From my seat: Blackburn (A)

Thanks Ken. Always read the report and while not as good as being there in person it handily beats the crappy internet streams on most occasions!

Great report as always Ken, especially for those of us not there.

I advocated after the QPR game that Cahill causes us a problem in the way we line up. On that basis I had no trouble in him being benched today. Having said that, why play Victor up on his own? Surely you drop Heitinga as well and put Beckford in from the start? I accept the limitations of Beckford, but he possesses two things that in general our team doesn't: pace and an eye for goal.

As a side note, for those of you who are not on twitter, Mr Cahill has made it very clear he was neither unfit or rested. He is clearly not a happy boy at being dropped. Long may it continue Mr Moyes, about time this lot of mates were taken out of their comfort zone.

Finally, the performance still seems to be way off. Time for DM to bring this lot up to speed and for them to justify their respective reputations.

Ken, great report, as ever. I am indeed celebrating tonight but I don't feel the normal elation after an Everton away win. What I saw today was truly abysmal and offers me little hope for the future. Sorry to be on a downer ? let's hope the effect of the beer kicks in before MotD!

Well done, Tim Howard by the way!

Is anyone concerned about the current lack of defensive structure? Time after time Blackburn players were either unmarked or unchallenged ? even basic coverage at throw-ins was missing. I remember in the early days of Moyes we played ugly but we played defensively hard-nosed. And I haven't even mentioned Jagielka's shocking miscues. Worried.

With the stigma of 'bad starters' hanging over us we were undoubtably very poor today.

But how many times have we watched us boss games and come away with nothing?

3 points achieved, pressure off, 2 very winnable games coming up? COYB's!

Great report Ken.

Obviously pleasing to get 3 points but worried by the performance. Even when we turn in poor performances the defence is generally solid. The defence today was a shambles.

Every time the ball was cleared it was to a Rovers shirt. The midfield was well pathetically pedestrian. We have had the same squad for 2/3 years now so you would expect a bit of fluidity in the team.

I don?t know what the hell we have been doing in pre-season again.

That was the worst performance since Reading. Awful. We deserved nothing. Even the penalty was badly struck. If I was a Blackburn fan I would be wondering how the heck they lost. Hopefully now thought this will spur us to play well and win.

Next time Tim Howard makes a mistake and people trot out how many points he loses us, let us remember this game, a penalty save and a couple of good saves to boot.

For once I cannot believe that Ken and others saw the same game as me. Mine view was not from a cold hard seat at Blackburn yet with replays, close ups and slo-mos what I saw was poor.

I am not talking about board shenanigans that have already been hammered to death, what concerns me is that Moyes seems incapable of doing anything about the slow moving slow thinking stinking garbage that shamed the name of a once great club.

Everything wrong with the playing side of things was exposed all their woeful glory.

Neville with his slow aimless throw ins and mostly useless crosses.

Jags inability to read the play or organise the back line forces him into scary last second desperate lunges.

At risk of upsetting his devotees I must mention Osmans typical disapearing trick when the pressure was on.

Up front we had Anichebe spending most of the time on his arse bawling like a baby.

I could list others but probably the worst aspect was our pathetic lack of ideas in the final third.

Moyes was wrong in saying Formica dived for those penalties just as he was wrong to say we deserved the one we got.

This is unbelievable. Completely outplayed, no structure, no confidence, no running off the ball, no anything..............but a well taken penalty to win the game. Maybe there is a Blue God up there, after all!

But let's be honest with ourselves. This was daylight robbery.

Agreed Ken (good report as usual), good decision by Moyes to replace Barkley when he did. Although we continued to give the ball away at will, at least we looked very occasionally like we might score after this;

Kieron@7 - agreed but I think you were bit harsh ref the penalty considering the lack of confidence, the dying embers, the delays by the Blackburn players etc. I thought he took it quite well.

Simon@2 - I've been a Cahill fan for years but agree with you

Ray@3 Joseph@4 Ian@6 all sound points. Did we even have a defence today or did any part of the team function effectively.

Martin@5 Steve@8 Well done for being remaining positive.

Steve #8

I agree mate. I rate Howard highly, I'm not blind to his faults but he is a good keeper. He must have a good record with pens to, I remember before the Utd semi he always seemed to go the right way but not quite keep them out, since that shoot out I reckon he must have saved as many as he's let in if not more.

Sounds like a stinker of a match that we were lucky to come out with a win, but a win is a win and I'll take it for now. What do they say about good teams winning even when they don't play well.......(ever the optimist!)

Dick (No 9), agree with a lot of what you said but penalty wise they had a lad who knew how to make a pen out of a tackle, our pen a bit harsh but let's be honest, if it had been outside the box, it was a free kick.

True about other things though, and we had no width or pace, without those we will win jack...

We were absolute gash for most of the game and the game itself was often awful to watch, but I like Martin's attitude. It is three points in the bag. And we can kick on from here. Hope Barkley isn't too discouraged by an admittedly 2 minutes of meltdown. And I think Bily was not completely appalling which is something he can build on. There is a talented footballer in there somewhere (admittedly one who is really really slow and can't defend). We absolutely need to buy a striker. I would sell Jags. Needs must.

Well, we got robbed there last year so just deserts for me. My main concern and has been for over 12 months is Jagielka, shocking again today, nearly 3 games 3 mistakes by Jagielka 3 conceded, he was shocking in preseason as well and cost us goals in them games, it is a good job Distin can read a game and has pace to cover him, otherwise we would be in a worse mess.

Jags has served us well but the injury has taken it's toll and lost a yard of pace he never had too much of to begin with. Sell him for £15M and go and get Dann or Kaboul from Spurs; neither can do any worse than Jags at the moment. Alternatively, try Johnny or Rodwell.

Anyone else think this team is not harmonious at the moment, as it looks that way to me...

Fuck right off Kieran #7, no matter what your grouse with EFC, Board, Kenwright, Moyes, Players etc the penalty was flying in even if keeper had gone the right way. As it was, the pen was skillfully taken with Arteta showing the eyes, running up and as keeper went one way, ball dispatched deliberately the other way.

FFS get a grip son and if you want to criticise at least pick your battles more fairly and with full justification. As angry and annoyed as we are overall, credit where credit is due to Arteta. Yes he gets paid stupid money and should score pens, but tell that to two of theirs, not to us.

Oh btw, yes we were gash overall, I agree, but a good pen is a good pen.

Steve Green, it wasn't a good penalty, under the circumstances it was a fucking magnificent penalty. Come May it will look even better.

How often have we seen the Blues dominate and come away empty handed?

For once we had luck on our side deservedly or not. Last Wednesday, I mentioned that we should see more of Mucha but once again Howard confounded his critics, me included, and kept us in the game single handed.

I also wrote on the Jags situation and yet again he was a nervous wreck, the defence as a whole was shambolic and the game as a spectacle was dreadful but a win is a win and in the end, that's the name of the game.

Thanks Ken, great as always. well done Tim, great game. We Played terrible, but a win is a win, so going to bed happy, till next time. Any news on when Seamus and Gueye might be back?

We should have won against QPR. We should have lost yesterday. Things balancing out? I don't think so. Something is badly wrong. Poor movement which results in the return of hoofball. Stale, negative, boring, flat, uninspiring, passionless, guiless, and gutless.

I believe there are three worse teams than Everton in the Premier League which will unfortunately keep the hapless Moyes in his overpaid job. Flat, flat, stale and hopeless. Be careful what you wish for? Anyone, anyone...

Poll: Neville or Hibbert?

Hibbert anyday. In fact, having Neville on neutralizes Baines as the opposition allows us space on the right flank because they now he is ineffective.

Howard was brilliant!

The only decent outfield player yesterday was Baines.

If this keeps up, it's going to be a long season!

I feel embarassed although the win was priceless. We were woeful and by far the better and more enterprising team lost. Can we expect better though when we effectively start with 10 men as we always do when Vic is on, getting reduced to 9 men with the introduction of the woeful Bilyaletdinov was the nail in the coffin.

I have zero posiitivity now and don't even believe that we have a decent squad that is mismanaged. We were played off the park and demonstrated a total lack of basic footballing skills in virtually every position.

Moyes is also displaying his totally irrational side again, Jags is brittle and can't pass a football and if we could get £15 mil for him I'd take it. Even Bainsey was shaky. I'll make an exception for Tim Howard who has been and is a real credit to the team, the odd flap apart.

Ken, A very diplomatic report that did not show any dramatic critism of the team. In fact you assured all the blue supporters not present the game was close. Well I think posts 7,9 and 10 are far closer to the truth. Everton were abysmal and to think such a crap team like Blackburn could completely outclass us and could have won 5-0. Apart from Howard and Barkley the other nine had poor games.

One of the nine who does stand out, for the wrong reason, is Anichebe. Even allowing for the injured strikers, how could any manager pick him? If there is any Everton fan on the planet who thinks he will ever make the grade, let it be known.

I watched whole game live in Oz and the whole blame for Everton's performance must go down to Moyes.

I can't believe defenders twating ball 50yards upfieldin air is a tactic that is good at this level. It cuts out mid-field and comes straight back at you. This was done so often that it must have been on Moyes's orders to get it up front early.

Very little constructive play from our boys as, apart from Baines, no-one is up to speed. What the fuck do they do in training? Are they testing themselves against juniors and thinking they're fit.

As regards Jags, is his mindset wrong with all the Arse talk? I'll be glad when the transfer window is shut and one way or another we all know where were at. Can anybody throw light on why Rodwell was not even on the bench? Seeing nothing of injury or is he in talks with suitors?

Overall 3 points, thank god, cause someone must be looking after us.

That was the kind of game you win ugly when on a title run or cup run like a one off. However, we are far from that. Half that squad is of Championship quality, the rest is handicapped by a manager who insists over systems than players natural positions.

A fresh approach from board to pitch is required. Hope it wont take relegation for this to occur cause it looks like this will continue.

Hibbert all the way.

Looking on the bright side, Jag`s performance ensured that Arsene will not be increasing his bid to the required £20M so our defence will remain intact... or is that really the bright side?

Formica was a nice material, shiny, easy to clean, durable, I miss it very much. Perhaps we should give a slab of formica a starting position up front in our next game as it would cause a lot more problems for the opposition than Victor Anichebe.

Nice report Ken; I watched it on a crappy internet link and I thought we were dire. The thing that stuck out like a sore thumb for me was confidence ? or lack of. Every time we got possession, we quickly gave it away by poor passing or insane pass selection. The players seemed rushed and quite often you had two or more players running the same channels ? it's clear to me that the midfield is pretty much in a mess at the moment.

Now, there are two reasons for this that I can perceive: 1) We don't have any genuine wide players (I'm not including Bily, as at best he's ineffective and his default mode is totally useless). This lack of width is leading to a squeezed style of play with the hit and hope long ball from defence being overused. 2) This is down to lack of confidence in midfield and in the midfield by the defence. I put our lack of width down to injury to Gueye and Coleman in the same week.

I feel the next home game will set the tone for the rest of the season ? if we knock it about a bit and get a victory, confidence will come; players will become familiar with the roles they're asked to perform; results will come and I see at best 5th. If we lose or lose more players, we'll continue to go into our shells, play dire non-football, look ragged and easily beatable.

Anichebe looked twice the player when he was moved out wide (that turn of pace losing his marker and then the cross he put over for Screech was exquisite) and Cahill came on and looked a genuine option up front where big Vic spent more time on the deck than a pissed carpet fitter. (BTW the defender on him got away with murder at times ? I've never seen more blatant pushing).

Tim Howard was magnificent!

All in all, I'm not at all impressed with what I saw out there yesterday ? but there is hope, one or two more results like this, our wide options coming back from injury and a genuine option up front and we'll be back to our full of confidence 'scourge of the top six' days of last season.

I watched on TV in Kazakhstan and my main memories were seeing big Vic either on the floor or whingeing about something and nothing else. Players running into each other, 2 or 3 of the worst suicide passes I've ever seen and endless hoofing of the ball with its inevitable loss to the opposition. I also feel that it's unfair to Tony Hibbert who is a very good specialist RB to be dropped so that they can fit in Pip every week.

I really hate to say it but I believe that we can sell Arteta without missing him. Yes, I blame Moyes for his dreadful selection and instructions but surely half-decent players can play half-decent football without a manger.

When they get on the pitch they have to produce the goods and they produced schoolboy football ? even Fellaini who I rated as a giant last year. Tim Howard was brilliant though and we owe him big time for that travesty of a result. Surely it'll get better? Please say it will...

Good report Ken, three undeserved points in the bag, and by the look of it we are going to need them. But have seen too many games where we have dominated and got FA... So no prob there, but what about the players attitudes, so miserable. They are clearly not happy with the state of things. Worrying!

Only a couple of weeks before we meet the big boys, and I dread to think what will happen if we go into those games with the same frame of mind. We have to do something quickly!

Top 3 grouches from the game:

1. Arteta takes another shit free kick, when Baines is a MUCH better option... WHY?

2. Fellaini not jumping for anything... WHY?

3. Anichebe on the left side, Bily on the right... WHY?

ps: I've been a critic of Howard in the past, but he was excellent this time, and Bily needs to be given more playing time.

WHO'S DOING THE HOLDING ROLE?.

What I saw was a big gaping hole between the defence and midfield. This position is paramount, we could all see the pressure on Jags and Distin because there is no protection in front of them.

The only way to resolve it, is to move Neville to this role, then we will see a better balance. Then there is a problem playing Arteta and Felli. Oh for a Carsley or Parkinson.

Nobody can disagree that we were dire, but what worries me is that we look stale and tired. We badly need an Andy Gray type signing to wake the place up, someone with enthusiasm and drive-will we get one; GTF! Wednesday will pass peacefully. It?s ironic that our season may well come down to the actions of Barclay and Barkley.

Just to add great report Ken, BTW why was Saha missing? Did he break a fingernail or something???

Talk about get out of jail!! I think we'll be punished very severely by better teams in the future if we roll out that crap!.Lost a lot of "respect" for baldie Shearer when he supported Blackburns diving for penalties, but he would do wouldn't he being a Blackburn old boy, nice to see the BBC is still "neutral" Good job there wasn't a strong wind or more of them would have fallen over! Watched MOD not knowing the RS score , they looked quite useful! Never realised HOW much I hated them !

The Saha thing is puzzling me because I'm sure I heard Moyes interviewed after the game and he said he had a full squad (apart from Coleman) to pick form?

If Arsenal have offered 15M for Jags then I would be happy to take it. I don't think he has been the same player since his injury. At the moment he is vastly over rated and I don't think he would be differcult to replace.

With his abysmal distibution he would be like a fish out of water at Arsenal, which is probably why if rumour is correct he is not that keen on going there. I think that no matter who the player is there is a right time to sell. I also think that we missed the boat with Arteta and Rodwell last season. Its all very well being stubborn and refusing to sell your 'stars' but the trouble is when these untouchables do not play like stars then you are stuck with a lame duck. A lame duck who in the case of Arteta is now on a salary vastly more than his worth.

I don't know how, I don't who, I don't know why but we have 3 points and we should run as fast as we can...

Team Review:

Howard: You now have amnesty till Christmas after that game. World Class

Baines/Distin: Solid. Expected.

Neville: 100% Intensity 0% Influence

Jagileka: Thank you for costing us a few million pounds. I hope Wenger was watching Swansea-Sunderland. 3 Games in a row, no concentration... even if you do stay, I hope Moyes has the courage to pair up Heitinga/Distin just to give you a wake-up call.

Barkley: Welcome to the Premier League. File under lessons learned.

Osman/Arteta/Fellaini: No one stepped up to take control. Against Villa one of you has to...

Heitinga: Not fair to judge you in midfield. Good fill-in, but you belong in the back four. You might have to wait till Euro 2012 to get to play there again...

Anichebe: Heavyweight that plays like a featherweight. Spend your weekends watching Drogba in his prime... Although your dramatic gesturing did win us a penalty.

Cahill: Effective as a sub but still caused the second Blackburn penalty.

Bily: Excellent first touch. Second touch always went to a Blackburn player though... Maybe it's a vision issue.

Beckford: Typical Moyes Sub. Too little too late I'm afraid.

Moyes: Yesterday's performance was embarrassing; instead of being gracious post match you had the nerve to comment on the penalty decisions... Formica was looking for the contact but there WAS contact on both Blackburn pens.

The team played like it was the first time they had been put together on a pitch. No anticipation, No movement, No passion!!! You have 2 weeks to find a solution... I hope we can chalk this down to the transfer window factor, we'll find out on 10 September.

Jesus, I'm watching Spurs vs city and they make Blackburn and Everton look like relegation fodder. 0-2 now and City have been awesome with Nasri the best man on the pitch. I think they could walk the Premier League this year. If we'd played them yesterday they would have been in double figures. Oh woe is us.

Steve Green if the keeper just stood on the spot it would have hit him in the shin. Not great by any stretch.

Blackburn must be one of the most physical teams in the Prem. Samba is brute force and ignorance and had he been over Felli anywhere else on the pitch it would have been a foul. We gave away two penalties and on any other day they would have been dispatched. A fair result would have been 2-2. I couldnt believe just how bad Jags was wheras Distin was pure class. We have to have Jonny and Sylvain playing football from the back. 15mil for Jags perhaps thats the distraction. The window shuts in a few days so perhaps he will get back to business as usual. Not sure why Baines is not taking our free kicks?
We have a quality list of players playing like zombies. It was very one paced and we just let them flood back once we go the ball. I think arteta ran with the ball once and that was sideways. Its going to a long season. I wonder how long DM will stay and how much longer do we fans have to put up with this shite they call football.
GOD SAVE OUR TEAM

Fair report again Ken.

We`ll play a lot better than that and lose during the course of the season, as Mohammed says, lets take the three points and scarper.

Andy # 20.

Staying up drinking on saturday night is meant to improve your mood.

And wheres Michael Kenricks report ?
I felt like a News of the world reader when I logged on just now

City 5-1 away to Tottenham, United 8-2 at home to Arsenal. The Mancs are going to clean up this year and I don't know which team is the best. Liverpool are donkeys in comparison and I don't believe that Chelsea can live with either.

I just watched the DVD of Everton's 84-85 season after watching both of the Manc games and having seen the game at the Riverside on TV yesterday and it made me sad to think of how far we have fallen.

Here we go again... a performance so poor, I am lost for words. We won only because Blackburn, with their Venky owners and shit manager, are in an even bigger mess than us. Actually, they played well, and should have won easily.

Moyes is a good manager but lousy with tactics. Why oh why he plays Victor when everybody else sees that he can't play at this level ? never mind score.

Beckford is not ready but he scored 8 league goals last season (32 apps) while Victor got zero with about the same time on the pitch (only 16 apps though) Is this poor or what ??

According to the Guardian, Big Vic has 91 apps for Everton before this season and he's scored 7 times. ls this poor or what? If not, then we should be apologizing to Brett Angell & Co and telling them that the stick they got at the time was unfair and Everton should have kept them ? like Moyes keeps playing Vic.

Everybody knows the striker situation but why Davie believes that playing one big striker upfront will work?Why he never tries something else like Baxter and McAleny up front? or Vellios and Cahill? Three strikers? Heitinga, Jags And Distin back three with Baines left wing and Arteta right wing? Barkley should be played in the MIDDLE ffs.

We should not be in a situation like this, penniless and not able to even loan new players. Still, we got the same team (for now) that has done pretty well before so we just might do it again when we get going (after Christmas).

Maybe we will play some good entertaining football at some time this season because I know the players can do it. Maybe we won't. I will be watching anyway, come what may.

Martin (#45) ? I did the same!!

So in the last min Arteta sent the keeper the wrong way, hit the pen in the corner and some clown is complaining and saying it was badly struck. Jesus wept.

Thomas - 14 - Shhhhh, FFS. It's hard enough selling a second-hand Jag in the current climate without this kind of indictment!

We won. Who's next?

Man Utd score 8 goals in 70 minutes against Arsenal.

I will be happy if we score 8 goals by Christmas the way our team looks going forward! Utter shite. Totally clueless.

Great result though. Woo hoo!

It's here, Mr Wilson... More of a summary than a report. And I got a few details wrong... I had a serious bout of ADD watching that shite.

I'm not overly effusive about the local lads, either, so you may not appreciate it. Osman fell over and gave the ball away a few times but I couldn't be arsed calling your attention to such trivialities. But your boy Vic did put in one good pass though. And the other lanky galoot couldn't tuck it away.

But you know that already, I'm sure... you were sat behind that goal, surely. Singing Moyesie's name at the end, no doubt. Perhaps you met some non-internet supporters. What did they have to say about things?

That's better Michael, weekend now complete. although I thought you were uncharacteristically lenient. Pacing yourself for a long season ?

Didn't get there on Saturday, new commitments mean I`ll miss a few this season, so I cant answer your question.

Being a non Internet fan I`ll have to get my lad around to show me how this streaming thingy works.

No piss up or craic before or after some of the the games . . . fuck me I`m feeling more negative already.

If my match day experience is stripped to watching 90 minutes similar to Saturday I may find myself up on that ledge with You, Andy Crooks and Eugene before September's out.

Na, The only way is up

Dave#53 is there room for one more up there

Shall I have another mention of the Leicester game from 1997?, Damn too late..

Gary Speed if memory serves with an almost identical spot kick in the last minute and Everton get away with blue murder (no pun intentional), would I go back to then, no way, at least not how the season ended, Everton to be relegated 14 years on, not gonna happen, we got a win, stole a win whatever, next game please.

I just got back home from two weeks in the Merseyside area. While there, I witnessed the low of the QPR match, the bounce back against Sheffield Utd, and the crazy game at Blackburn. Sitting with the visiting fans at Ewood Park was a fantastic experience.

Hearing them chant USA USA when Tim Howard saved the penalty gave me goose bumps, and when Arteta scored, the eruption was unbelievable. Everton fans truly are the best in the world... continue to enjoy the matches everyone... and cheer on the lads for me.

Rob Green

Super post