Everton 1 Leeds United 1. A game of two halves. If ever there was a game of two halves, this cliché belonged to this one. Leeds’ formation ransacked the Everton midfield in the first half, but then Everton totally dominated the midfield in the second half.
Leeds have lost only once in the last ten matches. Our cushion has dropped to six points, but an improvement in our away record. With teams below them winning this weekend, Leeds cannot keep drawing matches if they want to climb to safety.
The boos at half-time showed how the match was going. Moyes admitted his team were poor in the first half. Everton fans could see that Leeds were driving a coach and horses through their defence. Despite the early pressure and patient build-up, Leeds snuffed out the Everton attack, forcing their attack to try lobbing over the Leeds defence without luck.
Leeds had 4 shots on goal in the first half whilst preventing Everton from a single shot. It was the wing backs – Bogle and Justin- running forward that gave Aaronsson free rein on the left to find space and get the ball into the box. The 3-5-2 formation switched to a five man defence when Everton circled around the Leeds penalty box, but Bogle and Justin worked to stop the wingers, and Ampadu commanded the midfield
The chaos kick from Darlow caused Everton no end of problems. Calvert-Lewin held the ball up and Stach collected it. When the goal came half way through the first Leeds were finding their feet – running forward to win passes, one touch football to go forward quickly and Calvert-Lewin in the box. This one was a cross from Stach that finally reached an unmarked Justin waiting on the edge of the box. Calvert-Lewin should have made it two, scoring against his old club, but hit the post – the plan was clearly to have a man on his shoulder at all times.
David Moyes brought on a couple of players, Jarrad Branthwaite and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall at half-time, and Leeds suddenly found themselves pegged back in their own struggling to hold onto the ball when they won it. It was painful to watch as Leeds could not handle Barry, who got ahead of Bornaeuw to equalise. Then Everton hit the crossbar, and Darlow followed up with a finger tip save from Barry. It felt like it was only a matter of time before Everton would score, but the subs stemmed the flood.
Farke left it late to bring on Buonanotte, Okafor and Longstaff but when he did, we started to win back possession and could have grabbed that vital equaliser – Longstaff and Buonanotte both having a go. If Farke had made the changes earlier then that winner may have been realised.
Man of the Match: Justin – evolving into an essential all rounder – defending, on the wing and scoring.
