Crab Football v Duncan Ferguson 11 player ratings
By Merlionand Boris Mellor
December 15 2024
On a weekend that Liverpool drew, City and Villa lost this was a doubly disappointing result. I felt the atmosphere at the ground was flat as Arsenal struggled to score. Arsenal did create enough chances to score but Odergaard and Jesus were unable to finish off those chances. Also there was a lack of pace and any sense of urgency. Pretty poor all round.
6 - Raya - nothing to do, just a casual observer with a few minutes of excitement during those rare Everton attacks.
6 - Timber - His passing is poor and worse he lacks an Engine to play box-to-box. Observe when after a driving run into opponent box, Timber will then slowly jog back without hardly any pace. His situational awareness is poor with many poorly executed and inaccurate passes into the box.
8 - Saliba - MOTM. His imperious self back again and snuffed out all Everton attacks.
8 - Gabriel - Twin Tower.
5 - Skelly - lacked confidence and tentative at times in his passes. Refused to try one-touch pass and always anxiously having 2 or 3 touches to play a safe pass.
6 - Odegaard - Frankly, he should be dropped. He looks haggard and mentally exhausted. He can't execute his passes accurately as he can and just not in the game to play quick one-two with Saka. His shooting is abysmal which I suspect is due to tiredness.
7 - Rice - sweept well, defensively strong but lacked the right body shape to execute quick passes to launch quick forward passes.
6 - Merino - some nice touches and good vision. But he is slow and just lacks that dynamism to play swift passing game to penetrate a 0-5-5 defensive setup. The more Crab Football played, the less chance to break thru' lines and generate thru' balls. I felt he slowed down the attack.
7 - Saka - was tightly marked and did not receive support from Timber to overlap, nor Odegaard to move into space to play give-and-go with Saka to penetrate 0-5-5 formation.
5 - Martinelli - His runs rarely led to a positive outcome
6 - Havertz - just not his day without services and with Everton closing up all half spaces to prevent him from running from deep into space. He was well marshalled in the box when ball were lobbed into the box.
Substitutes
5 - Nwaneri - just couldnt get into the game. A sharp drop in attacking performance without Odegaard.
6 - Jorginho - nothing to do with Everton sitting back in their own half.
5 - Jesus - usual clueless running and as useful as Martinelli at left flank.
6 - Trossard - tried hard but the entire team was disjointed and simply couldnt get going.
6 - Partey - Guess Timber was running out of steam. Decent but just impotent to revitalize our attack.
5 - Arteta - outwitted by Sean Dyche and clueless on how to quicken attacks and instructing his team to play progressive forward passes quickly to penetrate 0-5-5 Defence. Look like he knew only how to play 2010s Barca Tiki Taka Football, forgetting that Barca then had a team of players with superior technical ability plus 8 of them homegrown from La Miasia.