OPINION
There is probably not an Everton fan in the country who is not frustrated by the way their team threw a 2-0 lead away on Saturday.
They let Newcastle come back in the second half to win 3-2 and this is no doubt a game that many of the supporters thought they had a good chance of winning.
However, that did not seem to be the case, and club legend Michael Ball has launched a scathing attack on the team for the way they performed that afternoon.
“We seem to think we’re Real Madrid when we’re 2-0 up and we forget to do the hard, nasty work. There’s a lack of leadership, of composure, and when we get rattled our heads instantly seem to go down. We lose our gameplan,” he said in his Liverpool Echo column.
“I was there and the tension in the Newcastle fans when they were 2-0 down was palpable, half the stadium were leaving. But what do we do? As we’ve always done, we leave the door open for them to have opportunities.”
Many Everton fans are no doubt annoyed that their team did not manage to salvage something from this game, and they will surely love what Ball has said. Everton may lost their way a bit in the second half, and this was no doubt embarassing for the supporters.
That is not to say that they need to improve on quite a few areas after this loss, they do, as the way they conducted themselves in the second half did not look like the Everton we have watched in recent weeks. They seemed desperate and nothing seemed to be going according to plan.
This was one of the worst displays we have seen from Everton this season, and the way Ball has jokingly compared them to Real Madrid reinforces just how complacent they can become when things are going their way.
Either way, the Everton fans are going to be loving this criticism from Ball, as it is fully deserved after the way they performed on Saturday.