Former England forward, Garry Birtles, has slammed Alex Iwobi and his teammates’ atrocious defending in the lead-up to Brentford’s goal in the 1-1 draw with Everton at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday, but is particularly irked by the Nigeria winger’s role in the howler.

Anthony Gordon scored the first goal for Everton in the 24th minute with a well-placed left-footed strike. Vitaly Janelt equalised in the 84th minute after a corner-kick for the home team – an easy tap-in when Kean Lewis-Potter flicked the ball off the corner-kick swung into the box by Mathias Jensen.

While speaking live on the world feed match commentary about the 200
22/23 Premier League matchday 4 game, as quoted by Goodisonnews.com, Birtles chided Iwobi and his teammates’ defending.

“I tell you what, that defending was abysmal, absolutely abysmal. Look at this, how many blue shirts are there? There’s the flick, who’s picking up (who)? Look at Iwobi, stood there not looking. This is scandalous defending,” Birtles remarked.

“It looked offside there but Iwobi, he’s just stood there look, what’s he doing!? How many blue shirts can you see there? Four in a line with no red and white shirts there. One man in there, scores a goal this is shocking.

“Pickford’s gone mad and rightly so. Pickford’s still going absolutely berserk at his defenders… Iwobi was just looking at nothing but there were four teammates also doing similar. Nobody picked anybody up, all of them were like statues, and it was just a simple tap-in.

“It’s a flick on, then somebody else picks up. Nobody was watching what was going on whatsoever, and I think that’s what’s annoyed Pickford so much.”

Iwobi has made five appearances in all competitions for Everton this season and has registered one assist.

He has scored 10 goals in 58 appearances for the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

Everton are currently 17th in the Premier League with two points after matchday four.


Source: https://www.completesports.com/birtles-slams-iwobi-teammates-poor-defending-in-everton-1-1-draw-at-brentford/