Everton plays to a 1 all draw with Huddersfield

The only reason for mentioning Lookman is that the cheer when he took the field was easily the biggest of the second half, which says everything about the mundanity of what went before. Huddersfield was worth their point here, they are well organised defensively and often dangerous when breaking quickly. They can cope with opponents like Everton all day because Marco Silva’s side seems to have forgotten how to create any danger at all. With even local heroes such as Séamus Coleman and Tom Davies surrendering possession with aimless, unreadable passes the quick, slick football the new manager wants to see was conspicuous by its absence.

Not even the introduction of Ademola Lookman could save this game from instant forgettability. The substitute came closest to conjuring a winning goal in the second half when his cross was almost touched in by Gylfi Sigurdsson, though that is not to suggest a player on loan at RB Leipzig last season proved a point or confirmed the wisdom of Everton keeping hold of him.

Two goals in as many minutes livened up a first half that was sorely in need of life. Before Philip Billing put the visitors ahead just past the half-hour there had been nothing to stir the crowd, just two teams passing the ball around painfully slowly and failing to come up with anything inventive or threatening. Some people might even have been asleep by the time Huddersfield took the lead from a corner, and while that does not necessarily include the Everton defence questions will have to be asked about how a 6ft 4in beanpole was allowed a free header on the six-yard line. Chris Löwe’s cross was touched on instead of cleared at the near post, and standing right in front of the goalkeeper Billing reacted quickly to steer the ball past Jordan Pickford.

Everton could not really complain after 34 minutes of insipid football, though to everyone’s surprise they responded almost immediately, Lucas Digne crossing from the left after a mistake by Adama Diakhaby for Dominic Calvert-Lewin to head across Jonas Lössl and find the bottom right corner. The goalkeeper got a touch on the ball with his outstretched left hand, though not a firm enough one to keep the header out. Both goals were created by left-backs, which was at least appropriate for a game dedicated to the memory of Ray Wilson, who played with distinction for both these clubs.

Everton opened the second half with a booking for Mason Holgate, sticking a little bit too close to Steve Mounié in the middle of the field, and the defender got lucky a few minutes later when the same player turned past him in the area and was just about to shoot when Rajiv van La Parra took the ball off his toes and shot over the bar. There is no guarantee that Mounié would have done any better, though from the look he gave his teammate he would have backed himself to at least hit the target.

Everton were no better in that regard, with Cenk Tosun putting a late, difficult chance over the bar from Oumar Niasse’s hooked cross, the home side’s only accurate effort all afternoon was the goal they scored. The only noise at the end came from the travelling support, happy to pick up an away point. Silva has not reached the end of his honeymoon period yet, but he will be under no illusions that Everton expect better than this.

Source: The Guardian