Everton fans could see for themselves that Tim Howard was abysmal last season. While the defence in front of him didn't help him much either, Howard was responsible for a couple of sublime saves during the year, but close to a dozen howlers as well. Here is the data from ESPNFC.co.uk for goalies who played a minimum of 20 Premier League games in the season.
Picture courtesy of ESPN FC
Just for perspective, here's the list of the best goalies from last season.
Picture courtesy of ESPN FC
Let's do some more digging into this data though. You might be thinking that Howard possibly faced more shots per game which would then lead to a higher number of goals conceded, but the ratio of saves/shots should still be consistent in that case.
However, Everton were only middle of the pack in number of shots given up per game.
Picture courtesy of FootStats
Then we looked at percentage of opposition shots on target per game- Everton actually led the League in this category!
Picture courtesy of FootStats
Finally, we took a gander at the goals percentage, which is the number of shots on goal that led to goals conceded, and it all made sense.
Picture courtesy of FootStats
Basically, what this says is that Everton had a middling defence, that was the best at blocking shots and otherwise throwing off their opponents from getting their shots on goal, but when the ball did make its way to the frame, Howard (and Robles) were the worst of the lot in keeping the ball out.
Pretty damning evidence there for all the Howard apologists who felt that the defence was mostly culpable for how bad Everton were last season. In fact, were it not for Joel Robles' performances while the American was out injured, Everton's stats from above would have looked even worse.
Here is the data for the two goalies from last season, with Howard's previous five seasons all in one table for comparison. All the data discussed here is for Premier League appearances only.
What this is telling us is that if Howard continues to be as poor as he was last season, Everton are going to find themselves struggling to break into the top half of the League, just like in 2014-15.