When will Everton party like it’s 1999?
It was this corresponding weekend back in 1999 that Kevin Campbell started on his prolific spree of nine goals in five games that saved Everton from the drop. But who is going to step forward to prevent what would be the club’s first relegation for 72 years this time around?
Later that year, after the striker Blues fans dubbed ‘Super Kev’ had netted what remains the club’s last Merseyside Derby winner at Anfield in front of fans, he was dubbed “a man mountain” by Steven Gerrard after a chance encounter with the then teenage midfielder in the gents at a Mersey waterfront restaurant and, in terms of sheer physicality, Amadou Onana is the closest thing this current Everton side possesses. But while Campbell was a senior pro of some 29 years of age when he came to Goodison Park, Onana for all his precocious promise remains very much a rookie in the Premier League and that showed here at Old Trafford, the biggest stage of all in club football’s toughest division.
When it comes to size, the Belgium international, at £33.5m, Everton’s biggest signing of last summer, is even more towering than Campbell. But despite such stature and the off-the-field maturity shown by the multilingual 21-year-old, he remains on a steep learning curve when it comes to being streetwise at this level. Onana’s compatriot Marouane Fellaini came to these shores at a similar age in 2008 but was able to display a combination of silk and steel from the start as well as being a regular goal threat and all-round nuisance for opponents with his flailing, sharp elbows.
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We’re not calling for football thuggery here but given that the talent that Onana possesses – Sean Dyche has already hooked up with Steven Defour for a crash course in what it takes to become an all-round Premier League midfielder – is clearly immense, he needs to start dominating proceedings more often while also remaining switched on out of possession to avoid incidents like United’s first goal. This will be particularly poignant during Abdoulaye Doucoure’s suspension but while high-profile suitors have reportedly already been casting admiring glances in his direction, Onana must rise to the occasion in royal blue during the run-in.
Wings clipped
While the defeat at Manchester United was a chastening experience for aforementioned rookie Onana, it also proved to be a painful afternoon for Everton’s most-experience player, captain Seamus Coleman.
The Blues skipper had already suffered the unseemly ignominy of having the hosts’ opening goalscorer Scott McTominay knee him in the backside while he lay prostrate on the Old Trafford turf – an incident that sparked a mini melee, although it didn’t progress to the levels of previous dust-ups since Dyche took charge – but he then added insult to injury with an uncharacteristic howler to gift United their second goal. Coleman, who understandably had given Harry Kane a piece of his mind after his theatrics at Goodison Park last time out, is one of the most-honest players in the Premier League and the look on his face after long-time Everton tormenter Anthony Martial had doubled the hosts’ lead told you all he was well aware of the severity of his mistake.
It was a cruel blow to the Irishman who had up until that point acquitted himself well against the lightning fast Jadon Sancho but for all the plaudits he rightly continues to receive from a string of Blues bosses, Coleman, who turns 35 in October, should be targeting quality over quantity when it comes to his outings these days. Injuries to Nathan Patterson, drafted in as his long-term replacement, have thrust the man from County Donegal back into the spotlight in recent months and he’s performed admirably at times, most-noticeably when netting his inspired winner from the tightest of angles against Leeds United.
However, such has been the strength of Coleman’s character, Dyche it would seem has felt unable to afford him breathers and this assignment, against a string of greyhound-like opponents might, at least with the 20/20 vision afforded by hindsight, have been an opportunity. Worryingly though, Everton were actually far more ragged on the opposite flank with Ben Godfrey, who had looked solid enough for the previous four matches during the side’s unbeaten run, hauled off at the break after what had largely been a chasing for him over the first 45 minutes.
Although Vitalii Mykolenko and now the fit-again Patterson – who was omitted against Tottenham Hotspur despite featuring in Scotland’s win over Spain the previous week – are both waiting in the wings, this needn’t necessarily ensure Coleman and Godfrey are both dropped as not all opponents will be quite as devastating on the break as Erik ten Hag’s men. This, though, was undoubtedly a tough day at the office of the Blues full-backs, giving Dyche plenty of food for thought going forward.
Too close for comfort
Because of their shared animosity towards Liverpool and several transfers of players between the clubs, many in football consider Everton and Manchester United to be some kind of kindred spirits but there wasn’t much sympathy shown by the home fans at Old Trafford when they taunted their Blue counterparts were chants of 'going down' after their side had found the security of a second goal.
The truth is that Evertonians would love for the other Reds from down the East Lancs Road to see them as rivals – as they indeed did in years gone by – but they have been operating in different stratospheres for far too long now and this was just another routine win for the hosts in such fixtures at Old Trafford. As an Everton ambassador, former player Graham Stuart has been a true blue for three decades and as this correspondent sat in the stadium’s David Meek Press Lounge writing up these words, a series of fellow ex-pros gravitated towards him with their thoughts about the game.
Words of encouragement were offered, with far more charity being displayed than patrons of the Stretford End, in the hope that Everton beat the drop, but many of them seemed shocked and disappointed with the level of performance produced by Dyche’s side.
Regardless of what correspondents like myself produce in terms of comment on matters, we’re still laymen and it’s particularly damning when those who have played the game at the highest level are visibly taken aback by such a timid surrender in a fixture before which United boss Ten Hag had cautioned: “We can say for certain that they will bring huge amounts of desire and determination.” Old pros shook their heads in Stuart’s direction, though, and lamented that it was “just too easy” for United.
One queried when Dominic Calvert-Lewin might be back but despite seeing the centre-forward beaming with a smile while training at Finch Farm this week, predicting whether he’ll feature against Fulham next weekend might well be as straightforward as picking a winner in the Grand National at Aintree later that day. While Stuart was able to kick-on at Everton by securing an FA Cup winners’ medal – against United of course – the following year, he remains synonymous with his two-goal heroics in their 3-2 comeback win on the last day of the season against Wimbledon in 1994 to secure the Blues’ Premier League status, Nobody needs another day like that as for all the green shoots of recovery under Dyche so far, one parting shot used over the club’s precarious top flight status was that it remains “touch and go.”
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