Considering we made 9 changes, all of which i thought were justified. 2 of those 9 have played very little football due to Covid and the 2 players that remained in the starting 11 in Keane and Holgate have been arguably our poorest players this season, the performance wasn't a surprise. There we're positives though, we're starting to show some character when up against it. It's a shame it take going a man down to do that but some of the players are beginning to show a little fight. JPG got through a whole 90 minutes. He wasn't great, got caught out in possession a few times but given the guy hasn't played a competitive game in nearly 2 years i think you can forgive the ring rust. Iwobi continues to improve, he'll never be the player he should have been for the price tag but if Bentiez can turn him into consistent squad player that'll be some achievement.
Townsend scored - both him and Grey getting on the score sheets early is a good sign.
Begovic again is a solid reliable No2 and i'll give the manager credit, he got the subs right and that won us the game.
The bad?
Keane needs a break from the team now. The guy's become a total liability and i don't think he has the character to play himself out of this funk. The sooner Godfrey is back the better
Holgate and Keane as a partnership don't work
Holgate isn't good enough. When he was linked with a move away a few weeks ago some were up in arms about it. The kid had a good a few good games for Dunc and Carlo, other than that he's looked weak, sloppy and arrogant. He's 100% on the 'sell if a bid comes in' list.
JonJoe Kenny will never be good enough - we already knew this but still, it can't be stressed enough.
Kean isn't going to make it at Everton. He could not get off the pitch quick enough last night and whether it's a soft red or not (it was) it's mental to react like that right in front of the ref. He started brightly but the moment that goal was disallowed his head dropped and he gave up. Yes if that goal hadn't been wrongly chalked off by the linesman maybe he'd have gone on to have a blinder but there was still so much of the game to go. The kid gets defended a lot with many fans claiming his failure at Everton is not his fault but the clubs, Fergusons. Carlo's... etc but the the bottom line is the kid has had his chances, has never taken them and probably never will. Hopefully for his sake as well as ours PSG come back in for him should they sell Mpabbe. That's where he wants to be and that's where he needs to be for his career. He won't make it in the Premierleague - not unless his work ethic massively changes.
