Tom Huddlestone has been left shocked by Everton’s terrible start to the season.
The midfielder has admitted on BBC’s Football Daily podcast he is ‘surprised’ by the disappointing performances from the Toffees players, despite the club only narrowly missing out on relegation last time out.
Fans and pundits were left disgraced by Everton’s horrific display at the weekend as they were thrashed 4-0 by Aston Villa.
After a somewhat promising loss to Fulham on the opening day, the likes of Michael Keane, Jordan Pickford and Ashley Young all made costly mistakes to gift the hosts a comfortable three points.
The Merseyside outfit are continuing their pursuit of new attackers after bringing in Arnaut Danjuma, Youssef Chermiti and Jack Harrison, though the disappointment laid heavily on their backline at Villa Park.
There is already an extremely negative atmosphere around Everton with 36 games of the Premier League campaign to go and Huddlestone doesn’t think it’s going to get much easier for the supporters.
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Speaking on the podcast, Huddlestone said: “It’s surprising. At the start of the season younger players might be a bit flustered, but the senior players that Dyche is relying on… it is quite surprising.
“You’re looking at Everton and thinking where are their goals going to come from? A majority of Dyche’s teams are really strong and organised at the back and they’re not looking like that, while they’re looking quite toothless in attack so it’s going to be a long season for those Everton fans.”
Tom Huddlestone shouldn’t be surprised by Everton
Perhaps there were higher expectations placed on Everton’s defence than their attack, however fans wouldn’t say it was surprising to see such a performance on Sunday afternoon.
The Toffees held onto their Premier League status by the skin of their teeth last season and really haven’t improved their squad since.
While there are a number of players still on the sidelines, Everton seemed to forget basics of football at the weekend and there will be very few people that thought the club would actually manage to kick on from the difficulties of the past few years.