Everton are out of the FA Cup – and it was an afternoon to forget for striker Beto.
The Toffees’ hopes of silverware are over for another season, after Sunderland won on penalties at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
After Adam Aznou won a late penalty which was scored by Janes Garner, Everton and the Black Cats finished 1-1 after normal time and there were no more goals in extra time, meaning a shootout was required.
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And Everton’s performance in that shootout was pathetic, with Garner, Thierno Barry and Beto all seeing their efforts saved.
Their tame efforts fell well short of the standard required, and Everton will now seek to respond in the Premier League.
That next game is against Aston Villa – and the chances of Beto starting look slim.
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Beto didn’t take his chance vs Sunderland
Beto was preferred to Barry against Sunderland, and it was a chance for the Guinea-Bissau striker to nudge ahead of his teammate in the Everton pecking order.
But this was very much a performance to forget for Beto, who offered so little in the contest.
He struggled to hold the ball up when required and also frustratingly gave away several fouls. And the less said about his penalty in the shootout, the better.
But there was one statistic that really summed up how ineffective he was.
As per Sofascore, Beto contested a total 17 duels against Sunderland, but he only won six of them – meaning a win rate of just 35%.
Six of those 17 duels were aerial duels, and Beto won just two of those.
Beto spent most of the game against Sunderland battling with Luke O’Nien, who is considerably shorter than the 6ft 4in Everton man at 5ft 9in. So the fact he had so little joy was really disappointing.
Luke O’Nien claims he did his homework on Beto
Beto went into yesterday’s game with a clear physical advantage over O’Nien – but in the end that counted for nothing.
It was a poor performance, but it seems the Everton number nine was also going to come up against a dogged competitor.
Because after the game, O’Nien revealed he actually scrubbed up on Beto and how he likes to play.
He said (via Sunderland Echo): “I did my homework, and I worked well with the boys on the left, right and in front of me. Football’s all about trying to make decisions and trying to make the right ones. I made some good decisions today, and there’ll be some to improve, as always.”
Clearly this helped him against Beto on the day, and potentially the Sunderland player further exposed Everton’s striker issue at the moment.
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