Michael Ball reflects on Everton’s first point of the season against Sheffield United, as the former Blue leaves the squad wanting more.
Again, it was a tough game, but the positives are that we scored our first goals and earned our first point of the season.
But, overall, in my column this season, I’ve been calling for higher levels from this group of players and Sean Dyche; we do well in sections, but our basic play falls short at others, as it did again on Saturday.
I believed we were the superior squad, but our mentality and confidence are really low right now, and when we score, we just tend to sit back as a team. We lost our cutting edge in closing down and were quite passive.
We have been guilty of this for many seasons.
Sean Dyche wants to keep things tight, but we’re not doing so.
I was expecting for three points, but seeing where we are as a team is upsetting. I know we have injuries and new additions to make us stronger, but getting back in the car seemed like it was another game – another opportunity – I felt gone because of our bench. We didn’t have someone who could come on and win the game for us.
I know Dwight McNeil came on, but he was the only one; our bench firepower is non-existent at the moment, and I believe it has cost us three points.
Sheffield United are a bad team that has lost their greatest player.
Jordan Pickford produced a tremendous save in the first half and two brilliant stops in the second half to earn us a draw, and that is realistically where we are.
Our expectations as fans are that we will win, but you must put in the effort. Every week, I talk about the hard yards, the filthy work, and how you should be proud of your performance. We failed to do so, and when we fail to do so, we are penalized.
Our midfielders never make a forward pass. They never have and will never change their ways. It’s backwards and sideways, very passive, and we rely on the defenders to ping a ball 30-40 yards like they used to.
The flip side is that we don’t always appear to have a single alternative to pass to, and when we do, it’s backwards or sideways. You’re doing what the opposition wants you to do, which isn’t football in my opinion. That is passing the book, not taking responsibility, and it must change.
We perform well in spells, but as soon as we lose focus and stop putting in the effort, we are penalised. Sean Dyche needs to get the best out of them right now; these are the players he needs to believe in because it’s going to be a long and difficult season.
We’ve played two or three ‘bad’ sides and haven’t gotten the maximum number of points, despite playing more difficult opponents.
We couldn’t go in and around him since he was isolated. Arnaut Danjuma tried hard and looked threatening, but he didn’t get the ball out to Beto often enough.
We scored when we passed the ball with conviction, which is something we don’t do often enough.
While I was thrilled with the goals, the players needed to read the room. ‘Let’s keep this going, keep this speed, keep this passing and confidence going,’ yet we just appear to play within ourselves and the game passes us by.
There’s a reason we’re in the bottom three. Creating opportunities is nice because we didn’t do enough of it last season, but we need to start putting the ball in play.
