Everton will be disappointed to only pick up a point after they completely dominated the first half and had two goals wrongly disallowed in the second during this thoroughly entertaining match. Newcastle made little impact in the first half and totally failed to cope with Everton’s loaded left flank until Alan Pardew’s clever switch to 4-4-2, with Jonas Gutierrez moving to the right flank to cover the overlapping runs of Leighton Baines, at half-time. This change got Newcastle into a game which they should have been well out of by the midway point and even then they still needed the officials to miss two clear Everton goals in order for them to take a point away from Goodison. This was a clear example of a result not matching the game itself.

Line-ups

For Everton, Phil Neville moved into midfield in place of the injured Darron Gibson, Tony Hibbert returned at right-back and Kevin Mirallas made his full debut on the right of midfield. Despite pre-match speculation that Marouane Fellaini would drop into a deeper role, to sure up Everton’s midfield in Gibson’s absence, he played in his usual role behind Nikica Jelavic to maintain Moyes’ preferred 4-4-1-1 formation.

Newcastle were without Tim Krul, Fabricio Coloccini, Ryan Taylor, Danny Simpson and Cheik Tiote through injury, which is probably what led to Pardew going for a slightly more defensive line-up by leaving Demba Ba on the bench in favour of an extra midfielder.

It being the first game of Pardew’s touchline ban might have also played a small part in his slightly apprehensive team selection as well as Everton’s good early season form.

Fellaini and Everton’s left flank

The selection of Gutierrez in centre midfield at first seemed like a square peg in a round hole kind of situation brought on by injuries. However, he was likely played there in part due to his height. Compared to his fellow central midfielders on the day, Vurnon Anita, 5′ 6″ and Yohan Cabaye 5′ 8 1/2″, Gutierrez, at 6′ 0″, was the only one tall enough to offer a challenge to Fellaini in the air.

The problem with this was that Fellaini’s selection turned out to be something of a double bluff. Instead of using Fellaini as an aerial target man, Everton preferred to play the ball out of defence along the floor and the neat passing of Baines, Pienaar, Osman and Fellaini down the left made a mockery of suggestions that they are an overly physical team reliant on Fellaini’s aerial strength.

Everton were largely able to play the ball out of defence due to Newcastle playing just the one striker. Papiss Cisse never seemed interested in closing the ball down (perhaps preferring to conserve energy for when Newcastle were in possession) and the midfield dropped off giving Everton time to comfortably play the ball out of defence and invariably down the left flank.

Everton’s dominance of and main attacking threat during the first half came as a result of them overloading Newcastle’s right side. Baines and Steven Pienaar are well known for their partnership and add to that Fellaini operating to the left of centre forward Jelavic and Leon Osman drifting over from centre midfield Newcastle found it hard to cope. Everton created many openings down the left before Baines scored a seemingly inevitable goal.

Baines was the game’s stand out player and his work with Pienaar was nothing short of sublime. Baines to Pienaar (20) and Pienaar to Baines (17) were the game’s top two passing combinations and he was so good at supplying his other team-mates with the ball that the next two top combinations were Baines to Fellaini (14) and Osman (12). As well as scoring the opening goal, Baines attempted the second most passes in the attacking third (26), behind Pienaar (27), and created the second most chances, (3) again behind Pienaar (4) who grabbed two assists.

For their part Newcastle had recognised this threat and tried to deal with it. Sylvian Marveaux and James Perch came out to the flank to try and close down Baines and Pienaar and Gutierrez picked up Fellaini. The problem was that Osman was often left free to roam and drifted into the spaces created by Newcastle’s defence being stretched out wide. Marveaux and Gutierrez were also guilty of losing sight of their man and not tracking runners. This negligence allowed Baines to run free into the box for his goal but it was not the only occasion when an Everton run wasn’t tracked. Newcastle tried to combat Everton’s left side attacks and deny them space but lacked the personnel to carry it out due in part to injuries and instead looked disjointed.

Despite not playing an active part in the Baines-Pienaar-Fellaini-Osman link-up play down the left Jelavic plays an important role in stopping the zone from becoming too congested. His job is to stay centrally and occupy the opposition centre back on the far side so as that the whole defence can’t shuffle over to the right to deal with the threat posed by Everton’s left flank.

On this occasion Steven Taylor was left to mark Jelavic and, with Fellaini playing deeper and being marked by Gutierrez, Mike Williamson had nobody to mark. Williamson often seemed unsure whether to hold his ground or go and pick-up someone on Everton’s left side. In the end he was often left spare, as was Everton’s Osman when he went over to the left. Perhaps Williamson could have pushed up to deal with Fellaini and left Gutierrez to track Osman, or ha Gutierrez on Fellaini and Cabaye tracking Osman.

Moving out of defence to challenge Fellaini centrally would have led to its own problems and left space in behind himself for Everton to exploit. This demonstrates how a 1-1 forward line can give a system with two centre backs problems. Instead of seeing it as an advantage to have two defenders marking Jelavic it becomes a problem when one is left with nobody to mark.

Pardew’s half-time switch

To his credit, although it was obviously needed, Pardew recognised drastic change had to be made at half-time and the switch got Newcastle a point. Newcastle should have been out of the game by half-time but Everton failed to make their first half pressure tell and get that vital second goal.

Everton’s pressing had forced Newcastle to play long balls up to Cisse which meant that Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa struggled to make an impact. On the few occasions when they did get on the ball in the first half they often looked panicky and over eager to try something extravagant as if they were fully aware of how little impact they were making on proceedings.

The introduction of Demba Ba for Marveaux and switch to 4-4-2 gave Newcastle a better presence up front and an extra target man to aim for. Moving the industrious Gutierrez to right wing meant that he could track Baines overlapping runs and he played a large part in quelling that threat in the second half.

Playing two centre forwards also made it easier for Newcastle to close down Everton’s centre backs. In the first half they were able to pass the ball out of defence along the floor but with two players closing them down in the second they had to play more lofted balls straight forward.

Disallowed goals

Everton will be disappointed to have had two goals wrongly not given but on some level it is hard not to sympathise which the officials. The first occurred when Pienaar played in Fellaini who finished well but was called back for offside. When a forward runs onto a pass and the defender steps up the margins are so fine that it is impossible to be correct 100% of the time and so mistakes happen.

The second non-goal occurred when Victor Anichebe, on for Jelavic, put the ball, fractionally, over the line. Again the replays showed that the officials got it wrong but once more the margin was very fine.

Incidents such as the second will hopefully become a thing of the past when goal-line technology comes into effect. The first, however, could only be stopped by some kind of referral system similar to that used in cricket. At first there was resistance in cricket to technology or a referral system but over time it has become a largely accept part of the modern game and has actually empowered umpires to make decisions that they would never have in the past.

For example, certain LBW decisions which were previously thought to be missing the stumps or involved too much guess work on the umpires part have, contrary to previous opinion, been shown to be hitting the wicket. Thanks to technology umpires can now give decisions which were previously hard to justify before even going to a referral. LBW’s are now easier to give and it has forced batsmen to adapt their game. A similar innovation with offside decisions could change football too, and cricket proves it can work, but concerns over delaying play for a decision would hold back any move.

Conclusion

Given their dominance of the first half and the wrongly disallowed goals Everton will feel they should have won the game. Pardew’s switch to 4-4-2 at half time was excellent and earned Newcastle a point in a tough fixture. Newcastle will be the happier of the two with the result but Everton should be more pleased with their all round performance and they executed their game plan more effectively than their opponents.