Sticking The Blades In

This was a terrible performance my friends. Frankly; in their 2 previous defeats at Aston Villa & Bournemouth, I thought Everton still played OK. With a home form reminiscent of their all-conquering '84-85 days; with 6 straight home wins and 5 clean sheets at that; hopes were still high as Everton prepared to take on 15th-placed, newly-promoted Sheffield United at a buzzing Goodison Park.

This; however, was a distorted, insipid, quite-shambolic performance that no-one will enjoy watching. It started OK in fact; with the home team stringing passes around confidently and dominating possession. Richarlison had an early deft effort sail wide before Lucas Digne aimed a typically-on target shot that tested Dean Henderson.

As the match progressed though; Everton were playing into the visitors' hands by channeling too much focus down the centre; thus being absorbed into the visitors' 3-5-2 formation. Worse still; when Everton then tried going down the wings; their attacks were being constantly repelled by their opponents' hard-working wing-backs George Baldock and Enda Stevens.

Totally against the run of play, the visitors won their first corner out on the left. Captain Oliver Norwood swung over a brilliant ball that caught out Jordan Pickford; leading to a quite-calamitous own goal from Colombian international Yerry Mina. It was terrible goal-keeping from Pickford; who should have been much more decisive & strong to the danger.

Worse was to come in the 2nd half; as with the home side pressing furiously for the equaliser; former Everton youngster; the impressive Man-of-the-Match John Lundstram played a contender for pass-of-the-season for substitute Lys Mousset to put past Pickford's legs and seal the game.

Marco Silva then desperately made a rash of substitutions and went to a quite-weird 3-5-2 formation of his own; with Delph joining a back-three (but moving into midfield when his team had possession); and Iwobi and Richarlison moving into central midfield and Theo Walcott inserting into right wing-back. It was a strange formation as players didn't seem to know where to go; what to do; what to try... and passes and confusion seemed to set in with every next play.

But it was a perfect masterplan from Chris Wilder's team on how to play away against a favourite in the Premier League. They have no stars but their star is the Team. They were perfectly organised; strong in defence; and struck with two classic counter-punches. They had one shot on target but two goals. That says it all.