Setback against United hands Everton a swift reality check

We should have been bouncing after 7 games unbeaten and even more so after Iwobi scoring that great early goal but ,after that, we just didn't even try to expose United's fragile confidence.

Too often at Everton, we crap ourselves, it's like a hiker climbing three-quarters of the way up a mountain and then deciding to turn back out of fear.

The lack of goal threat is probably going to be crucial even if Calvert-Lewin can stay on the pitch more often while the jury remains out.

The wingers Gordon and Gray continue to frustrate the life out of me, it's too often glaringly obvious what they are going to do every time they receive the ball; never enough end product from either of them, and why they persist with high crosses to a small guy in Maupay (you can cross the ball along the deck, you know, lads).

The middle of the park still passes up possession far too cheaply and it may be worth thinking about giving James Garner some game time now as he does look like a composed footballer based on what I saw last season.

We lost Nathan Patterson just as he was starting to hit form and that curtailed us from pushing those full-backs forward also.

All-in-all, it was one of those nights when we'd have lost that game if we'd have still been playing until Tuesday night, a bad game for everyone – and after watching the goals back I include Jordan Pickford in that.

Rome wasn't built in a day but after we scored, because we've seen it so many times before, I just couldn't relax and enjoy the moment.

Let's just hope we learn and recover before we go to North London next week. I have to agree with Jim, Patterson is a big miss.

I get what you're saying, Jim. Stage fright. We've had it for decades. Just when we get close, we gulp and shrink into ourselves.

I think the current management team are slowly changing that mentality but there are going to be setbacks. The good thing is that the results are closer even when we don't play well and unfortunately lose. That was a close match even though we gave them way too much space. The mentality is different.

We played poorly and lost. But we didn't give in or collapse. That's a positive.

No way we're losing 5-0 to at White Hart Lane and leaving me in shock as we did earlier this year. We'll surprise people and get a point.

Keep doing what you're are doing, Blues. There will be speed-bumps but the results will come.

As will Wembley and Europe.

When the midfield shits themselves, it is always the wingers that suffer. Instead of getting our wingers running at full-backs, we get our full-backs… well, not doing much.

Gordon and Gray are okay.

Solid defensively again (the mistakes were made in midfield) and we showed more attacking threat in the second half than we have done all season. It was also nice to see different formations and tactics attempted when we were chasing the game.

So yes, we were occasionally sloppy in midfield and it cost us dearly, but I am not going to berate these fellas, or even name them, as they have barely put a foot wrong all season.

We are definitely moving in the right direction.

We look a bit more solid than last season (especially at set pieces) but there is a way to go and we are still very insecure in possession, mainly because Gray and Gordon struggle to keep hold of the ball (possibly because they are forced deep).

Work to be done by Lampard. But the aim this season was mid-table, and mid-table teams by definition blow hot and cold.

Without a proper game plan to beat Manchester United, their players are always going to be man-for-man better than ours. This was illustrated perfectly by how Luke Shaw played Anthony Gordon (literally) off the park.

Next Saturday will be another very testing one.

There will be days like yesterday, yes; however, it just frustrates that we start playing when we see 4 minutes of injury time go up, why not earlier?

We need to move on and improve, fair enough. I still think we lose far too many games at Goodison nowadays though.

United responded well to conceding an early goal and stuck to their game plan. I thought Casemiro settled into the game very well, it would do no harm for Gueye, for all his experience, to watch how United's defensive midfielder played.

And yes, if Calvert-Lewin was fit to be on the bench then he was fit to play for 20 minutes. Maupay was completely ineffective, we looked much better with 2 big guys at the end, huff and puff though it was.

However, United had better players than us in nearly every position so setbacks like last night are going to happen against such teams. We've made progress this season so need to try and not despair when they occur.

Time for James Garner to start next week at the expense of… take your pick. No one is undroppable.

My main concern is money potentially wasted on bringing Gana back and not taking huge money for Gordon. James Garner may well be a positive.

Allan was a better passer, Gueye a better presser. Neither are great players.

A point made earlier is that Lampard seems reluctant to make early substitutions and I agree that he throws on his attacking options far too late.

Spurs with their pace in attack will be a real challenge, especially as pace is not the forte of our backline. We must avoid a tanking as our frail confidence could be easily shattered by such a result.

Gordon looks tired which is ridiculous. I'm not sure how Everton ought to be using him. Gray, McNeil and Townsend are wingers purely and simply. I'd prefer to see him in the Number 10 role supporting Calvert-Lewin, but that may be unfair on Iwobi.

Rather than be a smart on-the-fence commentator, my own view is that Gana was always capable of sloppy passing when he was with us previously, the only question was: Did he improve at PSG? One game doesn't answer that so wait and see.

For me, Gordon is still a work in progress. He is impulsive (5 yellows) and a bit selfish and not a great crosser of the ball.
Hopefully he can be improved by Frank et al.

The possibility of fluking a result if the opposition are half-arsed is always there but, should they turn up with their better players well-motivated, we are fodder. Liverpool hold such dominance over us because they have better players and are always, always motivated.

We live in the also-ran section of the Premier League. Results against a reasonably motivated Man Utd et al are entirely predictable and until some miracle happens that's how it will remain.

Referees will allow this, especially from the big teams. We have to be much stronger in possession; if you lose it in a danger area, do anything to get it back – tackle, foul, yellow card whatever. Hopefully lessons will have been learned. But don't lose it in the first place!

With Garner and Calvert-Lewin on, we redressed the balance a little bit. I hope they start the next two matches, which will be just as tough and physically demanding.

Wins against top-half teams have to be earned with blood, sweat and tears. Yesterday we didn't do enough to deserve anything.

The mentality we have has served us well lately and the team probably thought "Same again will do" but Man Utd have individuals obviously a step up from the likes of West Ham and Southampton.

Another window or two we won't have to rely on Gray and Gordon to create or even turn up.

The euphoria of his cameo when he came off the bench against Liverpool and then an excellent performance vs West Ham suddenly disappears in a week... 🤷🏻‍♂️

There were rumours circulating at the back end of last week that he had a serious knee injury. Obviously not serious but you do wonder if he wasn't 100% as I have never seen him play so badly, his influence on the others non-existent and there was that first mistake.

Just hope he shakes it off because a fully fit and in form Gueye is a certain starter.

Like Danny too, I was almost shocked that, after scoring an early well-worked goal, we more or less sat back and played into United's hands. The referee didn't help either by ignoring some of the overly-physical charges of United to see our players clattered into the advertising boards.

Stephen Vincent, who I had a pint with before, with Bill Griffiths in the Dark House, had an ill-feeling about our ability or inability to secure all 3 points. Unfortunately, he was right.

We have two really difficult away games to follow, and a win would have cemented not only points but confidence too. The result, and the manner of it, will leave the coaching staff with an uphill task to motivate them to get even a scrap.

Some will say it's back to form, here we go again, same old Everton. But we have to expect some games like this, 5 of this team weren't even our players 4 months ago – that's half the team settling.

We can give criticism for bad performances, but let's not crucify them; let's keep supporting what Frank's doing.

In the last couple of months, we've taken many large steps forward; this was a step back. It's still a better team and position than last season's.

I'm hoping they have 1 or 2 lined up in January, impact winger or attacking mid, as the creativity is lacking. Nothing between lines, very little interplay between the front 3 and midfield, and rarely see any of the midfielders running beyond the striker.

As someone once said: "You learn 10 times more from a defeat than you do from a victory."

Ten Hag had done his homework making sure the long diagonal balls out to the flanks from Coady and Tarkowski were prevented or dealt with. That put the onus on our midfielders to play through the lines but we could hardly string three forward passes together until the closing stages.

The challenge now is to prevent one defeat becoming three. Changes will be required while Frank needs to use his bench earlier, especially when it is blindingly obvious things aren't working.

The 1986 final, the 2012 and 2016 semi-finals, the 2-3 against Palace in Martinez's first season, the semi-final collapse against Man City from 3-1 up and so on.

It's buried deep, this disorder, and our mediocrity will persist unless it is dug out at the roots. It was Martinez who came closest, as we know.

Did the crowd respond in a positive manner after Man Utd equalized??

I see a lot of fans concerned that Frank put on his subs too late... It's hindsight; put your subs on early and lose – people would argue that the players taken off too early needed more time to gel.

Frank is honest and is learning on the job... he will figure things out about these players and knows that you sometimes have a bad game.

Can't see us getting anything at Spurs realistically.

Whilst Frank has got the team to play as a unit, sloppy errors will always undo any good work. They have a knock-on effect on team confidence and damage any play momentum.

Gordon seems still to be recovering from the shock of transfer speculation. If Gana had made an error like that for PSG he would have been pilloried.

Iwobi played well amongst the dross. Onano looks like he knows how to get into a forward position, better than our forwards. And expecting Coleman to cover injuries as well as errors is a bit much.

The crowd did not react well to the equaliser and the atmosphere was as flat as it's been for a long while. Disappointment at how bad we were, I guess, but it does sometimes worry me that we fail to rally when things go against us.

So I am not fazed too much; on our day, we are a match for all teams in the Premier League and I think we have an excellent chance with either or both Cups we are in for. (That's not including The Liverpool Senior Cup!)

Everyone stay happy — In Frank I Trust!

Our mistakes from Gana, Iwobi and Pickford gift-wrapped a Man Utd win. We should have been fresh, but looked more lethargic than them. How does that work? Too many roasties?

That little Argy was left to stroll around in his slippers. Someone should have flattened him in the opening minutes and wound him up. Who from Man Utd was going to back him up?

Commentators bigging up Ronaldo. He was just as poor. He scores when it goes straight through our England keeper.

Everton definitely a work in progress. Better defence, little attacking idea, and still too soft up top.

We're in a much better place. We've been in worse ones. December 1983 when I literally looked to the skies and prayed to God springs to mind.

We're not being rolled over by anyone. Stick with this and it will come good.

We have enough in the squad for competition for places now and the manager should make it clear to those who don’t perform or continually make errors will lose their place in the team.