Leeds 1-1 Everton (Sinisterra 55′ | Gordon 17′)
ELLAND ROAD — Leeds and Everton escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth last season, but there was enough bite in this full throttle Premier League contest to suggest both have brighter days ahead.
Jesse Marsch’s remodelled side played the better football, created more chances and swarmed their visitors with their trademark intensity. They should have won but there was succour for both managers, such was the resolve Everton’s exhibited in adversity. They remain winless and in truth have a lot of hard work ahead – but they would absolutely have lost this game last season.
Help is on the way for the Toffees. While the game was going on Idrissa Gana Gueye – whose return to Goodison Park has been “close” so many times this transfer window that it’s become an internet in-joke for long-suffering Blues – was on a private plane heading for Merseyside. He will sign a two-year deal for £8m and likely be joined by at least one more striker as Everton look to wheel and deal into the final hours of the transfer window.
More from Football
What Frank Lampard really needs, though, is his board to stay resolute on Anthony Gordon.
Last week momentum was definitively with Chelsea in what some in the corridors of power at Goodison Park felt was the deal of the century at an eye-watering £60m. Lampard was among those in a position of power who demurred – and a glorious first half Gordon goal backed up his manager’s judgement.
However high Chelsea raise the bar in the next 48 hours – and they may yet do so after a lacklustre defeat at Southampton – the England under-21 forward might just be the closest thing to priceless given Lampard’s Everton rebuild is still in its embryonic phase.
It just had to be him…
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) August 30, 2022
With his name in the headlines over a potential transfer, Anthony Gordon scores for Everton againpic.twitter.com/9VSqTzofcH
There are some green shoots. Everton rolled their sleeves up when the going got tough, on and off-the-field. When the two teams brawled after Gordon and Rasmus Kristensen butted heads in the second half it said it all that James Tarkowski was the first to rush into the melee. That wouldn’t have happened last season either.
An effervescent Leeds probably paid the price for a slow start that was only partly redeemed by a stirring second half.
Luis Sinisterra’s first Premier League start saw him dart about attempting to make things happen but he was largely on his own in that endeavour for much of the first half. Everton deliberately sat deep, absorbing the pressure and disrupting the home side’s rhythm before preying on Leeds’ defensive vulnerability. It was effective if not attractive, and had the desired effect of really winding up a raging Elland Road.
Player ratings
Leeds (4-3-2-1)
- Meslier 5
- Kristensen 8
- Koch 6
- Llorente 5
- Struijk 6
- Adams 7
- Roca 7
- Sinisterra 7 (Klich 64, 6)
- Aaronson 7 (James 76, 6)
- Harrison 6
- Rodrigo 5 (Gelhardt 32, 5) (Bamford 76, 6)
Everton
- Pickford 6
- Patterson 8
- Coady 7
- Tarkowski 7
- Mykolenko 7
- Davies 6
- Onana 7
- Iwobi 8
- McNeil 6
- Gray 6
- Gordon 7
Everton are certainly more streetwise under Lampard. The softest of touches in last season’s Premier League, they looked at their most comfortable when turning this contest into a war of attrition, getting under Leeds’ skin and drawing the sting from the home crowd. From as early as a quarter of an hour into the contest, there was no rush to take goal kicks.
More on Anthony Gordon
An agitated Marsch did not like it much. He prowled his technical area making a visible point about the time wasting, pointing to his over-sized smart watch in an effort to remind Darren England to allow for the extra time. Perhaps that was deflecting the attention from his own side’s wastefulness. Rodrigo – withdrawn in the first half in visible pain after dislocating a shoulder – was the prime culprit, holding back his run when Jack Harrison had spring Everton’s deep-lying backline.
A different Leeds emerged after the break. They laid siege to the Everton defence but Sinisterra’s long-range effort that tricked Jordan Pickford was their sole reward. It felt like a skinny dividend for such a positive performance.
from Football | News and analysis from the Premier League and beyond | iNews https://ift.tt/jlVZJtS
Post a Comment