Everton in an awful state
Result another blow for Koeman after sorry start to season
Goodness knows what they made of this in India — although Everton manager Ronald Koeman is probably more concerned of the reaction in Monaco, where the club’s majority shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, resides.
Having given the manager a vote of confidence going into the international break, after Everton’s woeful start to the season, Moshiri had added an important caveat: the supporters “deserve better”. The 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion wasn’t it.
That already amounts to the ultimate get-out for a club owner navigating between publicly supporting a manager and giving himself sufficient wriggle-room to still make a change and when Anthony Knockaert scored his first Premier League goal, with just eight minutes to go, all eyes moved to Koeman.
Despite his protestations and his dismissive reaction when questioned about Everton’s significant spending last summer, Koeman must be under pressure. The Dutchman has laid out his ambition at the club and is falling alarmingly short of that with a team who are simply failing to impress.
This fixture was not shown live in the UK, instead it was only on Star Sport in India. Until the last 10 minutes, it did nothing to further the league’s plans for global expansion.
It leaves Brighton and Everton on eight points from eight matches. Chris Hughton’s newly-promoted side will take that return but it is not good enough for their opponents.
The result leaves Everton in 16th place, with Brighton two above on goal difference. An even more damning statistic is that the last away league win for Koeman’s side was back on January 21 at Crystal Palace.
In a sense, Wayne Rooney sums them up. The 31-year-old was used as a central striker and struggled.
He appeared off the pace and out of touch and, in the second half, complained vehemently that he was fouled when all that happened was he sloppily lost possession. Yet, he had the coolness to roll the ball into the net to salvage a point with his last touch before he was substituted.
That goal also meant only Frank Lampard (39), Andy Cole (38) and Alan Shearer (37) have scored against more different clubs in the Premier League than Rooney, now on 36.
There was little difference between the sides. Brighton’s defence is rock solid, though, with Dunk and Shane Duffy, and record-signing Jose Izquierdo certainly made a difference when he came on as a substitute.
Knockaert went agonisingly close as his goal-bound shot struck Keane, but the Frenchman made the breakthrough, the ball squirting to him off a rebound.
Everton almost snatched it at the end through substitute Kevin Mirallas only for goalkeeper Mathew Ryan to make a superb double-save. That would have been hard on Brighton and relief for Koeman. Instead, it finished in an unsatisfactory draw. GERMANY