Would the ball leave the center circle if Everton played AFC Wimbledon?
Tuesday night, following the game, I was thinking to my friends as I made my way to the pub, “I wonder how many years it will be before we see a team as negative as AFC Wimbledon?”
They were astonishing.
Entire defense huddled together behind the ball, unwilling to go out from their shells.
Of course, they have the right to do that, but it’s a rather gloomy sight.
Newcastle had 10 corners, compared to AFC Wimbledon’s one.
Compared to Newcastle’s 41 touches in their penalty area, the Wombles only managed eight in their own.
On Tuesday night, AFC Wimbledon only had 22% of the possession.
I didn’t have to wait years after all.
Not even for several months.
It wasn’t even weeks or even a week, really.
As it happens, I was able to watch Newcastle United play against a team as bad as AFC Wimbledon in just four days.
To be honest, they are quite awful.
It makes sense why Everton supporters remained silent throughout, with the exception of Anthony Gordon’s involvement.
Newcastle had ten corners, while Everton had none.
Newcastle had forty-two touches in their penalty area, while the Toffees only managed twelve.
Only 30% of the possession was held by Everton in the first half and 36% in the second.
However, I think that ‘staggering’ 6% increase in ‘possession’ was only due to Jordan Pickford taking even longer on goal-kicks and free-kicks than he did before the break. The ball constantly just launched as far up the field as possible when he did finally kick it, Everton gaining yardage but instantly giving the ball away pretty much every time, almost as though they didn’t really want it…
The difference is of course that AFC Wimbledon were a fourth tier team playing away, whilst Everton were playing at home and are a Premier League team, allegedly.
After watching the ultra negativity and total lack of ambition from Everton, the only consolation is that surely they aren’t going to have many days like this one, where they somehow failed to lose. Relegation must surely have caught up with them at last this season. Here’s hoping.
