Analysis from Chris Beesley after the 1-1 draw between Leicester and Everton in the Premier League
Ndiaye brings the X Factor
It’s been a while now since Everton had a player quite like Iliman Ndiaye but having already displayed some tantalising glimpses of what he is capable of producing, here he showed that he’s got end product too with a delightful first Premier League goal. The summer signing from Olympique Marseille was already off the mark with a first strike in a royal blue jersey against Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup but clearly there is a world of difference between dribbling through against fourth tier opposition and working such openings in the world’s toughest domestic football competition.
Following his masterclass against Bournemouth that had the home patrons at Goodison Park off their feet before the late collapse after his withdrawal, Ndiaye enjoyed a breakthrough moment here as he started and finished an incisive move to open the scoring. While he’s more powerful but at the moment, a little rawer than the South African maestro, his combination for the goal with Ashley Young brought back memories of Steven Pienaar’s partnership with Leighton Baines.
As Dave McGurk, who gave ‘street footballer’ Ndiaye his first taste of senior football on loan at Hyde United, told the ECHO ahead of his move to Everton this summer: “We were doing a warm-up before a practice game and the lads had to keep the ball up between them and run to the halfway line in groups of five but Iliman put the ball on his head and ran across the pitch with it still up there meaning we had to change the rules after that because we thought he’s so good he’s taking the p*** out of us!”
He’s not quite doing that against the game’s leading players but, as we saw here, Ndiaye is more than just a show pony, he’s finding his way through. Hopefully this goal is the first of many for him with Everton in the Premier League.
Garner moves into ever-changing role
Nathan Patterson, the player who Everton spent big money on in January 2022 to be the main man at right-back for years to come still hasn’t kicked a ball this season but James Garner became the fourth individual to start in the position in just five Premier League matches so far. After Ashley Young, Roman Dixon and Seamus Coleman, who to varying degrees are naturals in that part of the pitch, had all occupied the role, it was up to midfielder Garner to fill the void at the King Power Stadium.
While, by his own admission, the former Manchester United man prefers to operate in the centre of the park, it’s not an entirely alien role to him with director of football Kevin Thelwell pointing out that Garner had turned out there for Lee Carsley’s England in their European Under-21 Championship success last year when explaining why Everton hadn’t given more priority to the position in this summer’s transfer market. However, after coming on as a first half substitute against Aston Villa when Vitalii Mykolenko was forced off a week earlier, the 23-year-old looked far steadier this time around.
That’s no mean feat given that came off his sick bed to play and he was directly up against Stephy Mavididi, whose twinkling toes made him Leicester’s most dangerous looking attacking outlet throughout but in the end when the former Juventus man did find a breakthrough to equalise, it came in a goalmouth scramble from a corner kick rather than him getting the better of Garner in a one-on-one duel. Some have continued to press for the Birkenhead-born player to get an extended run in the position and while it’s difficult to look too far into the future at Everton right now, this was an encouraging showing.
Moves in the middle
Tim Iroegbunam’s rapid integration into the Everton midfield in difficult circumstances this season has been one of the success stories in what had been the club’s worst start for 66 years, but against Leicester City, with the squad’s most senior midfielder Idrissa Gueye unavailable, Sean Dyche looked to experience to fill the void in the centre of the park. Abdoulaye Doucoure, who has been the odd man out since Ndiaye came in and Dwight McNeil switched to a number 10 role, netted against Southampton when he was brought back in that more advanced area, but here he was restored to the engine room where he has spent prolonged periods of his career.
Alongside him was deadline day signing Orel Mangala but while the on-loan Olympique Lyonnais player is new to the Blues, he looked at home for them on what was his first Premier League start having previously turned out in the competition for Nottingham Forest under opposition boss Steve Cooper before being sent to France under Nuno Espirito Santo last season. In the past for Everton it’s been Belgium internationals such as Romelu Lukaku and Amadou Onana who have irked fans with their transfer chats but this week, Mangala’s agent Giovanni Bia claimed that the 26-year-old had already said yes to a Fiorentina move before Lyon owner John Textor “decided to give him to Everton.”
As the player himself said though following his first start against Southampton: “I missed the Premier League to be honest.” The way he slotted in here in seamless fashion, you can see why and that’s a big plus point for the Blues.
Coming through the storm
From ‘The Goodison Park riot’ of 1895 when an angry mob threw stones and threatened to burn down stands after wanting their money back, there have been seven matches abandoned in Everton history but none since New Year’s Day 1979 when the referee Trelford Mills called it a day at half-time with the Blues drawing 1-1 at Bolton Wanderers on an ice rink of a Burden Park pitch after future Goodison legend Peter Reid had been carried off with a broken leg following a collision with visiting goalkeeper George Wood.
Given the way good fortune as eluded Dyche’s side in recent times, almost 46 years on, Evertonians with a gallows sense of humour might have considered it typical if this fixture were abandoned at the King Power Stadium with their side on course for what would have been their first Premier League win of the season. Lightning strikes over Dortmund this summer stopped the action between Germany and Denmark for 35 minutes at the European Championships and given the electrical storm over the East Midlands skies here as torrential rain came down, there must have been similar fears with both managers and various players admitting they had never experienced anything quite like it.
Many home fans near the front of the stands sought shelter long before the half-time whistle and the start of the second half was delayed by several minutes in a hope that the conditions would improve. There had been a couple of ominous signs ringing in the ears of this correspondent and colleague Joe Thomas as we made our way to the match as shortly after we arrived in Leicester – when the sun was still shining and our car windows were down – we heard the strains of Billy Ocean’s “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” blaring out of a nearby vehicle.
By the time we took our place in the press box, the mood music had changed to Highway to Hell by AC/DC. Having come through some heavy weather in these opening weeks of the Premier League season, Everton will want to see this day as the moment they rode out the storm.
