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Oumar Niasse celebrates after his second goal in quick succession completed Everton’s turnaround.
Oumar Niasse celebrates after his second goal in quick succession completed Everton’s turnaround. Photograph: Mark Robinson/Getty Images
Oumar Niasse celebrates after his second goal in quick succession completed Everton’s turnaround. Photograph: Mark Robinson/Getty Images

Oumar Niasse scores twice to give Everton victory over Bournemouth

This article is more than 6 years old

The remarkable rise of Oumar Niasse goes on, with a match-winning double here to add to his strike in the League Cup in midweek. The manager who tried to shove him unceremoniously through the exit door will have felt sheepish, to say the least, when his Senegalese substitute turned the latest lacklustre Everton performance around.

Ronald Koeman’s ears must have been burning, if that expression is permissible in response to Twitter abuse, when Everton were trailing 1-0 to Bournemouth in the second half and looking unlikely to climb out of the bottom three. Supporters were rightly pointing out that the team was playing without wingers and looking feeble up front and when Niasse was brought on it appeared more an act of desperation than a likely path to salvation. Koeman admitted it was chiefly to protect the injured Wayne Rooney.

Yet together with his fellow substitute Tom Davies the striker Koeman shunned last season turned the game, coming up with two goals in five minutes, and though Everton still look shaky at least they are moving up the table.

“A win was important today,” a relieved Koeman said. “Everybody knows what it is like for managers, if you lose you are not sure about your job. Oumar was incredible when he came on, when he joined Dominic Calvert-Lewin we showed more aggression. We can use him more. Last season was different, we had Romelu Lukaku.”

It is Bournemouth who remain in the relegation zone after looking capable of winning for much of the game, and might have done had the normally reliable Jermain Defoe taken an opportunity to double their lead. “We had several chances, we looked good on the counter,” Eddie Howe said. “I don’t think we deserved to lose but we could still be pleased with the performance.”

Josh King scores the opener with a low shot past Jordan Pickford in Everton’s goal. Photograph: Mark Robinson/Getty Images

A desperately poor first half would have been completely forgettable but for a couple of penalty claims. Martin Atkinson saw nothing untoward when Gylfi Sigurdsson was pushed over, though he must have felt a little awkward in waving play on after a challenge by Simon Francis on Rooney when the Everton player regained his feet with blood pouring from an eye wound. Replays showed he had been caught by an elbow and while the contact was by no means as savage as that makes it sound, an incensed Rooney could be seen complaining that it was happening all the time. Atkinson could hardly award a penalty in retrospect, but Everton were a man down for most of the rest of the half as medics struggled to close the gash.

It was clear by the interval that both sides were short of attacking ideas. Bournemouth at least had a focus in Defoe but found it hard to supply him. For Everton, Dominic Calvert-Lewin had the beating of Nathan Aké every time the ball was in the air, though that was not often enough for the home side with even Leighton Baines having an off day with his crossing. The real problem for Everton was a lack of creativity, something Sigurdsson was supposed to remedy, yet the club’s record signing found himself pushed out to the left, with Rooney notionally playing on the right. Of all the No10s at Koeman’s disposal it seemed a trifle odd to hand Davy Klaassen the central role.

Pressure on Koeman increased early in the second half when Bournemouth registered their first away goal of the season. Josh King took a direct approach and after leaving Mason Holgate in his wake beat Jordan Pickford with a crisp shot from the edge of the area. Things nearly got worse two minutes later when King ran through the middle to free Defoe. It was the sort of chance the veteran goalscorer usually snaps up with relish, though on this occasion his attempt only found Pickford’s outstretched leg and Everton breathed again.

Koeman threw on Niasse and Davies and though the effect was not immediate the gamble ultimately paid off. Niasse won possession and a sharp return through-ball from Davies set him up for his well-taken first goal and the same combination struck again to deliver the winner five minutes later. Davies’s ball into the box looped up off Steve Cook and came down at the far post, where Niasse outjumped the Bournemouth defence, hooking over the line to make sure.

Much more of this and Roberto Martínez’s judgment might have to be reappraised. Niasse is only playing because Everton failed to satisfactorily replace Lukaku in summer, but by now he has surely done enough to merit a start.

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