Beckford simply isnt good enough. He wasn't even the best striker in League One last season. Both Grant Holt and Rickie Lambert out scored him last season.

What annoys me is that all fucking summer I've been hearing how Liverpool are in so much debt. The banks might take control, the administrators are knocking on the door. And yet they bought another new player today for £11 million. Taking their total spending this summer past £22 million.

And yet the only new player who Everton have this season who actually looks like getting some first team football is a free fucking transfer from League One!!!

League One's third best striker on a free!!!

Might explain why Everton are currently in the relelgation zone.

To be honest I'm worried about Beckford, he is quick and may have an eye for goal but in the Prem league so much is about first touch, look at the difference when Saha came on.

But lets give the lad a chance, I aint given up on him.

We did not have the run of the ball again today. It happens. This is nothing new and in 3 months all the moaners will be finding something new to go on about.
We were by far the better side again today, be patient.
Some people need to learn the art of patience............................................................even if it is nine years and counting!!!

We just couldn't finish. 19 corners, was it? And 67% of the possession but nothing to show for it.

I am quite confused as to why we're keeping Yakubu and Yobo. I like both players but they serve no purpose. Yakubu is a 3rd string striker who doesn't play any other position. Yobo is our 4th center back and quite frankly, it would be more useful to give Shane Duffy some experience than have Yobo on the books. Again, I like both guys. They have worked hard and been servants to the club but we could sell them and make 10 mil easily. Use that to buy a striker (who can stay fit for a whole season) and then maybe we won't see games like we did today.

Coleman looked decent down the right. He looked kind of lost off the ball but on the ball he looked good. Could be a solution to the right wing problem.

As far as I can discern Moyes has very little scope to wheel and deal in terms of having a non-existent transfer budget. If Saha is not delivering (and he has been below par for quite a while), I see Yakubu as being our only viable alternative; he's the only proven goalscorer we have to bring in, and such being the case, I don't see any alternative to giving him a run. I think people have been too hasty in writing this guy's Everton obituary

To be fair to Beckford, it's hard for one isolated striker upfront who has to run wide just to get the ball.

Moyes doesn't know what to do with Strikers at at the moment they all leave Goodison for a lot less than we paid for them.. JB was free I suppose and don't say we made a profit on Marcus Bent. We splassed good mony on AJ, Beattie & Yak. Will Yak also leave for half on what we paid for him and go into a sharp career dive. Give Jermaine some flack, Moyes has a good record of ruining strikers.

sorry should read, give Jermain some slack.

Those a some fairly distorted figures you?ve got there Dick. Sure, they may have spent £22 million but with Riera, Benayoun and (almost certainly) Mascherano heading out of the club, their overall investment so far this summer has been approximately sod all.

Good strikers cost money Peter, and we don't have any.

Apart from the Yak who got 20 goals in a season before he got injured, those on your list came through the academy or cost relatively next to nothing.

Financially we are going backwards, making it all the more difficult to keep going forwards on the pitch (metaphorically!).

I like Yobo, but as the board cant/wont put any money into the club Moyes has to start wheeling and dealing, I'd rather have 1 right winger with pace than a good 4th choice centre half. Other clubs do it all the time so if Moyes chooses to go with the current squad he should take the blame if things dont turn out well given the parts of the squad we are clearly lacking in. My bet is though he'd sign a midfielder who can play right midfield or centre midfield because we only have about 7 of them

Three Premier League games played and one goal scored - it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what our biggest problem is. Moyes doesn't make any secret of this yet he seems incapable of finding a way to bring in some class upfront. A free transfer from League One is not the answer no matter how good Beckford's scoring record was in that league. When i say he can't find a 'way' of bringing in someone with better credentials, why has he not explored the loan market? Surely there are players of genuine quality out there who other european clubs are willing to let go ie Hatem Ben Arfa, Craig Bellamy - they are just two examples.

Chris,

He tried to get Bellamy on loan but was told 'we could not afford him'.

These questions have to be directed at the board IMO, who have managed to come up with even less money this summer than ever before.

It's scandalous.

In Beckfords defence, not just today but in all the premeir league games, he's had no service what so ever, he's had no clear cut chances carved out for him at all from what i can remember.

Today for 50+ mins he played, he got nothing, not a chance and then Saha comes on and gets 3 good ones, maybe more and doesnt hit the back off the net, i bet Beckford was watching from the bench and wishing he got just one or 2 of them, we moan about Beckford but Saha came on, got good chances and couldnt score, and he's supposedly one of our best strikers and on his day one of the best in the league (yeah right!).

How people can judge Beckford when he hasnt had a sniff in front of goal is beyond me, yeah his 1st touch might not be the best but sometimes he can do the one touch link up play very well and he's got the movement and pace but he just isnt getting the service!.

I could understand people having a dig at him and things if he was constantly fluffing chances or not converting em but he isnt even getting any chances cos were giving him absolutely fuck all. How can you judge a striker if he hasnt been created the chances to show his finishing or goalscoring credentials at this level, give the lad a chance for fuck sake and reserve judgement until he does get the breaks and chances!.

My main concern is is that we have a RW problem and Moyes must know that but he isnt addressing it, it needs sorting and if we havent got the money to do so then get rid of whatever players we can do with out and fetch some money in to sort the problem out, cos playing the likes of Rodwell, Osman and even Bily there isnt the answer!.

Maybe having an out an out winger on the right might sort out are creative problems in the final third, signing a winger or maybe someone like Donovan would give us balance and pace and some much needed threat down our right and that could be the difference for us, im sure with a better balanced midfield and a decent RW'er, a bit of pace and creativity would create the chances for our strikers to start converting.

Beckford is a striker that has never played close to this level for more than a couple of FA Cup matches. He probably has a fair degree of ability but we cannot wait a season or two until he reaches a level capable of playing at this level.

Having said that, he cannot learn playing in the current formation. He needs a Saha or Yakubu playing beside him so that he can watch them and learn from them and hopefully pick up the layoff and knock dowm from them. He has so much to learn about holding up the ball, releasing free players and movement off his marker. Play up front on his own will not help this develop.

John McLoughlin *10, i agree with you, although im not a Yobo fan and think he should be sold to help fund a RW signing. And i agree with you that if Moyes is happy to go with what weve got when clearly we are still very weak at RW then if we fall short again then he's to blame for not irradicating the problem we all seem to see apart from him!.

Chris Sillet *11, i agree with you too, although i dont think for one minute Beckford was brought in to solve the problem, he was brought in as a chance and to add to the competition and with him being free, he was definitely within our budget, but we need to give Beckford time and a chance and we need to stop expecting too much from him cos lets face it, he isnt our number one striker and he as come from league 1 so he's not going to score every week just cos he banged em in for fun down there!. In fact, it would help if we created something for him so we could see what he can do but at the moment, he's getting nothing.

Your spot on about Moyes moaning about our final third and us not having a cutting edge, if he nows were a bit short then why isnt he scouring the loan market to try and sort this problem out?. I know we tried for Bellamy but what about the likes of Santa Cruz from City, Robbie Keane from Spurs, Huntelaar from Milan now that they've got Ibrahimovic, ive even seen on SSN that Stoke are in talks to loan Gudjohnsen from Monaco, why arent we looking into these posibilities if Moyes knows we need something up top?!.

I'll be seriously pissed off if we dont do anything in the market from now and until tuesday tea time when the window closes cos we need something on the right wing, some more creativity coming from midfield and we could do with another striker IMO.

Aidy

"I know we tried for Bellamy but what about the likes of Santa Cruz from City, Robbie Keane from Spurs, Huntelaar from Milan now that they've got Ibrahimovic, ive even seen on SSN that Stoke are in talks to loan Gudjohnsen from Monaco, why arent we looking into these posibilities if Moyes knows we need something up top?!."

WE
HAVE
NO
MONEY!

Simple.

Just to clarify what I said earlier, I'm not saying Beckford was a bad move or that we should get rid of him. He just isn't good enough yet. I hope that changes and I think he is worth what we're paying him but as of this afternoon, he is not of the quality we need up front.

Brendan, *16
"There?s always money available, it?s not much I have to say this season. ?We?ve made a few transfers and if the manager found someone he really, really wanted that was within a price range ? or if he maybe did a bit of wheeler dealing."

Direct quotes from Mr Kenwright himself. Surely theres enough money to fund a couple of loan signings atleast?

Chris

"Surely theres enough money to fund a couple of loan signings atleast?"

You would have thought so. But like I said above,Moyes himself said that he wanted to take Bellamy on loan, and was told that we could not afford it.

Draw you own conclusions.

We may not have any money to sign a striker, but we are paying the wages of several who simply appear to be either surplus to requirements or just not cutting it at the present time. Louis Saha since signing his contract extension has contributed exactly what ? Yakubu is obviously unfit, still suffering the effects of his career threatening archillies injury. Anichebe has not fully recovered from his Kevin Nolan inflicted damaged knee, James Vaughan has the acumalitive effect of too many injuries and too little development. Which leaves us, Jermaine Beckford, Gueye and Silver. Three games, one point and one goal the stats speak for themselves

Lets give the lad a bit more than 2 games to prove himself to be fair. Though I do think it's a bit of a worry if he's our first choice striker.

To be honest, although this may be a bit early to say again, I don't think Bily is up to standard, and he'd be the one I'd look to ship out if we wanted to free up some funds to sign a right-midfielder/striker

Brendan, if you believe what the papers say, allegedly Man City wanted a rival Premier League club to pay all of Bellamy's reported £90k a week wages but were prepared to cover basically all of it if he agreed to join Cardiff. Only Chelsea and maybe Man Utd in the whole league could cover that cost. There are players out there that would fit into our pay structure and would incur a small loan fee ? remember a certain Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar?

You could be right there Chris, in which case I'm looking forward to someone being brought in before 5pm on Tuesday!

Unfortunately though, I suspect that the strikers on Aidy's list are all on a similar wage to Bellamy, and would have to take a significant pay cut to come to us, making it unlikely that it would happen.

But you never know.

Beckford will score goals if given the right service. The simple fact is, most of you probably don't have the first clue about him as a player and have maybe seen him once or twice ever before he signed for Everton. One time today, just once, was the ball put where he likes it... in behind, and when it was, he raped James Collins for pace and whipped a cross in.

You either want your striker to score goals, or you don't. Jermaine isn't a link man, he is a goalscorer... he lives on the shoulder. Give him proper service and he will score bucket loads. How is he going to get the service from the likes of Cahill and Fellaini though, when they can't pass water?

I think what Everton actually need up front to satisfy the mob of baying idiots is Roy of The Rovers.

We are 1 down against a team that recently lost a key player under a cloud of acrimony and minus a long time manager who jumped ship in bitter reprisal, a team that had been on the recieving end of a few hidings... and what do we do? We play with a very isolated striker who, at the slightest sign of danger, even he is hauled back for defensive duties.

The experiment with Rodwell on the right struggled to make any kind of impact and was an abject failure. It does make one wonder if this kind of tactical change is practised at Finch Farm.

In his post-match interview, Moyes said he was going to bench Jack at half-time. If that is the case, why in hell's name did he wait another 25 minutes to do it? The lad suffered injury during that 25 mins action and now he may miss a few games for club and country. Another example of Davy the ditherer perhaps?

Brendan, the reason we couldn't afford Bellamy is that City wouldn't help out with his wages, they wanted us to pay the lot and he's on something like £85/90k a week, that's what we couldn't afford; they wouldn't help out a rival Premier League club!.

But they have helped Cardiff out cos they're not a threat to City and he wanted to go to Cardiff and Mancini wanted rid.

The names I mention I'm talking about loan deals, surely we could afford and broker a deal for any of those, IF they would be willing to loan us them. Santa Cruz and Keane are probably long shots thinking about it now cos they wouldn't want to loan to a rival and City won't help out with wages, well they wouldn't with Bellamy so I'm guessing it will be the same with Santa Cruz?!

I admit it was a strange decision to pick Beckford ahead of Saha unless Saha is carrying a knock. Saha, I thought, stepped up his game from his previous efforts ? he has real talent when fit, I would stick with him. Same with the Yak, we need him fit again.

I would've preferred Moyes to have played Arteta out on the right and have Jack and Fellaini in the middle. I know that Arteta dictates games better from the middle of the park but he is more experienced out wide than Rodwell.

We were very unlucky against Villa... but the goals and the 3 points will come... and hopefully we won't be playing catch up as badly as last season.

I wouldn't mind giving Santa Cruz a chance if we can get him. Apart from that, we have real talent in midfield ? so much so that Cahill might find himself on the bench soon if we can find a right sided midfielder. I don't care about the stick for saying this but I am looking forward to seeing Anichebe fit again... we have missed his power, pace and directness.

Asking a League One striker to play up top on his own from the word go, surely it's not just me seeing this but the blame must come back to the feet of the manager! We have an abundance of poor striking talent at the club, and who brought them all in?

Beckford is no better than Vaughan yet gets the nod ahead of him. Moyes is clueless and tactically inept, end of! Thanks for steadying the ship, but move on!

Sell Bily and Yobo if we want to wheel and deal. Also cash in on either Vaughan or Anichebe and we've got that £10 mill to spend.

Bily's 25 to be fair and will clearly never cut it on the wing for me and we really don't need another central player. The goals he's scored will keep his value close to the £9/10 mill we spent on him and we could effectively swap Bily and a Vaughan, for example, for Donovan or another right winger, or a striker. We could even sell Osman or Yak if we had to. I think we could raise £16 mill on transfer fees which could get Donovan in, add a striker and maybe more.

It will never happen, I know... but, in the present situation, I'd like to see some change. Keep the great players, and in terms of the more average ones, out with the old and in with the new.

Spot on, Aidy #13 and Neil #24. The only other time Beckford got a chance to run at the Villa defence, Dunne shat himself and hauled him to the ground, promptly receiving a yellow card.

To me, Beckford looks like he could be a danger in a two-man attack. He is however not good enough to play the lone striker role.

As we play 1 up front, it is essential that the forward we pick can hold the ball up and bring the midfield into play. Beckford's first touch is woeful and as such he cannot fulfill this role. Our 1 striker must be able to play with his back to goal, Beckford prefers to play facing the goal.

As I said, I think he could be useful as a pairing but we only play 2 strikers when we are chasing a game and as such I believe he should be on the bench, certainly for the time being.

Regarding transfers I have said it before, I firmly believe Moyes has been too stuborn about not selling someone. In my opinion, we have Jagielka, Heitinga, Rodwell, Fellaini who would all command a good fee. We will rarely pick all 4 in the same side if ever. One should have been sold to fund Donavan and a striker.

Personally, and I know I will be slated for this, I can't believe we turned down £16M for Jagielka. Good player as he is, that money could have been better spent on other areas of the team and I don't believe playing Heitinga at CB instead of Jags would weaken our side.

31st of August today so all this talk of transfers is about to become a pointless exercise.

Dave,

If its the 31st August today could you tell me what horses won all the races on the 30th August - I'm just interested that's all ...

1 goal in 3 games, Beckford as our new striker. The goal this season - Champions League......Do me a favour!

Kunal Desai

I have read a few of your recent posts and feel that you must have stopped taking your medication. Now just remember, you are an Everton fan; stop getting excited ? it won't do you any good.

Just calm down, take a few deep breaths, that's it. Now come on, stop all that silly dreaming, you won't win the league, that's just silly. You must make sure you don't forget your meds again, all this excitment might just kill you...

Craig was on £300k per month at Man City, who are now still paying half of his wages whilst Cardiff are stumping up the other £150k...

The same deal was not offered to Everton, probably because we mugged them with Lescott and we're a threat to 4th place...

I just though I'd post a little fact, among a lot of bullshit ...

Well, Dean, Dunal won't be the only one needing his meds. In fact, every time I look at how clueless Moyes is and our shite right wing, I feel like doing a bloody Robert Enke myself!

He is 3rd rate from the 3rd level of English football. Crap crap crap.

Dean - Yes perhaps iIve not taken my medication:) However, like you say in one of your earlier posts about being patient and we'll be alright come 3 months time. Well at least you're happy to accept mediocrity ? I'm certainly not. So you're happy to have a shit start to the season and then start playing catch up only to finish 8th come the end of the season, are you? Fair play mate. Last season Moyes had an excuse with all the injuries, what are the excuses this time around???

Beckford has not exactly set the Premier League alight, but isn't that expecting rather a lot from him? I don't think the obsession that Moyes has with 4-5-1 does Beckford any favours at all. If he was played alongside Saha then I think he would benefit from the experience and so would the team.

I fail to get excited when I read/hear that Everton are interested in this or that striker. It is for the simple reason that Moyes always plays 4-5-1 so it's a case of which strikers who will be on the bench. Look at some of the Moyes signings that have not worked out/not lasted many seasons at Everton. The majority are strikers ? the tactics that Moyes seeems to like the most call for playing a lone striker. Not every striker can adapt to that formation. Would Bellamy if he had come been employed as the sole striker in a 4-5-1 formation? We have good strikers ? the problem is we don't have a manager who knows how to get the best out of them.

Pienaar has come in for stick due to the length of his contract negotiations. Think back to how long it took Moyes to agree his deal!! They say that example is the best from of leadership. It is time for Moyes to step up to the plate and take responsibility. He is the one who decides the tactics. My fear is that he is starting to believe the publicity. It doesn't matter how good a manager you are, you are not above criticism ? Ferguson and Wenger understand that.

Early days yet for JB.

We knew we were'nt getting a player with Rooney like touch but one with pace and hopefully the ability to finish. He's had few chances so far (unlike Saha) so let's hold off on judgement.

The fact that we went 1-0 down didn't help either as I think Beckford will profit when teams have to come out to attack us leaving more space at the back.

First of all, I think Beckford is a good solid player. That's not our problem. The problem is: whether to play 2 strikers or 1? I think this problem would be different if we didn't have Cahill.

If we didn't have Cahill then we probably would be playing with 2 strikers. He is limited with his feet and only seems to come into the game at set pieces. Don't get me wrong, I think he has tremendous skills and should be in our starting team. But where should he fit in and how much does that change our other positions?

I don't think he's very good at all.

This is not a recently developed opinion.