Liverpool Echo journo baffled by what he saw in Everton defeat to Luton Town
Liverpool Echo reporter Joe Thomas says he “cannot believe” the way Everton defended against Luton Town as they fell to a surprise home loss.
The Toffees had seen their form improve over the past week leading into the home clash with Luton thanks to back-to-back wins in all competitions.
However, they found themselves two goals down to Luton at Goodison Park inside 31 minutes on Saturday [30 September] and went on to lose 2-1.
Morris was left alone to volley in Alfie Doughty’s free-kick for Town’s second goal, with no Everton player tracking his run at the back post.
Speaking on the Royal Blue Podcast [2 October, 11m 15s], Thomas said: “Carlton Morris is at the back post completely unmarked.
“We can talk about set-pieces in general, and how [Sean] Dyche sets teams up, etc, etc, but I can’t believe there’s a scenario that unfolds between [Aston] Villa and Luton where they’re not saying, ‘keep an eye on him’.
“You’d think people would have been specifically assigned to mark Carlton Morris. Surely there must be someone there thinking ‘oh, where’s my man?'”.
Worrying
Not for the first time this season, Everton were caught napping when dealing with a ball into the box.
Morris is Luton’s dangerman, meaning it was surely down to either James Tarkowski or Jarrad Branthwaite to keep an eye on him.
As it was, it appears that Vitaliy Mykolenko was tasked with tracking the Town striker, but he got nowhere near cutting the ball out.
The fact the first goal was also scored via a corner kick, this time by Tom Lockyer, makes the defending all the more worrying.
If Dyche did not realise he had problems before, then he certainly does now.
Let’s just hope a week on the training ground is long enough to get working on defending from set-pieces before taking on Bournemouth next weekend.
In other Everton news, two players are reportedly “under pressure” following their performances against Luton.