It took four days for any good feeling around Everton to fall flat. For a promising season with an outside chance of Europe to turn into a farce.
David Moyes, who sat idle while his defence crumbled in a shambolic display against Brentford, doubled down on his team selection with Michael Keane and James Tarkowski preferred in central defence and Jake O’Brien pushed out to right back.
Tyler Dibling, who was isolated against Brentford by Everton’s conservative outlook, was the scapegoat for that defeat and was dropped in favour of Dwight McNeil on the right, while Harrison Armstrong was handed a start.
In reality, Everton had dropped points long before the teams lined up to kick off. The ridiculous team selection had already took the wind out of the sails of fans who had trekked to Hill Dickinson Stadium on a cold Wednesday night. A right hand side featuring O’Brien and McNeil is never going to win you games in the Premier League.
It has been 190 days since Kenny Tete signed a new contract with Fulham. That is 190 days where Everton have operated without a functioning right back. Angus Kinnear and co can modestly brag all they like about Budweiser and Pepsi deals but as we enter week two of the January window we have yet to see any evidence that they know the first thing about creating a successful team on the pitch.
Surprisingly Everton went in at half time one goal up. A superb all-action performance from Tim Iroegbunam and a fantastic Michael Keane finish from the former’s mishit effort was enough to squeeze ahead of an uninspired Wolves.
Despite the goal – and a second Keane chance that hit the post – Everton’s right hand side was a wasteland of misplaced passes and painfully laboured attacks. Dwight McNeil played 87 minutes here despite rarely doing anything of note. In the first half he drifted inside whenever O’Brien had the ball, desperately hiding behind Wolves players. When he did get it his whipped, bouncing crosses to the edge of the area were happily booted away by the defence.
It did not take much to completely change the course of the game. Rob Edwards simply added a more combative midfielder to sit on Iroegbunam and Everton simply crumbled. The team simply stopped competing for balls and sat deep, pulling every man behind the ball and asking Barry to chase four defenders aimlessly.
A few half chances came but Grealish dithered on the ball time and time again. When a cut back opportunity presented itself he launched the ball high over the bar instead. On the other side McNeil shrunk from responsibility so much at one point I thought he’d joined the disgruntled Evertonians in Village Street for a soothing pint.
Fans were expecting a Wolves goal ten minutes before it happened. BlueSky, the Nazi site and the forums all have evidence of hundreds of Evertonians who could see the game unfolding. Sadly, the one person who couldn’t see it was David Moyes. Far be it from him to give Dibling another go, or match Wolves in central midfield where a tidy but tired Armstrong was flagging.
Moyes did nothing as the Everton defence parted. Tarkowski caught out of position again as the impressive Mane swept home. The Everton captain, fresh from berating his own teammate after his horrendous error against Brentford instead of taking responsibility, had already gifted Wolves a chance late in the first half with an identically weak pass to nobody.
It was the latest in a string of awful moments for Tarkowski, whose form is of real concern at the moment.
Later on Michael Keane was sent off for hair pulling, summing up the sheer stupidity that permeates this Everton side. Jack Grealish followed with a petulant display to the referee. He’ll miss one game while Keane misses three. On this form neither will be missed.
But really the two points dropped is on David Moyes. His right back experiment with Jake O’Brien came to an end a long time ago but he is clinging on desperately to his ‘hybrid’ tactic, even without the key component of Jasper Lindstrom playing as almost a wing back ahead of him.
Moyes sat idle while Wolves got back into the game. Keith Andrews and now Rob Edwards have tactically outclassed him. It unfolded before him and he simply did nothing. His first substitution was in the 87th minute and was forced on him by the stupidity of Michael Keane.
Petrified of talent, Moyes does not know how, why or where to use the likes of Tyler Dibling. He doesn’t know how to beat a Wolves side who simply brought on a more defensive midfielder to change the game.
Everton now go into the Sunderland game with a threadbare team, morale at rock bottom and a season that is very quickly falling apart. It did not have to be this way. Moyes went into the week with a fantastic away win, almost universal fan support and two winnable fixtures. His decisions since Sunday have been baffling, worrying and have ultimately cost Everton five points at a critical time of the season.
Where do we go from here? The ideal scenario would be to dust ourselves off, rejig the team and tactics and freshen things up with some of the talent we’ve been neglecting.
What will happen is Moyes will stick to his new strangely dour persona, throw together another uninspired lineup and watch us crash out of the FA Cup against Sunderland.
Things will improve when the likes of Iliman Ndiaye, Idrissa Gana Gueye and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall are back. But unless Angus Kinnear takes a break from self-congratulatory interviews and actually signs a right back, it will be a long, frustrating season under a manager who seems to have completely given up.