West Brom (a) Magic Moments
The usual back 4, & probably the most attacking midfield & forward line we’d seen all season. What looked like a traditional 4-4-2, Richarlison staying up front, Iwobi & Bernard recalled to play wide & a midfield 2 of Gomes & Doucoure. Limited options from the bench again.
Within 2 minutes of the kick off Pickford had made one of the saves of the season & the hosts had a weak penalty claim turned down. The save from Pickford was everything that is great about Pickford, he saw the header coming, he timed his dive & went with his ‘wrong’ arm to push it away. It was a world class save, a save that consolidated his return to form.
Everton struggled through the first half, Gomes looked increasingly uncomfortable in a midfield 2 & Iwobi just couldn’t get into the game. If he went passed a player, his cross was blocked, if he did manage to complete a cross, it would find a home defender. His tendency to come inside & lose the ball in the first half often led to breaks down the right side & leave Holgate exposed. Bernard on the opposite side was competent without being impressive. West Brom looked the more dangerous side all half up until the 43rd minute when a deflected ball fell at the feet of Dom, about 14 yards out he just couldn’t get his feet right & his shot was straight at Johnstone. In some respects it was guilt edged, but remarkably Dom hasn’t scored a goal from
that far out all season. He seems to be more of an instinctive finisher rather than a Lukaku or Yakubu who were like ballerinas in that type of situation, their feet were mesmerising & they always found that crucial space to hit the shot they wanted to hit. HT 0-0. Watching what we watched, it was a fair scoreline.
No changes at halftime although Sigurdsson had been out to do a rigorous warm up. A slow start to the half saw Ancelotti take the ineffective Iwobi off & replace him with Allan. The game changed instantly.
Allan sat in front of the back 4 which allowed Doucoure & Gomes to play in a far more traditional midfield 3 with Bernard at the top of the diamond, & Allan now ran the game. He instantly straightened out the issues Everton had in the transition from defence to attack & he also allowed Gomes to start carrying the ball forward & look to link up with Richarlison & Dom.
West Brom had no answer to this, the shortcomings of their squad laid bare. Apart from Gallagher who dragged a cross/shot wide & the calming Yokuslu they offered little. They very much made the game as attritional as Southampton did on Monday. Petulant fouls cheered on by that shitbag Sammy Lee had become more & more West Brom’s response to Richarlison running At Vernon Kay & Digne trying to play himself into the box.
Sigurdsson replaced Doucoure on 65 minutes, he’d not had his best game but he covers every blade of grass & is essential to the balance of the midfield. What an athlete he is, like Gomes, he’s just not suited to a midfield 2, but looking at the bench, we were back to 2 keepers! Digne was about to take a corner but Carlo shouted for Sigurdsson to take it & send in an in-swinger. The corner was blocked & the ricochet came back to Gylfi who then lofted a cross over the first defender & onto the head of Richarlison. Being in front of the goalkeeper, Richy bulleted the header in & we were in the lead. 4 goals in 4 goals, the piss boiling pigeon doing his best to send The Count of Monte Bisto into a touchline frenzy with his rat faced mate. What would they do? They’d send on 2 dinosaurs in Snodgrass & Robson-Kanu & just launch balls into the box.
Keane & Godfrey ate everything up, Godfrey snarling into tackles & on 83 minutes Allan made a block that would have seen West Brom with a 3 on 2 as they committed Pereira forward. But now it was about running the clock down, slowing the pace of the game & waiting for a chance to hit on the break. On 93 minutes Diagne had the ball in the net from a turn & shot from a deep cross. Pickford came & went back, Diagne wriggled his way through our defenders, but he was offside, marginally but offside. The linesman flagged immediately, VAR reviewed it. Offside. Final whistle FT 0-1. Second half performance deserved the win.
The stain on the history of our club bemoaned the decisions that didn’t go his teams way, he was always going to. He said he’d get Everton in the top 4 given the chance & all but fleetingly he did with this win. Thanks you horror, I genuinely hope we never see this disingenuous sponger in the game again after this season. I don’t mind West Brom as a club, but their current & previous manager for me are front & centre in the rogues gallery of Everton’s worst employees. It sickens me to my core.
A few discussions have been had since full time about the performance & the lack of entertaining attacking play. It’s true that we’re grinding out results, but thats all we need to do. It’s about points accumulation now rather than how well we play. 6 more wins & we can take the handbrake off. But for now our games will come down to moments, whether that’s in attack or defence. Monday it was a Pickford save & brilliant Richarlison finish, Thursday it was a substitution & a tactical instruction. At this point of the season, to have your goalkeeper, centre backs, key midfielders & striker in form is essential.
For those of a certain vintage, we watched Arsenal win a league title playing exactly the way Everton have played this week. A title that was clinched with one of the snidest performances in modern day football. I’m certainly not saying we’ll win the league, but when required, this level of pragmatism & calculated football is worth the points it accumulates. When we achieve something we can look back & analyse what we could have done better & more stylishly, but we need to get there first.
Onto Monday, enjoy the result, enjoy your weekend, Mr Allardyce wont & I’m all the more happier for it. UTFT 💙
