It's not rocket science

Another excellent write-up, only one comment – was any corner hit to the near post?

Although I didn't go to the match, Paul, all corners seemed to be hit to the far post, and mostly won by our tall players.

Gerry, it was immediately obvious the team had been told to hit the corners long. But after two or three, there was one knocked short – wise to mix it up.

Thanks, Paul,

What a change, and a great team performance. I would just like to add a few words about Neal Maupay who was fully wound up when he came on and I wonder if that was pre-planned? He was disruptive and upset the Arsenal players which looked to me what he had been told to do.

I cannot see him making it as a striker with us and wonder if he could be considered as a midfield player as he reminds me of Tom Davies, but I would expect him to be able to chip in with a goal or two which may be vital in the weeks to come.

As always, a great assessment, Paul.

Can't disagree with too many of those player assessments. Maybe a bit harsh on Pickford. Coady absolutely saved us with his instinctive anticipation.

I too was surprised at Arsenal. I think Man City will catch them. And overtake them.

They were toothless (says us). We were organised and in their faces. They didn't like it despite the Ref's best efforts to support them and help them.

But the manager was having none of it. That 4th official must still have earache.

Two things under Frank I constantly complained of was lack of inspiration and tactically having too many players behind the ball and therefore limited options to pass forward which put the player on the ball under pressure particularly affecting Gueye.
Dyche has addressed these issues and I only wish we had made this change after the Bournemouth debacle.

Everton scented blood, sure as hell the crowd did. Brilliant summary Paul, and when Everton got the corner, I turned around to the seats behind me and told my Godson to pick my youngest son up.

It’s an old ritual, and something I used to do to my godson, when I could pick him up! and for anyone believing in “Goodison magic” it’s definitely helped bring Everton many goals over the years!

I turned around and said “pick him up lad - pick him up now if you want to see an Everton goal” and to see him at the end with my son on his shoulders, was beautiful and definitely what watching Everton, should always be about! If only. (To those who were definitely not missed, Don’t come back, you dirty, deceitful, lying, self serving nepotistic phoney bastards)

Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t always been good, the argument after he was blaming his cousin, for Southampton scoring, only happened a few weeks ago. “It’s his fault, he shouldn’t be sitting in my seat” before storming off, and then coming back shaking his head, and blaming his young cousin for their goal, would have been funny at most other times.

Some people call it toxic, I know what they mean, but I call it love myself, and yesterday proved this, because when “Rocket Science”, was replaced by common sense simplicity, and sheer hard graft, there was always only going to be one winner.

Jay, I think Frank tried to be too clever with his tactics and the players became very confused or simply didn’t buy into them. It was good when it did work ie 3-0 vs Palace but it was all too infrequent.

Gerry #1 and Brent #2. Thanks for nice comments. You're right about the corners. I meant more the fact that they were all inswingers, no outswingers at all, but fair shout they weren't aimed at near post. Thanks.

Good piece, Paul.

"Our wonderful Belgian" indeed. He destroyed Partey and pretty much any other opponent who came within range.

How wonderful it would be if we could match his talent and ambition. I agree with you that he will almost certainly leave (at a massive profit for us) but he's a very interesting young man and I wonder if we might persuade him, with new owners (as Mike Gaynes has noted), to stay.

Anyway, let's just enjoy the player - 21 years of age and ripping the League leader's midfield apart (with the help of Gueye and Doucoure, of course).

That's a potentially formidable midfield trio by the way.

Giving scores to players is always a subjective decision but Paul, I think you could have squeezed a few higher scores based on what a huge turnaround in attitude against a team that until yesterday had a clear lead at the top. Maybe you could make a case for a few players scoring a bit higher. Seamus aided Iwobi had Martinelli in his pocket and shut down one of their proven routes to goal. Doucoure who had been stood in the corner of the classroom for being a bad boy was a revelation. He looked like that Duke of old covering copious yards of grass and disrupting the midfield. He helped Gana and Onana in shutting down Odegard and made him look very ordinary. Gaye kept going for 95 minutes putting his foot in and was something close to the Gaye we loved 3 years ago.
Onana had his best game for us putting those rumours that he wanted out when Lampard left. He is beginning to learn how to be a threat at corners and his disruptive play cleared the way for Tarks to score. I could go on as everyone contributed to a great result which we won quite comfortably in the end. Last mention goes to McNeil who has struggled since arriving. I think he is very much a confidence player and when told what to do by Dyche looked like the player he was at Burnley.

Paul
I am pretty sure Lamps was playing for the sack in his last couple of months. Wearing that mournful beanie hat (what cockney does that), and his dreadful vocab 'playing for this shirt this club this badge'. He just wanted his 12 big ones and to be sent on his way.

Paul, thanks I really enjoyed your article which was pretty much the way I saw the game too. Also, I felt strangely optimistic beforehand but darent tell anyone in case I jinxed it!

Paul thanks for the article. Atmosphere yesterday was great and likewise I had a surreal confidence going into the game. I thought Seamus was excellent and had Martinelli covered the whole game, same as he did against Alonso with Chelsea last season.

Now looking forward to heading into the derby as the form team. Won three times as many points and scored three times as many league goals as the RS in 2023. Stats gotta love em.

PS to mine above on Onana; whoever decided to go for him, at what will be seen as a bargain price in due course, deserves enormous credit. Thelwell, I assume?

Frank's demeanour on touchline was awful..his unshaven and baggy trackies were unprofessional imo he often looked like he slept rough call me fuddy duddy but that sends the wrong message...I agree with the view he was looking a way out...

PPS, I see Coleman spoke to Onana on the pitch after the game (it's on the Tunnel YouTube thing); our fabulous captain can see, of course, what this young man promises.

Fair analysis, but I’d enjoy McNeil if he had a right foot. The weakest “weaker foot” in the league.

Good report as usual, Paul.

Great to see an organised, disciplined midfield. For much of this season, they've all been running out of position to retrieve things, leaving us wide open.

Also good to see us press properly, which creates space for our forward players to do their stuff. And it meant we played a lot of the game in their half.

Organisation, purpose, energy and hunger. Not rocket science indeed. I'm happy with us making the basics a consistent habit, then we'll see what else is there. About time we had a manager who does this in the right order.

If you fancy listening to Sean Dyche be interviewed about his coaching philosophy, I can recommend a site called The Coach’s Voice. I found it by googling that plus Sean Dyche. Now that Sean is in charge of our on the field future, I thought it would be interesting to listen to him. It was not what I expected.
The first 20 minutes is all about the culture he established at Burnley and why he did what he did. It has been mentioned already that he has set up dress standards for training and basic good communication practices amongst his players. In recruiting players and, perhaps this gives an insight into non-activity on Tuesday. He said he was as much interested about what the player was like as a human being as much as his football skills and that he would go to great lengths to make sure the incoming player was the right fit. So when all those media names appeared, Dyche was probably not interested as he knew very little about them and preferred to go with the players he had just met. He did say right from the start that despite the poor results there were some very, very good players here.
Although Dyche has been here just over a week, I recognized lot of the ideas he wants to in-still at EFC. It also showed that he is often misrepresented honestly by the press (what a surprise). Since he employs very “simple” tactics he must be a “simple” coach lacking in the latest football fads. For example he would never use “gegenpress” but shutting down defenders in numbers when the ball is coming out of the penalty area.
Lastly he talks about great managers that have influenced. He played under Brian Clough. When he came to Burnley Alec Ferguson mentored him. Maybe it went unnoticed that he was dressed in a suit and tie on the touch line on Saturday. To him it’s the little things that can be changed easily when trying to build a new culture. He asked the players for honest opinions about how they felt things had been going and is prepared to listen to them.
After listening to the interview, why oh why did we not appoint him earlier!

If you fancy listening to Sean Dyche be interviewed about his coaching philosophy, I can recommend a site called The Coach’s Voice. I found it by googling that plus Sean Dyche. Now that Sean is in charge of our on the field future, I thought it would be interesting to listen to him. It was not what I expected.
The first 20 minutes is all about the culture he established at Burnley and why he did what he did. It has been mentioned already that he has set up dress standards for training and basic good communication practices amongst his players. In recruiting players and, perhaps this gives an insight into non-activity on Tuesday. He said he was as much interested about what the player was like as a human being as much as his football skills and that he would go to great lengths to make sure the incoming player was the right fit. So when all those media names appeared, Dyche was probably not interested as he knew very little about them and preferred to go with the players he had just met. He did say right from the start that despite the poor results there were some very, very good players here.
Although Dyche has been here just over a week, I recognized lot of the ideas he wants to in-still at EFC. It also showed that he is often misrepresented honestly by the press (what a surprise). Since he employs very “simple” tactics he must be a “simple” coach lacking in the latest football fads. For example he would never use “gegenpress” but shutting down defenders in numbers when the ball is coming out of the penalty area.
Lastly he talks about great managers that have influenced. He played under Brian Clough. When he came to Burnley Alec Ferguson mentored him. Maybe it went unnoticed that he was dressed in a suit and tie on the touch line on Saturday. To him it’s the little things that can be changed easily when trying to build a new culture. He asked the players for honest opinions about how they felt things had been going and is prepared to listen to them.
After listening to the interview, why oh why did we not appoint him earlier!

Saturday showed us how much Everton players have been getting mismanaged for a long time now. I’m aware it’s early days, very, very, early days, but after watching on Saturday, one thing is now very clear. It is now very obvious that Everton’s last couple of managers, have failed to give their players, real, genuine, proper discipline, and when things are not going well, it’s this type of real discipline, that helps keep things together.

I said it yesterday, but Everton’s midfield has been set up that badly, that it was like Lampard, was setting us up, for how he would like us to play, if he was an opposing midfielder, who was playing against us?

That’s very damnming, but I have been very, very exasperated watching our three midfielders, all doing opposite things, and like Paul T said, all’s this achieved, was that we were constantly wide open.

Everton have been very easy to play against for most teams, but it was very difficult for Arsenal, yesterday afternoon, and hopefully this is a sign of things to come?

Tony, it was a sign from above………..

Gana
Onana
Doucoure

Dyche has worked a minor miracle in a very short time.
We aren't out of the woods yet though, the acid test for me will be our next game, keep that display up and surely we can knock another nail in Klopps coffin.
We've been here to many times boys, let's hope this time it's for real.

Rob (22) HALLELUJAH Rob!! That’s just what we needed a miracle and on a Sunday as well.

Pretty accurate report Paul, apart from 'underscoring' Seamus, who continues to defy the years, and at 34 years old, still puts in a shift against top class opposition. What a man.

The Everton I watched on Saturday, were pretty much unrecognisable from what we have witnessed since October last year.

And whilst Frank was a nice guy and 'got us', it simply wasn't enough to give us a fighting chance of retaining our place in the Premiership. I felt Dyche had two free hits against Arsenal + Liverpool, and I didn't expect anything from both fixtures to be honest, so were ahead of the game at the moment, only the total collapse of our cousins against Wolves stopped it from being a perfect weekend.

As to the future, the much maligned D.O.F, Kevin Thelwell, has unearthed a gem in Onana, a physically imposing 21 year old, who reminds me of a young Patrick Vieira, who has pace and power in abundance, and sadly,such is our demise as a club, it's highly unlikely we will match his ambitions in the future once his reputation around Europe grows.

I hope we have not witnessed 'new manager bounce' with this set of players, but I like Dyche's old fashioned honesty, and he now gives us a fighting chance of avoiding the drop, that's all.

Rob 22] Have you identified the new “Holy Trinity”?

Thanks for the, as ever, solid report Paul which always beams me into the ground despite not being there.

I think you are exactly right with the general point and I was disappointed that Frank wasn't more pragmatic when he desperately needed points. That said, Koeman was similar as we struggled badly in his second season and one of the finest set piece specialists as a player couldn't coax a few goals that way either...

Sean comes across very well and, if he gets decent performances week on week from Onana, Idrissa and the back four, I would expect us to have enough to stay up. Mainly by being difficult to play against.

Well Mike, GOD is the only one who can snuff out Lucifers child, as Danny puts it! Those spawny bastards have had the luck of the devil with them for years, and now that luck is about to be extinguished by GOD!

COYB

FTRS.

Rob, love it! I was just thinking something very similar. Play like we did yesterday and there is every reason to believe.

UTFT!

Rob,

I was in a North London pub just after the Arsenal win and got chatting to a lovely lady who was an Arsenal fan. We were essentially moaning about other clubs given that we're the two longest serving members of the top flight and, without prompting from me, she went into a rant about the RS and their fans and their entitlement and that the media love them while most fans from other clubs loathe them and cannot understand the sentimental drivel afforded to them.

It always fascinates me when fans of other clubs who shouldn't really have a tribal reason to dislike them voice complete contempt of them.

Andrew, they think everyone is against them, media, TV, even VAR. The love in for them by the media and TV is on a different planet to everyone else. Jeez, even football questions on quiz programmes such as Tipping Point and The Chase, is always a question about them. It makes you want to throw your guts up.

Andrew, I hear that a lot when talking to supporters of other clubs. Most see us as decent and have a certain amount of respect but loads I talk with find it hard to believe we are from the same city.

Neil 32] They are right to think that - because we aren’t from the same city. I’ve not lived in Liverpool for 49 years, but when I did I don’t know many R/S supporters. To be honest I see more R/S shirts around the pubs of SW London on match day today than I ever did as a kid in Old Swan.
And of course Next Monday will see the old pub quiz question resurface.
Q: name the PL match where more away fans than home fans can walk to the game?
A: the Merseyside derby - the one played at Anfield.

Tony 6, (To those who were definitely not missed, Don’t come back, you dirty, deceitful, lying, self serving nepotistic phoney bastards) I couldn't have out it better myself, the Filthy, mendacious, snakes in the grass, disregarding, privileged, fraudulent debased twats! Oh, actually I could.😀

Mike 33, brill!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

You're right that it's not rocket science. Give your all, play to a plan. Play to your strengths, not your weaknesses.

Most of our midfield (and particularly Doucoure) look terrible any time they need to get on the ball. Their job against Arsenal was far more straight forward and it suited them.

While it's great to see the mood turning, what we did against Arsenal probably isn't sustainable. We basically asked the team to get numbers behind the ball and then play direct and get numbers forward quickly. It was a near superhuman effort to counter the lack of quality in the squad against a quality team.

They won't be able to do that week in week out. Players can't sustain that kind of work rate, we don't have any depth in the squad, and there will be teams who simply won't give us the time to drop in while they retain possession.

They might be able to do it next week though... which is as far as most of us are looking.

We're still in a massive fight for our survival with limited resources. At least they've shown they can fight when they need to.

Ernie@36 - I agree about limited resources. I still think we need to try and get 3 / 4 free transfers in asap. There has to be a few players on the list who can get stuck in and come up with a goal or two.

Heres a couple

Alejandro Pozuelo. Age 31. Played for Miama in MLS. Played 30 games, scoring 7 goals with 9 assists. So he's got something about him. Mainly a midfielder but can play as a winger or second striker.

Alan Sonora. Age 24. Current USA International. Played for USA on 29th January so obviously fit. 6 goals 2 assists in the Argentina top division. Midfielder.

As for Centre Forwards they are a muchness. however one to look at could be Ola Kamara. Released by DC United. In his last 59 games he's scored 30 goals with 6 assists. He's 33, played 17 times for Norway scoring 7 goals. He knows where the back of the net is.

As they are free transfers, Offer them contracts until the end of the season, with an option for a 12 month extension if they make good.

If DCL and Maupay get crocked we are truly screwed

Rob, that is Devine.

I have both sets of Rosary Beads on the go, one from Rome, one from Behlehem.

When we face the unholy, we fight as always with all of our might.

Anfield Deby memories. I might not live in Liverpool these days and haven't done for a while. But I know my roots.

At the Kanchelskis 2 goal win, I was in amongst the home crowd and as I celebrated, I got "advised" by some bloke sat next to me from somewhere that I should support my City.

Well, if there's ever a trigger, that was it for me to educate him. I barely escaped ejection. Fortunately the steward was and Evertonian and sat me down with a wink of the eye!!

At least I'm in the Everton end. And for that guy who educated me on not spending money at Anfield in 1987, I promise not to buy a sausage roll at half-time in order to fund their rotten cause.

I'm probably going to have to calm myself before this one.

I think the title of this article is very perceptive. Football is not rocket science but is made over-complicated by lots of coaches for some reason.

Keep the ball out of your net and get it in theirs. That's really what it's all about. Dyche seems to get that and knows that playing in the opposition's box is preferable to messing about with the ball in your own.

Superb win and performance. Let's give the other team from Merseyside a good seeing too next!

Hey Danny, Me too! I'm so excited looking forward to the derby because I think we can beat them on what they think is their own soil. Wrong! Historically it's ours!

UTFT!

If our midfield play against Liverpool the way they did against Arsenal, then we'll give them a game.

I would be made up to get a point. I don't even dare to dream of a win…

Nice write up Paul - given the x pints pre-match, I doff my cap to you remembering that much lol:-)

It certainly feels good to have a proper manager in the dugout. I just cannot believe how many people fell for 'nice guy' Frank – utter fraud of a manager!

For all of the Dyche naysayers, please just give the guy a chance – we need to stay up first and foremost. The football at Burnley wasn't pretty but they are a tiny club compared to Everton and Dyche had one simple goal, which was to keep them up and he had little to work with. He's got better players now so let's see what happens.

Playing the way we did against Arsenal works against 'better' teams expected to have most of the possession, so I'm hopeful about the next game. Will be very interesting to see how we play against Leeds when we'll (presumably) be the favourites – just hope they don't have their new manager bounce against us!

I'm convinced we'll now stay up simply because we're playing a system that's simple and suits the players, and we have a manager who actually knows how to change things during the game. Dyche may not take us to the uplands of the Champions League in the future but he'll certainly keep this team up and likely not far off mid-table this season – which is where it should be.

I cannot remember the last time I actually looked forward to the derby – away!

BRING IT ON!

David Cooper @19/20 excellent perception. Doesn’t matter which level, pro or am, same principles apply. I think we might have found the right ‘fit’ as manager for the club. Here’s hoping!