One Everton star was actually worse than Dwight McNeil v Luton Town

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Everton slipped to a 2-1 defeat against Luton Town in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday afternoon.

Sean Dyche’s men put in an uninspiring performance as they failed to make home advantage count against their Premier League relegation rivals.

Throughout the match, Everton were guilty of allowing Luton too much of the ball, didn’t press hard enough and were saved by Joao Virginia on two occasions.

The 24-year-old, who was man of the match in their third-round replay victory over Crystal Palace 10 days ago, made two outstanding saves to deny Carlton Morris and Elijah Adebayo before being beaten by Cauley Woodrow in the 95th minute.

While Virginia could hold his head high, Dwight McNeil was one of several players in Blue who were disappointing.

McNeil often slotted into midfield at times but supplied very little quality in the match from an attacking perspective, playing just three crosses and one key pass throughout, as per Sofascore, while providing poor service to those spearheading Everton’s forward line.

One of those was Dominic Calvert-Lewin, whose poor run of goal-scoring form continued.

How did Dominic Calvert-Lewin play against Luton Town?

Calvert-Lewin hasn’t painted himself in a particularly good light in recent weeks.

The Englishman was slammed for the golden opportunity he missed in the 0-0 draw against Aston Villa and was worse than that against the Hatters.

Before the match, Dyche decided to play Calvert-Lewin and Beto as a front two, but it’s an experiment that didn’t work.

The pair rarely linked with each other and frequently found themselves in the same area challenging for the same ball. In the one time they did manage to pick each other out, Beto placed a low shot wide from the edge of the penalty area.

Although the Portuguese frontman was full of enthusiasm, the same can’t be said for his strike partner, who was arguably worse than McNeil.

Indeed, Calvert-Lewin lacked in most areas of his attacking play and very rarely looked like threatening the Luton goal after taking zero shots and making no attempts to dribble.

For a striker who once scored 21 goals in one season, to not register a shot against Luton was bitterly disappointing.

Meanwhile, his ability on the ball was put under question as he made a meagre 34 touches throughout the full game, less than his goalkeeper Virginia.

In a match that saw a severe lack of quality from the hosts, Calvert-Lewin could have changed the complexion of it but failed to have any real influence and was ultimately worse than McNeil.