Manchester United potential still not realised as Everton do more with less | Richard Jolly

Where Rafael Benítez has built a team greater than the sum of its parts, Ole Gunnar Solskjær lacks a coherent plan

Lewis Dobbin and Charlie Whitaker were veterans of a combined total of one minute’s senior football for Everton. They were the attacking options on Rafa Benítez’s bench. Their Manchester United counterparts were Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and the lesser-spotted Donny van de Beek, whose £35m fee made him £35m costlier than Andros Townsend, who earned Everton a point.

Dobbin was Everton’s second substitute. In a sense, that rendered him their Ronaldo, even if 790 career goals separate them. The comparisons may end there, and Whitaker remained on the bench with the 37-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Andy Lonergan, making up the numbers as an ambush was expertly executed by the last men standing. Or, in the case of the relentless Townsend and Demarai Gray, the last running. Strength in depth for United could not overcome a formidable gameplan. Gray, signed for £1.7m, was the finest player on show. Austerity has been the mother of reinvention for Everton.