View: Three things we learned from Everton in loss v Sheffield United
Everton suffered a death blow to their European hopes on Sunday as they fell to a crushing defeat against Sheffield United.
Having already been relegated a month ago, the Blades were made to look like the side fighting for Europe with Everton failing to put up much of a fight.
17-year old debutant Daniel Jebbison scored for visitors, the only goal of the game at Goodison Park, resigning the Toffees to their record ninth home loss in the Premier League this season.
At Goodison News we have picked out three things we learned from the recent loss.
Too often isolated
On far too many occasions this season, Dominic Calvert-Lewin has been left stranded up front with little to no support against tough opposition defences.
Sheffield United always play three at the back, so it should have been easy to predict that Calvert-Lewin would be overloaded in the box, but Everton had no game plan to get him into the game, with the striker left completely unable to do anything.
Excessive crossing isn’t a plan
One criticism often levied at Ancelotti is that the Italian doesn’t exactly prepare for specific opponents, he doesn’t work pragmatically, only with a singular game plan in mind.
Because of that Everton found their offensive efforts ineffective against the Blades, consistently sending crosses into the box without a plan-B to fall back on. It didn’t work and the Blues had nowhere else to go.
Need a change
24-year-old Mason Holgate once again looked sloppy at the back for Everton, with the defender making more individuals errors before being withdrawn at half-time.
The Toffees would be better off sticking to a back four with Michael Keane and Ben Godfrey starting in the centre for the time being, leaving Holgate to get his head straight.
In other Everton news, former Toffees ace names the two Everton players who have caused the side problems this season.
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