OPINION
Everton crashed to yet another disappointing defeat as they were well beaten 3-1 by Wolverhampton Wanderers at Goodison Park on Saturday.
It was a dreadful performance from the Toffees as the pressure continues to mount on manager Marco Silva. Goals from Ruben Neves, Raul Jimenez and Leander Dendoncker secured all three points for the visitors.
Andre Gomes scored a world class strike for the hosts but that was about the only bit of quality from Silva’s beleaguered team. The manager has a serious job on if he wants to steady this quickly-sinking ship.
As usual there is plenty to be gleaned from the contest, and This is Futbol has rounded up three things than can be learned from Everton’s defeat to Wolves.
Pickford back on form at last
It’s been a long couple of months for Toffees goalkeeper Jordan Pickford since his late error gifted Liverpool the spoils in the Merseyside derby at the start of December.
His performances have dropped and he’s made a couple more mistakes similar to the one against the Reds. However, he roared back to form with a solid display in defeat on Saturday.
He couldn’t do much about any of Wolves’ goals, while he did brilliantly to stop Dendoncker in the first half. He didn’t deserve to concede three times but he was let down by his team mates on the day.
Keane couldn’t cope with Jimenez
Jimenez has proved to be a handful for many Premier League defenders this season and Michael Keane’s name can now be added to that list. The England international, usually so assured, was given a torrid time by the Mexican.
The ragged nature of his performance was summed up by the reckless free kick he gave away shortly before the break, which ultimately turned into the visitors’ second goal.
Jimenez had an excellent game, of course, and credit to him, but Keane wasn’t good enough. He is a big guy, strong physically, but he was made to look like the opposite by the Wolves talisman.
Sigurdsson needs to be dropped
When you are a senior player like Gylfi Sigurdsson it’s your responsibility to step up to the plate and pull your team through poor patches of form. The Iceland international has done nothing of the sort for Everton this season.
The 29-year-old was woeful once again on Saturday. He is in the team to provide creativity and to make things happen but he did none of that against Nuno Espirito Santo’s team. He’s a passenger at this moment in time.
It’s high time that Silva got ruthless with his players – Sigurdsson needs to be dropped. Until he can prove that he can produce consistent performances then he has no place in the team. He has the quality but he’s letting himself down at the moment.