Everton full-back Lucas Digne let Carlo Ancelotti down by producing a performance that was as bad, if not worse, than Robin Olsen’s against Manchester United in Saturday night’s 3-3 draw.
The Toffees salvaged a point in the dying embers at Old Trafford when Dominic Calvert-Lewin slotted home his 17th goal of the season in all competitions, to record strikes in back-to-back Premier League fixtures for the first time since October.
Scott McTominay had appeared to seal the win for the Red Devils when Olsen seemed to slip when scurrying a couple of yards across his line to deal with the midfielder’s header.
McTominay’s goal was not the only time that Olsen struggled, either, with the Sweden international unable to replicate his midweek excellence against Leeds United.
Instead, Olsen was rooted to the spot when Bruno Fernandes’ perfectly placed strike sailed over his head in first-half stoppage-time, caught unaware by the dipping nature of the Portuguese maestro’s shot.
The AS Roma loanee’s blushes were spared thanks to Calvert-Lewin’s late equaliser, poking home Michael Keane’s flick-on following Digne’s deep free-kick into David de Gea’s box.
Digne had come close to causing the home side trouble with his deliveries moments earlier, only to find Marcus Rashford back defending. And while a shot from the £30m-rated gem rattled the woodwork in the final stages, De Gea would argue that he always had that covered.
Yet scoring a first goal of the season would only have seen Digne atone for a difficult performance, having struggled to match his eye for a cross with any real accuracy or defensive support against Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Mason Greenwood’s adventurous runs.
Digne ended the Old Trafford affair with SofaScore’s fourth-lowest match rating by any player who started for either side at 6.3 out of 10, marking his worst performance in a Premier League fixture since 10-man Everton lost 2-0 at Southampton in October.
His influence waned in the second-half, and he ended the day having only managed to find a teammate with one of his eight attempted crosses. On average this season, Digne has found a royal blue shirt with 1.8 deliveries into the box a game and with a 24% success rate.
The Frenchman further performed below his usual standards defensively having offered no successful tackles, interceptions or blocked any shots. He was also dribbled past once and made only one clearance, compared to his seasonal scores of 2.1 tackles, 1.0 interceptions and 2.5 clearances while being dribbled past 1.3 times a game.
Again below his usual standards, Digne won just 20% of his ground duels having lost four of his five contests compared to an average 47% success rate, while Wan-Bissaka won five of his seven, McTominay won four of his six and Greenwood won five of nine as the trio locked down United’s right-hand side.
With Digne enjoying little success on Everton’s left-wing both offensively and defensively, he ultimately let Ancelotti down on a night where the Toffees could have moved to within five points of their opponents with two games in hand. Yet, instead, they now trail by eight points and have lost pace in the race for the top-four.
AND in other news, Carlo Ancelotti faces a key Everton call to unlock an £18m-rated gem’s max potential…
