Nick Ware

Mon 22 March 2021 11:29, UK

Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti made a big call to drop Michael Keane for Yerry Mina v Manchester City on Saturday but he might well rue that decision.

The Blues managed to hold out until the 84th minute when Ilkay Gundogan netted the opener before Kevin De Bruyne sealed a 2-0 victory for the visitors at Goodison Park to send them through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Up against a Manchester City side in scintillating form and containing the supreme attacking talents of Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden, the Everton rearguard was impressive with Mina at the forefront of the battle on his return from an injury lay-off.

The Colombian international had not featured since February 17 but while he was as resilient as ever in defence he disappointed in another aspect of his game.

According to Wyscout Mina lost possession 13 times against Manchester City – he has only given it away more times once this season [v Fulham, November 22].

His pass accuracy stood at just 57% [13/23], a substantial drop down from his 90.5% season average, while his forward pass accuracy was just 22% [2/9].

At Goodison News we took a look at how his constant ceding of possession piled the pressure on our defence and goal.

This first example below shows Mina near our byline and his options are fairly limited given his proximity to our goal and the pressure applied by the visitors.

A clearance or ‘hoof’ down the pitch is accepted in this situation but he does not get nearly enough purchase on his kick.

The ball lands at the feet of Fernandinho who can immediately spring another City attack in the final third of the pitch.

Our powerful central defender had to put more effort into that.

The next images show Mina being closed down by Gabriel Jesus.

While he clearly had to get rid of the ball as a matter of urgency we would expect someone with a 90.5% pass accuracy this season to back himself more and fire the ball into the feet of Gylfi Sigurdsson straight ahead of him.

One could argue that this was an unnecessary risk so early into the match but we had to keep hold of the ball and if Mina found Sigurdsson here the Icelandic playmaker then had a simple pass either side of him to make. This would have cut the four City players in shot out of the game and allowed us to get up the pitch and launch an attack.

Instead, Mina lumps the ball aimlessly up the pitch and it completely dissects our two forwards Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

The following example shows Mina offered three possible solutions.

If he opted to go right Mason Holgate could have hooked the ball down the line where there was space and if he went left to Ben Godfrey or more central to Allan they would have had time on the ball to pick a pass.

Instead, Mina just heads the ball up in the air and Gundogan takes control of the ball without any pressure.

This final clip might be the worst of all as it shows just how careless Mina was in possession.

With Sterling running away from him and the ball heading his way all the 26-year-old had to do was give a short pass to Sigurdsson ahead of him.

But he opts to crazily kick the ball against Sterling and it flies up in the air into dangerous territory.

It was mindless stupidity from Mina.

His game was full of desperation rather than deliberation.

While his defensive numbers may show that he was always in the thick of the action this analysis shows that his carelessness on the ball ensured we were thrust into more defensive danger than was necessary.

Mina needs to show more composure if he is to become a fixture in this Everton side.

We are backing Keane to come back in and replace him for the next game and Mina is fast descending down the centre-back pecking order.

In other Everton news, Andre Gomes was vital to early Blues pressure v Man City.