Former Everton forward Jermaine Beckford has slammed the Toffees for the way they handled the game against Crystal Palace.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men had a great chance to put pressure on the European places at the top of the Premier League table against the Eagles, but were ultimately pegged back by a late goal from Michy Batshuayi.
Rodriguez played 79 minutes on the day and managed to bag his first goal in two months, and speaking on the BBC 5 Live Football Daily podcast, Beckford slammed the attacking players on the pitch for not putting the game to bed earlier on, and then not being able to see the game out once the Colombian had gone off:
“You have to look at the opportunities especially that Everton had today. Dominic Calvert Lewin, Richarlison, James Rodriguez. All three of them had great opportunities to score today, bury the ball. James Rodriguez managed to get one which was a brilliant goal as well – really, really well-taken finish. But you would have to be frustrated by the lack of persistence.
“As soon as James Rodriguez went off, the creativity disappeared. And you know when your creativity disappears, what tends to happen next is you tend to drop deeper and deeper because you’re afraid of giving the ball away. And that’s exactly what we saw today.”
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TIF Thoughts on Jermaine Beckford’s comments on Everton’s attacking players…
Beckford’s comments should really act as something of a wake-up call to Everton that they can’t afford to let results like this slip away. The battle for European places look like it could go down to the wire with every result likely to matter, and they need to be killing these games off.
The extra injection of money and prestige that getting European football would bring would be huge to Everton as they look to make progress in the coming years with their new stadium on the way. And given the cluster of teams near the top, and even Arsenal potentially looking to bounce back next year, they may not get a better shot at qualifying than they will this year to make it happen.
In other news: Football chief drops exciting Everton transfer claim