Everton sweat on Calvert-Lewin's fitness after half-time substitution

Hopefully it is just a precaution because last time he went off as a precaution, he was missing for 10 weeks.

That sounds to me like he's confident Calvert-Lewin is okay. He's already congratulating himself in the media on how smart and authoritative he was.

I'm just surprised we didn't hear that he'd reviewed the stats.

I know people are down, and being cynical or critical becomes easy in for many in such circumstances, but looking at the bigger picture, the mismanagement of Everton Football Club, is on a par, with how we simply allowed ourselves to become plucky little Everton, actually believing we were genuinely punching above our weight?

Everton Football Club, used to stand for class, and used to be called the school of science, and although City are a brilliant side, and probably deserve that scientific phrase, yesterday just showed me everything that is wrong with our football team.

I’d keep Patterson, I’d definitely bring back Brainthwaith, and I’d also keep Tarkowski, but the rest of the back five/six/seven/eight, can go.

I’d keep Garner, I’d keep McNeil, i’d maybe keep Doucoure & Gueye for another season, but the rest of our midfield can go.

I’d keep DCL, and I’d keep Demari Gray, but the rest of our forwards can go.

Maybe Onana can come good, but he’s a sellable asset, along with Pickford, and Everton are going to have to do some serious wheeling and dealing to get through the next couple of seasons, because not having a proper thought out plan, has really caught up with us?

Having only Mykolenko as a left-back in the squad (I don't count Vinagre because Dyche doesn't either) is a ridiculous state of affairs but typical Everton under this board and owner. We, the fans knew that Godfrey is not a left-back and poor Mason Holgate, like Godfrey before him, drew the short straw on Saturday.

Every defender we have in the team, apart from Mykolenko, is right-footed!!! You shouldn't be able to write this stuff but where Everton are concerned you always can.

I looked at the Everton U21 squad on the TransferMarkt site and there is not one left-back listed!! It's unbelievable.

In case you are unaware, there is a major match-fixing scandal going on in Brazil, that now looks like it's going to include the MLS.

Mackenzie Hunt has largely played left-back for the Under-21s this season, although he moved there from midfield. It would be a huge risk to drop him into a game of this magnitude.

Ishe Samuels-Smith is one of the best prospects (if not the best prospect) at left-back in academy football in the UK. Problem is he is only 16, and whether he quite has the concentration and application at this stage to step up would be a very un-Dyche-like risk to take.

Having Nkounkou out on loan (where he's made significant progress at St Etienne), and losing Thierry Small to Southampton (where he's arguably gone backwards after loans to Port Vale and St Mirren – where he mostly played in midfield) have definitely left us very short of options.

I respect your views but I'm interested in what you see in Demarai Gray to make you want to keep him?

I often got the impression he was one of the “couldn't give a toss” merchants under Frank and I think that's what Dyche has seen to drop him to the bench.

Mind you, we seem to be in short supply of good players in a fair number of positions. It is criminal to see the amount of money Everton have spent; and the lack of a quality team we've got.

I don't blame the players one bit. It's like someone's tried to put a jigsaw puzzle together with a blindfold on!

Or maybe just telling the truth.

Well done.

Since Dom had that quadriceps injury at the beginning of last year, Benitez and Lampard pushed him right back out there over and again and he kept re-injuring his leg.

Also caused his hamstring to act up on the same leg. And they kept pushing him out there over and again, so that wouldn't heal either.

Good call all round in my opinion.

Look at yesterday’s game, Guardiola said that City, had to go to Foden, more than Mahrez, because Everton cut off there right hand side? I didn’t totally agree with him because I thought Holgate was over-covering, but maybe this is doing a disservice to Dwight McNeil, who has become a player who is working both ends of the pitch, which is something I’m not sure is in Demari Gray’s make-up?

It doesn’t mean he can’t create, because he can, but the way Dyche has got us set-up, if you can’t do the dirty work, then you’re not going to be playing in a position that demands hard defensive running, and this is why I think Gray has been getting overlooked?

If he gets close to the performance he put in at Brighton, it's going to give us a great chance of getting the points needed.

I haven't forgotten that he was the bloke who came in said Dom was fitter than he thought he was, publicly casting doubt over his commitment. Plenty of Evertonians cheered his rhetoric - finally someone was going to make the skirt wearing pansy earn his money. Then he played him and consequently lost the services of our only real forward option for nearly a third of the season.

Through that time he revelled in talking about everything from what's in Dom's head, to what mattress he sleeps on and for how long, to all his stats ands sports science he was using to get Dom right.

Taking him off was the right call regardless of any groin tweak. The game was lost, he's had injuries, and we need him for the next two games.

But Dyche remains what he is. A bloke who loves selling his own greatness regardless of what he's delivering. I can't wait to see him gone.

Relegated or not, we have to banish the wild flights of fancy of big signings and building from a base of young players.

Onana is yet to fulfill his potential but we will sell him for double what we paid without missing him on the pitch.

Branthwaite will be England's centre-half, Garner looks a fine player in the Bracewell mould, McNeil is excellent – these lads are all 22 or younger.

Add Patterson and the much-maligned Mykolenko and we have the foundations of a good young team.

Let's face it, they have to be politicians half the time, and they feed the media what they need to, especially when it comes to juggling things like player fitness & expectation - supporters often fall into the trap of believing everything managers say to the media, but I see Dyche as being more media-savvy than many of them and he doesn't pander to the media like a lot of them do.

What managers say publicly isn't always the entire truth of what's really going on behind the scenes, and that's all part of the circus.

When he talks about Calvert-Lewin's health & injuries, I take it all with a huge pinch of salt because he's not going to show his (poker) hand to everyone, is he? He's not stupid.

I reckon Calvert-Lewin will play on Saturday, and Dyche did the right thing taking him off – so what if he's told the media it was his decision? He's the manager, it's always his decision.

Brainthwaite, McNeil, Patterson, Myko (ok jury out on that one for me) Onana (who will likely be sold and replaced with another young diamond in the rough), DCL, Garner and maybe one of Simms, Cannon or Mills can make the step up. Not to forget we have Englands no 1 between the sticks for now, he too however might be sold and replaced with a younger version.

It doesn't need much to renovate but we must have money to strengthen the squad, even if it means sacrificing Pickford and Onana for a combined £75M or so and replacing them for half the price.

The system was back for Leicester, Brighton, and the points start ticking over again. Against Wolves this hard to beat system with the sting in the tail will be back. I’m confident we will give a good account as we are seeing some elusive consistency creeping in. The caveat being DCL and Myko are fit otherwise it’s harder.

It’s the consistency of performance that I’m latching on to. The manager and players have to take credit for it, and for putting us in a position where we have a great chance.

More work to do, but I have optimism that we can do the business.

On why he doesn't get more looks I agree that I would have taken more chances by now. Dyche likely wants to build up some play tendencies to which Gray could not contribute without giving something up on defence.

Throw in with that a preference for direct forward play into channels and Gray again gets overlooked. I think he will find some time when we need to possess the ball second half and for switching up the attack. I really don't have any guess as to why Maupay gets in before Gray.