Dyche must axe 4/10 Everton dud who should never have lasted the full 90

After going four games unbeaten on the trot in the Premier League, Everton rounded off their 2024 with a disappointing 2-0 defeat to high-flying Nottingham Forest.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side momentarily leap up to a surprise second spot in the top-flight standings off the back of this away day victory, whilst Sean Dyche’s Toffees look perilously over their shoulder again at the relegation zone in a precarious 16th position.

Dyche will have seen plenty in that performance that he wasn’t a fan of, as a number of his seasoned individuals let themselves down in the disheartening loss.

Everton’s key underperformers vs Forest

It could be argued that both Jarrad Branthwaite and Vitaliy Mykolenko should be doing a lot more to try and thwart Forest’s opener on the day, as Chris Wood and Anthony Elanga were allowed lots of room to exchange passes before the clinical number 11 lifted a shot over Jordan Pickford’s head.

Both Branthwaite and Mykolenko weren’t alone in having a poor day at the office defensively, however, with Ashley Young way off the pace at left-back too, having squandered possession 18 times across his forgettable 68-minute shift, alongside winning just one pitiful duel.

At least the likes of Iliman Ndiaye attempted to be a bright spark for the lacklustre hosts, with four successful dribbles troubling the Forest defence at points, but other faces such as Jack Harrison in attack put in another dire showing with only nine accurate passes registered before he was deservedly hooked at half-time.

Dyche will just be happy that those four positive results before this thud back to reality means Everton have a three-point gap between themselves and Leicester City in 18th, but complacent displays like these will see them get sucked into a battle against the drop very quickly.

There was one player who miraculously managed to survive the 90 minutes that Dyche will have to consider dropping moving forward, especially as the games continue to come thick and fast in 2025.

Doucoure’s performance in numbers

Abdoulaye Doucoure struggled throughout the 2-0 loss in the centre of the park, with his main moment of woe coming when Morgan Gibbs-White sealed the win with a second-half strike courtesy of the ex-Watford man feeling charitable.

The out-of-sorts number 16 would lackadaisically give the ball away for Elanga to retrieve, which then presented Gibbs-White with the perfect opportunity to smash an effort home past Pickford, after a ball from Wood found him free of any Everton shirts.

Looking at the table above, Doucoure had an afternoon to forget away from just this error in isolation, with possession given up a costly ten times, alongside also losing out on 60% of his duels as the likes of Nicolas Dominguez for the away side looked far stronger centrally.

The 31-year-old’s dire showing didn’t go unnoticed by Liverpool Echo journalist Chris Beesley, who handed out a low 4/10 rating to the Malian at the full-time whistle, stating that although he showed ‘plenty of endeavour’, his mix-up for Gibbs-White’s game-clinching goal was an ‘almighty mess.’

Dyche could be tempted to freshen his side up centrally, therefore, but he doesn’t have a plethora of options to choose from, owing to both James Garner and Tim Iroegbunam having injury difficulties of late.

But, moving into 2025, the Toffees will pray that more bodies are available in the midfield areas, with Doucoure nowhere near the standard required of him versus Forest.

Your changes have been saved

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

Whilst Everton’s opponents on the day now sit pretty in second, Toffees fans will be worried their side is going to be inevitably pushed back into a relegation scrap if this performance is anything to go by

Related

Everton and Dyche now want to sign new right-back and winger in January

They are seen as priority areas for Sean Dyche.