Under-manned and under-cooked, Everton serve up opening-day shocker at Elland Road

If you ignored the fact that it was David Moyes standing dejectedly in Everton’s technical area or Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in midfield trying to coax the team out of its torpor in the second half, you could have been forgiven for thinking this fixture against Leeds was just another appallingly one-dimensional performance under Sean Dyche.

On the evidence of the first half alone at Elland Road, this was every bit as dreadful as that staggeringly poor 1-0 defeat in Bournemouth in January which was enough to convince both Dyche and The Friedkin Group that his time as manager was up. The Blues improved a little after half-time this evening and were ultimately beaten by a harsh penalty decision but they deserved nothing from a contest in which, for long stretches, the newly-promoted Lilywhites made them look decidedly second-best.

That this game was supposed to represent, when the 2025/26 fixtures were released in June, the start of a new era and a reset at Everton looks laughable in retrospect. Myriad problems remain, most glaringly the holes in the team that still need to be plugged before the transfer window closes in two weeks’ time.

It’s unlikely the owners have the budget or PSR wiggle room to address them all, but the team’s results over the second half of last season — the final-way win at Newcastle being the standout example — suggested that that wouldn’t be needed. But a worrying trend established in pre-season of a collection of players who still have no discernible way of playing effective passing football persists and that is all on the new man in the dugout.

Nevertheless, Everton’s unfinished transfer business was starkly evident in a starting XI that had Evertonians scratching their heads and doing their level best to suppress their all-too-familiar anxiety. With Vitalii Mykolenko ruled out with a groin strain, Jarrad Branthwaite sidelined with a hamstring tear, Seamus Coleman presumably not up to starting and new signing Adam Aznou not even in the squad, James Garner was deployed as an awkward left-back while Tim Iroegbunam partnered Idrissa Gueye in central midfield.

With Jack Grealish named on the bench as expected alongside Thierno Barry, Dewsbury-Hall was the only new summer signing to make his full debut, operating in the first period in a fruitless No 10 role behind Beto. Some adjustment and time to settle was expected in the early stages against a side that Moyes and his staff knew would be well up for the challenge on their return to the top flight and with a raucous home crowd behind them, but Everton were horrendously bad for the first 40 minutes and were fortunate to go into the break with the game still goalless.

Their former winger, Jack Harrison, was among the Leeds subs but a former target in Willy Gnonto seemed hell-bent on proving a point and he gave Jake O’Brien, for once looking every inch a centre-half playing out of position at right back, a torrid time for most of the evening.

It was the Italian winger who slipped an early pass into the box for Jöel Piroe but the Dutchman was foiled by Jordan Pickford before poor hold-up play from Beto allowed the hosts in again but this time Piroe’s shot was deflected behind.

With Leeds easily able to play their way past a two-man press of just Beto and Dewsbury-Hall, Everton were often overrun in midfield and appeared to be vainly chasing shadows for much of the first half. They successfully repelled a barrage of corners, although Pickford was fortunate not to be punished for flapping ineffectively at one delivery from the right when Ao Tanaka’s attempted header past him was hooked clear of danger by James Tarkowski.

The visitors’ first foray into the opposition penalty area belatedly came midway through the first period when Charly Alcaraz tried to bundle his way past a defender but his heavy touch was claimed by Lucas Perri after which it was normal service resumed. Anton Stach just failed to get contact on a cross and the resulting corner again caused momentary panic in the Toffees’ defence before the ball was cleared.

Gnonto had the last word before the interval with a rising shot that narrowly cleared the crossbar but, having largely weathered the storm despite registering no shots and an xG of precisely 0.00, Everton had a platform from which to take control of the game in the second half if they could reorganise and refocus at half-time.

There was a smattering of evidence of that after the restart, although it produced precious little by way of genuine chances, largely because Moyes's men frequently ended up going backwards instead of forwards in attack. Sloppiness from Iroegbunam had let Gnonto in for the first chance of the half but Pickford was there again to make the save before Iliman Ndiaye exhibited his first real moment of quality with some dazzling feet that eventually saw the ball fall to Gueye but his 25-yard effort ended up where most of his shots do — in the stands behind the goal.

A Dan James shot that ended up at the feet of Gnonto at the other end was lashed into the side-netting and Garner fired a deflected free-kick off the defensive wall but as the clock ticked on, Evertonian thoughts drifted to the prospect of Grealish who was eventually readied and introduced for Iroegbunam with 20 minutes to go.

Unfortunately, with Grealish seemingly anchored to the left touchline, the Manchester City loanee had few opportunities to create the openings for the Blues to nick the points. Instead it was trickery from Dewsbury-Hall on the other flank that teed up Alcaraz for Everton’s best chance of the match but Perri pushed the Argentine’s low shot behind at his near post and O’Brien couldn’t keep his header down from the ensuing corner.

Then, after Tanaka had half-volleyed over the bar when Moyes’s side had failed to get the ball clear, Everton shot themselves in the foot. Pickford tried another of his ill-advised passes up the middle to an isolated player flanked by opponents and when Alcaraz slipped trying to worm himself into space to turn forwards and was robbed of the ball, it ended with Tarkowski blocking Stach’s deflected shot behind.

However, the referee’s assistant advised Chris Kavanagh that the defender had used his arm to stop the ball and, no doubt with further input from the Video Assistant Referee, a penalty was duly given. With Tarkowski rightfully pinning his arm to his side but leaning into the flight of the ball as he tried to make the block, it gave the officials in Stockley Park the latitude they needed to uphold a controversially borderline and maddeningly subjective verdict.

Substitute Lukas Nmecha stepped up and despatched a confident penalty wide of Pickford’s out-stretched glove and Leeds grabbed the slender advantage that would prove to be the difference.

Barry was belatedly thrown on by Moyes, not instead of the woeful Beto but to partner him, while Alcaraz made way and Dwight McNeil, another potential game-changer on his day, remained unused on the bench. However, apart from a late free-kick that saw Tarkowski head Beto’s flick-on over at the back post, the Merseysiders offered almost nothing. Instead, it was one more Stach effort that needed a parrying save from Pickford to ensure further damage wasn’t done.

David Moyes has been at pains to point out that the club would need more than a summer to address all the areas of the squad that needed to be following the departure of 10 senior players at the end of last season but this horror show of a performance, the club's fourth successive opening-day defeat, exposed issues that go beyond mere recruitment.

Certainly, the team is crying out for talented, natural and experienced full-backs on both sides, a right-winger with pace and a midfield general who can run the show from the centre in the way that no one currently at the club appears capable. All of that will take a lot of money or some very savvy working of the loan market before the deadline.

Beyond that, however, there needs to be a heavy focus on finding ways to play passing football. That an ever-present Premier League team in Everton can be played off the park so convincingly by a side that was in the Championship last season should be a sobering indication of how much needs to be done if this season isn’t going to be another one spent languishing in the lower reaches of the Premier League.