What a load of fucking shite!.... Goodbye top 5/6 finish. We’ll be competing with West Ham and Sunderland for the Intertoto.

How poor was that.

Obviously Thursday flattered us.

I can’t even be bothered to repeat where the problems were — because I’d simply be repeating myself...

Our midfield is crap.

When is someone going to pull Moyes up and tell him that his pre-seasons are clearly shit?

It's a disgrace.

Every year we lose 10-12 points in the first 6-8 games of the season with what can only be put down to piss-poor planning and pre-work, and not enough training. Even the newly promoted teams can give us a tonking. It's like it's a kindergarten — it just seems like we are incompetent and inept at getting up to speed.

Why don't we break into the top 4? Because we spend most of the season trying to claw some points back from the start.

Truly rubbish, and I want to know why they don’t prepare and start as the other 19 teams do. It's just not good enough.

Come back, Alan Irvine.

Utter fucking shit. Well EFC board, you won’t invest in the squad so I’m not investing in a replica top, travel to matches, or even Sky Sports this season. When you start giving a damn again, maybe I will too.

To those who still believe Moyes is a great manager. Look at the league table.

Well that’s just great, isn’t it?

Another summer spent doing sod all and this is what it gets. Well at least Moyes has had his fun playing the victim again.

Sort it Moyes.

IMWT

Kunal Desai, I dont think so. Is that ’almost european’ form?
The trouble isnt that we have got much worse (ok, a bit with the injuries, but we coped last year), it's that everyone and clearly this includes promoted teams, have significantly strengthened this year. The standard has gone up and its only us and Pompey who haven’t improved. I wonder who the third team will be...

Ciaran, it’s more than just the midfield unfortunately.... try the whole fucking team. I’m sick to the back teeth of this shambles. Moyes seems incapable of affecting any change whatsoever at the minute, which for £60k a week is just not good enough.

Shame about result.

I’ve no doubt we’ll get it together in a few games but can’t believe the head start we always give the others.

I can’t believe we haven’t strengthened. It doesn’t make any sense at all.

Let's put things into perspective, we probably will eventually get it right after half-a-dozen games or so, but it’s always too late, we start shit, loose ground on others, and then play catch-up.

Last season: 4th Arsenal - 72 points
5th Everton - 63 points

We took 8 pts from the first 8 games last season and that was our downfall.

City will be laughing their heads off at this. Looks like Joleon is getting out in time, eh?

Only kidding. Don’t panic! The Moyesiah is just a few weeks behind the rest of the PL. He’ll get there, eventually.

"Why don’t we break into the top 4? Because we spend most of the season trying to claw some points back from the start."

Which is why the argument that we’re stagnating due to a lack of funds is a red herring. It’s the lack or proper preparation season upon season that’s been holding us back. The gap between 4th and 5th place is the same number of points we throw away by being under-prepared.

Tim Howard — Okay one class save. must be embarassed with what he sees in front of him though!

Tony Hibbert — Thought he had a better game compared to a lot of players. His speed let him make up for a lot of mistakes, though he’s still shocking and we should sell him. Against anyone decent, ie, top 4, they’ll play with him. What a run for the penalty dive though! — like a train!!!

Leighton Baines — Thought Bainsey was ok today, though old Hoofball was a bit boring. I wish they’d just pass along the floor. More crossing and free kicks! He just looks unsure and unconfident.

Neville — Isn't a centre-back.

Yobo — Is less of a centre-back than Neville. I think his speed makes up for his mistakes. I thought he was awful today. Every single time it was cleared in the air, he looked anxious, he took the wrong amount of touches, seemed to be in the wrong position, just generally had a bad game and affected those around him. I wish Jags was fit.

Osman — Think he's getting worse over the years. I actually thought he was almost England quality once! Ha! Lazy, no tricks and lightweight.

Cahill — Only saw him do one huge run in the second half. He disappeared for huge parts of the game.

Rodwell — Another good performance. Unfortunately, surrounded by so many bad ones, it didn't really do much. Solid and effective.

Fellaini — Thought he had a good game, but hoofball doesn’t really suit us in my opinion and not Fellaini, even with his size. Often surrounded and outnumbered, his game was made very difficult.

Pienaar — Good game but running was made difficult. Out-numbered quickly every time by Burnley. I think he needs to get back to basics with Bainsey.

Saha — Not potent enough. Missed the penalty very badly, missed various other shots and could have scored.

Sub: Jô — Unsure; I think he deserves more time, was creative, and passed well, but should have took that shot that came on to his right.

Overall, I'm unhappy with the hoofball and the attitude of staff/players. If it's created by Lescott then I blame it all on City, but they don't make us play hoofball. We had the better 11 players out there today and we lost.

Coyle negated our strikers, we played hoofball, they won the midfield battle, then we were closed down too often and too quick. By the time we compensated, it was 85 min gone — and we missed the pen we won.

Hugely disappointing, Burnley’s game plan was clearly to pack the midfield and keep it tight. Hence, we were unable to create anything. The difference was they were able to get it out to their wide men whereas we were not. Why not you might ask, very simple really just about everyone now realizes that if they close us down on the left we’ve absolutely no threat whatsoever on the right. Osman drifts centrally and so there is no option on the right.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment was that with Burnley having worked so hard in the first half they were clearly running out of steam as the game progressed. What we desperately needed was to throw on someone down the right with a bit of pace i.e. Gosling. How many times have we seen Saha paired with Jo? I’m afraid it just doesn’t work. When are we ever going to learn.

Okay, let’s switch to this thread for post-match analysis and comment.

Disgusting performance.

We have no tactics and only start to try to force play with 20 minutes left when we are chasing the game. Cahill is out of position and is ineffective, today I thought Rodwell was not involved but he is the future and must be accommodated but around him we have nothing. Too often we hoofball but no one supports the lone striker.

Everyone seems to have found us out, and there is nothing new coming from the manager. Usually we have turned over the new boys in the league but not being able to get a result does give rise to optimism.

All media and pundits let Moyes off the hook, blaming the Lescott situation, but, as said before, what have we done in the summer to prepare? Where is the contingency?

The the cash City are throwing around, there was always a good chance Lescott would have his head turned. Can we really blame that on the performance today, our defence may have been shaky but there was little spark, energy, spirit from elsewhere.

Next week I’d like to see Jo start on the left, Pienaar on the right and Osman in the middle. Won’t happen though.

What happened to Coleman?

I’ve just listened to Moyes's interview after the Burnley game... someone help me and clear what the fuck Moyes the cunt is on about. He was asked the question about Lescott finally going and replied "If we’d got that price in June then we’d have time to bring in replacements." ... Hang on! Wasn’t it him who has always maintained that Lescott has never been for sale!?! Why did he not tell City after the first bid (£15m), don’t bother with another unless it’s the one which is now accepted...

Moyes you are now telling us porkies!!!!

I’m really not going to jump on the team’s back here. Yes, it was a bad performance, and we really shouldn’t be losing to a team like Burnley (credit where it’s due, they deserved the win, played a lot better than us). However, you can’t name me another side in the Premier League that could do any different than us with the amount of key players we have out.

Excusing the Lescott transfer saga, he is still one of our top players, no matter how long he stays at Goodison, he was out today and last Saturday, as well as the following; Jagielka, Arteta and our best striker Yakubu.

I firmly once again believe, as soon as they return and the situation surrounding Lescott is cleared, we will climb back up the table. It’s just going to be another identical season to last season.

Disgusting performance again. We have no tactics and only start to try to force play with 20 minutes left when we are chasing the game. Cahill is out of position and is ineffective, today I thought Rodwell was not involved but he is the future and must be accommodated but around him we have nothing.

Everyone seems to have found us out, and there is nothing new coming from the manager, he won’t even use the subs at his disposal. From the tv picture, did not see him or round much in the tech area shouting the odds; his body language is appalling no encouraging or motivating a team lacking of confidence.

Usually we have turned over the new boys in the league but not being able to get a result does not give rise to optimisim.

All media and pundits let Moyes off the hook, blaming the Lescott situation, but as said before what have we done in the summer to prepare, where is the contingency, the the cash City are throwing around, there was always a good chance Lescott would have his head turned. Can we really blame that on the performance today? Our defence may have been shaky but there was little spark, energy, spirit from elsewhere. Recent years our league success is built of work ethic and team spirit; this seems to have disappeared.

We are simply continuing the trend from last season... we played some truly awful football in the closing stages last year and got away with it — we’ve simply run out of luck, and our midfield is being shown up for what it is — almost devoid of quality.

Moyes's team selections are poor as well... and he keeps repeating the most obvious of mistakes — coaching badges mean fuck all when you can’t see that Cahill is useless in that position, that Osman is generally useless, and that Fellaini is having a poor start to the season. What's needed at this stage is decisive changes — including the dropping of several players, but then again dropping players is another facet of the game Moyes has problems with....

Dear oh dear —it doesn’t look good...

We are where we belong right now because now we play so badly it’s almost like watching HK III all over again.

It is down to Moyes. He does not react when things go wrong. Today, every blue player was crap, but it is always the manager's fault when his team does not operate.

Moyes left it too late again to get new faces. All summer he said that we need new players, but oops — no-one arrived. Obviously he has to lower his standards because Burnley was full of players who wanted to win, even if they don't match Moyes’s image of good players.

Player ratings:
Howard: 7 Did ok, but has some communication problems with Phil and Joey.
Hibbert: 5 First half awful but in the second half he at least tried and even got the penalty. Can't take a decent throw-in which is pathetic for a full back.
Yobo: 5 Toubles with reading the game. Time to go next summer?
Neville: 5 Well he isn’t really a center half... was at fault for the goal. Too slow and can’t pass.
Baines: 5 Not good, too many errors and wrong decisions. In the second half he disappeared.
Osman: 5 First half disgusting but a little better second half. He’s so weak and slow, honestly, my daughter would tear him apart. Doesn’t know how to shield the ball so he loses it all the time.
Fellaini: 4 waste of space, looks disinterested. Sell him!
Cahill: 4 As Fellaini. Cahill is no midfielder, he does not know how to pass or defend properly. He is a striker who should be playing just below the center forward. These two can’t play together in the current team.
Rodwell: 6 The best of the bad bunch. Didn’t do much wrong but didn’t create much either.
Pienaar: 5 Not up to his usual standards. Loose passes and gave the ball away too often.
Saha: 5 Otherwise almost ok but the penalty miss...

All in all, we lost to a very ordinary team but, to be honest, they deserved it by working harder than we did.

A wise gentleman posted on here a couple of years ago that he’d witnessed too many false dawns at Everton to get excited about our progress. Well he was right. You can only ever progress and get better if you learn from your mistakes. Another crap transfer window and start to the season is a complete repeat of last year and it's a shit show. Top 4 my arse.

Harvey, I thought Hibbert was the only outfield player who showed anything today..

On your scoring...at least a 6.

Stuart Downey - Good assessment, especially about Yobo. I think Yobo is a good defender but his pace does get him out of alot of trouble.

The thing that worries me is that we have wasted 2 excellent opportunities to take at least 2 points off of Arsenal and to banish Burnley early into the relegation dogfight.

A mediocre mid-table finish for us won’t attract the money or the players we’ll need to go forward next year!

The thing is, if we do sign some players next week, and manage to turn our season around again and finish let's say sixth, we'll all be back here again next year. Moyes and The Liar are unsackable. The media love them, "Look what you can achieve with no money and no star players!" — they say.

Blue Bill an all that bollocks, Phill Green and his mate Earl will be on the phone to The Liar askign when they can expect the next chunk of money to land in the Virgin Islands... it's rotten to the core. How can two Spurs fans own 24% of Everton and why from a company offshore?!? Bill has sold his soul to these people — and ours with it.

Okay guys, as they say in the US — we suck.

We have all said same in many more words.

I lost the feed but challenge each of you to the same question posed by others:

If Moyes and staff sees these players practice each week, know their tendencies, etc etc. AND we must all agree Moyes at least WANTS to win — then we must further agree that there is a reason Vaughan, Gosling and Co were not put in during the match.

Take your shots.

The ship will be righted but let’s all accept 5-10 spot should be the goal at this point.

Lescott is having a medical and Wolves will get 25 % of any transfer fee and Velencia have said none of there players are going anywhere. Lies lies and more lies,

Two games in - not expecting anything out of Arsenal, always fuck up against newly promoted sides. Millwall, anyone? However, what is not acceptable is the lamentable lack of quality and pisspoor attitude throughout.

Pienaar’s passing was slack but at least he knew what a pass was, even if he couldn’t execute one. Fellaini should be told to pick up a yellow card or two; Cahill simply cannot play there; Yobo has forgotten how to defend; Saha’s shooting was so shite today that you knew he’d fuck the penalty. I like Osman but today I suffered a clear case of the Tony Marshes.

What is also beyond me is why, the moment Jags was injured, we didn’t start lining up CB cover - whether Lescott was off or not. That should have been the first buy of the first day of the transfer window. I might also ask why in this day and age we don’t have decent CB cover coming through the reserves. I’m not talking about Rodwell, but someone a couple of years older should have been ready by now.

I’ve said it for years, and I will say it again: Moyes is fucking clueless. On the bench today, he didn’t look one bit interested.

And to say that if we would have got the money we are getting for Lescott in June, we would have been able to get players in, is vintage idiocy seeing as he was the one who said Lescott was going nowhere.

If it’s not his fault, he should've had the guts to stand up to Billy Liar.

Moyes loves playing the victim. He's far better suited to that than planning moving the team forward.

As soon as last season ended if he had any ambition he should have been battering Billy Liar's door down, demanding funding to buy the players he thinks can move us on. But no... we go into the season with Osman at right midfield, Hibbert at right back. No pace in the team and while our rivals strengthened we didn't.

Some are clinging to the hope that we did it last season, we will do it again this season... well dream on. Spurs and City are vastly improved on last year. If, by some miracle, we sign 4 players this week, then 7th is the highest we can hope to finish. But then us signing 4 players... it's just not going to happen.

Stuart, pretty good appraisal of the overall performances, particularly that of Fellaini. The lad is being heavily criticized, more to do with his fee than his performance, I might add. I thought he tried very hard today, he seemed to be all over the midfield in an attempt to close people down. When in possession he was quickly surrounded by numbers and sadly received little support. He had every right to expect more from those around him; sadly, it wasn’t forthcoming.

Owen Coyle’s tactic was the most obvious to anyone who has watched Everton recently. Put the ball out to the left wing and there will be acres of space to play in cos Hibbert and Osman will be woefully out of position. It's a simple tactic that has been used by the likes of Liverpool, Fiorentina, Chelsea and even Blackpool.

Most Evertonians are aware of this weakness, but our manager seems oblivious to it. Every fan I spoke to at the end of last season agreed that our priority was the right side, just like in 05-06 when we needed strikers desparately.

Every pre-season is the same. Surely Kenwright — as a fan — should admit he is out of his league and just sell. If Birmingham will go for £80m, to someone who can invest, why cant we?

Piss Poor — to make matters worse I found a pub in town showing the game and ended up next to some fat arsed Redshite who giggled all through the 2nd half. We are in danger of becoming a joke. After Saha’s ’penalty’ miss I was glad to watch the end of the Ashes instead — and I hate cricket!!!

"To those who still believe Moyes is a great manager. Look at the league table."

Jesus fucken Christ, we’re only 2 games in. Get a grip of yourself.

I knew this was coming; there's only so long you can play shit and grind out results with a very average set of players, which we have done for about 3 years. Now that we can’t do that anymore, I’m seriously fuckin worried.

I’ve always said we seem to play better and get results when we're backed into a corner, like last season when we lost our three most influential players, but I think we've been backed in too far this time.

Sorry Geoff but were actualy 8 years in.

We all know Billy's a liar so how can Moyes not see it... or can he? He's a yes-man and a bad tactician and together they're fucking inept, time to get rid.

Shambolic! When does the season start? — someone needs to tell DM... saying that we aren’t prepared!! He knows when the season starts. We play the likes of Rochdale and Bury where City and Spurs play the likes of Barcelona, Rangers and Celtic to gear up for the season.

Why are these players still playing for EFC? — Hibbert: Useless
Osman: Useless
Yobo: Still a missing person I think disappeared from Everton back 4 some years ago...

Why does it take us so long to sign players and why don’t we like any other big club close a deal when we do have a chance of signing a player, eg, Kyle Naughton?

Why do we sign players at the last minute? Why sell or release players when you don’t buy or bring in enough replacements? Why try to keep a player who hands in a transfer request and has had his head turned buy the extra dough from Middle Eastlands?

Why can Notts County and Birmingham get investment yet the 4th most successful club in England can’t?

Why are blue Bill and the inept Board of Directors not moving this club forward? Yet City, Spurs, Villa, even Sunderland and West Ham are making progress — so why aren’t we?

And why does it take so long to sort this fucking stadium situation out???

KENWRIGHT AND CO — WE WANT SUCCESS. DON’T YOU GET IT — WE WANT ANSWERS NOW!!!!

Today was painful. Will we ever learn?

Yet again words fail me in trying to articulately describe just how dejected I’m feeling.

I can only think of naughty words.

Something better be sorted this week in terms of bringing players in. I’m fucking bored of Moyes and his mopey attitude.

Fucking grow a pair and get Kenwright to get his finger out. Give him an ultimatum. Do something for Christ's sake.

Either that, or stop the fucking moaning about not having this & that and get about the players and coach some fucking tactics into them.

Hey Guys,

WE WON THE ASHES!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah Everton.

I’ve been listening to the cricket all afternoon!!

Our 6-1 defeat last week wasnt a first game fuck-up. It's the way things are gonna go I'm afraid. This season is a relegation battle.

Actually, I don't think Moyes gives a fuck about Everton anymore. Reckon he’s waiting for Taggart to have a heart attack.

Same old shit, we absolutely battered them in about 80% of the game but we just couldn’t find any skill in the final third.

You can't blame Moyes for that as we should have beaten them but they defended like we usually do... And I am starting to agree with the Osman haters, he was absolutely awful today.

I’m having difficulty correlating all the "bullshit" I’m being fed through the media.
"We have adequate funds for transfers," according to Elstone. "No last minute shopping this season, we will have our targets in earlier preferably for pre-season," according to Moyes. And we have agreement with the banks to extend our overdraft based on TV money from Sky... Billy Bullshit. So, why are we so reliant on the Lescott money to shore up a patched up midfield and defence?

As well as the plaudits, Moyes must also take some of the blame. He saw this coming, and had adequate funds to make contingecy arrangements before Lescott left.

Words fail me in describing the Everton management team. I can't stand the rhetoric that pours out of Goodison: "We must improve" [beaten by Bury; "We must improve" [beaten by Blackpool]; "We must improve" [tonked by Arsenal]; "We haven't improved" Mr Moyes [beaten by Burnley] — this depite "revolutionary" training methods brought back from the States to a state-of-the-art training ground. It just doesn’t compute.

Pull your £6 mill a year finger out, Mr Moyes, and start earning your gilt.

Credit to Burnley, they went for the win and got it. Man U and us in a week, fair fucks to them. I hope they stay up. (hope we stay up!!!).

We will be slaughtered this year unless Hibb’s and Osman go. I do not like slating people and in fairness to the two lads, they are Everton men through and through, love the club but a blind man can see that our demise is gonna be there all season. Unless something is done quickly then we really are fucked.

Big teams will put 3-4 a game by us by simply playing the %’s and heading down that side, we always are likely to be exposed. A well managed under 20 side could out do us by simply putting pressure down that wing, it’s no joke and Moyes you need to get your finger out and get this fucking solved.

No more shit, no more excuses, you are paid to get the best 11 on the field and win matches not go and fucking do that. Why the fuck should any Everton fan travel away, spend good hard earned cash in difficult times to go and watch what is now going to happen in every match unless you get in someone quick. Weaker clubs can get men. And as someone said, how the fuck can Everton not get an investor? What a load of bolloxs.

We all need to boycott a game, it's the only way the shocking leadership of our great club will sit up, take notice and subsequent action, the media coverage of it would be too intense for them not to do anything.

The long ball over the top is awful. When Yakubu was injured they started to move the ball and play football, Cahill up front and they were winning. Now they are back to hoofball. I used to think that Carsley couldn't hit the side of a barn, but he is better than some on the team now. I first started to follow Everton FC in 1960, and this is hard to watch.