A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF FOR TOFFEES
Big Dunc got the pre-match beers in but this result has left ragged Blues fighting relegation
WELL, at least Big Dunc got the ale in.
Punters filing into the two pubs closest to Goodison Park found their first prematch pint was on Everton’s interim boss.
The only problem was that he then spent 90 minutes serving up small beer.
It is not his fault that the Toffees are cluelessly stumbling into a relegation battle.
It is not his fault that Everton have won just ONE of their last 14 Premier League games.
It is not his fault that Everton have an unbalanced squad featuring too many operators simply not up to the job.
Answer
But nor is Ferguson the answer. Generosity behind the bar is not going to bring champagne football back to Goodison Park.
And, by the way, don’t let anyone tell you Everton are not in a relegation battle – the gap to the drop zone is four points, but this is a side devoid of inspiration.
Next up in the league is Newcastle away and you would not bank on them getting anything from that one.
They lost here to an Aston Villa side who were nowhere near their best.
Steven Gerrard was, for obvious reasons, delighted with the victory, but he would surely have been a little concerned with a casual sloppiness that started with Tyrone Mings and ran through the team to Ollie Watkins.
Villa will play a lot better than this and lose football matches, but this was Everton – this was a place turned toxic.
When, half an hour after the final whistle, Demarai Gray came back out to do a couple of TV interviews, he would have been surprised to see and hear a couple of hundred supporters still inside the stadium, calling for the board to be sacked and for Bill Kenwright to leave.
If those protesting fans think the executive set-up at Goodison Park is not fit for purpose, they may well have a point.
Clearly, the problems run beyond the technical area, but this is also a team that looks dramatically under-coached.
In an utterly dreadful first performance, there were precious few hints of a plan and a startling lack of quality.
Without trivialising the matter, the only Everton effort on target came from the moron – later arrested – who threw the bottle at the celebrating knot of Villa players after Emi Buendia had headed Gerrard’s side into the lead.
After spending so much money over the span of the Farhad Moshiri regime, it is hard to fathom how the owner has ended up with a playing roster so lacking in elite technique.
Effort
They put in the required effort, that is for sure, and their commitment brought a much better second half, in which Dominic Calvert-lewin wasted a good chance and Ben Godfrey saw a header clawed away by Emi Martinez.
His men responded to Ferguson’s rallying calls and no Everton supporter can have a complaint on that score.
What they can complain about is the hierarchy not appearing to have too much of a clue about who they are going to employ on a permanent basis. What was the Roberto Martinez farce all about?
It is not going to be Ferguson, and Wayne Rooney was hardly advertising his credentials against Nottingham
Forest. Outside Merseyside, there is this odd idea that Rooney would be a wildly welcome appointment, a club legend taking over.
He IS a club legend – but that club is Manchester United.
Appointing Rooney would be bold, it might work and, leaving aside the result at the City Ground, he has done a very decent job at Derby County. In Moshiri’s shoes, I would probably take the gamble.
But it would be a big risk. One thing for certain is that whoever Moshiri anoints as the sixth permanent manager since he took over the club in early 2016 has a huge job on his hands.
And whoever Moshiri anoints is going to have to do a lot more than... get the ale in.