Niasse and Calvert-Lewin on target in U23s win

I have a soft spot for Liam Walsh and he was his usual tigerish self in midfield, at least as much as Tom Davies was tonight.

Kieran Dowell slowly got into the game. As he did, he showed some excellent ball skills, beating several men at a time.

Also, I quite liked Calvert-Lewin tonight. Again, a bit of a slow start but he improved as the game progressed.

Holgate and Kenny at the back the epitome of calm.

Man Utd came out of the blocks from the start but Everton still had the better of the first half attacking threat, and were much the more dangerous side in the second half.

I've never seen such a performance as the loud-mouthed antics of the Man Uyd coach in their dug-out, barely 10 seconds going by without a raucous bawl from him. Do his players hear him? Do they listen and obey every call? If so, they must be poor decision-makers.

Just to make it clear, I go on about Liam, but I don't know him, no relation to him, never met him, I just think he is a very good player who can make it big at Everton.

If so I can't help but feel Niasse must have done something wrong.

But my God, how hilarious is this Allardyce story! This is going to be fun watching the press slowly leak more and more while the FA scrambles.

Not "is", but was. It was made clear the third party ownership came to an end when he transferred to West Ham.

Anyway, the bigger point was the hilarity of the entire story surrounding Allardyce anyway. Seems to be one massive corrupt individual who is very high on himself.

I reckon he's at the stage where he might well get the experience of first just being on the first team bench, and then in another game coming off the bench for 15 minutes in a game in which we are not going to lose.

Man Utd had some very tricky players up front and I can't recall Callum being skinned at all in the game (in fact, a very compact and well-organised back four – well done, Unsworth). His distribution, and support play down the left, were also good (IMO).

Connolly for Oviedo perhaps and a game for Davies if Barry is still not 100%.

It was of course also West Ham who signed Tevez and Mascherano, and even though the transfers were ruled illegal, both players quickly moved on to Man Utd and the RS respectively. By the way, West Ham settled with Sheffield Utd who were relegated to the tune of 㾻m – the FA, UEFA, FIFA were not involved at all.

Or is this just the paranoid Evertonian "woe is me" speaking? We'd just take it off the FA if it happens. Years ago, Derby had an Ecuadorian striker on a hooky Spanish passport. He scored one league goal – the winner against guess who? Then he got refused entry returning from international duty, never seen on these shores again. If that was our neighbours, they'd have been screaming to get the game replayed, or the points awarded to them.

We did fuck all. Everton that...

Scoring in the U23s doesn't mean he's good enough for the Premier League. If he was serious about playing for us, then he would have moved on loan and tried to impress for another Premier League club.

Koeman doesn't rate him. End of.

I don't think Connolly is ready for the first team yet; most of the players who feature in U23 games for either Everton or the rest of the league don't progress to being regular Premier League first-teamers so it's dangerous and misleading to read too much into a solid performance at that level.

Our U23 defence looked good last season but Andros Townsend tore us apart when he featured for Spurs U23s and Koeman would need to be certain that wouldn't happen in a Premier League game if he were to blood another teenager at full-back.

This is what is wrong with Everton – Valencia on loan, it's an outrage. We do it every time. Another decent goal scorer and we could have been sat second and still in the League Cup. Frustrating, eh.

Geri shows no sign of maturing and a look at the first team shows a group of seasoned pros and I can't see how they can be transformed into a top 4 side without an injection of upwardly mobile players as opposed to journeymen carrying a big pricetag.

Young players sometimes need the first team in order to blossom and I really hope that Ronald will give them a chance.

I'd argue the opposite. He's receiving rave reviews from Unsworth; man of the match on a couple of occasions and regularly talked up by Rhino in the post match interviews.

Really hope this kid gets his chance this season.

"Oumar Niasse has been brilliant for him, talking to him, leading the line with him and he's been a tremendous professional over the last four or five weeks."

Maybe Niasse has found his role.

Re Oumar; regardless of the impression most of us have of his ability; one has to to admire his knuckling down, his contribution to the young lads and to Gana settling in.

Oumar's return to the first team could be bigger than Lazarus.*

* Disclaimer – I can't see Koeman as being the magnanimous type.

Unsy has class written all over him.... and no, John (#31), I wouldn't fancy arguing with him!

It's really win -win for Koeman with Oumar, he never bought him. I say fair play to him for at least sticking at EFC and trying to improve himself.

Who knows, his humiliation at the hands of his new boss might have given him the motivation and fight needed to succeed!!!

The Echo had a podcast earlier on today and they mostly thought that the big man wasn't much use.

I am sure that Bill and Farhad and Unsie and the Dutch are getting along very well - and that all the players are pulling together. That's the Everton way, as I'm sure we'll see on Friday.

It's not Niasse's fault we bought him so I'm sorry he's struggled but,even at U23 level, he looks Championship level at best. Great to see Joe Williams back too: with him, Walsh, Davies, Charsley and Dowell, it's easy to see why they let Ledson go.

Many youngsters with many top teams don't make the grade and sometimes it's because of foreign imports bought for excessive fees who, they themselves sometimes flatter to deceive.

Whilst it is early days, one hopes the selected first teamers will prove their worth by not playing as poorly as they did this last week; but, if not, then Koeman must be big enough to swing the axe and start using his younger talent.

Must go to one of these games sometime, never know who you might be sat next to.

The team played well against a lively Man Utd side. Well organised and attractive passing football. Stand-out performer for me was Kenny, hard in the tackle, no prisoners and never put a foot wrong. First time I've seen Calvert-Lewin, agree with Charlie (37) about his composure and ability. I'd like to see him a few more times but looks the part (Calvert-Lewin, not Charlie).

Holgate, Davies and Walsh are the core of the team and it's clear to see how they are knocking on the door.

An entertaining game all round. Don't know who the Man Utd coach was but he liked the sound of his own voice, surprised none of his players didn't tell him to shut it, my dad did about 20 times.

As for if the ball hit him or he headed the goal, we have a 1st team centre forward who claims goals on a less likely basis. However, I do have to admit that you have the advantage of having seen him play a game.