In an end-to-end contest full of attacking woes, defensive troubles and woeful officiating, Manchester City drew 1-1 with Everton.

By Muhammad Butt 21st Aug 2017

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SQUAWKA ANALYSIS

In an end-to-end contest full of attacking woes, defensive troubles and woeful officiating, Manchester City drew 1-1 with Everton.

Pep Guardiola’s men were dominant but well-contained by Ronald Koeman’s Everton. The Toffees took the lead against the run of play in the first half and then bedded in, weathering a City assault and even a late equaliser to leave the Etihad with a point. What did we learn?

1. Dominic Calvert-Lewin fears nothing

The 20 year-old Calvert-Lewin was a bit-part player for Everton last season but has forced his way into Ronald Koeman’s plans this season following an impressive showing in the u20 FIFA World Cup (where he scored the winner in the final). Last week he set-up Wayne Rooney’s winner against Stoke, and today against Manchester City he set-up Rooney’s opener.

The youngster was absolutely sensational against City. Playing as the main striker in Everton’s 3-5-2, he showed a different string to his bow after playing on the wing last week. From the off he was haranguing City defenders with his pressing whilst causing them no end of bother when he had the ball in his possession. He drove Everton up the field and pressed them into mistakes.

One such mistake, Leroy Sané’s poor backpass, was turned into something quite remarkable. Calvert-Lewin poked the ball back to Mason Holgate then slowly drifted behind Vincent Kompany. Holgate played him in and then Calvert-Lewin waited for Kompany to race back and challenge, calmly dragging the ball back and leaving the City captain to slide hopelessly across the turf like a drunk dad at a wedding. The youngster slipped the ball across the box and Wayne Rooney finished nicely.

Calvert-Lewin continued to dominate after that, with his canny bit of gamesmanship seeing City reduced to 10 men as Kyle Walker got sent off for, essentially, walking backwards. In the second half he was a thorn in City’s side but couldn’t replicate the impact he had in the first half.

2. Sergio Aguero isn’t worth indulging with 3-5-2

Sergio Aguero is one of the greatest strikers in City’s history, but he is nevertheless a terrible fit for Guardiola’s preferred 4-3-3 system as he can’t really play up-front on his own. Pep Guardiola has thus been playing 3-5-2 as a way to accommodate the Argentine in his system.

3-5-2 is a system that doesn’t really lend itself to City playing fully fluid football. The presence of Fernandinho is largely superfluous and ends up wasting a player in defence when they could be used in attack. This was evident against Brighton and was doubly so against Everton.

Nevertheless it should free Aguero up, right? In theory, sure, but in practice all that happened was that Aguero’s terrible decision-making repeatedly thwarted City’s attacks. The Argentine looked shambolic and the tactical twister Guardiola had played to accommodate him looked pointless.

When the Catalan coach removed Gabriel Jesus at half-time and left Aguero up-front by himself, he became even more anonymous. Swallowed whole by Everton’s defence. Some nice touches and passes gave his performance a sheen and he got Morgan Schneiderlin sent off with a canny dive, but when he was sent through by Raheem Sterling with five minutes left and kicked his own feet instead of the ball, it just perfectly summed up his evening. He’s not worth all the effort Guardiola is going through.

3. Rooney The Ever-Living

Two games played, two goals. He even played midweek and went for three games in a week where last season he barely looked capable of playing once every seven days. His goal last week a towering header, this? A precise first-time finish against one of his favourite victims: Manchester City.

Rooney’s 12th goal against the Sky Blues wasn’t anywhere close to his best but in terms of impact it was probably as close to his stratospheric overhead kick in 2011 that he’s ever going to get. This isn’t how it was meant to go! Rooney was finished, done! A spent force he was heading home to Everton in order to play out his golden years at home playing mediocre football.

Instead here he is, a bonafide game-changing force. He has 200 Premier League goals (behind only Alan Shearer in the all-time scoring charts). He gave Everton a win against Stoke and a draw against City. He was withdrawn with a minute to go to a chorus of boos from the Etihad which must have sounded like sweet music to his ears. Could he make it three in three? You wouldn’t put past him!

4. The case for VAR?

VAR hasn’t really impressed anyone too much so far during its various implementations in the Confederations Cup and some leagues around Europe. It’s been a spotty tool thus far, and the arguments for it are well-met by arguments against.

But tonight the case for VAR was made quite spectacularly. The game was conditioned by two red cards, both second yellows, one for Kyle Walker and the other for Morgan Schneiderlin. The first, Walker’s dismissal, came because one assumes Bobby Madely thought the Englishman elbowed Dominic Calvert-Lewin. In actuality it was a simple bump and VAR could have seen through that.

The second, Schneiderlin’s red, was equally as bad although perhaps more forgivable. The Frenchman slid into a 50/50 with Sergio Aguero and won the ball with a crispness. He made incidental contact with Aguero after he took the ball and the Argentine milked that like a prized cow, resulting in the second yellow and the match evened up at 10-each. VAR would have confirmed that, no, that wasn’t a second yellow. But alas, we’ll have to make do without them.

5. Raheem Sterling redeems Guardiola (and himself)

Raheem Sterling came on at half-time as Guardiola tried to adjust his formation to compensate for the loss of Kyle Walker. Immediately the Englishman energised City, driving with the ball at Everton with a speed of thought and sharpness of technique that they couldn’t live with.

Sterling began ripping them out wide, and then after 65 minutes he was moved centrally. Here he really began turning the screw, with his movement presenting him with great chances to equalise which he blazed wide of the target – echoing the frustrations he has been going through of late.

Not a guaranteed first XI selection, Sterling was in many ways fighting to convince Guardiola that he deserves to be trusted. And he did just that by thundering in an equaliser with 10 minutes to go. Fellow sub Danilo sent a cross into the box and while Mason Holgate managed to head it clear, he only got it as far as the edge of the box and Sterling let fly with a rasping volley to equalise.

City couldn’t push on for a victory, but Sterling had proven his quality to Guardiola and allowed the Catalan coach to avoid a second successive defeat to the Toffees (although they remain the only club side he’s managed against more than once and not managed to beat). Now he has to build on that next week.