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For a manager not known for making either early or dramatic changes to his team, David Moyes has had to do it an awful lot this season. Tonight, as he sought to change the pattern of a match that had largely passed his Everton side by in the first half, he was compelled to pitch Jarrad Branthwaite and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall back into action following long injury layoffs at an earlier stage than he probably would have liked.
And it wasn’t just personnel; Moyes tinkered with his system to try and nullify a Leeds United side that had played his own off their own park for 45 minutes and who would prevent the Blues from registering a shot on target for more than hour at what was an often exasperated Hill Dickinson Stadium.
The close to 50,000 Evertonians who had had to wait all weekend for their team to see action had arrived in anticipation at the prospect of a home win that would have vaulted Everton into seventh place in the Premier League, a point behind the faltering neighbours… anticipation that was, no doubt, tempered significantly by the fact that the new ground has witnessed just four league victories so far.
That trepidation was well justified as Moyes’s charges toiled their way through 45 unproductive minutes before the manager was given the opportunity to shuffle his pack with a double substitution. Some familiar faces had made welcome returns to the starting XI in the form of the triumphant Senegalese duo, Iliman Ndiaye Idrissa Gueye, but too often Everton resembled 11 strangers thrown together at the last minute.
The early effort was there but there was no cohesion, no invention and, save for Ndiaye’s dazzling feet, precious little creativity. By contrast, Leeds looked purposeful and well-drilled, attacking the spaces going forward and cutting off their hosts’ passing lanes when out of possession.
Daniel Farke’s men haven’t won away from Elland Road since September but they have been on a solid run of form lately that has pulled them away from immediate danger at the bottom and the confidence was obvious in their play. Like Brentford and Sunderland before them, they came to Bramley-Moore Dock intent to disrupt any rhythm Everton tried to establish from kick-off and then prey on the uncertainty that would follow.
Pascal Struijk had an early but ambitious “sighter” from the angle that comfortably cleared the bar and Dominic Calvert-Lewin tried to assert himself quickly by muscling his way through to goal but Jordan Pickford closed him down and Ilia Gruev also put an effort into the South Stand following a Leeds corner.
What felt, on the basis of so many matches at the new stadium to date, like the inevitable duly arrived just before half an hour had elapsed. Ndiaye went down after being sandwiched between two opposition players but received no favours from referee Simon Hooper. That allowed Anton Stach to drill a low cross that eluded Calvert-Lewin but fell to James Justin, completely untracked at the back post, and the former Leicester man made no mistake with the finish.
And 1-0 so nearly became “curtains” five minutes later. Everton were cut through again with embarrassing ease but, thankfully, Calvert-Lewin could only prod Jayden Bogle’s centre onto the post. The anger cascaded from the stands and the expected chorus of boos did the same at the half-time whistle following another shocking 45 minutes from the Blues at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Moyes’s response was to replace two players, sacrificing the willing but creatively limited Harrison Armstrong and hooking the quite awful Dwight McNeil who had, for reasons best known to his manager, been deployed wide in his weakest position wide on the right.
Branthwaite and Dewsbury-Hall came on, with the former slotting into a reworked back three but it would be a further quarter of an hour before Everton started to show some life in an attacking sense.
Gueye made a smart interception in midfield and burst forward into the Leeds half but though Ndiaye’s first touch was excellent to bring the ball onto his left foot, Sebastiaan Bornauw came across well to block his shot.
Four minutes later, after Pickford had saved from Stach in front of the North Stand, a slick Everton move ended with Barry bending a superb shot with the outside of his boot arrowing towards the far corner but Karl Darlow dived to his right to palm it away.
With 20 minutes left, Moyes withdrew Nathan Patterson and introduced Tyler Dibling but it was not the young winger but the veteran Gueye marauding down the wing a few minutes later to lay on the equaliser. Barry did brilliantly to nip in ahead of Bornauw and sweep the ball high into Darlow’s net before wheeling away to enact his now-familiar archer celebration.
It was his fourth goal in his last five games and the metamorphosis from frustrated and petulant new arrival earlier this season to increasingly prolifiic marksman comtinues.
The home crowd had come to life by this point and a wall of noise willed Everton on to try and find a winner and it almost arrived from the boot of Gueye. Dibling laid it off to the Senegal international outside the box but his placed effort smacked agonisingly off the angle of crossbar and post.
While another home defeat would have been particularly damaging in terms of morale, a draw wasn’t much better but Moyes will take encouragement from his team’s response and the return of key players.
Although Gueye's display was patchy, Branthwaite and Dewsbury-Hall looked like they hadn’t been away while the outlet that Ndiaye provides was hugely welcome in the absence of Jack Grealish. Whether having those stars back will be enough to turn around this miserable run of just one home victory in two months is debatable — you get the sense that without a couple of pre-deadline signings who can make an instant impact on the first team, particularly in the fullback positions, Everton are going to continue to struggle to dominate or break visiting teams down.
Europe, therefore, remains a distant dream despite the Blues’ proximity, for now, to fifth and sixth spots.