Rafa left in a sticky mess
TOFFEES FANS LOSE PATIENCE
RAFA BENITEZ knew it was coming, always realistic enough to accept the doubts would start as soon as the winning stopped.
And how they started. Throughout a terse second half, there was real impatience from the Everton fans that transmitted its nervous energy into their team.
Then the booing started. First when Benitez replaced a clearly struggling, but popular local boy Anthony Gordon with Richarlison. Then when the Watford goals avalanche exploded.
And finally, long before the final whistle, they departed disillusioned by what they saw and unforgiving about an injury list that debilitated Everton.
Benitiz knows there is no honeymoon period, as Carlo Ancelotti got when his team displayed this same tendency to collapse.
And Benitez later admitted: “I am really disappointed because we have a very good connection with the fans. This year from the beginning they were really good, supporting the team, behind every single player and we were doing well.
“Now we have made some mistakes and you can understand the frustration, but we have to make sure we change these things and keep the fans on board because they are really important for us. And we have to ensure we show the same commitment we have shown in every game, but more character, more personality when we have to manage difficult situations.”
It is that lack of character, a fragile mentality, that has been Everton’s undoing under successive managers, not just Benitez. Here it crystalised in a totally bonkers 13 minutes at the end of the game, during which a Watford tidal wave produced four unanswered goals. Josh King was the architect, bullying the timid home defence to earn a spectacular hat-trick. Tom Davies put Everton ahead early on but King quickly cancelled it out before Richarlison restored the lead just after the hour.
Then came the late madness, with Juraj Kucka levelling, King scoring twice in six minutes and Emmanuel Dennis finishing it off. It was King’s first goal in 24 appearances, 11 of which came for Everton on loan last season, and his first Premier League goal since he scored against the Blues at Goodison in July 2020.