Match Report

It was all so bloody predictable; so bloody Everton. A struggling team; no Premier League wins in forever and none at Goodison Park in their history; looking to be on its way back out of the Premier League barring a miracle; a new signing awaiting his first goal. Then there was Everton: A place in the top five, level on points with Liverpool and six points off second place with a further two games in hand on the teams above them within reach of a side that was on the crest of a wave following Wednesday's climactic 5-4 FA Cup win over Tottenham in extra-time. And then they turn in that kind of performance, arguably the worst of the 2020-21 season so far.

The sense was that, perhaps, Carlo Ancelotti's gradual shift in the mentality of this squad had finally reached a tipping point in midweek where the psychological block of “Everton, that” might finally be consigned to history. But, no — collectively, this group of players remains depressingly weak and prone to shooting itself in the foot any time it gets within touching distance of achievement. Champions League? For now, you're definitely having a laugh.

Ancelotti put the performance down to fatigue but given that only four of his players played all 210 minutes of this and the game against Tottenham, it's an assessment that doesn't wash. Almost everything about this horrendous performance was wrong — the team selection from the manager, his choice of at least two of the substitutions and the timing of them, the lack of tempo, desire and application from the players, all the way down to the limp attempt to mount any kind of effective late attempt to even salvage a point.

Ancelotti has made some grave miscalculations this season and the hope was that he had learned from them. No doubt the midweek cup exploits had lulled him into a false sense of optimism but there can be few occasions where selecting Gylfi Sigurdsson, André Gomes and James Rodriguez in the same team makes sense any more, particularly when you don't have an out-and-out centre-forward at your disposal and one of those players played a gruelling two-hour cup tie just four days earlier.

Worse, it was painfully obvious before half an hour of this match had elapsed that the system the manager had gone for wasn't working. It demanded urgent change, probably in the form of a bold, early substitution, because the writing was on the wall from the opposition's performance. The visitors could have been two or three goals up by that point but Ancelotti stalled and even allowed the match to drift 10 minutes into the second half before acting. By then, Everton were 1-0 down and, without an attempt on target up to that point, looking nowhere near scoring apart from Seamus Coleman's low drive that bounced off the outside of the post 10 minutes before half-time.

To give Scott Parker and his players their due, Fulham were very good and they basically played Everton off the park while diligently closing off passing lanes and making life difficult when they didn't have the ball. This wasn't merely the Blues making them look good by how terribly they played — the visitors were quicker, sharper, more adventurous and inventive than their hosts — but, by the same token, the almost complete lack of urgency and pressure from the Toffees until it was far too late meant that the Cottagers were hardly tested.

Two meek shots on target in 90 minutes against a team that hadn't won in 12 games spoke for itself — this was an Everton performance mystifyingly but infuriatingly bereft of any passion, ideas or penetrative football. As would have been expected, James had some of the Toffees' best moments in terms of distribution yet he struggled throughout to make any impact and, frankly, didn't look like he fancied the battle at all by the time he hobbled off with 68 minutes gone and the Blues 2-0 down.

The Colombian has looked like an ill-suited luxury in all of Everton's dismal home defeats to Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle and now Fulham, unable to dictate any of the games in the manner you would expect from someone of his ability. It's a worrying dilemma — how do you shoe-horn someone who doesn't adapt easily to a pressing game into a team built on that defend-from-the-front strategy? — but this evening, his ineffectiveness wasn't that surprising. Playing in a midfield devoid of any pace and an overall system lacking width, he had precious few options, no overlapping runners and he generally cut a frustrated figure as Fulham's hungrier players buzzed around him.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin's absence with a recurrence of his hamstring problem was always going to pose a problem but recent acquisition Josh King was ready to make his full debut and Richarlison had rattled in two excellent goals against Spurs to apparently signal that he was getting back on form. Instead, Ancelotti left King on the bench, kept the Brazilian out wide and deployed Sigurdsson as an awkward “false nine” role. The Icelandic international would finish the match as a deep-lying midfielder after Tom Davies had been harshly withdrawn, another perplexing move from Ancelotti to go with the fact that Gomes, who was pretty terrible, completed the 90 minutes.

Then there was central defence where a policy of rotation has probably been prudent during a part of the season where matches are coming along every three of four days but it has come at the cost of continuity in a very important part of the field. Today, Mason Holgate and Ben Godfrey, two young defenders, were paired together for the first time between Seamus Coleman and Lucas Digne.

It robbed the defence of its best distributor of the ball in Michael Keane (until he came on as a second-half substitute and Holgate was shifted to right-back) and its tallest asset in Yerry Mina and that proved problematic because Holgate had a pretty dreadful game in his favoured central role and Everton posed no threat from attacking corners.

In the end, though Holgate was poor overall, it was a porous and over-run midfield that, at times, sat bafflingly deep and invited the kind of inroads that led to Fulham's opener that was the bigger problem than who was at centre-half but the selection was illustrative of a complacency on Ancelotti's part and, perhaps, an underestimation of his opponents.

Everton's problems started early when Robin Olsen, starting again as Jordan Pickford continues to recover from a rib complaint, punched ineffectively at a free-kick but Josh Maja hooked the loose ball over from close range in the eighth minute when he might have done better.

A minute later, Bobby Decordova-Reid flicked a corner across goal and onto the post before Harrison Reed fired narrowly wide and Ademola Lookman came within inches of marking his return to Merseyside with a goal but somehow bobbled his effort the wrong side of the post.

Everton briefly threatened as the interval approached when James played Gomes in but the Portuguese's shot was well off target before Coleman went on his driving run and clipped the woodwork.

The second half was just three minutes old when the visitors got the goal they had been promising, capitalising on a complete lack of tactical shift from Everton. With the Blues' midfield dropping off, Ola Aina advanced unopposed towards the penalty area, played a one-two with Lookman and then centred for Maja to easily convert in front of goal.

Ancelotti's response was to hook Davies, the only player apart from Abdoulaye Doucouré able to carry the ball out defence and go forwards rather than constantly looking backwards, and replace him with King and take Coleman off for Keane, a move that at least provided some forward motion out of defence.

The changes didn't have the desired effect, though. Everton were still far too narrow, with angled balls aimed towards Digne and Richarlison fruitless when the recipient didn't have another blue shirt within 25 yards of him. It meant that play was repetitively cycled backwards to the centre-backs and this monotony even continued into stoppage time when desperation should have led to an intense barrage of Fulham's defence but, instead, the ball kept going horizontally in front of the West Londoners' penalty area.

Instead, it was Fulham who almost doubled their lead within three minutes of Ancelotti's first substitutions when Digne was dispossessed, the away side countered and Lookman smashed Ruben Loftus-Cheek's pass over the bar.

The second goal did arrive in the 65th minute, though. Reed was given space to line up a shot from distance that Olsen could only palm softly onto the post and Maja was on hand to turn the ball into the empty net.

Bernard came on for James with 22 minutes left — realistically, it should have been the more direct and pacier Alex Iwobi — and Sigurdsson finally put the ball on target with a bouncing shot from 20 yards while Keane had a tame header easily caught in the 89th minute but, on the whole, it was dreadfully poor fare from Everton.

So, once more reality sets in and in the absence of something truly remarkable happening in the next six days against Manchester City and Liverpool, Everton can forget about the Champions League and, perhaps, the Europa League as well… unless they can negotiate their way past City in the FA Cup Quarter-Finals and win the pot at Wembley in May.

Because demoralising let-downs in eminently winnable matches like this are going to keep happening, at least, it seems, until Ancelotti and Marcel Brands are able to add some more quality to this squad. However, the same notion that a manager of Ancelotti's quality should be able to coax more consistency, better decision-making and train his players to play through the press with the ease with which teams seem able to do to his, keeps nagging away.

Top four may never have been truly realistic but if you can't dream and on some level believe that it's possible, particularly in a season that keeps opening the road up for the club to fast-track their three-year plan, then what's the point? Everton under Carlo Ancelotti will, no doubt, continue to improve but for the short-term at least, the dream of something extraordinary coming out of this season is pretty much over for now. Unforgivable results like this have seen to that.

Lyndon Lloyd

Matchday Updates

A dreadful performance by Everton completely lacking in desire or intensity saw them lose a league game at home to Fulham for the first time ever .

The Blues welcome the Cottagers looking to build on two resilient performances against Manchester United in the Premier League and Tottenham in the FA Cup, performances that have hopefully injected some new-found belief into Carlo Ancelotti's charges in the build-up to a run of important fixtures.

Calvert-Lewin is joined on the sidelines by Jordan Pickford who has now missed three games with a rib injury. James Rodriguez and André Gomes are fit, however, and Josh King is eligible after being cup-tied for the Spurs match but fails to make the starting line-up, with Sigurdsson and Coleman starting.

Allan finally returns to the squad after more than 2 months on the sidelines, with both of Everton's more traditional centre-halves, Keane and Mina, demoted to the bench for this one, where there are finally 8 outfield players and only one keeper.

Fulham kicked off and went for a fairly pushy pressey physical start, intimidating Digne and Sigurdsson who was deemed to have been the guilty party for an early free-kick that needed defending.

Loftus-Cheek got in behind the Everton defence with a very smart run and seemed unlucky to be flagged offside but Olsen blocked his shot anyway... but something of an early warning, perhaps? Another deep free-kick went Fulham's way and Olsen was forced to make a poor punch that could have ended up in a goal conceded.

Ademola Lookman took the first corner for Fulham and it was brilliant, flicked on to the post and creating havoc in the Everton defence. With no Calvert-Lewin as a target man, it was 10 minutes before Everton finally got forward only for Richarlison to stray offside.

Fulham continued to press Everton back and they looked slow, sloppy and unimaginative as they tried to draw Fulham forward to create some space to attack. When they finally got forward, Digne was taken out in a nasty clash of knees with Tete but no free-kick given.

Fulham set up a nice chance for Harrison Reid, who sliced his determined shot wide of Olsen's goal. James had hardly had a touch with so much of the early play in Everton's half. Digne did win a free-kick when Tete challenged him in the air, Digne swinging the ball too far and too hard for Godfery coming around the wicket.

Somehow, a golden chance fell to Lookman who incredibly shot a foot wide when it seemed easier to score. What exactly Everton were doing for a game plan was increasingly hard to figure out as Fulham looked determined to end their ultimate hoodoo, having never won a league match at Goodison Park.

390 minutes gone and it was hard to remember a single Everton contact in the Fulham penalty area, Richarlison with only 4 touches in the match. Loftus-Cheek got through again and it needed a brilliant stop by Godfrey.

Everton's first vague movement toward Fuham's goal came with James putting a nice ball forward for Gomes, driven well wide. Coleman then did better in almost the same situation, whacking one off the base of the post.

A rare Everton free-kick, swung in by James, was repelled and recycled all the way back to Olsen, in a frustrating statement of Everton's rather reticent attacking intent. Lookman tried his luck with a hopelessly poor shot.

Digne won Everton's first corner off a good lofted ball from Gomes but, in the absence of Calvert-Lewin, Keane and Mina, James and Digne did a short-corner routine that ended up back in the centre-circle, with Fulham invited to attack again, Lookman's decent cross needing the clearance. What a strange, disappointing half... could even qualify as "zombie football".

The nonsense continued into the second half, with Carlo apparently reveling in the dreadful fayre. The inevitable then happened just 3 minutes in: Aina, a neat one-two with Lookman, crossing well for Maja to convert from 2 yards. Utterly ridiculous.

The pressure from Fulham continued unabated with Everton looking more nonchalant than in the first half. Carlo's tea finally awakened him to the situation, Keane and King coming on for Coleman and Davies, but not before Aina delivered another wonderful cross that Holgate just got his foot to before the Fulham player.

As shot by Reid came back off the post and Maja was perfectly place to tap in for his second of the night.

Bernard replaced Rodriguez but surely the game was up at this point. When you are playing so badly, you can't suddenly reverse the relentless path of the game — certainly if you've shown nothing even approaching intent in the first 70 minutes.

Digne did win a corner that was actually drilled in with some decent pace by Sigurdsson but it was punched clear. Fulham continued to control the gamme, Ebverton's highly paid stars unable to lay a glove on them. Richarlison finally got a chance to run with the ball, feeed Bernard, for Digne to win a corner, which came out to Sigurdsson, who fired goalwards... albeit to where the keeper was standing.

Gomes put a nice ball across to King who had strayed offside as he scored, the goal called back with barely 10 minutes left for Mission impossi.ble. Everton applied some pressure through corners but no chances ensued. Nothing was really happening as the minutes ticked away to another one of those astounding results that are simply impossible to get your head around. Keane 'headed' a cross goalwards off his shoulder as the on attacking highlight of the last 5 minutes. Richarlison won a corner, and a cross from Bernard was headed behind by Sigurdsson near a high boot as another miserable night at Goodison Park came to its sadly predictable end, enlivened by a bout of handbags and cards for Keane and Onomah.

Kick

-off: 7pm, Sunday, 14 February 2021 on BT Sport 1
Referee: Andy Madley
VAR: Kevin Friend

Everton: Olsen, Coleman (55' Keane) , Holgate, Godfrey, Digne, Davies (55' King) , Doucouré, Gomes, Rodriguez (73' Bernard), Sigurdsson, Richarlison.
Subs not Used: Virginia, Mina, Nkounkou, Allan, Iwobi,Onyango.

Fulham: Areola, Tete, Andersen, Adarabioyo, Aina, Reed, Lemina (90+1' Onomah), Reid, Loftus-Cheek, Lookman (83' Zambo), Maja (72' Cavaleiro).
Subs not Used: Hector, Odoi, Rodak, Ream, Ivan, Kongolo, Robinson.

Michael Kenrick

Match Preview

Everton's quest for European qualification resumes this weekend when Fulham come to Goodison Park.

The Blues welcome the Cottagers looking to build on two resilient performances against Manchester United in the Premier League and Tottenham in the FA Cup, performances that have hopefully injected some new-found belief into Carlo Ancelotti's charges in the build-up to a run of important fixtures.

The Toffees prevailed 5-4 in a wild Fifth Round tie in midweek but it came at the cost of leading scorer, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who had to be substituted early in the second half with a recurrence of the hamstring strain that kept him out of action for a time last month but his manager doesn't think he will be out long.

Calvert-Lewin will be joined on the sidelines by Jordan Pickford who has now missed three games with a rib injury but he too could be in contention in midweek when the League leaders come to town.

James Rodriguez and André Gomes are fit, however, and Josh King is eligible after being cup-tied for the Spurs match.

"Both [Calvert-Lewin and Pickford] will not be available for the game on Sunday," Ancelotti said in his pre-match press conference today. "We are looking [at] the next game on Wednesday where we think both of them will be available. "[Calvert-Lewin] only had the feeling that something wasn't good so he stopped. He only has a little problem. He can play on Wednesday.

"We have back Andre Gomes, James, Josh King, and in the next week we think Allan will be back so the squad is ready for the next games.

"James is fine. He trained yesterday and today and is available for the game on Sunday. No problem.”

King has made two appearances off the bench since arriving in a deadline-day move from Bournemouth and is almost certain to make his full debut on Sunday. Like Richarlison, he can play wide or as a centre-forward so it will be interesting to see which one gets the role up top or if it's more of a twin-striker formation.

It also remains to be seen whether Ancelotti will press James back into action from the start or whether he will keep an eye on the clash with Manchester City on Wednesday and the Merseyside derby beyond and keep him in reserve, with Alex Iwobi in the line-up instead.

With Gylfi Sigurdsson and Tom Davies so instrumental in the win over Spurs, Gomes would have some way to go to shift either one of them but the Portuguese, who has been in good form himself, might benefit from rotation given that both of the former two midfielders played 120 minutes just four days previously.

Fulham looked dead and buried early in the season and a shoo-in for relegation straight back to the Championship but, since losing at home to Everton in November, they have shown some resilience and effectiveness, even if they haven't always been able to convert enough draws into wins.

They surprised Leicester at the King Power Stadium in their next game on 30 November and then lost just once, away at Manchester City, until Chelsea edged them 1-0 at Craven Cottage in mid-January, including holding Liverpool and Spurs to draws.

Scott Parker will reportedly be without Tom Cairney and Terence Kongolo but Josh Maja could be in line to make his first start since joining on loan at the start of the month.

Despite the fact that Everton have a 100% record at home against the Cottagers and that this weekend's visitors will start the weekend seven points adrift of safety at the wrong end of the Premier League, Ancelotti's men will underestimate them at their peril. Former Blue, Ademola Lookman, in particular, will be itching to put in a good performance on what briefly and intermittently his stomping ground.

Then there's the small matter of the fact that the Blues haven't won at home in the League without fans in the ground since beating Brighton in the first week of October. It's their away form that has kept them on the heels of the top six and with games in hand but they are going to have to make Goodison a fortress again on their own if they are to realise their European dream this season.

Kick-off: 7pm, Sunday, 14 February 2021 on BT Sport 1
Referee: Andy Madley
VAR: Kevin Friend
Last Time: Everton 3 - 0 Fulham

Predicted Line-up: Olsen, Holgate, Godfrey, Keane, Digne, Davies, Doucouré, Gomes, Rodriguez, King, Richarlison

Lyndon Lloyd

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