Everton’s hopes of ending their 30-year trophy drought will continue for another year. David Moyes‘ side suffered a 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth in the FA Cup this afternoon, and all focus will now divert to retaining their Premier League status.
The Toffees entered the match having suffered just one defeat under Moyes, while the Cherries had defeated Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United in recent weeks.
The away side opened the scoring courtesy of an Antoine Semenyo penalty after 23 minutes before Daniel Jebbison got the crucial second just before the interval.
The second half saw no more goals as the south coast side progressed into the next round. A handful of Everton players performed well, but overall, it was a poor performance in what turned out to be the final FA Cup tie at Goodison Park.
Everton’s best and worst players against Bournemouth
Iliman Ndiaye has so often been the club’s talisman of late, and his performance wasn’t bad. He succeeded with 89% of his passes while making one key pass and succeeding with six of his eight dribbles, looking to make things happen.
At the back, Jarrad Branthwaite won six of his nine ground duels while making four tackles and five clearances, but he couldn’t prevent the Toffees from losing.
|
Everton vs Bournemouth – Key Statistics |
|
|---|---|
|
Stat |
Highest-ranked player(s) |
|
Accurate passes |
James Tarkowski (55) |
|
Tackles |
Jake O’Brien (5) |
|
Shots on target |
Antoine Semenyo, Justin Kluivert, Daniel Jebbison (2) |
|
Ground duels won |
Iliman Ndiaye (11) |
|
Key passes |
Daniel Jebbison (3) |
Elsewhere, James Garner was poor, winning just two of his nine ground duels while losing possession 15 times. However, he was nowhere near as bad as Beto, as the striker had a shocker for the Toffees.
Beto’s game in numbers vs Bournemouth
With Dominic Calvert-Lewin out injured for a few weeks, Beto was Moyes’ only option to lead the line against the Cherries. He scored against Peterborough in the previous round, while netting twice against Leicester City in the top flight last week.
The 27-year-old failed to get on the scoresheet this time around, looking like a forlorn figure up front for the Merseyside outfit.
He completed just 5 of his 11 passes – at a dismal 45% success rate – while managing just 22 touches of the ball throughout the 90 minutes – 27 fewer touches than Jordan Pickford in the Everton goal.
The centre-forward looked increasingly isolated during the encounter, failing to even register a shot on goal or create a big chance for any of his teammates.
Furthermore, Beto won just 5 of the 12 duels he contested, lost possession 15 times and was offside once in what was a disappointing showing.
Moyes will have to return to the drawing board ahead of the club’s clash against Liverpool in midweek.
Calvert-Lewin will still be missing, and if Beto performs against the Reds in a similar fashion to Saturday afternoon, Everton’s goal threat will have to come from elsewhere.
A big performance will be required if Moyes aims to get anything from that match, in what is his first Merseyside derby since returning to Everton.
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