Michael Ball: ‘Surely the end’ for Everton players who are not good enough for the club
The fact that some Everton players’ careers at the club must be coming to an end is the “only comfort” after the “horror show” at Spurs, says Michael Ball.
The Toffees were roundly thrashed 5-0 on Monday night (7 March) against Tottenham, and are staring down the possibility of being relegated from the Premier League for the first time.
The players performed awfully in London, as they have away from home all year, and former Goodison man Ball believes it is the last straw for some of the team who are now finished at the club.
Writing in the Liverpool Echo the former full-back said: “Week after week, season after season, year after year, the same faces continue to show they are simply not good enough to be playing for Everton.
“But the only comfort I can take from Monday’s game is that surely it is the end now for a few players”.
In the second part of his column he honed in on defender Mason Holgate as a key offender, calling some of his play “mind boggling” and “Championship level at best”.
Senior players and the defence seem to be those he wants to see the back of, with only Anthony Gordon receiving any praise.
He said: “You are a senior pro in a team and you see a young kid [Gordon] running past you to do your job, you should be totally embarrassed.
“It doesn’t matter who they have up top at the minute, because with a defence like this, they are not going to win many football matches.”
Damning
Former pros are queuing up to slate the performers at the back for Everton after the capitulation in London.
Jamie Carragher said he was being harsh on Championship defenders when he compared the Toffees back line to their lower level counterparts on Sky Sports at the time.
The situation at the back is a total mess, with aging stalwart Seamus Coleman being exposed because his back up Nathan Patterson is apparently not ready.
Why the club spent £16million on the Rangers second-stringer in January when they needed help now makes no sense.
Lucas Digne was expensive but a strong performer, and it would have been a big ask to expect Vitalii Mykolenko to immediately replace him even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine was understandably playing on his mind.
Injuries to Yerry Mina and Ben Godfrey certainly haven’t helped, but with The Athletic’s Patrick Boyland reporting that the Colombian is yet to be offered a new contract amid fitness concerns despite being the top man, it begs the question of what the club has done about this.
Michael Keane’s confidence is in tatters after an error that gave Phil Foden the winner for Manchester City, and an own goal to open the scoring against Spurs.
Unless Godfrey’s return from injury completely overhauls the defence it is hard to see where improvement is going to come from right now, which is highly worrying for Frank Lampard.
In other Everton news, Don Hutchison and Steve Nicol have identified the club’s only hope in avoiding relegation.
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