Everton's Attacking Concerns Deepen in Goalless Draw Against Bolton

Everton’s pre-season moved a few miles up the road and several notches up the concern scale as David Moyes watched his side labour to a goalless draw at Bolton Wanderers – a 90‑minute reminder of just how much work, and how many reinforcements, this squad still needs.

The short trip into Lancashire brought one major positive: Jarrad Branthwaite, wearing the No 4 shirt, back in the starting XI and looking over the worst of his injury troubles. Beyond that, it was thin gruel.

Hayden Hackney, the solitary new signing, remained absent. Tyler Dibling, also nursing a minor knock, sat it out as well, both expected to be involved against Stoke City on Tuesday. James Garner is recovering from groin surgery, while Vitalii Mykolenko rejoined the group after missing last week for the birth of his second child and came on at the break.

On a warm pre-season afternoon, it was everything around those subplots that will have bothered Moyes.

Branthwaite back, but Everton blunt

Bolton started on the front foot, pinning Everton back and forcing the visitors to defend deep. Early on, O’Brien clipped a ball forward for Lewis Dobbin Barry to chase, tempting the home goalkeeper into a rash dash from his box. The keeper misjudged the header and collided with Barry, but the referee penalised the Everton forward.

That set the tone. Half-chances, frustration, and a sense that Everton were always one pass away from doing something meaningful without ever quite getting there.

Merlin Röhl overlapped smartly on the right and appeared to win a corner, only for the assistant to miss a clear Bolton touch. The home side quickly resumed their grip, and Rodríguez whipped an effort from the corner of the area that had Mark Travers watching closely.

When Everton did stitch something together, it usually involved Youssef Chermiti Aznou and Barry. Aznou slipped a lovely pass into Barry’s feet, only for the striker to hesitate instead of hitting it first time, allowing a defender to smother the chance. Moments later, Barry’s cross was turned behind for a corner. A short routine yielded another flag-kick, but both deliveries were meek and Bolton cleared without alarm.

In midfield, Tim Iroegbunam anchored well, snapping into tackles and screening the back four. He needed to. The referee allowed plenty of contact from Bolton, and Everton’s players did not always get the same leniency.

Bolton came close when a header drifted just wide with Travers scrambling. At the other end, Everton finally carved out a move that looked like the real thing. James Tarkowski stepped in, strode forward and picked out Dwight McNeil with a raking pass. McNeil’s first-time cross was superb, Barry’s header just inches wide of the far post.

The pressure finally told – or so Everton thought. Röhl drilled a brilliant low ball across the six-yard box and Barry finished crisply, only to be denied by a marginal offside flag. It was the one moment where Everton’s attacking play carried conviction, and it didn’t count.

Bolton then got in behind Aznou, who recovered well to put off the striker’s shot. The full-back and Barry combined again down the left but the final ball deserted them. Barry later exchanged passes with Armstrong, who teed him up on the edge of the box. Again, the finish was tame, rolled straight back to the keeper.

By the interval, Everton had inched higher up the pitch, but the pattern was clear. The build-up had some structure. The penalty area had none. There was no cutting edge, either from the centre-forward or the supporting cast.

Second-half changes, same old problems

Moyes shuffled his pack at the break: Travers made way for King in goal, Mykolenko replaced Aznou, and there were further changes across the pitch as the minutes ticked by. The script, though, barely changed.

Early in the second half, Barry produced the kind of moment that makes coaches wince. In an advanced position with only one defender between him and goal, he declined the obvious shot. Without looking, he rolled the ball left, straight into empty space and out of play. The ghost of Alan Ball would have been the only man to reach it.

Bolton responded with a sharp headed effort that forced King into a fine save, Michael Keane doing just enough to disrupt the striker. Barry, meanwhile, was far too easily dispossessed in midfield, and Moyes had seen enough. On came Beto, tasked with bringing some presence and purpose to the front line.

There were flashes. McNeil worked the ball infield and fed Röhl, whose low drive across the keeper was parried away. On the left, George and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall combined neatly, but the resulting cross flashed across the six-yard box with no one gambling.

As the hour approached, Bolton made a cluster of changes, yet Everton still could not take control. A simple ball over the top dropped for Beto, only for the striker to misread the bounce and lash his effort high and wide. It was a horrible finish, and it summed up the afternoon.

King had to push a Bolton shot behind for a corner, and Dewsbury-Hall was cynically hauled back by the shirt to halt a counter, earning a yellow card for the defender. McNeil then tried to take responsibility from distance, but his shot was as wayward as those before it. Bolton sensed the looseness and pressed on, winning another corner off Keane.

George attempted an ambitious cross-field pass towards McNeil, but it sailed over him and out of play. Bolton answered with another raft of substitutions, further breaking the rhythm.

When George threaded a superb ball through for Beto, it looked the perfect chance for redemption. Instead, the forward stumbled, lost his footing and the ball, and the opening vanished. For a highly paid Premier League striker, it was a painful watch.

From a George free-kick, Tarkowski headed the ball back across goal, only for Keane to completely misdirect his header, nowhere near the target. With 10 minutes left, Moyes sent on three more substitutes, including Olayiwola, as legs tired and the game drifted.

Bolton pieced together one last slick move, Mykolenko stretching to cut it out at the cost of a corner that Everton cleared. At distance, Malik Olayiwola finally produced a strike worth noting, a clean hit from range that forced the keeper into a straightforward save. Bolton then broke through the middle and fired into the side-netting.

And that was it. No late surge, no breakthrough, just the whistle and a scoreline that felt entirely in keeping with the performance.

A workout that exposes the gaps

On paper, a 0-0 away in pre-season is harmless enough. In reality, this was a training exercise that underlined the scale of Everton’s attacking problem.

Branthwaite’s return, Iroegbunam’s discipline, Röhl’s bright moments and Mykolenko’s steady cameo were positives. The rest of the afternoon shone an unforgiving light on a forward line short of confidence, conviction and, at times, basic execution.

Moyes remains hamstrung by a thin squad and a recruitment drive that has yet to deliver beyond Hackney. The structure is there, the organisation is there. The goals are not.

With Stoke City up next and the season creeping into view, the question now is stark: will improvement on the training ground be enough, or will Everton need those “new faces” sooner rather than later just to stay ahead of trouble?