Sky Sports journalist stunned by Mason Holgate amid ‘slapstick’ incident v Bournemouth
Everton lasted just two minutes before conceding in the second half on Tuesday, with Mason Holgate at fault for Bournemouth’s second goal.
Frank Lampard made a number of changes to his side for Tuesday night’s EFL Cup clash, and the Toffees started poorly as Jamal Lowe opened the scoring after seven minutes.
Everton survived until half-time and were expected to come out fighting in the final 45 minutes, but just two minutes into the half Junior Stanislas doubled the Cherries lead, with Holgate at fault for the goal.
The 26-year-old slipped at the vital moment and Sky Sports journalist Ben Grounds didn’t hold back in his judgement of the incident.
Via Sky Sports (8 November, 20:50pm), Grounds said: “Calamitous slip from Holgate, and Everton are punished.
“It actually began with Mina’s pass out of play under no pressure when seeking Keane. It’s slapstick defending and the real sad part about it is that for many of those travelling supporters, it’s not too much of a surprise.”
Drop in quality
What will have shocked Lampard on Tuesday night is just how much the team’s quality drops when key players are rested.
Without the usual energetic trio of Alex Iwobi, Amadou Onana and Idrissa Gueye in the midfield, Everton looked flat, uninterested and lethargic.
The defence without Conor Coady and James Tarkowski was – as Grounds put it – calamitous. And yet again Anthony Gordon looked blunt and wasteful upfront. The stark contrast between Everton’s first and second team will be ringing alarm bells for Lampard, and the board better have been taking note.
Tuesday’s lineup was reminiscent of the squad that almost saw Everton relegated last season, and Lampard will be losing faith in some of the players to ever have the quality to perform at Goodison Park.
It’ll be a real wake-up call for Lampard, who may now be requesting more signings in January than he had initially planned for.