Match Review - Everton 0 West Ham 1 - Blues Begin New Year with Defeat But No Need for Negativity!

You'll be pleased to know I intend to keep this brief.

It has to be said, that was a game of football that won't live long in the memory and was up there with our worst performances since Carlo Ancelotti became Everton manager. What made it even worse was that West Ham were just as bad!

The manager said himself in his post match comments that we did not deserve to win but we did not deserve to lose. I have to agree. That either team were able to take home 3 points after this game was nothing short of a travesty, as both deserved nothing.

This was not the standard of football expected from 2 teams looking to push on into the upper echelons of the Premier League and challenge for a European place.

The first half in particular was a turgid affair played out like a training session. By half time there had been only 1 shot on target - an effort from outside the box from Bernard - and 2 fouls from both teams combined, which tells you all you need to know about the level of intensity of this game.

The second half was marginally better but neither team did enough to merit the victory in my view. West Ham had Darren Randolph step in to the team last minute as Fabianski was injured in the warm up and we didn't trouble him at all. Similarly Jordan Pickford, besides the goal - which he could have done nothing about - had virtually nothing to do. This was probably his most comfortable game of the season so far.

The goal itself in many ways epitomised the dross-nature of this game. With West Ham on the attack, Soucek's initial effort was parried outside the box by Pickford. Aaron Cresswell then fizzed a shot back towards goal, which deflected off Yerry Mina and back onto the foot of Soucek who steered the ball home.

It was an unlucky way to concede and was certainly the only way the deadlock was going to be broken the way both sides shaped up in attack. In truth Soucek knew very little about it but the goal was enough to win the game for the Hammers - we could have still been playing this morning and probably wouldn't have found the back of the net.

My overriding feeling after the game was, of course, one of disappointment. Everton had the chance to go back into 2nd place in the league and 1 point behind the leaders with a win. With West Ham playing so poorly in the game it felt like a massive opportunity missed.

However, I feel it is important to put this game into perspective. Since the game I have seen an awful lot of unwarranted negativity from our fan base on Twitter - "Richarlison is no good", "Ancelotti is past it", "we won't even finish top half" among some of the more extreme comments.

I was guilty of being critical of the players myself immediately after the game, but on reflection I don't believe that hammering the players is necessary. It is for this reason I've chosen not to overly criticise individual players in this review - the player ratings below are enough of an indication of how poor they were.

This result has come at the end of a period in which we have played 6 games in less than 3 weeks with virtually the same players in each game. During this period we have climbed the league and topped the form table, picking up 12 points from a possible 15. Despite this defeat, we remain 2nd in the form table and 4th in the league, well in the hunt for a European place.

With the form we were in going into December, had I been offered 12 points from Chelsea, Leicester, Arsenal, Sheffield United and West Ham I absolutely would have taken it without a second thought. When you consider that this was achieved often with half of our first team unavailable it makes the points haul even more impressive.

Yes, the lads have underperformed massively in this game and the result was disappointing but it is far from disastrous and certainly not all doom and gloom.

The players that have been out are now beginning to return. James Rodriguez made his first appearance since 5 December in yesterday's game and hopefully will soon be back up to full match sharpness. Lucas Digne has started to train again and Allan is expected back before the end of this month.

Also, the transfer window is now open. I would hope that Farhad Moshiri - this year of all years - will do his upmost to persuade Marcel Brands to buck his usual trend of not spending in the January window in order to strengthen the squad for the second half the season.

We have a big opportunity to finish high up the table this season. Of course, there are a number of things that will need to fall into place. We will need to remain consistent in our results, get lucky with injuries and suspensions, hope DCL continues his form in front of goal etc. But the opportunity is there.

There will undoubtedly be bumps in the road along the way - as the West Ham result proves - but that is all they are, and shouldn't be taken to be anything more at this stage.

There is no question that Everton under Carlo Ancelotti are heading in the right direction. The team is not yet the finished article which is why we will unfortunately continue to see performances like this every so often. The important thing is to remain united behind the team, draw a line under such performances quickly and move on to the next game.

We have 3 big games coming up now against Wolves, Aston Villa and Leicester - teams we are likely to be competing for Europe with come the end of the season. If we are able to come out of the other side after these 3 games having not lost and hopefully having picked up a couple of wins we will be sitting very pretty indeed.

Keep the faith. Up the Toffees.

Player Ratings

Pickford - 7 - had nothing to do, kicking impressive today

Godfrey - 5 - probably his first bad game in an Everton shirt

Coleman - 4 - poor in possession and didn't get forward anywhere near enough

Holgate - 4 - gave the ball away a lot again, almost too composed bordering on lackadaisical

Mina - 5 - not the worst performer but didn't reach the standards he has in recent games

Davies - 3 - really poor today, lost count of the amount of times he passed the ball straight out of play

Doucoure - 6 - felt the sloppiness of others around him rubbed off on him, the best of a bad bunch

Sigurdsson - 2 - 1 step forward in recent weeks and then 2 back in this game, utterly abysmal

Bernard - 4 - played well off the bench on Boxing Day but offered nothing today

Richarlison - 3 - don't know if the concussion was still affecting him but this was not a good day for Richy

Calvert-Lewin - 5 - largely anonymous, even felt his usual work rate was missing

Rodriguez - 6 - at least tried to get on the ball and pass it forwards

Gomes - 7 - probably MOTM and only on the pitch for 25 mins

Tosun - 2 - on for 11 mins plus stoppage time and literally didn't do anything