No goals in first Swiss pre-season run-out

No team news yet it seems.

Lössl, Holgate, Keane, Baines, Schneiderlin, Davies, Gomes, Williams, Broadhead, Mirallas, Niasse.

Thanks Michael, odd combination, but it is pre-season, change for second half I would think.

Very curious to see who is forming the rest of that defensive line - there's Baines, Holgate, and Keane, with who else?

The Everton Twitter puts Mirallas at right-back...

Mirallas? Niasse? What exactly is the point of these games?

Yes Michael, kinda pointless watching Mirallas and Niasse. Would have preferred to see Frazer Hornby play, or even the free-scoring Ellis Simms who's just moved up to the U23s. If he started scoring in the friendlies like Rooney did in the 2002-03 season, he could have got a senior squad number and make a few sub and cup appearances this season.

Boring first half. Maybe they were all too relaxed while on holiday.

Should see 8 or 9 changes for second half.

We need to be a lot sharper in three weeks time.

What's the point playing Niasse and Mirallas when both are going??

Try players from the U23s!!!

I know it's preseason but why are we still persisting with players like Niasse and Mirallas?

I mean do they really have a future here, if not then why are we working preseason plans with them in the side?

Four weeks remain to bring some genuine firepower to this squad; otherwise, it's hard to see too many improvements on last season.

Well, plenty of effort... but the only word that you can think of is 'blunt'.

We need more going forward and we knew this last season.

We rely too much on Sigurdsson from midfield to score and Richarlison when he's there.

Jim, "Well plenty of effort but the only word that you can think of is blunt." I was thinking of a word that rhymes with that about Mirallas and Niasse when he ballooned his chances on goal, no wonder they never gave him a locker!

I know it was a pre-season work-out, plenty of possession as you say but nothing encouraging up front from either half.

These pre-season friendlies really are just a work-out, aren't they. And maybe a chance to practice some tactical tweeks.

Derek

We knew from last season that we need more firepower outside of Sigurdsson and Richarlison.

Games against Fulham, Palace, Watford, Brighton, Southampton away are what cost us a higher finish in the end because we didn’t possess enough going forward.

Really, we haven’t changed the dynamic of the squad enough this summer to really change that and traipsing out the likes of Niasse and Mirallas, well I just don’t know what we were meant to glean from that?

From the two games I have seen so far, the main newsworthy item for me is Broadhead. Has pace, strong and dangerous. Did well last week and this week created the best chance.

Otherwise, not much to report so far...

Ferguson needs to do a Steffan Freund shake on Hornby and drill into him to look up! He has the potential but sadly runs with his head down. We really are struggling for that elusive centre forward.

On a plus side Broadhead looks a useful player.

Amit (14) I agree. The fact he played 90 minutes today suggests Silva is having a close look at his potential for a place in the squad. I suspect though he will end up going out on loan along with most of the other Under-23s.

Gibson was given 45 minutes today but was hardly tested in a one-sided affair. He has many of the attributes to be a top player but the manager will probably be drawing as many conclusions from what he sees in training as he will do from performances in these fairly mundane practice games.

Brian,

You can't really expect Hornby or Broadhead to be a major part of the first team this season; even if they were, we can't pin our hopes on these lads.

We need firepower, simple as!

Good training for us fans. Plenty more of this toothless rubbish till we get a striker.

Pat K, yes definitely a gummy display.

Just a bunch of very average footballers who are happy to just not get beat.

Can't believe we still haven't signed a striker. We have never replaced Lukaku and really paid for it in each season.

Delph would be a strong purchase but we all know that we are missing a front man and need one desperately.

For anybody that thinks over 30’s can’t be fantastic sportsmen then look no further than Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in a quite mesmerising Wimbledon Final, absolutely world class super fit athletes that could teach many of the workshy youth a thing or two in any sport.

How can a team full of professional footballers that train and play together for 10 months of the year and also being from the highest paid league in the world look like strangers to each other?

Even with the off-season and no recognised forward they really should have overcome the local Swiss mountain village pub team; poor!

Strangely found the Tour De France peleton more watchable than this?

With what we have in attack, Jim, then yes why not be an opportunity for Hornby, we have Niasse, Tosun, Calvert-Lewin, do any of those fill you with optimism, you could argue the case for Calvert-Lewin, will he get us 15 goals next season no, but with someone alongside him who knows what he can provide with a goal poacher alongside him, to feed off the knock-downs.

Not rocket science we need a striker, Hornby has the potential in the future, but he certainly needs to learn to look around and not run into blind alleys with his head down, if he wants to make it.

Shape was good, energy was good, passing decent but not enough creativity and (Sigurdsson apart) no scoring threat.

Brian

This is no disrespect to any of Niasse, Tosun, Calvert-Lewin, Hornby, Broadhead ect ect but if that bunch are our attacking options next season then we are fooked!!!

Too much expectation on Richarlison and Sigurdsson to hit double figures.

I'm surprised everyone thinks signing a striker will solve all issues. It probably will not. For two reasons:

Firstly, a striker will usually need chances to be created for them. Currently we do not create enough. One of the reasons I'm less enamoured with Gomes than some.

Secondly, what sort of striker do you think we can get? If we could get a Harry Kane or Aguero, then yes, I think we'd convert a few more chances and they'd possibly create a few more for themselves. They'd still get far fewer than they did at Spurs or Man City till we solve creative issues.

And, more importantly, we will struggle to find players like that. Nearly every team could do with more goalscorers, the best ones go for big money to Champions League teams. A lot of the ones we could get (Gomez, Haller, Poulsen etc) would be a big risk and may or may not be upgrades on Tosun (who came with big price, good form and a strong scoring record).

It is not a striker that will necessarily improve us. They may help but far more important is the general balance of the team; how much they can create and how well they can defend. We could get Lukaku back and perhaps he'd get 15 goals but I don't think we'd necessarily win more matches/points because he loses the ball so often so many of our moves would break down. It's about the team and the system. Not one player.

Icardi on loan or not worth the trouble?

Sam

Maybe you have forgotten the chances we created at Palace and Fulham last season, and the fact that we should have beaten West Ham by six goals away from home but were unbelievably wasteful, or the fact that we were hanging on against Arsenal at 1-0 when we should have buried them.

Then there was Watford away when a Calvert-Lewin missed an absolute sitter with his head late on.

It seems to me if we had a decent centre-forward in many games last season, we probably would have finished above one of Man Utd or Arsenal.

Where's the centre-forward, Marcel?

Got my Everton membership to watch preseason and true to form it wouldn't work. Kept trying to get me to buy another membership so I eventually found a streaming link after missing the first 15 minutes.

Ultimately I wish I hadn't watched it at all. We were criminal as a team and hopeless in the final third against a team that would get thrashed by Tranmere.

Deary me I worry where the goals are gonna come from next season. Apart from Sigurdsson and Richarlison, I don't think we have another goalscorer on the books.

Gomes, Baines and Coleman all seemed to be blowing for tugs before half-time so plenty of fitness work to do there.

Did anyone else notice Gomes's frustration when he was subbed?

I agree with Sam, we lack creativity and Sigurdsson doesn't provide enough of it. Yes, Jim, he does score but, for an attacking midfielder, his creativity is really poor.

I thought I would get my Sigurdsson moan in early, if only to counter your criticism of Calvert-Lewin, Jim. Not that I think he will get enough goals for us, but I believe he would be a great foil if we were to play a second striker.

Although it was just another friendly against a crap team, the performance was abysmal. We know Silva doesn't take these games too seriously and in a way it's better we didn't win 5-0 because there would be a huge wave of ridiculous optimism.

As it stands we know, where the problem area will be next season and can only pray for a miracle and we can sign someone who can score a few goals; otherwise, it will be the same as last season – entirely depending on Richarlison and Sigurdsson for our goals. That won't be nearly enough to move us further up the table.

I thought Holgate was composed and moved the ball well today. Fair enough, he wasn’t really tested but he dealt well with everything asked if him.

I’d be happy with Broadhead occupying a slot in the squad as one of four wingers. But only as a back up option in place or Walcott & Lookman.

The only positive from today is we were not playing a Premier League team. You think some of the players would have put more of an effort in this game, but I supposed some of them are aware their position is safe. Others we consider deadwood, just showed why we want them out.

Holgate is always composed.

A proper footballer

This was our second pre-season match. It's about getting your fitness back. Don't panic, we will be ready for Palace.

Is this thread really happening?

Don’t watch pre-season games. You’re taking them more seriously than the people playing. They’re part of fitness training and no more than glorified training sessions, especially these early ones.

Whatever you think today’s ‘match’ demonstrates, it doesn’t.

Darren, Holgate reminds me if Woodgate who, in my view, unblighted by injury would have been a world class player. Composed and athletic. Holgate is going to need support and patience because he will make errors; players on their way to the top do, and learn from them. We have a gem here.

In Holgate, Calvert-Lewin and Davies we have three potentially great players. Why not enjoy their progress? What pleasure do some folk get from dishing out the phrase "Championship at best"? To get as good as these lads takes talent that is unimaginable to most of us.

Darren at 38 100% agree. A fantastic footballer who is always composed.

Bit of confidence and he’s better than stones for me.

Mike, stop making sense. We will be relegated, you apologist and acceptor of mediocrity!!

Mike/Andy

No kidding. In a parallel universe this was a Europa cup qualifier and people were saying “professional job done we will wrap it up at Goodison.” In this universe it was a meaningless fitness workout and people are acting like it’s a disaster.

Absolutely Jim, we have Calvert-Lewin, again other than him, the rest are not up to it.

Even Calvert-Lewin as a starter is banking him on him adding goals to his other overall game.

Coming up to the third season now since we lost our regular goal scorer, we have to get a striker in, cannot go into the new season with those forwards.

Jim@30 no I’ve not forgotten. But all strikers miss chances. The difference in conversation rate between a clinical striker and one who misses too much is about 20% to 10% so even if Calvert-Lewin were an Aguero style finisher he’d probably have only scored 5 or 6 more goals which though helpful is unlikely to have got us a great deal higher up the table.

We could use a more clinical striker but mainly it’s about the team as a whole, and we need more goals/creativity from all over.

Well said Andy! Encourage our young players and they will develop more quickly. Keep the nasty comments for that shower across the park.

We have some of the best young players in the country so let's give them a fighting chance!

Andy

I agree if the gate connection. I really like Holgate.

One other thing, Pennington was overlooked so it seems Silva doesn't rate him. I like the lad. Good attitude, Evertonian. But I think he's a bit too much of an old fashioned centre-back for Silva. I can see him having a good career in the Championship and maybe Premier League like Duffy at a smaller club. Were he born 20 years earlier, he would have been a great Dog of War.

Mike (#40): Absolutely, too many on here are taking these warm up games more seriously than those actually involved.

But then again, its just another excuse for these naysayers – why do we have so many, anyway? – to knock our team and say we're clearly doomed!!

I mean, ffs, come on lads, some of these same 'happy' posters could only bring themselves to say how lucky we were and how could all so easily have been different even after we'd just thrashed Burnley 5-1 on Boxing Day!!!

I've heard of this bloke Federer who was mentioned earlier but it is said that he is getting on, doesn't find the back of the net as often as other players and quite often just lets the ball go out. Not sure he's one for us and maybe one for the neutrals, not to mention that we haven't had much luck in the past with Swiss players, one a full back and the other now at his fourth different country in a couple of years. I suppose it depends on how you look at these things.

I'm just surprised there wasn't a penalty shoot-out as we certainly need the practice.

I tip my hat to anyone who, faced with a choice between watching the greatest cricket match of all time, the first Wimbledon final to go to a fifth set tie break, or a friendly between Everton reserves and a Swiss team nobody has heard of, chose the Everton game.

Michael, If only Gylfi has scored, be interesting to see if things would have changed much.

Michael and Steve, I am not really a Cricket fan, but wished I was after that dire showing, I hope the Manager and the players got more from the match than we as fans did.

Interesting that Lookman, who apparently travelled with the squad never got a sniff, neither did The Turkish pancake tosser, I was under the impression that apart from one goalkeeper (Stek) they would all get a run out. No Beni either.

I would imagine Silva's instructions before the game would be for them to work up a sweat, get the lungs going a bit but for God's sake don't get injured. Groins and hamstrings tend to go when players are not up to match fitness.

We scored 22 this time last season... which didn't do us much good once the season started. I am expecting Gueye and Lookman to be sold and the £65m or so proceeds will finance a striker and a centre-back.

It's really all about fitness at this point. I might be a bit more interested in how we perform against Mainz and Bremen, to see how the team are re-integrating together and how sharp they look. Ultimately nothing really matters till they step out at Selhurst Park on the 10th. Wonder if we will be facing Zaha or not.

Pleased for Gueye getting to the AFCON final but not great for our prep to have our best player unavailable for the whole pre-season essentially. That is assuming he is still ours by end of transfer window!

Sam, while I agree about working up to fitness, and ideally not picking up any injuries in the process, it was a pretty dire game to watch, although we did create marginally more than they did. Hopefully they will improve as the pre-season games go on.

If they sell Besic, as well Dave@58, then you add the money we received for Vlasic, they will have brought around £80 million into the club.

Gomes and Delph will have cost around £30 million, so that will leave around £80 Million, (maybe less?) for 3 more top players, and will also show that Everton FC, now seem to have a major plan in place, to take our club forward?

Some people will argue that selling Gueye, is not much of a plan, whilst others will argue that if you don’t speculate, you will never accumulate, so either way, these next couple of weeks are going to be massive, and all before a ball has really been kicked in anger!

To those non-experts watching the pre-season friendlies (ie, us) they can look as though all our players are playing at a similar intensity as they would if it was a competitive match but just playing shit.

It's hard to quantify but the difference to how the players play in them, to a Premier League game is absolutely huge. That may seem a stupid obvious statement but the difference in performance when only giving 80% in a preseason friendly is massive and CAN make good players look absolutely shit!

These games are REALLY nothing to do with performance and, in truth, we probably shouldn't watch 'em if we can't accept the game'll bear no resemblance whatsoever to a real one.

Yeh, they can be frustrating to watch but I for one don't want any player knocking their pan in too early and getting an injury that may keep 'em out for the first few weeks of the season.

These players (most of 'em) are like F1 cars. 1% too much of something and they're fucked for the race.

Even with Tosun, Calvert-Lewin and Walcott back, the offence will still struggle as Richarlison has to shoulder the burden. Hopefully some who were included yesterday will be moved out as they really are not going to do any better than the last few seasons.

Everton are crying out for a class striker and if they don't get one then it will be another lacklustre season.

Agreed, Tony — add in a few loan fees plus £2m for Robinson as well!

Whilst Gueye has been excellent the club has to be run as a business and £40m for a 30-year-old would be hard to turn down especially after the loss on Klaassen and expected loss on Bolasie.

Annika #34... blimey, pre-season and we're getting this about Sigurdsson already?

The Echo ran an article near the end of last season comparing a 'chances created' metric for him and Erickson. They were about even. Same as his last season with Swansea when he racked up assists (with an ageing but high-quality striker in Llorente playing up top).

Problem is, when Sigurdsson puts it on a plate, our players invariably fluff their lines (I'm looking at you, Walcott). Additionally, he often (usually at least once or twice a game) puts in a great through-ball except our players are not on the same wavelength and are not anticipating the ball.

It's blindingly obvious to me that he's a vital player for us, irrespective of who we get to play centre-forward. He gets the goals that Cahill got and – despite assertions to the contrary – is far, far more creative. Thankfully we have some intelligent players in the squad now who showed real signs of gelling the last 10+ games. Dominic Calvert-Lewin improved hugely. If he can continue this upward trajectory and (vitally) add goals he could develop into a top forward. Still a big "if" admittedly but I liked what I saw last season.

Also we were one of the best teams in the league the last 3 months of last season. I fail to see how, even if we end up with the same attacking options that we will suddenly not be able to win games. Think this nonsense is coming from the same posters who were predicting we'd be lucky to cobble together a couple of draws from our remaining fixtures, starting from the Cardiff game. People have short memories and often learn nothing.

I went to this match yesterday but just for the chance to see the boys in action rather than any expectation of witnessing a thriller. I wasn't to be disappointed. The match took place at a 'stadium' which was Sunday league size although the pitch surface itself looked good. Most of us were within touching distance of the players so it was hard to analyse the game in any way. Our performance was of no surprise to me considering we had half a team out -presumably the whole point of the game being to boost fitness levels. As regards the players:

Mirallas popping up at right-back was surprising, to say the least... although he moved up when Williams went off injured.

Holgate looked very comfortable to me, always looking for the ball. I think he could well challenge Mina if we don't get Zouma.

It was also good to see McCarthy back. I wouldn't dismiss him yet and he deserves a chance as long as he's fit.

Poor Lössl in goal had nothing to do for his 45 minutes, neither did Pickford later.

Sorry to say none of the young lads really stood out for me, apart perhaps from Williams. To be fair though, you have to take the circumstance of the game into consideration.

In general, we were solid if not spectacular but this is only our second game after the summer break so no panic from me.

Finally, a word for Marco Silva. There were a few of us hanging around after the match and he showed his appreciation for us by posing for a few photos and shaking hands. He comes across to me as being a really decent guy and I think he'll get us going this season.

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Au contraire, Julian, I thought Broadhead, Williams and Tom Davies showed well yesterday and I didn't understand the need to give Mirallas and Niasse game-time that the kids could have well used.

Dave #56, I did reply to your post, and there were quite a few good comments afterwards, but the Eds have got a bit strict and scrubbed them out, even though I did make reference to Kevin Mirallas.

I can understand a slightly heavy hand by the Eds during the season, but a little latitude during close season would be welcome. (Bet it was Michael!).

Dreadful.
The shapeless garbage shown in this game is a foretaste of what is to come.
When will people understand the importance of pre-season games, especially the parasites bleeding us dry for this level of cr*p?

Jay, # 74. Cheers mate, I'll make a note of that.

Hi Pete, # 88. Yeah, it seems all the posts on the cricket world cup final have been scrubbed.

All the panicking Corporal Jones posters worried about our showing versus Sion, this was Sig's reaction to questions about the performance:

“With the amount of training we're doing it's not about being fresh and ready for the games it's about the training we're doing to make sure we're preparing and loading up the muscles and being able to cope with the season ahead.”

Kieran (#91); Very kind of Sigurdsson to let us know that and did he say that was also the other team's excuse and why then we needed to go to Switzerland for it or was it just on the way home from Africa? I'm not sure which is better, this or 22-0 after a week of training. Perhaps they found out they just don't like putting it up 'em.

Peter (88), yes I saw this post late last night when I got in and thanked you for replying, although it was too late for me to see what you had said.

I remembered our conversation, along with John Rafferty, about cricket last year when Mike Gaynes came over, and you knew a lot about the game, that’swhy I was interested in your opinion.

Never mind we might have a natter about it in the future.