Dismal Blues lose terrible game to poor Spurs

No pace at all in midfield, Sigurdsson wide left, I mean really??

Gomes and Davies will be simply overrun by the Spurs athleticism.

It's tragic the amount of cash we have frittered away and we can't put a squad together that looks remotely attractive going forward.

I can't see us creating too many problems for Spurs tonight, I hope I'm wrong but it just looks like a team again that is pedestrian.

The midfield really does look quite ponderous though. Money or no money, Brands is going to have get the gaffer some options in the middle of the park.

Still, the opposition are in a mess themselves and we've been very solid since the restart. Sticking with my prediction, 1-1 and all still left to play for in the run in.

It's all about the midfield isn't it ? Our back line looks strong and organised and our front two have a touch of class about them. But the midfielders need to come to the party.

An interesting game then to see how our midfield cope and this is where the game will be won or lost.

Tottenham will be aggressive and energetic from the start, we have to match it and not buckle. It's a really tough job tonight for those 4 midfielders, but we will learn a hell of a lot from their performances.

Spurs are vulnerable if we stick in there, and with Richie and DCL we can always poach a goal .

I think you're right. I knew it was someone Welsh other than Barry Horne or Big Nev

Shame not to see Gordon, but he'll come on and should provide a real energy when he does.

For the three number 10's Ronald signed in 2017 and for the amount it all came to I'd rather him have just put the family silver three years ago on moving heaven and earth to bring Jamie Vardy here.

Sigurdsson the only one left and his legs have basically all but gone sadly after the one really great season goal scoring wise under Silva.

Gbamin won't be fit until next January and I doubt we'll ever see him play for Everton again now anyway.

Carlo will want his own players, he certainly needs them.

Need at least 6 new players!

Similar to the 1st half at Norwich from Everton. Lethargic, little energy or pace and a disconnect between midfield and the forwards.

The only midfielder consistently showing for the ball, protecting the ball and passing the ball well and progressively is Tom Davies. Gomes, Sigurdsson and Iwobi passengers.

The goal was extremely fortunate. It was going wide. But other than Richarlison's shot on the stroke of half-time, we've offered nothing as an attacking force.

Hopefully we will wake up and improve as we did at Norwich. Otherwise, we're sleepwalking to a defeat.

I saw Mourinho looking at his watch just before half time, his face was saying “Fuckin hell, we've got another 50 minutes of this.”

The second half can't be as bad as this, but don't bet on it.

Mina and Gordon did okay as subs.

Bernard, Sidibé and Kean brought nothing to the table.

Why Davies was taken off and how Gomes stayed on for the full 90 minutes is bewildering to me.

For me, that's the outside chance of a Euro place gone. A win here would have given real impetus. The defeat kills it dead.

Gomes was woeful, poor passing, slow movement, weak in the tackle... just awful. Sigurdsson and Iwobi equally so.

Coleman I thought played well, Gordon showed glimpses, Davies looked decent, Mina looked good and I think much better thanks given credit for. Bernard was ineffective again. Kean a no show again. Calvert-Lewin worked hard, but no real chances.

We need a complete renovation of that midfield before we entertain any ideas of moving forward.

Pickford did well though, no fault for the goal, a couple of moments but also a few very decent saves too.

Gutless, spinless and feeble.

It's a miracle that we're not in a relegation fight and also a sad indictment on the quality of this league.

Sigurdsson has mastered the art of running around in such a way that he technically expends energy but he ensures he is never available for the ball. Total cowardly joker for 45 million quid.

The frustrating thing is we could easily put together an equally adept rabble with free transfers and youth. But year after year we pay fortunes just to bring in halfwit journeymen and Jobsworths.

Slow, ponderous play with countless sideways and back passes. So many players who are simply not good enough for our club.

A typical Everton performance at one of our bogey grounds. I hear Evertonians saying good things about Bernard and Sigurdsson sometimes.

It just shows how our standards have fallen. Only Richardson is anywhere near good enough. Carlo has a massive task to make us a decent team.

Senior midfield players not good enough. Davies and Gordon who cost us nothing showed up the 𧴜m boys Sigurdsson, Gomes and Iwobi. A shocking state of affairs. Gomes may show up better with a proper enforcer next to him, but the others...

More chance of Elvis finding a cure for Covid-19 than us getting into the top 6 with this pedestrian midfield. Carlo will go down to the Axe shop in the morning and buy a big one.

Major rebuild required. Yet we only lost to a widely deflected goal, but wouldn't have scored if we played till midnight.

Worst midfield for many years. Gordon must play in all the games. But who with, even Gomes is being shown up for pace, but at least he has an eye for a forward pass.

I also thought the ref had a terrible game. How did Ben Davies not get a red card in that game for at least three 100% yellow cards, but he only got one!

Age old traits of can't be arsed against the poorest Spurs team in recent years.

No guts, no heart and little belief. That must surely tell Carlo that most of this squad aren't good enough and sadly don't care.

Crab passing and deviations forward and then backwards. Hopeless, they'd play all week and never shoot.

A good team would have taken Spurs apart. Nothing left to say, but this isn't football. Get beat but go down fighting. Fine them and extra training this weekend.

They need to get a grip and stop taking the piss out of EFC.

Special mention to Davies who was at least giving it a go and looking to tackle, looking to get on the ball. The others were woeful. Our best two midfielders tonight were Davies and Gordon...

I could say never again, but I'll be back on Thursday watching the next game with absolutely no guarantee that it will be any better.

So many set-pieces wasted in the second-half...

I can't understand how players who have been away from the game for so long because of the lockdown, don't want to run, fight, scrap and play, because isn't that what they get paid to do?

I very rarely listen to commentators, but Gary Neville was bang on about Everton tonight, they need a proper shaking, because we have way too many who don't want to really play.

Why were we fighting for the last Europa League spot with all its hassles of god know's how many preliminary rounds anyway?

Until we start signing players that are dynamic then nothing will ever change.

We don't need more holding midfielders, no more static one paced no marks, no more rejects just coming here because we wanna offer astronomical wages.

We need a modern day Kanchelskis, another Lukaku, a new Rooney, a new Arteta.

We sign slow slow slow brainless players that don't have passion or the mentality to even dig in when the going is tough.

Until that changes then Everton will continue to be exactly as they are, the modern day Coventry City, a club just happy to exist in the middle to bottom ranks of the league until eventually one day down the line it throws in a season so bad that it gets relegated.

This isn't knee-jerk. Cash in on Pickford. He might end up being class but let someone else take that chance.

Bernard and Sigurdsson should fetch 15M of some currency. They should have no future here. I'd keep Iwobi and Gomes just about for continuity.

That's it for next season. One step at a time but the process has to start.

I said we should have signed Ings last season when some were wetting themselves over Kean.

One or two of them in a 4-man midfield is a good idea, but any more than that makes for a very static and lethargic side – which is what we currently are. We rely on Digne and Coleman to do a large portion of running beyond, and it becomes very easy to defend against a midfield 4 who lack the appetite to get beyond the attackers.

Next season, I'd really like to see Richarlison back on the left side and a proven striker playing up alongside Calvert-Lewin – oh, and at least one other midfielder who will gamble and make runs into dangerous areas several times in every game, and then do their utmost to sprint back into position if the gamble does not come off.

I thought we might be running on empty.

Carlo, against Southampton, do this please:

Virginia
Coleman Keane Holgate (or Mina if Holgate is injured) Digne
Richarlison Baningime Davies Gordon
Kean Calvert-Lewin

Just play those kids and give them a real go for a few games. Get Dunc in to fire them up. Restore the effort and heart. Give some of the others with wobbly legs a rest please. The midfield and two strikers average age in that lineup is like 7 years old. Just give the kids a chance. They're the future.

Marcel,

Trade Pickford away. Use the money to bring in a quality, quality midfielder please. That's step one. Then offload the veterans stealing a living from Everton. Walcott, Sigurdsson, and what's his face from Man City have gotta go. Can't even recall his name at the moment, he's continually injured. You know, that guy.

Our reply was Sigurdsson and Iwobi bottling out of 70/30s.

Season is over now. Gordon and Moise Keane should start the rest of the season.

If we don't sign 3 midfielders next season, we will be in exactly the same position. We have a Ferrari as a manager and are putting in cheap diesel to make it run.

Are we as a club, as fans willing to tolerate season after season of mediocrity? Every season peters out laden with disappointment and rancour.

This is Everton Football Club. We can't stand for this. Shambolic and a disgrace to the memory of those who made this club great.

Some of the players today should be ashamed to call themselves a professional footballer, and the manager – instead of having pipe dreams of playing in Europe – should crack the whip and show them, despite what they cost, it does not mean they are an automatic choice on the team sheet.

The manager takes the plaudits for a win and should take the blame for this type of performance from his supposed experienced players.

But I am the stupid one tonight; I forgot to put a bet on a Spurs win. Free money, if ever there was such a thing, given the run Spurs are on it was always going to happen.

So Everton. Calvert-Lewin baffles me, he should be on an ever-upward curve right now but seems to lack the hunger to drive at goal. At least Moise Kean has that in his locker.

Mina tried hard to pass forward and did it well. Bernard way too lightweight against a strong physical outfit like Spurs.

Europe is out now, we won't go down so please, Carlo, show what you are made of, ditch the cowards and get Baningime in centre-midfield and give him a chance.

Silva would be crucified for a display like that and Carlo is escaping for now because he hasn't bought the players.

We need at least two winners in midfield who will not tolerate cowardly play/ attitudes from the rest. Who are they? I don't know but Carlo and his staff should!!

That's exactly why we are completely invisible in this city now.

It's embarrassing having to see the Redshite win something every season, endless celebrations whilst we just get worse every year with no real prospect or concrete structure in place for improvement.

At least in the dark days of the '90s when we struggled, Liverpool weren't winning anything themselves, plus we had the derby record over them.

These days, we are a complete nonentity here.

Our midfield is so poor, I thought Davies was the only midfielder who even tried, and shouldn't have been subbed. Gomes needs a full preseason to get himself back physically and mentally after the horrific injury, so I have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Sigurdsson was a disgrace again tonight, when Moura took the ball off him, in their half, ran the whole way to our box, and set up Son, he ran the whole way beside him, didn't even put in a tackle. He was substituted just after, that sums him up, shouldn't get another game. Iwobi on the other side, equally as bad, Arsenal fans are still laughing... 㿏M.

Against Southampton, play Baningime and Davies in the middle – what have we got to lose? Gordon on the left, and anyone else on the right.

Lot of things about our bad performance but would be too long to write. So I'll just say, Gary Neville – spot on with everything he said.

The players would normally be on the beach this time of year... "Well fuck it, if we can't go the beach then the beach will have to come to us" seemed to be the attitude. It was very very poor.

I know there's plenty of Brands backers on this board even now, but I'm definitely not in that camp. The man's remit was to move on the dross, if possible, and add some quality to the squad that fits with an overarching football philosophy.

We're still on the hook for Bolasie, Walcott, Sigurdsson, Ramierez, and now you can seemingly add Iwobi and (sadly) Moise Kean to that list. The one decent player we've recruited, Richarlison, was a Silva addition.

For me, Brands simply has to start performing, and quick. Moshiri has spent hundreds of millions, up to and including hiring Ancelotti. I've got a sneaky suspicion that, if our present gaffer can't turn it around, then Moshiri will just shrug his shoulders and call it a day.

And Ancellotti himself would not be happy with the squad at present; he clearly didn't come here to spend his final years in the game with this lot.

So it's over to Brands. The recruitment at this club has been simply diabolical for many years now. We desperately need Brands to get it right this window, and not just right but spectacularly so. I'm hoping, hoping he can do it.

But, I have to tell you, it's only hope and nothing more. Because nothing I've seen suggests our Dutch board member maestro has any more clue than Walsh, Koeman, Allardyce or any of the other chancers that have reduced this club to what it is today.

The game showed the usual short-comings that rear their head against better-than-average teams. As everybody knows, the real urgency this window is midfield. We need a midfielder that does the hard yards, like Gana did, and we also need one that will have a shot!

Having said that Spurs were equally poor and really 0-0 would probably have been about right.

Difficult to know what conclusions to draw from these crowdless games but clearly we need legs in midfield and a little more explosiveness out wide.

Personally, I'd be starting Kean and playing Richarlison out wide as much as possible for remainder of the season.

To date, Bernard, Delph, Iwobi, and Sidibé... Would be kind to label them as mediocre.

Jury still out on Gomes, Mina, Gbamin and Kean.

I hope this is a different summer in the transfer market with Ancelotti as manager but just feel it'll be more of the same: short on numbers and quality.

We offer Baines more money for another year to do nothing. The squad is full of characterless mercenaries and Ancelotti isn't here for the quality of life.

The whole club has become a disaster zone and we're a long time away from a proper clean-out.

We should have offered Klopp 𧺬k a week before he signed his latest contract.

Adds fuel to the anger with current first team. Surely a ruthless clear out is needed now and no more pedestrian players, but who the hell will buy our deadwood? And attracting proven players will be very difficult.

Let's hope we can hold onto our better players and tell the lazy players who couldn't be arsed fighting for the cause tonight to get a taxi home.

Seriously, this is bringing the name of Everton into disrepute. God help us vs Southampton and Wolves.

The starting team must have some bite in the midfield... so, if Beni Baningime is fit, I'd start him, but we don't have many options.

Time yet again, and how many times over the years have Everton been in this position? I'm starting to think that a Finch Farm is not connected with reality of Premier League mental and physical requirements. The mentality and guts is now part of the DNA, at this Everton.

Deco Carlo's toughest ever job... I believe he will turn it around but needs money and some time.

We very rarely come from behind to win, we very rarely score 3 or more, very rarely dominate games, very rarely entertain. I can't wait until this dreadful, nonsense of a season is over.

Two wins and a loss is better than our usual start/resumption of a season. This phoney end to the season cannot come quick enough.

At least back in the day, football was played as the game was meant to be played, to entertain, to score goals, to be aggressive and to actually friggin run.

It's like watching a chess match watching Everton nowadays, a bad chess match at that.

That was a six-pointer tonight and Spurs look like a side who are lacking self-belief themselves but, apart from the endeavours of Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison, with a mention for Davies, it was a cowardly and lethargic performance. against a side who seemed content to give away fouls and waste time.

Roll on The end of this wretched season. We can only hope Carlo and Brands can completely overhaul this mediocre playing squad in the summer.

Richarlison took a physical battering tonight, at least seven fouls by my count, three in the first 16 minutes. Carlo should highlight that in his media briefings in the way other managers do, to seek protection for their best players.

I really didn't want the restart of Premier League football for obvious reasons.

The players must feel the same – they aren't robots. And whilst I am frustrated to watch the lack of effort, it is kind of understandable. Players that couldn't be arsed pre-lockdown still can't be arsed.

We moved on Niasse, Schneiderlin, Martina and Garbutt... hopefully that's just the tip of the iceberg.

With the exception of Digne's moment and sloppiness for their goal, we looked composed at the back. Good. Tick.

Davies can receive the ball, he can run with it and draw players to him but there's no point in him performing his 10-yard bursts from inside our half. He's brave in possession and prepared to be fouled, unlike Gomes who perpetually passes backwards.

Davies should have been receiving the ball where Richarlison was, in the No 10 position. If Davies was there and Richarlison stayed up top, we would have had a chance to build something.

I would have switched Calvert-Lewin for a wide player or moved him out wide and gone to Sigurdsson and Gomes playing deep with Davies back to goal at No 10 and Richarlison upfront.

Calvert-Lewin turns like a cruise ship because he doesn't have the first touch of a Richarlison. He can do a job in straight lines and in behind but they weren't his conditions tonight.

Ancelotti needs to learn and understand the profiles and identities of these players if he's going to do anything with them and he needs to analyse what's going on in a game and make the changes.

Last, I didn't see one of those players give a teammate a rocket or (with the exception of Gordon) sprint from Spurs man to man and dive into a tackle. I saw a team of losers happy to play their part in a respectable loss – we need some winners if we are going to get anywhere. I hope Ancelotti's still a winner but I suspect he's a nice old fella pleased still to be coaching.

Sure, we've had some poor sides over the years but none with so little fight, commitment, effort. leadership, passion and respect for the club and its supporters.

None of them should be paid this week. All wages to the NHS – an organisation that puts them all to shame.

FRAUDSTERS!!!

Hack Rich. Foul. Slow the game down to a crawl. Hack Richarlison again. Foul. Is it any wonder we never found a groove?

But what truly, truly pisses me off, is that everyone knows how to combat that.

Turn the game into a bruise-fest. Did we ever put in a tasty challenge? I can't remember a single hard tackle other than Holgate and Gordon. We're getting kicked all over the park, and the maddening thing about it is we just take it.

I know they're tired – and I'm not making ninny-like excuses. I thought prior to the game this trip to London was going to be the one we ran out of steam.

But Jesus, man, have some pride. They continually kick Richarlison all over the park. Someone, anyone, put in a jarring, bone-crunching tackle in retribution just once please!

All of this in the first game back against a team who has a player who cut down one of ours from behind and made the dude's foot go sideways. You'd think, maybe, we might be up for a physical challenge with that little fact hanging out there?

What did we get?

The sound of fucking crickets.

Play the kids. Let's see some heart moving forward.

I think our defence wasn't bad apart from the own-goal but, as has been pointed out repeatedly, midfield was nowhere.

We need a hard defensive midfield enforcer along with a creative non-Sigurdsson in front. Dire stuff against a dire team.

Christy #194

Calvert Lewin was poor; got caught offside twice, because he was slow getting back. One lucky shot on goal. Continually tried to lay off rather than turn to face goal. Often poor laying it off. Did not challenge for the ball in front of goal. Never looked like scoring.

Moise Kean. . . hopeless.

All Tottenham had to do was kick Richarlison out of the game.

We could have had Adama Traore for Besic a couple of years ago and lots on here were saying that, but our multi-millionaire experts thought better and we paid 㿞 million for Walcott and Iwobi instead!

Ancelotti is a mercenary and has never developed a mid-level team like ours... another very costly contract just waiting to be paid up! Do you really think he wants to live in Liverpool!

Our ownership just gets taken to the cleaners again and again and again! If anyone actually took notice of our club, we'd just be a complete laughing stock.

It takes until we're the only football on TV and there's a proper critical pundit in Neville to say to the nation what we've all known for months – Gylfi Sigurdsson is now a sorry excuse for footballer. Watching him, in particular (dishonourable mentions for Gomes and Iwobi also) trying to run and press is embarrassing, it's staggeringly slow! That moment in the second half when Sigurdsson lost it to Moura and then tried to chase back, falling further and further behind until he gave up, was unbearable.

I don't blame Sigurdsson in a sense. He's being asked to play wide or as part of a 2 in centre-midfield against today's athletic, mobile players and he just can't. Surely, surely that's it for him in this team now?! I think he played one incisive pass between the lines all game – for a 㿙M playmaker, it's totally unacceptable.

Gomes, I'll just about give the benefit of the doubt and a proper pre-season to, although really in the extra 3.5 months recovery time he had, he should have been able to build up some body strength again at least. Where is the player who was strong as an ox, impossible to knock off the ball and running our midfield...?!

Final whinge, I'm constantly tearing my hair out at the slowness not just of the movement off the ball but the passing. Our players don't rap crisp passes to teammates, for the most part, the ball sort of dribbles across the pitch, ponderously reaching its target some of the time, almost never in front of him for him to run on to. It's so cryingly basic but has been a problem for ages. God knows how that gets fixed along with everything else...

In any sport I played, if someone kept taking cheap shots at one of my teammates, I'd run 'em. You can't let that happen.

Isn't that a given?

What.

The.

Fuck?

We have a fantastic away following. We would have sold out our allocation tonight cheering the players on.

Believe me, the fans aren't the issue. We need players who want to run their hearts out for the fans. Take the fans away from football and you have exactly what you see tonight. Passionless chess between two teams who aren't arsed if they win or lose.

Supporting Everton since then has been an absolute labour of love. We are atrocious, boring and without energy.

Loris had a massive go at Son just before half-time – I can't recall our players tearing strips off each other... they just don't care enough.

When Pickford lets the ball through his hands, no one actually cares...

When Sigurdsson fails to play the ball forward, no-one ever digs him out because it doesn't matter...

We are a stepping-stone club for anyone that's half-good and a retirement home for anyone that was ever half-good. And that's it.

The boring boring awful display today was a disgrace. But we were the same against Norwich. The same against Liverpool and in large parts against Leicester. We are crap to watch.

We ARE tragic!!!

I commented after the Leicester game about Sigurdsson's blatant avoidance of anything that resembles a tackle. When you think of our former midfield players like Peter Reid or Paul Bracewell, to name just two, it's disgusting to see Sigurdsson pretend to engage in a tackle, but making sure he is nowhere near the action.

It should not be tolerated by the manager. Out the door as quick as possible. Horrible trait in any sportsman.

You either meet fire with fire... or you allow them to kick the shit out of you.

Guess which option we plumed for?

Gary Neville must have refused to name Man of the Match – or Sky decided that no-one was going to take the piss by getting it.

Calvert-Lewin is a shadow of the player we were watching before lockdown. Richarlison just got kicked off the park and no-one, other than Holgate, laid so much as a finger on them.

Davies is limited, but at least he had a go. Iwobi is, well, cowardly and Arsenal must have been pissing themselves laughing when we came in with a bid for him.

Gomes was awful, but clearly not match-fit, so gets a bit of slack. Sigurdsson... well, I was so pleased when we signed him, if well overpriced. Looked fantastic that first season under Silva, now looks totally shot. That said, wide left has never been his position.

Hopefully Carlo can find a formation that suits Sigurdsson, because there is a player in there, provided his legs are not totally shot.

Defence looks fine. The game had 0-0 written all over it until that unlucky deflection. Keane had Kane in his pocket.

Pickford however, scares the shite out of me. Brilliant one second, dropping simple crosses the next. Oh and launches a high ball deep in stoppage time to the shortest player on the pitch. Brain of Britain he ain't.

There's absolutely no imagination, creativity or speed. When we do get into attacking and threatening positions, we pass it all the way back to the keeper!!!

Some players are just not up to it, especially Sigurdsson, who is an absolute disgrace to the shirt!!

We are just so frustrating to watch!!

The team can't string together more than three passes, always a hospital ball in there or a miscontrol. We're too slow in moving it forward. It goes backwards or breaks up. Full backs can't get around the opposition.

We can all see this, for years, and how many millions have been wasted trying to rectify it? Is it that difficult to fix?

We lack urgency – which is down to the players and coach – and guile, which is down to what would require a dissertation to explain.

Nothing left to play for other than preparing for next season. I actually don't really care... which is new.

I'm ashamed to admit but the reason I cottoned onto Sigurdsson was because, in my mid-30s, I suddenly turned shit at local 11-a-side... so I did the same thing as him. Takes one to know one, right!!!

The worst sort of boring Moyes-esque-ness.

That was special in how poor it was.

I just wanted to let you know, Andy, the situation is not funny in the least, but that did make me laugh.

We witnessed something truly special, I concur.

Like the Chelsea away game, I think Ancelotti dropped the ball with his team selection. Sigurdsson should never have started. I know we have injuries bit it's still as though this guy still gets picked because he's our biggest signing.

I'll be very happy if we can offload him to an Italian or US team this coming window. It'll be a relief for us and a slower-paced league will also suit Sigurdsson who, for all his skill, must be one of the slowest players in the whole Premier League.

I'm more sad about the RS idiot who damaged Dixie's statue. They're a breed apart. They win their first title in 30 years and instead of enjoying it for what it is, a lot of them seem more interested in trolling us. They should be ashamed of themselves. It was bad enough with the fireworks fired at the Liver Building.

I only read the Daily Mail when there's a story linked by Everton NewsNow, but the trolling on there is vile, and it's a 24/7 job for a significant group of Liverpool supporters. It's like they have to define their whole existence by EFC.

I totally agree with you and said something similar in the live forum.

Spurs were screaming for every throw in every foul, even creating fouls while we were like a bunch of kids at an adult party –timid and shy and so passive it was hard to believe any of them have ever had fire in their bellies.

Carlo has them better organised but, without an aggressive midfielder that scores goals, we are wasting time with this team.

absolutely no fight in them whatsoever. Throw Baningime and Adeniran in for a couple of games and at least we will get some passion.

I blame Brands for stealing the clubs money; he is a fraudster. Also, Ancelotti is supposed to be a genius. How can he not see that the selection he made was totally unbalanced and devoid of anything creative ; and sadly guts, as we didn't want to make any tackles and we were nowhere near winning the second balls.

Doesn't Mosiri care that people are flushing his cash down the shitter and turning the club into a laughing stock? This squad is going nowhere.

At the end of the game they were milling around and smiling with the spurs players as though they had put in a shift. That angered me as much as nything. They should have been hanging their heads in shame. Please dock them each a months wages. It may be the only language they understand.

People call for Gary Neville about being too hard on Everton. If you ask me he is spot on. Boring and mentally weak when going into games that matter or at least put our marker on paper. No wonder other clubs, media and pundits do not take us seriously. And tonight proved why they don't. We're no threat at all. Needs changing ASAP.

Gylfi Sigurdsson should never wear an Everton shirt again. The gutless fucker is in the category of Alcaraz and Williams. Couldn't give a fuck. The same player who did not touch the ball at Anfield for twenty minutes and he was the captain. Not managed a successful tackle in 195 minutes of football. And we paid 50 million pound for him. Get rid of the ghost.

Tom Davies is not cut out at this level. Championship player at best.

Andre Gomes is just not good enough. Couldn't pass water let alone a fucking football tonight.

Iwobi - Right now. Arsenal have pulled our kecks down there.

Bernard - Not cut out for this league I'm afraid.

Anthony Gordon did more in 45 minutes than The ghost, Davies, Gomes and Iwobi combined throughout the game. Start him every game till the end of the season.

Time to stop being the nicey nice club, and start being more ruthless. Like what Klopp and Pep did Liverpool and Man City respectively. No time for sentimental, just if your not good enough out the door.

I genuinely do believe that, if Ancelotti cannot win us a trophy or get us into Europe in the next 3 to 4 years, I don't think I'll see us ever moving forward, or winning silverware.

Mentality needs sorting, players need binning off, better players need to come in, and Brands (in my eyes) is on his last chance this summer. I'm sick of seeing the same yellow bellies, season-in & season-out. No time for happy-go-lucky shite and start having the motto that is on our badge. Because right now, instead of "Nothing but the best is good enough", it's more like "Second best is Okay". Needs sorting!!!

But yes, I agree. Losing to their kids was probably the lowest point, and the saddest part is that it wasn't a surprise we lost.

Some light is maybe we can get better players if we offload Sandro and Sigurdsson... though Ghislaine Maxwell has a better chance of being cut loose.

Whilst the players were horseshit, Carlo deserves a massive dollop of it too. It was clear to anybody the lack of major rotation so far and the way we had to battle to see out the Leicester game, a lot of changes were needed to freshen up the side. Why the fook not, Carlo?

When you use 4-4-2, it's vital the midfield has to have energy over guile. Just think for a moment how much work Gana did for both Gomes and Sigurdsson? They are completely laid bare as luxury tools.

I'm very surprised with Carlo, it was pretty rank management to be fair. He deserves pelters for it.

If he doesn't change it up dramatically for Southampton, then he's gonna get a hiding from me. This is on Carlo, I'm afraid.

His favoured position is centre-midfield. So is Ancelotti saying he doesn't have the experience to control the centre so I will play him wide? I do not get this logic.

We need pace and guile wide. Either play him in his best spot or leave him out. Man City have the guts to play Foden in the centre.

Anthony Gordon also looked very good again, and he does look the real deal. He has excellent awareness in reading the game for such a young age.

Defence is okay but needs strengthening and an excellent keeper to pressure Pickford. Once we get a creative midfield, I believe that our forwards have the ability to score goals but they need a supply.

Oh well, another dreary and dreadful display in the capital. I for one cannot wait for this disjointed season to finish.

On the positive side, our brilliant away supporters did not have to waste their hard-earned money and time on this useless bunch.

I did not see one Everton player out there today who deserved special mention; and please get rid of Pickford ASAP and buy a real goalkeeper.

I think it's unfair to blame Carlo; he can only choose from a limited squad... a very limited squad – and a blind man can see we don't have a midfield player worthy of the shirt.

Tom Davies tries but is not good enough for a top 6 club. Gomes from the day he got here got undeserved love. No wonder the Spanish fans were glad to see the back of him. Bernard couldn't hold a paper bag off the ball. Iwobi would run through brick walls and maybe that's what he should stick to and keep on running.

The only player with heart and quality is Richarliso and the smart teams just kick him off his game.

The back 4 is adequate but not top drawer... and the less said about Pickford the better. Every time a ball comes into the area, my heart rate goes up as he flaps about with no real command of his area.

I'm afraid we need at least 𧺬M to get this club back in the running – and that's if we can persuade players to come.

Right now, Wolves and Leicester look a better proposition... hell, even Burnley and Sheffield Utd are embarassing us.

I suppose Sigurdsson, at least, has shown in the past he has a goal in him and, given the lack of players in the squad who contribute on that front (outside of Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison), then you can kind of understand him being selected in the lingering hope he might dredge one up, despite loitering around on the periphery for the most part.

Gomes though is the sort of player who is far too often given a free pass, and whose effectiveness evades scrutiny, simply for operating under a perceived veneer of elegance.

Like Schneiderlin before him, he was prematurely lauded and labelled as ‘class' by far too many on the back of a few nice touches and an apparent air of composure when spreading simple balls sideways and backwards, while shying away from any effort at trying to make a more telling contribution.

Basically Vinny Samways with a Vandal Savage beard, but somehow viewed as a sensible buy when signed for 㿀m+? It's like lubing up the Golden Goose and it shitting out a Lindt egg. The shiny packaging may fool some at first glance, but peel it back and there's little of real value or substance underneath. It cracks under pressure, turns soft when the heat is on and does fuck all for your form.

Many will be prepared to put his sluggishness, propensity to turn back as soon as he receives the ball and his persistent bundling into opposition players like Big Hero 6 saying bollocks to social distancing, down to him needing more time to fully recover from having his foot helicoptered.

However, bar a couple of games where he looked fired up like he had something to prove and was actually prepared to venture forward and try and contribute further upfield, he was offering exactly the same mixture of easy-option coasting and clumsiness prior to said injury.

Giving the illusion of involvement in the game by getting on the ball consistently, but generally in areas where he would be expected to have little impact, simply shielding it, knocking it square, laying it off and moving like the fucking Michael Jackson Moonwalker rabbit.

He was shocking today and was far more deserving of the hook than Davies.

When this season restarted I thought immediately "What a complete waste of time." I must admit that I do watch the games but I really just don't care what happens.

The players probably are as fed up as I am. No fans adds to the delusion that these are any more than practice games. I just cannot be bothered being critical of players or the team and definitely not the Manager.

When the new season starts, I will care again. Liverpool's season will be forgotten. I feel that I will have new inspiration and a new Everton will arise. Mind you I have felt like that since I first watched an Everton game in the late forties. You just have to be a first-class optimist to be an Evertonian.

To help all supporters feel better just remember that this just was not a real season. It was a Monty Python season with Marco Silva being the Basil of Fawlty Towers. We now have one more new manager who is destined to lead the Blue Legion to glory.

The Spurs v Everton was just an illusion in a season that was not a season. All games for the fiasco that ended in March are practice games that are being played behind closed doors. They are games for nobody, played in front of nobody. And nobody should really care. I don't.

This is a poor team in need of radical surgery and I am very sorry to say that I think the disease may be too deep-seated. It's true that these are not normal playing conditions but we've seen versions of last night's debacle a sickening number of times.

Hard to find reasons to be cheerful.

I thought we might have a different John Daley posting until I realised it was John, with talk of golden gooses shitting out a Lindt eggs and other Daley-esque analogies.

Yes, I agree Gomes does seems to evade criticism. I don't think we'll have the full measure of him until he has a big athletic player like Gbamin playing alongside him. But at the moment he does very little other than playing safe passes and niggling the opposition like a poor man's Diego Costa.

Personally, Gomes's absence to try things is why Tom Davies has stood out because he does try forward passes. The only problem is, personally, I don't see Tom getting much better and I don't know if that's because he's not having a specific role and only playing sporadically, or it's just that he's limited in some areas of his game.

I'd love us to buy two quality midfielders in the next window and then loan Tom out to a club where he'll play, week-in & week-out.

Also, it seems like we still have too many No 10s in the team. Sigurdsson, Iwobi, Bernard and Gordon? And not any all-out wingers? Walcott and Bolasie?

Exactly my thoughts during last night's debacle. I was thinking of how much I'd saved by not being there. At least 𧴜 and a day recovering from stiff 'coach' knees.

The other positive is that Carlo will now be under no illusions as to the job facing him. It could be argued the Liverpool Cup game was a one-off as we could/should have been three goals up by 15 minutes.

No such arguments can be offered for the Chelsea and Spurs games. These were our normal fall back positions for away games against the so-called better teams and, as we all know, the cause is rooted in a dreadful midfield which has no pace, aggression or the ability to find a telling forward pass. Much of the time they struggle even to find a blue shirt!

At least Tom Davies tried, Gordon offers some hope for the future and Gomes has the excuse he is playing himself back in after a dreadful injury. He starts because we have so few alternative options.

No such excuses for Iwobi, Sigurdsson and Bernard who offer little, or nothing, to the team.

Forget replacing the goalkeeper or spaffing money on a goalscorer. Any money we have must be invested in top-class midfield players who can impose themselves on a game.

Pickford needs better competition to start with or replacing as, for me, the guy seems put together in Frankenstein's lab mentality-wise.

Coleman, legs have gone now as modern day up and down fullback requires.

Digne, needs to pull his finger out of his arse or be replaced.

The whole midfield needs to go, and I include Davies, yes, we need more than just someone trying or being steady, we need dynamism and not one of our midfield players in my opinion would break into a team above us.

Richarlison can stay but he's another one really who doesn't get involved in enough games especially on the road, is he irreplaceable? Not for me not if we had a good eye in the transfer market but sadly we don't.

Calvert-Lewin should be ok as a squad player but again whilst he's unproved this season and had a good midseason purple patch, he's still not a striker that's making himself feared and needs too many sights of goal before scoring for me.

If we really want to challenge the top clubs, then we need to be ruthless and quit the sentimental judgements on players that just won't propel us any higher than 8th.

We are shite. Unless we pay them extortionate amounts of money, it will be the same injury-prone ex-Barcelona shite of the past.

Fuck, I could go out and broker a deal for shit players from a big European club because they want rid to any fool team willing to take them. I wonder how much Brands gets in back ganders for buying them. Makes me so angry.

Going forward is our problem. There is little pace in the midfield and we fail to pick out good forward passes to our two willing runners Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison.

So many games now where our team fails to create anything of note. I was most disappointed with Gomes, but I suppose it is a miracle that he is even playing.

The team looked tired, it seems that the current regimen of two games a week is a little too tough for these pampered poofs. In the '70s and '80s it was the norm but this lot (Spurs players too) seem to be feeling sorry for themselves.

Of course it must be really tough for them not staying in the nice hotels, not getting little nick-nacks in from the sponsors in the hospitality boxes. The lot of them were just thinking about where it is okay to book two weeks in August.

Gordon did well, but I wonder how long it will be till the attitude rubs off on him and he withdraws into his shell?

Richarlison is our only quality player and I suspect that he is trying harder than the others because a top 4 club or European giant will soon swoop for him.

The rest of our team is littered with average Joes and mercenaries. How do you motivate millionaires? Some won't be around next season, some of them don't fancy Europa League games in Ukraine on a Thursday, and away games in Newcastle on the Sunday. Others are never going to improve to a level to get success.

The defence is adequate, the midfield terrible and the attack needs at least one more option. Three new faces (not journeymen, not sicknotes, not OAPs). Two in the midfield and one striker please.

I've noticed for some time – seems like years even – that when heading the ball our players seem to head it away rather than to a team mate. Our passing is woeful and we never ever get players in the box unless we have a corner. Poor Sidibé for example had a looping ball to deal with last night so headed it into touch. An Under-11s right back would have been annoyed with himself.

It's going to take more than 2-3 signings. I'd keep Holgate, Digne and Richarlison (if we can) and possibly Calvert-Lewin and replace the rest.

First lot out: Sigurdsson, Iwobi, Moise Kean, Bernard (sadly – I want to like him), Sidibé, Pickford (should still raise some funds).

I just hope Carlo can see what needs to be done and gets the backing to change it – otherwise, we are an eternal mid-table club.

It's been a long time since we witnessed 4-4-2 but, when played correctly, you need two energetic players in the middle, players who can do a bit of everything, and you need at least one wide player who can go past a man and put a cross in.

Ancelotti surprises me by blaming the midfield because the players he selected will never make a cohesive unit, which is possibly the easiest thing to understand if you watch them play every week.

Last night, we had one moment of attacking venom in the whole match and I'd say that is a huge part of our present problems. The defence is far from perfect and midfield is non-existent.

Richarlison has to, or is ordered to, drop deep and gets kicked off the park at every away ground in the country. There's no potency down the flanks and the other two forwards at the club, Calvert-Lewin and Kean, are incapable of creating a chance for themselves out of nothing and are clearly substandard.

Untill we address this a unearth a genuine goal threat we will always be the worst team to watch in the Premier League. Especially away from home, we are truly woeful.

However, we need to be aware that it would not be a unique wheeze, having been adopted some time ago by clubs like Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal and Barcelona.

Whoever would fall for such a cunning plan?

Here is the conundrum: how does Carlo improve it? – which he must, and he knows he must during the transfer window.

Sigurdusson finished his career last night; Carlo knows what he saw. Iwobi appears hopeless at the moment, where exactly does he play? We have no left- or right-sided players and Brands has gone on record that we need a right-sided player... that means Walcott has gone.

The whole balance of the midfield is non-existent. We need young energetic players in there and I think Davies and Gordon will play more prominent roles in the future. Over to Carlo and Marcel and Farhad's wallet again (poor bloke).

I couldn't really criticise too heavily the defence, as they did what was required (apart from a couple of brainfarts again from Pickford); luckily we got away with them.

We weren't so lucky, as was Michael Keane, when the ball ricocheted off him for their goal. He has been playing a lot better recently, so I will lay off him. The midfield as has been mentioned is a shambles, a mixture of lethargy and lack of creativity. No wonder the forwards had nothing to feed off.

Gomes earned a lot of respect on here after that horrendous injury, and the way he made a speedier recovery than anticipated, but he is quickly eroding that with displays like last night. He should have been hooked well before Tom Davies, who was marginally better, and at least showed a bit more effort.

Neville was right with his commentary. Everton have a defeatist mindset going away to any of the so-called 'Big 6'. They are beaten leaving the tunnel. As soon as we concede, the game is over.

There was a stat showing in the game, where Everton have not won a game since 2015 when being behind at half-time. 5 Draws and 35 defeats or something like that. Embarrassing.

Sigurdsson and Iwobi pulling out of 50-50 challenges, is an utter disgrace and as for the Brazilian wizard 'Bernard'; the commentator was generous by saying he went low with the free-kick.

No nonsense, winning mentality starts at the Training Ground, but we'll soon be posted pictures of more laughing and joking; whilst Seamus is led out to tell us all that they are hurting and are working hard... blah, blah, blah.

Play the kids - give us something to look at for the remainder of the season and Brands needs to work hard to get shot of the deadwood.

The bad news is that there is no good news.

Apart from it's now time for the flip-flops.

If the majority of this team starts next season, then we will sooner or later be in a significant relegation battle. I can't help but draw comparisons with Sunderland. Staggeringly poor effort that.

'Hopefully Carlo should find a formation to suit Sigurdsson' — are you serious?? I'd say his best hope is Playstation.

Wherever you put him, and the same with Iwobi, it's like playing with 9 men. Did either of them put their foot in last night? No.

If they are lucky enough to get a pass, because they certainly won't fight for it, they get rid of it as quick as they can. Waste of space.

Fans might not like to admit it but only Roberto Martinez came remotely close to shattering that losers mentality and getting this club to believe in itself a little.

He's still the only manager to have broken the Old Trafford hoodoo and but for an absolute twat of a linesman in the 98th minute at Chelsea back in January 2016, he'd have broken that curse too

No Everton manager anymore seems to have the bottle to try and play an expansive team, all it ever is now is keep it tight, keep it tight, it's bloody boring that we just don't seem to evolve, year-in & year-out.

We have already been relegated!

We are now in the second tier of the Premier League.

Liverpools recent successes just underline what an awful basket case club Everton have become. I don't blame Kenwright for everything, but the Kings Dock failure did the damage.

If it was up to me neither of them would get another game this season.

Jamie Crowley # 108 - you are correct - they tried to kick Richarlison off the park. Tim Cahill or Lee Carsley would have sorted that out very quickly. We need a hard man.

And someone who can see what's going on in front of him.

So I agree Carlo's strategy at the moment. Tighten the defence first so we don't lose to at least get a draw. If we can counter or score from set-pieces, it's a bonus. Until we get better personnel in, try to play expansive against the better teams will only get us exposed and lost by big margin which could damage the morale further.

I also want us playing beautiful football but it seems we at least a couple of transfer windows away.

Some of the time DCL has started coming away from striking positions and instead hunting the ball in midfield or on the wings.

He does this because the service, especially from midfield, has been poor. This must be one of the best Everton teams ever at the science of the "misplaced final pass."

Another person I'm agreeing more with is a certain Mr Darren Hind. Academy players on much lower salaries at least putting effort in compared to very expensive flops just strolling around avoiding tackles.

We do however need Carlo to have involvement with a transfer window as this must be addressed, sadly it wont be Clarence Seedorf.

Sigurdsson £5m ?
Iwobi as he's younger £10m ?

Who would take them?

This is a criminal waste of money. We have paid so much over the odds for these two and others!

Although he didn't say it out loud but I could sense from CA that the penny had dropped with some of these players tonight! Just not at the right level! Ok players but you can't teach will to win, guts and determination! Too nice and Gary Neville is spot on in his analysis !

I can't really name many players in the squad I'd be sorry to be exchanged or sold?! Richarlison, Digne, Gordon, Holgate. That's about it?! Hopefully they've been told they are all in notice ??! Somehow I'm not sure many will care ?!

It's so typical of what we have come to expect.

Thrashed by Chelski and tossed out of the cup by a RS ''second eleven'' are two of worst performances of a season filled with them.

Carlo has a lot of work to do and not much time to do it in time for the new season. The deadbeats showed up again yesterday and it's time to get the axe out.

The grand plan to flog Gana and play Gbamin, Gomes and Delph in a midfield three just hasn't materialised due to injuries.

What football is Brands directing in his role as “director of football”? This switch to 442 has left a lot of his signings looking like square pegs in round holes. He's meant to be implementing a strategy so that every time a new manager comes in we don't have a big rebuild. Otherwise he's just a glorified head scout doing the transfer negotiations.

No combination of the central midfielders look comfortable in a 442, their deficiencies are exposed. We've got Bernard, Walcott, Iwobi and Siggy all signed with a view to playing 4231 or 433 - they're utility forwards, wingers, number 10's. None of them are traditional left, right or centre midfielders for a 442.

What is Brands going to do this window? It's going to be very dispiriting next season if the majority of them are still here and we're still trying to play the same way. It's literally just a case of waiting, like we did with Schneiderlin, watching folk we know aren't good enough, until their contracts run down to the point they go for a nominal sum or free at the end of their contracts.

Sake

At least Sigurdsson offered some goals in that formation and the midfield wouldn't be so overrun!

Seriously, there is no bite or guile in midfield at all, what worries me is that post Covid-19 and what looks like another mid-table finish (barring a miracle) will funds be made available?

There are more than just a couple of decent players needed to rectify this crock of shit. I've always believed that we had a decent nucleus to build on, but after last night, which could have been a debacle had Spurs not been equally as poor. I am seriously rethinking my belief.

It seems the more these players get in wages the less committed they become, they're doing a job at the end of the day, and are expected to deliver, okay people can have an off-day, but not the whole team!

It might be a saving grace in many ways that fans are prohibited from attending matches, paying good hard earned money to watch that load of horseshit.

Rant over, till Thursday anyway, I hope I am not repeating it on Friday.

I'm weeping again.

The rugby league authorities dealt with the problem by introducing team warnings - if the referee feels there are too many fouls, he puts the team on a warning and the next player to infringe, whoever it is, gets a yellow card and ten minutes in the sin bin.

It is a system that works well, but we will never see it because FIFA don't like to learn from other sports.

Time to give the kids a go. The conditions are perfect - no risk of relegation and no crowd to get on their backs if they mess up. I'd sooner see the youngsters trying even if we get a hiding rather than put up with the lazy cowardly displays we've had to endure all too often this season. Oh and we need an expert to treat Pickford for his ADHD pronto.

Football trailed this and binned it without making it universal.

This link to a very dated-looking BBC Sports page will show you just how long ago.

Retreat 10 Yards

I noticed one of the comments in the piece was from a certain "Les Tuckwell, South Wales". Worked with him in Newport, if it's the same guy! Haven't seen him for years - a blast from the past.

You can bet your bottom dollar that it would create more reffing inconsistencies and incompetent decision making. Refs (and VAR) are bad enough as it is without more controversy, particularly since their decisions would be creating uneven numbers on a regular basis. Would you really want games of 9v9?

I would also expect it would reduce the spectacle, with the side finding itself with the numerical deficit choosing to run down the clock through time wasting and tedious possession keeping (neither of which I would guess are as feasible in rugby league).'

The midfield are not getting any further than the half way line and the full backs are exhausted doing 70yd ‘doggies' to provide width and a vertical threat to the team, because we don't have numbers to retain the ball upfield, they are frequently caught out in transition. The affect on the front two is evident, one becomes part of the defensive shape the other becomes isolated.

So when we do get forward, it's sparse and with no midfield back up. Any ball played onto the box leaves the forwards outnumbered and with not one midfielder backing up the play up. There's no chance we win a second ball.

Sat so deep it allows the opponent to saturate our half, gives them outnumbered situations, and pins us in our own half. To be honest I'd rather play Mina, and a much higher line if you want to persist with 4-4-2. If you do not rotate the midfield you are asking for it, I'd love to see a fresh two on Thursday, but I'd don't think we will.

Madam Tussauds lol so true

Giz a job Mr. Kenwright I can do
Dat. Go on Giz a Job.

If you'd have told us 10 years back that we'd have a billionaire owner, a new ground in the pipeline and Ancelotti as manager I don't think anybody would expect us to be mid table with zero wins against the RS in that time.

Moshiri must be furious at the wasted money so far. It is depressing.

Have to give Carlo time though, if he can't turn us round and get us in top 6 next season then I genuinely don't think anyone can.

After all the shit, aren't we due a bit of bloody good luck. It is depressing.

Our expectations and standards seem to be far lower than most of our competitors. Nothing will change while boys pen Bill is hanging around, mark my words.

The signing of Iwobi at the ridiculous fee smacked of desperation after the failed Zaha pursuit.

The fee we got for Gana was nowhere near enough knowing full well that he was absolutely crucial to the way we played.

The signing of Gbamin has been a cursed one, but as soon as we signed him we hear rumours that he probably suits defence more than midfield.

Character checks on the likes of Gomes before signing him permanently should have been done as apparently he was always a bit flakey at Barcelona and it's hard to imagine Moyes going after a signing that had a bit of a fragile mentality.

The signing of Delph who has proven to be a big time arsehole was a waste money and wages, surely there was a hungry player in the championship that would put more effort in?

Moise Kean has been another poor signing that arrived with major question marks about his attitude, again under Moyes whose stringent homework on signings personality, probably would not have touched this arsehole, another Balotelli in the making.

Brands has a lot to answer for.

Could we get money for Iwobi ? £10m maximum I'd say! Who'd take him? A promoted team?

Siggy, the reality is with that contract and his age you could be looking at a free transfer !

Delph - I forget he plays for us!

Don't forget we still have Bolasie, Tosun, Walcott, Sandro all contributing nothing.

It's unbelievable mismanagement. If this was a FTSE 100 business would have heads rolling! What must Moshiri think? What must Usmanov think?

As others have said if Carlo Ancellotti can't solve this we may as well forget it!

Do we really need a director of football, it seems to do more harm than good.

Ditch them and get back to the good old scouting and negotiating with other clubs on potential signings

While I am at it, the goals could be slightly bigger, as we are still using 19th century goals but modern goalkeepers are a lot bigger and more athletic. Making scoring a bit easier would encourage attacking play.

I don't know why, but I found last night particularly crushing. Perhaps because it somehow crystallised our plight. We keep going because we can't help it, but I have spent the last couple of years trying (and generally failing) to dilute my intense love for Everton. I looked at that disgrace of a performance and felt tired of persuading myself that we are still a great club just awaiting our time to rise again. We're really not.

We're not playing deep to accommodate Keane, although it does suit him. I've seen it a few times - get in a quick centre back for tug boat Keane and we'll play a high line and push up the pitch. Yeah right.

He's playing deeper because that midfield 4 in any combination have got no mobility, tenacity, dynamism, positional sense etc. Try play a high line with that slugfest of a midfield pressing and you're going to see teams running at our back four with lots of space to attack or options to play round them and we'll inevitably concede goals. True, we might score more but Carlo's prioritising keeping it tight first and foremost. You might agree with that or not but it's not all down to Michael Keane.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BhHq4m_Bi5g

It's ironic that we will have to admit that the old trio of manager,chief scoutand chairman did a far better job. And that's just about the kindest thing I've ever said about Bill Kennwright !

To my minds the DoF should:-

Negotiate contracts and terms with agents and / or players;
Find suitable homes for players that are either not needed or not wanted any longer at the club;

Agree a playing strategy for the whole club with the First team coach and then ensure that it is implemented throughout the club so that any players aspiring to rise up the ranks can move seamlessly into the next level;

Organise the scouting network so that we, as a club are kept abreast of all developing players worldwide and become aware immediately anyone becomes available that can improve our playing staff;

Take instruction from the first team coach on they type and nature of the players the coach requires in any given transfer window and use the scouting team to find suitable candidates who can fill the role, are willing to come to the club and are within the club's budget.

It is on this last point that I think Brands is currently being judged and if my understanding of what the job entails is correct, then he is being judged harshly, in my opinion.

Each coach that he has worked with will have had to say what type of player they wanted and then say yay, or nay to the suggested candidates to fill the roll.

I don't think (but again I might be wrong) that Brand's remit is to turn up to a coach and say' "whether you want him or not, I've got you Sigurdson, or Iwobi, or Kean, or Keane etc."

Someone else, as well as Brands, will surely have to have signed off on these players ( e.g. Tosun and Walcott in the case of Allardyce)?

We are all disappointed, but let's see what type of player Carlo Ancelotti asks him to get and who he actually acquires.

When Carlo has had a bit of time to train his new squad and the new players have had a chance to integrate, then, and only then, can we make a judgement on both DoF and Coach as, until now,Brands hasn't had a coach of Ancelotti's calibre, telling him who he wants to bring in.

I am hoping and praying that this will be final new (not false) dawn that we have been promised for years, and that, at last, it will all start to click into place.

Few clubs have spent so much and made no improvement.

What kills me is the lack of care, effort and pride. Most of that squad have never put a shift in and grafted in their lives.

They aren't connected to the supporters if they were, that level of crap fest would be a rarity, but over the last 20 odd years the fragile mentality on the pitch is consistently so brittle.

They played with such a lack of desire, last night, what the hell is the captains job these days at Everton?

Too, soft, and weak and we need a big effort to put this defeat right, on Thursday night.

It's self limiting to the point of almost total impotence in the oppositions 18 yard box, and almost self inviting pressure induced by the opposition.

We live in hope but this next transfer window will be very tough. Surely lessons will be learnt from the past few transfer windows.

Under Moyes it did become a phrase "Goodison the strikers Graveyard"

Louis Saha was hardly a poor signing?

Might have been 30 and a tad injury prone but when he was fit he was probably technically the best centre forward Everton have had in the Premier League era.

Everton Football Club has been a strikers graveyard for many a year, the only one that truly broke the mould consistently scoring goals was Romelu Lukaku, who was criminally sold and never replaced.

Ok we signed a few duds before then, but on the whole, the players we sold we made a very good return on what we originally paid for them, the ones we have now that we bought, you could argue Digni and Richarlison would still be good investment, but the rest we will be lucky to pick up a few million for them.

In my opinion we have wasted so much on bang average players and put them on big wages and contracts.

Me personally, I would get rid of the d.o.f and go back to the old ways of the Manager and chairman sorting these targets out.

Beats me how they both agreed. Tosun was good enough but apparently they did, same goes for Walcott, but that's how it worked with Walsh and Sam.

Moyes played a deep defence with lone striker. Kick the ball upfield, tried to draw fouls or corners. And we scored from set pieces by Cahill or our CB. I don't think Yak and Beattie suddenly became so lazy, with poor attitude and can't kick a ball once signed for Everton. Moyes knew chances would be few and rare. So he needed someone who can convert them when those rare chances present. Therefore all these prolific strikers were signed.

Martinez played more attacking football. If Rom played under Moyes, he would be asked to drop deep and help defending. He'll be by himself chasing loose balls and holding it for seconds before help arrive. I doubt he can score 20 goals.

I always liked the Yak, cool as a cucumber in front of goal and had a beautiful finishing technique.

I also agree that James Beattie didn't become a bad striker overnight, his goal return for Southampton spoke for itself, in the two seasons prior to joining us he scored 23 and 17 goals.

The problem with Beattie is Moyes didn't really know what to do with him, Beattie needed a partner (he succeeded next to Kevin Philipps at Southampton) and he also needed a genuine winger supplying crosses.

Moyes signed Simon Davies in the hope he would deliver, and whilst on paper you can understand that signing as he was decent at Spurs, he failed at Everton this pretty much meaning Beattie failed too.

However I think whilst Martinez was miles more offensive than Moyes, I still think Lukaku would have been a regular 20 goal player under the Scot.

Rom would have fed off the likes of Fellaini, Pienaar in his pomp, Cahill, Arteta, I actually think Lukaku would have thought it was birthdays and Christmas rolled into one.

Whatever we think about Lukaku's attitude, the last two seasons under Martinez and in stages his first season here on loan, he was absolutely unplayable and a quite devastating goal scorer.

We will probably not see a striker as effective in front of goal here again.

Pickford
Coleman Keane Mina Digne

Richarlison Holgate Gomes Gordan

DCL Kean

If Holgate is injured then try Beni

Having just watched our pathetic display against Spurs, I think all true fans need a reality check. I think we need at least six or seven new players.

Pickford is a liability, makes at least one howler every week;
Coleman, what a servant... but not the same player since his horrific injury, it pains me to say this;
Digne, I would keep him;
Holgate is really overrated... if clubs want him, let him go;
Keane tries hard but is not good against quality opposition;
Davies is very lightweight, never passes the ball forward; Sigurdsson... I do not know what is going on there – no heart, 㿞 million – what a joke!
Gomes is far too slow and not creative; Calver- Lewin has he the physical presence and is widely rated but I am not sure;
Richarliison will score goals and takes some stick; Gordon should be persevered with, a young prospect; Bernard can be decent but very inconsistent;
Walcott is plain awful;
Tosun... no thanks; Mina is just a liability.

Serious questions as to who we bring in. I think Carlo has his work cut out but he is not stupid – the 㾷M will help.

Who scouts for Everton? I know for a fact that our scout in Northern Ireland is a Liverpool fan.

I am afraid that about sums our club up. A shambles at the minute. I feel so sorry for our wonderful fans of The People's Club... Pity I can't say the same for our team at present.

Of our current lot I would keep Pickford, as he is young for a goalie and should mature, Davies as a squad player as he is I guess on low wages, DCL, Richie (if we can), Keane, Mina, Digne, Coleman and the youngsters.

But how we unload the others, on such long and lucrative contracts, I have no idea.

Better to just let the manager get on with the job of scouting pretty decent players, it was always the bosses duty before so why change it.

Too much smoke blown up the arses of the like of Brands and Walsh before him.

The Lord giveth - and the Lord Taketh away.