Everton's Tactical Struggles in Home Defeat to Sunderland
Following this result at Hill Dickinson Stadium, the narrative of Everton’s season tilted sharply. What began as a controlled afternoon – 1-0 up at half-time – ended in a 1-3 home defeat to Sunderland that underlined why the visitors sit 9th and why Everton, in 12th, have never quite escaped mid-table gravity in this 2025 Premier League campaign.
Heading into this game, Everton’s seasonal DNA was clear: competitive but brittle. Overall they had 49 points from 37 matches, with a goal difference of -2, scoring 47 and conceding 49. At home they had been almost perfectly balanced – 26 goals for and 27 against across 19 fixtures, both at an average of 1.4 – but “balanced” here meant as likely to be picked off as to impose themselves.
Sunderland arrived with a similar overall profile but a different emotional tone. They also had 13 wins from 37, but 12 draws and 12 defeats, with 40 goals for and 47 against (goal difference -7). The story was of a side more secure at home than on their travels: at the Stadium of Light they had 23 goals for and 19 against, while away they had managed only 17 goals and conceded 28, averaging 0.9 goals scored and 1.5 conceded on their travels. To walk out of Liverpool with three goals and three points, then, was a statement against type.
Both coaches mirrored each other structurally in a 4-2-3-1, but the way those shapes breathed over 90 minutes told two very different stories of control and adaptation.
Tactical voids and the cost of absences
The team sheets already hinted at fault lines. Everton were without J. Branthwaite, J. Grealish and I. Gueye – three absences that strip away verticality, guile and defensive control.
Without Branthwaite, Sean Dyche’s typical left‑sided dominance in the back line gave way to a pairing of J. Tarkowski and M. Keane, flanked by J. O'Brien and V. Mykolenko. O'Brien, who has already seen red once this season, brings aggression but not Branthwaite’s blend of recovery pace and composure. The result was a back four that looked solid in its starting positions but vulnerable once dragged into wide or transitional spaces.
Higher up, the loss of Grealish hurt Everton’s ability to slow the game, draw fouls and reset attacks. His 6 assists in just 20 league appearances underline how often he has been the bridge between midfield and the final third. In his absence, creativity flowed through K. Dewsbury-Hall and M. Rohl, but with less subtlety and more directness; the “pause” in Everton’s attacks was missing.
I. Gueye’s absence removed a natural screen in front of the defence. T. Iroegbunam and J. Garner formed the double pivot, but where Gueye offers pure ball-winning instincts, this duo is more about work rate and distribution. That nuance mattered once Sunderland tilted the game into transitions.
On the other side, Sunderland’s list of absentees was long but more peripheral to their core identity. D. Ballard, suspended after a red card, is an important centre-back – his 24 blocked shots this season speak to his penalty-box presence – but N. Mukiele and O. Alderete formed a physically imposing pairing that coped well after early wobbles. R. Mundle and B. Traore were also missing, along with goalkeeper S. Moore, yet the spine of the side – R. Roefs, G. Xhaka, E. Le Fée and B. Brobbey – was intact.
Disciplinary trends also framed the contest. Heading into this game, Everton’s yellow card profile spiked between 46-60 minutes and 76-90 minutes, each window accounting for 20.83% of their bookings. Sunderland’s own yellow surge came between 46-60 minutes at 23.38%. That overlap always threatened a chaotic second half, and the game duly swung away from Everton when control and composure were most needed.
Key matchups – Hunter vs Shield, and the engine room
The “Hunter vs Shield” battle was not about a single prolific striker – neither side’s top scorer data is provided – but about how B. Brobbey could test an Everton defence that concedes 1.4 goals per game at home. Brobbey, leading the line in Sunderland’s 4-2-3-1, thrives on early service and quick combinations. With N. Angulo and T. Hume working the half-spaces and E. Le Fée threading passes from the No.10 zone, Sunderland repeatedly targeted the channels either side of Keane and Tarkowski.
Everton’s shield was built around O'Brien and Mykolenko outside, with Tarkowski and Keane inside, and Garner dropping in from midfield. On paper, this was a unit with aerial dominance and experience. In practice, once Sunderland began to find Le Fée between the lines, the back four were forced to step out and turn, exactly where their lack of recovery pace was exposed.
The true centre of gravity, though, lay in the engine room. On one side, Garner – listed as a defender in seasonal data but used here as a deep midfielder – brought volume and range. Across 37 league appearances he has delivered 7 assists and 52 key passes, underpinned by 1,736 completed passes at 87% accuracy, 116 tackles and 56 interceptions. He is Everton’s metronome and their leading yellow-card collector with 12 bookings, a symbol of how much defensive burden he shoulders.
Opposite him stood G. Xhaka and Le Fée, a double axis of control and incision. Xhaka’s 1,753 passes at 83% accuracy and 50 tackles make him Sunderland’s organiser; he also blocked 20 shots this season, a remarkable figure that underlines his defensive positioning. Le Fée, with 5 goals and 6 assists plus 49 key passes, is the creative hinge. He has also won 3 penalties and missed 1, a reminder that his high‑risk, high‑reward style extends to set‑piece pressure moments as well.
For long stretches of the first half, Everton’s structure looked the more coherent. Garner and Iroegbunam recycled possession efficiently, Dewsbury-Hall and Ndiaye drifted into pockets, and Beto occupied the centre-backs. The 1-0 half-time lead reflected that territorial control.
But once Sunderland raised the tempo, the engine room flipped. Xhaka began to dictate from deeper zones, sliding wide to escape Everton’s first line of pressure, while Le Fée found more space as Everton’s attacking midfield three tired. That shift allowed Sunderland to progress the ball quicker into Brobbey and the wide trio, turning the game into a running match that suited the visitors.
Statistical prognosis and tactical verdict
Following this result, the underlying numbers and trends feel brutally coherent. Everton, who had averaged 1.3 goals scored and 1.3 conceded overall, again lived on a knife-edge. Their inability to stretch beyond a one‑goal cushion, coupled with a defence that allows opponents back into games, was punished by a Sunderland side whose away average of 0.9 goals scored was decisively smashed.
From an xG perspective – even without raw figures – the patterns suggest a Sunderland surge after the break: more entries into the box, more shots from central zones, more transitions against a home side forced to chase the game. Everton’s structural reliance on a 4-2-3-1 (used 36 times this season) works best when the double pivot is anchored by a pure destroyer like Gueye and when Grealish can relieve pressure by carrying the ball. Without that triangle, the shape became stretched and vulnerable.
Sunderland’s flexibility across the season – they have used five different formations but leaned on 4-2-3-1 in 20 matches – paid off here. Regis Le Bris kept the base shape but adjusted the roles: Xhaka dropping earlier, Hume and Angulo pushing higher, and Le Fée drifting to overload Everton’s right. With Reinildo Mandava, a defender with one red card this season, holding the left flank with aggression but restraint, Sunderland managed to turn pressure into territory without losing their defensive line.
The disciplinary undercurrent also mattered. Everton’s tendency to collect late yellow cards, especially between 76-90 minutes at 20.83%, mirrored their loss of control in the final phase. Sunderland, whose own yellow peak sits at 46-60 minutes, weathered that storm and emerged with enough composure to close the game out.
Tactically, the verdict is stark. Sunderland showed they can transcend their away averages when the game becomes transitional and when their engine room, led by Xhaka and Le Fée, seizes control. Everton, by contrast, remain a side whose structure is finely balanced on the availability of key individuals. Remove Branthwaite, Gueye and Grealish, and the 4-2-3-1 loses its ballast, turning a narrow lead into a fragile illusion – one that Sunderland ruthlessly shattered in Liverpool.
