Everton's Goalless Draw at Bolton Reveals Striking Issues
Everton’s pre-season stepped up a notch in the Lancashire drizzle, but the scoreboard stayed stubbornly blank. A 0-0 draw at Bolton Wanderers offered David Moyes plenty of running, plenty of structure, and almost no conviction in front of goal.
This was not a night for strikers.
Branthwaite Back, Questions Up Front
The one major positive came before a ball was kicked. Jarrad Branthwaite, back in the No 4 shirt and back from injury, walked into the starting XI and eased through 45 minutes without alarm. For a manager short on good news, that mattered.
Around him, though, the picture looked familiar. Recruitment has stalled, the squad remains thin, and the only senior new signing, Hayden Hackney, stayed out of the action again. Tyler Dibling was also missing with a minor knock, both expected to feature against Stoke City on Tuesday. James Garner is recovering from groin surgery, while Vitalii Mykolenko rejoined the group after the birth of his second child and came on at the break.
Moyes named a side heavy on industry and promise, light on proven cutting edge. What followed underlined that imbalance.
Early Nerves, Missed Margins
Bolton started sharper. They pushed Everton back, worked the ball into good areas and asked early questions of Mark Travers. One long ball from O’Brien briefly turned the game on its head, the Bolton keeper racing out and misjudging a header before clattering into Lewis Dobbin’s replacement up front, Jack Barry. The referee saw a foul by Barry. Everton saw an opportunity wasted.
When Everton did escape their own half, they found little fortune. Merlin Röhl overlapped smartly only for a clear deflection to be missed by the assistant, robbing Everton of a corner. Bolton regained control and Rodríguez curled a warning effort from the edge of the box, Travers watching it carefully wide.
There were flashes. Youssef Chermiti’s role has gone, but Barry tried to fill that central presence. Aznou slid a precise pass into his feet, yet the forward delayed and the chance vanished under a recovering defender. Moments later, Barry’s cross forced a corner, then another, but the deliveries were meek and Bolton cleared without strain.
Tim Iroegbunam, sitting deep, did the dirty work well enough, breaking up play and screening his centre-backs. Around him, the contest grew scrappy. The referee’s tolerance for Bolton’s physical edge irritated the visitors as niggly fouls went unpunished.
Then came the first real glimpse of quality. James Tarkowski stepped out and threaded a superb pass into Dwight McNeil, who whipped in a teasing cross. Barry met it and glanced his header inches wide of the far post. It was a proper centre-forward’s chance, and it should have changed the tone.
Soon after, Röhl fizzed in a brilliant low first-time cross and Barry finished tidily from close range, only for the flag to go up for a marginal offside. Everton had the ball in the net, but not on the record.
Bolton responded by exploiting space behind Aznou, the young full-back recovering well to put off the striker’s shot. At the other end, Aznou combined again with Barry, yet the final ball deserted them. Barry then found Armstrong with a neat pass, received the return and, with the goal in sight, scuffed a tame effort straight at the keeper.
The half ended with Everton finally pushing higher, but the pattern was unmistakable: decent approach play, no incision. The lack of a ruthless streak, whether from the forwards or the midfield, glared from the scoreboard.
Second Half: Beto’s Struggles, More Waste
The second half began with a moment that summed up Everton’s attacking confusion. Barry picked up the ball in an advanced central position with only one defender to beat. The invitation to shoot was obvious. Instead, without looking, he rolled the ball to his left and straight out of play, as if passing to a ghost. The chance died, and so did his evening.
At the other end, Bolton threatened with a firm header that substitute keeper João Virginia’s stand-in, King, had to claw away smartly, Michael Keane doing just enough to disrupt the striker. It was a reminder that, while Everton’s defending looked largely organised, the margin for error remained thin.
Barry’s struggles in possession continued; one particularly soft loss in midfield drew visible frustration. Moyes did not hesitate. On came Beto, tasked with bringing presence and purpose that had been missing.
There were hints. McNeil worked the ball into Röhl, whose low drive across the goalkeeper was pushed away. On the left, George and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall knitted together a promising move, but the cross flew through the box untouched.
Bolton, sensing Everton’s bluntness, rotated heavily around the hour. The game lost rhythm, yet the home side still carved out moments. A shot forced King to turn the ball behind for a corner, and Dewsbury-Hall was cynically hauled back by the shirt, finally drawing a yellow card.
Beto then had his moment – and wasted it. A well-judged ball over the top dropped into his path. The bounce was awkward, but the opportunity was clear. Instead of steadying himself, he lashed wildly, sending the ball high and wide, miles from the target. For a striker of his standing and wage, it was a grim sight.
McNeil tried to lead by example, stepping inside and taking on a shot from distance. It sailed away with the same lack of conviction that had plagued the night. Bolton, buoyed, pushed back and earned another corner off Keane.
Errors crept in. George attempted an ambitious cross-field pass towards McNeil that flew straight out of play. Bolton made more changes, chopping up the flow and denying Everton any sustained pressure.
Still, chances came. George threaded a superb ball into Beto in the box, only for the forward to stumble, lose his balance and then lose the ball. Another promising opening gone, another reason for Moyes to grimace.
From a George free-kick, Tarkowski nodded the ball back across goal, Keane rising to meet it. His header went nowhere near the target. Three more Everton substitutions followed with ten minutes left, fresh legs but the same blunt edge.
Bolton stitched together one final slick move, Mykolenko stretching to cut it out at the cost of a corner, which was cleared. From distance, Malik Olayiwola finally unleashed the sort of effort the game had begged for – cleanly struck, but too close to the keeper. Bolton then broke through the middle and fired into the side netting.
And that was that.
A Workout That Answers Nothing
On paper, a goalless away draw in pre-season can be dressed up as fitness work, shape rehearsal, minutes in the legs. In many respects, this was exactly that. Branthwaite’s return was a major plus. Iroegbunam impressed as a shield. Röhl showed flashes of real quality from midfield. The structure, for the most part, held.
But the night also screamed out a harsher truth. Everton’s forward line, as it stands, is nowhere near sharp enough. Barry’s indecision, Beto’s clumsy finishing, the collective failure to turn promising positions into serious threats – all of it pointed to a glaring need: either serious improvement from within, or new faces, and fast.
Stoke City await on Tuesday. The question is not whether Everton can run; they clearly can. The question is who, in this squad, is going to score the goals that keep Moyes’ season alive.
