Squads fly off for pre-season training

Hopefully we have a fair take on the split in our Squad page, with the U23s listed in the lower half of the page... Did you learn anything from studying those training videos this week as to the youngsters who have been promoted to the senior squad?

Any feedback from Facebook or Twitter???

We need a commanding athletic centre-half, a new left-back, more attacking threat that is something different and more mobile than we currently have.

Where are they?

Hang on! Stay cool! The chances are we'll step out in the right direction over the next 3 weeks or so!

Michael, that's a great list you have of U23s, only one missing I can think of is Jack Kiersey who was contracted until June 2018, so not sure if he's being given a new contract. Sadly, the likes of Kiersey and Danny Bramall are going to be left behind as other youngsters come up behind.

The new Scholars should be interesting. We signed one 16-year-old from Man Utd, an England U16 from Fulham, and had 5 Wales U17s in our squad last season, including Ryan Astley who played 1 game at U23s; plus at least 3 schoolboys who played U18s for us last season.

No need to worry yet about signings, we certainly do not want to overpay like we did last summer. A statement of intent needed.

There is talk of Newcastle wanting Schneiderlin but need to sell first before they can buy. How about a swap deal for Lascalles?

Same again with RB Leipzig, if they want Lookman. how about a swap deal with Forsberg?

You don't need to wave around wads of cash. Buy clever.

Could it be that Antonee Robinson has impressed Silva enough to take a further look at him before sanctioning 㿅M for Tierney? Or that Moshiri has said there will be no players in before we have got another 3 or 4 players off the books? We've no idea whats going on behind the scenes and what imperatives are in place.

For now, I'm curious to see who Silva has taken a shine to and whether he can get the best out of this unbalanced mix of green youngsters and slightly jaded pros.

"People's Club" – my arse!

The first team is crying out for a powerful central defender with some pace and athleticism and a left-back fitter and more mobile than Baines is needed badly, we can't have Baines disappearing for three months with injuries again this season and playing square pegs in round holes (Martina, Holgate or Kenny).

We need more variation in our attack, more power, more mobility and more end product.

August 11th, season starts; transfer window closes on August 9th.

I too wonder if Silva has come to the same conclusion. And could he be reaching the same conclusion about Holgate at centre-back? He certainly has the athleticism.

Personally I'm more interested in seeing who we sign in attack than defense.

Many of us have our opinions about existing players still on the books but Silva is the man to sort out his squad over the next few weeks. If he wants to make signings then obviously he doesn't want to get caught in a Sigurdsson situation.

Baines needs to be replaced eventually but with clubs playing new systems now, perhaps a converted winger in a 3-5-2 scenario is the way to go. I look at what Man Utd have done with Valencia and Young.

Kieran Dowell should also get his chance again this pre-season – could save us more money.

What odds that some of the "too-be-sold" players actually stick around and make an impression this season? Sandro? Klaasen? And, of course, the prodigal son, Kevin Mirallas? On a good day .

Hard to leave them out given their efforts for England U21s at the Toulon Tournament!

Danny Bramall was starting to get a few games for the U23s by the end of last season, as were Alex Denny, Shayne Lavery, Con Ouzounidis and Fraser Honby. I would expect them to all be regulars for David Unsworth.

The U18s are harder for me to call. Players seem to spend one, at most two seasons at that level before gaining promotion or being released. Among the ones set to make the step up, I would expect Michael Collins, Anthony Gordon, Nicolas Hansen, Einar Iversen, Manasse Mampala, Ryan Astley, Jack Kiersey and Ellis Simms to be in the mix.

Terry, not sure Callum's still considered a FB... he spent last season with Ipswich in midfield and by all accounts was outstanding.

The masked man is definitely Beni Baningime. The video is very different by Everton. They're positing something every other day at the moment. It's hard to read too much into stuff. It does show Lookman looking anything but a sulker. The bigger guys like Keane look like they're out of puff, so cleaerly being worked hard. There's lots of tight area ball drills to work on control. There's definitely a new approach by the Everton media department.

Couple of observations:

I wish American coaches would watch this. Never, ever seen drills like that over here.

The speed they move the ball in those tight area ball drills is just sickening. Watching that you realize even the bench-warmers have skill so far beyond the masses it's incredible.

The videography is absolutely outstanding. Thought it was a CGI background at first! I'll double check with my art student. ;0) But well done Everton on the filming.

The landscape might be the most jaw-droppingly beautiful thing I've seen. My God, that's a beautiful part of the world.

Does anyone else agree that this means a very different Everton this year. John Blaine goes into a lot more detail on the latest Everton Business Matters podcast. Worth a listen. But it appears that change is happening and hopefully continues to happen.

Having a son at art school, I'm no expert but have been involved in enough conversations and seen enough projects to tell you that filming was very good.

The "sliding" coverage where the camera moves right to left, the at ground viewpoint of the tight square drills, the panoramic shot with the mountains in the back, the "pan down" on the other drills, etc.

I'll say this, whomever put it together knows what they are doing. There's an entire psychology of where the eye focuses, and how to engage the brain to displace itself so you are "there". My son knows it all and I'm not doing it justice, but you get the drift.

Also, I know many teams here in the States offer internships and employment opportunities to animators, film grads, etc. The marketing of the sports product is hitting Hollywood-quality world-wide.

Coming out of art school over here, there's a lot more than Pixar, Disney, or Nickelodeon on offer. Multiple sports teams are seriously ramping up their multi-media, highlights, etc and hiring young kids to produce them.

If this video is anything to go by, Everton is about to put serious attention into their product and how they produce it. I'm really impressed. Supremely impressed in fact.

Pedro Conceica, fitness coach, walks through the players at 0:15

Duncan Ferguson on sprinkler duties!

Bruno Mendes, the newest member recruited from Benfica, is seen at 0:24 walk past Keane and Walcott.

Pedro Conceicao, putting the players through cardio work at 0:43

Bruno Mendes, running a fitness drill at 1:05

At 1:30, Assistant manager, Joao Pedro Sousa, probably the loudest voice you hear. A chunky Portuguese Osman look-alike?

In the distance at 2:15, is that Marcel Brands? Hopefully he's off doing some transfer business, or maybe he flew in to discuss something with Silva?

At 2:24, Joao Pedro leading the close control drill.

At 3:10 No idea who this "BP" guy is, he looks about 12!

At 3:46, a strapped-up Phil Jagielka with his back to the camera.

At 4:30, Marco Silva prowling in the bigger pitched game, still clearly a drill working on close control and passing in tight spaces.

So fitness is being worked on, and tight control passing. That's high intensity pressing drills to me lads.

Sadly, no sign of Antonee Robinson. You have to wonder what the implications of this are? Could merely be a knock keeping him out of training?

No sign of Antonee Robinson here either. You'll notice a big difference in styles of coaching from first team to U23s, and I'm not talking the levels of the players, I mean the types of coaching.

I thought Connolly had a sound tournament, nothing spectacular but he's always had the ability to find space in the box for a header or, as on one occasion in Toulon, timed his run perfectly to slot in a goal with his right foot.

Robinson played those few games for the US in the first part of the summer and was probably granted a week or two extra time off due to it.

Professional sport at the levels Everton play at is as much about mental agility as physical endurance. The drills appear designed to hone the two whilst making demands on players' technical skills. Good preparation for match day situations and a hint of how Silva expects his players to perform.

The coaches maintained a high intensity by constantly demanding more of the players and should a ball escape from the one-touch confined space they were working within, the coaches immediately threw a reserve ball into play. There was no chance for the players to catch a breather. It demanded concentration, endurance and technical adeptness.

I don't think you can make any sort of comparison between the Austrian footage of the first team to that of the U-23s in Spain as the latter appears to be possibly a warm-down game after training. We have no way of knowing what they went through before the kickabout from the footage shown.

Link

Unless he has stayed behind to treat an injury, it is more than likely he is in Austria. Hard to tell from a distance in the training video linked, but I thought I espied him fleetingly.

Worry is, couldn't see Antonee Robinson, and Cuco Martina played left back. Marco! What are you doing!

There will be few signings and the Brands - Silva partnership does not seem to be able to overcome the barrier that Everton is not perceived as a good career move for suitable available footballer targets.

It increasingly looks that next season, performance will be dependent on Silva's managerial rejuvenation qualities. Brands will definitely have to get the current defensive frailties replaced, if Silva is to stand a chance. The forward line we can live with, since Silva will be at least able to get them more on-the-ball time. They lived on scraps last season. Lookman will be gone. He liked playing for Leipzig and there has been very little change since he last was with Everton.

As for Silverware, never while Mr Bill is Chairman. The longer he is in situ, the longer the rebuilding process will be. It was going to be a laborious process anyway. The pace of this Summer reflects that.

Jagielka on Silva

Some nuggets in this interview on the official site. Good to know Silva is doing things a veteran like Jagielka has never done before. Also good to hear he is going into detail on shape on where he wants the defence to be, and when to drop off. It should stop any alarm bells from those who still worry this is "Martinez Mark II".

After training they finished with an 11 versus 11 short match.

One team had a back 4 of Coleman, Holgate, Keane, Baines.

The other had a back 4 of Kenny, Pennington, Jagielka, Martina.

Read into it what you will. Jags did have strapping to his right knee which is of concern bearing in mind his age & that this is only pre season.

Not sure if I spotted Bolasie, but did not see anything of Galloway, Robinson or Browning.

Antonee Robinson is on the training pitch. Also of note, David Flower (DF. on his top) is with the first team, when he has previously been Unsworth's fitness coach.

Morgan Feeney is NOT in Austria — he's in Spain, recovering from surgery

"All the boys will tell you, pre-season is where you get your base fitness for the season," said Coleman. "Missing that is never ideal. Circumstances for me meant I had to miss it last season but thankfully I had some great staff to work with me and get me back up to full fitness.

"But in an ideal world, you want to go through pre-season and I had been looking forward to coming back into this one. We are training a couple of times a day and becoming as fit as possible.

"Training in Austria has been great. As you can imagine, the intensity has been high and all the lads are eager to impress and make an impression on the new manager. So far, training has been really good and everyone has enjoyed it."

This is two days old now. But the original video was of poor quality, due to being live streamed on Facebook. the club have now uploaded a much higher quality version.

These are the teams:
Blues (Right to Left; 4-2-3-1):
Stekelenburg
Kenny Pennington Connolly Martina
Davies Schniederlin
Sandro Dowell Lookman
Niasse

Whites (Left to Right; 4-2-3-1):
Tosun
Mirallas Klaassen Walcott
Baningime Besic
Baines Keane Holgate Coleman
Hewelt

Yellow Bib: Nikola Vlasic – note he was always on the attacking side and switched teams as they switched possession of the ball.

Some notes:

1. Baines looked very sharp, he looked as quick as ever, and he eased some of my fears of his dwindling pace.
2. The purpose was to work on shape and passing.
3. The teams looked to switch play from side to side quickly, a big trait of Silva's.
4. The passing was snappy and the tempo was high.
5. There was few long balls, but the ball did go forwards quickly.
6. Vlasic looked very good, and playing both ways indicates a major role.
7. Both sides knocked the ball about well and there was a lot of closing down, but no real sign of what you would call high press.
8. Both teams played 4-2-3-1 rather than the 4-3-3 Silva alluded to.
9. Niasse offered little, but when he got a chance he rattled the post
10. Mirallas looked more effective than Lookman, like he still has something to offer!
11. Absent were Robinson, Williams, Jagielka, Bolasie and Calvert-Lewin.
12. Is it worth noting as well that Baines, Keane, Holgate and Coleman could be many people's back 4?
13. Schneiderlin and Davies were playing together, but there was no Gueye.
14. Silva didn't stop play and coaching staff didn't let them rest.
15. The pitch was condensed from the edge of both boxes.

When I find time later in the day I'll take a look at it.

Surprised Mirallas was there you say! I totally missed him first time around!

I was also intrigued by Vlasic in the yellow bib switching sides and wondered what this possibly implies and if he will have a role with the first team this season.

Many thanks.

I wouldn't expect to see Pickford, Gana or Sigurdsson for some weeks yet. Aside from the physical toll, the World Cup is mentally exhausting. And Williams of course will still be a long way from fitness after busting those ribs. Probably isn't even running yet.

Link

Think we may actually have a coach and they seem to be passing forward!

Dermot this is exactly why I wanted Silva and here he is doing it. We're on a curve with training and it's going up in terms of technical requirements.

This drill is joined up attacking. Trying to get in passing, movement and finishing. It's great.

The more I see, the more I'm really warming to Silva.

Only negative - someone needs to tell Tosun to stop hiking his shorts up! This is the second video I've seen him sporting the "Speedo Mick" look! Not good.

That is, they are relentless. No time for hands-on-hip to relax whilst you wait your turn as other pairs and trios run through their routine. As soon as one team complete their return - and even before - another group is going through their drill.

It seems deliberately designed to sharpen both body and mind, replicating as it does the intensity of a match day situation and how the opposition will harry-harry-harry.

It is great to get back to the Blues after the so called wonder kids exploits in Russia.