Ally McCoist blasts Anthony Gordon after ‘inexcusable’ moment in Everton 4-0 defeat v Crystal Palace
Ally McCoist was less than impressed by Anthony Gordon when the Everton attacker wasted a free-kick opportunity in his side’s 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Everton slumped out of the FA Cup in embarrassing fashion at Selhurst Park.
Gordon, 21, was easily the Blues’ best player in the quarter-final showdown in sunny South London but even he managed to let down McCoist when a free-kick he attempted to fire into the box failed to get off the ground and failed to beat the Palace defence.
“It’s not a ball at all, particularly when you’ve got all three centre-backs up,” said McCoist on ITV’s live coverage of the game on Sunday [20 March, 02:04pm].
“That’s inexcusable that, really. [Everton are] chasing the goal and [to] play a ball of that quality from an area you want to take a free-kick and threaten Crystal Palace.”
Disappointing
Gordon was easily Everton’s best player in their 4-0 loss at Palace.
However, that doesn’t excuse the youngster for wasting that free-kick in a very good area in the second half.
As McCoist said, Frank Lampard’s three centre-backs had all got forward and losing possession easily – as the Blues did – can lead to a counter-attack that ends in conceding.
Gordon is a young and inexperienced player.
He’s played just 49 times in all competitions for Everton and on top of that, has just 11 appearances from a loan spell at Preston.
The England Under-21 international will have learned from that mistake and there’s no doubt that Lampard will drum into him that he needs to compose himself and not repeat it again.
On the whole, we weren’t let down by Gordon’s performance and not many Blues players can have that said about them this season.
Our display at Palace was an aberration.
Gordon shouldn’t hold his head high after that win. He should look at it, learn and improve.
He’s a brilliant young talent and hopefully setbacks like this will only do him good in the long-term.
In other Everton news, this Blues star may have just saved £70million for under-fire owner Farhad Moshiri.
Be sure to follow Goodison News on Facebook and Twitter for 24/7 updates on Everton and more exclusive interviews with Kevin Campbell.