The disastrous – is this too strong a word to use when talking about football though? – Everton season to date didn’t get any better on Thursday.
Defeat at Lyon ended the Blues’ Europa League campaign with two group games remaining as we became the first English side to suffer the indignity of failing to win any of the opening four games in this competition.
Having held the French side until the midway point of the second half a disappointing and disjointing performance eventually saw the Blues collapse with three goals giving Lyon a 3-0 victory.
Morgan Schneiderlin was also sent off late in the game but we were already beaten.
Lyon went ahead when former Chelsea forward Bertrand Traore went past the defence to beat Jordan Pickford – the Blues goalkeeper was beaten again when Houssem Aouar followed up after Pickford previously denied Mariano Diaz.
After Schneiderlin saw red for his second bookable offence another former Premier League player, ex-Manchester United winger Memphis Depay, compounded our misery, in a night that had also seen Cuco Martina stretched off in a neck brace.
David Unsworth’s own job prospects weren’t helped too much when a third defeat in three caretaker games in charge was suffered, which obviously left him disappointed.
He was quoted by the BBC post-match: ‘I’m really disappointed with the result. For nearly 70 minutes we were nearly perfect with our gameplan and created a couple of opportunities that we could and should have scored.’
Elements pleased him but Unsworth knows we can’t simply keep caving in the way we have this season and this has to change ‘very, very quickly.’
Unsworth added: ‘The effort and commitment was there. In periods we showed some nice touches and created a couple of opportunities against a very good Lyon team. But we just can’t cave in the way we do when we concede a goal. That’s something that we need to rectify very, very quickly.’
