Everton lost their unbeaten run in the Premier League on Saturday, and one Chelsea player who didn’t even play helped sum up David Moyes’ mentality.

The Toffees lost 2-0 at Hill Dickinson Stadium, with Pedro Neto scoring a brace. His first came just after the restart, which Everton midfielder James Garner admitted ‘killed us’.

Chelsea found their second through Neto in injury-time, as the ball fell to him from a deflected free-kick. The winger found the far corner after evading Vitalii Mykolenko in a tight area.

It was a disappointing performance from Everton, with fans questioning Moyes over some of the decisions he made in the game. The introduction of Christian Norgaard was particularly baffling given Moyes’ own admission that he is way off being full match sharp right now.

But his reason for starting Merlin Rohl was also a big talking point, and actually it rather summed up his mentality.

David Moyes’ Pep Chavarria fear exposed Everton manager’s reactionary mentality

After the game, Moyes was asked about his decision to start Rohl at right wing against Chelsea, over the likes of Tyrique George and Tyler Dibling. And his answer was rather telling.

He said: “We expected (Chavarria) to start, with his attacking work.

“We thought the best person to work against him was Merlin. That was the reason for that. But Merlin’s played wide right, right-back, different roles for us. I thought he probably did better at right-back because he put in a couple of good crosses for us.”

It is rather embarrassing for Moyes that, in the end, Chavarria didn’t even start the game because he was injured. Had Moyes known this, he surely would have gone for someone like George or Dibling.

But there is an argument to say that perhaps he ought to have done that anyway, instead of fearing the opposition so much. Moyes seemingly deemed the threat of the opposition more important than actually causing damage with his own players, and it was really disappointing to see.

Who knows what might have happened had George started instead of Rohl. But given he has been one of the brightest attacking players in an Everton shirt this season, perhaps the Toffees would have been more threatening. There was also the notion that George would have been extra fired up for the game, since he just left Chelsea to join Everton on a permanent deal. There could have been a sense of wanting to show up his former club.

But it was just another example of Moyes being overly cautious. He feared what Chavarria would bring to the table. This is a player who didn’t even start the first four league games for Chelsea, and has tabled just the one assist in the competition so far.

Perhaps George isn’t yet the best back-tracker. But he undoubtedly provides threat and unpredictability, which would have been useful from the start on Saturday. Realistically, the Toffees barely laid a glove on Chelsea, with Thierno Barry having the best Everton chance in the first-half. His tame header was something we have seen a little too often now.

Everton finished the game with an xG of just 0.58 compared to Chelsea’s 1.76. Yes, their attack is dangerous, but Everton were the home team and it seems there was too much respect for the visitors.

The decision to start Rohl made to look silly because Chavarria didn’t play and the German didn’t offer a great deal as a winger. He was better when he moved to right-back in the second-half, as Moyes said.

The episode just reinforces the idea that Moyes lacks ambition with his selections sometimes, and that he is guilty of operating reactively rather than proactively. And being like this too much surely leads to fewer football matches being won.