U23s: fine 3-0 win over Manchester City

Not a bad watch, these kids. Jose Baxter getting a run out into the bargain.

Glommed onto a great pass from Sambou, took it forward shaking off two defenders to round the substitute 'keeper and slot home. Lovely!

Baines seems to get away from being singled out on here, but he has been way below par for quite a while now. He can't beat a man, his passing has been suspect, set pieces fairly atrocious.

Garbutt would seem to be one who could add some pace down the flanks and provide a quality ball.

I know it will be hard to judge from just over an hour, I'd like to think there is.

I think he wanted to take the dangerous free-kicks but gave way first to Anthony Evans, then had to watch and admire the skill of Luke Garbutt for that excellent second goal.

Pretty good comms from a Citeh bloke. Done all his research. Only query was his statement that Garbutt at 24 was Everton's oldest player. No: Jose Baxter is 25.

77' Dennis Adeniran makes way for Anton Donkor.

Luke Garbutt is another player where the game has passed him by in the last two or three years, Everton paid a lot of money for him as a 17-year-old and he had a very promising start to his Everton career but then his form dipped and he had a couple of injuries plus a loan spell at Fulham that didn't go to well.

He seems to have come into a better period this year so maybe the potential he had earlier is finally starting to show and maybe he could give Leighton a well earned rest in the coming weeks.

Very impressive performance. A proper team performance with everyone playing well, keeping shape and discipline.

City could play all night and they wouldn't find a way through us.

Three very nice goals as well.

Most Everton players were good. However my MotM – the captain Morgan Feeney: I thought he was excellent all night in the air, the timing of his tackles, his general reading of the game, and the way he managed the backline.

Could we hope that Garbutt has actually passed the speed bump by now? He's done the suck, and he now actually starts to look good for the U23s! I liked his performance today!

Feeney was excellent again! I was not at all shocked when he finally got his turn on the substitutes' bench for the first team, at last! We should try to play him soon.

This is a team that knows what it's like to win trophies and win against tough opponents!

The first team is dead to me now, it's all about Unsworth and his group of winners. ;-)

After dismantling his 2016-17 title winning team, he's already put 4 or 5 of the sky 6 to the sword, with practically a whole new team, I think ?

I'm seriously not turning this into an Koeman bashing exercise, I'm merely asking a question that I think affects our club more than we realise.

When is David Unsworth going to get his chance?

As rest assured – if we don't give it him, some Premier League team will.

The man has clearly got what it takes to be a successful Premier League manager, be it with us or another club; this guy has that metal to succeed.

My worries are, if he goes elsewhere for his chance, we lose half of our structure with his workrate, passion, desire and true Everton affinity he has and is instilling into our U23s gone.

We really could miss the boat here.

I still say we should give Unsworth a chance if results do not improve.

I was not so sure about Rhino and thought that the step up to the first team was too big a one to risk. Not anymore; to me he has proven himself to be a fabulous man manager and tactician, gelling his team together and getting them to play for him and the shirt.

Good to see that, should things turn completely sour with Ronald Koeman, we have a ready made replacement.

Very impressive.

When you have a system and the players that fit with that system you get the results and this is against a back drop of us loaning out players of the quality of Liam Walsh, Dowell and Connolly. It is clear Rhino has an eye for talent and playing them to their strengths.

It even seems as though Garbutt has a new lease of life under a coach whose blood runs blue. As outlined above, I hope he gets the chance to coach the first Team soon before somebody comes and steals him away. Seems a no-brainer if things do not change, starting on Sunday.

Are the U23s playing in the same formation as the first team? (Moot point as we don't really know what formation the first team are trying to play.)

If the idea of the Moshiri reshuffle was to ensure that all teams at all levels would basically assume a particular way of playing in order for the younger players to progress almost seamlessly into the next age group, up to and including the first team, then Unsworth's role would seem be pivotal to that idea.

Therefore, it would be counter-productive to move him from the role he is more than capable of performing in order to provide a quick fix for the first-team players, many of whom will leave or retire in the next couple of years anyway.

Of course, not all of Unsworth's charges will make the grade in the next few years but if three or four are successful in nailing down a first-team place in that period of time, David will have done a sterling job and the club will have saved a significant amount of money too.

I would argue that Unsworth's role is to be a maker of players and Koeman's or whoever happens to be first team boss is charged with making a team. Very different job descriptions with very different ways of measuring their success or otherwise.

What we hope not to see is Unsworth making and improving good players and the Manager destroying those players. Carry on David and if the club feels it is right and proper to alter your job description and promote you to the first team, you will do what you've always done, give it 100% and place the fortunes of Everton FC above those of your own. In the meantime, carry on the good work and maybe one day you will get that dream job.

I think Koeman already has been and is a destructive force, but there are many things to think about should it come to a point of moving Unsworth out of his position.

Garbutt took his free kick brilliantly. It really was a peach!

Feeney looked very assured at the back and organised everything very well.

Very promising from the young lads and the coach seems to know what he's doing too!

For anybody that missed the game you can watch it here https://www.facebook.com/mancity/

Anyone know if a naive bad judge of character billionaire has a big ego ? Or is he man enough to act decisively now and admit he got it hopelessly wrong?

Note to self: go with your business instincts instead of listening to buffoons in the next seat, okay Mosh-man???

Unsworth always changes the line-up, move players seamlessly in and out. Last night's line-up had at least 4 changes from the last PL2 game and this has been a feature of the U23s for a while.

Unsworth has his systems, the players obviously know the systems very well and many of them can play different positions within these systems. The system is more apparent when we're defending, they obviously have greater licence to roam, invent, express etc when going forward. There is very little pissing about knocking it around the back or central midfield, they move the ball forward at the first opportunity and have runners hitting the channels and, when needs must, carry the ball – something Beni excels at

The first team is a mess, unbalanced, poorly coached, no discernible system and players so badly out of form (eg, Schneiderlin) and others totally lacking confidence. As much as I would like to see more of the U23s given a chance in the first team, I feel that they too would get consumed by the mess and just become part of it.

Unsworth is clearly a better coach than Koeman... and the sooner the grown-ups realise this, the better.

If Koeman needs to demonstrate to the first team how to execute his fabled pressing game, get them to watch the U23s.

He has bags of charisma and the enthusiasm for the club absolutely shines out of him. He has to be given a chance.

But Unsworth's track record over the past couple of seasons is impressive, and like all professionals he will want to get as high as he can. Now that might mean starting at a Championship club before progressing to a Premier League club.

Now whether he thinks that he might get a crack at the Everton job at some time and he will stay put for another 6 or 12 months. But maybe if a club comes along who will also back him financially he just might be tempted.

Needless to say, appointing him would be a massive shot in the dark but I have seen how he goes about instilling the winners mentality into the U23s (and they play entertaining football), which is something that simply cannot be said about Koeman and Co.

Whatever happens to Koeman, Rhino should be given a chance to step up at some stage.

I grant you there's not many current coaches / managers that have been promoted from the ressies. I don't understand why that's the case.

If only Ronald could say similar about the first team! At least if we do get a good result tomorrow we'll be up among the second group teams – just noticed that Watford have beaten Arsenal 2-1 to go into 4th place.

Unsworth praises Baningime and other U23 players.

And as for the statement "Other chairman will be watching Unsworth closely"!! Really? Why? He's managing a Premier League 2 U23 side, ffs – get real!

I see Liam Walsh has only played 3 games for Birmingham City, early last month – all of which they lost. Not a good start for the lad then, and didn't they just change manager?

Lee Carsley was caretaker I think and did not use him. Steve Cotterill is there now... and the loan is up in January.

The Birmingham Mail says this:

Unfortunately his debut came in an ill-suited No. 10 role at Norwich. He did OK but with six debutants the team wasn’t really functioning.

He was much, much better in a deeper role against Preston though - and while all around him crumbled in the second half he demonstrated a desire to keep possession and withstand the tide.

However, he hasn’t been involved in the last three games – and has just 15 games before he’s due to return to Everton.

Lawrence, I read that interview and loved it; so refreshing.

At the end when he said "We expect to win every game, we're Everton Football Club" just says it all. When was the last time you heard that from an Everton manager, at any level?

I think others need to get real, before it's too late.

The same goes for Connolly and Pennington; neither play but at least make the subs bench.

The only loanee other than Dowell who is getting game time is Joe Williams at Barnsley – starts and finishes pretty much every game.

As for big time managers – there aren't many Portuguese ex-second rate players who can translate around!!!

That would allow him to develop to eventually take over the main job.

Just an idea.