Five dropped points have sabotaged Everton season – by Matt Townsend

What a let down yet again. The last two Premier League matches, a tepid 0-0 draw at Aston Villa and an embarrasing 1-0 defeat against Sheffield United, have exposed just how average this Everton team still is and have sabotaged any last, lingering hopes the club had of European football.

These performances have been appalling especially last night’s dreadful game against Sheffield United, which saw the Blues fall to a defeat that has basically prevented this team having anything to show for yet another season.

It’s hard to know where to start with these two matches as the Toffees stumbled to one draw and a loss without scoring a solitary goal, despite having to win both games.

The lack of urgency, energy, commitment and quality when it matters, especially in front of goal, is what most comes out of these and so many other performances at Goodison Park.

Last night’s dreadful effort was quite possibly the worst of the season, particularly given the situation with Everton absolutely needing all three points with Tottenham and Liverpool both winning as well this weekend.

First of all, in trying to understand how it’s come to this let’s be clear that this is a very strange and unique season with no fans and a compressed and ridiculous fixture schedule with so many matches almost back-to-back at times during the campaign.

This has meant that the Blues have, along with a lot of clubs, struggled at home and have suffered a constant stream of injuries since the first month or so of the season. And this has hampered them in selecting a regular set of players and establishing a consistent approach to their play. At one point the Toffees had seen injuries to every one of their first team players.

This is even more important because Carlo Ancelotti was trying to restructure the team that he inherited and had brought in a number of new players in the summer; Allan, Abdoulaye Doucoure, James Rodriguez and on dealdine day Ben Godfrey and Robin Olsen.

The manager was also trying a new 4-3-3 formation and tactics and it worked brilliantly for a month or so before the first international break. Then came those injuries and constant unrelenting games that hampered players’ recovery and the team has never regained its form and consistency since.

When the side was struggling again after that great start stalled, Ancelotti reverted to a much more defensive, counter-attacking posture and this worked with the Toffees regaining their momentum in December and the New Year.

But at home the same side were having massive problems and lost a succession of matches at the Grand Old Lady to Leeds, West Ham and Newcastle United, Fulham, Burnley and now Sheffield United. Just winning half of those games would have put Everton in contention for the top four.

Ancelotti seems to have trouble re-setting the team to play a more urgent and energetic way at home and too often the team were slow, methodical and had a passive mentality which backfired badly.

Opponents came and either sat back as the Blues were doing themselves forcing Everton to try and break them down, which they rarely managed to do. Or they played a more aggressive, pressing game which caught the home team out and exposed this group of players lack of accurate, quick passing ability necessary to get out of an effective press.

So, while Everton have won more away matches than any season since the fabled 1984-85 campaign, the most successful in the club’s history, their home form has been terrible. This has undermined all the good work done with wins at teams such as Leicester City, Liverpool and Arsenal, the last two where the Toffees hadn’t triumphed for more than 20 years.

What can we make of all this? First the home form might in part be a lack of fans and could recover naturally next season when they return, but as Everton’s is amongst the worst two or three teams in the Premier League so that suggests something else is going on.

The other huge problem is how can this manager and team move from an overly defensive approach to a more dynamic type of football built on pace, movement and more pressing.

This is the challenge for the summer after another hugely frustrating and underachieving season. I think the Blues need four or five new players and a real change in mentality if there is going to be any substantial progress next season.