David Moyes showed some frustration with ‘terrible decisions’ made by some of his defenders as they failed to protect a nice 2-0 lead over Ipswich Town yesterday.
“I think it’s about understanding how to see the game through. I thought we made a couple of terrible decisions, regarding runs and tackles and what not when neither were needed. We sort of left ourselves a bit exposed.
“I think if we all knew the answer, we wouldn’t let it happen again.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t win, but I think there are a lot of positives in terms of where we’ve been and how we’re playing and what we’re doing to make chances.”
That’s now only one win in the last 10 games for Everton, which represents a disturbing return to relegation form after Moyes’s much-heralded new manager bounce that saw his team establish a 17-point cushion above the Bottom 3 and ensure Premier League survival since he returned to the club in January.
But Everton have dropped 10 points from winning positions when they have led by two or more goals this season, and Moyes added: “We’ve done that a couple of times but not seen it out. The game was always tight. We should have done a little bit better.”
“We never shook Ipswich off really. They were always there or thereabouts,” he added. “We just couldn’t quite get there. We did a lot of good things and we tried some different things to see how players play in different roles.
“It’s something a lot of the supporters have been asking about, Ili playing as a 10, and wanting to see more of Charly Alcaraz, so we’ve given them another good opportunity to show what they can do.
“Getting Dwight back, it was the first time I’ve had Dwight since I’ve been at the club. I thought he scored a good goal, he still lacked a bit of intensity in his play in the first half but I actually thought he got better in the second half, put in three or four brilliant crosses for us, which probably if we’d got on the end of one of them, it might have just seen us over the line really.
“The game was always tight, but we should have done a bit better. We’ve had that a couple of times now, we’ve been two up and not seen it out.”
“I thought we did really well in the opening part of the game, got the goals eventually but the goal just before half-time rocked us a bit and gave Ipswich something to keep going at. We couldn’t quite get the third goal.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t win but I think there’s a lot of positives in where we’ve been and how we’re playing and what we’re doing, trying to make the chances.
“We didn’t have enough shots in the second half but I thought we had near-enough control for most of the game up until the last 5 or 10 minutes when they got a couple of corners and long throws at that point, whatever time that was. I thought in the main we controlled the game.”