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MOTD- Everton 2-0 Manchester United

By on April 20, 2014

At this point David Moyes’ first season in charge of Manchester United could hardly become any more embarrassing. On track for their wost league finish since the 1989-90 season, and with losses to West Bromwhich Albion, Stoke City, Newcastle United, Swansea City, and of course their infamous defeat at the hands of Olympiakos, even a 2-0 loss to fifth place Everton doesn’t seem so bad. Where it hurts, though, is in the fact that under former manager Sir Alex Ferguson United never lost the league double to Everton, nor in the seventeen years leading up to Ferguson’s appointment, yet in Moyes’ first season at the club he is winless over his old club.

It wasn’t as if United were completely kept out of the match by Everton, as has been the case in some of their previous losses, in fact, the Red Devils kept 61% of possession throughout the match.  However, Moyes would be daft not to recognize his side’s slowness on the ball compared to Everton’s – even star January signing Juan Mata was caught on the ball far to often for liking.  Thus, even with far over half of possession, United were lucky just to lose by two.

Just eight minutes into the match United were looking the worse from of slow start all around, and only were saved of their first scare of the match by a wild mis-kick from Ross Barkley as he met a cross from the right at the far post.  Fourteen minutes later Everton came close again, with Steven Naismith somehow managing not to tuck Romelu Lukaku’s head-down into the back of the net via a wild blast over in miles of space.  And it would only get worse from there for United.

Twenty-five minutes in, they were penalized with a penalty to Everton after Phil Jones’ blocked Lukaku’s curler from the edge of the box with his outstretched arm.  Unsurprisingly, Leighton Baines tucked the penalty home, outsmarting David De Gea and going down the middle, and while Moyes’ side saw most of the ball in the following fifteen minutes, Everton were the ones who found the back of the net again before the half.  Kevin Mirallas was slipped in down the right side of the box via a wonderful Seamus Coleman defense cutting through ball, and from a tight angle he cut the ball past De Gea into the far corner of the net.  2-0 to Everton at the half – not United’s dream start.  But then again, nor would it be a dream finished for the reigning English champions.

Five minutes into the second period Coleman sliced a wild effort from ten yards wide to the left of goal, and Lukaku then saw De Gea palm down his snap-shot from Mirallas’ through ball down the right side of goal shortly afterwards.  Seventy-seven minutes in Naismith horribly screwed an attempted volley high and wide at the far post in miles of space from a cross from the left, and the Scotsman was once again nearly found Everton’s third as his low curling effort from the left side of the box was only just tipped wide of the far corner of the goal by De Gea.  United only really threatened when it was all to late, with Wayne Rooney seeing Tim Howard rush out to stop him from tapping home Javier Hernandez’s through ball with four minutes to go in regulation time.  But in the end Moyes couldn’t even take a goal away from his first visit to his old home at Goodison Park – the only more troubling part of it was that his side could have easily allowed three or four.
Man of the Match: Steven Naismith

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.