Doomed to Repeat the Errors of the Past

Neither Dowell nor Lookman did enough for me. Very disappointing given the clamour by many for a chance to see what they can do.

Frankly I'm sick of it with them.

Football is now all about money and whilst the big six thrive and strive to win trophies and play in the Champions League, we sit there and think we can disrespect the only chance of glory we have each season.

Someone wants to tell the people at Everton that we have about as much hope any season of getting in the Champions League as we have of setting up house on Mars.

But no, the fat cats will sit there and expect us all to be so thankful and chuffed with finishing 8th (this team ain't good enough for 7th) and pat themselves on the back as a job done.

Same again next season, lofty ambitions to finish 7th or 8th, throw the Cups.

It's just sad that we are a club now run in such a manner.

Instead, they were treated to a team selection that put together a set of players who, though good enough players on paper, have had no playing time together as a team and by God, it showed. Silva left out not one, but two of our best goalscorers in Richarlison and Walcott, tinkered with the midfield in true Martinez style and brought in a goalkeeper who none of us want to see making first-team starts.

This truly was a set of players (not a team), who had no set idea of each other's playing styles, as in a Sunday league fixture where a team had been cobbled together at the last minute.

Silva cheated the fans, and cheated the players who came here wanting to help Everton WIN a trophy this season.

He has definitely lost any respect I had for him before the game (not that I wanted him in the first place), but to say one thing and then do another just shows him to be an untrustworthy, duplicitous individual who has shown his true colours and his team selection is the chief reason why we have departed from the competition at such an early stage.

I am angry and disgusted.

It was purely down to an extremely poor managerial decision.

Also, I don't know why Martinez gets a pass above? He was amongst the worst for the League Cup. I haven't forgotten the 3-0 Swansea defeat and his shrugged-shoulder attitude to the defeat.

I'm still very unconvinced by Silva overall; time will tell. Just my opinion.

I am not interested in the snowflake treatment of players and while I am at it I am not interested in players giving high-fives to Richarlison after his totally, wasteful penalty attempt. It is also time to get real, time to recognise that our current central midfielders are not good enough.

Of course, I would love young Davies to succeed but he is not yet ready or good enough to represent a club with real ambition. Look at the top clubs, look at their power, movement off the ball, look at their speed of passing and how they stretch teams — then tell our experienced, pampered players to shape up or ship out.

Firstly, Everton need to be playing as many games as possible in the League and Cup competitions if they are to become a top-four side and stay there. It is a prerequisite that Everton need to be able to play and progress in more than one competition. The objective in top four status is to win the Premier League and take part in the Champions League as far as possible. Two competitions.

Secondly, to be able to play at the consistent level required, Everton have to have a settled team that are gelling together as a team and able to implement a successful tactical plan week in, week out. This Silva knows about since he told us so after Saturday's game.

Playing competitive games is the best way for players to improve, both technically and tactically. To be consistent, Everton have to be playing in as many games as possible to improve the players' ability and awareness, organisation and teamwork. Pissing about at Finch Farm on wages they don't deserve never achieves this, since Everton are consistently useless after any breaks.

Never ever should seven player changes take place. Over a season, there are plenty of opportunities, injuries and tactical changes, during a League programme and successful Cups campaigns to introduce and give players game time, with the benefit of a settled team, providing the best platform for them to play to the best of their individual abilities. It also provides a good template for training.

Silva, by his mismanagement of this game, has set back Everton's progress back, two years in my opinion. That's if Everton are to progress under his management, as consistency begins with himself. I just hope he is not thinking only of Premier League survival — like his unsuccessful predecessors.

Yes, I know the 5000-1 chance came up a couple of years ago, but they were the bet that keeps Ladbrokes etc in business.Why not for clubs like Everton, West Ham, Leicester make your priority a cup, particularly the League Cup?

It is a chance of silverware, a big day for supporters at Wembley and a place in the Europa League which is realistically all we can hope for from a good Premier League season. This scorning of the cups is a fetish for clubs like Everton. Clubs in the Champions League can afford to treat these cups with some scorn. Everton cannot.

Seven changes last night was wrong. Sigurdsson had at last shown some form, so why drop him? It doesn't make sense to me.

Silverware is what supporters crave and we scorn the opportunity time and again.

Why cause so much disruption to a team that was doing quite well the last two matches?

I was expecting Bernard and possibly Lookman to start but to make wholesale changes harmed us and probably cost us this cup tie. I am disappointed because I thought we had a chance to build momentum but it has been needlessly wasted.

Without European football, this tournament takes on a bit more significance for the club and fans, I feel a bit let down that the manager seemed to have downgraded it.

Make it up to us by winning the FA Cup and getting into the top 6 .

We took 5,000 fans to Leeds in 2011, hopeful of progressing past a lower league team. They were given a lift by our selection, something like: "They think they can come here with a weakened team and beat you easy; get out there and show them!" Neil Warnock was the manager. Moyes selected Junior (who) in centre-midfield. We lost, of course.

Koeman went into the Norwich League cup game, 4 wins, 3 draws, 1 defeat. Going well. Makes a hatful of changes, lost, then won 1 of the next 7.

Last night, as others have said, followed in the finest Everton League cup traditions. Chance of a cup run and building momentum thrown away, walking out past kids in tears.

Where our club is now, and with our collective desperation for silverware, we should not be losing home cup ties to the likes of Southampton. End of story. Not good enough.

But let's not forget that Silva has his instructions from above. The Premier League is the priority, finish as high as you can as each place is significant financially. Screw the fans, they'll turn up if you tell them there won't be wholesale changes.

The fact is the players really let themselves down with a few proving that they're not capable of playing regular 1st football. These fringe players have done themselves no favours and have reduced their own playing time by being so rubbish with no cup until January.

Hopefully Silva has finally learned about some and keeps them away from the starting lineup/1st team. Let's face it if Schneiderlin doesn't start another game until The FA Cup in January, I for one would be very happy and will deal with us being shit in the League Cup last night. It's hardly a new experience after all.
COYB

As with previous nincompoops holding down Everton's managership and the truth is staring them in the face, I find myself battling fellow Toffees. Even after this latest debacle, we can expect a legion of super optimists to be on here lauding his ability.

Gueye and Davies, despite each having limitations, seems to be the most functional of our midfield pairings, they also need more minutes together to develop a relationship.

By taking out Gueye for Schneiderlin and adding Dowell, it was unfair on the young lad. He gets his chance, but he gets his chance with players who have no experience playing together. If you play Dowell, then Walcott and Richarilson need to play. If you play Lookman and Bernard, then Sigurdsson needs to play. There needs to be some continuity.

Now many will say 'Dowell had his chance and failed', but his chance came in a failed experiement, unfair to the lad. I hope he gets some 20-30 minute sub appearnances, becasue talent he has, and he's still only 20.

All-in-all, terrible management.

Watching their goal, Davies is jogging tracking Ings from two meters back, while Keane and particularly Schneiderlin just keep backing off to nowhere until it's too late. Really annoying to watch.

I can understand a few changes: Baines, Bernard, Tosun, maybe even one more... but they shouldn't be needing a rest at this point in the season with no Europe to contend with.

We should only consider giving rests and chances to players if the game is won. Start with your strongest possible team and, if you get a comfortable lead, then rest a few.

I am really pissed with this result and angered by the lack of effort or ability shown when defending their goal.

Silva is not the answer... Silva calls for consistency!!! Farcical, the word sums this club up. What winners do we have at this club? All losers from top to bottom.

Motto now reads: Nothing but Mediocrity will do... unless we play the Shite, then it's: Nothing but a trouncing will do...

55 years watching my club, home and away, I thought the seventies was bad... My God, the last few years have been appalling, and I dread to think what the next few years will hold for us Blues. No Guts, No Glory... Get used to No Sliverware boys, because this bunch of shite has no Guts.

I will be there Saturday at Leicester, shouting for the boys again, but in my heart I know, the Manager, the players and the Club couldn't give a monkey's about the name Everton or the thousands of us who live, breathe, and worship our club.

It's reality, boys... suck it up...

Either talk is very cheap, or this manager doesn't think that this given, should also apply to himself?

I'm now thinking about the late John Moores, talking about the fans during the “History of Everton” and hope that something changes soon, and something will be done about it! Because I can see some of the loyalist fans in the country getting very close to genuinely having had enough?

I agree. It is probably why Ken Buckley can't be bothered with his reports any more. He can just recycle the old ones with generic narratives.

Managers get sacked for poor Premier League results. They rarely if ever get sacked for defeats in Cup competitions. We had two cup runs in 2015-16, reaching the semi-final of both. The manager lost his job because we finished 11th for the second successive season. Even if we had won one of the cups, he would likely still have been dismissed. In fact, some fans wanted to him dismissed before the FA Cup semi-final was played in the belief Unsworth would have done a better job.

No wonder modern-day managers afford low priority to this competition which is usually won by one of the top six.

None of the above should excuse the players, too many of whom are content to hide in the shadow of whoever the latest manager happens to be.

I can't see anybody supporting Silva on changing Saturdays team so drastically.

It makes no sense whatsoever. Consistency and Confidence blown out the window in one go.

I can't believe anyone can be tired so early in the season; most if not all haven't played every game.

He needs a result at the weekend or this fiasco will come back to bite Silva on the arse.

Already got himself sent off... And last night's penalty was ridiculous.

Penalties ought to be practiced. His effort was one of the worst I have ever seen in nearly 60 years.

1) They are still learning a new system and a lot of the players out there last night had had less time to work in it than others.

2) I am seeing improvement match-by-match in some players individually – Kurt Zouma, Jonjoe Kenny and Bernard being the obvious examples.

3) Lookman looked good last night. He is starting to understand that whatever the ideal outcome for him, it arrives from playing well for Everton.

4) I don't think Walcott's penalty was that bad a hit. The 'keeper made a good stop.

5) We created a lot of chances from various situations. The chances we conceded came from similar situations for Southampton, which shows that we are going to be harder to play against, as soon as we can iron out the errors.

I know that is uber-positive considering Everton got knocked out of the cup on my birthday, but I am sooo much happier with the direction we are going in compared with this time last season or even the two seasons before that. We need to give the new team time to get their pieces together and their points across and, until they do, there will always be results like this one.

We can start to judge Silva by the time of the FA Cup, in my opinion. And we can start to judge Brands by this time next year.

Watch out. I got slated on here weeks ago for saying Rich has Balotelli tendencies.

Over-confident perhaps... and not well executed — but I've definitely seen worse.

From where I was in the Park End, it looked more than a few inches over the bar.

Yet another useless Moshiri choice.

It's Davies fault, Davies was awful, Davies shouldn't be in the team. What do you watch? Is it just that this is the first post you read so you jump on the bandwagon and then just keep going?

Davies is one of our better players and even if he did have a bad game that does not account for the team's overall performance. Oh, and don't forget the ever faithful, he wouldn't get into a Top 4 Team. Well, none of them are but some of them (5?) have been and now they aren't, and quite right Barcelona aren't in the Top 4.

Then we get the "don't blame Silva" argument. He's only had 9 games, all the players he bought are injured and we should wait until they've all played, after 2 seasons and 3 transfer windows, until he's sold everyone who was here before him and look what he did in Portugal and Greece. Well look what he's done, or rather not done, in England! What signs are there that he is any sort of a coach other than he's doing what Martinez did!

I could go on but quite honestly I'm getting a bit fed up with excuses being made for this super coach. Let his results speak for him but for me it seems nothing more than which we've seen for the, at least, last 6 seasons.

Maybe one day we'll have the attitude that we should be trying to win every game we play, what have we got to lose that we're not losing now.

Anyone for more red wine?

Silva crossed a line on Tuesday. That's not OTT. The reaction afterwards was an almost unanimous condemnation of a piece of arrogant mgt that totally misjudged the situation “his” team are in and how his tenure has been impacted by this defeat.

Silva has lost “time”. I didn't really think he had any of it to start with despite the usual clamour of “sensible” voices. Bottom five at Christmas and see how much time most think he has? That's the cruel reality of yes, a wickedly unforgiving league. But he's engineered this time deficit himself. He's clearly not the first of course but he's here now and frankly he's disrespected the fans and that takes a lot of recovery,

Voices will appear saying this is nonsense, it's “just” the League Cup. No it isn't, it's much much more then that for EFC and it's supporters. It is, or rather was, “hope”. It is a betrayal and okay, just dire judgement. But the lack of awareness is staggering. Where's the wise council? What's Brands doing whilst this is going on? Silva is a coach and Brands is the boss. Someone, somewhere has to explain what it is he's blown and why it matters to our supporters.

But there's worse I'm afraid. The absurd degree of change reinforced the view that we may be able to compete for the holy grail of 7th, with a full top 13-14 squad. But there's so little after that it's scary. Mina and Gomes may make that 13-14 a bit larger if they ever actually play. But a bang-average under-strength Southampton could and should have been three up and out of sight with an hour gone. What does that say for our squad depth?

I saw a shout on Twitter that sums up the mess: “All these negative morons will fuck off back into their holes in the ground when we beat Leicester on Saturday”.

Really? For me and I suspect most, a win of any kind from out best available 11 simply twists the knife in a sore wound. All it says is why not four days earlier and a cup run? But no, we are Barca like and these little cups are beneath Everton, they of two and a half decades without winning anything fame.

There was an experiment worthwhile on Tuesday. One change. Bernard in and on the left, Richarlison in the centre. That's the only change that was needed. Try it out and see if it works. Instead, all the momentum of a second-half win v Fulham is lost and we are light years away from winning anything.

Read the Esk this week on our commercial performance and then re-read this post. It will be a Blue Union type moment such is the mess right now, or at least that's how it all seems –where's the strategy, the vision, just what do the coaching staff think matters at the club and do any of the staff understand why we are so pissed at them?

I know the pace and athleticism of modern football places higher demands on footballers, but if you are challenging for the Premier League and playing on the Champions League then you would play your best eleven, week-in & week-out, and expect the players to manage.

It is about standards, leadership and professionalism which have been absent from Everton for almost three decades. Silva has misjudged the fans sentiments here badly and has crossed a line here in how he is viewed.

The one highlight for me was Bernard and I want him in the team occupying the role Sigurdsson holds. Creativity in the number ten role has been a massive gap for us over the years so let's give him a shot.

Sigurdsson can drop into central midfield or drop to the bench, as he has simply not justified the £45 million price-tag and for one performance he has like Fulham he has five where he really lacks influence.

The other big challenge we all know is a striker. We banked £75 million up front for Lukaku and it will take spending £50 million of that to get a player who is anywhere near the level to replace him.

The resting of players with no European adventures and a week off in the near future is maddening.

If, God forbid, we lose to Leicester, we'll be on pace for a season tally, admittedly after eight games, of 52 points.

That's without having played Man City, Man Utd, "that lot", Spurs, or Chelsea.

If this weekend ends up with a loss, and we were tossed out of a presumably winnable competition to gain the three points on Saturday and consequently don't? Then I've a feeling there's going to be a hell of a lot of people calling bullshit on Mr. Silva. Torches and pitchforks to be sure.

And frankly I'd not blame them one iota.

A massive managerial error in judgement if you ask me.

I get a lot of comments on "understanding Everton" and the like. It's completely understandable, being the "outsider".

What's really, really frightening to me, is this silly American is wondering if Silva understands Everton! And isn't that rather damning?

1995 Marco. Throw the kitchen sink at every single opportunity to win silverware, please!

More to come in. No sign of investment stopping.

There was the chance that someone like Lookman or Dowell could perform well enough to make a strong case for first-team inclusion and that would benefit the team for the whole season potentially if that game had proved the launchpad for someone.

As it happened none of these things came to pass. Retrospect makes everyone look smart but a lot of us wanted to see the likes of Lookman, Bernard and Dowell given time.

It wasn't just about saving first-team players for Leicester so I don't see that the result there particularly justifies or condemns Silva. It was a chance for the fringe players to shine that they mostly failed to take, everyone talks now like it was inevitable but obviously it was not; we created better chances than them and it was small margins in the end.

We are very much in transition. Silva has a long way to go until he proves himself good enough to manage in the Premier league. But as a fan I've had many years to get used to the lack of ambition and disappointments.

I'm now more coutious but over the last 3 months more optimistic than I have been for several years that we are pointing in the right direction but the track is only just being laid.

From what I saw of the highlights Dowell was finding space and getting into good positions but no one would pass to him.

I'm sure he and a few of the other young players will be given more game time this season because there is potential but are in need of guidance and support along the way.

When we've stopped leaking goals from set pieces and have formed an effective style resulting in consistent performances, maybe then we can be so confident (arrogant) as to rest players like the big boys do... We're a million miles away currently, as demonstrated by the Huddersfield performance and the West Ham result.

Morning.

I understand "it's bigger than that" and concur with all your points about Dowell. I had actually stated I'd hoped he'd start.

But there's a hell of a difference between starting a kid or two, looking at the bigger picture and long haul, versus seven changes.

That's my point.

And my opinion is, now that we've shit the bed, the Leicester game is a big one. Justified or not, it seems we held starters back for a Premier League game.

So we'd better win it, or Silva will get a more unhappy fan base than he currently has.

Barnard to Bolasie.
Richarlison to Klaassen.
Zouma to Mangala.
Mina and Gomes to come.

One transfer window and some expect trophies rolling in. Get Real.

There is obviously some sort of problem at the club. With Silva and the new players, we should have battered Huddersfield, West Ham and Southampton even though the squad is going through transition.

I just hope “I'm the best salesman” isn't still interfering with who is put forward to play.

The players that came in included the likes of Baines, Schneiderlin (both first-team selections on multiple occasions this season), Lookman and Dowell (both young players who have shown enormous promise over 18 months now and were going to get the chance at some point) and Bernard, who has been knocking on the door off the bench for a little while.

When you look at it like that, it starts to look like the decision was made to combine the idea of resting players who had played 3 days earlier and giving an opportunity to players who were deserving of it.

Perhaps the only selection that flies against that point is that of Stekelenburg, but the point remains that Silva is still learning the squad. I don't think he knows his first team yet.

At half-time, I was suggesting that he came off and that Richarlison came on with Bernard in the hole. Or that Davies left the pitch with Bernard and Dowell in front of Schneiderlin. Removing Dowell and having nobody in the vacant space gifted time and comfort to the oppo. Bad, bad tactical error. If there is a measure of yardage for distance the ball is passed forward or backward I suspect Davies would have been on –200 m with Schneids not far behind, although second half there wasn't a forward pass on until Bernard moved central.

Lookman has impressive touch and quick feet. Naïve, still, and should have been told to spend most of the time wide. Needs telling and giving sub time.

I suspect Teresa May watched Richarlison's run-up and used it Wednesday. Worst penalty I've seen since Fred Pickering hit the Gwladys St stand with one vs Sunderland, FAC 3rd Round, 1966.

I don't think he knows his best team yet either but he knows it isn't the one he put out last night.

He picked the same team two games in a row prior to last night and it's an iteration of that team so my point stands.

The point I didn't quite make perhaps is that I accept we might not finish where we'd like to this season and we might not win any cups and we might run out of steam at Christmas but we don't even know what good looks like for this squad so we have to use every available fixture to find that out — not use up a valuable fixture in the formative period to give the squad players minutes.

"A lot of us wanted to see the likes of Lookman, Bernard and Dowell given time."

Not all at the same time. They'd never played together before.

If Silva was totally set on changing the wide men, then playing Dowell as well was way too much. Sigurdsson had to play for continuity.

So playing a strong, weak or experimental team doesn't matter. A loss is bad! A win good. We vent frustration or applaud and celebrate. That's football.

Although it's a results business, we all know we don't have a top class side. So why expect so much? You will only be disappointed.

We have reset with a new team, players, coaches, physios, recruitment, marketing, sales, boardroom. There will be many bumps along the way and therefore expecting instant success is an unrealistic target both on and off the pitch.

I will not be calling for Silva's exit or extension on Monday and therefore – win, lose, or draw – I just hope for a good performance that continues to show promise and good team ethic.

Sacrificing the chance to win a cup has never been justified by any Everton manager for the last 10 years... When will they get it?

Southampton made 6 changes of their own. Silva put out a team that should have had enough to win that game.

Two (Schneiderlin, Tosun) are basically first teamers, Bernard soon will be. Many thought Lookman ought to be an automatic pick before the season kicked off, Baines is no Cuco Martina, and Dowell needs games to develop (if not now, when?).

As for Stekelenburg... Playing your second choice keeper in the cups just seems to be the unwritten rule of the modern game. All 16 Premier League teams involved in the Third Round picked a different keeper from the league game before.

In your latest post, you seemingly wish to position yourself as someone with greater patience and enlightenment than the majority of Everton supporters by stating "...we all know we don't have a top class side. So why expect so much? You will only be disappointed."

And

"We have reset with a new team, players, coaches, physios, recruitment, marketing, sales, boardroom. There will be many bumps along the way and therefore expecting instant success is an unrealistic target both on and off the pitch."

I haven't seen anyone – anyone at all – demanding or expecting 'instant success', or claiming we are a 'top quality side' who should be challenging for the title. There is , however, a wide diversion of opinion over the quality of our existing squad and individual players within it.

Rather than an angry mob demanding 'instant success', I see a lot of reasoned posts by reasonable posters acknowledging that the two domestic cup competitions represent(ed) our best (current) opportunity to land much-desired silverware and an easier entry to much-needed European competition.

I consider myself extremely tolerant and patient about what the club, as it currently stands, can realistically achieve. I constantly defend our young players on TW.

That said, I align myself very much with those who were mightily disappointed at yet another early exit from the League Cup on Tuesday.

Nor can I agree with your laissez-faire attitude to the importance (or non-importance, in your case...) of the domestic cups.

Because WINNING MATTERS!

WINNING TROPHIES SHOULD BE OUR PRIME OBJECTIVE!

I'm of the belief that the overwhelming majority of Blues have a very realistic take on what Everton as a club can achieve this season. Silva and his squad needs time. The LONGER Everton stayed in the League Cup IMPROVED the manager's and the squad's chances of improving NOW, in THIS season.

You carry on shrugging your shoulders Justin and saying 'meh' at our feeble exit on Tuesday. That's your right. Keep convincing yourself of your 'rationale'. But I fancy you won't be converting many people to your point of view any time soon.

I agree with your comments, this is the start, with a long road ahead of us.

Silva should not have made 7 changes on Tuesday despite Southampton doing similar.

Justin is right when he says we are presently not good enough to win any of the cup competitions, and that is a fact.

I have sat through every minute of every Premier League game this season and, apart from the second half against Fulham, we have been nothing other than mediocre to poor.

Southampton: we were lucky to get the win.

Huddersfield: we fell into their trap and, quite honestly, they came for a point and got it. We were poor.

West Ham: need I say any more, when the away fans sing "You're supposed to be the home team!"

Fulham, we could have easily been two down at half-time. They clicked in the second half, and the finishing 11 should have started on Tuesday.

I thought the first half against Arsenal showed what we may be capable of, but it came to nothing in the second half.

It's no good calling for Silva's head. He will make mistakes, like we all do, but it's work in progress with no quick fix.

I think I'm a realist, but it's very frustrating being an Evertonian currently, and for more years than I care to remember.

"Justin is right when he says we are presently not good enough to win any of the cup competitions, and that is a fact."

No Ray. That constitutes an opinion, not a fact.

You (and Justin) seem to wish to ignore the entire history of Association Football.

Knock-out, one-off cup games always, always, but always produce 'cupsets' (to adopt a modern turn of phrase).

History also shows emerging teams often win a domestic cup one season and go on to challenge – even win – the league the next.

Think Everton-Watford in the mid-1980s.

I (and others) am not out and out claiming Everton WILL win the League Cup (not this season already!) or the FA Cup. But the longer you stay in ANY knock-out cup competition, by default, your chances of winning it increase.

To passively accept our exit from one of the two cups we could realistically compete for, to be 'relieved at having one less distraction' to our season, as Justin has evidently displayed in recent days, strikes me as a paradox as to what a football supporter should desire for his club.

What upsets most is that we should be beating Southampton and Norwich and Swansea etc etc etc. We simply should be challenging more than we are doing. We should be giving fans something to get excited about and should be battling with everything we've got to end that trophy drought.

I would love a trip to Wembley, would love to see the likes of Jagielka sign off with a bit of silverware and would love to get the fans believing in Silva and the direction we are heading.

Point taken about opinion and fact. Perhaps I should have used 'IMO'.

Yes cup upsets do happen, but we need to play our strongest side which may well have seen us through to the next round, rather than making 7 changes. Unless we adopt that approach we will continue to go out in the early rounds year after year.

I have been an Evertonian from the age of 13 for 54 yrs and nobody feels a defeat more than me. Things will change for the better, but it won't be a quick fix.

Go for a trophy, but play your best team, because that's how they gel together, rather than playing one game then out of the next.

I hear what you say, but making 7 changes won't get us to where we all want to be, IMO.

The days of waiting 2 seasons for a manager to impose his ideas and cobble together a team that will win trophies are long gone.

There has to be an immediate effect, certainly within 6 months. When or if success comes along, there will be a unanimous consensus that it has arrived, it will sweep the club and supporters along with a surge of confidence.

If a winning formula doesn't arrive by the end of this season with Silva, it may never arrive, no matter how well regarded he is as a coach by some supporters. He will be judged by wins and wins alone.

LIAR, LIAR, yes Mr Silva, that's what you are and if there is one thing in life I hate, it's a liar.If seven changes is his idea of not many, God help us if he really went to town with changes.

As more than one poster has already said on here, Silva crossed a line on Tuesday with many fans, me included. The man can't be trusted. He's forfeited that right and let's be honest, results so far aren't exactly inspiring are they? Why should we trust him to make things any better than they are at present? I certainly don't.

In 60 years as a supporter, I've never felt so angry at a manager. Didn't this man do his homework before accepting the job? Did he not know that Sam Allardyce didn't connect with the fans who are wanting to see our team going out to try and win every match, and most importantly, to win a trophy?

As supporters we turned on Allardyce soon enough and it won't be long before something similar happens if he continues to mislead us and deliberately break up a winning team, resulting in us meekly exiting one of the competitions we seriously could have gone for this season.

He's not here to keep fringe players happy. He's here to win matches and that means playing your best line-up in every game unless forced to make changes through injury or suspension.

I admit to not wanting another manager with relegation on his CV but was willing to give him a chance but the events of this week have shown him to be a loser, not a winner.

Why rest players when we have a two-week break coming up? Why throw a team together in which most of those selected haven't even played together in a competitive match? He set us up to lose and that I can't and won't forgive.

Top 6? With this man in charge, I think we will be lucky to scrape into the top ten. Bottom half is more likely unless he can stop us leaking goals.

No Silva lining here, I'm afraid.

Still furious!