Everton survived a scare against Rotheram after goals from Cenk Tosun and Abdoulaye Doucoure helped the Blues reach the next round of the FA Cup.

The Toffees started brightly, dominating the ball and giving young winger Anthony Gordon space to attack down the left flank. The early pressure paid off after the winger sent through Tosun one on one who calmly lifted the ball over Blackman to give Everton the lead.

Despite the strong start, an element of laziness and avoidable mistakes creeped into Everton’s game, constantly misplacing five yard passes and failing to make an impression especially in the midfield. These errors allowed Rotheram back into the game, creating chance after chance and generally being the better team in the first half. 

The struggling championship side found an equaliser early on in the second half courtesy of impressive American right back, Matthew Olosunde. This encouraged Ancelotti to make some proactive changes to the team, bringing on four substitutions in order to avoid a potential embarrassing upset. 

The Blues thought they had won late on, after Cenk Tosun notched his brace by turning in a James Rodriguez cross only for VAR to intervene and rule the goal out for offside. The lack of quality had to continue into extra time where Everton fortunately had too much firepower with Doucoure finishing after a lovely James assist.

Although Carlo’s men won, fans will be less than convinced at the performance due to Everton being second best for long periods of the game to a team that are 23rd in the league below. The midfield partnership of Andre Gomes and Tom Davies will be a concern as both players struggled with the physical aspect, consistently losing their personal battles as well as being unable to progress the ball effectively.

Everton’s continued lack of ideas when it comes to breaking teams down should be explored by Ancelotti as the lethargic style of play which involves an abundance of backwards and sideways passes is neither exciting nor successful. However, the return of Lucas Digne, who looked a bit rusty today, as well as Allan in the near future should help the Blue rediscover the fluid football that was being played at the start of the season.

A few positives to take out of the game; Niels Nkounkou looks to be an exciting prospect down the left flank as he injected some much needed dynamism and skill into the game. The continued form of Ben Godfrey who seems to improve every game in terms of solidity and winning his duels. Finally, Robin Olsen looked very comfortable between the sticks today, pulling off a few great saves and distributing the ball well.

Player Ratings:

Robin Olsen – 7

Lucas Digne – 6

Ben Godfrey – 7 (MOTM)

Michael Keane – 7

Seamus Coleman – 6

Tom Davies – 5 

Andre Gomes – 4 

James Rodriguez – 7

Alexander Iwobi – 5

Anthony Gordon – 6

Cenk Tosun – 6

Subs:

Abdoulaye Doucouré – 6

Bernard – 6

Nkounkou – 7

Gylfi Sigurðsson – 6

Yerry Mina – 7