Everton look destined to fall short of Europe. Displays like this explain why

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It was similar to an opportunity the 27-year-old had missed in the recent draw at Brentford, but less understandable — this time, he was on his stronger left foot. Less than 20 minutes later, Jean-Philippe Mateta equalised and two more points had slipped from Everton’s grasp. “I told him: ‘Why are you upset? Because you can miss. You can miss a pass. You can miss a run. You can lose a duel’,” Beto told reporters after the game. “This is why I try to get (through) to all my team-mates because this is football. No one will be perfect. “The other side have good players, too. So I was telling him, for a player who has this talent, not to overthink too much when he misses or does something bad. This is my job, the striker. It’s OK — put everything on my back. I’m OK with it.” Beto’s response was that of a good team-mate, but such moments are costing Everton. They were 3-1 ahead after 81 minutes against Manchester City on Monday, but conceded two goals late on. At Selhurst Park, they were twice pegged back after taking the lead. It led Moyes to concede in his post-match press conference that Europe had “not gone yet but was just drifting a wee bit away”. There is a temptation to wonder where Everton would be if they had seen out some of these games. They have not been good enough when it really mattered at either end of the pitch. Moyes explained Everton’s inability to make the most of promising attacking positions. “I’m using the word ‘disappointing’ again,” he said after the game, before referencing missed opportunities from Dewsbury-Hall and forward Iliman Ndiaye. “It could have been 3-3 or 4-4. Kiernan and Ili (Ndiaye) have just been off the boil a bit as far as finishing is concerned. We needed their craft.” Everton have become over-reliant on Dewsbury-Hall and Ndiaye to create and score this season, bet their recent issues are as much about the collective failure to do the basics defensively — to stop conceding poor goals — and manage games. They have conceded at least twice in six of their last seven matches, and 11 in their last five. The injured Jarrad Branthwaite, out for the season with a hamstring injury, is sorely missed in central defence. Since he limped off towards the end of last month’s Merseyside derby, Everton have shipped eight goals in just over three matches. Concerningly, Everton are leaking goals in a variety of different ways. As a pairing, Michael Keane — Branthwaite’s replacement — and James Tarkowski are susceptible to pace and tend to drop deep to compensate. They are almost certainly too similar in style for the fast-twitch nature of Premier League football. When Branthwaite is out of the team, the gaps between midfield and defence grow. Ismaila Sarr, the scorer of Palace’s first goal, caused them trouble drifting inside from the right and exploiting Everton’s man-to-man marking in midfield. With James Garner and Tim Iroegbunam occupied, it was unclear who was meant to be picking up Sarr. Leading up to the goal, Everton should have dealt better with the long ball, and then Keane failed to clear the Senegal international’s initial shot. For the equaliser, Mateta managed to drift off Keane and Tarkowski, an example of how easy it is to find space against Everton. Recent weeks have also shown the need for Everton to find a way to manage leads. With the first-half possession having been shared relatively evenly, Palace enjoyed 67 per cent of the ball after the interval. The hosts’ second-half expected goals (xG) was 1.96, reflecting the opportunities they created — or Everton shipped. Moyes’ squad is full of mobile, ball-winning midfielders but still needs a true ‘No 6’, someone to sit and dictate. They lack the ability to keep the ball and alleviate pressure, particularly without injured loanee Jack Grealish. Palace’s second equaliser had been coming. They were also the ones pushing harder for a winner at the end, with Adam Wharton striking the post from the edge of the area. “We looked fresher than Everton,” their manager Oliver Glasner boasted. It should not have been that way, given Palace had played the second leg of their Conference League semi-final against Shakhtar Donetsk on Thursday night. “After we got the (second) goal, we allowed Palace too much room to play and let them grow back into the game,” Moyes said, although he felt that was more to do with “how Palace play”. “That (a third goal) might have taken the steam out of Palace. But we never played at our best level, certainly on the ball.” When it has mattered most, Everton have faltered. They now face an uphill task for Europe, and will only have themselves to blame if they fail to qualify. “Good sides have to do the business at this time of the season,” Moyes conceded. “There have been bits where we’ve not quite shown the resilience (from before).” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms