Everton had a day to forget at St Mary’s as an Adam Armstrong goal sealed all three points, but that didn’t stop Sean Dyche from praising a couple of his players after the game.
The Toffees find themselves in 16th position, four points ahead of a place in the relegation zone.
Paul Merson fancied a Southampton win, and he was right, though the one thing he did get wrong was Everton taking advantage of the Saints playing out from the back and scoring.
Well, Beto did find the back of the net, but it was ruled out for offside after a VAR check, with Mike Dean even stating he thought it was onside prior to the decision.
Nevertheless, it’s a loss in what was another disappointing performance.
However, Sean Dyche did try to look at the positives as he highlighted two of his Everton players for praise after the game against Southampton.
Sean Dyche hails Everton duo for their Southampton displays
Iliman Ndiaye was taken off around the 60th minute mark, which surprised a few supporters. It later came out that this was a precaution, so hopefully he’s alright moving forward.
It was a performance that had very little highlights, but there were two players that Sean Dyche believed shone brighter than the rest, and we have to agree with him.
Speaking after the game in his press conference, Dyche hailed the performances of Ashley Young and Idrissa Gana Gueye.
“I must say I think Idrissa was excellent today. Youngy was excellent. You know, two experienced pros showing why they do what they do.”
Idrissa Gana Gueye and Ashley Young’s performance in numbers vs Southampton
Everton fans chose Idrissa Gana Gueye as the Man of the Match last time out against Fulham, and he put in another impressive performance today.
He had 56 touches in his 90 minutes, a passing accuracy of 95%, made one key pass, completed his only long ball, won seven duels, made two clearances, six tackles and one interceptions.
Ashley Young was one of the better performers last time out against Fulham too, as he provided the assist for Beto’s late equaliser at Goodison Park.
The right-back also played the full 90 minutes. He had 43 touches of the ball, a passing accuracy of 79%, made three key passes, won one duel, made one tackle and two interceptions.
A couple of the negatives for Young was he gave the ball away too much and didn’t win enough of his duels.
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