Phil McNulty tears ‘gutless’ Everton apart after destruction at Tottenham
Everton produced “easily their worst” performance of the season in the hammering at Tottenham, and are a mess that’s likely to go down says Phil McNulty.
The BBC’s chief football writer pulled no punches after the 5-0 defeat in London laid bare the size and variety of the problems currently facing the Toffees, who are one point above the relegation zone.
Anthony Gordon was the only player who escaped damning criticism for a display that continued the “wretched” and “gutless” away performances this season.
Writing for BBC Sport, McNulty said: “This, however, was another level of incompetence, and a wake-up call for anyone still labouring under the misapprehension that Everton can escape relegation because they have always done so before.
“In an abject season, this was easily Everton’s worst performance, made even more ominous by the obvious lack of heart and stomach for the fight, with youngster Anthony Gordon the exception.
“Everton might look at games in hand and teams below them, but two wins in their last 19 league games must act as the warning sign that they are in huge trouble. This was the performance of a team in serious danger of the drop.
“It was a horrible performance on a horrible night as all the mismanagement on and off the field at Everton over the years was exposed again.”
Appalling
The away form has been bad all season, and the contrast has become more marked since Frank Lampard drew some decent home showings out of these players, but this game was truly awful.
Michael Keane scored an own goal, Jordan Pickford let the second straight through him, and from there on the entire team disappeared.
Youngster Gordon appeared to be more committed to improving things and should be an asset for the Toffees in the longer term.
But his willingness was nowhere near enough in the face of nothing from nearly everyone else.
The games in hand are probably the single positive that fans can point to after the capitulation in North London, but on current form they aren’t worth much.
Much like Jamie Carragher, a boyhood Everton fan, on the Sky Sports match coverage, the Merseyside-born McNulty saw enough at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to convince him that this team genuinely could go down.
It is rare that criticism is so strong and so blanket, but that is where the club now is.
A founder member of the Premier League, and ever-present since, it would be a catastrophic failing of the current regime to have allowed that to happen.
The positivity of Lampard’s arrival feels like it has fully evaporated now, so the turmoil of the Rafael Benitez era and the subsequent fan protests will not be far away if something drastic doesn’t change quickly.
In other Everton news, The Athletic shares why a vital first-team member appears to be on the way out of the club.
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