True, but I wasn't thrilled with the other subs. When I saw Ben White warming up on the touch line I was encouraged. When he put on Mosquera instead I was sad. Mosquera is an even more defensive fullback than Timber. It wasn't what I thought we needed while we were struggling to break through their defensive block. I justified it to myself that maybe he was doing that to free up Calafiori on the other side. But, then he took up Calafiori and put on another defensive fullback in Hincapie.

In the end, maybe Zubimendi for Dowman was the attacking change, and the other changes were to balance out attack vs. defense. Still.... I really think we're missing something by not using Ben White, at least sometimes. If he's warming up, surely he's fit enough to play the final 30 minutes, isn't he?

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

Yeah those fullback subs were odd.

Maybe Mikel wanted to stretch the pitch out length-wise? Like, lure Everton's wingers deeper into the final third so they weren't double-marking Saka and Noni (it whoever we played on our wings)? Our wingers could also take advantage of pockets left between their wingers and fullbacks. Seems like an unnecessarily risky move though.