A look back at the defeat at Everton

Harry Redknapp

A disappointing second half performance where we never really got to grips with the Everton midfield led to our first loss since the mess at the Reebok at the start of November. The first half saw Rafael Van der Vaart equalise Louis Saha’s early goal and by the end he could easily have had a hat trick but instead a couple of good saves from Howard and the inability of Jenas, Modric and the back four to cope with the directness of Coleman in particular probably meant that we can’t complain about the result.

We quickly recovered from the shock of Saha’s third minute strike and both VdV and Crouch could’ve scored before in the eleventh minute the Dutchman got on the end of the beanpole’s header across the six yard box to nod seemingly through a statuesque Howard. We attacked with some of our normal verve for most of the rest of the half but Fellaini, Pienaar and Coleman worked hard and none of Modric, Lennon or Bale got on the ball as much as we would’ve hoped.

Bale squared to an offside Crouch just before half time who slotted home. If that ‘goal’ had stood then who knows? But it didn’t.

The second half started slowly but with the home team marginally on top. Bale went off with a worrying looking hip injury and Kranjcar came on to give the same slightly off the pace performance he did at Bolton. Benny was already having problems with Coleman and the reduction in help down that side led to the Everton player running into our box seemingly at will. Ironically it was in the period when we’d managed to wrestle a bit of possession and put some pressure on the home defence that we went behind for the second time. In the 75th minute Everton broke quickly just as we’ve been doing to teams of late. Gomes pushed Saha’s shot straight at Coleman who headed in the rebound.

We hustled and bustled and went more direct but couldn’t get a clear sight of goal. With a bit of luck Van der Vaart could’ve repeated his Villa trick and put us clear well before the end but it wasn’t his night.

Defensively we lacked composure. Everton worked hard, kept Lennon and Bale quiet and in Coleman had the man who made difference.

By MF

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