I am particularly amazed at the inability of our individual players to retain possession under challenge - even Fellaini seems to let the defender somehow get round or through his massive frame. It’s depressing.

No movement, no second balls, no reading of the game (when in possession or without). It could have been 5-0 again. It probably should have been. And that is not good enough, and we should not choose to hide behind excuses.

Time for a change.... where do we start?

However, to me, Benefica always looked the more likely to score. Yes they have pace but they also have far more creativity. We had nobody to the pitch to pull the strings. You can have Cahill, Yak, Jo & Fella on the pitch but if nobody is creating anything, how are they going to score?

Gosling was the weak link tonight, the rest are regulars in our team. We should at least be able to create chances instead of hoof shite. When will the penny drop that are tactics are predictable and our manager is responsible.

If we then achieve safety then start swinging the axe. Fire sale stuff...ship out Fellaini and Cahill and Yobo whilst they have some reputation and hence cash value.

Accept that Gosling and Jo are not up to it.

Stop blaming every fucking thing on Osman and Hibbert.

Get rid of Round and any other so called coach who has got us to this state.

Pray.

Well, you could face up to the situation honestly. You could also watch Tim Howard’s interview. This was someone who had played really well in two games, yet conceded 7 goals. An intelligent man who understands where Everton are. He was clearly hurting.

I respect your opinion but we are woeful, end of. We have no pace, no craft, we can't string three passes together and our line-up, even at full strength is predictable. Moyes is coaching this team and it's shit.

• Robbed against Villarreal, who eventualy reached the semi final of the CL.
• We were beaten by Standard Leige last season but they are now in the CL.
• We were beaten by Fiorentina on pens and they are now destroying teams in the CL.
• We beat Zenit who that same season won the Uefa Cup and then the Super Cup against Man Utd.
• We beat AZ Alkmar who went on to be the Dutch Champions a season or so later and are in the CL now

I also can't understand why Cahill is captain, I didn't see or hear him rally the team. At least when Neville's on the field you can hear him shouting encouragement.

As for Moyes wanting the crowd to be vocal, we need something to be vocal about.

We can’t even defend well when necessary. The marking is poor and the passing is even worse. Gosling and Fellaini are young players but are not up to par.

Most of what can be said has been said by the knowledgeable fans and being patient isn’t going to change things — at least not until January, when (just maybe) we can sell and buy to improve the situation.

That was a clueless shambles: we couldn’t pass, control, head, tackle or show any invention. Too many players looked unfit. I don’t know what tactics we were employing but they seemed non-existent to me.

The shape of the team was a fucking mess,why can’t the negative cunt play Cahill up alongside Yakubu as he’s invisible in midfield? It's time we moved Yobo on, he can’t kick a ball or pass to a blue shirt and he doesn’t concentrate. Also, Tim Howard is shite, he needs replacing.

There's not a single positive I can take from that game, Fellaini was shot by half-time, Bily was gone after 20mins and Goslings confidence is shattered. I have never in my lifetime witnessed the crowd at Goodison give up on the team like they did after 20 mins tonight, you could see we had nothing to offer.

After half-time, Benfica just said, "These are shite, close them down and they give the fuckin’ thing away!". It was an embarrassment and live on national TV.

My opinion is Moyes should go and take all his backroom staff with him. It's been total mismanagement since the end of last season and right through the summer... not enough bodies in and too many unfit, badly coached players.

I know it won't happen ’cos he’s too cosy with that lying twat kenwright: MOYES OUT, KENWRIGHT OUT!

If that was Carsley, he would be right on him, it would not be allowed to happen. Clearly Rodwell has a long way to go in his development.

Yak is taking time to regain form, Jags is apparently near the first team squad and Arteta is some way off. We are unsure whether these players will ever regain their previous form — though we hope they will.

Vaughan is probably not going to make it — a crying shame. Pienaar, Neville and Osman all have something very positive to contribute yet have been out for weeks. Heitinga and Bily have to settle properly.

I don’t really think Jo and Fellaini, who are both similar age to Vaughan, have been given a fair hearing by many fans. They are young — and, yes, expensive — players. Gosling is even younger and — if he hadn’t scored in the FA Cup last year....

So my conclusion is obviously we’re struggling but Moyes couldn’t have predicted the full extent of this and he has to manage it. I think he has done an excellent job over time and needs to be supported through a crisis which isn’t really of his making.

I think Moyes needs a fair hearing and I say this as someone who considered Smith inept from start to finish — the only feather in his cap was getting rid of Johnson, who was far worse than Kenwright. Better the devil you know...

But don't blame Davey Moyes or any of his staff — what's any of the above got to do with them? They're not responsible for players' fitness or the team's lack of plausible tactics or basic ability...

And anyway, just think of Walter Smith and you will be able to forgive Super Dave anything.

How can you call peoples reactions to such a woeful performance a "pathetic knee-jerk nonsense"? I would suggest you try paying £30 plus to watch such an event and see if you have the same view! This response is not on the back of one performance. In case you forgot they also beat us 5-0 recently. This was supposed to salvage some pride. Totally unacceptable performance.

Ian - do you seriously believe we would have beaten Benfica comfortably with everyone fit or was that a joke?

With the current squad all we can hope for is a few cup runs and a finish of 7 or upwards, which at the moment seems unlikely but once you realise that's all we are capable of currently, you might take these sort of results a bit better. I love Everton and will keep on doing so through this bad spell, I can’t be arsed to type any more...

The thing is those of us who are not fooled knew what was coming with the annual shambles of a pre-season. We have got to realise that one day all that fannying around will come back and bite us on the arse and this year the top four may not be as good but the rest like Stoke and Sunderland are much better and the next four league games I am worried big time. Just where is the creativity going to come from?

West Ham is going to be all about grinding out something, Utd away you can gaurantee the annual backs to the wall tactics with a hard-fought loss and then after Hull comes the derby.

Maybe I am being OTT but we are lucky the points we have now given the robbery at Pompey and the last-minute penalty against Wigan.

The injuries are a very important factor — I wonder how many who have slagged off Neville and Osman now realise how important these players are. With our full squad available — including Arteta I think we would have given a very fine Benfica team a very good run for their money.

My main concern is the manager. I am not joining the anti-Moyes brigade, however I find it absolutely unbelievable that for the second succesive year we failed to strengthen the squad in the close season and indeed as in 2008 we waited until the very end of the transfer window to make most of our additions.

There may well be financial constraints and we all know that we don’t have the same resources as the likes of the Sky 4 + City — but there are always players who are free agents available and those who clubs are willing to loan out. Moyes himself has used the loan system to good effect in the past e.g. Pienaar — so why not do so in the 2009 Close Season — when because of the injuries to Arteta, Anichebe, Yakubu and Jagielka is was vital that we strengthened the squad.

Faced with the same situation I doubt very much that say Wenger or SAF would waste time like Moyes did back in June and July. He didn’t act quickly enough in the summer of 2008 and that very nearly cost us a place in the Europa League.

Indeed if he had made his moves sooner who know we could have given it a good go for 4th place. To make the same mistake again in 2009 is astonishing — I dread to think what Moyes failure to act in team strenghening this summer will cost us.