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Carver blames Emmanuel Riviere for Everton defeat

John Carver has blamed Emmanuel Riviere for the defeat at Goodison Park.

In terms of both defence and attack, the Newcastle Head Coach has pointed the finger at his French striker.

Carver blames the crucial first goal on Riviere not tracking back, saying the United forward allowed James McCarthy ‘acres of space’ because he didn’t bother to track back.

On top of that, John Carver says that the difference between winning and losing was down to the way the strikers of both teams played, the Newcastle boss full of praise for Kone and Lukaku…

John Carver speaking to the club’s official TV channel:

“They scored from their first opportunity. We created it oursleves by not tracking the runner. “McCarthy runs off Riviere and the ball goes up to the striker (Lukaku) – he’s got acres of space and I must say their two strikers showed you how to play centre-forward.”

Difference between winning and losing:

“They (Lukaku and Kone) were strong, they held the ball into feet, they were allowing players to come into the game. “That was the difference, why we lost and they won.”

Where exactly this leaves Emmanuel Riviere, Newcastle United and John Carver…?

Like being stranded on a desert island, the Head Coach and striker look stuck with each other.

With Papiss Cisse not back until the final three matches of the season, if at all, due to Mike Ashley’s refusal to invest in strikers there are no alternatives.

Ayoze Perez isn’t an out and out striker and asking him to do it all by himself up front could set back his progress, it would be totally unfair on Adam Armstrong to expect anything at his age in this situation – plus being honest he hasn’t shown anything really so far.

Which leaves is with the invisible man and bets mate of Fabricio Coloccini, Facundo Chucky Ferreyra.

The purchase of journeyman (sold by three different French clubs for £5m or less) striker Emmanuel Riviere was always surely a transfer that carried more hope than expectation.

With not a single goal in the Premier League, I wasn’t exactky surprised at how poor he was on Sunday, as that is what we have pretty much seen all season.

However, I don’t think Carver has done himself, Riviere or the squad any favours by singling the forward out for special blame. There were numerous other players he could have mentioned, in fact hard to think of anybody who can claim they played well.

Emmanuel Riviere was replaced by Jonas shortly after Coloccini’s ridiculous sending off, whether we will see him in the team against Arsenal must be very doubtful, even with the lack of other credible options.