Everton's Goalless Draw Exposes Attacking Weaknesses
The scoreline said “routine pre-season workout.” The performance told a very different story.
Everton’s short trip into Lancashire ended in a flat 0-0 draw at Bolton Wanderers, a game that underlined just how much work – and how many reinforcements – David Moyes still needs before the real business starts.
Branthwaite Back, But Help Still Missing
There was at least one significant positive. Jarrad Branthwaite, wearing the No 4 shirt, made a much-needed return to fitness and went straight into the starting XI, a reassuring sight for a manager who has spent most of the summer juggling absences.
Beyond that, the picture is far less comforting. Hayden Hackney, the club’s solitary new signing, was again absent. Tyler Dibling, nursing a minor knock, also missed out. Both are expected to feature against Stoke City on Tuesday, but for now they remain theoretical solutions to a very real problem.
James Garner is in post-surgery recovery after a groin operation, while Vitalii Mykolenko rejoined the group after missing last week’s action for the birth of his second child. The squad is stretched, the recruitment column is almost empty, and this match did nothing to disguise it.
Slow Start, Slim Threat
Bolton started on the front foot, pinning Everton back for much of the early exchanges. The hosts enjoyed territory, Everton scrambled shape.
There were flickers of threat. Nathan O’Brien sent a ball over the top for Lewis Barry to chase, tempting the Bolton goalkeeper into a rash rush from his area. The keeper misjudged his header and collided with Barry, only for the forward to be penalised. Half-chance gone, momentum checked.
Merlin Röhl thought he had forced a corner with a determined overlap, but the officials missed the final Bolton touch. It set the tone for a half in which Everton rarely imposed themselves and often found the key decisions drifting the other way.
Bolton stayed camped in Everton’s half, with Rodriguez curling an effort from the corner of the box that tested Caoimhín Kelleher’s replacement, Mark Travers, only in terms of concentration rather than agility.
When Everton did piece moves together, the final action repeatedly betrayed them. Youssef Chermiti was absent from this one; the responsibility fell on Barry, and he never looked comfortable carrying it.
Aznou slid a clever ball into Barry’s feet, only for the striker to hesitate instead of hitting it first time. The defender recovered. The moment evaporated.
Barry’s cross soon after was headed behind for a corner, the set-piece worked short, the resulting delivery earning another flag-kick. Both were meekly dealt with. Bolton barely broke stride.
Margins at One End, Gaping Holes at the Other
In midfield, Tim Iroegbunam did the dirty work diligently, screening the back four and snapping into challenges. Around him, the referee’s tolerance for Bolton’s more robust challenges did little to help Everton’s rhythm.
A Bolton header drifted just wide with Travers scrambling, a reminder that the hosts carried the more coherent threat.
Then came the move that should have changed the mood. James Tarkowski stepped out and threaded a superb pass into Dwight McNeil, who whipped a perfect cross onto Barry’s head. The forward’s effort shaved past the far post. It was the sort of chance a Premier League side needs to take, even in July.
Moments later, Röhl produced the delivery of the half – a brilliant, low, first-time cross from the right – and Barry finished from close range. The flag went up. Marginal offside. Everton’s celebrations cut short, their only moment of incision chalked off.
Bolton quickly exploited space behind Aznou, only for the full-back to recover well and put off the striker’s shot. At the other end, Aznou and Barry again combined to open a channel, but the cross never matched the build-up.
Barry then worked a neat one-two with Armstrong, the midfielder returning the favour to give him a sight of goal. Instead of driving through the ball, Barry rolled a tame effort straight at the keeper. The groan from the away end said everything.
Everton did at least begin to push higher before the interval, but the pattern was already clear: neat approach play at times, no edge where it mattered.
Second Half: Missed Chances, Misplaced Passes
The restart brought the moment that summed up Everton’s attacking woes in one, almost surreal, passage of play.
Barry received the ball high up the pitch, only one defender in front of him. Space, time, the goal in his sights. Instead of shooting, or even assessing his options, he blindly swept a pass to his left – to no one. The ball rolled harmlessly out of play. The overlap he imagined existed only in memory. It was the ghost of Alan Ball, not a teammate, arriving on the outside.
At the other end, Bolton finally forced a serious save. A powerful header was tipped away by Andy King, on at half-time for Travers, with Michael Keane wrestling with the striker in the box. It was a rare moment of sharpness in a second half that quickly dissolved into frustration.
Barry’s afternoon deteriorated. Easily dispossessed in midfield, he surrendered possession with alarming regularity. Moyes had seen enough and turned to Beto, hoping for presence and power where there had been hesitation.
McNeil tried to inject purpose, working the ball into Röhl, whose driven shot across goal forced a parry from the Bolton keeper. On the left, George and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall combined neatly, only for the cross to evade everyone in the box.
Bolton made a cluster of changes around the hour, disrupting the flow, but Everton’s forwards did more damage to their own cause than the substitutions did.
A ball over the top dropped invitingly for Beto. The bounce caught him out, his touch deserted him, and he lashed a wild effort high and wide. The description “shockingly poor” scarcely felt harsh.
King then had to push a Bolton shot behind for a corner, while Dewsbury-Hall was cynically hauled back by the shirt to halt a counter, earning the inevitable yellow card.
McNeil decided to take responsibility himself, cutting inside and unleashing a strike from distance. It flew as far off target as most of Everton’s ideas. Bolton responded by forcing another corner off Keane, keeping the visitors penned in.
George attempted an ambitious diagonal to McNeil, only to overhit it straight into touch. Bolton, sensing the lull, made another wave of changes that further broke the game into fragments.
Late Flickers, Same Old Story
There were still chances to steal it. George curled a superb ball in behind for Beto, who had the run he wanted and the angle he needed. Instead of a decisive touch, he stumbled, lost his balance and then the ball. For a player on Premier League wages, it was a damning moment.
From a George free-kick, Tarkowski nodded the ball back across goal, presenting Keane with a free header. The centre-back sent it nowhere near the target. Another opportunity wasted, another groan from the away support.
Moyes rolled the dice again with three more substitutions in the final 10 minutes, while Mykolenko had to stretch to cut out a sharp Bolton move, conceding a corner that Everton managed to clear.
There was one last glimpse of what Everton’s younger faces might offer. From distance, Malik Olayiwola stepped up and let fly with a clean, powerful strike, only to hit it too close to the keeper. Bolton responded with a direct ball down the middle, the resulting shot thudding into the side netting.
And that was the afternoon: a clean sheet, a run-out, and a glaring reminder of the gulf between industry and inspiration.
The workout box is ticked. The warning lights are brighter. Without goals, without new faces, and without a cutting edge, how long can Everton afford to treat performances like this as “just pre-season”?
