Could defensive lapses cost Everton this season?

Everton boss Roberto Martinez needs to find a solution to his teams defensive problems

Everton suffered a 3-2 home defeat against Crystal Palace yesterday.

It was the second successive 3-2 victory for the Eagles at Goodison Park. The second successive surprise triumph by the Eagles at Everton in fact.

Start

Everton got off to a fast start and took the lead through record signing Romelu Lukaku after just nine minutes in yesterday’s encounter.

The home side would have been expected to push on from there and claim a comfortable victory, especially against a team who had yet to claim a Premier League win this season.

Frail

Instead Everton looked frail in defence and keeper Tim Howard looked very suspect. The USA star conceded a 31^st minute penalty to put Palace back in the game and completely changed the momentum of the game.

Solid

Last season Everton had the third best defensive record in the Premier League. Only Manchester City and Chelsea had better backlines. Toffees boss Roberto Martinez knitted together his football philosophy with the solid defence that former-boss David Moyes had built.

Aging

Centre-back pairing of Sylvain Distin and Phil Jagielka was a key to that solid defensive record. The experienced duo was solid and provided the foundation of Everton’s fifth place finish in the Premier League last season.

However, Jagielka is 32 years old and Distin is now 36 and turns 37 before the year is out. It seems that age is catching up with the pair, which for Everton has had implications in their first five Premier League games.

The Toffees have already conceded 13 goals in the top-flight this season and must be worrying for Everton fans and management alike. They now have the leakiest defence in the top-flight this season.

Struggling

Jagielka has been one of the most consistent performers for the Toffees over the last few seasons. However this season the England international has looked poor and unsure of himself. His poor form has meant that he has lost his place in the England starting line-up.

There have even been suggestions that Jagielka should also be dropped from the Everton starting line-up. The only position on the pitch that Everton are not well covered in is at centre-half.

Youngster John Stones is an option and was paired with Jagielka when the Toffees kept their only clean sheet of the season at West Brom. Maybe it is time for the youngster to start at the centre of the defence alongside Distin.

The veteran French centre-back says that nobody at Everton should panic about the team’s defensive frailties and that the Toffees will recover their defensive solidarity in the near future.

Changes

Toffees boss Martinez made a number of changes for the game against Crystal Palace and it back-fired. Everton still looked relatively dangerous going forward despite the fact that the likes of Seamus Coleman, Aiden McGeady, Kevin Mirallas and Steven Naismith were all left out of the starting line-up.

Martinez maybe made too many changes and disrupted the momentum that Everton had built-up with consecutive victories over West Brom and Wolfsburg. Hopefully the Spaniard can learn from his mistakes and become a better boss for it.

Needed

Martinez needs to find a solution to Everton’s defensive problems before their season goes awry. The Toffees started the season as contenders for a place in the top four of the Premier League. They are now odds of 8/1 to finish in the Champions League spots.

When on form Everton are very dangerous going forward, even without the sparkling talents of injured starlet Ross Barkley.

However, unusually for Everton it is their defence that is a major concern this season. The Toffees seem to have a strong squad and when everybody is fit should be able to cope with the rigours of all the competitions they are involved in.

At the moment though the Toffees will not enjoy a successful season until that defensive solidarity returns and they stop conceding sloppy goals.

Could defensive lapses cost Everton this season?