Everton 2 – 3 Bournemouth

That the day was going too well should have been a beacon that it was about to go South… 

Picked up at 12:20 pm, and in the pub before 1 pm, even with a nice seat with a view of the early kick-off game. Having missed our opening Premier League game of the season, it was great to see the usual fellas, and chat mostly about the trials and tribulations of going online and getting Oasis tickets, before eventually turning our focus on Everton. All of us were pleased to see Iliman Ndiaye in the starting line-up after his excellent contribution in the League Cup in midweek.

We got through the Gwladys Street turnstiles in time for kick-off. It was a beautiful end-of-Summer's day and very warm in the stands. The atmosphere was very good as we attacked towards the Park End in the first half. 

Speaking of the Park End, the tribute for Super Kev was terrific. During the minute's applause on the 9th minute, I found myself reminiscing about some of the goals he scored at Goodison Park, with a well-taken goal in a 2-2 draw against Leeds United in 2001 a memory I was somehow drawn to. It was a great tribute to a great man, which was well observed by all. RIP, Super Kev.

We were on top in the first half if not in complete control. A lot of pressure, though not a lot of efforts on goal, Michael Keane perhaps coming closest when he headed into the side-netting from a trademark deep corner. 

Bournemouth gradually settled into the game and it felt like stalemate at one point, though Iliman Ndiaye getting on the ball more towards the end of the half hinted at what could be done after the break.

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And so it proved in the second half. We came out of the traps well and really went full throttle at Bournemouth. The ever-maligned Michael Keane finished very well after Dominic Calvert-Lewin knocked down Jack Harrison's cross following good work by James Tarkowski to keep it alive. It amuses me that you literally wouldn't want the ball to drop to anyone else in that situation!

Everton were rocking from there forth, with Iliman causing havoc. Bournemouth dumbfounded with how to cope with him. The Cherries were let off the hook when Seamus Coleman, having done everything right to get into a great shooting position, hit it straight at Kepa who tipped it over the crossbar. However, it wasn't long before we'd doubled our advantage when Dominic finished brilliantly when teed up by Dwight McNeil, again, following splendid work from Iliman.

Bournemouth rung the changes to no avail. Everton continued to dominate and, if truth be told, when Sean Dyche substituted Iliman Ndiaye with Abdoulaye Doucoure, you felt we'd more or less finished the job. I don't recall anyone at the time shouting "What the hell is he doing?"

In hindsight, this was an error by Sean. At 2-0 and with a bit of time remaining, this should have been done when the game was definitely done. Bournemouth were terrified of Iliman. They didn't know how to handle him.

And then suddenly, they didn't have to worry about him. Before you knew it, Antoine Semenyo had arrived at the far post to turn the ball in, and there was immediately angst amongst everyone, supporters and clearly the players alike.

What happened next was inexplicable. While the substitution of Iliman Ndiaye was a mistake, it's hardly out of this world to bring on a solid experienced Premier League player like Abdoulaye Doucoure to help shore things up in the final 10 minutes or so.

In Jordan Pickford, Vitali Mykolenko, Michael Keane, James Tarkowski, Seamus Coleman, Idrissa Gueye, Dwight McNeil, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Jack Harrison, there's mountains of experience in seeing games out. Those very same lads did it plenty of times last season even.

The drop-off was incredible and you could feel the momentum and belief grow from Bournemouth. It was horrible.

While the Iliman Ndiaye substitution was a mistake by Sean Dyche, I kind of got it. Beto was readied to come on just before Bournemouth pulled one back. Once Bournemouth scored, however, Beto should have politely been asked to sit back down. Dominic's performance was very good and given what just happened, I thought that was a really poor call from Sean Dyche.

What followed was a horror show. You knew what was coming, and those nine minutes felt like an eternity. I remember looking at the clock when Bournemouth scored and thinking "Shit, there's still three minutes to go". It's hard to believe that Jordan actually had to make two or three good saves even between that time and when Bournemouth dealt us the biggest humiliation. I, we, everyone, were completely stunned.

On the way home we tried picking apart Bournemouth's goals and what went wrong at the back for them. From the Gwladys Street, it was hard to tell, all we knew is that it was awful. Dan's general view from the Top Balcony was that it was a clusterfuck all round.

Having now mustered up the courage to watch the highlights, and as picked up by Danny Murphy on Match of the Day, the efforts from our midfielders to get back and help out the defence were appalling, and totally not in line with what Sean seems to have drilled into these players.

In the car while travelling back, we were discussing a number of different substitution options Sean could have made. Tim Iroegbunam, after a good performance was anonymous in the last 20 minutes and could have been swapped for James Garner to bring a bit of nouse into the middle, or even for Abdoulaye Doucoure had he deemed James not quite fit enough for that.

Or with Bournemouth having thrown so many attackers on, maybe bringing on our giant 6ft-6in centre-back to help shore things up. Ashley Young would even have been a handy substitute as he's shown decent craft with game management, as Jack Harrison looked pretty gassed by this point.

There was a lot that could have been done, and we had enough on the substitutes bench to change it with. Sean made errors here, though that all said, it's fair for him to have expected much, much better from his players.

Still, with the performance being mostly very good, especially so for 40 minutes of that second half, there are so many positives to take from that game, Iliman Ndiaye being the most obvious one. Dominic Calvert-Lewin also put in easily his best performance of the season so far.

With Jarrad Branthwaite, James Garner, Nathan Patterson, Jesper Lindstrom, Eliaquim Mangala, Armando Broja and maybe Dele Alli all to be available, there's plenty of scope for recovery this season.

But that'll be down to the players, manager and his team. This stings, and with the international break it's a long time for them to stew over this. If there's anything about them, they'll have the bit between their teeth to put this right and make sure this sort of collapse doesn't happen again.

Following the international break, a tough task awaits at Villa Park. What a great opportunity then, for the players and manager to get back out there and show us what they are made of.

Man of the Match: Iliman Ndiaye

Reader Comments (2)

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Steve Hogan
1 Posted 01/09/2024 at 19:35:45
Paul, I think you have let Dyche off the hook somewhat. It was a dreadful dreadful decision to pull both DCL and Ndiaye off when he did.

Neither was 'blowing for tugs' and both having great games. I can't remember a player making as much impact on his full league debut as Ndiaye, he could have run all day and not look tired. He was literally everywhere and a constant pain in the arse to the Bournemouth defence.

They must have thought it was Xmas when the two of them were hooked. Everyman and his dog could see Mykolenko was not fully fit and he had a torrid time the whole game. I was sitting in the Main Stand by the Park End corner flag and he physically looked shell-shocked after being continually 'bummed' by the pacy Bournemouth wingers. He was asleep for the first Bournemouth goal, and had a hand in the run up to the others.

The decision to bring Beto on was catastrophic. Him and Doucoure offered absolutely nothing to the cause, it was embarrassing to be honest. Why not O'Brien or Dixon on, at least we would have injected some pace in the back four.

I think Dyche did a sterling job last season, deflecting the pressure on the players after two point deductions, but this was a massive collective school boy error on his part in failing to see what the rest of us were witnessing.

I'm not sure the fans will ever forgive him to be honest, such was the carnage we were witnessing at the time.

Dave Ganley
2 Posted 01/09/2024 at 21:01:34
Totally agree with you, Steve, I sit in the Main Stand opposite the 18-yard area at the Park End and I saw what you did. Bournemouth looked positively lifted when Ndiaye and Calvert-Lewin went off. The two players that were giving them problems and Dyche took them off for no reason.

McNeil was anonymous imo, too slow and chasing shadows. Harrison, while he works hard, yet again was too slow. What does it take for either of them to get hooked?

Ndiaye, every time he got the ball, ran at them and caused trouble, obviously too adventurous for Dyche. Him and Calvert-Lewin were the main outlets and he took that away from us when we were controlling things.

Massive error on Dyche's part. Yes, the remaining players bear responsibility but the main fault was Dyche's subs, which completely changed the game for the worse. This is on him and him only.

I hate what he's doing to this club. How low is our bar now? People still defend Dyche but, while he isn't the cause of our problems, he is a big symptom.

As others have said on previous articles, that 3-month run without a win last season was shocking and he should have gone then but we are a rudderless ship drifting aimlessly. Nobody in charge and nobody with any standards.

It's only the fans who seemingly give a shit anymore. I can just about forgive crap football if there's an end game but the one time we play good football and Dyche kills it with terrible subs.

Sooner he's gone, the better. Anti-football at its finest and it got its just desserts. It's heartbreaking for fans to witness this shit, week after week

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