Neal Maupay is blowing his chance for Everton starting spot with poor first half v Aston Villa, he must be substituted
Neal Maupay must be hooked at half-time by Sean Dyche in order for Everton to get a result against Aston Villa after his shocking first-half showing.
The French striker got the nod ahead of Ellis Simms and Demarai Gray once again as the number nine, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin still out with injury for the game.
But his performance in the first 45 minutes at Goodison Park left plenty to be desired, and left Toffees fans pleading for him to be replaced with someone who actually looks like they want to be there as they went into the break goalless and level.
So far Maupay’s hold up play hasn’t been the best, getting dominated by Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa and he’s struggling to make the ball stick.
But worse than that, is Everton are having chances. Dwight McNeil and Alex Iwobi are getting lots of space on the wings, and as you would expect for a Dyche team there are plenty of crosses going into the box.
Maupay however has found himself stationary in the penalty area for a lot of those crosses, failing to attack the far post or near post and instead just being stuck between the defenders.
The ball is being cleared easily, and the threat on the wings is being completely wasted.
Simms isn’t the type of target man striker that would suit this style of play, and neither is Gray, but both have got better movement than Maupay and would surely be more hungry than he has shown to be.
We have to win our home games to stand a chance of survival, and you can’t win games without scoring goals. Maupay has got just one goal in a blue shirt so far this season and isn’t showing any signs of adding to that tally any time soon.
If Dyche wants to get a result here, he has to take the former Brighton man off at the break and bring on a different threat to challenge this Aston Villa defence because they’re currently having an easy afternoon against him.