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(Credit: Imago)
Jack Heath
Tue 19 August 2025 7:00, UK
Everton fell to a 1-0 defeat to Leeds in their first game of the season despite the arrival of some much needed players.
Amid the hype of a new stadium and the arrival of new reinforcements such as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Chelsea, the Toffees could not find a way to break their duck as they lost 1-0 to Leeds.
David Moyes’ side struggled to get into the match and looked rather toothless going forward with Jack Grealish limited to just 20 minutes as he did little to impact the game.
James Tarkowski‘s controversial handball in the box gave the Peacocks a late penalty in the 84th minute which was converted by Lukas Nmecha in a composed manner.
It is back to the drawing board for the Scottish manager as him and ourselves work out what were the lessons to take from the defeat.
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The huge focus under the lights at Elland Road was whether the England international was going to be drafted in from the get-go to make his full debut for his new club.
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This was not the case as the 29-year-old only briefly featured, touching the ball just 15 times as the Toffees were up against the brute force of the Leeds attack for much of the game.
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After not playing at the Club World Cup with Man City, clearly Moyes felt his new loanee was not fit enough to be in the starting XI, although it wouldn’t surprise me if next game he comes in straight away given how poor the Blues were going forward.
Another new face, Dewsbury-Hall, was trusted with a start from the beginning as he adopted the number 10 role behind Beto.
Whilst his fellow attackers couldn’t get into the game, I felt the Englishman was one of the few who tried to make something happen.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall v Leeds (18 August)Minutes played90Expected assists xA0.24Key passes1Ground duels (won)7 (5)Touches45(Source: Sofascore)
With one key pass and winning five of his seven ground duels, the former Leicester man had a decent start on his debut in the Premier League.
Where he plays when Grealish comes fully into the starting XI remains to be seen, but Evertonians should be relatively pleased with his performance in a shambolic team showing.
I rubbed my eyes when I saw the team sheet and thought “why on earth is James Garner playing left-back?!”
It was bewildering as the Englishman, who has become a proper multi-faceted player during his spell at Goodison Park, filled in for the injured Vitaliy Mykolenko.
Key centre-back Branthwaite is out with a reported hamstring injury (Credit: Imago)
Both Nathan Patterson and key anchor Jarrad Branthwaite were also out with new LEFT-BACK from Bayern Munich Adam Aznou not even considered for the squad.
A bizarre decision from Moyes but clearly demonstrating how shallow the squad is right now.
One of the key things about the Scotsman’s arrival was how he turned Sean Dyche’s low-block, uninspiring side into a potent counter-attacking unit in the second half of last season.
It was a worrying league opener for David Moyes (Credit: Imago)
Fans would have been expecting this trend to continue but against Leeds, it appears the tactics have gone backwards to the dark days of Dyche.
Whether the long balls forward or reliance on set-plays were purely done to cope with injuries, Everton lacked any sort of creative impetus, amassing just 0.55xG.
As VAR confirmed the penalty following the handball from Tarkowski, cameras panned to the England goalkeeper pondering over some notes on his water bottle.
The 31-year-old has been known to take a water bottle with him wherever he goes in case there is a chance of a penalty both at club level and on the international stage.
Although the former Sunderland keeper guessed the right way, he couldn’t keep out Nmecha’s pin-point spot-kick.
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