A 1-0 loss to newly-promoted Leeds United isn’t how most fans would’ve expected Everton to begin the season.

The result following the performance at Elland Road on Monday night was a brutal reality check for the Toffees. They are far from the level that was envisioned at the beginning of a busy, turbulent summer.

With just a few days remaining before the end of the transfer window, there’s still hope that the club hits the nail on the head and fills pivotal positions on the pitch.

Harsh penalty call, players slotted out of position, and late cameos, here are all the major talking points from Everton’s 1-0 loss to Leeds United:

“Bizarre” penalty called against James Tarkowski

The biggest talking point from Everton’s season-opening misadventure stems from the controversial penalty call against James Tarkowski towards the closing stages of the match.

Charly Alcaraz slipped while trying to turn with the ball in his own half, paving the way for Leeds attackers to threaten Jordan Pickford’s goal. Tarkowski threw himself in the path of Anton Stach’s powerful strike but the referee adjudged the ball to have come off his arm, awarding the hosts a penalty.

Despite Tarkowski’s arm being in a natural position, referee Chris Kavanagh’s decision survived a VAR check and Lukas Nmecha slotted home from 12 yards to score the only goal of the game.

The decision was labelled ‘scandalous’ by pundit Chris Sutton while being defended by Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville. “I’m obviously going to say it’s not a penalty and I believe it’s not a penalty,” said David Moyes. 

“I’ve been to see the referee. The referee sort of took nothing to do with it, he thought it was to do with VAR, the decision they’ve made. I don’t know what else I can say.”

The Premier League matchday centre and live commentary believed Tarkowski “leaning” into the ball gave the referee the benefit of the doubt, while the Everton vice-captain told Sky that it was a “bizarre” decision. “I can’t understand it really,” Tarkowski added.

David Moyes’ lineup selection and changes were puzzling

The contentious penalty call should not distract fans from the fact that Everton didn’t deserve to win the match anyway. Their first 45 minutes at Elland Road was one of the most appalling halves of football with the Blues pinned deep into their box. 

Injuries to Jarrad Branthwaite and Vitalii Mykolenko led Moyes to experiment with James Garner at left-back. While Garner provided suitable defensive cover and was able to keep Dan James quiet on his flank, Everton’s buildup suffered because of the changes.

Unable to build from the back or string a few passes together to get out of the intense Leeds press, they had to resort to Jordan Pickford and Tarkowski playing long balls to find Beto. Both the quality of the passes as well as Beto’s attempts to win his duels left a lot to be desired, while the likes of Iliman Ndiaye, Alcaraz and Dewsbury-Hall were unable to help the number 9.

As a result, Everton registered just two touches inside the opposition box with no shot on target in the first half. 

While the game became more fluid in the second half, primarily due to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall dropping deep to create numerical superiority in their build-up, Everton created little in the way of meaningful chances. Alcaraz registered the Blues’ first shot on target after 75 minutes and Moyes waited until the 70th minute to make any changes in the way of personnel, with Grealish coming on to replace Iroegbunam.

A team without full-backs

The fact that an injury to Vitalii Mykolenko forced such a major shakeup sums up Everton’s transfer window and how much work they have left in the remaining days. While the Toffees did bring in left-back Adam Aznou as an understudy to Mykolenko, Aznou seems too raw and young for the Premier League at this moment.

He looked out of sorts in the friendly against Roma the week before, which led to Moyes playing Garner at left-back. 

On the other flank, too, Everton still don’t have a trustworthy natural right-back. Seamus Coleman is injury-riddled and past his prime, while Nathan Patterson is not reliable enough. As a result, central defender Jake O’Brien has been entrusted to play that role under Moyes. While he has done a sufficient job so far, it’s the equivalent of fixing a Band-Aid on a bullet hole. Sooner or later, it will come off. 

Right wing remains a problem position for the Toffees

With just over 10 days remaining before the transfer window closes, the fate of Everton’s season hinges upon them nailing this signing. Signing a right winger should’ve been a priority since Day 1, but instead, the club has had to begin the season without one.

While the Toffees have been linked with several quality players like Francisco Conceicao, Johan Bakayoko, Ben Doak, Omari Hutchinson, Abdul Fatawu, Takefusa Kubo and most notably, Tyler Dibling, they have failed to get a deal over the line.

Any Everton XI looks disbalanced without a wide player on the right and the lack of pace and trickery on that flank hurts the side immensely. 

It cannot be overstated how imperative it is for Everton to acquire a pacey right winger capable of taking on his full-back before the end of the transfer window.

Thierno Barry deserves a nod

For 85 minutes, David Moyes saw Beto struggling to win aerial balls, to shake off the attention from Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk, and to hold up the ball and have an influence on the game but opted not to do anything about it. 

It’s true that the Everton number 9 didn’t get a lot of service either but it was the kind of game where a 6’4” Thierno Barry with quick legs and a physical presence probably could’ve made a difference.

Instead, he only came on for the final 10 minutes. One of the first things he did after coming off the bench was to win an aerial duel and lay off the ball - something Beto failed at repeatedly.

While Barry may be young, he’s certainly no novice. The French striker registered over 2300 minutes for Villarreal in La Liga last season, scoring 11 goals and assisting another four, bettering Beto’s statistics in the same categories.

Reader Comments (11)

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Kieran Kinsella
1 Posted 19/08/2025 at 14:04:43
Moyes saying "Grealish has rarely played two games in a row in his career so we have to be careful when we use him."

So we are going to pay him £250k a week and wrap him in cotton wool as if he is bone china?

Granted he didn't play much last season as he was selected but Moyes is acting like he's the aging Stanley Matthews who we can wheel out at the occasional carnival or something.

Pat Kelly
2 Posted 19/08/2025 at 14:46:15
13 days to patch up the squad.

Time to start bringing in players who are ready to do more than sit on the bench or learn their trade until they're ready for the Premier League.

It's not an apprenticeship scheme we're running. Nor an old folks home.

Sam Hoare
3 Posted 19/08/2025 at 14:51:31
Last night has got me thinking that a decent 6 might be more important than a right-winger. No point having good wingers if they never get the ball in decent positions.

We really struggled in the middle and though Gana can play better I think Iroegbunam is not yet ready for the Premier League.

How I'd love a play-dictating maestro like Wharton in there alongside Gueye. Garner is okay but not high level. I would love someone like Angelo Stiller from Stuttgart or Agoume. Even Hayden Hackney could help.

James Newcombe
4 Posted 19/08/2025 at 14:56:21
Me too, Sam, we absolutely require a couple of wingers and a versatile full-back.

But we are in desperate need of a midfielder in the Mangala mould (with Doucoure energy) or we'll be getting pumped rather often.

Grealish should be playing at 10. No point in our best player being wasted on the left.

Ian Wilkins
5 Posted 19/08/2025 at 15:55:10
We’re going to have to spend some money on 2 or 3 quality additions, sorry it will cost us a bit more than the 20-25m bargain bucket. Maybe £35- £40m a piece.
Then the quality of 3 more loan additions have to make a difference, maybe the odd free transfer for squad depth.
Yes PSR headroom is a factor but boxing clever with things like the sale of the ladies team etc must be on our radar.
Otherwise we are going to struggle.
Oh to be talking about adding Eze from Palace for £60m….
Frank Crewe
6 Posted 19/08/2025 at 16:06:50
Same old same old. We haven't been ready for the start of a new season for years. This one has proved no exception.
As usual we lack a complete squad. Two of our best defenders are injured and we have no backups and our right back is really a centre back. We lack craft in midfield and we have a slow powderpuff attack. Once again we have managed to get ourselves into a transfer standoff with a lower division club. This time it's Dibling. A season ago it was an equally overrated Gnonto. He did nothing last night. I doubt we'd want him now.
We can only hope Moyes and Co uses whatever transfer cash they have left wisely in the next two weeks to bolster this squad. Or it's going to be yet another long nail biting slog.
Benjamin Dyke
7 Posted 19/08/2025 at 16:08:25
The penalty was a kick in the teeth but when our xG is 0 for a whole half of football we're clutching at straws to blame the ref solely for our defeat.

The brave new dawn becomes a damp old squid.

Sam Hoare
8 Posted 19/08/2025 at 16:20:31
Yes, James, if we want to transition to a team with more possession (if this is not the plan I’m not quite sure why we bought KDH and Grealish) then we need someone in the middle who can get the ball from defenders and feed the midfield.

As for Grealish it may be that he gets more space and time to operate on the left. I think though his career he’s probably played there as much if not more than at 10. Either way we need to make sure we can get him the ball to feet frequently.

Sean Kelly
9 Posted 19/08/2025 at 16:22:01
We haven't been ready to start a season properly for years now. We never look sharp like any of the top teams. We are cumbersome in every department on the pitch. What the hell do they do at finch Farm. The fact we haven't been ready for the season start may be overlooked when we were scratching for freebees and loans when money was really tight. Moyes, Kinnear and the TFG guys new 6 months ago that we need quality players. if they don't want to come so be it there are plenty more players about and if they are not ready well its bloody well Moyes's job to get them ready. Last night they looked like they never met before. FINALLY, what's the point in paying a guy a 1/4 of a million quid a week only to leave him on the bench for over 70 minutes. This club is a joke. Bringing Moyes back and giving him a huge salary to look like a rabbit in the headlights is nuts. He should have been kicked out when safety was achieved and we should have got a more progressive and hungrier manager to kick on.
Rob Halligan
10 Posted 19/08/2025 at 17:06:36
Anyone who thinks that was a penalty last night needs to book an appointment at their nearest Specsavers. Tarkowski arm is clearly behind his back, so what else is he meant to do, let the ball go past him and hope Pickford saves it? The fact that he moved forward towards the ball is irrelevant, he was simply trying to block the shot with whatever part of his body he could, it was just unfortunate that the ball hit his shoulder. As a comparison, remember Mykolenko last season at Fulham when VAR advised the referee to look again at the pitch side monitor after the ball hit Mkolenkos arm. The referee did not change his mind because he said Mykolenko was moving his arm back to a natural position, or something like that, and therefore deemed it no penalty. I was absolutely shocked that both the referee and the VAR deemed that to be a penalty last night! Had it been down the other end, I’d still have said no penalty, but if it’s given, then of course you’re going to accept it, right or wrong decision.

Having said that, it does not deter from the fact that it was a piss poor performance by us. We probably couldn’t have picked a harder away game than Leeds to kick off the season. As with most promoted teams, they were on a high and their raucous crowd had their team well fired up.

That first half was a painful watch, made worse by the fact that we were right in the corner, and two rows from the front, in the away section. Not the greatest view, but at least we saw most of the action in that first half, when it all seemed to be down our end. From what we could tell their midfield was given the freedom of Elland Road in that first half, and yet despite their almost total domination, there was very little threat on our goal, and we were even saying after about half an hour they had run out of ideas.

So we were denied what would probably have been an undeserved point by a very ridiculous penalty decision. I read on another thread that why would the premier league or the officials last night want to do us out of anything in the first game of the season? Well just think back to when we played Bolton away in the first game in their new stadium, I think it was 1997, and they had a goal ruled out despite the ball clearly crossing the line. First game or last game, every point is important, and who knows, that point we were denied last night could be vital come the end of the season.

Jason Brook
11 Posted 19/08/2025 at 17:22:39
Fair points in the article. It represents what I saw of the match on TV. Penalty aside it was a very passive performance and seemed as though we wanted to keep it tight and then try nicking it.

We need to play more attacking football and make use of who we have. Grealish must start, if we use Beto we cannot be pumping the ball long and in the air.

I would rather see Armstrong in the team. Until we get a new RW I would play Patterson there.

I honestly thought we would start stronger this season. Only one game in so hope that turns out to be the case.

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