I had to take a couple of days before I could get to writing. There was just too much sadness and anger in me to write anything that would have been coherent. This isn't going to be a comprehensive analysis because all the problems that I stated in the What's Wrong With Everton article still existed along with some new ones.
Having said that, that was by far the worst match the Toffees have played. While other games were frustrating to watch due to lack of scoring, this one was just all around poor play. The thing that popped out the most was the poor passing. It was just plain horrendous. The passes were off target or players would hold the ball too long and try to pass it while a defender was too close. Even when there was no defender on a player the passes were still poor. When the passes were on target, the first touches were god awful. It was just a all around sloppy game.
The worst part of it is that Newcastle didn't even play that great. Yes, they dominated us for portions, but they did not really threaten the goal too much. Everton kind of just handed the match to them.
We played with no heart, the body language was terrible, and it seemed like we just did not care. I feel like this would not have happened if Tim Cahill was playing. He is the epitome of hard work and playing with heart. Hopefully, he will be back soon and a match like this will not happen again.
I know most of you don't want to see the highlights, but if you really do, you can check it out here. Proceed with caution.
There's not really much more I can say about how bad we played, so instead I will go through each player and their lack of contribution in the last match.
Tim Howard: I feel bad for him. He played pretty well. He wasn't challenged too much, but when he was he played well. The striker by Ben Arfa was a wonder striker, and I don't think anyone could have saved it.
The Back Four (Leighton Baines, Sylvain Distin, Phil Jagielka, Tony Hibbert, Seamus Coleman sub): They actual played pretty well. The had a problem where they would not close the gap between the player with the ball, but they did not have that problem in this match. Again, the Ben Arfa striker was just a great play, the defense was actually alright there.
Leon Osman: Very disappointing. Usually the energy man, but just really had no impact.
Mikel Arteta: He was not as bad as the other midfielders, but the dominance that he had shown in previous matches was not there. He is our holding midfielder, but I don't really remember him influencing this match. That is not a good thing.
John Heitinga: I just don't remember him playing at all. That's a very bad sign. If you forget a player even played after a couple of days, then that means the player had no impact.
Steven Pienaar: At least I just did not remember Heitinga, but Pienaar I remember for all the wrong things. I want to say he was the worst player on the pitch. Even if he wasn't, he was pretty close. When I was thinking of the poor passing and poor touches, the players that came to mind first were Pienaar and Fellaini. Which leads me to...
Marouane Fellaini: He was actually worse than Pienaar, but at least he showed some heart. He ran around like the old Fellaini trying to win balls back and fouling people. He was just extremely poor on the challenges and even worse on the passing. The missed goal near the end at three yards out is unforgivable. You have to bury that.
Jermaine Beckford: I can not completely blame his lack of touches, because I think he is just ill suited for the lone striker role. Given that, he did one decent play where he controlled the ball right at the top of the box, but he was being held. There should have been a free kick but none was given and play continued. Other than that, he was ineffective.
Subs Bilyaletdinov and Yakubu: Bilyaletdinov pretty much did nothing. Yakubu actually increased the attack and played OK.