Here We Go Again

We have to accept that since the days of John Moores and after Johnson lost the bulk of his fortune, the club went into a twenty year period of decline and although not a small club, we are now in Premier League terms a medium club rather than a big club.

However I personally feel that since Moshiri took over, we are moving in the right direction. Mistakes were made obviously, but these have been corrected and we have entered a period where the intention is to improve each year, with money invested in the team until, with good fortune, we return to the big club status.

I don't know how you can say that after just one away game.

Yes, some players take time to adjust but some players hit the ground running.

In addition those players that took time to adapt last season may well fly now. Some of the youngsters have developed too.

Mina was probably our best player yesterday. Pickford looks to have matured somewhat and the back 4 looked immense.

If we can instill a sense of belief in our supporters and players then we will be flying this season and January isn't far away for reinforcements for the cup runs.

I think until we play a decent attacking team I doubt calling our defence immense" probably isn't accurate.

Palace can't score but yesterday they cut through our defence a few times and only Pickford saved us from an embarrassment.

It's not so much that the support needs a bit of belief it's more the management and players. There was nothing on show yesterday that was much different from our average of last season. Slow, pedestrian, no cutting edge, questionable formation and tactics.

We really need a true leader on and off the pitch.

Gomes is a nailed-on starter. Sigurdsson too. And Silva said himself that Delph is not Gueye and he would need to replace Gueye. Delph is not Gueye's replacement, Gbamin is. Delph should be used in place of Gomes, or hopefully Sigurdsson as we change formation and go with Silva's preferred formation and system, the 4-3-3.

The fact that silva was trying to stock up on central midfielders who go box to box like Doucoure and Delph tells you that he is very keen to get us to 4-3-3.

But no, Delph will not be starting in a 4-2-3-1 if everyone is fit and ready.

Pickford
Coleman
Stones
Zouma
Digne
Gueye
Gomes
Barkley/Sigurdsson
Kean
Lukaku
Richarlison

Any good?

You are right to be worried about players such as Richarlison and Digne leaving Everton on the back of another poor result against Crystal Palace; good players will not stick around at a club that lacks ambition and is not actually going forward. We were yet again impotent in pre-season and yet again carried this forward into the season proper, nothing changes.

We should have got either the Doucoure or the Zaha deal over the line to show a real and genuine statement of intent, only this reduces the possibility of top players leaving. Watford next is now an absolute must-win.

If we are expecting to beat the team who finished 12th, then we presumably expect to beat the other 8 below them. That's 8 always wins and top 3 form (is normally say champions form, but Man City and Liverpool have set the bar very high).

We looked solid, let's build from there. I'd rather draw 0-0 than 2-2 at the moment, as the majority of our signings, who should get better, are attacking. Get the foundations right and the goals should come.

The good players we lost shouldn't have affected our game on Saturday, they were about adding steel, not goals. But the whole team just looks very flat. I don't think we can use the excuse that we've got loads of newbies coming in, cos that team on 'sat has been playing together now for a year, and right through pre-season.

We've got no goals in us at the moment. Not just this one game, right through pre-season. It aint gonna be solved just with swapping No 9s. I'll be blowed if I know why Digne, Bernard, Sigurdsson and Richarlison are devoid of spark at the moment, but the stats speak for themselves.

I also noticed with Martinez teams, if they started the season (pre-season) sluggishly, it took months to put right. I've got a bad feeling we are going to be experiencing an extremely frustrating next few weeks.

Look how full of vim Liverpool were on Friday, yet their season finished in June, and a lot of their players then went to tournaments. But nearly all our team have had a full preseason and rest behind them and look flat.

Second half, without Gomes, wasn't great. Worryingly we let them in down the right twice for clear chances on goal. I'm concerned at what a good side would do to us if we play the same way.

All-in-all, a decent result, first game of the season and away from home – considering we didn't get the breaks with our attempts on goal, the Gomes injury or the Schneiderlin red card.