Toffees Held To Goalless Draw Against 10-Man Brentford

Everton’s poor attacking display against defensive Brentford throughout the second half meant the points were shared in a goalless draw against 10-man Brentford.

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Lineups:

Everton:

Pickford

Mykolenko

Tarkowski

Branthwaite

Young

McNeil

Gueye

Doucoure

Ndiaye

Lindstrøm

Calvert-Lewin

Brentford:

Flekken

van den Berg

Pinnock

Collins

Lewis-Potter

Nørgaard

Jensen

Janelt

Wissa

Mbuemo

Damsgaard

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In the 41st minute, Brentford were through after a knock-on header by defender Ethan Pinnock fell into the path of Christian Nørgaard. While attempting to guide the ball into the back of the net, Jordan Pickford came out to claim it. In the midst of it, Norgaard caught the English goalkeeper with stud-ups in the leg. Not many claims emerged from the fans or players, but after a VAR decision, a sending-off was given, for some quite an unlucky verdict.

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Christian Norgaard Brentford Stats:

Appearances: 172

Goals: 9

Assists: 15

Yellow Cards: 38

Red Cards: 1

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This moment would change the game, as after the halftime break, the game plan for Brentford would appear extremely different. Thomas Frank decided to take a more defensive approach, attempting to exploit the Everton defence through counterattacks. Sean Dyche decided to stick with his tactics, which would turn out to be an unsuccessful strategy.

Almost every time Everton were attacking, with every Brentford player behind the ball, the plan was to play it out to the wing and launch crosses into the penalty area. Brentford, every time, managed to deal with the play.

As the game continued on, Everton switched tactics by substitutes. Deciding to play with both Calvert-Lewin and Beto up top, although enough time wasn’t given for the team to adjust and the game ended goalless.

The Toffees’ had 27 shots against the Bees’ 7, but the Blues only had 5 shots on target, again showing where the weaknesses lie within the squad. It is another clean sheet, but Sean Dyche has expressed that “it is one loss in eight, but it doesn’t mean anything.” The defensive displays from Everton have been extremely impressive, but unfortunately the same can’t be said for the attack. Throughout the month of November, Everton have recorded 59 shots and haven’t scored.

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Matchday 11:

Saturday 23rd November:

Leicester 1-2 Chelsea

Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest

Aston Villa 2-2 Crystal Palace

Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton

Everton 0-0 Brentford

Fulham 1-4 Wolves

Man City 0-4 Spurs

Sunday 24th November:

Southampton 14:00 Liverpool

Ipswich 16:30 Man United

Monday 25th November:

Newcastle 20:00 West Ham

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