Everton were quite frankly awful in the second half against Liverpool in their FA Cup third-round tie on Sunday, and it proved that former manager Marco Silva was completely right with one of his failed summer transfer wishes.The Athletic reported post-match that the Portuguese was keen to bring a strong and powerful central midfielder to Goodison Park during the 2019 transfer window, and was keen on then-Lyon star Tanguy Ndombele and a player he worked with at Watford previously in Abdoulaye Doucoure.That failed however and was presumably before they eventually signed Jean-Philippe Gbamin on August 2, although the jury is still very much out on whether he can fulfil the same sort of box-to-box role as the aforementioned duo can, given he is a defensive midfielder or centre-back by trade and injury has hampered his season – he has made two appearances thus far.With both he and Andre Gomes once again missing for the trip to Anfield at the weekend, new boss Carlo Ancelotti was left with a choice of Fabian Delph, Tom Davies, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Morgan Schneiderlin to fill the two midfield berths.The experienced Italian went with the latter pair, but it proved to be a decision that backfired after the break against Jurgen Klopp's men especially, with Curtis Jones, Adam Lallana and Pedro Chirivella getting the better of the duo, which saw Sigurdsson taken off in the 63rd minute.Watch Everton Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

It was essentially an U23 midfield and Lallana, yet the Everton duo never looked to have the strength or poise to win the battle in the centre of the park, and it was one of the reasons why the visitors paid the price.

Taking a look at Schneiderlin's 'contribution' during the build-up to Jones' winning goal only further emphasises the point.

In fact, while Everton have some neat and tidy smaller players in the middle such as Davies and Delph, they don't have that powerful box-to-box presence that the likes of Ndombele and Doucoure would add.

Of course the former eventually ended up joining Tottenham instead but has been hampered by injury too, while Doucoure has two goals in 20 Premier League appearances in 2019/20.

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Not overly impressive, but they are still both a style of player who would have brought something different that was required to this Everton team.

Silva was spot on, then.

In other Everton news, Dominic King's shocking Liverpool vs Everton stat shows the mammoth task facing Ancelotti...