Farcical defending sees Everton self-destruct

Everton travel to Turf Moor for what is being widely billed as yet another "must-win' game, but it's really all about getting a result to turn the soul-destroying tide of successive defeats dragging the Blues down to the edge of the relegation zone.

Michael Kenrick 06/04/2022 527comments  |  Jump to last

Fabian Delph is on the bench for the first time in almost 4 months

Everton travel to Turf Moor for what is being widely billed as yet another "must-win' game, but it's really all about getting a result to turn the soul-destroying tide of successive defeats dragging the Blues down to the edge of the relegation zone.

The return of Fabian Delph after almost 4 months out is only to the bench, where Seamus Coleman also returns after recovering from an illness that kept him out of the defeat at West Ham last Sunday.

In defence, Jonjoe Kenny, Mason Holgate, Ben Godfrey, and Vitaliy Mykolenko all retain their places, joined by Jarrad Branthwaite in place of the suspended Michael Keane.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin leads the line again with Richarlison playing off him. Anthony Gordon is the other wide player in place of Demarai Gray, with Alex Iwobi continuing in a more central role behind the forwards despite his costly slip-up against West Ham.

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The longer-term injured include Tom Davies, Andros Townsend and Yerry Mina while Allan serves out the last of his three-match ban.

The home side kicked off, and pushed up their left wing via a series of throw-ins until Everon won the first free-kick, then one for Burnley and their attack was stalled by Halgate lunging in with his first tackle: yellow card!

It was pinball off the set-piece, a Burnley shot deflected back across goal for a corner, and defended clear. But Burnley were keeping Everton pinned back. Westwood got a chance to shoot but he fired wide with Pickford flailing.

Everton finally got forward and eventually won a free-kick when Brownhill pulled Richarlison back, for a yellow card. But Burnley got forward again, forcing a corner off Mylenko's block and from that a shocking goal to give up at the far post, sidefooted in by Collins with Iwobi tracking his man until he paused for some unknown reason.

Everton tried but failed to mount an attack and instead it was another corner for Burnley, but thankfully not another goal.

Gordon burst into the Burnely area and he was clipped by Westwood, a bit of a dive to be honest, but given as a penalty. Richarlison, after a long wait, stutter-stopped and then scored to put Everton back in the game.

Burnley pushed back up field and Everton's defence looked shaky but held firm with a strong header from Godfrey. At the other end, Richarlison had a chance to line up a shot but Pope helped it fly over the bar. The corner did not beat the first man and a foul was called on Calvert-Lewin, who got a long talking to from Mike Dean.

Iwobi played a great forward pass but Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin together managed to mess it up with neither of them taking a shot. Everton built a half-decent counter-attack, ending when Gordon smacked his shot against a defender.

Everton attacked again and put in crosses from either side but they found no-one in the area. Calvert-Lewin was being targetted by Pickford's long clearances but he wasn't really laying them off well enough.

From a free-kick, Gordon tried a deep cross to Richarlison but he was jumping behind Pope. Everton looked to build an attack again and it fell to Gordon in space but he wanted a second touch and, by the time he shot, it was blocked again.

Richarlison wriggled into space and cross over both Calvert-Lewin and Gordon. Mykolenko overlapped for Iwobi but his weak cross along the ground was very poor, easily cleared.

Mykolenko, attacking again, was caught on his heel in the area and the VAR took an age, with Dean taking another age to go over and look at the pitch-side monitor before he agreed to give Everton a second penalty. Richarlison almost exactly repeated his stutter-stop and again sent Pope the wrong way. Amazing!

Kenny had to be smart to clear Burnley's attack from the restart but it won a corner that was cleared. Richarlison then went on another run but it was stalled.

Burnley attacked again and Kenny had to give up another corner that was headed behind by Richarlison. The next one from the other side led to some pinball and was cleared away by Richarlison. But Burnley came back and won yet another corner that this time was poor, leaving Everton's half-time lead intact.

After the restart, Everton gave up an early free-kick wide right that caused more chaos when it came into the Everon area, a shot blocked by Kenny. Mykolenoko was well involved at one end, trying to attack, then defending Lenon well for a throw but that ended with another Burnley corner, this time played short and wasted by Lennon.

Every time Burnely got forward it was chaotic Keystone Cops defending from Everton, Gordon blocking the last shot with his face and Dean surprisingly not giving Burnley another corner.

Gordon saw Richarlsion in acres of space but the Brazilian farted around and then fairly lashes it wide, a terrible miss. Godfrey took an age to launch a free-kick and went in Dean's little book.

A better forward move started by Richarrlison saw Kehhy cross in deep and kiss the angle of the goal. Burnley attacked down the left and Taylor galloped down the wing and somehow drilled his low cross through the Everton defenders and Rodriguez behind them could not miss.

Everton won a corner but could only deliver it in to defenders and even Gordon's good work recycling the ball saw him pass back to a defender. Gordon put a whipped cross in that was not attacked by the Everton forwards.

Everton piled on the pressure and worked the ball around the Burnley area until an acrobatic chance for Richarlison was powered in on target but saved by Pope. More pressure saw a Mykolenko deliver a cross that Calvert-Lewin at least got his head to.

Gordon got through on goal but Tarkowski made a great recovery to block his shot away, Gordon making the wrong choice of shot. Branthwaite then headed just over as the chances kept coming at both ends.

Cornet beat Gordon and Kenny and then threw himself to the ground but never a penalty. Gordon could not beat Tarkowski but won a corner, that Gordon drove through everyone to Mykolenko who did not have the confidence to shoot.

It was end to end, Godfrey picking up the all and running the length of the field, playing in Rucharlison but his attempt was pathetic, shooting weakly at Tarkowski. A great ball in from Richarlison went right through Calvert-Lewin. Why is he so ineffective?

Everton had the ball but could not create anything and Richarlison in frustration fired a pointless shot well wide. Richarlison then put a cross in but it was far too high for Calvert-Lewin.

Burnley had a spell of attacking, Everton very nervous in defence, Pickford parrying a shot from Cornet over the bar. But Everton were again at sixes and sevens from the corner, Collins shooting into the side netting.

Demarai Gray tried to power his way through, his shot deflected behind for another Everton corner. Gray put it over everybody and Burnley defended the next phases.

Kenny tried to shoot but it was a huge mistake and Burnley surged up the other end, Pickford clearing short. From the Burnley throw-in, it was dreadful from Godfrey and a low cross was powered in to surely give Burnley the winner.

Everton defended a Burnley free-kick and got the ball forward for a long throw from Mykolenko. From that a difficult ball fell to Rondon who stabbed his shot just wide.

Well into added time and Pickford's long free-kick was easily defended. Everton had nothing left and walked away with nothing after leading 2-1 at half-time.

Kick-off: 7:30 pm BST, Wednesday, 6 April 2022 on Sky Sports

Burnley: Pope, Roberts (72' Lowton [Y:75']), Collins, Tarkowski, Taylor, Lennon (84' McNeil), Westwood, Cornet, Brownhill [Y:10'], Rodriguez, Weghorst (80' Vydra).
Subs: Hennessey, Thomas, Long, Stephens, Cork, Barnes.

Everton: Pickford, Kenny, Mykolenko, Branthwaite, Godfrey, Holgate [Y:3'] (86' Rondon), Doucouré, Gordon (73' Gray), Iwobi, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin
Subs: Begovic, Coleman, Delph, El Ghazi, Welch, Price, Dele Alli.

Referee: Mike Dean
VAR: Darren England

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Larry O'Hara
1 Posted 06/04/2022 at 18:40:55
LFC fanboy Dean as referee: wonderful….
Frank Sheppard
2 Posted 06/04/2022 at 18:40:56
As strong a team as we could put out tonight.
Interesting to see who is captain without Seamus.
COYB.
Dave Lynch
3 Posted 06/04/2022 at 18:49:35
Lose this and we're toast.
Dennis Stevens
4 Posted 06/04/2022 at 18:50:57
Aye, very much a mustn't lose match.
Colin Malone
6 Posted 06/04/2022 at 18:52:38
Why is Coleman on the bench? Who's running this show?
Unbelievable.
Gary Jones
7 Posted 06/04/2022 at 18:53:32
Given he’s recovering from illness, where would you like Coleman to be Colin?
Dave Williams
8 Posted 06/04/2022 at 18:56:44
Holgate will be skipper.
Colin Malone
9 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:00:19
Ahead of Kenny 100%
Colin Malone
10 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:02:18
Pickford skipper
Gary Jones
11 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:04:25
He’s clearly still Ill, or he would be.
Iain Johnston
12 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:10:26
Larry #1 he's a Tranmere season ticker holder.
Tony Twist
13 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:12:52
Shame Delph isn't ready to start, Holgate could then play right back instead of Kenny. Best of luck blues, this is it, journey's end if we lose, in my opinion.
Danny Baily
14 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:15:47
Nice calm head given the armband I see.
Will Mabon
15 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:16:01
Perhaps not the hardest call to make, but at least one poster (not me) picked this line up in past days - TW "On it".

Let's hope DCL will show half the commitment that I'm expecting from Weghorst. Branthwaite is going to be busy.

Will Mabon
16 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:17:48
Tony T - scary thought.
Dave Abrahams
17 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:18:29
Colman and Delph look like they are not ready to start fitness wise, Rondon could be important tonight, Welch and Price are there to fill the bench, goalie unlikely to be used, will Alli or El Ghazi bring any joy to this very depleted squad? All’s well that ends well, come on lads saw Everton beat Liverpool 4-0 at Anfield with a side no one expected to do anything so you never know.
Dave Williams
18 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:24:02
I remember that Dave- 1964 I think?
Following season was 0-5 at Anfield to them.
That 64 team had some fighters though- do we have some tonight?
Justin Doone
19 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:29:08
MASSIVE GAME

champions league games are always a welcome relief to watch some good football.

Dave Abrahams
20 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:31:44
Dave (18), yes 1964, wish that team was playing tonight, but let’s hope for a win anyway, even one like the two away wins away last season at WBA and Arsenal, both daylight robberies but got us six points!!
Simon Dalzell
21 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:34:42
Holgate. Calamity kid, absolute liability, booked after 3 mins.
John Clowes
22 Posted 06/04/2022 at 19:37:56
Holgate is just a red card waiting to happen. Absolute shocking player.
Jerome Shields
23 Posted 06/04/2022 at 20:30:05
Roller coaster first half. At least Richarlison can score a penalty. Glad Calvert-Lewin didn't.
Neil Tyrrell
24 Posted 06/04/2022 at 20:35:42
Richarlison really up for it today even outside of the pens. Hopefully Holgate saves his second yellow for the 96th minute. Mike Dean gave us 2 pens, is this bizarro world?
Kevin Prytherch
25 Posted 06/04/2022 at 20:37:19
Simon 21, John 22, Holgate is doing exactly what we needed Allan to do all season. Be disciplined, cover the space between defence and midfield and not get caught out with stupid forward lunges that leave us exposed.

When Allan is back, I hope Holgate stays where he is because he does the role better. We look a far better outfit with Holgate sat there than we have done all season. Last time we looked good with a defensive midfielder is when Davies played there.

If we put Allan straight back in, watch us get caught out after a stupid slide tackle that leaves us exposed.

Derek Knox
26 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:06:32
Gordon off while Calvert-Lewin and Iwobi stay on???
Bill Fairfield
27 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:18:17
What a shower of shite we really are. Hopeless.
Gavin Johnson
28 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:20:12
We're down now! More mistakes! Absolutely hopeless!
Simon Dalzell
29 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:20:22
Kevin @25,

He's shite. He should have gone years ago. And now you want him in midfield. Laughable.

Chris Cook
30 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:20:49
I'm even confident we'll come straight back up when we go down. Can't defend, can't create.
Ted Donnelly
31 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:21:39
Too good to go down?... No... we're too bad to stay up!!
Joe McMahon
32 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:24:31
Can't believe the shit I was getting 3 years ago saying Calvert-Lewin will never make a top Premier League striker!
Kevin Molloy
33 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:26:28
I come here not to praise Everton, but to bury them.
Chris Cook
34 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:26:28
I'm not even confident we'll come straight back up when we go down. Can't defend, can't create.
Justin Doone
35 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:27:25
Wow!

Frank?

Bye!

RIP we are gone..

Measured, built, dug and nails are in.

Burnley scored 3 goals.
We had to rely on 2 penalties.
That is how good we are.

Kieran Kinsella
36 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:28:08
Will ToffeeWeb keep going if Everton get wound up after relegation, administration etc over the next few years? There was a Hi-De-Hi website that for a long time kept running after David Croft died and the show was cancelled. I notice now it's been shut down. What are the long-term plans for the post Kenwright "great times"?
Tony Hill
37 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:28:13
I'm afraid that means we are going to be relegated after all. A disgraceful performance.

We can have no complaints. I do not expect us to come back up for a very long time.

How sad.

Phillip Warrington
39 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:28:48
Two mistakes, two goals, another defeat – this team does not want to stay up.

I really fear for this club, I don't think we will bounce straight back. As a football club, we are screwed. I can see just another Sunderland, with the added luxury of watching Liverpool be successful year after year.

Derek Knox
40 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:31:32
Losing a lot of faith in Lampard. Why does he keep playing Calvert-Lewin and Iwobi, when they have both been useless for God Knows how many games??
Tommy Coleman
41 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:31:47
Here lies Everton. They dug their own grave. Atrocious defending, Burnley did nothing to earn those 3 goals or the win, they were awful but still beat us.
Ted Donnelly
42 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:33:52
Chris #30,

When we do go down, we won't be back for a while mate... no fight at all. These pricks just don't care...they don't know what Everton means.

It just makes me so sad when you think of all the players who've worn the shirt with pride over decades... and of course all the loyal, fanatical supporters... these cunts are breaking hearts.

Craig Walker
43 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:33:53
Burnley don't score. They don't win games when trailing at HT. Enter charitable Everton.

Pickford was a liability with his kicking. Kenny is one of the worst right-backs we've had. Godfrey has been body snatched. Only Richarlison and Gordon get any credit for caring and trying.

At least Rondon had a shot which was more than Calvert-Lewin did all game. I like Gordon but twice he hit the first man at a corner and the other time he kicked it out of play. Basics.

I don't blame Branthwaite but the rest of the defence are terrible. I can pick players from my level who could defend set-pieces better and I'm 47.

Pickford's kicking ability is like Doucoure's ball-winning reputation: a myth. I forecast we'd go down and not get another point away from home when we lost away at Brentford. I hate to see it, but I think it will happen.

I'm starting to think that relegation will force a reset. It says it all when Delph was going to be our saviour tonight.

Ian Edwards
45 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:34:13
9 games left. If we don't beat Man Utd on Saturday, then we should move heaven and earth to get Allardyce for the last 8 games.

Lampard has conceded 19 in 6 away games. You just cannot concede 3 goals to Burnley.

Tony Everan
46 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:34:52
Stupid, amateur mistakes, week after week after week. How can these elite professionals keep doing it, every single game? It's killing the club and destroying the souls of the fans. For fuck's sake, sort it out.
Kieran Kinsella
47 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:35:16
Positives: Keane wasn't playing so Burnley didn't get a fourth.

Negatives: Five years on from Koeman being sacked as we couldn't defend, our backline still includes Pickford, Kenny, Holgate, Keane, Coleman. Two directors of football and hundreds of millions spent and we still have somehow let the Keystone Cops stick around.

Then the hilarious stuff that Darren Hinds was touting all last year that Carlo was holding us back and we could sell Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison, Davies and Holgate for in excess of £100 million. No wonder he has packed it in. They made a right monkey out of him and his eagle-eyed view from the stands.

Gordon is good but no more; Richarlison has spirit but ill focussed agression and is selfish; Pickford is good but scatterbrained; Gray is good every now and then.

Everybody is else is complete crap. It's unlikely we can sell any of these players at all and their wages are what will finish us off in the Championship next season.

Neil Copeland
50 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:36:05
Mistakes aside, we had a hatful of chances that we didn’t take (again). But why can’t our players keep their composure when defending, just schoolboy stuff.

Derek #40, me too mate, we seem to go from one stubborn manager to another.

Absolutely gutted!

Stephen Brown
52 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:36:18
This is a slow, painful death.
Alan Burnham
53 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:36:18
This was the night I realised that my 60-year spell watching Everton in the top flight was coming to an end.

Lampard hasn't set the world alight but he is a bit player in this tragedy. The club has been a shambles for several years spending vast sums on talentless, gutless leeches.

We deserve the drop much more than Burnley who battle on with scant resources. Saddest thing of all is that 60 years into supporting this lot, I find I no longer give a fuck.

Tony Twist
54 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:37:02
Worst club in the league presently and I think the only way they will win a match is when the pressure is off and we are relegated. The club is getting its just deserts for years of complacency.

Quite simply shameful but what do you expect from these spoilt infants that try to lay the blame on a lack of confidence and need a hug after every time something doesn't go their way.

Bill Fairfield
55 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:37:34
This squad is not Premier League standard. They are going where they deserve to go. To get beat in that fashion once again is criminal. Burnley are a poor side and will probably join us in the Championship.

I just feel so sorry for our fantastic fans. We'll get stuffed by a poor Man Utd side on Saturday.

David Vaughan
56 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:38:12
I can't even bear to hope anymore. Let's just get to the end of the season and take what we deserve - and what we need. To go down and start over.

We won't get back quick, and it ain't going to be pretty. But such a dysfunctional, navel-gazing, rudderless club as the one we've become means we have to go through a painful resurrection. For now, though, it's over.

NSNO? No chance.

Kieran Kinsella
57 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:39:34
Moshiri

"I am not buying a museum. I am building a mausoleum."

Eddie Dunn
60 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:41:27
Burnley played like a league one side. It was like one of those cup games but what terrible defenders we have. The calls before the game for Begovic were spot-on, Pickford is so lacking in composure, fails to direct the defence and we are a shambles at the back.
Godfrey is an athlete with no brain, Mykolenko is like a child, so indecisive, Kenny is Non -league, Branthwaite is raw and Holgate is not a midfield player.
Rondon came on and immediately he and DCL looked better. We can't come back from this.
Lampard does the same presser only stating less games and less points to play for.
I knew we would blow it, at every stage.
Kevin Molloy
61 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:41:47
We aren't quite down. We've still got one last roll of the dice. We need to sack Lampard. He aint gonna keep us up. The players aren't believing him, they don't believe his methods will work. We'd be better paying Bielsa or Allardyce a £5m bonus, and see what happens.
Barry Hesketh
62 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:42:01
That's one defeat too many I'm afraid, even with a quarter of the season to go, we've had it. Burnley who really didn't deserve all three points did what our team cannot manage, sneak a victory from the jaws of defeat.

We have too many players who can't do more than an hours hard graft, fitness is a real issue, because it affects the brain too, and firstly Richarlison instead of calmly slotting home for his hat-trick decided to use power, Kenny instead of keeping the ball and starting another move, decided he'd try and score a worldy which was never on and thus left us wide open on his side of the pitch and then Godfrey for whatever reason fails to clear properly and we've lost the game.

We may as well resign ourselves to life in the Championship right now, because you can rest assured that Dyche won't let us off the hook, we had it in our own hands for an hour and allowed it to be taken off us, I fully expect Burnely to be ahead of Everton by the end of the coming weekend.

I really thought at one point in tonight's game that it may have been a real turning point for the season, however, we got what we usually get a huge kick in the guts.

Dave Abrahams
63 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:42:33
How feeble, weak and naive and that was just the manager but the players followed his traits and left him far behind, mistakes for all three goals to add to the seasons lists of errors, is there anything left for these players, managers coaches to fuck us with, they've done us mentally.

I absolve Branthwaite and Iwobi from any blame with their performances tonight, Richarlison worked hard and scored two penalties but how wasteful was he with the ball in the second half.

Burnley were very poor but give them their due they were very patient waiting for the mistakes they knew and we all knew Everton would make. It will take miracle for us to come back from this and I can't even hope for one, wouldn't even insult God by praying for one. Hard to take and believe we are in such a state but it's there right in front of and has been all season.

Stephen Brown
64 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:43:02
Lampard has made some mistakes but the players are dire!!

The mistakes for the goals tonight are almost laughable.

I feel sick! Awful play!! The players are terrible at football. I don't think there was a lack of effort they are just not very good!

I fear there's no way back from this. A complete body blow! Relegation, administration, no stadium, possibly the first real big club that disappears?

When we go down I really don't think there's a way back? Sheffield Wednesday with 100 times the debt.

Ernie Baywood
65 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:44:29
I think we've actually turned up in the last couple of league games. And against West Ham and Burnley it's simply not been enough.

Had we put this kind of effort and attacking intent in for most of the season, we'd be clear of trouble. I really believe that.

Plenty of us saw this coming. We've been the worst team in the league for a long time. Yet we continued on with the disastrous Benitez reign, allowed him to control the transfers in and out (those decisions have killed us), and continued with the pointless playing of Richarlison up front.

It's a classic too little too late. We're not good enough to get ourselves out of trouble. And we sleepwalked into that trouble.

Burnley will finish above us now. So will Watford. I don't see anything else.

Eddie Dunn
66 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:45:27
One more thing, Doucoure on Ramadan had to eat fucking jelly, and ran out of gas on the hour- what is going on? He is supposed to be an athlete.
Lampard has to take the blame, the midfield was knackered and being overrun, so why not Delph or Coleman? Instead we got the same old winger for winger and Rondon gets 3 minutes. Pathetic.
Jim Lloyd
67 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:45:49
We've got a lot of rebuilding to do, no matter which division we end up in. Then there's the little problem of how much spending money will we have??

I've read on the live forum, some fans calling for Moshiri to get out of our club. Well, my view is, it's the feller that welcomed him into the club who should be chased out.

Without Moshiri, I don't seee another benefactor coming into the club, so we'd be even further up shit creek without a paddle, if he put the club up for sale.

I don't know how many managers have been blamed for the state our team is in; but the one constant is the players themselves.

I wonder how many players would be bought by other Premiership clubs? My guess is not many...and for not much! If we sold them down Merton road car Bootie we might get a few bob for some, the others we'll have until they run their contracts down.

I'm exaggerating of course, we've got some good young players but a hell of a lot of work needed to build a team, let alone a squad.

Just so there is any confusion as to the beginning of the rebuilding job. Well that starts with the demolition of those useless bastards on the Board.

First out, of course should be "We've had some good times" Kenwright. Then Sharp and the ex Red Echo writer Dave Prentice, quickly followed by Professor Dynamite.

Ian Edwards
68 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:46:10
Burnley were very poor and I can't see them winning many more games. No other defence will be as generous. I can see Pukki having a party against them at the weekend.
Ray Jacques
69 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:46:38
Alan, 53. I have 50 years invested but I feel the same as you. Tonight was a microcosm of our once proud institution. Stupid mistakes, repeated numerous times and shooting ourselves in the foot. New stadium, what a joke. Blocks in atmosphere is the only good thing we have, once that goes we will sink even further.

Relegation ha, we will finish 19th even below Watford.

Lampard, Dyche or Hodgson running the ship in this situation, who would you rather have?

The Dele Alli signing and his impact sums this joke of a club up.

Embarrassed and ashamed.

Joe McMahon
70 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:47:10
"One very famous football club said to me two or three days ago 'whenever we have a problem we say 'what would the Everton board do because they always get it right?

Appointing Greame Sharp as a NED must have rocked the football world with Jealousy.

Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Jerome Shields
71 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:47:34
Deserve to get relegated. Managed to completely cock it up this season. Board with it's Strategic Review of loyal appointments, players downing tools, Finch Farm a home for former ex-players. They knew it all, Fuck All. Great that their comfy lives are over. Serious restructuring will have to take place. Luvies Bill can Fuck Off with any wailing.

Everton will be lucky to win another game in the Championship.

As for that last International break, it was closer to Alice in Wonderland, than preparation for a relegation dog fight. Which does not surprise me, given the performances after them by Everton for years.

Neil Tyrrell
73 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:48:26
Strike another match, go start anew

It's all over now, baby blue.

Notts Forest v.2022, we won't be back up in my lifetime. Absolutely gutted.

Kunal Desai
74 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:48:42
That's the game changer. We are down.
Kieran Kinsella
75 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:49:27
Dave

"I wouldn’t even insult God by praying for one."

Only Everton could pick such a moment with everything else going on in the world that warrants divine intervention when he is otherwise occupied with more deserving cases.

Neil Copeland
76 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:50:25
Ian #68,

I am normally very optimistic and positive but I feel like there is nothing left. I sincerely hope you are right but something tells me both Watford and Burnley will finish above us,

What the fuck do they work on at Finch Farm?

John Catto
77 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:50:40
You can't tell me we would be conceding 3 or 4 goals a game under Fat Sam. The football would be horrible but we would be safe.
David Edwards
78 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:51:28
My late dad and I would often sit down over a pint and say - “Well we've been left behind over the last few decades, but at least we can still boast about our longest top flight tenure. The bottom line is that we must never be relegated.”

Well, he passed on last May and I am so pleased he didn't have to watch this shambles of a club descend into the Championship. An utter disgrace from top to bottom and I'm actually past caring…

Colin Malone
79 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:51:33
As I said, who's running the show? Clement or Lampard?
Pat Kelly
80 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:51:45
If a manager can't see out a lead against Burnley when survival depends on it then he has to go. It's too late now but he can't be retained and backed to rebuild.

He has brought nothing except disorganisation and defeat. You don't pay the money he's on for nothing. You expect some improvement. That's what he was hired for. He has delivered loss after dire loss.

Craig Walker
81 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:51:55
Wolves at home was a must-win. We lost. Tonight was a must-win. I don't fancy us at Watford, either. Liverpool will put 5 past us. Arsenal on the last day. We're fast running out of must win opportunities.

The Brentford home game no longer looks a home banker. Neither does Palace at home. I think Wolves throwing a 2-goal lead away v Leeds, the night after we'd beaten Newcastle, summed up our season.

Let's be honest, aside from Norwich who beat us away, we're the worst team in the league. Anyone who says “We've got good players” doesn't follow this club or watch the games.

We don't score enough goals. We concede far too easily. We're a soft touch away from home. We have no aggression, creativity, leadership.

We deserve to go down based on results and performances.

Peter Dodds
82 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:52:15
I don't think you can blame Lampard for that, other than the passive lack of substitutions when Calvert-Lewin was offering nothing. The number of individual errors is just astonishing.

First goal – Iwobi initially marks his man but then gets transfixed by the ball and leaves him to casually side-foot it in.

Second goal – Calvert-Lewin tries to jockey the Burnley player but is too easily turned. Our second defender stands by watching before Kenny jumps in unnecessarily and, hey presto, the Burnley player is in on goal.

Third goal – Pickford miskicks, concedes throw-in. Godfrey miskicks, game over.

The irony is, without Keane and Allan's brain farts they'd have been able to play and the team would've been stronger. More self-inflicted wounds.

I'm almost resigned now. Just from a fairness point of view, it'd be really harsh on another team if this bunch of useless, naive, incompetent, brainless, cowardly players somehow managed to stay up. Kinda takes the pain away a little.

Paul Burns
83 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:54:07
Enough is enough. Those bastards that are dragging the club to oblivion have to be removed, forcibly if neccesary. The place stinks from top to bottom.

Next home game has to be hell for them, don't go in if that's what it takes, support makes no difference to these clowns. These jokers are stealing a living at our expense and making our lives hell as a return.

It's all been coming since that foney gobshite walked into the club. Shame on anyone who backs him or refuses to help get rid of him.

Colin Glassar
84 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:54:38
Alan Burnham 53, my sentiments entirely. Thanks for the memories Everton. As our beloved chairman said, “we’ve had some good times, haven’t we?”

Our time is up, unless a miracle occurs, in the top flight. The malaise has been going on for more than 30 years. A slow, painful death.

The Kenwright curse has been accelerated by the moron known as Moshiri. These two have finished the work begun in the late 80’s early 90’s. Ineptitude, indifference and criminal negligence.

So thank you Everton. I will support you in the championship, league one or wherever you end up. My only hope is this disaster will lead us into a major overhaul starting with the departure of messrs kenshite and his moronic financier.

Let’s start from scratch and rebuild from top to bottom. This isn’t the end, it’s not even the beginning of the end but it could be the start of something fresh, clean and beautiful.

Fucking wanking tosspots all of them!! COYB!!!!!

Steve Guy
85 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:57:33
There is a massive cancer in the Club that started in the Boardroom and has spread its toxicity throughout, culminating in the appointment of Benitez. This will go down as one of the worst decisions EVER taken by those in charge at The Club as it took internal toxicity and externalised it into the fanbase. The current management t team and especially the Chairman should resign immediately once relegation is confirmed. Moshiri should sell. The Club can then reset itself.
Colin Malone
86 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:57:44
Just listened to Lampard. Same shit, different day.
John Catto
87 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:59:06
Colin 84 agree mate
Ian Edwards
88 Posted 06/04/2022 at 21:59:10
If we can get 9 pts from the home games against Man Utd, Leicester, Chelsea, Palace and Brentford...
Kieran Kinsella
89 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:00:15
Colin 84

I was trying to rationalize the same thing, a post administration fresh start with a young team of hungry players, but every time I try to picture future Everton turning out at Grimsby, I see Holgate in the line up.

Danny Baily
90 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:01:06
Lampard is way, way out of his depth. But we still did the right thing in rolling the dice.

If there's a chance to jettison him ahead of the Championship we should take it though. An experienced manager will be key to getting back to the Premier League.

Dale Self
91 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:01:09
Does Frank have the bollocks to manage a game and make the proper substitutions in a timely manner?

Jettison, I like the sound of that right now.

Andy Mead
92 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:01:23
Can't stop the constant errors which are punished every time. Perfect relegation candidates. Can't even pick up a point on the road against anybody. Concede 3 goals against Burnley!

Put the kids in against Man Utd. Can't be any worse.

Every week, the same players let us down. Had enough now. I bet even relegation won't get Blue Bill to hang it up. Shambles of a club that's firmly stuck in the past.

Grant Rorrison
93 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:01:26
No realistic chance of staying up if you cant match Burnley for 45 minutes with everything riding on it.

Who are we going to get anything against between now and the end of the season with the way we defend?

Think we'll finish second bottom, unless Norwich pick up a bit.

Phillip Warrington
94 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:01:35
Lampard is as much to blame as the players, he has failed to improve this side in any fashion. We have become more easy to beat, and if it was even possible, our players technique has declined.

Lost count of how many times players could not pass to their teammates when not under pressure or their passes were two soft, disadvantaging the player receiving the ball. Lack of any urgency or willingness to give 110% for the shirt, these are all the things the new manager was suppose to correct. Under Lampard, we have become a League One side.

I can not understand for the life of me why we signed Dele Alli or Nathan Patterson. People think we will bounce straight back, then they should watch some Championship games... half the teams play way better football than us and we will have pretty much the same team due to the current wages their on.

I can't see Gordon, Pickford, Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and Gray wanting to play in the Championship.

Mike Keating
95 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:01:48
I got a text from the club during the game offering me the option of a payment plan on my season ticket. What a useless bunch of shits!
Derek Knox
96 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:01:50
I have increasingly lost both Faith and Hope this season!

What's left? Charity!

Can't see us getting anything in that context, apart from a miracle, and players manning up, and playing like they care. A very sad time for all Evertonians. Like I have said many, many times, if the players showed half the commitment and loyalty that the fans do, we would not be having this conversation! 😥💙

Jamie Crowley
97 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:03:17
I just want players on the pitch who aren't braindead, or don't really put their whole heart into it. I want Holgate out of the lineup, Calvert-Lewin, and Gray isn't the answer right now. I'd put all three of them on the bench Saturday for sure.

I'd also not start Pickford. Why he ever booted that ball out of touch instead of popping down the line I'll never know. We need a calm head at keeper now.

That was a crushing loss.

Denis Richardson
98 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:04:25
Well, what can you say to that? 2-1 up at half-time against a team than can't score and lose 3-2.

The only positive out of all this is that by some miracle we're still not in the drop zone. That just shows how bad the bottom 3 are and even worse, puts losing to one into perspective.

Lampard was never my choice but do you get rid now? Man Utd on Saturday is now truly massive, if we win there's still hope, I don't think a draw is enough. We need to win, full stop. At least the players won't have the fact it's an away game in the back of their minds and Goodison Park will be like a bear pit.

Gotta try and put this game behind us and focus on Saturday – if we don't win, I think we'll be in the bottom 3 come Sunday and once we enter, I just cannot see us getting back out again, the players are too mentally weak.

I also expect Watford to pick up some points in their next couple of games and this result would have given them a boost as they're not further from 17th.

What an utterly shit night, so much hope at half-time, so typical Everton it's untrue.

Performance-wise, it was never going to be a classic but I thought the likes of Richarlison, Branthwaite, Gordon, Mykolenko and Iwobi (yes that's right) had decent games. Godfrey did okay until the howler at the end.

Pickford is just too jittery and unreliable (as soon as he miskicked at the end, I had a bad feeling). Calvert-Lewin was totally anonymous – need to flog him to Arsenal or the Saudis in the summer. Kenny just isn't a Premier League player, and Doucoure had a poor game.

Crap night but, despite the run-in, we can't throw in the towel with 9 games left! We can do Man Utd on Saturday.

Allen Rodgers
99 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:04:27
To sum up, Burnley were poor technically but still managed 3 goals from open play. What does that say about us?
Dale Self
100 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:05:12
https://www.evertonresults.com/managers7.htm

There Frank sits just above Mike Walker. Argue that away, yeah go on.

Pete Clarke
101 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:05:34
It's already been said on here but Pickford is a shocking goalkeeper. He would be a nightmare for an experienced good defense let alone that inexperienced shambles we had out there tonight.

Doucouré is another shocking footballer who lacks everything a midfielder needs bar the energy and even that wasn't there because he's starving himself for Ramadan. Who the fuck signs these players?

We look like a team who are in some twisted way, desperate to finish rock bottom and I can see it happening now, by the way.

This has been on the cards for a long time due to the absolute piss poor leadership at the helm of the club. Frank Lampard was brought in to build the club back up from the abyss and it is not his fault that millionaire professional football players cannot do the basics on a football field.

If he had his own team of choice out on that pitch it would not contain one of those players on show tonight. Burnley actually have worse players than we do but they are more experienced.

Kenwright Out now.

Ken Kneale
102 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:05:53
Death by a thousand cuts indeed Very, very sad night for the supporters The board has the club they deserve – sadly the supporters many of us with a lifetime of emotional attachment deserve so much better
Anthony A Hughes
103 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:06:02
That"s a big 'if', Ian!
Phil Smith
104 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:06:12
Down
Craig Walker
105 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:06:47
Cue Darren Griffiths fronting a video tomorrow in a hard hat at Bramley-Moore Dock. Rinse and repeat.
Jerome Shields
106 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:07:16
I remember being on a train in the 1980s with a small group of Irish Burnley Supporters, fathers and sons who had travelled over for a home match. Burnley had just avoided relegation to the Conference League.

They had after the match celebrated with the players in Smokin Joe's nightclub in Burnley. Apparently every time they went over to Turf Moor, they all ended up in Smokin Joe's. They ate in the staff canteen and talked to directors, the manager, coaches and players.

They deserve to be back in the Premier League and to avoid relegation. I hope they are happy tonight.

Evertonians don't deserve the club that Everton has turned into. There will not be a peep from anyone at the club. They are a complete and utter disgrace.

Barry Thompson
107 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:07:37
I think it says we are shit and have a fanbase that they are not worthy of. First-class fanbase of a second-rate club.
Eddie Dunn
108 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:08:27
Lampard came in and we had no "new manager bounce" — nothing.

The weird signings, El Ghazi, Alli, even Van de Beek? Sigurdsson's strange problem, the appointment of Rafa, the loss of James, the injuries... You couldn't make it up.

We are a wankstain of a team run by a clueless coach and a prolapse of a board, and owned by an idiot.

Steve Shave
109 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:09:30
Fuck you, Everton.

I couldn't let myself watch it, I went out and turned my phone off, hoping somehow that would change our luck.

We will go down.

Barry Hesketh
110 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:10:16
Craig,

I think hard hats may be required in the Directors Box in the next few weeks unless Everton go on some sort of winning run.

Tony Abrahams
111 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:11:18
Everton played as well as they have for a long time away from home, but some of those mistakes are beyond sickening. It wasn't even one mistake, it was a catalogue of errors, from very naive and nervous players lacking composure at vital times, playing against a team who never really had that much to trouble us, but that didn't matter because we always find a way to trouble ourselves.

Kenny had a good game which counts for nothing, because of his hand in two of Burnley's goals. Same with Godfrey, and also our most experienced player, Pickford.

Individual mistakes have cost Everton all season and, although we were much better than Burnley, they've cost us a crucial 6 points tonight.

Jerome Shields
112 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:12:35
Eddie #108

Lampard had nothing to do with the transfer signing. Neither had Benitez. That is how delusional they are at Everton.

Kieran Byrne
113 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:12:55
Pickford & Godfrey total unprofessional... 2 brutal lack of concentration lapses and at a time in the game where you can't have mental midget cock-ups, for fuck's sake.

We're in big trouble now, there's no belief in eachother, we don't know how to win, we've forgotten what it takes.

Jonjoe Kenny has a tough 2nd half but our whole defensive awareness is rank. As others have said, Gordon, Iowbi and Richarlison had good games... I wish Richarlison could score from open play.

How the hell have we lost that? I'm starting to wonder if Lampard lasts now, he can't win with this bunch; could there be another change?

Rob Dolby
114 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:13:43
I can't think of a worse defence for the Blues ever.

Martina, Senderos, Krøldrop and Hottiger were world-beaters compared to this current shower of shit.

Can't head, stop crosses, clear the ball, make decisions. They are all shite.

We are doomed. There just isn't anything there with this lot. Richarlison is the best of a bad bunch. Gordon is improving but he wouldn't get in a mid-table Premier League team and that's it.

Next season, we will have:

Begovic
Coleman Keane Branthwaite Mykolenko
Gordon Godfrey Davies
Simms and Dobbin

We aren't coming back anytime soon!

Ernie Baywood
115 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:14:13
All that's left now is to hope for a miracle.

Fof fuck's sake, Everton.

Will Mabon
117 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:15:29
Considering the Calvert-Lewin article currently showing on the BBC Sport website in hand with what happened tonight, it's hard to reconcile the reality of where things will settle over the coming years. Global Agenda 1, Football 0.
Tony Twist
118 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:16:01
Let's face it, we have been nailed on for relegation for sometime now, the new manager bounce went just as swiftly as it came and then, all of a sudden, the manager was griping about the players.

Lampard is a fine-weather manager and let's face it the only thing he is good at is addressing the press. I had concerns when the coaching staff included Ancelotti's old right-hand man who managed Swansea's downfall.

It's drastic but I would get big Sam in to see if he can do anything to save us as our goose is well and truly cooked with Lampard as manager. He just hasn't the skill set to save us.

The nightmare has become reality: Everton have literally run out of new ways to embarrass the fans now.

Tommy Carter
119 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:16:42
Nightmare. Horrible. But here we are.

I would stick with Frank. Although his record is now utterly atrocious, I do expect that there'll be an exodus of players in the summer. And I think he is a decent manager who can maybe show his best building a squad rather than attempting to repair one that is highly damaged.

Make no mistake: much of this damage was recorded under the stewardship of Rafael Benitez. A man who – not in a million years – should ever have been allowed near our club. I would never have even had him in as a neutral spectator.

Ancelotti for all of his detractors on here, finished 10 points of 3rd spot last season. 3rd spot off Liverpool and automatic group stage qualification for the Champions League.

Some people on here believe that a loss of form towards the latter part of the 2020-21 season was a symptom of poor management by Ancelotti and poor input from players such as James Rodriguez. Some even suggested that Demarai Gray was some kind of upgrade on James Rodriguez.

Anybody with half an ounce of knowledge about the game would know that Ancelotti back to Madrid was brokered around January 2021. He may have lost interest thereafter. Our form suffered after that point. But people on here mistake that for bad management. It wasn't. It was disinterested management, augmented by the community he came to live amongst targeting his home for an awful burglary.

This allowed the opportunity for Benitez and his poison to infect our football club. And the recovery from this is proving very difficult.

Bottom line. Do not forget that Benitez took a team that finished 10 points off 3rd spot last season and turned them into one of the worst performing clubs in the Premier League within 6 months.

Ian Bennett
120 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:17:01
Everton are capable of losing games without an opposition. Richarlison is our sole goal threat, whilst we look like conceding 2 or 3 every game.

All 3 goals were rank amateur. Corner - dreadful. 2nd is scored by 3 failed attempts to stop the left hand side before he gets to the dead ball line. 3rd goal is awful from Godfrey.

2nd and 3rd goal, there is no defender anywhere near. How can we defend like that? We never get that space up front, how can it be acceptable every match?

Jerome Shields
121 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:20:41
Rob #114,

It will be a struggle to stay in the Championship, so bad is the whole Everton set-up.

A post should be held up at all remaining games: 'Bye Bye, you load of useless twats. '

Danny Baily
122 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:20:47
Keiran 113, there absolutely could be another change. Nothing should be off the table.

Staying up from this position will be easier than getting back into this league. If there's a lever we can pull, we should pull it. Why not?

I wouldn't be surprised to see Frank have a Keegan moment after tonight. He's not up to the job.

John Keating
123 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:23:09
Horrendous!

Down without a whimper. Defensively shocking. We needed a win tonight and against Man Utd.

Unbelievable... still. “we've had some good moments” or whatever that arsehole said.

Tony Hill
124 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:24:09
Yes, it's all Benitez's fault. That much is clear.
Peter Mills
125 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:26:43
That was a game we didn't deserve to lose on the balance of play and performance. But, if you fail to score from open play, and make the sort of defensive mistakes we made tonight, there will only be one outcome.

There is no way I will accept we are down when we are not in the Bottom 3 and we have 9 games to play. But we are in deep trouble.

The one major change to the team I would make would be to replace Pickford with Begovic. Jordan has done okay in the past 12 months but he is unsteady. Begovic has got presence and would calm the defence, which is crucial.

I don't think it will happen.

Tom Harvey
126 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:28:41
Kieran Kinsella @ 75,

Agreed, we don't deserve any help from a higher power, it's all our own self-made mess.

Andrew Keatley
127 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:31:23
The defending for all 3 Burnley goals was pathetic.

Holgate on the first can head the corner clear but doesn't – probably because he thinks someone else will take responsibility behind him. I used to rate Holgate but I don't think I've ever seen a footballer who is more comfortable passing the buck than passing the football. Calvert-Lewin can clear it off the line but he falls over trying. Pathetic.

Calvert-Lewin has to do more against Tarkowski in the build-up for their second goal; he is way off the pace and needs to sit out the next couple of games if not more. Then Kenny commits and is beaten, and Godfrey tip-toes back towards the 6-yard box – while Holgate, who is next to Jay Rodriguez, wanders aimlessly towards the near post, where Godfrey is. The purposeful cross from Taylor finds the now unmarked Rodriguez. When the cross comes in there are at least 3 unmarked Burnley players – only Branthwaite has gone with his man, Weghorst. Pathetic.

And what Godfrey is doing for the third goal is atrocious – a lack of concentration, conviction and ability. Holgate switches off – which is what he does whenever he gets the chance – and Vydra crosses to an unmarked Cornet. Pathetic.

These goals are all embarrassingly pathetic. These players are pathetic. They are going to do worse than relegate this club, they are going to see us placed into administration and maybe worse.

Pete Clarke
128 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:31:23
Richarlison ran his bollocks off and scored two penalties but when it really really mattered he failed to put the game to bed and was poor with his distribution. That's your best player!

Calvert-Lewin is crap. Let's all be honest about it. He leaps way to early and gives too many free kicks away.

Anthony Gordon looked knackered to me and should have taken his chance sooner or let the defender commit and cut inside.

The rest are a mishmash of piss-poor quality football players who cannot be relied upon for any type of quality but can be relied upon to make mistakes.

I do agree that Lampard has certainly not improved the team much but he has had a tough task given the quality of players and injuries. If we had Mina and Coleman there tonight, we would probably have won that game.

Tony Abrahams
129 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:32:23
I think the most poisonous man at Everton is and has always been Bill Kenwright, but I'm not going to mention the man's name again until we are safe. (Then he has just got to go!)

A lot of people are resigned to relegation, but I've always had the belief that Goodison, being such a powerful force, can help save us. So let's get everything out of our system before Saturday lunchtime, because these very weak-minded players “need us”, and we are the ones who will always be here forever.

Graham Haines
130 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:33:48
Worst bunch of players I have ever seen in Everton shirt – I can't even bring myself to call them a team, each of them are absolute dog shit footballers, there are probably no more than 3 of them worth keeping.

The club is a shambles from top to bottom and needs a radical overhaul starting with the twat of an owner who seemingly has more money then sense.

I have thought for a while we were going down; after another defeat against a bottom 3 side with an awful record, I just can't see where another point is coming from this season

Allan Board
131 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:34:24
Not surprised at all. There are 4 or 5 goodish players,but the rest are absolute garbage.

What I want to know is: When you sign for Everton, is part of the signing-on process a castration? Cos I don't see any balls amongst these players. Men? Fucking wimps and weirdos. A bunch of cocky tossers who are in Kenwright's mould.

See you at Luton, Coventry or Reading in August. What a disgrace.

Eddie Dunn
132 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:34:37
As we speak, Allardyce is being tapped-up for a last-gasp attempt at survival.
Peter Neilson
133 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:37:01
Just back from the latest fiasco. The fact we can't defend a lead against a pretty limited team like Burnley is ominous. We hand other teams their goals and the games.

The third goal was coming as players had already started loosing their heads and playing stray passes. The inability to concentrate for 90 minutes is shocking, it's a vital part of being a pro. With a defence like ours, we always look like conceding. Can't blame the ref on this one.

I heard tonight we'd signed the lesser-spotted El Ghazi on loan as Villa couldn't afford his wages and the signing of Digne. We're run by such idiots, I wouldn't dismiss it.

Colin Glassar
134 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:37:12
I used to get angry after an Everton defeat. Then I would get sad. This season I just feel empty. This has been developing for years and is not a recent phenomenon. Everton have sucked the life out of me. It’s like being in a loveless marriage.

I can’t believe I’m writing this. This is what our owners and players have done to me. It’s hard to describe but something feels like it’s died. A feeling of melancholy and deception.

Denis Hignett
135 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:37:49
We can't keep playing Calvert-Lewin and hope he finds some form. We just don't have the time left.

Play Rondon.

Neil Copeland
136 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:39:11
Tony #129,

Spot on and thanks because you have made me realise that there is still a ray of hope while we have home games to come.

UTFT!

John Greene
137 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:39:40
To all those Blues who think we now simply move on, and win, the next game, please get real.

A team of Everton's inequalities does not recover from this. We are, without doubt, the second worst team in the league. Utter dross from top to bottom.

Tom Harvey
138 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:40:10
Mike Keating @ 95

Were we winning 2-1 when they made the offer?

At 3-2 down did they offer you a guaranteed complimentary Everton mint each game on-top.

What a bunch of wankers.

Barry Hesketh
139 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:40:10
Tony @129,

It was gutting to lose at West Ham, but tonight was really a self-inflicted defeat and if the team had shown some grit and savvy even a point would have ensured that Goodison would have been bouncing on Saturday.

I'm uncertain the Old Lady will be full come the Man Utd game – never mind bouncing – partly due to tonight's result and partly because some will prefer to go to Aintree to watch the elite donkeys jump over fences.

Phil Lewis
140 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:41:32
With continuing errors and inability to score, there is only a slim chance of Premier League survival now... fact. But until it is mathematically impossible for us to stay up, I for one will never admit defeat.

With the available players, there are two things Lampard must immediately do for us to avoid the drop, in my opinion:

One is to bring Begovic in. Pickford will take us down, just as he took Sunderland down. He is simply too erratic. I have never had faith in him. I'm surprised it's taken us this long with him in goal to find ourselves staring into the abyss.

The other is to play Rondon. He must surely be fit by now and has a proven scoring record elsewhere. We simply cannot score goals from outfield play. Even Tosun would be a better option to Calvert-Lewin on current form.

As for the rest of the team, it goes without saying that the defence is a shambles, regardless of which permutation Lampard goes with. In midfield, Doucouré is a joke. The most overrated player on the books. But there are several others vying for that dubious crown.

I've been Iwobi's biggest critic. Although he has shown a little promise in recent games in a more central role, he's not the answer, costing us goals with careless distribution.

Whether we stay up or go down, I see no point whatsoever in sacking Lampard. Contrary to popular belief, managers do not win matches – players do. We need to pull ourselves off the floor and from somewhere find the fight required to stay up.

Tommy Carter
141 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:41:41
@ Andrew 127. Interesting how you omit Jonjoe Kenny from your workings out despite the fact that both second half and decisive goals came down that side.

That Burnley chose exclusively to attack against our right hand side (Kenny).

That his positioning and lack of defensive intelligence made him as culpable for goal 3 as Ben Godfrey. An under 10s right back would defend a throw in better.

As for Peter at 128 complaining about Richarlison running his bollocks off. Well just watch him when he's surrounded by some half decent players next season at whichever club he joins at whatever cut price.

Calvert-Lewin is not crap. He has limitations but he also had incredible strengths. If your full back are completely incapable of putting a cross into the box during an hour and a half of football, then unfortunately it leaves Calvert-Lewin with nothing to attack.

In a regime that sees Everton keep Digne and never sanction the signing of a 9-stone left-back from Ukraine, then we might well see the odd ball make it beyond the first man towards the penalty spot.

Rob Dolby
142 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:41:44
The club is a shambles from top to bottom. Nothing whatsoever suggests we could get out of the championship.

I genuinely fear for the future of the club. We could do a bury and be out of business in 2 seasons.

Off the pitch, we are owned by an oligarch's front man. Without doubt, we will be under investigation over financial irregularities.

Kenwright and his cronies can't run a piss-up in a brewery.

The academy is an old boys club that is more interested in self-preservation than innovation.

The first team are full of mercenaries that have no self-pride, heart or bottle.

We are in terminal decline.

Tony Everan
143 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:43:12
This result is more bricks and slates falling away from the rotting Everton Football Club that Bill Kenwright has presided over for decades. The club will never move on with Kenwright at the helm. He's neither qualified nor capable of being Chairman of our great club. Proven beyond all doubt.

Bill, if you love the club, in the name of god, go.

Neil Copeland
144 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:46:25
Eddie #132,

If he came and kept us up, I would give him the gig for next season as well and just try and stabilise us.

Brian Wilkinson
145 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:47:01
Not sure if Calvert-Lewin is either trying to avoid injury, to get a move to Arsenal, whether he will find a move easier from the Championship, or just still carrying an injury... Whatever the reason, I think it is time to use him from the bench and give one of our other strikers a chance.

Forget Dobbin, for whatever reason Frank will not give him a starting place, so that leaves Rondon, someone who has been in relegation scraps before and will at least have a go.

Anyway, look on the bright side – Michael Keane is available again for the next match, we really are in the shit.

Jerome Shields
146 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:47:20
Denis #135

Too late. Rondon should have been playing tonight.

Dale Self
147 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:47:27
Fair enough, Tony, but someone please tell Frank that his body language matters. His setup, selection and substitutions (or lack thereof) don't since it is all the players' fault from what I hear.

I'm in. We still have a chance but it is slim – and None and Slim looks like he's waiting for the bus until Frank gets it together.

Tony Abrahams
148 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:48:10
There lies one of the teams biggest problems and obviously contributes massively to the amount of mistakes we are constantly making:

“The inability to concentrate for 90 minutes is shocking, and this is a vital part of being a pro.”

It is painfully shocking, Peter N, and so very, very hard to comprehend.

Ian Hollingworth
149 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:49:15
I cannot concede we are going down – it's unthinkable – and whilst there still a chance us fans must continue to do everything we can.

That said I really cannot see where this pathetic team will win a game. Frank needs to do something drastic as picking the same useless idiots each week is clearly not working.

Defensively we are a joke, we really cannot defend. Midfield has been a shambles and our forwards cannot score in open play. It does not bode well.

There will be plenty of time for finger-pointing and inquisitions but letting James Rodriguez leave the club and then Lucas Digne is beyond belief.

Oh for Ancelotti's zombie football now, eh?

Colin Malone
150 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:52:29
I don't get this, "blame Kenwright and the board".

Moshiri has ploughed millions Iinto the club. Most supporters wanted Martinez out. Moshiri sacked him.

We all believed Koeman was the man for the job. Who got him sacked? We did.

Again we thought Silva was the real deal. Who got him sacked? We did.

All Moshiri was doing was spending millions and listening to the fans.

Gavin Johnson
151 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:53:11
I can't see us getting out of this because Frank hasn't got the personnel defensively and he doesn't set his teams up to be hard to beat. I'm not sure he knows how to.
Robert Tressell
152 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:54:48
I wanted Dyche as our manager in January because Lampard can't organise a defence – and because we needed someone who knows how to get performances out of a pile of shit.

Unfortunately we have sunk that low.

We are, without doubt, the most badly run football team in world football, on and off the pitch. It's finally catching up with us.

There is still a chance – and I won't stop believing – but it does not look good.

Eoin Cullen
153 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:55:02
I watched my first game at Goodison in 1954, the season we were promoted back into the top division.

All season, with this totally inadequate bunch of so-called professionals, I have felt that we were heading back 68 years. We might well become another Sunderland, a once-great club that sinks and sinks.

Our great fans don't deserve this. I am proud of our away fans and they, particularly, don't deserve this. But the hierarchy of the club certainly do deserve what's coming.

Tony Abrahams
154 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:56:11
I thought the self inflicted defeat against West Ham was worse than the one tonight in many respects, Barry, but it obviously wasn't as damaging as the 6-point cushion we threw away in the second half tonight.

Goodison might have some empty seats on Saturday, but I'm just hoping we don't leave the stadium on Saturday afternoon with empty hearts, Barry, mate.

Fran Mitchell
155 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:57:00
Just pathetic. We are going down, and with a wimper.

Same mistakes week on week, and we are zero goal threat. Our only goals are from either flukey deflections, own goals, or penalties. We lack discipline, we lack passion, we lack anything.

If I were a neutral and were asked which team deserves to go down, it would absolutely be this shambles.

I think half of them actually don't care, they know they won't be there next season anyway.

The reasons are multiple, but this is a dark, dark moment. Can't see us coming back from this, can't see Lampard making it to the end of the season.

Every single one of the players are a disgrace to the shirt.

Ian Edwards
156 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:57:26
I suggested Eddie Howe before Benitez was appointed. No one agreed.
Paul Birmingham
157 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:58:33
Tony @111, well presented and I agree.

Disgraceful the repeat basic mistakes and lack of verbal communication, every game.

Everton could have scored 6, if we had any interested forwards.

Richarlison, has an EFC Heart and now Calvert-Lewin has a GQ magazine career.

No more from me, on Calvert-Lewin as he's no longer motivated, imo.

Each to their own.

Fortress Goodison, and win what's left at home.

Then win at Watford, Leicester and our old ground.

UTFT!

Andrew Keatley
158 Posted 06/04/2022 at 22:58:56
Tommy (141),

This shit is bad enough without posters going after one another needlessly.

I mention Kenny committing and getting beaten for the second goal. For the third goal, it looked to me like he was marking Rodriguez, who took the throw-in; if he moved to mark Taylor, then a quick pass to Rodriguez could have put him in unchallenged down the left.

I don't blame Kenny for the third – he was trying to mark someone, which not enough of our players try to do!

Gerry Western
159 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:02:50
Shambolic defending down our right-hand side for the second two goals; Kenny was a complete disaster.

Godfrey who many had been trumpeting as a future mainstay at the centre of our defence was panic stricken when the ball came at him, swings widely and misses only for the ball to strike his standing leg and rebound straight to the Burnley man who crosses with ease.

I'm not sure where this optimism in Godfrey comes from, he can't head a ball and his positional sense is none existent at times. I doubt he will ever make it in that position, problem is he was bought to play there. To his credit, he has deputised well at left back when needed but I fear he is more of a utility player than regular starter. Sadly, that is the case for most of the team.

Richarlison was outstanding; however, when his batteries began to run dry all hope was lost. Finally, Rondon came closer to scoring during his brief cameo than Calvert-Lewin managed all night. I we continue to rely on his scoring talents in front of goal we're finished if we're not already.

Clearly our failings at the back are not all down to Keane as many would have us believe. Everything about the club since the appointment of Koeman reminds me of the demise of the Leeds team all those years ago.

Roger Helm
160 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:03:48
No good blaming Lampard, or even Benitez – this debacle has been many years in the making, years of poor management, recruiting mediocre injury prone players on huge salaries and then somehow making them worse.

The useless board apparently pay themselves more than all but two in the league. If we go down, as now seems likely, we will be down for a long time. It took Leeds 16 years to get back.

The whole club is rotten from the board down and, till they all go, and I mean all, we won't recover.

A very sad day.

Barry Hesketh
161 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:03:59
Colin @150,

Yeah, mate, when in any doubt as to who has been the cancerous constant for Everton's demise, it's always best to blame the fans! Give my regards to Billy Boy won't you?

As it happens, I don't think the players showed a lack of heart or desire, they were just not good enough to do their jobs as well as we and they would have liked.

The two away performances this week have been so much better, but unfortunately the outcome was all too familiar and tonight's defeat was extremely damaging.


Jerome Shields
162 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:04:02
Tony #129,

Good luck at Goodison.

Tony Hill
163 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:06:34
Colin @150, there have been two recent managers who saw through Kenwright and who did not worship at his altar: Allardyce and Benitez.

Both were whipped out of the club by the fans, ably assisted by players who downed tools and who thought they were good enough just to pick them up again when it suited.

We are not blameless.

Tommy Carter
164 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:06:52
Robert @152, I disagree.

Dyche couldn't make a defence out of these players. As football basically comes down to character when ability is stripped back. Dyche works with characters.

Everton have a squad full of reputations and no characters. Dyche wouldn't have any of these players. Maybe Richarlison... and some on here astonishingly think he's shit.

Mick O'Malley
165 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:07:24
Phil Lewis @140,

I definitely agree about Pickford, I now the defence is a disaster zone but when was the last time he kept a clean sheet?

When was the last time you went the game and walked out at the end and said to yourself “wow wasn't Pickford brilliant today”?

He's not alone, mind you I could say the same about all of them. Aso maybe if we hadn't have got rid of Silva and gave him time, he might've been able to progress us cos he did have some promising moments.

One things for sure: we've got worse since we got shut of him, bar Carlo's season. Please, Blues, please get us out of this big massive hole you've put us in.

Andrew Keatley
166 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:09:12
Now we've got the “I Told You So” merchants coming out to claim that they saw this crap coming and could have averted this shit-show if we had a different manager. You really think Dyche or Howe or any other also-ran manager could turn this around?

I don't know what you're watching but it increasingly looks to me like it doesn't matter who our manager is; these players are showing week after week (and for the last few seasons) that they are liable to fold under any sort of pressure.

They do not learn. They do not change. The victory against Newcastle was a false dawn. These players are cowards who do not believe in themselves. I wish it wasn't so, but the evidence is in front of us.

Tom Harvey
167 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:11:03
Jerome Shields @ 106

Well said and some nice behind-the-scenes stuff about Burnley. I personally always find myself checking how they're doing, they're my favourite underdogs.

Mike Price
168 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:11:17
If Begovic was in goal tonight, we win that game.
Dale Self
169 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:12:24
Colin at 150,

Seriously man, who among the fans said go get Benitez? Moshiri appointed Benitez and Lamptard in succession. That's game, set and wretch.

Can't blame Frank? Okay, maybe... but don't blame the one guy making the decisions? Fucking madness that.

John Atkins
170 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:13:21
Just absolutely gutted, from being so optimistic at half-time thinking worst case scenario is that we'll get at least a point. Which would still have been disappointing, by the way.

Everton never fail to let you down. For the past few weeks I've tried so hard to distance myself from this club I've loved for the past 45 years. I've tried not to be bothered anymore, tried to stop constantly reading ToffeeWeb posts, avoided other media news, and even questioned watching them.

How do I Ignore all the messages tonight I've received ridiculing this once great club, joyful of our current position and praying for us to go down, even from Spurs fans, Geordies, Mancs as well as Championship Club fans! Delighted they are... I'm trying not to be arsed but it's just not working and I feel physically sick

I was once evicted from the ground when sat in the Exec seats and close to Kenwright around 2010, can't remember exactly which year when I challenged him at half time after a shocking first half performance and I told him to get out of our club! He didn't like being confronted and therefore I was escorted out of the stadium.

He should of gone years ago, I can't believe this clown is still here, we are where we are as the club is being run by unprofessional muppets who are completely out of their depth. Also, I can't forgive him for the Kings Dock and Kirby fiascos but appointing Benitez will go down as the worst decision this club has ever made.

Kenwright you have outstayed your time by many years, please just leave. You are not wanted nor welcome.

With 5 homes and a winnable away fixture at Watford, I still believe we have a chance to pull off a great escape and, whether we do or not, Kenwright has to go, once and for all.

Tom Harvey
171 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:15:27
Eddie Dunn @ 108

"We are a wank stain of a team run by a clueless coach and a prolapse of a board, and owned by an idiot. "

Take a bow mate, you've perfectly summed it up in one succinct line.

Brent Stephens
172 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:20:41
It was a short drive to Turf Moor for the game tonight. It was a long drive back after.

I really thought we'd get at least a point tonight. Deluded. Sad. I want the days between the remaining games to fly by in the wink of an eye. I can't stand the waiting to see what the gods finally have in store for us.

Rob Dolby
173 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:22:26
Mike @168,

We could have played with 2 goalies tonight. A defence so weak and so error-prone would still concede a bag full.

We will convincingly get beat by Man Utd on Saturday. Whether Pickford, Begovic, Southall or Buffon is in goal.

Our defence is a joke.

Kieran Kinsella
174 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:27:54
Ian Edwards,

Earlier, you were saying we should get Fat Sam back, now you're saying Eddie Howe. Either way, we were better off last season when you spent the whole time wanting Carlo sacked for being defensive. Is Fat Sams “defensive” easier on the eye than Carlo's?

And Howe was able to sign who he wanted at Newcastle. Rafa had El Ghazi, Patterson and Mykolenko thrust on him but some combination of the owner, chairman and the already departed DOF.

Colin Malone,

Yes, fans are fickle (see above) but as a leader (owner or Chairman), you don't hold a plebiscite after every game. Moshiri made an unpopular decision to hire Rafa... then, in a few months, fired him based on such a plebiscite.

Back him or don't, hire him or don't. He and Kenwright run the show, not me, you or Ian Edwards. They are the screw-ups. John Moores wasn't always popular but he didn't care and he made us successful.

Trevor Powell
175 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:27:58
John @ 170. I know how you feel:

'For the past few weeks I've tried so hard to distance myself from this club I've loved for the past 45 years. I've tried not to be bothered anymore, tried to stop constantly reading ToffeeWeb posts, avoided other media news and even questioned watching them.'

I went to my first game in September 1961 and the last few years have left me so despondent that I am almost in a state of mental paralysis. My wife wonders where all my passion has gone. 'Ground into the dust.'

My dad and his brothers coped with the relegation in the mid-fifties, when the finances and player recruitment were very different than today. With all these debts, we will be the next Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday etc.

What will do my head in is when the season is out and the prevalent sound around Goodison is escaping rats!

As an old fart with heart trouble, it never occurred to me that I would see EFC relegated with so little pride and effort in my lifetime!

Dale Self
176 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:29:28
Well said, Kieran.
Tony Twist
177 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:30:17
I'm not even upset and have been like this all season. To be honest, the realisation of life in the basement of the Premier League came in the last game of the previous season, when we didn't just lose but pathetically gave up against Man City. I thought then that the players and the club just had a "didn't care" attitude and it hasn't changed.

By the end of the 2nd transfer window we had brought in the footballing genius of a manager, Frank Lampard, plus Van de Beek, Dele Alli and El Ghazi! In what way is that taking the predicament seriously?

I am sure the clowns running Everton think relegation will never happen to this club. I have had no faith that we would win our home matches against the better clubs, I felt more effort should have been made away from home where the pressure to win is less.

I don't think even big Sam will save us but surely we have to do something?

Paul Birmingham
178 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:32:29
Tactless, clueless in defending a lead, but this is amateurish mistakes, every game by Everton.

The coaching staff have to be accountable as appointed by the Everton board. Kenwright to a large degree, but the manager and his coaches are responsible for the lark on the park, where it counts, not Kenwright, as so many say. Basic coaching fact and rule.

There's nothing there but cowards and shit bags who don't care for EFC

Jonjoe Kenny should be delivered to the Championship and beyond as his professionalism for EFC is now sadly a myth.

Hope eternal.

Neil Tyrrell
179 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:34:13
Graham @130,

I'm curious which 3 players we've got worth keeping? Richarlison is a gimme but who else – maybe Gordon? Even if he ever put a corner past the first defender for the first time in his career, Calvert Lewin would mis-time his jump anyway, so what's the point? Can't even think of a 3rd player worth keeping to be honest.

Full respect to Tony Abrahams and others on here who somehow manage to hold on to hope despite everything this shower of shite have shown us.

Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow but relegation seems inevitable to me right now, I'm drowning my sorrows at the Tipsy Moose pub at 1864 Danforth, if any Toronto blues want to drop in – I'm buying. Be prepared for an earful of misery though!

John Raftery
180 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:40:41
Many thought in January all we needed to do was sack Benitez and give our multi talented squad free rein to display their skills. That was delusional.

To be brutally honest, I don't think Frank has a clue how to get this poor squad to grind out points away from home. We are worse than ever. We needed a more experienced man to see us through this season.

We can only hope in the remaining home games we come up against a couple of teams who have nothing to play for.

Ian Riley
181 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:43:07
At 2-1 up, what was the plan? There was no plan? That there lies our problem! Away from home and what will Burnley do as the home team? Nothing to lose! <{P>Frank, you place ten players behind the ball and you get at least a point! You make sure we leave with at least a point! Drilling the players to protect each other and double up!

We are not going to go down just by a lack of quality but organisation. We played Burnley, Burnley FC, who are below us! Is it too late? No! However the hole is deeper.

The board did what we asked for, spent millions, sacked many managers. There are many reasons for this predicament but the post mortem comes at the end of the season.

Options are Frank resigns or asks for an advisor, such as Sam Allardyce, to come in as a football consultant.

This now calls for Plan B to try one last throw of the dice to have another perspective on getting points on the board. It's a nothing to lose option. It may not save us but we must change something.

My last point about tonight is confidence is rock bottom and we go ahead 2-1. It creates its own anxieties for players, mistakes are likely to happen. That's when Plan B comes in, players protecting each other gives reassurance. Hopefully it's not too late.

Laurie Hartley
182 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:43:08
Sick as a dog. There was a certain air of inevitability about this result.

However, not wishing to clone Frank here, but we still have 27 points to play for. Perhaps 11 points would see us staying up. We cannot just roll over – that would be unforgivable.

There is still timeto get a bit old-fashioned. Put the strongest possible combination through the spine of the team from now on.

Begovic,
Coleman, Keane, Branthwaite, Mykolenko
Gordon, Doucouré, Allan, Godfrey, Richarlison
Rondon.

Only playing ugly will get us out of this – we have to go down the Sam route.

Paul Kossoff
183 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:46:00
For God's sake will idiots on here stop likening these shower of useless twats to a serious disease!
Surely you can come up with a better discription than that.
Don Alexander
184 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:47:18
Eddie Dunn @ 108, you saying "We are a wank stain of a team run by a clueless coach and a prolapse of a board, and owned by an idiot" may seem fair comment but so bad have the owner and board been, year on year, on year, on year, on year, that Everton the club has long since been diminished as a viable entity.

No manager could be expected to save us having been appointed just 2 days before the January transfer window ended, the owner/board having chosen that crucial month to be managerless.

Lampard is all too convenient to the real wank-stains in the present boardroom and Monaco to be depicted as a realistically culpable facet.

They are, entirely and consistently, still being "led" for nigh on 30 years, as Moshiri allows, by the worst owner/chairman we've ever had by miles.

The real wank-stains have turned the club into a sluice of mental and physical ineptitude, on ludicrously expensive lengthy contracts with zero accountability ever, regardless of performance at every level.

But let's blame Frank alone, eh? Moshiri and his useless minions will just pray we all do.

Jerome Shields
185 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:50:40
Tom #167,

They where in my thoughts this week and during the game. Everton where top of the tree at that time and I found their dedication outstanding.

I remembered collected football cards in the 70s when Burnley where in the First Division. I suspect that those alive are still getting treated with respect. Some of them where probably at the game.

There is something honest about Burnley that Everton have lost, though Evertonians have remained the same over the years. I thought that relegation would have done some good, before the Wimbleden game, that time. Wonder how the fan that kissed the centre spot is to night.

John Maxwell
186 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:51:49
Howard's Way is set to become I Believe in Miracles.

What an absolute disgrace of a team we have...

£700 million.

Bernie Quinn
187 Posted 06/04/2022 at 23:56:35
All right everyone, time to stop the gloom and doom!

To try and cheer you up, I recall that the season after we were last relegated, we were nervous about dropping down another division, but then we regrouped and the final two seasons in Division 2, were amongst the best I saw of the team.

We became a goal machine, with Eglington scoring 5 in one match and Parker and Hickson both hitting 30 goals in a season, whilst Jimmy O'Neill made some great saves in goal (was he a relation of yours, Danny?)

So, as the song says... "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" — We still have Luvvy Bill to look after us!!!

Jim Burns
188 Posted 06/04/2022 at 00:09:26
Been back for over an hour and still can't erase certain key moments frozen in my mind – all of them involving Burnley's 3 goals and the cardboard cut-outs pretending to be our defence.

The darkest hour is always that before the dawn….. once more into the breach, Evertonians, once more.

When Saturday comes…

Frank Thomas
189 Posted 06/04/2022 at 00:20:14
The real disaster on the field tonight and all season was the same player who panicked on Sunday, passing the ball so badly that Iwobi could not control it directly, leading to the winning West Ham goal (Iwobi got most of the blame). The same player gave away a needless foul which led to West Ham's first goal.

The same player was on the baseline tonight. (Why? He was supposed to be in midfield.) No opposing players near him and he thumped the ball aimlessly away straight to a Burnley player directly leading to the second goal (2 Everton players got the blame).

The same player half-intercepted the crossing Man City ball causing it to be misdirected away from Keane and Man City scored.

Add them up: 3 points from West Ham, 1 to 3 points against Burnley and and 1 to 3 points against Man City (assuming a penalty is given).

His passing is truly abysmal and he instilled panic in all areas. Frank, please drop Holgate against Wolves.

Sorry but I do think tonight's result is once again Lampards fault. Think back to our 3-1 win this season, the goals were lightning fast, not slow passing; that is why Man City and Liverpool have difficulty beating Burnley at Turf Moore.

Barry Hesketh
190 Posted 07/04/2022 at 00:20:52
Paul
I apologise if the word I used upsets you, I have lost family members to the disease. However, it is an accepted term in the English language and therefore I don't apolgise for using it in that context.


2. A pernicious, spreading evil: A cancer of bigotry spread through the community
.
According to the Oxfrod English Dictionary:
a harmful activity that spreads quickly:
Drug abuse is a cancer that is destroying our society.

Phil Lewis
191 Posted 07/04/2022 at 00:21:11
Rob 173#
With respect I think you're missing the point mate. Yes the defence is a pathetic shambles. But Pickford's job is to marshall that defence and create confidence. He does precisely the opposite week in week out. The man is a nervous wreck. I would imagine that he probably causes half the panic!
If you've ever played football at any level as a defender, all you ask of your keeper is good positional sense, good handling and most of all calm assured verbal communication, to enable you to make split second decisions. Pickford has none of these attributes. Never mind the odd spectacular save. If we needed an acrobat, we could've signed one from the circus. My only surprise is that Pickford hasn't repeated his Sunderland achievements with us sooner than now.
Lampard has to make immediate brave selection decisions,because let's face it, we are virtually in a 'shit or bust' situation. Apart from Begovic, Rondon has to start. Even dare I say Tosun should be considered. Because frankly these current forward players seem incapable of scoring goals from outfield play, regardless of how much possession they have.
Soren Moyer
192 Posted 07/04/2022 at 00:24:54
Thats what you get with a rookie coach who hasn't done much and a shite squad coupled with a charlatan chairman and a clueless/ naïve chairman! We needed someone who could organize a defense and nick a few points here and there and steer us to safety. Instead, we're stuck with Lampard et al. Its a nightmare!
Mark Andersson
193 Posted 07/04/2022 at 00:40:14
We can still beat the drop... have faith blues life is exciting enjoy the moment of now.. find something positive in your life..
Ernie Baywood
194 Posted 07/04/2022 at 00:45:07
John Raftery 180 - I don't think sacking Benitez early would have solved all our problems. They're far too deep seated. Benitez was a symptom - not the disease.

But I do think it would have staved off relegation. Add Digne back into this team. Play to our attacking strengths rather than our defensive weaknesses as Benitez was. And remove the toxic atmosphere at the club.

That would have been worth enough points. And we didn't need that many.

This current team is crap but there is plenty of crap in the league. It should have been good enough to at least stay in the division. Today we got done by a team with 34 year old Aaron Lennon playing a starring role. Just let that sink in. We have enough players who were good enough to be able scramble the points we needed.

Now I think it's just all too late.

Mark Taylor
195 Posted 07/04/2022 at 00:51:48
It's done, we're down. The players and manager know it and so should we. That was the match we just had to win or bare minimum, get a point. We have Leicester twice, Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, we will struggle to get a single point from that lot.

It is now so desperate that people are calling for an evidently useless Rondon to replace a no less useless Calvert Lewin. Maybe next year in Div 2...

Jack Convery
196 Posted 07/04/2022 at 00:53:23
Reality check

1st 6 games of next season

Away V Wigan
Home V Blackpool
Home v Millwall
Away v Bristol City
Home v Stoke City
Away v Norwich

A pretty picture it paints does it not. Some players who should be moved on won't be due to the wages EFC pays them. Recruitment will be key. I wish Kevin Thelwell luck with that.

The defence will be based around Begovic, Kenny, Mylolenko, Nkounkou, Keane, Holgate and Branthwaite, Lonergan, Virginia.

Pickord, Mina and Godfrey will leave. Seamus retires.

Midfield

Davies, Doucoure, Iwobi, Gbamin, Gordon, Gomes, Onyango, Dele Alli, Price

Allan, Delph, Siggy will leave. So should Dele Alli but I doubt he will given his wages.

Forwards

Gray, Townsend, Dobbin, ( Broadhead ?).

Richarlson, DCL, Rondon, Tosun, El Ghazi, will leave.

Manager : Wayne Rooney.

I can't see Moshiri keeping Frank on and Wayne will be available and the orgasmic pick of BK, to unite all blues or so he will think.

Sorry to be so bloody negative but having seen the upcoming fixtures and who our relegation rivals have got we are going down.

I said in another thread after the WHU result that I could see EFC letting in 3 or 4 against a Burnley side who can't score and have won twice at home all season. I said it because that's the way EFC are right now. It gave me no pleasure to witness it coming true but a Leopard never changes it spots. I dared EFC to prove me wrong. They didn't. However I challenge them to prove me wrong about them being relegated as I want us to stay up so badly it hurts, So do it EVerton FC, fight and stay up. I dare you !!

Tom Harvey
197 Posted 07/04/2022 at 00:57:30
Tommy Carter @ 141

"DCL is not crap. He has limitations but he also had incredible strengths."

He wets his pants everytime he's one-on-one with a keeper, this isn't good for striker.

Granted at his best he's athletic and can poach a goal, "Incredible strengths" ????

Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Bill Gall
198 Posted 07/04/2022 at 01:04:19
Listened to what the Burnley manager gave as a half time team talk, then wondered what Lampards was. The moment that Burnley scored their second goal as there full back strode away from Kenny said to me we have to tighten up our defense, but it never happened. The only change he made was for Gorden who was exhausted. I don't like to criticize the substitution, but all the games I have watched with Gray, he has been more effective on the left side. We still had 2 substitutes left to strengthen the defense, but the usual happened we had to make changes after we went behind.
Lampard will not be fired, it is too late, and really there are not many managers out there who will get these players some backbone and pride.
like others on here I have been a supporter from 1954 so have seen the good the bad and to comment on the film the ugly.
But as the league doesn't lie Everton are 1 of the worst teams in the league, and its premier life may not yet be over but the manager and most of all, for their own pride and reputation, the players have to perform a lot better than they have.
They have just lost 2 winnable games with stupid lack of concentration and there is no hiding anymore.
Ernie Baywood
199 Posted 07/04/2022 at 01:04:33
Watford 9/2 to stay up... make yourself feel better with a few quid.

Burnley are rank.

Andrea Jacobs
200 Posted 07/04/2022 at 01:06:29
Jesus Christ,
We really love the drama on here don’t we?
I I think it’s become clear over the last few weeks that Burnley and Watford are going down, plus Norwich, obviously.
We’ll beat Man United and we’ll stay up.
Can’t see Watford or Burnley getting anything from their games.
There’s no drama here, Everton haven’t been in the bottom three all season, and that will continue till the end of May.

We’ll finish 17th and we’ll stay up, being one of the most feeble sides to avoid the drop for decades. Lucky for us there’s three worse teams, who’ve left it too late to save themselves.
I don’t know why everyone has been so worried about these upcoming fixtures, I’d rather play top half of the table Clubs, and especially Leicester (twice) who are a very beatable wishy-washy team.
Don’t give up.
We are not in the relegation zone!
Wake up and get real abbot the situation.

Christy Ring
201 Posted 07/04/2022 at 01:08:04
No bottle too many individual mistakes again, no bottle. Kenny, Pickford shocking, Iwobi shouldn't even be on the bench. Totally deflated
Bill Watson
202 Posted 07/04/2022 at 01:17:08
Apart from the farcical defending, when we do get up the field the final ball into the area and the corners are always abysmal. We can't take corners and we can't defend them.

Wherever we up end next season there has to be a clearout of this bunch of bottlers and those who spend more time in the treatment room than out on the pitch.

Have any other clubs had so many players who've missed more than half a season or more and that's not including the one who can't be named for legal reasons?

Ernie Baywood
203 Posted 07/04/2022 at 01:30:56
Andrea, I'm not sure if you're joking if you're just in for a shock.

Burnley and Watford are capable of scoring. They've also got a bit of fight. And better fixtures (Watford even get to play us at Vicarage Rd).

In our last 7 league matches we've managed 4 goals. 2 were penalties tonight. In many of those games we haven't had more than 1 or 2 shots on target.

We don't have the bravery to get out of this situation. Even the lauded Newcastle win was a crap performance salvaged by a late winner.

This is really dire mate.

Kieran Kinsella
204 Posted 07/04/2022 at 01:41:03
Andrea

I read an interview with Peter Crouch last month about Stokes relegation. He said they thought they were too good to go down and remembers losing and the manager saying “we’ve still got 9 games left.” Then it was 8,7 and so on, suddenly they needed to win the last three games and didn’t. Don’t know if you’ve seen Franks recent interviews but a couple of games back he rationalized “we still got 11 games left.” Tonight same sentence only it was 9, same starting point as Crouch’s old boss.

John Atkins
205 Posted 07/04/2022 at 01:49:54
Can’t sleep …. Can’t stop thinking about the result can’t fucking believe we gave it to them tonight !!!! AGAIN, panic panic panic … mistake after mistake after friggin mistake ….. Kenny what on earth was he doing, Pickford supposed to be Englands number one and slices the ball and then Godfrey the headless chicken

Who’s turn will it be Saturday to Fuck it up ….. Ronaldo will have field day

Nick Page
206 Posted 07/04/2022 at 02:25:34
Just woke up in a cold sweat. Had a dream. Kenwright and the charity mob are found guilty of bringing football into disrepute. Allegedly he was offering outrageous wages to shite players and the Technicolour Dreamcoat clouded their judgement. He’s asked to leave immediately. Everton get awarded 15 points for being screwed over by a big fat parasite for 25 years. We’re safe. And Satan’s mob didn’t win the loadsaduple for playing kick and fucking rush football. Night bloooz
Kevin Turner
207 Posted 07/04/2022 at 02:31:54
Another game another defensive masterclass from us. Two of the back four shouldn’t pull a shirt on again. We couldn’t give Kenny away, now we know why. From captain of a Youth World Cup winning team to player who’d struggle in the Zingari. Reputedly stealing £15k a week for that! The other culprit Godfrey is clueless and other than being a bit of an athlete can’t head a ball, doesn’t have the basics positionally and only passes backwards/sideways. To think he was an England prospect once. Talking of erstwhile England players DCL was once upon a time ludicrously considered a threat to Kane for the England Number 9 shirt. You couldn’t make it up. Forget GQ photoshoots lad and get back to doing what you’re paid for during your day job. Another one stealing a living off us.
The only laugh I’ve had tonight is reading someone wants Alladyce back. That’ll send me back to bed with a grin on my face.
Brian Murray
208 Posted 07/04/2022 at 02:49:12
Not about the manager or Benitez. It’s been coming for years because of that idiot left in charge. He needs to go and told to on Saturday big time. The owner daft as he is can’t or won’t see it.
Anthony Murphy
209 Posted 07/04/2022 at 03:20:06
What the bleedin hell is going on with Dele? An experienced Prem player who can score and create goals. Even this season with Spurs he was getting a bit of game time now and then. Is Dele being left out due to financial implications ? I find it incredible given our situation that he isn’t getting a sniff. I think it’s more likely that Lampard has been told we can’t afford to use him rather than him being so poor in training that he doesn’t get a look in bar the odd sub appearance. It seems we’ve made our mind up that he can’t really be arsed, but I’d love to know what’s going on there. Even when we are depleted in midfield or the likes of Gordon/Gray aren’t delivering, he doesn’t get a look in - just a really strange one

Barry Hesketh
210 Posted 07/04/2022 at 03:55:25
For all those placing a great degree of fault at the door of Frank Lampard.

Everton have been the worst team in Europe since the 1st of October.
[7 months & counting]

The 12 points that have been picked up since that date is the fewest among all teams in Europe’s Top 5 Leagues.
Source: The Everton end.

The first six points of that run came from 13 games including 7 home matches. Frank has lost too many, however, his six points have come from 9 games of which 4 have been at Goodison.

A total of 22 games and only a dozen points accrued - that is the sorry state of our season since the beginning of October 2021. Compared to the great start of 13 points from half-a-dozen matches.

It could be argued that a more experienced manager may have done more in the time Lampard has been in place, but I don't think that is the case with this set of players, they have picked up the fatal habit of losing and it's the most difficult habit to break.

Ernie Baywood
211 Posted 07/04/2022 at 04:04:28
John 205 - I can deal with mistakes through panic. That indicates that they understand the gravity of the situation. Pressure will do things to people - it will also bring some effort and desperation.

There are definitely moments of panic, but I'm not letting Godfrey off the hook that easily.

He miskicked that cross for one reason. He wasn't paying attention for the few seconds before it. The ball goes out with hardly a Burnley player in our half. So he switches off, looks away and by the time the cross comes in he's still moving backwards rather than being in a position to attack the ball.

I coach my U13s to not do this. The ball goes out - you get yourself positioned urgently. It was unforgiveable.

Kieran Kinsella
212 Posted 07/04/2022 at 04:26:03
Barry Hesketh

I rate Lampard but to be honest even if Mike Walker was boss now I’d give him a free pass. Koeman was hounded out of here and immediately had success with an on paper lousy Dutch team. Ditto Silva who’s laughing his was to success at Fulham. Certain elements harassed Carlo who breezed past Chelsea tonight with the lowest budget bunch of no names and has beens I’ve ever seen at Real Madrid. Then there’s Fat Sam, got the dead cat bounce but soon enough suffered the ignominy of a thrashing at Moyes West Ham. What do they all have in common? Pickford, Kenny, Coleman, Keane, Holgate and DCL. That core group supplemented by muppets bought by DOFs or Moshiri. Jesus Christ himself could manage this team and find on Good Friday he had 12 Judases waiting to betray him and his water instead of turning into wine had turned into expired slops of Carling Black label regurgitated from the drip tray. Absolute shambles. Fans sing the Coleman 60 grand song, how about the Keane 70 grand A WEEK SONG! If we sack Frank all we are doing is wasting more money on payoffs. If this bunch of losers survive somehow then all we are doing is delaying the inevitable unless we get a new board and tell the perennial losers to fuck off. Even today, Unsie is waxing lyrical over Charlie Whitaker. He might do OK but this is the same man who told us Beningame, Feeney, Walshe, Dowell, Bowler etc were future stars. It’s time for a Spanish Inquisition type clear out. All the board, all the academy coaches and Lord Haw Haw David Prentice can all do one.

Alan J Thompson
213 Posted 07/04/2022 at 04:26:07
I've just finished watching the game for the first time and haven't read any comments but like the West Ham match this was a game we should not have lost, from poor defending to poor finishing. I was amazed that Holgate was starting but the rest of the team was as expected.

Firstly their goals. The first Holgate was the man nearest the scorer but made no effort to contest the header, didn't even get off the ground.
The second Kenny was skinned but nobody made any effort to get over and make it difficult for the Burnley man. Godfrey, the nearest, rooted himself to the spot in the six yard box as did the rest of the defence and then Branthwaite, who until then was having a very good game just seemed to let the ball roll past him rather than try to clear.
The third Pickford, on his wrong foot, makes a mess of the clearance and then again the defence roots itself inside the six yard box with no marking and no attempt to get to the ball or make it difficult.

At the other end we don't seem to have anyone any good at a one on one situation or even capable of shooting on target or trying a first time shot. We should have been at least one more in front before they got their second. And it was a mistake taking Gordon off as he really troubled their defence when he ran at them while Gray offered very little. Even that said, we had the chances.

Holgate was a complete waste of space for whatever he was supposed to be doing. Doucouré didn't have the best of games and if he wants to celebrate Ramadan (a worthy idea) then he should apply for unpaid leave but what time does the sun go down? And if anyone offers 40,50 or 60M for Calvert-Lewin then take it as he seems to have lost whatever we thought he had.

On that game and even with 9 to go I can't see us avoiding relegation now, the bright side of which will be clearing the debt as anyone worth keeping will bale out, fortunes in transfer fees in and wage bill to rock bottom and nil TV coverage although we will qualify for the FA Cup where we will be considered a possible banana skin for Premier League clubs!

Bob Parrington
214 Posted 07/04/2022 at 05:41:32
Survive or relegated, I'd keep Frank and his team on board. New season, either way. Build on a younger average team base. Somehow get rid of deadwood.
I've supported the Blues since 1953 and this is the most gutless "group" of players I can recall us ever having (I grouped this as one or two have had significant courage).

I'd go so far as to say, "if they don't want to leave because of their salaries, sack them anyway and argue the case through the courts in regard to compensation. Many of them are so gutless they would probably lie down and cry, anyhow."

OMG the world has gone crazy. If people don't do the job for which they were employed the club should be able, in law, to get rid. Has anybody on here actually seen a player contract? Surely, there are some demands based on the player's performance? ??????????????????

OMG again. The lady next door was right when she said, "Life's a bitch and then you die".

Sam Hoare
215 Posted 07/04/2022 at 05:57:17
It’s not done. We are not down. The fat lady is not singing. Though she is definitely doing her vocal warmups.

To go from 2-1 up at half time against a team that hasn’t score a goal in 500 or so minutes and then lose 3-2 takes some doing. It does massive damage to us practically and psychologically whilst also boosting one of our two main relegation rivals.

The end certainly seems nigh but the football Gods are an unpredictable bunch. Other than City and Liverpool there are a plenty of teams in this league capable of having a horrendous day at the office (which it must be to lose to us).

My thoughts are with the fans who have had to endure this in person. I’m not at all convinced that things are to get any better but stranger things have happened.

Andy Walker
216 Posted 07/04/2022 at 06:12:02
I’ve thought for a few years now that we have an incompetent owner. Incompetence at the very top in any organisation or business will eventually feed through down into every crevice in that business. This is exactly what has and will continue to happen at Everton.

Moshiri is the problem. He can’t stick to a strategy, blocked the return of Moyes, (yes ginger haters, that was the worst call Moshiri has ever made whilst he’s owned us) and chose to buy much of the dross we see on the pitch himself.

Moshiri reaps what he sows. We fans just suffer the consequences of his ineptitude.

Championship nailed on now.

Derek Knox
217 Posted 07/04/2022 at 06:16:58
Sam, it certainly looks bleak, and I have always praised the (undeserved) loyal away support, if only the players showed even a quarter, of that we may just scrape through.

Apart from the obvious damage points-wise, last night has sent a message to all future Clubs with our remaining fixtures " we are almost a walkover, and there for the taking ". Of the players who started the match there is only one I would seriously keep, Anthony Gordon.

The rest are a bunch of grossly overpaid gutless pretenders, and what happens, AG gets subbed ?

John Kavanagh
218 Posted 07/04/2022 at 06:33:05
Well, here I am at 6.19am not having slept a wink sick with worry that something I've invested 60 years of my life in is facing oblivion. Not to worry though, Blue Bill will be getting a good night's kip after counting his Arteta money and dreaming of his next chosen investor.

As for the most expensively assembled pile of shite in football history, a team of 9 year old schoolgirls wearing wellies can kick a ball better than most of our wasters. That's the ones who actually make it onto the pitch instead of injuring themselves putting their boots on.

They should shut Finch Farm and use it for storing toxic waste - they won't need to apply for change of use planning permission cos that's all we've kept there for years.

Off for some emergency sedation now.

Derek Knox
219 Posted 07/04/2022 at 06:36:10
A rider to my comments @ 217, I would also keep Richarlison, if he had decent players around him, somewhere near his wavelength, we wouldn't lose that many games. He can't be faulted for his passion and enthusiasm although his finishing could have been better in the last couple of games.

When we first got Ben Godfrey, I was shocked at the price, but after seeing him play a few games, I thought his bursts of speed would soon be complimented by better positioning and defending, another who has stagnated under different Managers.

Sean Roe
220 Posted 07/04/2022 at 06:42:49
In my opinion there is probably no point in getting rid of Lampard at this point, he should never have got the job in the first place. He has done nothing in his limited managerial career to warrant a job trying to steer a club of this size away from relegation with a piss poor squad of players.

He should've been given the job at the end of the season where there would be less pressure and a chance to add his own players that suited how he wanted to play if that is the route the club wanted to take.

Pickford showed with their first goal why he shouldn't be starting. He just does not command the area at all. He flaps at anything coming into the box at height and just appears jittery all the time, putting further panic into an already shit defence.

I can't see us picking up anything more than a point at home to Brentford and Palace this season. I honestly think we'll end up 19th.

Sean Roe
221 Posted 07/04/2022 at 06:56:08
Bob @ 214,

We could probably use the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 as a get-out clause.

Peter Neilson
222 Posted 07/04/2022 at 07:06:25
Players who can’t focus for 90 minutes and shocking defensively. Time has just about run out to fix either.
Marc Hints
223 Posted 07/04/2022 at 07:12:18
As somebody has said:

Go down, rip it all up and start again could actually be a good thing for Everton in the long run. If Everton stayed up, would you trust this lot to go on and avoid this ever happening again? I absolutely wouldn't.

Very True

Gary Jones
224 Posted 07/04/2022 at 07:29:59
Don’t even know what to type this morning.

I want absolutely revolutionary (and outright angry!) fan protests starting on Saturday, and aimed at removing everyone including Lampard, Kenwright, Unsworth, et al, HOWEVER, I think the home games are the only slim chance we have of a miracle survival.

I want Lampard out, he’s an idealistic ex-player, not a leader of men, nor any kind of master tactician. However, I can’t see anyone (even Fat Sam) suddenly coming in and fixing anything with this squad. My only hope would be Duncan, but if he were up for it, we wouldn’t have Frank right now.

I want nearly every player dropped immediately and replaced with hungry youth players, HOWEVER we just don’t have them in the positions we need. (How bad is that!!!).

……every which way you turn there is a problem to every solution. Don’t think there is any choice now but to buckle in, hope for a miracle, and in the event we go down make sure all 3 wants above are achieved. Anyone who states “we need the fans behind us to get back up to premier league” next year can fuck off. I’ll be there, but without all 3 of the above I’m going to be the loudest boo in the ground.

Tony Everan
225 Posted 07/04/2022 at 07:31:56
Unfortunately not much sleep here either.

It’s a really poor Everton team that should be a grim, sub mediocre lower mid table. However, the continuing litany of amateur mistakes is breathtaking. These are supposedly Elite professionals and we have the 8th highest wage bill in the Premier League. How can these players make such schoolboy errors with such alarming regularity? These mind numbing errors are what will ultimately get us relegated. They must stop now to give us a fighting chance.

Of course there are way bigger issues on the playing side, the structure of the team, the quality, the recruitment ,a settled formation and identity of playing. But for now it’s the raw basics of football that are killing the club. Get Allan back, get Mina back, cut out the mistakes, beat Man Utd at Goodison, then we will have a 50/50 chance of survival.

I refuse to give up until it’s impossible, I expect every fan and player to fight for it. Anything less wont be good enough.

No white flags here. We may have been led by donkeys but our fans are the best in football. Our away support is incredible especially throughout these hard years . It’s the only source of strength and pride we have left. Regroup and battle, no surrender, this is Everton.

Alex Short
226 Posted 07/04/2022 at 07:54:38
Morning everyone, I couldn't sleep after that, it really is depressing being an Evertonian. Hopefully Alan is back on Saturday with Delph, need a couple of old heads in the defence, just to stop those stupid defensive errors. I would play Rondon instead of DCL, as I think DCL mind is elsewhere. Gray and Iwobi need to be more direct to try and get pens instead of running into players and cul de sacs. If only Mina wasn't made of paper. I hope we stay up but difficult with no creativity, poor defending and tracking the runners iinto the box is a joke.
Mark Ryan
227 Posted 07/04/2022 at 07:55:17
We are where we are because week in, week out we have played Holgate, Keane, an ageing Seamus, and a glass legged Mina in defence. We sold Digne a d have not decided whether an average Kenny or fast learning Mykolenko is the best fit at LB. Our midfield, particularly Doucoure pass backwards and stifle every attack. We have tried to bring on the latent talent of Iwobi but he dithers about more than my gran. DCL has been missing most of the season and hasn't played which has stretched us up front. When he has played he's gone missing. It's not Lampards fault it is a cumulative effect of 5 years of poor purchases under Moshiri. Kenwright is to blame and not Lampard right now. How we stay up is now based on getting some lucky breaks. I'm praying for the team UTFT
Derek Knox
228 Posted 07/04/2022 at 07:57:21
Tony @ 225, a good and brutally honest post, I fail to see what the fans could do any more than they have done. We never appointed the players or Managers, we never picked the teams, or the substitutions, yet all of this has failed us miserably, and, on a regular basis.

Like many have said this has all happened on Kenwright's watch, yet he sits in the best seat in the house having dined on Fillet Steak and Lobster, washed down with the best wine, a pocketful of cash in his back pocket from eventually snaring a mug in Moshiri.

Where he gets to carry on as Chairman ?

It beggars belief, or should do, no matter which side of the fence you sit on, this is the most precarious position I have ever seen Everton in, in almost 60 years as a supporter. What a nightmare scenario !

Phil Lewis
229 Posted 07/04/2022 at 07:58:31
Doucoure is the most overrated player on the books. Duke? More like Duck!

His religion dictates that he fasts for Ramadan. How on earth can a so-called 'box-to-box' Premiership midfielder maintain his energy levels for 90 minutes if he is fasting. It's ludicrous.

If I were a professional footballer and my contract allowed me to fast when my religion required me to do so, I would not expect to be selected. Saying that, the way Doucouré has shaped for most of the time in an Everton shirt, fasting or not, he has neither the alertness nor the vision for top-flight football.

Yes, the whole team is riddled with blame, but the reason I've singled him out is because he seems to be an automatic choice who few fans criticise. It is that fact which baffles me.

Paul Burns
230 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:00:30
If anything sums up Everton, it's that Jonjoe Kenny is getting a game.

Here's someone who was deemed not good enough 5 years ago yet hangs around until all the better players have gone and is now in the team. Because there's no-one else left.

There is a complete lack of football knowledge within the club yet the rot has been allowed to fester for years and anyone who indicated it years ago was ignored, ridiculed or censored. It leads to this. Disaster.

Make no mistake, the buck stops with Kenwright. He brought everyone in including Moshiri and cut out all dissension. Kenwright lied. People wouldn't believe it. Now, it's too late.

That defence can't keep a club up. It just can't.

We need to sack Lampard and bring in a team including Joe Royle as a desperate last-chance hail Mary. It may not work but neither will anything else.

Ray Roche
231 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:07:43
Just a couple of observations. All those trotting out ‘ Going down might do us good’….bollocks! It’s harder to get out of the Championship than it is to stay in the Premier League. Fuckin ridiculous statement.

The Live Forum…..”Get Big Sam back”!!! Christ on a bike, Allardyce is unemployed for a reason. He’s shite. We couldn’t wait to see the back of him. Yet now he’s the Messiah.

No one can get a tune out of our overpaid wasters.

Alan McGuffog
232 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:10:11
Some random thoughts.
After his successful loan spell at Celtic did they not offer something like £8 million for Kenny ? But we were holding out for £8 million and a bottle of Buckfast ?
Collins goal was pathetic...had he leapt like a salmon to head home fair enough, but to side foot it from that angle. Jesus wept in Gethsemene. Loved Pickford doing his forlorn " dive".
Only saw first half had to drive home. What a peach of a ball from Iwobi for Myko and the second penalty. All in all a decentish first half I thought.
So driving back from Chester to Nantwich I was of course nervous...this was Everton after all but I felt at ease...John Prine singing Far From Me on the stereo. " be just like us to throw it away now...but surely we wouldn't. Would we...after " kopite" Dean had been so.nice ?"
Home just as whistle went. Uncomfortably numb.
My sixty years of top flight football sliding away.
Still being positive. We will go down, as sure as the sun rises..but maybe we will start recruiting good, ambitious, fit, athletic, motivated young players who can replace these charlatans.
We need to consolidate in the Championship. We won't bounce straight back we need to rebuild in a measured way, from Finch Farm up.
And whilst we are lead by the world's best Evertonian ( did you all know that he stood in the Boys Pen and watched Dave Hickson ? ) we shall not be moved.
Talking of moving I'm concerned that 53,000 may not be enough for the times ahead.
Rambling and disjointed...yeah. Bit like Efc really.
Mick O'Malley
233 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:11:54
Please stop with the Sam Allardyce shouts, it’s embarrassing, the man is finished,and he did not save us last time as we were 14th when he took over, we were never going down that season
Mark Ryan
234 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:12:38
Why is Holgate being preferred in Midfield over Dele Alli. Play Alli, give him a shot. Make Doucoure simply defend all day. Saturday bench Doucoure, play Allan and Alli. Just don't play Holgate at whatever cost. If Alli is not up to it for whatever reason play Godfrey there but ffs NOT Holgate. Why did we take Alli ? In the Summer get good money if we can for Pickford and DCL and sell Holgate and Iwobi. Bin Delph. Sort out the Icelandic issue too
Gary Jones
235 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:15:15
Ray @ 231 - not one fan wants us to go down you tit, some are just trying to process it in their own way. Stamp your feet all you want,
Marc Hints
236 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:17:40
Don't know if anyone has heard of football journalist Simon Dobson but he has just put a twitter comment:

EXCLUSIVE - Everton board expected to hold emergency meeting over the future of Frank Lampard🔵

No decision made yet

Rob Halligan
237 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:21:59
Went to bed at 1am this morning. Was wide awake at 6.15, so got up, made a coffee and just sat ever since looking out the window with the rain lashing down. I’ve got the telly on, the dog going nuts cos he wants to go out, but I’m still sitting here nearly two hours later, almost in a trance, still watching the rain lash down. What an absolutely miserable morning!

The thought of relegation is going to make me violently sick. Can we get out of this mess, who knows, but I / we simply have to believe we can. We cannot throw in the towel while we are still above that dreaded line, and with twenty seven points still to play for. Many posters have got us relegated already. Fair enough, that’s their view and I’m not going to argue with it, but for the next nine games, until we’re either safe or down, all I ask is for everyone on here to show some backing for the team.

There’s no point in analysing the game last night. It’s gone. The only thing I will comment on is yet again the fantastic support of the fans. We do not deserve relegation. The backing was constant right up until their winner, when it suddenly felt as if someone came along and knocked every one of us clean out. I’ve never known a coach journey back home to be so quiet.

I really am struggling for words here. Maybe I’m talking gibberish as I watch the rain lash down. However, I cannot and will not believe we are going down.

Gary Jones
238 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:22:36
Mark @234 we’re not playing Dele for two reasons:

1) Frank selects only on effort in training….not ability in matches.

2) We can’t afford the £10m initial payment if we go down.

And in terms of ‘over Holgate’ because we need at least one tackler in the middle. Whatever Ali is, it ain’t a tackler.

Nick Page
239 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:23:30
Kenwright out
Eddie Dunn
240 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:26:16
On reflection the only thing we had going for us last night was the endeavour of Richarlison and Gordon and a good effort from the improving Mykolenko.
As for the rest, it is shocking just how few of them actually understand the basics.
Iwobi's main asset is the he blows like sand across the park and he is capable of some good passes and interplay. There it ends as he also has a habbit of (someone above said "dithering") and giving the ball away in dangerous positions.
Domenic was trying his best and showed late-on with his little one two with Rondon(who almost equalised) that with support, he can be effective..
His injury has limited the workrate that we were used to seeing and he hasn't quite got his magnificent leap back.
He will improve game on game but it would have been sensible to get Rondon on earlier.
The other stand-out terrible displays were from the gormless anti-footballer Doucoure.
I mentioned his jelly treats for Ramadan on the other thread but as Phil says, for a guy who's main asset is energy, what were we doing -it would have been better to play Delph or a kid from the under 16's!
Holgate was awful in midfield and he kept reverting to his centre back routine. This confused the budding pairing of Godfrey and Branthwaite.
Poor Kenny was scrapping well before getting a rush of blood.
Pickford makes his defenders nervous -many called for it, and in retrospect this was a night for our own giant.
Lampard made more mistakes- he should have settled for 2-2 and got Delph and Coleman on.
He thought we could win 3-1 but once they equalised, we looked more likely to concede.
He is learning while we go down that is why he was probably the right choice but at the wrong time.
Johan Elmgren
241 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:33:32
Kenny got really exposed yesterday, he was all over the place and his decisionmaking was atrocious. We really have a problem at right back and are conceding goals from that area all to easily. Coleman is to slow nowadays and Kenny is to naive.

I think we should play Godfrey there. He would offer better protection to our centerbacks with his pace and athletisism. He would also be a threat going forward with those attributes. From Saturday on, I would play Godfrey on RB, Keane and Branthwaite CB and Myko on LB. If Mina would ever get fit, I would play him instead of Keane.

My team for Man U would be:

--------------------Begovic---------------------
Godfrey--Keane--Branthwaite--Myko
----------------------Allan-----------------------
--------VanDeBeek-----Doucoure--------
Gordon---------------------------------Richy
---------------Calvert-Lewin-----------------

We must start winning now, and we can't keep on giving cheap goals away through mistakes... Football is a lot about decisionmaking on the pitch, far too many players are making too many poor decisions at the moment... We need to make better decisions.

Andrew Bentley
242 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:34:27
Not that I want us to go down as I worry about the long term future of the club, and like others can see what’s happened to the likes of Derby being us. But if I can put my blue tinted glasses on for 1 min, at least it will allow the greatest purge of this club to have happened in my lifetime.

Parasites like Delph, Tosun, and he who can’t be named for legal reasons will all be off the books. Players like Moise Kean, and Gbamin who are just not good enough will be sold. And then the likes of Pickford, Mina, Allan, and probably DCL and Richarlison will be sold probably for decent money.
Rondon will be gone, along with Van Der Beek, El Ghazi and likely Alli.

Players like Keane, Holgate and even Tom Davies could still be with us sadly - some we just won’t be able to move on but the Championship could be their level.

We’ll be left with the bare bones of youth and players who want to be there playing in blue and could give us the opportunity to rise again like a new blue phoenix. Defence next year could be Patterson, Godfrey, Branthwaite and Mykolenko - all young with something to prove.

Yes I have been drinking to try and avoid the depression!!

Andrew Ellams
243 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:35:18
The sad part is, as much as we all hate Derbies the one in 17 days could be the last for a while.
Brian Porter
244 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:37:20
Thankfully I didn't watch last night's debacle, the first game I haven't watched this season
I fully expected another shambolic defeat but I checked the score at half time and seriously thought we might actually win or at least snatch a draw from the game
Checked back later and of course, we'd thrown away another opportunity to record a much needed win.
After supporting Everton for the last 63 years since I was a boy of six, I feel as if I have reached the end of my tether.
Why should I, or anyone else for that matter, go on supporting a team of millionaire so called footballers, who don't even appear to understand the game at all, you know, passing to their own team mates, tackling the opposition and shooting when the opportunity arises. Every game is now the same, no passion, complete lack of basic skills and with rare exceptions, not an ounce of fight between the lot of them.
The only player I have any sympathy for is young Mykolenko. Respect to this young man who surely must have more important things on his mind than football at the moment.
I feel as if I'm coming to the end of a long, long love affair. If, as looks likely, we are relegated at the end of the season, due to the total ineptitude and incompetence right across the club, from boardroom to Finch Farm to the field of play, why on earth should I continue to give them my undying loyalty and support?
In a nutshell, they don't deserve my support or that of any of our fabulous supporters. One can only take so much!!
Barry Hesketh
245 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:37:34
Marc @236
I read a Tweet last night saying there was a rumour that some players had leaked to the guys in the media that they weren't happy with Frank, but I couldn't get to find out where that originated. I'm afraid it's too late to change the manager, who is going to come in at this late stage of proceedings, mind you David Moyes came to Goodison with only 9 games remaining so who knows.

Rob @ 237
I feel your pain, the crowd will try and motivate the team on Saturday, possibly because it's United in town, but it won't be easy for any of us to pick ourselves up following last night. Relegation is like that brown envelope that sits on the mantlepiece, you know it's a bill and you know you have to pay it, but you try and put it to the back of your mind, until the very last minute, hopefully, Everton's brown envelope is a get out of jail card.

Jerome Shields
246 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:38:50
On reflection I am hoping for some absurb bit of luck that Everton will survive in the Premiership. .
Marc Hints
247 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:40:45
Barry#245

Yeah I agree and I will be staggered if we change manager again unless its just pure panic from the owner.

Lots of rumours on twitter now saying Moshiri is on his way to England

Eddie Dunn
248 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:43:03
Johan -Van De beek is ineligable against his parent cub.
Andy Crooks
249 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:43:22
There are many who hate our club and it hurts that Kenwright, Moshiri, the coaches, the players, all of whom earn unthinkable amounts, have left Blues for whom the club means the world, open to mockery. Hated is acceptable, mocked, pitied and patronised is what these bums have made us. We deserve better.
Rob, we are not done yet. We will not be relegated.
Johan Elmgren
250 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:48:20
Yes, Eddie, that's right... I forgot... It means I reluctantly must put Iwobi in instead... or maybe put Gordon in the center and Gray out right... yeah, that might be a better idea...

My team for Man U would be:

--------------------Begovic---------------------
Godfrey--Keane--Branthwaite--Myko
----------------------Allan-----------------------
-----------Gordon-------Doucoure--------
Gray------------------------------------Richy
---------------Calvert-Lewin-----------------

Jerome Shields
251 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:51:44
I expect Duncan to be Caretaker Manager for the United game. Frank really did shaft himself in that second half last night. Leeds, Burnley and Watford will lose games in the run in.
Mark Ryan
252 Posted 07/04/2022 at 08:57:44
It would be typical Moshiri to bin Frank now. That is not the answer. There is nobody out there who could do better right now. Its the players who just need to stop dithering on the ball, pass forwards and defend set pieces properly. Guardiola, Matt Busby, Howard Kendall and Janet Street Porters brother across Stanley Park put together would struggle to motivate this lot. Maybe try Dunc ?! ffs Just stop dithering and get stuck in, we'll be okay. When Saturday comes, we can beat Utd, just believe it and run till you drop
Craig Walker
253 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:00:14
It's a case of being careful what you wish for. I thought once we got a billionaire that all our problems would be solved. Moyes had been working with one hand behind his back, punching above our weight, plucky little Everton. The club's demise started with Koeman and Walsh and has continued ever since. The recruitment of El Ghazi, Delli Alli and van de Beek is probably the final straw.

I have to look at myself as a fan though. For years, I was saying how the likes of Neville, Osman, Kilbane, Naismith etc. weren't good enough for where we aspired to be. I'd kill to have those kinds of players in this team. Yes. Even, Phil Neville. He was a journeyman footballer but at least he looked like he cared and would get stuck in. We now have too many examples of a certain player at Everton who think they've made it. They've got the Premier League contract. The big house. The fast cars. The lavish lifestyle off the back of doing something they enjoy. It doesn't hurt them because they don't have to go to work and face RS fans season after season. They're just trotted out in front of the press to give us what we want to hear. Empty words.

We're running out of must-win games. The Villa home match under Dunc. Newcastle away. Wolves at home. Burnley away. Since October, we're the worst team in Europe, on form. We deserve to go down. I think only Norwich are worse, and they beat us at their place.

Maybe relegation is what we need in order to reset the entire club, from top to bottom. What we don't want is another manager coming in and giving the dross yet another chance to show what they can do. Get shut of all of 'em apart from Gordon and Richarlison (the latter will be off, anyway).

Sad times.

Brent Stephens
254 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:03:58
Rob #237 - that's not gibberish at all, Rob. I think you've expressed that numb feeling at the end of last night's game and into today. I also thought the away fans really got behind the lads, right to the end.
Pete Clarke
255 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:08:35
That would just be Everton wouldn’t it. Sack Lampard and ignore the fact that it’s due to the owner and his fat faced side kick that the club has so many average and fragile players on the books.
Lampard is not at fault at all here and there is a slightly improving pattern in the play but he cannot correct the constant mistakes from just about every single player on the pitch.
Pickford is a massive liability and gives zero confidence to his defense on crosses.
The whole back four in last nights game would probably not be playing if it was not for injuries, suspensions and the wreckless sale of an established left back.
Doucouré is a headless chicken. Holgate belongs in the Sunday league.
There’s the whole defense that has been forced onto Frank Lampard to try and make something of. He must be absolutely shocked at how poor the players are and how quickly he has had to rectify the faults in their game. Injuries have not helped of course and as bad as the injured and suspended players also are, I believe we would have won that game last night with Coleman, Mina or even Keane in the team
Never mind Everton Sacking Lampard because if it was not for the loss of his salary and payoff then I’m sure he would walk away due to the realization that he can’t do circus work at all. We are lucky to have somebody of his caliber at the club. Somebody who has not only done it all on the pitch but somebody I believe has a great future as a manager.
I would rather go down with a young ambitious manager than have Allardyce, Dyche and Benitez type at this club. Have we not got any pride at all ? Some seem desperate enough to have this well I say go and throw Rocks at Kenwright in order to start the change that is needed.
We can all go on and on about what manager we could have brought in but there were none available who could work miracles on the pitch and at Finch Farm and yet deal with the shit that goes on at board level.
We are a fucking joke but sacking Lampard will be disgusting and another attempted cover up of the failures at board level.
Barry Hesketh
256 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:11:56
Craig @
Most of us believed that Everton could do better, particularly with money invested in the squad, but I disagree with Walsh and Koeman starting the rot, the rot set in with Martinez when he bought a few of his 'relegated' team to Goodison, he should not have been allowed to do that, and although his first season was relatively succesful he destroyed whatever Moyes had instilled in his players.

It also has to be noted that avoiding relegation was never the first thing that the fans were looking for, we were ambitious for the club and that's why players such as Neville et al were deemed not good enough, of course the character of those players would be invaluable right now, but how we got into this position is beyond reason.


Danny Baily
257 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:13:22
Mark 252, nothing should be off the table. We'll kick ourselves when we're playing MK Dons away, battling for a nothing finish (if we're lucky) in next seasons championship, that we didn't try anything and everything at this stage to avoid the drop.

Why not is my thinking. Let's go down kicking and screaming if we have to.

Jerome Shields
258 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:14:09
Mark#252

Frank had the International. break to prepare Everton for a relegation dogfight. He hasn't done that, just stuck with his open attacking football.

He was presented with the opportunity at the start of the second half to close down the game. He persisted with open attacking football, even his too late Subs where put on to continue with open attacking football.

I know that there were glaring errors, but Burnley had the momemtum. Who handed them that on a plate?. The Everton Manager. I agree Everton and Frank should not be in this situation.

But when you look at it in terms of survival and panic, with the powers that be at Everton in charge, Frank is a goner today or Everton is a goner as far as the Premiership is concerned.

Trevor Peers
259 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:15:00
Moshiri is an absolute joke, on his way back to England? What a farce, even worse the fact that impresario buffoon Kenwright has been running the club in his absence. It truly is a pantomime and the cruel joke is on all of us, the supporters.

No doubt nightmare maker Bill, who should of gone 10 years ago, has been having daily meetings with Lampard spreading his bankrupt philosophy at the worst possible time in our history, no wonder we are in such a mess with no way out.
We need a new owner and a complete reset to even begin the long journey back to respectability.

Andy Crooks
260 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:18:41
Jerome, I expect Lampard to stay. However, frankly, you have made me think. If ever in our history we needed a fist pumping do or die miracle it is now. It won't happen but I would take Duncan Ferguson right now. These are desperate times. I thought Frank, through sheer quality,could save us. He can't, he is done,beaten, bewildered and out of his depth.
We must not be relegated. We need a revival, a miracle, someone to stand up. There is only one man.

Jerome Shields
261 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:18:41
Do I think Duncan is a good replacement. No I do not. But a reset has to take place for the United game at Goodison for the faithful to get behind.
Johan Elmgren
262 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:25:19
Agree Pete #255, sacking Lampard would make no sense, this state we are in is not his fault. I think he is showing promise as a manager, alltough he hasn't gotten the results yet...

If we go down, I would like to see him given the chance to build something in the Championship, with a bulk of good youth players coming through. It would be exiting to see what Lampard could develop from scratch with these players.

Given gametime in the Championship, a lot of them could thrive... Patterson, Welch, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Onyango, Warrington, Price, Dobbin, Gordon, Simms. Whitaker, Mills and Okoronkwo are also looking promising...

But let's hope it doesn't go that far, and that they can be blooded in gradually in the PL instead... We're not relegated yet...

Jerome Shields
263 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:26:00
Andy #260

Its the faithful who can do it at Goodison. But they do not need Frank's naive tactics if they are to stand a chance. Duncan will set them up in the typical do or die formation, like a brick shithouse, that the faithful can get behind.

Agree with you regarding Frank, . Finch Farm is not the place for his honest methods.

Craig Walker
264 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:26:39
Barry. Martinez' relegated signings included McCarthy. He was a far better signing than Gomes, or Doucoure, or Delph, or Schneiderlin or Iwobi etc. I think yesterday was the anniversary of us beating Arsenal at home in 2014 3-0 when Naismith, Mirallas and Lukaku scored.
Paul Hewitt
265 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:27:57
Am I the only one thinking relegation wouldn't be a total disaster if it happened. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to start rebuilding.
Jerome Shields
266 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:33:12
Paul#265

It won't, but it is worrying at the moment given the Clowns we have in charge. We might end up getting relegated out of the Championship.

Are the FFP rules taken seriously in the Championship, anyone?

Scott Robinson
267 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:45:20
Colin @150, totally agree with you. It is the constant demands of the fans that results in management being sacked. This is no way to run a business - always reacting to inevitable downturns with cries for management to be sacked.

Personally speaking, on his track record, you can consider Allardyce unlucky to be sacked. I think people would be crying out now for him to return the club, despite 'the football' he plays.

Clive Rogers
268 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:46:21
Jerome, 266, yes they are. In fact they are much stricter. Derby were deducted 21 points this season because of their finances and they are talking of deducting a further 15 next season even if they go down. If we go down, with our financial problems it will be a complete disaster. We will never come back up.
Barry Hesketh
269 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:47:46
Paul @265
From a purely financial point of view, relegation would be an unmitigated disaster. From a playing perspective, every Everton game would be a cup final for most of the teams in the Championship, there's two reasons that we'd likley be down in the Championship for at least a couple of seasons.

It may have proved better to have gone down on the previous two occasions that we escaped in 94 and 98, but with the current state of the club and its financial plight, only Everton remaining in the top division will give the club any chance to help resolve its current issues.

Ray Roche
270 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:49:21
Gary@235

Numerous posts have said that relegation might do us good, build from the bottom etc. So, dickhead, go stamp your own feet, process our problems your own way, don’t rewrite things.

James Fletcher
271 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:52:37
Not sure how people are blaming Frank for this one all three goals were individual errors and terrible defending at the most basic level - all of these players should be able to do the basics.

The only positives I can take from last night is that Gordon continues to look great and Richarlison might be regaining a bit of form.

You never know, we might well smash Utd on Saturday...

Barry Hesketh
272 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:57:25
Plenty of criticism heading Frank Lampard’s way this morning but Everton’s current plight is the result of years of horrendous decision-making by the owner & a board far too fond of patting itself on the back while getting so many things so badly wrong. Source: Phil McNulty via Twitter
Brian Murray
273 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:57:34
Only reset we need is a competent board.
Robert Tressell
274 Posted 07/04/2022 at 09:59:32
Barry # 256 the rot set in about 1992. We had a stay of execution under Moyes and then delusions of grandeur set in whereby we promptly forgot everything that had kept us afloat on the cheap for 10 years.

Anyway...

There are still games to play so we should not give up hope.

Nick Page
275 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:00:19
KENWRIGHT OUT
CHARITY WOMAN OUT
ALL OF THEM
OUT
Nick Page
276 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:02:17
Ferguson out
Unsworth out
Mark Ryan
277 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:04:11
I get that Frank wanted to win the game and some are saying we should have just defended but we can't defend. If we had Allan and Mina on the pitch then potentially yes, "defend the lead" but we can't defend, we're shite. I think there have been signs of improvement lately and I would stick with him IMO. I think calling for Dunc is a Kenwright ploy to mask his tenures fuck up. If we do go down we need to have a concerted effort to oust KENWRIGHT simple as that. We cannot play Holgate Saturday, it cannot happen
John Boswell
278 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:07:04
For most of the game Burnley did not pose any problems, Gordon and Richarlison impressed greatly and Iwobi played some great forward passes that we somehow failed to convert into goals. Sadly there were 3 moments when Burnley scored and the game was lost. Three moments in the entire game, oh and I saw players jogging back to help defend, NOT SPRINTING!!
Jimmy I'Anson
279 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:08:55
You attack as a team and you defend as a team.

1st Goal – Centre halves are being challenged by Burnley players practically 1 yard off the goal line. This is because Pickford is simply too small and can't command his area. Iwobi (midfielder) loses his man and he scores.

2nd Goal – DCL (Striker) gets done on the half way line, Gordon (midfielder) is brushed aside, Jonjo (defender) gets done down the right. In the meantime, Holgate (midfield) leaves his man to get a closer look at the action, Iwobi (midfield) sees this and tries to cover for him. Holgate's man scores.

3rd goal – Allowed to throw to an unmarked man, Doucoure (midfield) closes down but it's too late. Crap cross comes in unchallenged, Godfrey (defence) makes error, two Burnley players free in our area lining up to shoot. Centre halves on the goal line and not a midfielder in sight.

Yes, we can't defend, but defending is about more than just defenders.
Peter Carpenter
280 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:11:45
Barry, McNulty has summed it up in less than 20 words
a board far too fond of patting itself on the back while getting so many things so badly wrong
Inept, incompetent and with egos so big they cannot see what they are doing.
We are getting exactly what they deserve.
Brian Murray
281 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:19:18
We need more bedsheets than dunelm to get rid of that curse on Saturday
Brian Harrison
282 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:19:51
We have spent huge amounts of money over the last 6 years yet we end up playing Holgate as a defensive midfield player, and JJ Kenny at right back having been rejected by all our previous managers as well as being deemed not good enough for Shalke and Celtic when he was out on loan. We have the perfect storm we cant keep clean sheets and we don't score many goals.

I am one of the lucky ones I have been going to Goodison for 67 years so I have seen us win the league titles and Cups, but looking at our supporters faces in the crowd last night was full of young men under 40 who may not have seen us win anything. These fans deserve so much more than they are getting, I doubt there are many clubs given our position would be selling out their full away allocation. I have nothing but massive admiration for these fans and they certainly don't deserve what's happening.

Nearly all season we have complained that we have been on the wrong side of refs and VAR decisions but last night both penalty's were correctly awarded, and fair play Richarlison dispatched both without giving Pope a chance. But as Dyce is reported to have told his players "this lot don't know how to win a game "and sadly he was proven right. We lost because yet again we made mistakes that shouldn't have happened. We all feared an aerial bombardment but it didnt really happen, their first goal was a tap in at the far post, just schoolboy defending. Their 2nd DCL had Tarkowski on the half way line facing his own goal and looking to be in trouble but he allowed him to pass the ball down the line JJ stupidly goes to ground and doesnt get the ball. So their player just ran along the goal line and pulled it back for a tap in. Their 3rd was again our mistake first Pickford fails to clear an easy ball upfield and despite being under no pressure slices the ball out of play. From the throw in they put a poor cross in but Godfrey makes a complete hash of his clearance and it runs to their player to once again pull it back for them to tap in the winner.

For me Godfrey isn't good enough at CB, and JJ isn't good enough at RB, Keane also has a mistake in him so our only reliable defender is Mina who has missed most of the season through injury. Midfield apart from Allan is woeful Doucoure is 6 foot odd yet gets constantly out battled by smaller players and I never feel he has the ball under control, Gomes is finished, Delph never got started. Then up front I have said that DCL is the luckiest man I know to win an England cap he is such a limited footballer, when I think of the very good players who never got a cap for England, for him to be able to call himself an England international is a joke. I said a few weeks back that since Benitez left it seems so did Gray as I have seen nothing like the performances under Lampard that he has produced under Benitez.

Finally to our only shining lights of hope Richarlison and Gordon, these boys ran themselves into the ground and neither deserved to be on the losing side. I was glad Richarlison took the pens as I don't trust DCL with that job.

So where does all this leave us in a terrible mess unfortunately, if we cant hold onto a lead against a team with less points then how will this lot ever believe they can win any of the remaining games. I also feel while he has had to take over such a poor team Lampard cant be absolved of whats happening. I applaud he is trying to change the playing structure be this group are incapable of adopting this new style, so things need changing and quick. I don't care if he is only 80% fit Mina has to play on Sat and Rondon has to start up top. He at least won a header and had a shot thats more than DCL did in the whole game, and put Keane back alongside Mina I know long term he isn't the answer but he plays better when alongside Mina.

Sorry for the rant like all Blues this morning I am fragile and fearing the worst.


Jerome Shields
283 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:23:31
Clive#268

Should have thought of Derby. Frank has first hand knowledge. Definitely Frank is a goner today. Thanks for the info Clive. I agree with your verdict. Relegation would be a disaster

My reset deals with the current problem. But a bigger reset is long over due for the whole Club from top to bottom.

Marc Hints
284 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:23:43
absolutely spot on what McNulty says
Johnny Rainford
285 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:24:06
I've normally been quite moderate re the Everton board but What we are seeing now is the consequence of bad managerial appointments since 2016.

So the buck stops with moshiri and kenwright.

Both of them need to go and allow the club to be finally reset and ran like a proper business (instead of trying to be the premiership ahem championship "nice" guys)

Ernie Baywood
286 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:46:29
I'm looking through our recent league games. I actually think Lampard's Everton is an improved Everton.

Leeds, Newcastle, West Ham, Burnley. They were decent fighting performances. Not good. But decent. And decent is to be lauded when we're talking about, on long term form, the worst team in the league.

He's finally restored Richarlison to the left wing, where he has always been more effective and has looked more dangerous in the last two games. He actually got Alex Iwobi to work hard. And he's getting some effort out of a group who, in January, looked like they would prefer not to break a sweat.

So I'm behind him. And I don't think the criticism is deserved. I also think the criticisms of the Burnley performance are well off the mark. We actually played ok. Individual mistakes and a lack of quality at key times cost us. But the players had a go. We created chances and should have scored more. It was an underserved loss. Objectively, it really was underserved.

We're stuck with these players. The late sacking of Benitez and late appointment of Lampard ensured there would be no transfer based survival. That's 100% on Moshiri.

So get used to what we've got. Stop calling for him to replace our better players with less proven (or completely proven rank) players. Begovic isn't better than Pickford - what planet are you people on?

He's getting some kind of a tune out of them. And that seemed impossible a few months ago.

Play Pickford, Allan, Richarlison, Gray, Gordon, DCL. I'll even throw ex-international Michael Keane in there.

They, and Frank, are our only hope.

Kim Vivian
287 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:46:42
I guess it's a measure of how we all feel after the anticipation, in match expectation, and post match PTSD that we have not heard from Danny O'N yet on either match thread (unless I have missed it).

Just numb this morning and there's very little I can find to cheer me up.

For what it's worth, in my opinion, we should not be sacking Lampard who has inherited this collection of misfits. Take a view at the end of the season, for sure but Duncan Ferguson is not the answer, and he I think is the only likely alternative at this point in the season. He may be a rallying cry for any genuine Evertonians at heart who we still have in the squad, but he is not the magician we probably need to stave off the drop any more than Lampard.

I will not - can't countenance it - accept relegation until it is a mathematical certainty - even if it means having to beat Arsenal in our last game. I cling onto the hope that we can at least manage to get the same number of points as the teams below us which would keep us at 17th, and even in my dreams collect 6 more points allowing for our couple of games in hand over Leeds now that Burnley are looking the danger - a danger we could have defused in 90 minutes last night (or actually 30 minutes in truth - that may be the 30 minutes which send us down).

However, we have to stay behind the team - I know we all are, despite our rantings on here - and get stuck into the hierarchy at the end of the season or when our fate is definite for better or worse.

My blood will curdle if/when we manage to stay safe and then have to witness BK's gurning dial or spoken/ written attempts to take any credit.

Mark Ryan
288 Posted 07/04/2022 at 10:55:20
If Kenwright and Moshiri sack Lampard I will stunned. They are killing this club, not Lampard.
Get Dunc, get Fat Sam, what a joke that would be.
I truly believe he needs to continue and with Allan back we can continue to try to win football matches. It's not over fellas, we can survive. It's not about the teams we play, it is about us, it us about Everton. If we keep having a go we will survive this. Many of the teams we play will not want it as much as we do. We can do this starting Saturday
Dave Abrahams
289 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:00:20
Made up with all the supporters who still think we have a chance of staying up, honestly hope we do, I’ll be there on Saturday cheering them on and hope that is the start of a climb back to staying up.

Being honest I can’t see it, we are just so poor in heart mind and spirit all over the field, nobody argueing and urging the others on, no bad tempers with each other just acceptance, heads down and waiting for the final whistle to get off the field and go home.

They had arranged for a day at Aintree today, if they won, they couldn’t even fight for that, I think Lampard has cancelled that, if he is still here!!

Waited up,last night for my great grandson coming home from Burnley, first thing he said to me was “ we’re shite aren’t we grandad ?” Just wished him Goodnight, God bless. He will be there on Saturday along with my two sons, three grandsons and myself, We are down but not out - - - - - -yet. COYFB.

Ray Jacques
290 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:00:23
A fish rots from the head.
Never before has this statement been so true about our once proud and noble club.
Marc Hints
291 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:01:06
There you have it Jim White just confirmed Mishori travelling to Liverpool today
Barry Hesketh
292 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:04:14
Marc @291
With a bit of luck it will be to give the deeds of the club to somebody else, but it's likely to be another sacking of a manager, because that works right? Or perhaps he wants to find that Tenner that Usmanov lent him, but Billy spent on ice-cream.


Update: Apparently Jim White has backtracked about Moshiri travelling to Liverpool, he's coming to England but not necessarily the city.

Peter Carpenter
293 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:07:16
Moshiri walks in... Hello everyone. How have we been doing since Frank took over? Why the glum faces? Did you all lose money on that horse jumping race they have round here?
Alec Gaston
294 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:07:40
It doesn’t matter what manager we have these player are technically, tactically, physically and mentally not able to deliver - professional footballers should be able to execute a game plan and take instruction on board - Lampard is not the problem but he should have switch to 4-2-3-1 or 4-5-1 once we went 2-1 up. I have never felt so guilty for making my son a blue as I do today - onwards to Saturday and hoping something changes - the only thing that seems to have any impact at the moment is the crowd so I will give them my support for the full 90 mins
Nick Dermott
295 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:08:22
Agree with almost everything Peter @255 said. I for one want to stick with lampard no matter what.
The guy is smart, ambitious and motivated.
He has definitely made mistakes, e.g
Not playing Patterson, high defensive line against spurs, poor and late substitutions etc etc, but we don't know the full story.
What we do know is some of these players are a) poor and b) unmotivated.
If any of these players are playing for Everton next season then it implies no lessons have been learnt, or that we simply can't get rid of them:
Gomes, holgate, Tom Davies, DCL, Kenny, Coleman, Keane.
I for one am sick of the status quo. Even the last year under ancelotti was truly dire. Time for a reset.
Do we stand a better chance of staying up without lampard.. probably, but this will just perpetuate the malaise around the club!
Relegation will certainly come at a financial cost but it will also bring benefits, chief among them is getting rid of the criminals that are robbing us blind.
We are without question the worst run football club in the world at the moment. The sooner we acknowledge that and make real changes the better. The Jan transfer window highlights a complete lack of thought and planning and proves that many of the decision makers are completely stupid.
Kim Vivian
296 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:13:44
I've just had a chill run up my back when I read Marc's post that with Derby still 9 points from safety, albeit with 6 games to play, and BK playing Moshiri like a fiddle, there may be a move for Rooney to come in take the reins. I know he turned down the possibility a few weeks back but Derby's season looks pretty much run now.
Nick Page
297 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:16:45
But we’ve had some good times

KENWRIGHT OUT

NOW

Marc Hints
298 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:19:51
Barry#292

Yep just seen the update from Jim White apparently he is on a plane but not confirmed he is going to Liverpool

you can't make it up can you!

Brian Hennessy
299 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:20:39
Sacking Lampard is not the answer. There is no manager in the world that can fix this useless bunch of losers that have been forced on us.

The only people that can possibly save Everton now are the Goodison fans. They lifted these cowards over the line against Leeds and Newcastle. Maybe just maybe they can do enough in the remaining home games to see us scrape to safety.

No matter what happens, this board need to go along with almost all of the players they have brought to our club.

Tony Abrahams
300 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:20:43
I’ve read on these pages many times that to keep repeating the same mistakes is bordering on insanity. (Or something like that) So let’s get rid of another manager? Ancellotti’s last game in charge of Everton was a 5-0 defeat, and yet look at how he’s now doing at Real Madrid.

I honestly thought we played much better last night, than we did in the reverse fixture against Burnley at Goodison, with the only difference being, that the flashes of brilliance that won us the first fixture, were replaced by flashes of incompetence, and that’s how we’ve lost last night.

These players don’t even seem to like each other, so It wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t like Frank Lampard, I also heard they didn’t like the last manager either.

Much more revealing is that I’ve never known so many Evertonians, not like any of this current squad, with - “they make me fucking sick” - being a common sentence uttered, when talking about our current squad.

Rob Halligan you didn’t talk jibberish mate, you talked the most common sense I’ve read. “It’s our club - we are the ones who will suffer if Everton get relegated - and that’s why the only option we have is to get behind these players - regardless of our true feelings towards at least 90% of them - let the inquest begin immediately once the season is over”

Nicholas Ryan
301 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:21:09
Am I alone in thinking that Ancelotti, Moyes or certainly Allardyce; 2-1 up at half-time in a relegation '6-pointer', would have come out for the 2nd half, with 11 men behind the ball, saying: 'OK, if you think you can get through that, be my guest!'

It would not have been pretty, but I suspect it might have yielded 3 points... but we'll never know!

Nick Page
302 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:22:34
Sack Kenwright
Barry Hesketh
303 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:22:50
Regardless of whether there's any substance about Moshiri travelling to the UK, why do we have to know? Why is it news about Moshiri is always broken via Talksport's Jim White? Does Moshiri have to tell the Scotsman about all of his movements and decsions or does he need White's permission first?
Alec Gaston
304 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:24:02
Tony 300 Totally agree
Peter Carpenter
305 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:24:09
Surely nobody would be stupid enough to change the manager again 9 weeks after last doing so. In any case, the season would be over before they had finished their 3, 4, 5 or 6 rounds of interviews at Bill's office, just to make sure they get the right man. Why, that would be as stupid as appointing a former Liverpool ma.... oh fuck!
Marc Hints
306 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:25:41
Barry#303

It is all very odd isn't it that Moshiri needs to keep Jim White updated on whats going on in his life possibly and everything to do with Everton FC

Joe Bibb
307 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:26:46
Get this lazy, gutless shower in every morning 9 am to 5pm Monday to Friday with no let up until they win a game.
Joe Bibb
308 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:26:46
Get this lazy, gutless shower in every morning 9 am to 5pm Monday to Friday with no let up until they win a game.
Peter Carpenter
309 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:29:20
I like Ernie's optimism (286). There is some hope in what he says.
Martin Mason
310 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:33:13
Sacking Lampard would be the end of the club and the act of total idiots but then again we understand that. We are likely going down now and we just have to accept that and base the future on recovering from it. I believe that in some ways it would be a way to reset and refresh the club and clear out the dross that the dreadful Kenwright has accumulated, especially him.
Tony Abrahams
311 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:37:17
I understand about protecting our defence, but there didn’t seem to be that much to protect them from last night, except maybe themselves.

Richarlison and Gordon have been praised, but they both should have done much better, from the positions some of our good positive play created.

Bergovic tries to push his defenders out, Pickford doesn’t, I could go on all day, but yesterday has gone, and the only thing that matters now, is Manchester United on Saturday.

Peter Neilson
312 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:39:38
Thank God that Moshiri is travelling to the UK. Here comes the cavalry. Maybe he’ll have a go at coaching defending. Man of many talents. We’re blessed.
Tony Abrahams
313 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:44:59
My partner who knows very little about football, has just asked me why Everton are doing so badly. They’ve never done this bad before she said, what’s happening?

I said we have had seven managers in seven years, and she said, they’ve all obviously been signing the wrong players then. Even someone who knows nothing about the game of football, can see this, although it does show the absolute folly of a man I said I’d not mention agains, words.

Nick Page
314 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:47:04
Took Kenwright 15 years 24/7 searching to find someone gullible enough to fund the trainset and the soft bastard manages to piss a fortune up the wall in 5 years and take us down by paying well over the odds for absolute dross who we can’t shift cos they’re on a small fortune and happy to let their contracts run down.

Well done Bill.

Imagine all those kids at school getting stick off the vile red shites cos Everton lost again and we’re getting relegated. It’s all on you, you selfish twat. Do the right thing and walk away and take your despicable hangers on with you. Go

Ken Kneale
315 Posted 07/04/2022 at 11:56:55
Tony 300 - I vouch for that - I never have felt such a disconnect between player and fans - it is simply because in the main previously moderate players always seemed to play with a lot of heart and genuine love for the club whatever their deficiencies so we all related to them caring deeply about Everton Football Club

Phill Thompson
316 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:03:26
Back in the 70 s and 80 s title winning days I used to spend ages working out points per match combinations that would win us the title, “ only 1.4 points per game should do it “ etc. Now I’ve been applying that to relegation, depressing. My hope and belief is that we can pull this out in the last four games, perhaps not at Arsenal, but in the 3 games before.
Anthony Murphy
317 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:07:19
I do wonder whether Lampard has given up? His body language and comments sometimes suggest so to me. His contract has a clause allowing us to terminate it after the season and the Dele signing for whatever reason hasn’t worked. I think he might want out? A few little things like not getting on the same bus as the players after the Southampton defeat and singling out the likes of Gordon for praise are not in any way significant in isolation, but I wonder whether he has the players backing? It may be that he hasn’t and knows it? Not an opinion - just opening it up.
Marc Hints
318 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:12:43
What annoys me Anthony is it shouldn't be a case of he has the players backing or not, they earn an absolute fortune and should be playing for the fans and fighting to get us out of relegation
Andrew Ellams
319 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:23:52
Just seen a quote that Frank Lampard organises a defence like Rishi Sunak.

Says it all

Tony Abrahams
320 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:35:27
I don’t think he’s given up Anthony, but I got the feeling he was careful with his words during last night’s interview, even though it was individual/stroke catastrophic collective mistakes, that have cost us very dearly once again.

Martinez, Koeman, Silva, Allardyce, Ancellotti, Benitez and now Lampard. How many of them could organize our defence? Allardyce, although he also got a few drubbings, Ancellotti, although he had to play zombie like football to achieve this, and possibly because we have got so many players inside our club who consecutive managers wouldn’t have signed. So much for a director of football, although a dereliction of duty, sounds much more apt.

Tim Locke
321 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:37:50
Like so many on here couldn’t sleep last night. I have been staring at the league table thinking it’s ok we have games on hand. The hope going into this week of being over Leeds and away from the mess has been ripped away. The up coming fixtures offer little hope until GW 37 but by then we could be cut adrift.

In all fairness is has been crap since that display against Watford. Come Monday it is likely we will be in the bottom three and two weeks the bottom two with no way back. It have been a glorious 60 years of top flight but sadly this year it comes to an end, the bigger worry is seeing us drop again in 22/23

Colin Malone
322 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:41:40
Kieran # 212.
Good shout.
If only broken biscuits was coming off the production line, The person in charge is sacked. Too many broken biscuits have been coming off the production line for far too long.

I still have a problem with Paul Clement. Seen him many times giving instructions from the touchline. Clement came in because Jodi Morris refused. He might be a good behind the scene coach but giving instruction on a match day basis, his record is very poor. Sacked at Derby, Reading, Swansea and recently a struggling team in Belguim, Circle Brugge K.S.V.

Anthony A Hughes
323 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:41:58
Holgate, Keane and Kenny aren't good enough. Godfrey doesn't seem to know where he is half the time.
Mykolenko's head's not right but he doesn't look half the player Digne is.
Coleman can't play two games in a row
Mina, well who's knows what he could be if he could stick three games in a row together.
Doucoure, box to box midfielder doing what exactly?, the ball is like a hot potato to him.
Gomes two passes too slow in every game.
Delph, words not needed.
Gray, talented but so inconsistent we're seeing why we got him for a knockdown price.
Townsend, plenty of effort but on the way down.
DCL, there's something there but never the player he was built up to be.
Apologies if i've left any deadwood out but that leaves us with Richarlison, Allan and Gordon as anything of any note.
Shuffling broken deckchairs is all any manager can do with this menagerie of misfits.

Chris Jenkins
324 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:42:41
I am sitting here on the storm lashed coast of County Clare, staring out across the Atlantic, with a feeling of distinct emptiness about the club I've supported since my first visit to Goodison in 1959.

I find it difficult to comprehend how, given the financial resources available in recent years, we are now on the verge of a first relegation since 1951. Many contributors to these columns have their own ideas and have not been slow to make these public.

I honestly think that "blame" apportionment serves no useful purpose at this critical time. We must all get behind the team and the current management and give them every ounce of support we can muster. Yes there are tough matches ahead but these represent points still available. There are players either not used at all or only very sparingly this season, who could still rescue us from the relegation trap door. COYB

Nick Page
325 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:45:45
Big Nev on Sky talking sense. “Just be a scouser, we’ll be fine”. Love him. Shameful that despicable kopite pig Kenwright won’t have him anywhere near Goodison. Sycophants only.
Jim Baker
326 Posted 07/04/2022 at 12:57:47
Apart from a lack of experience Lampard can't be blamed for this shit, seven managers in as many years is a good starting point for reasons but to sack Frank now would be stupid, yes he's made mistakes but who doesn't and to be fair he's not had the tools to do the job and was "sold a pup" by the club.
Then we have something glaringly sodding obvious, Duncan just can't be such a fantastic coach that every single manager has demanded he stay on, no he's foisted upon incoming managers for reasons I can't fathom.
Big blubbering Bill, say no more.
Moshiri, fuck knows what's happened here.
I'd like to think I'm wrong but I think this year its game over welcome to the Championship.
One more I've seen mentioned is the players don't believe in a manager and down tools to an extent, if that is the case every single one of them should be sold, in our jobs we often think the manager is a knob but we still have to do as we're frigging told or we're sacked. To finish, I've seen some screaming for big Sam, just fucking no behave.

Mark Ryan
327 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:10:00
Bedsheets to say Lampard IN Kenwright OUT
Matt Henderson
328 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:14:11
Ken 315 - It is not just the players I am disconnected from it is the entire Club. Th Club is an embarrassment due to its serial incompetency for so many years. I think the bulk of the players are doing their best it is just that they aren't good enough. Others may be aren't doing their best but that is as much down to the culture of the Club then anything else. If I get a job at a Company where I arrive and all the employees are skiving then I am going to join in also and have an easy ride. The Club has zero standards.

Although I am as stressed as anyone at the thought of relegation I am starting to think the best thing will be to have a Club I can relate to and feel a part of and whether that is in the Championship or lower it doesn't matter. Without that change through the entire Club then even if we stay up, if the status quo re the Board/owner etc. continues then we will continue to feel the detachment. Not sure on best way to help force change is however and we should have been doing this some time back as it is far too late and we may end up supporting an FC Everton team that is built from the ground up via non league the way things are going as Everton will cease to exist if it continues on the same path as it does today which is the likely way forward given, as McNulty says, the Board seem to pat themselves on the back and think they are doing a fine job

Matthew Williams
329 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:23:43
Now for my rant... the only thing Moshiri got right was putting Pereira on the managers shortlist and he even fucked that one up by hiring Lampard instead!.

I do hope that the fan protest at the time are so pleased with themselves now,they played a real blinder there...jeez,no doubt there'll be there are Saturday cheering and applauding our shower of shite that pretend to be pros out on to the pitch instead of the stony silence they deserve.

At least Pereira wanted the job,had experience,had won things and was a bit mad to boot...but most of all he would have pissed off Kenwright good and proper too...that for me alone would've been good enough reason to hire him!

Start playing our kids and squad players now,fuck all to lose as it stands...so DO IT.

Paul Hewitt
330 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:28:38
Rumours on internet another emergency board meeting set for tonight. You couldn't make it up could you.?
Bill Gall
331 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:31:48
It really highlights the position Everton are in when the opposing manager for a half time motivation speech simply says. No worry they do not know HOW to win away from home.

With 9 games left 4 away that puts a lot more pressure on our home games.
With the threat of relegation,i begin to wonder what would happen to supporters like myself living abroad, would I be able to get a site to watch next seasons games.

It took me 20yrs to get a TV station that showed the premier league games and you only watched who Utd played. The premier league charge astronomical fees to companies for the rites to show it, I don't think that anyone shows the championship games and that will be a lot of fans that that they will loose.

I watch a lot of games as the provider I pay for shows every premier game, what I can say is there are a lot of times that other teams seem to make stupid defensive mistakes but don't lead to goals, but Everton's mistakes usually are punished.That is no excuse as it seems at the bottom you don't get the breaks or the decisions.

Where do we go from here ? Do we fire the manager ? Do we bring in more under 23 players in ? or do we just hope we get all our injuries back and hope other players find their form. ?

Sometimes drastic measures work, but with just a short time left in the season there is no time for recovery.. The firing and clearing out has to be done but get safe first and then do it.

Now we just have to get behind the team and hope the players show our support for them on the pitch..

Matt Henderson
332 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:32:20
At which point do we accept a point deduction this season to avoid getting it next season in Championship?
Denis Richardson
333 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:34:24
OK people - enough! Game yesterday is done and gone, most important game is always the next one.

Fact is if we beat Utd, Leicester and Brentford (all at home) we will stay up. Our next two games are at GP starting of course with Utd, who admittedly are losing grip of 4th but still in the hunt. Win next two then there is no pressure on the trip to them, where I'm sorry to say it will simply be damage limitation.

We recently beat Leeds and the barcodes at home, so why not Utd with a packed GP? Their defence is almost as bad as ours!

Burnley and Watford have only managed 1 win in their last 5 games and Norwich 0, so these teams are not exactly setting the world on fire.

We're not down yet, lets get behind the team on Sat for a game we simply need to win. Batter Utd players, send then back black and blue, then we have a good break until Leicester at home - a team by which time who will be half on the beach with nothing to play for. Do the same again. If we win the next two, yes its an if, then we're practically safe on 31 points with half a dozen odd games to go.

Keep the faith, nows not the time for the Spanish Inquisition - lets leave the lynch mob to June and get safe first.

Clive Rogers
334 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:37:30
I don’t know about Lampard giving up, but it seems like Moshiri has. He’s not been to a game for months. If he’s on his way over now, he must be going to sack someone. Hopefully it’s Kenwright and Baxendale, then he sells out to decent owners.
Christine Foster
335 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:41:56
It isn't over till the fat lady sings. She is just clearing her throat at the moment..
Collective effort last night was good, individual quality was poor. There were several players who ran themselves into the ground trying, but there were others who, even on a good day, fall well short of the quality that's needed.
Lampard could have done things differently, but with the continuation of bad individual mistakes, it probably wouldn't have made a difference.
Richarlison gets a 10 for effort but a 7 for finishing, trying too hard. DCL is not at the races, won little and amazingly we are in such a bad place that we contemplate replacing him with a now fit Rondon. It would be a real quirk of fate if he somehow became our saviour, Real Everton that.
Never known relegation, still refuse to contemplate or discuss until its a mathematical certainty. The team should be stronger with the return of Allan, Keane possibly Coleman and the dropping of Holgate, Kenny but there aren't many rolls of the dice left.
Lampard looks dejected and I hope he gives it everything till at least the end of the season and although now is not the time for getting the knives out in public, the owner and board are responsible for creating the situation Lampard, and some of the managers before him, are having to deal with. It's what happens when owners think they can do better and a charman run the club that has no structural plan, no vision or financial control. These are the villains in this tragedy.
When I first was driven to join and post on ToffeeWeb before Kirkby, I could see the way the club was run, the lies told, the broken promises etc and felt despite all his hype Bill Kenwright would be the sole architect of our demise. But put together with Moshiri they are a match made in hell.
Between the they have all but ruined our club. Right now the team and Lampard need our support to drive them on, but the ire and pain will turn on the owner and chair as they are responsible for the club and the shame we feel.
Bill Gall
336 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:44:46
Clive
For Moshiri to sell the club to a new Owner he will have to sell over 50% of his shares to them, and that may mean he looses money on what he paid for them, and I do not see that happening with the money he has put into the club on top of his shareholding.
Graham Mockford
337 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:49:42
I think the question is whether by dispensing with Lampard and bringing another manager in would keep us up.

What I saw in the flesh last night was a team trudging off looking thoroughly defeated and disheartened. No acknowledgment of the travelling support, just what appeared a lot of self pity.

The problems of poor defending, lack of resilience and taking advantage of opportunities were there before Lampard arrived. Unfortunately they are still there after 11 games and there are zero signs of progress, in fact if anything we have got defensively worse.

Peter Carpenter
338 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:53:09
I'm with Denis (333). On to the next match.
Who is up for the fight? Richarlison, Gordon, Coleman, Allan - yes. Iwobi has done ok recently. Gray could find the early season form again. DCL? How long can we wait? If not, get Rondon in. Alli? What a weird signing but if he wasn't fit at the start he should be now. Can he contribute? Branthwaite looks like he offers something. Mykolenko is the best left back option. The rest? Take your pick. Just stop making errors. We are going to concede so we had better score.
It's not over.
Gavin Johnson
339 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:53:18
Matthew Williams #329

And if my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle. It's easy to say if we'd have appointed another manager we'd be alright. Nobody wanted Pierera. Yes, he'd won things, but in inferior leagues, and him going on Sky Sports live looked unprofessional and desperate.

As for his winning CV, it looked very similar to his his compatriot, Marco Silva. They'd won trophies in inferior leagues. I still don't think a novice to English football with that CV would get a tune out of those shithouses.

If you want to play that game why don't you go back and say we should never have appointed Rafa, or we should have brought Moyes back instead of Carlo?!

At this stage I don't think anyone can stop the rot. The team is Frankenstein hodgepodge of shite put together by 6 managers and 2 directors of football, overseen by Billy Smart and his circus, AKA Kenwright & Co!

Denis Richardson
340 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:53:51
Clive 334 - I'd hazard a guess Moshiri's absence is probably linked to events in Ukraine given our sponsor's trying to sort out his global assets whilst being sanctioned and if Moshiri is his 'accountant' he's going to be busy trying to find places in the world that turn a blind eye to stash assets. Everton probably hasn't been high up on his to do list for a while.

One thing is for certain, we're not going to have a ton of 'sponsorship' money from a load of USM companies next season. If we also go down, our revenue will completely dry up with only parachute payments being of any note - we'd basically be bankrupt.

We simply cannot go down - we need the prem money just to stay on life support. In addition we need a massive clear out: DCL, Mina, Keane, Pickford, Holgate, Iwobi, Gomez should all be sold, along with the half dozen leaving when their contracts are up. That's around a dozen that can/will go, hopefully. Bring in some seasoned frees who've been around the block just to steady the ship and get organised as a team. Someone like an Evans or Dawson at the back would be a huge improvement to the key stone cops we currently have.

Frank Crewe
341 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:58:57
Personally I think all our problems are down to Ronald Koeman. Half the cash we have spent since Moshiri bought the club was spent by him.
He bought Gylfi Sigursson, Davy Klaassen, Sandro Ramirez, Yannick Bolasie, Morgan Schneiderlin, Idrissa Gueye, Jordan Pickford, Micheal Keane, Calvert-Lewin. The seeds of our current disaster were sewn by him. Only Idrissa Gueye can be said to have been a success. The rest were all rubbish.
Tony McNulty
342 Posted 07/04/2022 at 13:59:33
Supporting Everton is totally exhausting
Jerome Shields
343 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:07:06
Jimmy White with the yellow tie has reported that Moshiri is travelling to Goodison today.
Eddie Dunn
344 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:10:00
Martin @310- you know what mate, if we go down then Kenwright will go all sentimental and devote himself to restoring us to our rightful place. We will never be rid of him.
Denis Richardson
345 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:10:49
Frank 341 - sorry but have to disagree. A lot of people seem to have a blind spot when it comes to Koeman and imo unfairly blame him for a lot of things.

The fact is in his first season I think we finished 7th. His planning for the second season was then thrown off track by having Rooney forced on him - thank BK of that. Koeman at no time wanted Rooney and Rooney's massive wages meant he couldn't sign the forward he actually wanted to. As soon as Rooney joined, the writing was on the wall that year - I for one was against Rooney coming back. Total BK romanticism.

Of the players you list; we will make a massive profit on DCL (who cost us buttons), Sigurdsson was overpriced but was consistently one of our top scorers and assist providers, Bolasie cost a lot but never came back from his bad early injury, Gueye was a great signing. Klasson was a poor signing, never suited to the prem and Keane and Pickford were/are both still very questionable. So some good some bad, but not the disaster being made out and certainly not the reason the club is where it is now. Koeman also left years ago with multiple managers in between (who have not chosen to sell some of these players).

I wholly believe if Rooney had not been brought back that season would have been completely different and Koeman would not have been sacked.

Anyway, we'll never know and it doesn't really matter now.

Nick Page
346 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:12:02
Frank - the sold Lukaku after his first season and never replaced him and then Kenwright brought Rooney back on silly money. There is no manager who is to blame. It’s the club FFS
Clive Rogers
347 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:17:41
Bill, 336, he may have to sell to protect the remainder of his fortune. His income from USM has gone now. He has investments but he is essentially unemployed. The money he put into the club to buy players also has gone as it was wasted on bad buys.
Clive Rogers
348 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:21:42
If Moshiri is on his way to Liverpool, that sounds ominous to me. Someone may be for the chop.
Jack Convery
349 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:21:58
These are the teams we will be up against if we are relegated. Teams I consider to be better than us right now. That's with Pickford, Allan, Gordon and Richarlson.

Sheff Utd
Bournemouth
Blackburn
Middlesbrough
Nottm Forest
QPR
Derby
West Brom
Stoke
Huddersfield
Luton

If we go down we aint coming back in a hurry. We have no money. We will have to sell players. Pickford, Richarlson, Allan, DCL, Godfrey to name a few. Those that will be left, will be on huge wages and won't leave as no one will pay them what we do. Keane, Holgate, are two prime examples.

I just hope that we stay up but Plan B must be put into action now in case we don't. We won't attract players of high calibre whilst in the Championship. Therefore we must look for young players in the main, with a couple of older heads to come in as Captains. Several players will be out of contract come June, who currently play in the Championship. We must scout these players, if we are not already doing so. We need to drastically cut the wage bill - 84% of our total income on wages is not practical and will be illegal in a couple of seasons anyway.

We will need a goalkeeper, right back, centre half ( at least one ), a left back, 2 defensive midfielders, a centre mid and an attacking mid and 2 Centre Forwards.

Two players I have identified for Plan B are:

GK - I wanted Sam Johnson from WBA but he will go into the EPL. So Robin Olsen is available on a free in June from Aston Villa. He will come as he will be the No1.
AM - Alas, I wanted Connor Gallagher. However, there is John Swift, available on a free from Reading. This season he has scored 11 goals with 13 assists in 37 league games. He has missed one game through injury. Reading are 21st in the Championship at present.

If we stay up we will still need a clear out and hopefully some joined up thinking in our recruitment but I won't hold my breath. Good luck Mr Thelwell.

Kenwright OUT !

Ian Jones
350 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:32:11
Regarding Moshiri and hIm hardly ever being in the UK, I am assuming that he is based in Monaco for tax purposes so may be restricted to the number of days he can spend in the UK.
Marc Hints
351 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:32:15
rumours on twitter he has been sacked

to rub salt into the wounds Liverpool signing a player!

Scott Robinson
352 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:33:37
just watched Frank's interview again. His plan was to go 3 -1 up. In hindsight, this was a very bad move. Surely park the bus, gain the precious three points and move on?

The chances of the team scoring from open play v making a mistake at the back is certainly much higher for the later. Better to have bodies back to cover rather than leaving the team exposed.

Brent Stephens
353 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:49:01
I very much doubt Moshiri is flying in (still has his yacht so could sail in?) in order to sack Kenwright and DBB. That would achieve zilch in terms of saving this season. Much more urgent things await him.
Pete Clarke
354 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:53:52
At 2 - 1 up we were primed for more goals and should have had another two. Burnley were crap and we should have killed them off and Richarlison knew he had fucked up when not taking that chance for his hatrick.
It’s very risky relying on a very inexperienced defense against a Burnley side who were gonna throw long Paul’s into the box at every chance. As it turned out it was low balls through static bodies that killed us. Just very basic amateur school kid type defending.
Cant blame the manager for that.
The pain is subsiding now but can’t help think that it’s done now and we are down. We play Man Utd on Saturday and they have goals all over the pitch. They might be struggling on their level but I don’t see us having much of the ball against them. Just hope I’m wrong.
Brent Stephens
355 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:57:44
Matthew #329 "I do hope that the fan protest at the time are so pleased with themselves now,they played a real blinder there...jeez,no doubt there'll be there are Saturday cheering and applauding our shower of shite that pretend to be pros out on to the pitch instead of the stony silence they deserve."

Sorry but I think that's absolute total bollocks - and it's not often I say that (apologies already!). If you want the lads to lose, go ahead. If you want them to win, they'll need the crowd behind them - they'll certainly have the fans behind them.

"Start playing our kids and squad players now,fuck all to lose as it stands...so DO IT."

And again, sorry, but the (other) squad players available last night you can count on the fingers of one hand and have proved nothing previously. And the kids struggle against the likes of Blackburn's U23s (witness Monday's game).

Bill Gall
356 Posted 07/04/2022 at 14:59:22
Clive #347
According to Forbes who lists the most powerful people and the worlds billionaires, F.Moshiri's Real Time Worth as of today 4/7/2022 is 2.85 billion at #1129 of 1196 Billionaires in 2022.
Not bad for someone who is unemployed.
Ed Prytherch
357 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:02:54
A small bright light yesterday was the performance of Branthwaite and Mykolenko. We could start next season with those two plus Patterson and Lewis Gibson contending for the back four, particularly if we are playing in the Championship.

Looking at the big picture through my rear view mirror I think that Marcel Brands saw this coming. He wanted to stop paying big fees and high wages for established players and focus on bringing in younger players who would be financial assets but those above him lacked the patience or nous.

Gary Jones
358 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:04:07
Ray @ 270 - those “numerous” posters have the right to process things the bad situation any way they wish. Who the fuck are you to tell them they can’t post, dipshit?
Bill Gall
359 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:08:37
Why would Moshiri bother coming over, if he wants to talk to the board or anyone else he could just send his private jet over and bring them to him, or if he was mad at them tell them to get over there by coach
Steavey Buckley
360 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:09:14
If Everton are to be relegated the cause will be the last transfer window that has been a disaster, considering the amount of money spent in January. A successful transfer window should have allowed Everton to pull away from relegation threats if they had signed better players. Yet, not one of the 5 players that Everton signed in January has made a difference. Presently, 2 are injured and the other 2 don't feature in the beginning of a game. The other player from Ukraine has only began to get regular playing time since he was signed in the beginning of January.
Ray Roche
361 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:26:36
Gary Jones@358

Nowhere have I said that numerous posters CAN’T post, but I have the right to consider their remarks regarding our relegation as being a positive as garbage.
And I believe that promotion from the Championship will not be the relatively easy leap back to the Premier. Once down we, with the fuckwits in charge now, will struggle to gain promotion.

You’re the ‘tit’ who made it personal, so, go fuck yourself.
Wanker.

Jay Harris
362 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:29:07
I cant help thinking that BK is scheming behind the scenes and undermining the manager so we can see a return of Rooney supported by Dunc.

It is no coincidence that after the "What a manager" Martinez Kenwright has failed to support every manager and Duncans absence from the bench recently speaks volumes.

Clive Rogers
363 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:31:42
Bill, 356, I was aware of that. I didn’t say he had no assets. The value of EFC will be included in that figure. I think he would be glad to get out of the mess by selling. Time will tell.
Dave Lynch
364 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:39:58
Lamps may well be history but so is the club as far as Premier status imo.

This club will never move on under the current board, when we go down ill bet you anything Billy and his cronies are not in the ground to watch it.

Paul Burns
365 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:40:41
Outside of severe family tragedies, I've never felt as bad as this in my life. I feel physically sick and can't eat or sleep. What I feel for the people responsible could not be broadcast.

The pain I feel for the youngsters in the family and what they are going through due to other people's arrogance and ineptitude is enormous. I keep trying to remember it's only football but it ain't working.

Steve Brown
366 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:43:14
The club seemed to be trying to shift the footballing focus back to a British ethos, with a British Director of Football, Manager and Coaching staff. If that is the plan, then we should stick to it whatever the outcome this season and build back up.

The worst thing happens and we get relegated, then the supporters will force the sacking of the board. They will all have to go and even Moshiri would recognise that.

Kieran Kinsella
367 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:44:36
Brent

I wouldn't play the kids for the reasons you mention. If we are relegated before the end of the season I wouldn't play them either. In fact for our last home game I would play Keane, Holgate, Delph (even if he is injured), Gomes, DCL, even bring old Sigurdsson back, then let them have it from the fans.

Peter Carpenter
368 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:45:46
Oh, Bill will be there, Dave. Mr Melodrama won't miss an opportunity like that. Imagine the scene as the final whistle goes and the camera pans to Chairman Bill, ashen-faced, staring into the distance and a single tear rolls down his cheek, right on cue. Later, voice breaking with emotion, he vows to be the man who brings Everton back! He isn't a thespian for nothing.
Barry Hesketh
369 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:46:32
Joe Strange of the Maiil reports:

Frank Lampard retains the full support of owner Farhad Moshiri and Everton's board despite Wednesday night's defeat by Burnley pushing the club closer to relegation.

The Toffees are 17th in the table and now just a point ahead of Sean Dyche's men after throwing away a 2-1 lead at Turf Moor, with Maxwel Cornet's 85th minute strike proving decisive.

Lampard, who has been in charge at Goodison Park for a little over two months, is yet to pick up a point away and has lost seven of his nine Premier League games.

However, despite Everton's miserable record on the road, Sportsmail understands that there is still a strong belief within the club that Lampard can keep them up.


Lampard has Everton backing

Gary Jones
370 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:47:11
Ray @ 361 - what’s up little man, throwing a titty lipped tantrum cos someone challenged your attack on fellow fans. Keep typing at the keyboard Gobshite.
Ray Roche
371 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:55:33
Gary Jones @370

Carry on with your pathetic posts. Find someone who gives a shit what a bellend like you thinks. 🖕🏼

Kieran Kinsella
372 Posted 07/04/2022 at 15:58:08
Peter

He will be like King Lear. Martinez his Cordelia, Moyes and Rooney his Goneril and Regan. He will spin it like he trusted the wrong people and was taken advantage of and that we all were duped during the "great times," we had. Sadly, there will be people who buy it.

Ray Robinson
373 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:01:37
On the canvas but not quite out for the count. My head says we're down but my heart refuses to agree. 61 years I've been watching Everton and last night I (again) lost sleep over it. With what's going on in Ukraine and covid, you'd think I know better. In the grand scheme of things football's not important - except to any Evertonian it IS!

I can't blame Lampard. Yes, he's made mistakes but can anyone get a tune out of this spineless bunch? The writing was on the wall last season. Look how we finished it and then this season should come as no surprise.

Relegation would be a disaster for so many reasons but we're not there yet. I predict we'll win at Watford - then the rest is down to Goodison.

Brent Stephens
374 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:02:02
Go get 'em, Ray. Both barrels now, please.
Jerome Shields
375 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:02:39
'9 games left thinking.'

Completely and utterly dislusional, with a poor defence and tactics that expose it, just for starters.

Everton Football Dodos on tour.

David Connor
376 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:02:46
I have absolute zero confidence in the board the squad and the manager.Lampard looks lost and out of his depth. No manager on earth can get this team of spineless, characterless, mercenaries out of trouble now. I fully expect us to be relegated with 2 or 3 games of the season to go.I hope to god we survive but it is unlikely now after the Burney dissaster.

How on earth have the club stooped to such a low depth of despair. We have the best, most loyal fans in the world and we should have a team to be proud of. Unfortunately this team is an absolute bloody disgrace. I will support them till the end like the rest, but huge changes needed next season whether we survive or not.
Craig Walker
377 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:03:55
The problem with Moshiri is that he's hopelessly out of his depth but we need him: his money is propping up the club. Who, in their right mind would buy out his stake and invest in this mess? It's the old adage about how to make a small fortune: start with a large fortune and buy a football club. Without his money, we are hundreds of millions in debt without a pot in which to urinate. We've lost USM, Megafon etc. Even Cazoo have cut their ties for next season. Would the likes of Richarlison, DCL, Pickford reach their market value if we were to drop? Everyone would know that we had to sell to survive. I'd be sad to see Richarlison go because I genuinely think he'd be a good player in a better team and he seems to have some affection for the club. I like Anthony Gordon, although he's far from the finished player. The rest of them, I wouldn't care if I never saw them in an Everton shirt again.
Graeme Beresford
378 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:12:23
Matty Williams #329 … I completely agree. I didn’t mind the protesting against how the club was won however against Pereira ‘Out’ and Lampard ‘in’ stuff I tried to not have an opinion. Vitor wanted to come to the league and was even on a phone call to Sky almost begging for the job. For some reason fans didn’t want him, I didn’t know enough about him to neither want or not want him but all I read on the Internet was ‘he’s a hard taskmaster, takes no crap and is a bit of a lunatic’…. To be honest… I actually liked the sound of that. You think Klopp isn’t any of these three??? No cos he’s all of them.

I have never really been a massive supporter of sacking managers, the only one I’ve ever really called for is Rafa as I could see in early December thing weren’t working, as far as Martinez, Silva, Koeman, etc I was always willing to moan but give him…. Right now… honestly if it was upto me…. Frank would be sacked now and I would be ringing Big Sam up to say…. If you keep us in this league mate I will stick 5 million quid into your bank account. Going down would be a disaster for us. Yet again, I think people aren’t taking it seriously, I’ve seen it coming for months and I’ve the screenshots from comments I’ve made that back me up. We can’t draw games, nevermind win them, we got an injury time winner against Arsenal with our second shot on target, we got an injury time winner against Newcastle, we have actually got lucky in the games we have managed to win, even the Boreham wood game we were dreadful.

I don’t believe anyone that says it’s the players etc etc. I truly believe Frank is at fault. He’s been playing Kenny, right back, centre back, left back, he sold a goal again last night. He’s been playing 5 at the back. He’s tactics, subs, formations have been questionable since he came to us. I think he’s so far completely out of his depth and I take no pride in saying it but I can only comment on what I can see.

At this rate forget it. We can’t draw nevermind win under Frank. I feel we will lose every away game we have left. The home ones…. Well we have United, loss, Leicester, loss, Brentford and Palace who are both on good runs of form… funny that… teams who are being coached to press and never give up… unlike us who look exhausted about 50 minutes in every game.

I’m sorry to say it, Frank out, you’ve failed.

Christopher Timmins
379 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:15:43
At 2 - 1 last night there are those who suggest that we should have parked the bus. Maybe we would have held on but I doubt it, we have just too many at the back who are prone to making errors. We will never be mistaken for Atletico Madrid.

A lack of quality in all sectors of the team.

Derek Knox
380 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:17:46
Brent, @ 374, you know Ray as well as I do, one of the nicest guys on ToffeeWeb, and like us all, he is entitled to HIS opinion. Should that be different to others, is no reflection on him being right or wrong, or give rise to any personal abuse in return. One of the reasons I don't post as often myself. People take anything said as some sort of challenge to themselves, and feel compelled to respond to it and usually in a 'not very nice way' !

I think we are all frustrated at the moment, but going for each others throats is not the answer. After all said and done, I think we all support the same side. Or am I wrong ?

Graeme Beresford
381 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:28:38
Chris #379

I suppose it’s always easy to say what a team should of done after the defeat. My problem is…. At half time?… did anyone not see it coming?

I went to Burnley away, I sat with the Burnley fans and at half time I said to my pal… the danger is here unless we go 3-1 up, they will be up for it, if it goes 2-2 …. We will get beat. Low and behold… boom… it’s all too obviously Everton.

Dcl, looked shocking. Again hindsight is wonderful but maybe Frank should of thought to himself…. ‘Hold on a second, we are winning away, I can’t win away, how do I at least get a point from this now? They are going to throw the kitchen sink at us…. Take DCL off, put Richy up front on his own, take Holgate from Midfield and put him centre back, play a flat back 5, NOT wing backs, and bring Delph on for DCL and simply saying tk Delph, you know what to do mate, sit in from of them three defenders.

Our best chance was to hold onto 2-1 or to at least get a point. But again, he continued with the same tactics and didn’t change a thing… until it was too late. What concerns me is all of these ‘high quality’ coaching staff… Ferguson, Clement, Cole…. Why isn’t someone saying this to Frank at half-time. ‘Hold in a sec Frank, we have 45 minutes here to potentially save our season… we have been poor at the back, let’s sure it up and try and see it out.

It’s all too obvious for me. It really is poor from the manager.

Brian Wilkinson
382 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:31:45
For the first time in a few weeks we managed to keep 11 players on the pitch, the first time we finally had no officials to blame, the first time we get handed 2 penalties, yet we still lose.

What is going to happen when we play our tougher fixtures, where we will not be gifted chances by the officials and the VAR?

Now down to our run-in and, unless we change something, the same will happen again and again.

I stand by what I posted pre-match: we need to make two tactical changes. Put Begovic in goal, his height will at least give us a chance against crosses and set-pieces against us. We need a calming head behind our defence, not someone screaming his head off and like a cat on hot bricks.

Then I would start with Rondon, leave Calvert-Lewin for the second half. Let Rondon get among them, take a few kicks, leaving space for either Richarlison or Gordon.

We need fighters in the team now, forget School of Science... if need be, play ugly, get players in there who will at least have a go.

For all the stick he has taken, Delph has come back just at the right time. If he can manage to stay fit for the remainder of the season, he could be the difference of staying in the Premier League.

Whatever happens in our remaining games, we have to change something; we simply cannot keep going with the same and expecting a different outcome.

Brian Wilkinson
383 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:34:47
Graeme,

Absolutely spot on. I had the same thought myself about bringing Delph on at 2-1, instead of trying to kill the game off, stiffle their attacks and use Richarlison for the breakaways.

Brent Stephens
384 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:35:25
Derek, for the avoidance of doubt, my post was in support of Ray.
Kieran Kinsella
385 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:37:38
Derek Knox,

It's weird some people see it as a zero-sum game. If they point out a problem, then the opposite must be 100% the solution.

I've come to take a more balanced approach. Everyone is to blame: Kenwright, Moshiri, the DOFs, the academy coaches, 99% of the players, etc. Everyone but the fans, who can do no more than spend money and cheer or moan but have no control over the running of the club or the team.

Look at last night, for example. We should have been defensive. Well, Rafa was defensive and we saw what happened: we endured relentless pressure until someone made a mistake.

Frank is attacking, trying to offset the inevitable mistakes with goals scored. But the focus ends up on the defensive mistakes. We don't hear much about the failings of the strikers. If we took our opportunities last night, then Burnley could have wilted. But we didn't because our attackers are not very good, just like our defenders, and our midfielders.

Mick O'Malley
386 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:46:11
Please stop with the Allardyce shouts, it's embarrassing. We could park 11 men behind the ball for 90 minutes and our defence would still let us down.

If you want to blame anyone, it's the owner and chairman who appointed Lampard with about 3 hours to do transfer business. Sacking managers has got us nowhere, we need to let someone get their feet under the table and give them time to build a philosophy and squad.

Lampard was parachuted into a relegation battle with the worst set of shithouse gutless players I've ever seen wear a blue shirt. If the players can't see out a game when they are leading against a team who hadn't scored for weeks, what chance have we got?

I feel a bit sorry for Lampard, he probably can't believe how bad some of these players are, that 3rd goal last night was embarrassingly bad.

Graeme Beresford
387 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:54:27
Mick @386,

Carlo had the same group of players, mate. We didn't let a corner in every single game and he obviously told players to not foul and give stupid free-kicks away that can result in a cross into the box.

If we carry on with Lampard, then we are down? Is that what you think we should do? There is no way out of this with Lampard in charge.

What do we do? Wait until the middle of next season to get rid when we are 15th in the Championship and our local derbies are Blackpool and Blackburn?

Yes, the players are making mistakes and that is on the players; however; Frank's tactics are creating problems of their own.

How many corners did we give away last night? That is because he is playing wingbacks and they are continually caught out of position, meaning they have to run back and swing a foot out, stopping a cross, resulting in a corner.

Wingbacks is fine but we went 2-1 up at half-time. That was the time to say ‘Do not go over the half-way line, stick to your position, and stop them getting into positions to cross the ball'.

Kenny was caught out of position for the third and both goals, lo and behold, come from crosses. I'm no tactical genius but I honestly think I could do a better job.

Brian Wilkinson
388 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:55:51
Only Danny will make sense of this, and a few others, when we had no games Xmas time and got talking about films, one of my favs being A Bridge Too Far.

Over the last few weeks, Frank Lampard reminds me in his pre-match press conference, as the guy on the bridge: "We're sorry, we would like to help", with the German carrying a white flag being the opposition Manager.

After last night's defeat, our fans turning to Lampard, like Michael Caine sat in his tank, saying "You don't know the worst, that game last night was the wide part of the road."

Graham Mockford
389 Posted 07/04/2022 at 16:58:53
Even when it's shit, you can always have a chuckle.

A chant at Calvert-Lewin of ‘You're not fit to wear the skirt' is very good!

Dale Self
390 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:00:30
Derek. Brent and especially Ray,

I apologize for any posts of mine that have contributed to the tension. I'm back on track and, like Ray, believe with my heart that we can find a way and will find a way.

I'll try not to make any mountains out of molehills while we sort it out. I often get despondent from the team's performances and do get caught up in finding something to criticize as an outlet.

Having a place to come to with thoughtful friends of football is something I cherish deeply. If it is not too much to ask, please keep this in mind when I whip out the pejoratives (I didn't realize I was misspelling that all these years, the Queen).

Paul Smith
391 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:03:58
Anthony Gordon's arms outstretched and his facial expression showing frustration whilst beckoning more players over to join in Richarlison's goal celebration is almost a microcosm of Everton Football Club.

Anyone else see this?

Jack Convery
392 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:06:28
Not only is defending an issue – we don't score enough goals.

Last season:

James - 6 goals, 5 assists in 23 Premier League games.
Digne - 7 assists in 30 Premier League games.

They had in total, involvement in 18 goals. That's an awful lot in a tough Premier League to take out of a team. Rafa got rid of both of them – go figure.

Larry O'Hara
393 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:07:35
I am not in the Lampard out brigade: if he can help us over the line this season, we will be different next season... and dare I say it, exciting to watch, something only Martinez briefly managed….
Graeme Beresford
394 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:07:35
Paul #391

Just watching the game on Sky now. Just noticed that myself.

Again, either no team spirit or the rest of the team thought… right we are back in it… back to our positions and we go again.

Either way, I think all 10 outfield players should celebrate a goal together.

Matthew Williams
395 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:10:56
Of course, as supporters, we must all get behind the team every game we play... but just once and only once, our current clueless tossers deserve stony silence on Saturday, a live game too with a massive global audience, would be fucking beautiful to witness... sigh.

As for trying new players for the remaining games... why not! As we seem to recycle the same old shite game after game, time for a major rethink methinks.

Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing, can't think of one gaffer since Moyes that's pleased me... boring safe or past-it bastards just leeching a living whilst with us and just adding more fucking misery.

We've now become the kings of the backpass and a global joke, we shame the Premier League, a train wreck of a club that I will sadly love till my dying breath.

Paul Smith
396 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:13:38
You're right, Graeme @394, but it could be nothing and the players were getting ready to go again.

I suffer with AEE (Adverse Everton Experiences) and am conditioned to think the worst.

Mick O'Malley
397 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:15:36
Graeme,

Carlo also had James, Digne and Sigurdsson; Frank has been left the dregs.

We've sacked too many managers, I'll admit he could do better but, fuck me, how can you legislate for the comical defending we see week after week? It doesn't matter who he puts out or in what formation, you can guarantee one of them will cock up.

This is on the owner and chairman as far as I'm concerned, appointing Benitez has left a big dark cloud over Goodison which is proving impossible to shift.

We all see things differently, we'd have nothing to talk about if we all agreed on everything.

Graeme Beresford
398 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:22:10
Paul Smith @394,

You and the rest of us mate. I left work yesterday at 4:45 pm. Drove up to Burnley, got stuck in traffic, arrived at around 6:30 pm. Threw my car on a single yellow line panicking I would get a ticket but in the end thought ‘sod it if we win I'm not bothered'.

Then sat in the Burnley end all game, watched people from Burnley kick-off at Everton fans in their end when we scored and they obviously celebrated; I was quiet as a church mouse.

I watched us get beat, got soaked walking back to my car, didn't have a ticket which was good.

It took me ages to leave the street I was in, made worse by absolute idiotic Burnley fans walking in the middle of the road.

I didn't walk in to my house until about 11 am and then couldn't sleep due to the defeat playing on my mind. What a joke.

Brian Wilkinson
399 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:24:27
If anyone finds a stray black cat, last seen on the Goodison pitch, can you please take it in, feed it, then return it to Anfield for their next home game, ensuring it gets in the stadium safely and exercises across their pitch.

Whatever you do, please do not hand it over to Zouma.

Graeme Beresford
400 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:28:18
Mick,

Most fans were happy when James left. I was devastated.

Tell you what – I would love to see him now in these games, getting the ball and spreading a 50-yard pass across the field to feet.

I agree, he has been left with the crap; however, he's had a left-back in Mykolenko and he hasn't really played him, and Patterson... don't even get me started. He would rather play Kenny.

Even towards the end of the first half in this Burnley game, we have scored the second pen and they are completely now in control. Why didn't Frank see this coming and sort it out at half-time!?

Jack Convery
401 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:30:33
Sigurdsson scored 6 and had 5 assists. Add that to the stats for James and Digne, that is 29 goal contributions. Is it any wonder we struggle to score?
Paul Smith
402 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:32:48
Graeme,

I did the same last Sunday. Parked in Westfield shopping centre in London, waited for hours to get out after the game hoping my ticketless parking application had worked, only to find out it hadn't but factored in the embarrassment, or at worst, a fine as a price worth paying for relief a victory would bring.

We lost and I had to pay the old-fashioned way after being beeped at by a load of cockneys.

All rhyme and reason goes out the window when afflicted by AEE.

Graeme Beresford
403 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:37:24
Oh also, Villa score from a corner against us at home on 47:35…. 2 minutes of injury time.

Again yesterday, 3 minutes of injury time, Mike Dean allows Burnley to take a corner 10 seconds after the three minutes is up…. They fluff it and Anthony Gordon is away…. He has to beat one player and he's one on one with the keeper. The ref blows for the end of the half.

If he allows them to take the corner ,he surely has to see how our counter plays out. I'm clutching at straws; however, my point is their corner shouldn't have even been allowed to be taken.

Richard Mason
404 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:41:11
Absolutely distraught all day. I can't see us staying up now. We really should have won last night.

We will have Delph, Tosun, Sigurdsson, Lonergan, Begovic, Kenny, loan signings of Van de Beek and El Ghazi – all off the wage bill in June,

Staying up was giving us a chance to rebuild. I personally think we will be building for Championship football.

Graeme Beresford
405 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:44:54
@Paul,

I feel your pain, pal. To be honest, that's the first away game I have been to in years and I doubt I would ever go with away fans ever again, it was all just too pointless for someone like myself who wants to sing, scream, shout etc.

Telling you what, though, credit to you. The drive to Burnley was enough for me, I can't be arsed going to London. At least we will have some more games in the North next season: Blackpool, Huddersfield, Preston, Blackburn, Stoke, probably Wigan.

Svein-Roger Jensen
406 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:49:43
Spineless embarrassing performance... and it hurts – especially when 6 points were up for grabs!!!
Svein-Roger Jensen
407 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:53:08
I ask you to please take matters into your hands. Use your imagination, guys – strangle yourselves or cover yourself in tinfoil and take a fork to a nearby plug socket, or something. Just put yourselves and us fans out of our collective misery.
Steve Brown
408 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:54:47
Jack @ 392.

James - 6 goals, 5 assists in 23 prem games.
Digne - 7 assists in 30 prem games.

You can also add in:

The Nameless One - 5 assists and 6 goals in 36 Prem games.

That’s 29 goals that those three players were involved in. Yet despite knowing that the Nameless One would not be available, the Spanish Sociopath was allowed to sell James and Digne as well as dismantle the whole recruiting and medical infrastructure of the club, all before he got the sack due to his abysmal record of one league win after September.

That says everything about the dysfunctionality of this board and their decision making. Sure, Lampard has made mistakes since he joined but that was the shit show he has been left to clear up.

Svein-Roger Jensen
409 Posted 07/04/2022 at 17:58:12
This may sound like an exaggeration, but believe me when I say that I have passed kidney stones which have brought me a greater level of pleasure and entertainment than watching these worthless excuses for professional footballers attempt to play a game they are clearly incapable of playing, week-in & week-out.
Svein-Roger Jensen
410 Posted 07/04/2022 at 18:01:22
I am writing with regard to my absolute astonishment and disbelief as to the sheer magnitude of the team's complete lack of talent and failure to carry out the jobs for which they are paid to do.

Let me just say that they have collectively reached a level of inadequacy and ineptitude that neither I nor modern science had previously considered possible.

Brent Stephens
411 Posted 07/04/2022 at 18:07:17
Svein,

“I have passed kidney stones which have brought me a greater level of pleasure and entertainment than watching these worthless excuses for professional footballers”.

Svein, I can see passing kidney stones now being part of the standard training regime at Finch Farm. As long as it's not part of the pre-match warm-up at Goodison.

Mick O'Malley
412 Posted 07/04/2022 at 18:09:35
Graeme, agreed about James, I was gutted when he left, gutted that we didn't get to see him in the flesh at a packed Goodison.

I know he missed a lot of games through injury but I enjoyed watching him when he did play.

I also agree about the two full-backs, I can't believe he keeps picking Kenny.

Dave Lynch
413 Posted 07/04/2022 at 18:09:50
If it was me, I would pull Calvert-Lewin to one side and tell him he has no further part to play this season due to his lack of interest.

I'd then tell him to get on the phone to his agent and tell him to find another club.

Brent Stephens
414 Posted 07/04/2022 at 18:16:34
Graham #398. Parker Street, Burnley for a wee car park back of the town centre just a 10 minute walk to the ground. Or a bigger NCP car park just down the road as you walk from Parker Street.
Ray Robinson
415 Posted 07/04/2022 at 18:17:21
Food for thought:

Points after first 6 matches: 13
Points from next 23 matches: 12
Points need to survive in next 9 matches: 11

Our current form is bottom of the Premier League.

And still I just about believe survival is achievable.

Paul Birmingham
416 Posted 07/04/2022 at 18:20:09
Ray let's hope and, starting on Saturday, the players and management must face the reality and stand up and be counted.

Every game is massive.

Clive Rogers
417 Posted 07/04/2022 at 18:34:51
Kenny is giving a goal away every game. He can't time his tackles and keeps getting skinned.

It has been no secret that he's not good enough, we have been trying to get rid and none of his loan clubs have wanted him.

Sean Kelly
418 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:14:36
Svein – we know, there's no need to remind us or rub it in, lad.
Soren Moyer
419 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:16:10
Alan #232.

No. Neither Schalke nor Celtic wanted Jonjoe Kenny. Not even for free! Just ask Celtic fans what they think of him.

Kieran Kinsella
420 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:17:21
Interesting comparison with the1993-94 season:
93-94: we started with 3 wins,
21-22: 2 wins and a draw.

93-94: Walker appointed January
21-22: Lampard appointed in January

93-94: Walker's first home league game won 6-2
21-22: Lampard's first home league game won 3-0

93-94: Walker's next 7 league games: LLWDDWL
21-22: Lampard's next 7 league games: LLLLWLL

93-94: With 9 games left, we were 17th
21-22: With 9 games left we are 17th

Thereafter, in 93-94: we didn't drop into the bottom 3 until losing our sixth from last game in April. In total, we only spent 3 weeks in the Bottom 3 all season long yet we almost got relegated.

So, by comparison, this season is a little worse in every respect. Not as good a start, not as big of a win with the new manager, not as good of a run after the new manager's opening win.

In 93-94, we ended up at home playing a goalie who was known to fix matches. This season, we end up away at arguably England's Number 1 goalie, who plays for the side we have the worst record against of any team in England.

Anthony Dove
421 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:30:51
Nine games left so no way are we down yet. Let's try a bit of positivity until the end of the season and, if we do go down, then everyone can really let rip at that point.

By the way, I'm in the Begovic and Rondon for Pickford and Calvert-Lewin camp. Also, Seamus is a must.

Svein-Roger Jensen
422 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:41:29
So, in summary, you pack of repugnant, sputum-filled, invertebrate bastards – leave this club now and don't you dare look back. You've consistently demonstrated less passion and desire than can commonly be found within the contents of a sloth's scrotum, so frankly you can just all fuck off – don't pass go, don't collect your wages, don't ever come back again.
Brent Stephens
423 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:47:29
Kieran #420. Great analysis. Even more frightening.
Tony Everan
424 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:51:11
Wag on Twitter posted this, user name -bananinmyasshole;

The three stages of life:

1 Birth
2 Fuck's Sake, Everton
3 Death

Andrea Jacobs
425 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:51:33
And then the year after that we won the FA Cup, still possible in The Chanpionship, while still flirting with relegation.

The year after that we finished 6th, good enough for the playoffs, bish bash bosh, back in the top flight. That's how it works doesn't it?

Joe McMahon
426 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:52:33
Kieran -interesting the 93/04 comparison. Re England's goalkeeper, he has already been relegated once from the Premier League with Moyes. Keane was also relegated with Dyche.

For anyone using Ancelotti v Lampard. Carlo didn't have the same injuries plus he also had Sigurdsson.

Dale Self
427 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:53:25
I know you are dead serious, Svein-Roger, but I did in fact laugh my metaphorical ass off at that. Consult Duncan McDine for some medication of sorts.

By the way, I'll attribute "sloth's scrotum" to you when I use that in the future. Classic TW stuff, man. Not going down, maybe, wait... no definitely still not going down.

And uh, the comparison is to Mike Walker maybe Benitez not Carlo at this point. By similar logic, Walker had much less in his squad relative to competition than Frank has now so let's just let the Carlo thing go.

Tom Harvey
428 Posted 07/04/2022 at 19:59:01
Denis Richardson @ 333

"Fact is, if we beat Man Utd, Leicester City and Brentford (all at home), we will stay up."

Will you be going to the bookies and putting a sizeable chunk down on that treble?

Peter Mills
429 Posted 07/04/2022 at 20:01:03
There is no way I am complacent about our situation. Indeed, I am extremely anxious.

But the Jocks have a great saying – “Keep the heid (head)”. A good thing to do, when everyone around you is losing theirs.

As supporters, there is nothing we can do but give our maximum support until the final second of the season, no matter how many times we have had it thrown back in our faces.

Mike Hayes
430 Posted 07/04/2022 at 20:14:50
Brian Wilkinson – after yesterday's score, I wonder how many did a Kurt Zouma? None of the players could, they'd friggin miss! 🙄
Mike Hayes
431 Posted 07/04/2022 at 20:18:40
Peter Mills – that's all these shower of shite have done with the exception of Gordon, Mykolenko, Richarlison and Iwobi (for me).
Mike Hayes
432 Posted 07/04/2022 at 20:22:57
We have more chance of winning the League Cup this season than staying up.

Sorry but these shites have no guts for the next 9 games – only a handful care, the rest are too busy watching soft arse Kenwright fiddle whilst Goodison burns. 😡😢

Brian Hennessy
433 Posted 07/04/2022 at 20:31:05
Only question that remains now is whether these bunch of losers can finish ahead of Norwich.
Jack Convery
434 Posted 07/04/2022 at 20:44:40
Last season Anwar El Ghazi scored 10 goals in 28 league games. So why not give the guy a go on Saturday, even as a substitute in the 2nd half? Villa will no doubt sell him in the summer, so he has something to prove, to get himself a decent move in the future.

I can't see Richarlison lasting more than 70 minutes on Saturday, given his shift last night. Gray has gone off the boil and we need something different and unexpected. Bringing El Ghazi will also put a shot across Gray, to buck up for the rest of the season.

Just a thought.

Ian Riley
435 Posted 07/04/2022 at 20:49:39
You're right, Peter!

A day of reflection and acceptance that relegation is more likely than not. I wanted Frank gone today and big Sam brought in but why should Sam come? Most of the fans wanted him gone as of Rafa. Frank wanted the job so the buck lies with him as our manager.

Let's look to the remaining games and get behind the team. Enjoy probably our last couple of months in the top flight. It's been a great run in the top league. That's an achievement in itself. I am an optimist, believe it or not, but statistics and performances have led me to the conclusion relegation is coming.

All I ask of the players: Please don't go down without a fight. Some of you will move on to other clubs and more money but remember we will still be here. Everton is in our hearts, we cheer, we cry, and we argue together all in support of our club from all around the world. Strangely, we are grieving together and frustrated as we are powerless to prevent what potentially will be relegation.

All I will say to my fellow Evertonians is, please don't get angry with each other. It's frustration at our current plight. We all want the same for our great club!

Jack Convery
436 Posted 07/04/2022 at 20:50:41
Karma - Cresswell Sent Off !!!
Ian Hollingworth
437 Posted 07/04/2022 at 21:33:38
Graeme @400 spot on James is a massive loss
By far the most talented footballer we have had at this club for many a year.
I believe he would have thrived with the adoration of the fans in the stadium.
One thing is for sure whatever your view of him is that his talent would have won us some points that we badly need.
Shame on Rafa and the board for sanctioning a deal which was basically hounding him out of the club.
Mike Hayes
438 Posted 07/04/2022 at 21:37:21
Will people stop saying Get behind the team - we do EVERY FUCKING MATCH but it falls on deaf ears - they’re shit and no one can sort them out other than getting rid 😡🤷
Kieran Kinsella
439 Posted 07/04/2022 at 21:42:52
Ian Riley

I sort of skimmed your post and saw "get behind the team" and then "Some of you will move on to other clubs" and didn't immediately question it as a valid point even though I mistakenly thought you were referring to fans in both sentences.

Bill Gall
440 Posted 07/04/2022 at 21:48:45
Well I don't no about get behind the team, the way our defenders play they may be better in front of them
Oliver Molloy
441 Posted 07/04/2022 at 21:56:06
Apparently if we don't win against Utd on Saturday it will be Lampard out and Ferguson in until end of season - might as well do it now !
Derek Knox
442 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:02:35
Mike @ 438, spot on mate, I have more or less said the same for ages now, the home, and especially the away support is as good, if not better, than any other Premiership Club. How is that repaid ? The players surely are not that stupid or immune to noticing the sacrifices made to support them ! Something has to change and quickly we are running out of time, and matches, to divert the shit chute !
Brendan McLaughlin
443 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:04:36
Ferguson rumour makes sense...haven't we always argued that he earn his managerial stripes with a Championship side😊
Svein-Roger Jensen
444 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:04:44
Compere to how my Norwegian team Bodø Glimt play their football to this lot and I despair!
Mike Hayes
445 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:08:40
So we get rid of Lampard and Ferguson takes over and nothing improves does he get sacked 🤔 Are we going to be another “first” - get rid of as many managers as we can but keep the same players as it can’t be their fault 🙄
Danny Baily
446 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:13:21
441 agreed. Just do it now.
Kieran Kinsella
447 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:16:35
Oliver

Hopefully we review Ferguson after a couple of games and if no improvement get Unsie in for a couple and so on. That way we can clear out Finch Farm in short order on our way down.

Andy Crooks
448 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:23:34
Kieran, Franny Jeffers will stop the rot.
Andy Crooks
449 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:26:48
Svein - Roger, how did you do that fancy thing with thing with the second O in Bodo?
Derek Knox
450 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:27:51
Kieran, Just had a master plan, put Kenwright as temporary first team Manager with Frank as his Assistant. If we don't pick up 27 points form now till the end of the season Kenwright gets the permanent boot and Frank resumes control.

Simples Sergei (Kieran) !

Craig Walker
451 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:28:33
I think if Lampard is sacked then I’m done. We are a laughing stock already but that would just make us a basket case like Watford. We need stability and a clear out of the players who continually let us down. What next? Graham Potter and the Poisoned Chalice? I’ve said it before but Guardiola or Klopp couldn’t coach Godfrey from not miskicking. Kenny for shooting with nobody back. Holgate for being permanently brainless. Keane for being continually hopeless. Iwobi for being shite. Gomes for persistently fouling, Pickford for constantly kicking the ball in touch or straight to the opposition and flapping at everything etc. etc. Lampard has improved our home performances. The last two away defeats were better but he’s not a miracle worker. I’d make these lot sleep out in the Park End, litter pick like Bielsa made the Leeds players do or make them work alongside RS fans for a week. Today was a nadir for me of 47 years of being an Evertonian. The mickey taking from a RS fan revelling in our demise. They’ll probably win the quadruple. Maybe it’ll be a badge of honour to be in the Championship but still supporting the Blues. At least my 11 year old experienced us beating that lot once last season for the first time in his life. It’s like a bad dream and I’ll wake up soon. Where will it end?
Tom Harvey
452 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:29:57
Kieran Kinsella @ 447

It will be a never ending circular queue, so they'll start back at Dunc again when the end is reached, probably after Bainsey has had a go. Kenwright teary-eyed each time an old boy comes out.

Oliver Molloy
453 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:33:49
Kieran,
Moshiri not flying in for nothing this weekend !
I watched the game again today and it has made me even more angry.
Burnley really are shite.
I would drop Pickford and Calvert Lewin for Saturday.
Tony Abrahams
454 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:40:34
I’ve just spoken to a Liverpudlian that I didn’t know, and I could see he was enjoying Everton’s position, just as much as he was enjoying how well Liverpool are doing.

I said I couldn’t genuinely answer if we would stay up, but when I said I thought Goodison could save us, I could see him trying to put that doubt, and convince himself otherwise, out of his own mind. I can’t see us winning anywhere away from home I said, but maybe we will win at Anfield, and although most people would say I need sectioning for having this belief, I definitely saw fear in the bastards face!

We are shite, we can’t identify with many of our players, but we are Evertonians, and one thing Evertonians have always been, is defiant bastards, so let’s not lose this gift when we need it the most. Singing we shall not be moved!

Neil Copeland
455 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:42:24
Time to reset and go again.We have 9 games to play and nothing has been decided yet.

Trying to stay positive when I look at our remaining fixtures;
Leicester are concentrating on Europe, they have nothing to play for donestically
Palace have nothing to play for domestically
Brentford will likely be safe by the time we play them
European placings may have been decided by the time we play Arsenal
That leaves 4 games against teams with a lot at stake.

Here’s hoping!

UTFT

Paul Birmingham
456 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:50:09
100% positive Neil, and I still believe the survival in this division is possible for EFC, but that means no more freebies to the opposition.

Lamps will hopefully have told his squad perhaps not for the first time, since he took over that they must start playing for the shirt every minute of every game.

I’m hoping for a good response on Saturday and for some goals from outfield play from Everton.

Wary of the diving scheming Fernandes, whom, so far has taken the piss with his antics against Everton, plus scored a few against us.

But hope eternal and let’s home for better defending and some clinical finishing v United.

UTFT!

Neil Copeland
457 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:56:45
Paul, absolutely. I should have added that from the 4 games,;
Man U are all over the place,
Watford are a poor team
Chelsea are going through a bad patch
The RS will be very wary of an upset

As you say though, we have to eliminate the schoolboy errors.

UTFT

Kim Vivian
458 Posted 07/04/2022 at 22:57:47
Oliver - are you hearing (and where are you hearing it from, btw?) that if we manage a draw with Utd on Saturday, Lampard is toast?
Stan Schofield
459 Posted 07/04/2022 at 23:03:43
It makes me laugh when people say Rodriguez was injured too much. He was injured less than most of our players who get injured and who’s injuries have helped bugger this season. But unlike those players, Rodriguez could change a game in an instant. That’s why the thug van Dijk clobbered him in the Goodison Derby last season, and why we scored early in the Anfield Derby.

We’re a lot weaker and less creative because of the loss of him, Digne and Sigurrdson and we’ll do well to avoid the drop. Astonishingly inept and utterly disgraceful mismanagement by the Everton Football Club board in allowing Rodriguez and Digne to go whilst knowing we’d lose the Icelander. Unbelievable bunch of halfwits.

Tom Harvey
460 Posted 07/04/2022 at 23:05:57
Craig Walker @ 451

"I’ve said it before but Guardiola or Klopp couldn’t coach Godfrey from not miskicking"

Craig, you can't teach any professional player from miskicking a ball, it's like sneezing, it happens.

What Guardiola and Klopp would have been definitely disgusted with would be the positions of our defenders, Cornet completely unmarked eight yards out with three defenders nearby, This is where our and Lampard's anger should be.

Svein-Roger Jensen
461 Posted 07/04/2022 at 23:15:06
Andy, Ø is the twenty-eighth letter in the Danish-Norwegian alphabet, but is not part of the normal Latin alphabet. The letter is pronounced as the mixture of an o and an e, and is used in phonetics to show the same sound as it represents in Norwegian.
Matt Butlin
462 Posted 07/04/2022 at 23:15:25
Stan @459… could-not-agree-more. They sold our goals when Lukaku went and pinned hopes on DCL who flattered to deceive (eventually) because we had a smattering of creativity who gave him chances he would struggle to miss. Now they’ve gone and we’re buggered. With the absence of a decent striker, allowing Benitez to offload James and Digne is one of the most ridiculous decisions this board has made. And that’s saying something. Shame upon them…
Oliver Molloy
463 Posted 07/04/2022 at 23:22:29
Kim,
Draw wasn't mentioned, but I would take a draw right now - wouldn't you.
Just heard it from a somebody who might know a thing or two - could be a pile of shite, but I do think if we are hammered at home Lampard will be away.
By the way don't forget that Burnley have the advantage of playing a day later than us knowing what must be achieved to get them out of the bottom three.
Kieran Kinsella
464 Posted 07/04/2022 at 23:32:30
Stan/Matt

Talking of flair It’s worth mentioning they also offloaded one of our top earners last summer just to save a few quid: Bernard. OK maybe that wasn’t worth mentioning after all.

Simon Dalzell
465 Posted 08/04/2022 at 00:20:35
The players are shite, but Lampard is clueless. The final nail.
Lester Yip
466 Posted 08/04/2022 at 01:55:12
The one thing that frustrates me most is the team unable to make simple accurate passes even in short distances. Time and time again it feels the player plays the pass at a wrong timing. The teammate makes a run, no pass. Then when he stops, the pass suddenly comes when least expected and possession is lost.

Also when we break forward, the player keeps carrying the ball, up the field, keeping dribbling till the ball is at a dead end. Play the ball back or get snuffed out. I saw the other teams just 2 passes and it reaches a point for shoot. The players have good understand where to run and where to pass without too much looking and thinking.

What do we practise in training?

Peter Mills
467 Posted 08/04/2022 at 06:58:29
Andy#449, when typing a comment on your phone, if you hold your finger on a letter, a number of accented options for that letter will appear. Slide along and select the one you require (best in lower case).
Yøūrš śïñçérëlŷ, Pete.
Danny Baily
468 Posted 08/04/2022 at 07:27:34
Simon 465, an experienced manager could drill some shape into this side and stop us leaking goals. It would be a start.

Still think, on balance, we did the right thing bringing Lampard in at the time. But if there's a chance Sam or Dunc could take the reigns and keep us up I'd happily see him go.

As hopeless as things look at the moment, staying up from this point will be a lot easier than spending the best part of a decade fighting our way back.

I don't think as fans we're prepared for the loss of status that's coming. I support anything that gives us a chance of avoiding it.

Craig Walker
469 Posted 08/04/2022 at 08:12:49
Tom @460. I get that but Benitez was supposed to be a disciplinarian and tactically astute. He’d make us hard to beat. It didn’t work. Ancelotti was a master coach. It didn’t work. Steve Ferns told us Silva was astute and well prepared. Koeman was a disciplinarian and a winner. He got rid of ketchup. He hated losing at head tennis… Is it not just the fact that we have a collection of poor players, with limited abilities and no brains, pride or desire? You can’t coach those things. We need stability and a clear out of the boardroom and the players. There isn’t a quick fix that any manager could resolve. I’d sooner have a collection of journeymen who cared and rolled their sleeves up than the overpaid prima donnas who think they’ve made it. Klopp could maybe improve them if they were asthmatics.
Steve Brown
470 Posted 08/04/2022 at 08:13:59
Stan @ 459, agreed.

It was fuckwittery of the first order, even by our board's own dysfunctional standards.

Although at the time (and subsequently) it has been hailed as a great move to offload James and Digne, replacing them with Townsend and Mykolenko. Not to mention the nameless one, who has been replaced belatedly by Dele Alli!

The league table respectfully begs to differ.

Matt Butlin
471 Posted 08/04/2022 at 08:18:05
Forgot about Bernard Kieran.. do you know what. Even he might have been able to help now. [Praying we don’t go for a back 5 vs United]
Kim Vivian
472 Posted 08/04/2022 at 08:19:06
Danny - If Lampard is sacked I will simply have to laugh incredulously at the sheer incompetence of our board

."An experienced manager could drill some shape into this side....if there's a chance Sam or Dunc could take the reigns and keep us up I'd happily see him go"

So is it "experienced" we need (Sam)? Or an essentially untried item of baggage who seems to contribute very little, who stepped away from the job when Benitez left, and who to the best of my knowledge has not been sought by any other team in any division. Ferguson is there already - right there - in the set up. Why isn't he making his presence felt?

Or do we just stick with and support Lampard, the latest in a long line struggling with the tools he's got?

I agree we have to get ugly for the rest of the season to accrue the necessary points, and just get men behind the ball, which may be a somewhat bitter pill for Lampard to swallow with his preferred style of play but if he can just get his head around this, get us to the end of he season and hope we can do some repair work on our spine and defense over the summer, and enjoy next season.

Bear in mind also that Leicester in 14/15 ended up just 6 points clear of the drop zone and looked like bankers to go down the following season !

Miracles do happen. I continue to pray for them - starting on Saturday.

If Lampard goes now - pushed or even jumped - we are royally fucked in my opinion. People seem to forget that the manager comes with his own team so it's not just the manager who needs to be replaced.

With 9 games to play and at the speed our board operate?

Do me a favour.

Steve Brown
473 Posted 08/04/2022 at 09:14:40
I'm expecting a news update that Moshiri has made contact with Mike Walker, Ronald McDonald or Roland Rat.
Derek Knox
474 Posted 08/04/2022 at 09:29:46
Steve @ 473, What ? When Mike Basset is still available, how short-sighted can they be ?
Brian Harrison
475 Posted 08/04/2022 at 10:07:13
In all the doom and gloom an Evertonian tweeted yesterday DCL isn't fit to wear the skirt. Even feeling as low as we all do it did make me smile. I thought only a Blue could have come up with that.
Nick Page
476 Posted 08/04/2022 at 10:28:39
Good article on our plight.

https://www.football365.com/news/feature-everton-too-good-to-go-down-premier-league-relegation

I think we’ll finish 19th and then drop again after clearing out the saleable assets. I watched that vid again of Kenwright outside GP telling fans they’ve had good times. Absolutely unbelievable. Fucking arrogant narcissistic prick; he cant see what he’s done and totally refuses to accept any blame. Classic narcissist. The NUMBER ONE PRIORITY is to get rid of this man and his regime if we want to get the club back. Everything else is largely irrelevant.

Kunal Desai
477 Posted 08/04/2022 at 10:40:04
100% agree Nick, regardless of whether we manage to stay up or get relegated the focus this summer soley has to be the removal of the cretin Kenwright and his sidekicks. He needs fucking off once and for all. Forget the summer activity of player movement or even a search for a potential manager.

Nothing this summer is as important over the last 30 years as getting rid of this charlatan for good.

Stephen Brown
478 Posted 08/04/2022 at 10:43:23
Tom 460

Completely agree, can you imagine that Tarkowski fella leaving one of our attackers with that much space in the box!! No chance !

2 days on and I still feel sick!

Mark Ryan
479 Posted 08/04/2022 at 11:21:25
Nick @ 476 spot on pal. Could not agree more. I personally think appointing Lampard is the ONLY good thing they, as a board, have done for years BUT if Benitez hadn't been so dreadful he would still be here and Lampard a nd husband staff a pipe dream. I think we will survive, just and I truly believe that Lampard does care about us and the club. He's a decent man but Kenwrights quip about " we've had some good times" speaks volumes. It says " I know its been shit but it actually could have been even worse" that is what he was really thinking. I fully agree. Wait to the final whistle and then Operation Clegg starts in earnest. The man's a prick of the highest order. We could get the announcer to say it with 10 minutes to go of our final home game "Operation Clegg has started"
Justin Doone
480 Posted 08/04/2022 at 12:11:13
Rafa was all wrong but he brought in a couple of very good players and I don't think he would have got us relegated.

Frank has had less time but the players brought in are not good enough. Results haven't improved, goals scored, conceded, performances all continue to be poor to average.

I'm not sure why Frank is praised or forgiven so easily by so many fans. What has he done to say, "no matter what happens we stick by Frank" because any other manager, Rafa, Moyes, Duncan, Silva, Unsworth, Sam, Martinez would not have been let off the hook so easily.

I understand we don't know what's goes on behind the scenes or who actually recruited the players. But I've seen nothing positive from Frank to believe he's the manager for us.

That's weather he's managing in a relegation scrap, reaching for Premier league top 6 or in the championship.

Yes the board needs to resign and so do the manager's and coaches.
We need the very best we can get in every role and position on and off the field. We pay for it, but don't get anywhere near it.

Or do many fan's think we just need a change in luck and everything will be OK?

Barry Hesketh
481 Posted 08/04/2022 at 12:20:17
Justin @480

It was the Spaniard who got us into this terrible mess, it was obvious that the results were not improving and wouldn't have improved. Frank may not be the answer, but Benitez was never the answer as he only added to the problems.

There's nine games left, whether it's Frank or somebody else they'll have to pretty much be a 'magician' to gain the necessary points required to stave off relegation.

It's fine people having opinions, but to sack a manager at this late stage, won't help at all and it might prove counter-productive. Going forward into the summer, we might well relieve Frank of his job, but I don't think we can afford to do it before this season has ended.

Pete Clarke
482 Posted 08/04/2022 at 12:36:10
Not sure how many times we have to repeat it but it is not really Frank’s fault or Benitez fault either because they are only looking for a job. It’s all down to the cretins who put them in the role.
Moshiri, if he wants to continue should be on the lookout for a person of good background to replace the disgusting “ we’ve had some good times” chairman we have had hanging around our neck for decades. If he is not going to do it then we will continue on a downward spiral and Moshiri himself is accountable.
For what it is worth I would like all of the readers to slowly go through our squad ( fit players ) and come to a conclusion that another manager could get more out of them than Lampard. At least he is young, ambitious and not afraid to learn the hard way.
If we do go down then at least It was not Benitez at the helm when it happened. We’ve already given our horrible neighbours enough to laugh at.
Paul Smith
483 Posted 08/04/2022 at 13:00:41
I don’t blame Lampard but if we had the chance to buy experienced players now would we ? It’s in our gift to get a more experienced manager but it’s not gonna happen. I suppose the difference is the time it takes to implement a new system as a manager, unlike players who can hit the ground running. I think we have to accept we’ve rolled the dice too many times and have run out of options. Oh, for some acceptance.
Danny Baily
484 Posted 08/04/2022 at 13:24:29
Paul 483, that's the point: why not roll the dice again? Who cares about the optics? Relegation for Everton is not the same prospect as it is for Burnley or Watford. It's a doomsday scenario. To paraphrase Kent Brockman from the Simpsons, it is absolutely the time to crack open some heads and feast on the goo inside.
Paul Smith
485 Posted 08/04/2022 at 13:29:33
Danny I’m not arguing against it. It just doesn’t look like it will happen. Like I said if we had the chance to bring new players in no one would be arguing to stick with Holgate and Gomes.
Paul Hewitt
486 Posted 08/04/2022 at 13:31:39
Changing manager won't keep us up. Only the players can do that, a frankly I don't give much hope on that.
Gary Jones
487 Posted 08/04/2022 at 13:52:48
Peter Clarke - last year Sigurdsson, Digne and James provided 60% of our assists. After losing the first one through no fault of his own, Rafa Benitez proceeded to run the other two out of town. He replaced them with a dribbler, a long range shooter and an unproven kid.

You’re absolutely correct to say our decline is much deeper than a manager, but naive beyond words thinking they (and especially he) isn’t the final nail in the coffin. Unless Real sack Carlo tomorrow, then I can’t see anyone who could save us with 9 games left. If we lose tomorrow though, we need to try something drastic because we are heading for a titanic iceberg right now.

Don Alexander
488 Posted 08/04/2022 at 14:21:09
I think we have to just hope that somehow, from somewhere hitherto invisible, Finch Farm can conjure enough for salvation ....... this season.

But what then? Paul the Esk makes it crystal clear to me that so grossly irresponsible has our spending been for years that we can't spend meaningful money to sign anyone at all for two more seasons at best. Meanwhile we have a squad with a preponderance of "talent" on top-dollar because of gross irresponsibility that not even Stevie Wonder would sign.

So folks, we're bolloxed for the foreseeable by grossly irresponsible design from within ..... as ever, still.

On the optimistic side I look forward to the BMD site being salvaged as some sort of go-Kart track for kids though.

Paul Hewitt
489 Posted 08/04/2022 at 14:29:50
Relegation will not be Armageddon as some on here think. It will be painful and mass cuts through the club will be needed. But let's not go overboard. A season winning games might be fun.
Kevin Molloy
490 Posted 08/04/2022 at 14:46:09
Paul
we will drop into the championship with a decrepit stadium, hundreds of millions of debts, and a wage bill which is probably ten times what we can afford. Gomes and ten other dolts will be facing players who aren't getting a tenth of what they are on. I don't see how we avoid having to sell everyone except those who refuse to go cos we are paying them so much. We'll have them as the squad, plus free transfers. We willin all likelihood attract further fines and points deductions, and drop again. the consequent loss in revenue will become a spiral which will be very difficult to escape.
Paul Hewitt
491 Posted 08/04/2022 at 14:52:49
All speculation Kevin. It won't be that bad.
Kieran Kinsella
492 Posted 08/04/2022 at 15:04:39
Justin

To answer your question, he has done nothing. But speaking for myself having seen this trend of "sack the manager" over the last five years play out. What I have noticed is the team has become progressively worse as each manager inherits the same flawed core group but is given less time than his predecessor to turn it around. There is nothing to suggest Frank or anyone else can turn it around. But if we sack Frank we are adding to our costs with payoffs for him and his crew. So the only certainty in another change is that it will further weaken our finances.

Pete Clarke
493 Posted 08/04/2022 at 15:06:12
Im as anti Benitez as anybody and found it the most disgusting decision by any owner of our club ever. My point was that they are a much bigger problem than any manager or player could ever be especially that they did it in the face of so much revulsion.
What do the owner and chairman actually need to do for the supporters to finally snap and force them out? Or at least start with Kenwright.
If Benitez is a yardstick for that then we may have some more shocks to come.
Under this ownership we have brought in some of the worst players I’ve ever seen in an Everton shirt, two of the worst managers and have made some shocking appointments at board level too. It’s unbelievable how they have been running the club and are getting away with it. What is the final straw for the supporters ?
We may yet be punished by FFP yet just to rub salt into the wounds.
I will have a go at most managers when I disagree with the set up or substitutions etc but I think most of the players at Lampards disposal now are youngsters and reserve team players who just don’t know how to deal with the pressure. It is in fact most of the senior players in the team who are making the silly mistakes. Pickford, Keane and Holgate are big liabilities and Kenny is just simply not good enough for this level despite his efforts. If only Allan had Doucouré’s energy we would have ourselves a player !
He had players on the bench the other night that I can only assume we’re there for an absolute emergency because they were not ready. No use fucking them up more when we have big games coming up.
I don’t even like Mina but he has been a massive loss. If he comes back for the last seven games then this gives us a big boost because that’s where we need some steel. Not sure what Delph can offer but he may help to stabilize the midfield. Either way we are clutching at straws to get something out of this bunch of misfits who found an easy path to richness via a stupid millionaire accountant.

Jay Harris
494 Posted 08/04/2022 at 15:19:19
Agree with your comments Pete.

Just one correction "Billionaire" accountant who hasnt a clue and is being mugged by poor penniless Bill who if only he had the money he would pour it into Everton????

Kieran Kinsella
495 Posted 08/04/2022 at 15:26:46
Paul/Kevin

There was an article yesterday saying we'd need to cut our costs by £50 million to avoid points penalties in the Championship next season.

Looking at our squad contracts for Tosun, Delph and Sigurdsson combined amount to around £12 or 13 million. El Ghazi and Van de Beek are said to be costing us about £1.2 million apiece. We have the two old goalies and Kenny out of contract.

But that all amounts to around at best £19 million. We could cut about £12 million by shipping Mina and Gomes but who would take on their wages? Much less pay any kind of a fee for them?

Presumably we would try and flog Richarlison and/or Calvert-Lewin but I don't see us getting anywhere near the figures being quoted for either one.

Kevin Molloy
496 Posted 08/04/2022 at 15:31:45
Kieran,

it would be an irony if the points deduction kicks in cos of that crazy contract we gave Dele.

Kieran Kinsella
497 Posted 08/04/2022 at 15:33:24
Kevin,

I forgot about him. He's like the new Fabian Delph, an expensive ghost.

Paul Hewitt
498 Posted 08/04/2022 at 15:38:13
We are not getting a points deduction. Not now or next season.
Nick Page
499 Posted 08/04/2022 at 15:40:11
Given we have all these ex-pros knocking about the place under Kenwright's say-so, anyone know the ins and outs of why Big Nev, Reidy, Ratcliffe etc aren't there? Is it because they don't crawl up the fat parasite's backside?

I honestly despise what some of the players like Sharp have become – passive yes-men. If they loved Everton like the fans do, they'd tell The Big Actor to fuck off, instead of drawing a salary to say nothing. Shameful behaviour.

Will Mabon
500 Posted 08/04/2022 at 15:43:06
Nick, apparently they'd crawl up inside but they won't lick when they're in there.
Andrew Ellams
501 Posted 08/04/2022 at 15:44:55
Paul @ 489, you seem to think we'll back out of the Championship. I'd put money on another relegation before there's a promotion.

The club is a complete basket case and players sold will be replaced by low cost journeymen and youngsters who aren't ready.

Jamie Crowley
502 Posted 08/04/2022 at 16:04:50
I'm with Andrew @501 quite unfortunately.

Relegation will see us more likely go down next season, not up. The finances of the Club can not sustain relegation. There would be a massive fire sale to pay the bills.

I think it would take 4-5 year to get back to the top flight.

I am seriously scared for the future of Everton.

We need to win at home now. It's the only way to avoid the drop.

Kieran Kinsella
503 Posted 08/04/2022 at 16:09:12
Andrew @501,

If we go down, then I'd agree, we will go down again because we'll be hamstrung by wages for the likes of Gomes, Keane and Holgate who are probably Diadora Conference at best.

And they're too physically and mentally weak to deal with hungry Championship players. So we will likely keep dropping until their contracts expire.

Danny Baily
504 Posted 08/04/2022 at 16:18:48
Jamie 502, agreed.

We'll be back, but it will likely take the best part of a decade.

And we won't come back stronger. All we'll do is lose ground on established Premier League sides. We'll come back at square one, fighting to stay up.

The only positive outcome is survival for the next few years as we clear out the deadwood.

Robert Tressell
505 Posted 08/04/2022 at 16:21:55
Kieran, if we can save £13m in wages then the remaining savings will be made by selling Richarlison, DCL, Kean, Mina and maybe Pickford.

We would then agree any deal whatsoever to get shot of as many a possible of Allan, Gomes, Keane, Holgate and Iwobi - possibly on loan.

That will balance the books.

It would leave us with very little to reinvest but we can do it with free transfers, loans and talented youth from low cost markets.

However, we are by no means gone. We can beat Man Utd at home.

Dale Self
506 Posted 08/04/2022 at 16:23:50
I'm on the other side of this doom scenario. We have several in the youth squad who can step up and help with the Championship schedule and probably earn their way to first team appearances.

Dealing off the senior underperfotmers would be the determining factor. If we can get rid for acceptable fees, there is a class of frustrated players in the Premier League and abroad who would throw in for Everton with the proper mindset to get back to the top flight.

To be fair, heh heh, it is not yet time for such pessimistic prognostication. It is ugly but not yet sack-over-the-head time.

Not going down. UTFT!!!!!

Chris Hart
507 Posted 08/04/2022 at 16:33:51
The 4 points we threw away against West Ham and Burnley will most likely send us down.

We should have got Moyes back when we had the chance before we got Ancelotti. Those who threw tantrums about not wanting him back have got a lot to answer for. We would never have been in this position with Moyes. He always made sure that his teams were strong at the back and difficult to beat.

I hope we are able to come straight back up in the first season. It really is a nightmare, these reds are so insufferable. I know a few Man City fans and they are so much more dignified having been in League One just 23 years ago. I so hope that City pip them for the League at least and hopefully the Champions League as well.

Kieran Kinsella
508 Posted 08/04/2022 at 16:40:25
If we do go down, it would probably be more cost effective to let the club go under, then buy out Bootle FC, change their name to Everton 2.0 and throw some sensible money behind them to climb the pyramid.

By the time they reach the Championship, LCC will be desperate for a tennant for the Bramley Dock Stadium so we can probably get a sweetheart deal like West Ham did.

Peter Carpenter
509 Posted 08/04/2022 at 16:46:39
There is more sensible contingency planning on here than our esteemed board have done in 30 years. If they read this, they would no doubt be totally bemused.
Danny O’Neill
510 Posted 08/04/2022 at 16:46:51
Why are we recommending going down? We haven't been in the Bottom 3 all season and won't be after tonight.

We stay up. That is the mentality we and the players need.

Paul Birmingham
511 Posted 08/04/2022 at 16:58:03
Must wins v Leicester, Brentford, Palace at home, and beat or draw United which can be done as they arnt like they were under SWN, and beat Watford away, and perhaps draw at Leicester or beat them.

The spark to get a positive winning reaction from this squad starts now, but no more freebies.

Can Everton stay up, yes they can because it’s doable physically and by the maths.

But the complex variables of the squad in mindset must be turned by Lamps and his support Team.

Hopefully Cole has read the riot act since Burnley.

Tomorrow we shall see.

Neil Copeland
512 Posted 08/04/2022 at 17:01:08
Danny #510 and Paul #511, agree. Let’s get all the negative crap out of the way so we can focus on roaring the team to victory tomorrow.
Ed Prytherch
513 Posted 08/04/2022 at 17:10:49
How does the parachute payment factor into the cash-flow situation if we are relegated? Does it ease the pressure to have a fire sale of our decent players?
Kieran Kinsella
514 Posted 08/04/2022 at 17:17:12
Ed,

The article I mentioned earlier was taking into account the parachute payments we will receive and saying we will need to cut another £50 million.

Paul Birmingham
515 Posted 08/04/2022 at 17:38:21
That’s the Spirit we need Neil, and let’s transcend some of the media hype and the gathering vultures and prove a point.

Doing Hearts v the Peg Sellers and Everton win double tomorrow, plus my National bet, as yet not confirmed.

Mad, who knows, perhaps, but I believe the spirit of the supporters and the chance to play for their future careers, should get Everton up the fight these coming weeks.

All together now.

Jack Convery
516 Posted 08/04/2022 at 17:39:33
So there are reports some in the dressing room think Frank is clueless. I suppose that means Carlo (Champions League Winner), Koeman (European Cup Winner), and Rafa (European Cup Winner ) were also clueless.

I hate to say it but those 3 have won more than our so-called footballers can't even imagine. They are the clueless ones. Too many think ever so highly of themselves, just like the parasite who lauds himself as our Chairman and the exemplar of how to run a Premier League Club.

My fear is, if we stay up, nothing will change. The players leaving because their contracts have run out will be replaced by more no mark players. If we go down, the better players will leave – we all know who they are and dross will be left behind.

So to ensure things do change, and change for the better, Kenwright must go and the rest of the board too. The hangers-on who contribute nothing positive to aid the first team should follow him out the door.

Moshiri should consider his position. If he decides to stay, he must appoint a board that has the experience and skill set to run a Premier League team, in what is a highly competitive environment. He should also fuck-off the agents who have been whispering in his ear and making him look a dickhead. Certain players must not play for Everton next season, no matter what happens.

I would like to see Tim Cahill come aboard, in some influential capacity. I hope we stay up but I am finding it harder to see it happening. It is more with hope than expectation now.

Mick O'Malley
517 Posted 08/04/2022 at 17:51:34
Paul Hewitt above, I totally agree. If it comes to relegation, then so be it, if Norwich etc bounce back, so can we.

If we do go down, it would be good to be challenging for a title or a playoff final rather than finishing mid-table all the time. We're not down yet, we can still save ourselves, but I'm not panicking about relegation. It'll still be my club, no matter what league we are playing in.

Dale Self
518 Posted 08/04/2022 at 17:58:57
Carlo, Koeman and Benitez would not have continued with throwing players forward when they had points in the hand.

Frank was outcoached by Dyche when ahead in the second half and was undone by his centre-back wrongly trying to connect with a back-running unreliable midfield (choose your interpretation) when a point on the road would have been more than acceptable.

These are the results of Frank's preferred style of play. It has been good to watch until undone by a lack of defensive nous. They do look like they are better at fighting back out of a hole in his system but, short on confidence, they've not been able to give Frank a reason to continue in that style.

Please note that Frank has not earned a draw anywhere. Small sample but if you did a statistical T-test, I think there is enough of a difference at n = 12 in outcomes to say that it is a stochastically dominated dumbass strategy, first-order dominance at that: 7-5-10 vs 4-0-8.

Matthew Williams
519 Posted 08/04/2022 at 18:14:37
Sigh... seen the future stars that were linked with?

Christ, we just never learn, do we? Fuckwits the lot of them!

I wonder if our scouts are following the Under-19 British cup tournament that's going on now... the lad Stones for England and Williams for Wales are defo future stars, methinks.

I am sure our scouts are currently abroad whilst our club burns... sack 'em 'cos their past record on finding gems has been dogshit.

Nick Page
520 Posted 08/04/2022 at 18:18:13
Jack @516,

I'm pretty sure there are some bad apples in the Everton dresser. The likes of Holgate, I've heard. There's a toxic culture there, for sure.

But unless we alter the philosophy and culture of the club to a winning one, and not Bill's museum trainset, it won't change because whoever we buy will slip into the same mindset of winning not mattering and just going through the motions.

Kieran Kinsella
521 Posted 08/04/2022 at 18:37:01
Dale

Yeah Carlo really knew how to manage those games against relegation zone teams when we went a goal down as we did at Burnley:

Everton 0 v 1 Sheff Utd
Everton 1 v 2 Burnley
Everton 0 v 2 Fulham
Everton 0 v 2 Newcastle
Everton 1 v 3 Bournemouth

Koeman too
Everton 0 v 1 Burnley

He was also good at shutting up shop. 2-2 with 15 minutes to go versus Arsenal and we lost 2-5.

As for Rafa really?

Sean Roe
522 Posted 08/04/2022 at 18:48:03
Frank Lampard speaks more shit in press conferences than Roberto Martinez used to, and that's no mean feat!
Dale Self
523 Posted 08/04/2022 at 18:48:32
Ahem, maybe you missed this, Kieran:

https://www.evertonresults.com/managers7.htm

Argue with that!

It isn't that Carlo did well with this squad; however, you weight the differences in personnel which are slight, it is that Frank's outcomes do not survive statistical scrutiny. Say what you want, pick out which games you want to emphasize; however you cut it, the overall picture is damning.

Kieran Kinsella
524 Posted 08/04/2022 at 18:51:16
Dale,

He has been here for 12 games and inherited a team from the guy two spots above him on that list – after said guy sold the player with the most assists the season prior and replaced him with two as of yet not-good-enough kids.

Also his win percentage is higher than Smith, Kendall III, Benitez, Nisbett and twice as good at Walker's if you want to pick metrics.

Dale Self
525 Posted 08/04/2022 at 18:53:31
Kieran, you are a finance guy correct? T-test my man, T-test.
Roger Helm
526 Posted 08/04/2022 at 19:42:17
My friend supports Norwich and he prefers being in the Championship because they win more often than in the Premier League.
Dale Self
527 Posted 08/04/2022 at 20:25:12
Alright, just did a painful calculation of a t-test with unequal samples and I think the difference in points per game is insignificant between Benitez and Lampard. That was without doing an F-test to see if the variances of both sample sizes were different.

Wind-up retracted but a decent bluff eh?

Soren Moyer
528 Posted 08/04/2022 at 20:30:24
So we have lost 9 points to all 3 teams beneath us this season! Anyone bother to check if that's a record too?
Dale Self
529 Posted 08/04/2022 at 20:35:03
Now that seems significant!
Kieran Kinsella
530 Posted 08/04/2022 at 20:54:40
Dale

It is weird though how we sack managers as we don't sack players. We end up paying the manager's contract off so why not just keep them at the club for the duration of their contract and put them to work in some other capacity? Maybe the academy would be better if all our ex-managers were training the kids instead of Franny Jeffers. If they want to leave, then demand a transfer fee. Even if they're really useless, put them to work as kitmen or turnstile operators or janitors. Make them work for their money instead of just paying them for 2 or 3 years more work that they never delivered when they were sacked.

Will Mabon
531 Posted 08/04/2022 at 20:55:15
Soren - horrible.
Dale Self
532 Posted 08/04/2022 at 21:17:24
Brutal Kieran, so that's why you are in finance. ;) I actually fucking forgot that Franny is in there. Even as an ex-economist I always dug the main tenet that incentives matter. Given Everton's predicament either some new contract terms or the Kieran rule of forcing some negative reward on underperformers is entirely reasonable. But then who would sign for us? Keep it going, and a direct apology for not doing the t-test myself before taunting.
Jamie Crowley
533 Posted 08/04/2022 at 21:22:14
All this anti-Frank talk cracks me up.

Seriously? Look, every manager is going to do some things you don't agree with. But Lord above, what in the hell is this guy supposed to do??

We've been ravaged with injuries and suspensions. He's trying like hell to get us to play properly, and it's been individual errors that have seen us undone.

Do you honestly, anyone out there hand on heart, think a managerial change would benefit us at this point? Lord it's chaos enough already!

We need to stay up and give Frank a full season, after he's had the summer to attempt to bring in a player or two that will play a better brand of his footy.

Insofar as the pressers are concerned, what in the world do you want him to say?

"Well quite honestly, I feel we're mentally weak. The errors are just dumbassery on a level I can't coach out of the players. We're probably going down. Our confidence is shite."

Jesus man, we've got a good manager, and he's in a very tough spot due to years of mismanagement, spending half a billion on players that just haven't lived up to their potential or just bad signings, and we have like zero continuity.

Our owner also can be faulted, but jeez he's dumped a freaking fortune into the club!

We are where we are, but chucking stones at those folks certainly won't get us anywhere but down. They're clearly trying. We simply need the players to knock off the errors!

Ah God, it's all so damn depressing. And I'm going to get out of bed at like 7 am tomorrow to watch us probably play good for 90+ minutes, with a brilliant fanbase screaming on the boys, only to lose through 1-2 minutes of totally braindead errors to ruin it all.

DRINK PLEASE!!!

Dale Self
534 Posted 08/04/2022 at 22:25:09
Only did it as response to anti-Carlo (who I supported) and obscene logic complaining against Benitez (which could be applied to any other manager, who I only supported after appointment). The arguments of how Digne would have made a difference when he was culpable for mistakes leading to goals against was one. Whether James would have suited up for Benitez' tactics much less put in a shift is another. There was more but you get the idea.

I am completely hoping for Frank to turn it around, honestly. Just tighten up the fucking defense when we have a point in hand in the second half.

Oliver Molloy
535 Posted 08/04/2022 at 22:39:51
I don't agree with those who reckon Lampard does not shoulder any blame for our position.

Yes, he is working with players who simply are not good enough, but he is responsible for managing a game – he simply did not do this against Burnley. A more experienced manager would have realised what was on the line and came away with at least a point.

This defeat really has kicked all of us right up the ball bag and our Premier League status hangs by a thread, we need these fucking players to stand up and be counted and all the luck we can muster to stand any chance.

We simply have to stay in contention and keep the pressure on Burnley, starting tomorrow!

Forever Evertonians – come on, lads, for fuck's sake.


Don Alexander
536 Posted 08/04/2022 at 23:11:14
Loads of comments about the inadequacies at Everton of Moyes, Martinez, Koeman, Allardyce, Silva, Ancelotti, Benitez and Lampard but Messrs Moyes, Martinez (bizarrely to me), Koeman, Silva and Ancelotti went on, immediately after being paid £millions by Moshiri to do one, to significantly improve their next side (Okay, it took Moyes a while!).

That should spell out to anything with an IQ higher than an amoeba that the ongoing problems at Everton have had little at all to do with the manager(s), for decades.

And to those who suggest that, when we're relegated, we'll need a Premier League standard manager to get us back in it, I say "Bollocks!" We'll need a manager with a football-savvy history, able to put a squad together for next to nothing, play professional football, and all whilst under the grasping ownership of a proven shyster.

Ian "Ollie" Holloway is the man we'll need after relegation. He's got all the necessary credentials to achieve success under ?????? ownership (I was going to say "shitty" but I thought I might be yellow-carded).

Jeez, his Blackpool team were relegated with 39 points! 39 points? As if!

Jerome Shields
537 Posted 09/04/2022 at 09:32:47
Whilst Frank has tactical flawless the players are not helping him.It could be the case that they are doing the opposite.

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