It Is Horrific

"There is no point harping on about broader things that won't help the team right now. This season is now all about survival."

Yep, that is the only focus until some space from the Bottom 3 is secured. We need to keep it about football and keep it simple, no matter how offended some egos get.

Only by keeping to a simple system can they hope to manage the timing of the game. Only by managing their timing of attacks and getting numbers forward together can they minimize the risks of a breakdown in possession.

The timid two- and three-man attacks just draw us out of shape and frustrate the forwards. I wouldn't expect anything against City but perhaps against Brighton we will see some changes made.

The two Bournemouth defeats confirmed that tactically Frank is tone-deaf. Despite losing game after game, he has persisted with a 4-3-3 with two wide attackers, leaving a midfield wide open to counter-attacks.

After a 7-week break, we returned on Monday to find nothing had changed. I think he will be given the next two home games. If we fail to win either of those, he should be replaced.

Unfortunately, no manager will be good enough for too many of our supporters. In the situation we find ourselves, the type of hard-bitten character we need is also the type least likely to win favour with the fans.

Simple-minded snobbery has done, and continues to do, us great harm. But none of that majority is ever going to admit that they got it disastrously wrong, rather to the contrary.

I happen, though, to disagree with you as to Lampard. He's currently frozen and doing badly but this man is a hard-case winner, misunderstood as a bit of a Tory soft-arse. I don't think he'll fold and nor, eventually, will his Everton teams.

Fortunately I have loads of chocolate from Xmas to counter the depression…

Link

At the age of 28 and his fifth season in the Premier League, he's been coached in scoring goals, including modifying his shooting technique.

Shows good coaching can achieve pretty quick results even in experienced players. Maybe we could learn from this for our attacking line?

We still need attacking additions to the squad but we also need to do better with what we have.

I don't see Leighton & Co being up to the monumental task of saving us, even short term.

I've read interviews with both Ian Wright and Alan Shearer on how coaching took them from decent to top class. Aside from Dunc and his aerial abilities, we don't seem to have had a finishing coach at Everton ever in my lifetime. Seems like a big miss.

I also imagine that, if Frank goes, then so does the likes of Cole and any other coaching staff he brought with him.

‘Horrific’ is usually a word to describe a real bad accident or incident which involves injury or death to people, so it's over the top a bit but, at the same time, we could use the word ‘Miracle’ to describe what's needed to get us out of this mess.

Frank Lampard was my last big hope of us ever having a decent footballing name to drag this club back to respectability. He's lost his way for sure and the signs are more than worrying that he is not up to it but, as with the rest of my life being a Blue, I will cling to the word ‘Hope’ in that something changes for the better.

Talking of Seamus Coleman. What a dream that would be if that man himself were to help rescue us and carry us forward.

Firstly, this rumor Frank will get sacked if we lose to City is ridiculous. As Moshiri would say, City “is an expected loss” so, if they want to sack Frank, why the hell did they waste a week before what they see as “the inevitable”?

I hope we get a result v City but, if we don't, I hardly see it as the result that breaks the camel’s back. If, post City, Brighton, whoever, Frank gets sacked, I'd like to think they'd quickly have a replacement so we don't have a Jimmy Gabriel situation dragging on for weeks.

Could Seamus even step in? Aren't there rules now requiring coaching certifications? If anything, I'd imagine Paul Tait would have to fill in for a game or so but I'm hoping it won't come to that and we and Frank can turn the corner.

He was and is a great figurehead and says all the right things for the club. Far too risky to let him continue as he's not learning on the job for a young manager as we hoped.

I'm just surprised at his coaches as I thought they had calibre and would help and give him valuable input. Sadly not.

Lampard won't get sacked if we lose to Man City. The responsibility is now with the DoF and board to sign a like for like replacement for DCL. We have started the last two seasons banking on Dominic's fitness – it was absolutely criminal to make the same mistake twice and that is squarely on the DoF and board.

The manager and his team have to do a lot better, and they won't have any excuses once / if the squad is strengthened. Let's see if the club manage to do that. If not, we are in serious trouble regardless who is in charge.

But I'm also nervous about making yet another managerial change. Forced or unforced, it hasn't worked.

So I remain on the fence. Both with Lampard and the “should he go or should he stay” debate.

But if we're going to do so, be decisive and act quickly. Don't do what we done last season and give the potential new manager 2 hours (or however long it was) of a transfer window to act.

I've just mentioned ‘decisive’ and ‘Everton’ in the same paragraph. I should apologise for insulting everyone.

I'm not in agreement with some of the suggestions of potential candidates on the various pages. Sean Dyche is not for me. I'm hearing that Burnley supporters are actually enjoying their football again under Kompany.

Moyes? Never go back. It rarely comes off and he's hardly been a revelation since gradually beating down our expectation and finally getting the chance to see what he could do at a big club with money.

His idea was to buy Fellaini. And after a promising start at a decent West Ham side, he's got them into an equal position to Everton as it stands. Technically worse after last night as it stands.

I can just see the tear-filled reunion press interview. Watch that space. 5 defeats in a row. He could be gone before Frank, which could trigger a sequence of events.

Well written article, Jim. I like you calling out Gueye. The Wolves game in particular, he was trying to be a one man midfield as Iwobi was back to dum-dee-doing and Onana was somewhere… I don't know where. Maybe Stanley Park or on his phone?

Here's hoping they can surprise you, me and all of us today with a point. I, like many, don't believe today is the day of destiny for Frank. Unless it's an embarrassing mauling.

Tim Cahill has all the certs and, as far as I know, still has 'links' to and / or with the club.

Add him to the list anyway before Dyche – and no more loser Moyes talk. Besides, his mate hopefully won't be here much longer to get his grubby paws in any decision.

Obviously nobody is expecting anything out of the City game but, if we lose to Brighton as well, then I think it's Goodnight Vienna for Frank.

I don't want us to change manager especially, it hasn't worked before… but if the last years have told us anything (aside from Moshiri being a clueless buffoon), many under-appreciated the job Moyes did for us for so long.

I believe Moyes would stabilise us as a club again and at least get us sitting mid-table and over the finish line for BMD.

Should that be the case, then I'd rather use any funds available to sign a striker. I can't help thinking that, for all his failings, Lampard would have us sat somewhere around mid-table if we had been able to bring in adequate cover for Calvert-Lewin in the summer, instead of Maupay.

It was a long day yesterday, at one stage, I was thinking about someone who is close to me, who is just starting out in league football, and how he could continue to improve.

I have always viewed him as being very reactive, but suddenly he's started to get ‘belief' and he's now showing signs of also being proactive.

Every single player can improve; you never stop learning in this game, and whilst playing is different and obviously the most important aspect, especially if you are a professional player, doing individual work will definitely improve any player, but my bet is that very few clubs will employ these type of coaches, which work specifically on individual coaching.

On the day we go to the Etihad, I'm trying to avoid recollections of taking a knife to a gunfight and aspiring to be like City. A comment that some would call realistic, but offended Evertonians and United fans.

So calls for Moyes make me uncomfortable. Especially given his record since leaving Everton and the current predicament West Ham are in.

Some may say realistic, but it irks me and I don't want that lack of expectation back.

How we could do with some of Reid's spirit now ("The game might have changed but the fundamentals haven't," is one of his quotes), who also talks about his affection for Man City, and how he told Peter Swales (the chairman of a club with no structure) to: "Fuck off, Shredded Wheat head" whilst he was the City manager.

Today, there's hopefully a positive reaction and performance, following from Boxing Day. No time to be feeling sorry, but time to fight for the Everton shirt, and show some pride in playing for Everton.

Come on, Blues, rub it in and beat Brighton now!

All our back five played with heart and Gana Gueye was absolutely terrific today. I'm not sure about Iwobi and the talented Onana but Demarai Gray worked very hard. Calvert-Lewin gave us a bit more strength further up the pitch, with the biggest call being made by my favourite ever Everton player.

The fundamentals haven't changed because hard work, guts, effort, and just ‘one moment of real quality' have just helped get Everton a point against the best team in the Premier League, today. I'm made up!

I would like to reiterate I don't especially want us sacking Frank or anyone for that matter, the managerial circus has been a horrendous joke since Moshiri took over. All I said was, if we did, then I think it has to be Moyes for me.

So in a way, Danny, I don't really understand the relevance of your question; whether I was 45 or 65, Everton's performance in the Premier League era has been largely poor. Aside from one excellent season under Roberto, largely the only other thing to shout about in the last 20 years has been the stability and consistency brought to us by Moyes.

Sure, he said some dumb things (though you lot have forgotten the "knife to a gunfight" thing right"? ;) sure he left in a really lame way and openly admitted how Fergie poached him whilst still our manager.

However, he did what he did for a long time, on a shoestring as well. I have never understood how so many lacked respect for the job he did with us. I could go into my typical narrative around expectations, born in the past, etc; however, I can't be arsed.

Moyes's teams were industrious and hard-working, tough to beat and well-disciplined. I think we'd all take that right now as we build for the future and hopefully get the much-needed boardroom changes in the future.

I for one wished he could have had a quarter of the budget afforded all the managers since, something tells me we wouldn't be debating the sacking of ANOTHER manager and ruminating over the possibility of a 2nd relegation scrap in 2 seasons.

I saw on another thread that someone had mentioned that yesterday's performance shows how the players feel about Frank; I said exactly the same thing to my mate. Let's hope it's a catalyst for a better 2nd half of the season, an improved spirit and cohesion and a run of games for Calvert-Lewin.

Bring in that versatile forward player in the mould of Kudus and who knows? The landscape could look very different after Brighton and Southampton. COYB.

The best I've ever known is David Moyes. Which is profoundly depressing, to be honest with you. All I've ever known is the management of expectations, the gradual diminishment of the club from highs I don't remember and have never experienced, to utter mediocrity.

Having never known our highs, I'd settle for five years of being somewhere between 8th and 12th. With a trip to Wembley thrown in.

I feel incredible sympathy for fans who have known us as the best team in England. They expect and want better. Personally, I just don't want to be embarrassed to be a fan, and want to occasionally not hate the club that I've loved, sometimes with great regret (and envy of my Man Utd supporting family), since I was 7 years old.

I wouldn't want Moyes back. Some would agree with you about hard-working and industrious. I couldn't disagree with that a lot of the time.

We want our teams to work hard. But we want them to play good football as well. Some of Moyes's team did occasionally.

But I also remember a few thumpings. The 7 - 0 humiliation by Arsenal sticks out. The choking against Wigan when there was a path to Wembley. The semi-final surrender when we had them on the ropes.

After doing what he had to do initially, and doing it well to be fair, the eventual and continuous playing down of expectation, that he's taken with him elsewhere.

Sorry, not for me. Not looking good for him at the moment. I wouldn't be surprised to see him let go by West Ham for a second time.

Take heed of Tony @(28) – wipe that egg off your face.

If they keep fighting like they did yesterday for the rest of the season, like they should be doing anyway, then if I was you, I'd tell myself “Them bastards (don't know if you swear) didn't half buck themselves up after my post on ToffeeWeb before the City game”!!

I am still very worried about the Brighton game if I am honest.

Very pleased with Gueye's performance and Lampard will have to change the midfield if Onana is out. And hopefully a change for the better.

What a difference it would make if we could just win the next 2 Premier League games.

Like so many people on here, I am in two minds about Lampard but it is the 3 wins that is telling me something is very wrong and this has to change in the next 2 games.

Lampard should go tonite.

We must have a new manager for the Soton game and it must be someone who understands how the 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 formation will help us.

Lampard is a tactical fool. He has the theory but no nouse.

3 wins in 18!