Home News Moses parts the Everton defence as Stoke secure 2-0 victory

Moses parts the Everton defence as Stoke secure 2-0 victory

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Everton fell to another defeat in a season which is rapidly coming to a close with the threat of a relegation battle on the horizon. Everton went into the season with optimism for a good campaign following their successful first season under their new manager Roberto Martinez, however as a result of a number of injuries to a number of players and also a loss of form by a number of players early season proved difficult for Everton. As can happen, a bad early start to the campaign can lead into a struggle during the rest of the season, this is evident with Everton, the only highlight being their Europa League campaign, although this can be argued as being detrimental to their League performances as Everton have not had the best run of results following their European participation.

Seemingly writing the same things again, Everton started quite well in the match and early on they were dominating possession, at one point they had 64% possession, but as again this season Everton were not really threatening the opposition. It is all well and good to be dominating possession and thus controlling the match, if you are actually controlling the match and putting the opposition to the proverbial sword, Everton have not been doing this though and most of their possession has been through either passing the ball sideways or backwards. This non-threatening possession of the ball only serves to allow opposition teams to organise their defence and stifle any possible attack which may eventually come their way.

Everton started the match fairly well against Stoke, but they never really put any pressure on Stoke, who then began to come into the match more and were not giving Everton much time on the ball to cause them any problems. Stoke took the lead in the 32nd minute when Bardsley sent over a cross and the Everton defence seemed to part and allow Moses to head the ball home. This seemed to be a case of history repeating itself for Everton, who started fairly well only to fall behind in the match. Although they tried to get back on level terms, there was no real feeling to me that they had a goal in the team. There were too many missed opportunities to create problems for Stoke, which Everton either failed to see the chances or they were just not able to execute the required pass.

Although it was not until close to the end of the match that Stoke scored their second goal, through Diouf, there was no real threat to Stoke that they would not be taking home the victory. Everton were too lackadaisical in their play, too many passes went awry, too many times they lost the ball through not having it under control, and too many times they appeared to have no ideas of how to get back into the match.

This is the worrying point for Everton fans, a relegation battle is on the horizon, and if the current form continues the relegation battle is looking to be a certainty. What the answer to this problem is I have no idea, this is where the manager is paid to solve problems, however there is a feeling in some quarters that Roberto Martinez is either unable to solve the problems or he is too resolute in his idea of how football is to be played to be able to change his system and style of play. I would not join in any of the calls, although in the minority at the moment, for a change of manager, and this is where Martinez is lucky to have Bill Kenwright as his Chairman, as Kenwright has shown in the past a loyalty to his manager that may not be in evidence in other places. If Everton are to turn around this current malaise around their league form, then I think a quick change in their style of play is required and to get the ball forward at a quicker tempo to worry the opposition.

SkemNews man of the match

Luke Garbutt once again played well and is looking a good prospect and ‘heir apparent’ to Leighton Baines. John Stones also had a reasonable game and showed that he is also going to be a mainstay of future Everton teams. This is a worrying sign for Everton though that their two best players on the night were to relatively inexperienced youngsters.

The man of the match award goes to Stoke’s Erik Pieters, who never seemed to be under any pressure in what he was doing and he kept Everton attackers under control for the whole match.

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