BLUE WATCH: Where were the real Everton last night?

Mar 7 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

PERHAPS the real Everton got turfed off their plane with a load of fans in Valencia for being too rowdy.

Well, that would be one explanation for the fact that the side that have had plaudits rained on them for most of this season patently never turned up at the Stadio Artemio Franchi last night.

They were really poor, there’s no two ways about it. The forwards hardly touched the ball, the midfielders struggled to keep any sort of decent possession and at times the defending conjured memories of Bucharest and the end of our previous campaign in the UEFA Cup.

Does this result represent curtains for Europe again then? Nothing’s definite, obviously, and Goodison Park will be an intimidating destination for Fiorentina next Wednesday, but they are going to need a minor miracle to come back from two goals down against a side who have just dominated them from start to finish.

It was always going to be tough tie, but David Moyes’s men have had plenty of awkward away games this season and given much better accounts of themselves than they did in Florence.

Against the Viola they struggled to string a couple of passes together and barely managed a shot worthy of the name.

It’s unfair to start singling players out when so many failed to perform anywhere near the standards expected.

Against decent opposition like the Italians though, our weaknesses – that are so often masked by work-rate and attitude – were exposed. In certain positions we have players who aren’t comfortable on the ball, especially in tight situations.

At times what was required was simply a bit of patient possession to settle things down, but Fiorentina found it easy to force Everton into making mistakes.

Newcastle United might as well set up a standing order of three points a season to Liverpool, rather than actually turn up at Anfield, so there will be enormous pressure on Everton on Sunday.

And unfortunately, failure to win there and then what looks like elimination from Europe could see us facing a bit of a bleak end to a season that has had so many highlights thus far.