Heat on Allardyce as Everton miss golden chances
There must have been a moment upon taking over at Everton when Sam Allardyce dreamed of a Merseyside derby ending with sections of Goodison Park demanding he stay in charge.
There is no greater demonstration of his struggle to convince his own fans that that should be a formality than the away end compelling the Everton board to confirm his future at the club.
Allardyce is left to lament the narrow margins denying him the ideal retaliation to the barbs. There has been a constant undercurrent of rancour in this stadium which precedes Allardyce’s appointment. Had Cenk Tosun or Dominic Calvert-Lewin taken late chances, momentarily at least, it would have subsided.
Instead, dissatisfaction will be the abiding memory of this goalless draw, not least when Wayne Rooney met his substitution with a flow of mutterings.
As has been the case throughout his five-month reign, Allardyce sought to counter perceptions with fact. Everton played much better once the substitution was made and should have won, given their chances.
Instead, the fixture ended with a familiar shrug of resignation. If Everton cannot end their torturous eight-year wait for victory against this compromised, blunted Liverpool – a team selected to survive the ordeal as much as thrive – then when?
There was polite applause from the Gwladys Street end in recognition of the urgency in those final moments, but the discontent can be consuming.
Allardyce may not get credit for much, but he never shirks the interrogation. He recognised this as a missed opportunity, not just to end a barren run, but assist his increasingly arduous challenge of winning hearts and minds at Goodison Park.
It may still have been too late if Tosun’s late header had been directed inside the far post, but at least he would have a nugget to polish. Ultimately, the yearning for the win consumed the quality needed to secure it.
“We tried to take full advantage of that opportunity and failed,” said Allardyce. “In the end, we finished the game extremely well, on the front foot and put them under a lot of pressure and created the opportunities to win the game. Because of the way we finished the game, we are sitting in the dressing room disappointed. It has been such a long time since Everton beat Liverpool.”
Everton’s first and last 10 minutes were OK. It was the dissatisfying 70 in between that was the problem.
“Our passing sometimes got a bit woeful. That is why we made the changes,” said Allardyce, referencing the 57th-minute removal of Rooney.
“He can say whatever he wants to me in the office, but it has to be done between the four walls of the office,” said the Everton manager.
“He’s an Evertonian through and through and he’s been brought off in a derby game.
I’d expect a reaction because that’s how much he cares.”
The momentum of the game shifted when James Milner was replaced after 68 minutes.
Manager Jurgen Klopp admitted this was not the “wild” encounter he might have engineered with a full regiment. The visiting manager was the more content given that he is prioritising a Champions League quarter-final.
“It was probably the most mature performance since I came here,” he said, thrilled with his side’s ability to broadly nullify any aggressive intent.
For the first time since 1992, there were no bookings in this game.
Klopp made five changes from the side that defeated Manchester City, the most significant of which meant Mohamed Salah was absent and Roberto Firmino started on the bench.
There was an encouraging tempo to their side’s start. Loris Karius produced one of his smartest saves to stop Yannick Bolasie giving Everton the lead.
Dominic Solanke ought to have claimed his first Liverpool goal after 15 minutes, pouncing after Seamus Coleman’s error, but striking directly at Jordan Pickford. If that owed much to an unconvincing finish as much as Pickford’s reflexes, the England keeper was more impressive when pushing aside Milner’s curling effort.
After a disjointed second half and Everton’s missed chances, Klopp sounded relieved that it was over. “I take the result,” said the Liverpool manager.
The home stands emptied swiftly. Just like Allardyce, the dispirited supporters were denied a chance to wrestle positivity from a dour season.