Everton knows how to play at the moment - badly.
They played very well with a midfield two of Doucoure and Allan, and Townsend and Gray on the wings. Allan and Docoure won the ball, Townsend and Gray got forward quickly, simple and direct, successful.
Douc was doing the work of two men. Allan has these skills but is not nearly as mobile as Douc - no one is. Rafa has tried Davies and Gbamin alongside Allan in a like-for-like replacement for Douc in midfield two and we've been sliced to ribbons. Just won't work without Douc.
We were up 2-1 at 75' at Goodison to Watford two weeks ago, and then Watford (Watford ffs) gored us for four goals in 12', and it was worse than it sounds. They moved through us at will.
Same thing in the first 30 minutes against Wolves. 2 bad goals - one on a set piece, 7th so far this season (!!!) (we had 7 all last season, Wolves by contrast have surrendered none), one on a miserable backpass from Godfrey that was pounced upon. Should have been 4 or 5, Wolves were flying through the middle of the park unchecked, getting runners behind, no pressure on the ball from Everton at all.
Rafa eventually added Fabian Delph, of all people, to create a midfield three and that stabilized the game. We even nicked one back and had a few good chances to maybe sneak a point. The xG is almost a tie at 1.8 something. But we were horrible.
With Mina out again, Keane completely shot of confidence and prone to errors, Godfrey the same, plus COVID, Digne just coming back and not having a good season to begin with, Holgate miles off his best, no backup for either Digne or Coleman except out-of-position Godfrey or Holgate, no DCL, no creative mid to speak of.... I'm really afraid. If that's 4 losses in a row, with away to Man City next week, I'm afraid that Rafa is going to get sacked. He's got much less leeway among some fans because of his Red ties. Especially if we get waxed in the derby in December, there will be enormous pressure to fire him. We can't afford to IMO, despite his several selection and tactical screwups. Too many managers, too much turnover, no continuity, a patchwork squad of players recruited by different regimes for different styles. I'd rather take a beating until we get some reinforcements and just recognize that it's a multi year project. We were briefly third a few weeks ago, second last Boxing Day, but there were a lot of cracks papered over and not enough of a solid base. Let's not kid ourselves, folks. Our best XI on its best day can beat anyone and can compete for Europe, but we are not deep enough to withstand the slightest dip in fortune. We can't make it over 38 games plus cup ties and maintain form.
