in and play as a starter, score goals and help the team. I don’t want to draw games. I want us to win, win, win.”
The Portuguese hit man offers a more physical threat than Dominic Calvert-lewin, but the question for Dyche is whether a direct approach is more likely to reap reward.
Not for the first time this season, Everton looked reasonably comfortable but rarely threatened.
They fell behind to a header from Dominic Solanke - a striker with a sureness of touch Everton lack – and then handed back their getout-of-jail card when Coleman chested the ball into his own net.
But their most threatening moment – which led to Beto’s goal
LOSING STREAK Everton’s James Tarkowski and Ben Godfrey show the pain of another defeat – came from a basic deep cross into the box and a meaty challenge from the one-time chicken man.
Beto admitted: “We create chances but we are not scoring and that’s the objective of the game.”
With a stalled takeover in the background, and another possible points deduction adding to the sense of foreboding, Everton have picked the wrong time to embark on a winless streak that equals their worst-ever in the top flight 30 years ago.
A huge week for Dyche will include a trip to Newcastle tomorrow followed by a crunch home clash against his former club, Burnley, on Saturday.
Dyche said: “I believe in the players and I believe in myself without a shadow of a doubt. It is not new territory for us.”
BOURNEMOUTH (4-2-3-1): Neto 6; Smith 6, Mepham 6, Zabarnyi 8, Kerkez 6 (Kelly 63, 7); Adams 6, Cook 7; Semenyo 7, Kluivert 6 (Billing 74), Tavernier 7 (Ouattara 74); Solanke 8 (Unal 85)
EVERTON (4-5-1): Pickford 7; Coleman 6, Tarkowski 6, Branthwaite 6, Godfrey 6; Harrison 5 (Young 72), Onana 7 (Beto 79), Doucoure 6 (Gomes 72), Garner 6, Mcneil 7; Calvert-lewin 6