On Sunday afternoon, Everton suffered a 1-0 defeat at arch-rivals Liverpool in the FA Cup third round.
Merseyside derby defeats have become the norm for the Toffees at their former home Anfield in the last few decades, as they seem to have some sort of mental block when it comes to facing their main rivals.
However, the manner of Sunday’s defeat was may the worst of all, as Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp fielded a starting eleven of virtually all youngsters. Only Adam Lallana, Divock Origi and Joe Gomez of the outfield players had any real experience of playing at the top level.
Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti fielded a full-strength team, who were quite simply not good enough. The visitors should have been three or four goals up in the first period but were wasteful in front of goal. Their best efforts were straight at Reds goalkeeper Adrian, as they seemed to lack belief.
The visitors were made to pay for their lack of killer instinct in front of goal in the second half, as local lad Curtis Jones curled a superb effort past Jordan Pickford. The Reds created few chances, but were certainly quicker and had more fight than the poor visitors.
Judging on Sunday’s display alone, Ancelotti will believe that the current Everton team needs a major overhaul. They lack any sort of quality, football intelligence or pace. With the amount of experience on the pitch, they should have run out comfortable winners.
The Everton team was made up of highly expensive purchases, who currently look like a major waste of money.
Things will improve at the Merseyside club under Carlo Ancelotti. However, the Italian will need time to get rid of some of the deadwood that is currently infesting the Toffees first-team and producing underwhelming results.
If he gets the time then he will surely change the currently awful mentality within the team.