Home Discomforts

Moving stadiums is rarely a smooth process. Indeed, it is very often the case that teams who switch grounds fail to replicate the same kind of form in their first season at their new homes than they did in the final campaign at their old place.

West Ham, Arsenal and Tottenham, in the past 20 years, have all failed to win as many matches in their first seasons at London Stadium, Emirates Stadium and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as they did in their final campaigns at Upton Park, Highbury and White Hart Lane, respectively.

Thankfully, in a twisted way, heading into their first campaign at Hill Dickinson Stadium, the bar was very low for Everton. The Toffees had hardly been in great form at Goodison Park across the Grand Old Lady’s final seasons.

Indeed, between the start of the 2021-22 season, when fans returned to stadiums after the impact of Covid-19, and the end of last term, Everton won just 28 of 76 league matches at Goodison. Of the 14 ever-present teams in the Premier League in that time, only Crystal Palace collected as few home wins.

Everton managed just five home wins in the top flight last term, with only the three relegated teams — Leicester City, Southampton and Ipswich Town — winning fewer such matches. So, there was a big margin for improvement, and by early December, the Toffees had already collected four home victories.

The first one, against Brighton in August, came with plenty of emotion riding on it: Everton just could not lose their first game at their new home.

A win over Mansfield Town in the EFL Cup followed, but draws against Aston Villa and West Ham in September dampened the mood music somewhat — Jarrod Bowen becoming the first opposition player to score at Hill Dickinson Stadium in a competitive match.

A spirited fightback victory over Crystal Palace provided the first slice of last-gasp drama on the banks of the Mersey, as fans toppled over themselves in the grand South Stand while celebrating Jack Grealish’s winner.

But since a dismal 3-0 defeat to Tottenham at the end of October, Everton have found home comforts hard to come by.

Victories over Fulham (2-0) and Nottingham Forest (3-0) have been interspersed by three defeats — in two of those, Everton have shipped four goals. The other came against Arsenal. It finished 1-0 to the Gunners, but it could easily have been more.

The losses to Newcastle Utd and Brentford, though, are worrying. Each of those teams, along with Spurs, have exposed Everton’s shortcomings when they need to chase a game, while they have also capitalised on worryingly slack defending from corners: Centre-backs Micky van de Ven, Malick Thiaw and Nathan Collins all scoring near-enough identical goals.

David Moyes has work to do when it comes to setting his team up at home. He wants Everton to be on the front foot, to have more of the ball and create more chances, yet the personnel he is deploying — sometimes due to choice, like his insistence on playing Jake O’Brien at right-back — are not helping this cause.

Absences of key performers do not help, and Everton will be better when they can call on Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Iliman Ndiaye, and Idrissa Gueye again, but it feels like there is a significant lack of balance in home matches at the moment, and good teams and players have the ability to pounce on that.

Everton cannot afford to let a narrative set in that Hill Dickinson Stadium could be an albatross around their necks. The club need to do more to help the atmosphere, and that includes ensuring fans are encouraged to head to the ground earlier, and stay inside it longer, by making it an affordable experience.

There remains a huge issue, too, with empty seats: Fans are often heading off for half-time refreshments some 10 to 15 minutes before the interval, and that is due to long queues at the bars and toilets; both of those issues are unacceptable.

On the pitch, Moyes must find a way to strike a balance, and the club should back him in the transfer market this month — add some fresh faces into the squad, and give fans something to be excited about as they head down to the dock.

Two more home matches follow this week, with bottom club Wolves, who have finally started to find form, visiting in the Premier League, before Sunderland head to Hill Dickinson Stadium for a tricky FA Cup tie on Saturday.

While we are not in season-defining territory just yet, Everton need to ensure they get the home faithful back on side as they aim to build on a promising, if at times frustrating, first half of the campaign.

 

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