Everton's missed opportunities

Another game goes by, another point on the board, and one could argue Everton ended matchday 36 of their Premier League campaign in a better position than they started it.

They are now 2 points off Brentford, rather than 3. They are still level with Chelsea and there is still a shot at a Top 8 finish, which will be enough for European qualification if Manchester City do what is expected of them at Wembley on Saturday.

But realistically, Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park represents another opportunity missed in a season that increasingly looks like it’s going to be defined by a failure to take big chances when they came: From the players, the manager... and the club as a whole.

I am not referring here just to the missed chances by Everton’s attackers during their recent games. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Iliman Ndiaye were both guilty of fluffing their lines on Sunday.

No, this is about an inability, a failing of mentality, for this squad, this manager and this leadership to grasp a huge chance with both hands in the run-in. They needed to be ruthless at both ends of the pitch, and they needed to be ruthless off it when they had the chance. They haven’t been.

I am one for perspective. At the start of the season, had you told Evertonians that the team would be in a European tussle until the very end of the campaign, then the vast majority, I’m sure, would have been very happy indeed.

We should not forget that. We should be happy with the progress made this season, while also acknowledging it could have, and probably should have, been better. It is fair to say the overall campaign doesn’t have to be a disappointment, but the ending is looking likely to be extremely underwhelming.

David Moyes takes his share of the blame. A failure to go for the jugular from the off against a poor West Ham team proved costly in that game a couple of weeks ago. That wasn’t the case against Crystal Palace, Everton started well and at multiple instances should have gone further ahead, but there is also the fallback mentality of this team to go into their shell when leading, and an inability to control matches.

You then look to your key players to stand up, and frankly, they haven’t done enough of that in recent weeks. Particularly the two in the centre of defence.

Moyes should have changed it up by now. The fact that he hasn’t boils down to his stubbornness and how he tends to trust more experienced players. Had it been a younger centre-back who had allowed Erling Haaland to waltz through straight from kick-off last week, there is little chance they would be in the team again for the next game. Michael Keane and James Tarkowski, on the other hand, seem immune from being dropped.

That’s another topic altogether, and one I will touch on in another piece, but it also then links back to Everton’s failure to be opportunistic in January.

Everton, in my opinion, made their strategy clear as a club when they elected not to spend in January. By keeping their powder dry, they made it evident they were prioritising sticking to their plan, and not trying to push the boat out in search of European qualification.

If the existing squad, with the loan addition of Tyrique George (only after Jack Grealish’s season-ending injury, of course) could scrape into the continental competition, then great, but if not, at least the club did not stretch themselves too thin.

Fair enough, Everton stuck to their plan. But now, it is increasingly hard not to look back at that window and think those of us who were calling it a mistake have been proved right. Everton needed more but the opportunity was there. And it just so happens that 6th place in the final Premier League table could end up resulting in Champions League qualification. 

None of that is to let Moyes off the hook, or the players, either. They still got themselves into a fantastic position and, to be honest, they look like they’ve bottled it.

But the club’s leadership must be willing to be more ruthless and clinical. They must be more opportunistic. Progress in football is not linear. Nobody was expecting a huge spend in January, but the options were there to improve the squad in key areas, and they chose not to.

Keeping the powder dry is all well and good, but there is now a summer coming up which features a 6-week World Cup, which is bound to complicate matters.

That off-pitch opportunity missed has now been transferred to the field, where star players are quite literally passing up golden chances. Even without playing particularly well on Sunday, Everton could have won it, and in the three games before then, there’s a good argument to say they’d done enough to warrant four extra points. What a difference they would have made.

But the biggest difference the club as a whole can now make for next season is to learn that you have to instil the right mentality in order to really grasp opportunities. You cannot be passive. You cannot wait for everything to be perfect. You have to make it happen.

Barring a minor miracle, it looks like everyone will look back at this season now as a missed opportunity, and Everton only have themselves to blame.

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