Everton’s spectacular ace leaves them with a big decision to make after a Premier League decision goes their way…
Everton’s wait for a penalty finally came to an end on Saturday.
It had gone on so long – Everton became the only Premier League team not to have been awarded a spot kick months ago – there was almost a cruel inevitably it would be missed.
Sean Dyche later backed Beto’s penalty prowess but there has been a lot of talk since the match about who should have stepped up with regular taker Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the bench.
Here, some of the ECHO’s Blues writers ponder who they would select for the responsibility.
Everton could perhaps be forgiven for being a bit rusty when it comes to penalty-taking given that until Saturday’s game against West Ham United, it had been over 10 months since they were awarded one but for all Beto’s confidence in grabbing the ball before the spot-kick had even been given, I wouldn’t let him take the next one.
Sean Dyche says Everton’s players practice penalties in training and he and his staff monitor who is doing well yet slotting them away when up against your mates at Finch Farm cannot truly replicate game situations, especially when 73 spot-kicks are dished out to every other Premier League club this season before your team got one. To his credit, Beto kept on plugging away and got his goal against the Hammers with a second half header and he was one of the Blues players who slotted in from 12 yards out in the penalty shoot-out against Fulham in December.
That was the night that the wind went out of the sails on Everton’s season as they crashed out of the Carabao Cup having won their previous four Premier League matches but they’d have reached their first semi-final of any kind in eight years if Amadou Onana hadn’t produced such a lacklustre effort when he had the chance to win the tie. You can always be denied by a great save but players at this level should be able to take an orthodox run-up and strike a penalty with conviction.
If he’s on the pitch the next time the Blues get a spot-kick then I’d hand responsibility back to Dominic Calvert-Lewin but, while on international duty England number one Jordan Pickford showed he can strike a mean penalty in a shoot-out, let’s not turn things into a circus by having him trotting up the pitch to take one during a game. If Everton’s number nine is not playing then I’d stay well clear of any gimmicks and tell James Tarkowski to put his laces through it again.
