Everton’s deficiencies are causing growing problems

‘How the f*** are we drawing with these? They’re f***ing s****!’ was the shout from the back row of the Lower South stand with only seconds remaining as Everton had to settle for a successive point at home.

In some ways, Everton were lucky that West Ham were the opponents here at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday night because a better side would have pounced and inflicted a defeat on us.

That’s because the Blues’ deficiencies were clear to see in several parts of the pitch. In the Premier League, the moment you lose the ball, the other team will be on you and marching up the field. However, too many times against West Ham, Everton were simply incapable of looking after it.

Now, I like Beto but it’s telling that all his positives and plaudits are about his attitude and not about his technical ability. His failure to hold up the ball or simply control it in tight spots has been hugely detrimental. At Leeds, against Liverpool and again here at home to West Ham, long balls kept coming back and the initiative was gifted to the opposition.

Beto isn’t upto the job that’s needed and therefore, while Barry is yet to score or assist, he has to be the frontman.

The free-kick Everton earned on the edge of the box ten minutes from the end wouldn’t have happened with Beto on the pitch. Barry knew when to rush and harry the goalkeeper and the rest followed. If the attacker doesn’t get these moves right, it fails for the whole team and, yes, the opposition grow in confidence and start to flourish.

However, it’s not all on Beto. The players behind him too have to be a little bit smarter. James Tarkowski, for instance, aiming for his head, his chest or indeed his feet is a wasted pass. Instead, playing the channels will get Everton further forward and allow Beto’s unorthodox style to better benefit our attacks.

There was a moment when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall received the ball on the attack and Jack Grealish ran towards the box from outside. For a moment though, you could see they each checked themselves. Where they were seemingly telepathic in the win over Wolves at Molineux last month, they were now thinking about what they were doing. I think that could be down to other parts of the play not flowing as it should elsewhere and it having a negative impact all over.

Then there was the West Ham equaliser. Now, had Tarkowski wanted to snuff out the Hammers attack and take the yellow, he couldn’t because he had already been cautioned after stretching and fouling a player for a ball that was played too short by Idrissa Gana Gueye. An innocuous moment maybe, but Everton’s lack of getting the basics right every time had a costly effect on the game.

Throughout the match, in the first half and more often in the second, there were big gaps all over the park for West Ham to exploit. There were erroneous balls and wrong runs. It felt off.

The fact Tarkowski was even chasing down the West Ham winger was because Nuno Espirito Santo’s side had found space behind Jake O’Brien. In the second half, they did time and time again. Down the left constantly, they had joy and produced plenty of crosses.

O’Brien has performed admirably at full-back and even very well at times. But he’s a central defender and it’s such square pegs in round holes that can cause issues over time.

Then, on the other side, you have Vitalii Mykolenko who is a solid defender and great reader of the game. So often in the past, he has been positionally sound and unflustered when coming up against the game’s best wingers.

Going forward though is another issue Everton are having to deal with and it’s stifling.

Already Jack Grealish is being doubled upon. At times, there will be three players paying attention to him. He is so supremely talented, he still keeps the ball. However, if Everton possessed a wing-back who bombed on and drew opposition players away, there would definitely more joy to be had.

It’s the dysfunction in the side owing to years of poor recruitment which has hurt Everton so badly in recent seasons and continues to niggle this campaign.

It’s that dysfunction which is causing every man on the pitch to overplay or underplay the ball.

The creativity and ideas we saw in August are being stripped away by doubts and questions that aren’t being answered.

Maybe this will take another transfer window to remedy but right now, the strengths of the team are being negated by the weaknesses and Everton are dropping points.

Finding a fix will require some smart thinking from the manager and a rejig here or there.