Hello, Darkness, My Old Friend

We've lost the first two, and the fans are losing patience with Frank.

I've said it on another thread, so I apologise, but it bears repeating: If we sack him, it has to be now, in order to give his replacement a full transfer window, and time with the players.

Barring some behind-the-scenes feud over transfers, I don't think he will be sacked, nor do I think he should be yet, but those games right after the break are crucial. Home against Wolves, Brighton and Southampton with a trip to Man City in-between.

I'd say we need at least 7 points from those home games and then Thelwell to work some transfer magic. If neither happens, then rightly or wrongly, I suspect Frank will be gone.

Also, I have l called for Moyes, Martinez (especially him), Koeman, Allardyce, and Benitez to be sacked. I have never felt it necessary to provide an alternative, taking the view that there are football people at the club (somewhere!) who know about this stuff.

It has dawned on me, much more slowly than many on here, that this is frighteningly untrue. We have an inept, but lovely, guy as coach who is sleepwalking us to The Championship and not one person at the club to say, "No, this is what we need to do, I have a plan, a vision a semblance of what it takes to run a club".

I usually have a strong view on what should happen. Not any more. We got thumped twice by Bournemouth. Beaten, humiliated, out-classed, out-played, out-fought. The Everton way is to let this crawl on and on and on. A decision needs to be made now, not after the World Cup. Is Frank the best we can do?

That's the worry. If Frank warrants sacking, it's the same people who hired the last sacked managers who'll replace him – with input from the bedsheet graffiti brigade.

Andy,

I agree, I think we've tried every type of manager but ultimately the bigger issue is the board. They let Steve Walsh and Kenwright and Brands waste money, they let Kia Joorabchian lumber us with expensive off-casts and regularly sell off our best players. I fear there may be no manager who can do much more than tread water with our board and FFP.

But, as I mention above, unless Calvert-Lewin comes back after Christmas and stays fit, we're going to need a striker in the window at the very least and, most likely, a goalscoring creative type as well or I can't see us scoring enough to stay up. It's that simple – and scary – for me.

In other words, we need a Moyes-style January with a Landon Donovan and a Jelavic on the cheap.

I don't have an answer – any sort of answer. Because darkness, with the very occasional glint of light, really is now what we are used to.

1. A night match, we beat bottom-place Swansea 2-1, I think.
2. Lost 2-0 to Man Utd when Pogba ran the show.
3. And the best performance of the lot, in my opinion, drew 0-0 with a very good, in-form Chelsea. Ran our arses off, defended like their lives depended on it.

So 4 points out of 9 vs two top teams out of 3, albeit all home games. Oh for Fat Sam's boring, hard-to-beat teams who could actually score on the break.

Likewise with me – despite the horrors of the past 30 years, I have the years from 1960 to 1988 to smile over.

But the modern generation have nothing but misery. And the way things are, nothing will change any time soon. I can't see an answer except by getting rid of everyone running the club; I doubt that will happen.

I wonder if that numpty, Kenwright, is still hoping for a knighthood in the New Year?

Lucas Digne, Gylfi Sigurdsson and James Rodriguez have all gone now, they were Calvert-Lewin's goals supply.

If anyone thinks we are beating Wolves, who will have a new manager bounce probably by Boxing Day, then dream on, while Brighton will come to Goodison and simply out-football, out-run and out-skill us as they did in January of this year too.

I don't want Frank sacked but sadly I think yesterday and the scenes after the game were the beginning of the end for Lampard.

But the same players will still be here under the next manager, eh, so we can have this discussion again this time next year.

Frank is coming across as a naive manager who hasn't got the managerial experience or talent to be proactive. He gets outmanoeuvred by his counterparts. Opposition players look more motivated and fight together as a team, nearly always sharper and winning the majority of second and loose balls.

If we are making a change, it has to be now, the new man has to have time to work with the players, have his essential forward recruitment ready to go on 1 January.

Another managerial change is the next to last thing I want. The last thing I want is relegation.

Whether we should sack him or not depends on who the replacement would be, crucially coupled with the forwards that man can bring in with him.

If we're going down that route, it has to be now, and make it decisive. No soap opera of multiple interviews. Sound out the man you want and get him in.

To be fair, I think our play has been absolutely bog-standard all season.

We've made ourselves harder to beat primarily through the two centre-halves being good readers of the game and having cajones.

But it's papered over the cracks really that eventually Coady and Tarkowski being the glue holding the mess together was going to loosen.

The Palace game apart (and even that was Viera's two-man midfield choice) the truth is we've been slow, ponderous and clueless in most games.

The Newcastle and Spurs away games not registering a shot on goal all night, the Leicester game where they outclassed us. We have been awful and 3 wins in 15 games shows that much.

11 goals is an absolute embarrassing statistic to show when we've spent how much money again last summer and managed to keep the Golden Boy here.

How the hell can this club continue to get things so bloody wrong?

I always tend to look at goal difference, so ironically, despite the traumatic week we've just had against our twice opponents, I wouldn't rule Bournemouth out of the relegation equation.

They've had the fortune to play a 2nd string Everton followed another so called first team that didn't show up.

Here's hoping for a German style "Ruckrunde". We've done it enough over the years. Kendall, Moyes (time many occasions). A lot to play for, but we clearly and obviously need to sort out the forward options. The midfield and defence are paying the price of not having an outlet.

The focus has to be on the winnable home games. I've said a few times, we shouldn't approach them so casually. The forest game, if it were held in April, would have had us greeting the team bus with blue smoke. Wolves is massive. We need *seven* more wins. On the balance of probability, Wolves has to be one of them.

What is this affliction that all players succumb to eventually, Onana now is showing familiar symptoms and Pattison looks like he is starting to develop it?

The symptoms are that any footballer who joins EFC, their standards drop and their ability/desire/pride/application start to disappear.
Name one player since Lukaku who has joined this shit show and we have improved him to become a better player?

Last post...on Rememberance Sunday

It's a a huge task, and once again the team will require the same level of support and backing that saved the day last season. I think this time it will be harder for us all, and unless Frank and His back room team acknowledge and own up to our situation they should leave now. For sure if results do not improve the mood will change and things will become toxic very quickly.

So Frank, come clean next week, outline what you intend doing and get on with it. We need some sort of a plan which we can buy into, please don't leave us in the dark.

Only the one in 40 minutes time when we remember those never came home or who were scarred by conflict.

Then we turn to the right and march on.

Don't give up. You can't and won't.

9 league wins is a joke and we had all summer to sort out our forward options. The 'big' signing of Onana was a waste of money when we needed a forward.

We haven’t got good enough midfielders to play with just three and we haven’t got good enough wingers to play them. I know he wasn’t fit yesterday but play Garner in a wingless wonders four across midfield eenabling Iwobi to attack without leaving the defence exposed. If we can recall Simms from loan then do it- big, strong,raw but he will score goals for us. Put in six weeks of intensive work on Cannon and bring in
a foreign loan who knows how to play centre forward and can score. A Mick Madar type will do, a maverick who won’t be part of the future but will come in and score some goals.

I am against sacking Frank- we have to accept the mistakes and hope he gets better as we can’t continue the hire and fire mentality. He has to sort out whatever is going wrong- he has enough assistants to tell him if he doesn’t know- but for me the two main problems( obviously apart from not scoring goals) are Gordon and Onana. Get them playing in their best positions, get some speedy passing and energy,workrate and passion back in the team( the crowd has to step up again too) and be ready to really get stuck in when we start again. If the first three home games when we are back go badly we will be in deep trouble but at least he has six weeks to sort it out.
Can he do the job? The next six weeks will tell us.

It must be a nightmare to try and motivate our current crop of players, if they can't apply themselves physically and mentally following two defeats, what are they doing playing professional sport? Some of the guys on show yesterday will feature in the upcoming World Cup, so how will they perform for their respective countries, slightly better than they've shown the last few weeks I would imagine.

Unless there is a change of ownership at Everton, I can't see the sense in appointing a replacement for Lampard, because any new boss will have the same issues, a squad that talks a good game, but seem incapable of playing a good game often enough, which is bad enough, but also a squad that seems to ignore its managers call to arms, in fact a squad that seems to ignore the fact that they are in a competitive sport where results really do matter.

I don't believe that Frank has covered himself in glory in recent weeks either and his decision to drop most of the side that faced Leicester for the cup game with Bournemouth, could prove to be his fatal mistake as it robbed his players of the chance to atone in the cup match and robbed Everton FC of an opportunity to progress in a competition that is relatively easier to win than other cup competitions - not that Everton FC find it easy to win games never mind competitions.

Do I think Lampard should be replaced now? Yes, IF the right candidate is available and willing. Otherwise, we need to stick with him for a while longer.

I do believe that Frank and his team are capable of analysing and identifying the problems with the side, and maybe even formulating solutions. But I no longer have faith that they are good enough coaches to implement those solutions.

Pickford’s unforced errors notwithstanding, I consider most of the individual errors that have led to goals this season to have been at least in part the result of poor coaching. Maybe poor tactics. I’m yet to see the evidence of Frank being an elite coach. At Derby his team outscored their xG. At Chelsea his team underscored their xG.

At Everton he doesn’t seem to be looking for solutions to win games however ugly. He seems to be trying to balance a team and then leaving them to outplay opponents. The two problems with that is our team is not balanced and incapable of outplaying opponents.

And final point, ever since Lampard took over it’s been this “wait for DCL” mantra as if he were the messiah. It keeps hinging on DCL returning to save us. It’s clearer than ever that we cannot depend on him. Maupay was signed as backup and now he’s our first choice striker. Not going to work.

Carlo Ancelotti was the most decorated manager ever to manage this club and he quickly sussed the players limitations straight away and as soon as we collapsed at the end of the 2020/21 season he was off with so little as a ciao suckers.

Who really is a suitable candidate?

Sean Dyche has only ever managed a team that expected relegation battles every season and I doubt the fans would take to his granite football either.

We've missed the boat on a Graham Potter.

We've had the upcoming managers like Marco Silva and not given due time or money.

We've had the experienced old hand in Sam Allardyce.

I don't see a ready made suitable candidate anymore.

Really?

It's been a tough couple of weeks. But there's a long season to go.

The thought of Sean Dyche makes me feel sick and sad.

Moyes coning back? Is that where we have progressed with our ambition since Moyes left?

The only ones that got us close to something resptful since 2013, whether people like it or not we're Martinez (season 1) and Ancelotti. Noone else has been able to get much other than the odd result out of the players we've had these past several years. I'll give Silva his due. Decent coach and glimpses of potential at times.

We keep blaming managers. And sacking them only to bring in the next optimistic unsuspecting victim of the Hawks circling above. Meanwhile, those supposed wise heads looking down from the stands with their footballing wisdom knee jerk, react and claim to have the clubs interests at heart.

The manager isn't or hasnt been the main problem area.

I keep saying it, but constantly blaming and changing the manager isn't the solution.

Not with the way Everton is set up. Chelsea can do it and have done it. But because the structure at the top was in place, so it almost becomes irrelevant who the manager is. The club is governed and structured to succeed. We are setting people up for failure, whilst leaving those resposible for failure and decline in place.

Think of it outside of football lines. When things go badly wrong and in times of crisis, we look to the National Government. The regional councils are deliverers on what they are fed and try to make ends meet as best they can. The national government is the board and owner. The regionals are the managers.

If we want change, we need to stop talking about change at team / managerial level. Within reason obviously. Change needs to be institutional. Top down.

Forgive me. Emotional week with 2 trips to watch Everton embarrassed and an emotional weekend as always this time of year.

442 or 451 is a must now but Lampard only seems to have the open 433 or the horrendous 352 in his locker.

Besides the centre forward position, the midfield is the ongoing problem. Gueye is fine with the right support and Onana is definitely not that. Garner must be played with Gueye. It is no use playing wingers if we are not keeping the ball in midfield. I would still look for a play maker in January as well as forwards.

Coleman could do a great job in front of Patterson making the right flank defensively tight while still retaining an attacking threat.

Something has to change to bring back a winning mentality. And making us hard to beat again is a start.

as I always do when this is raised, I have to disagree about player limitations being the major factor when Carlo's season is mentioned.

Too many times, it's broadly stated that "these players are all shite" or similar. Not only is that all but statistically impossible, it isn't true.

We started that 20-21 season playing excellent football (Spurs aside, not the toughest opposition until the RS I acknowledge). With the same players that completed the season. A lesser version played out under Benitez.

We spent 3 weeks top of the table. Injuries and problems started from the derby onward. Of course this has an effect but the effect was inordinate quickly plunging us back toward that vacant, ghost-like team that has pervaded this club for years through countless changes in personnel in many posts.

It's been essentially the same whatever manager, coaching staff and players have been thrown at it. The ghost team returned in almost exact, familiar format last Tuesday.

Whilst Kenwright's decades-long bobbing drift in mediocrity cannot be denied, I still struggle to see the exact mechanism at play that can transfer his shenanigans into such dire negativity on the pitch to such great and consistent effect.

I don't pretend to know what the hell is going on and can only revert as always to the something in the fabric line.

Some of the players are not up to scratch - and some required players are simply not at the club. But it runs deeper, and it seems to eventually corrode and destroy what the players do have.

I still think the main problem is waiting to be identified. Cursed? Maybe.

We went into the Leicester game with 14 points after 13 games and on the back of a home win against Palace and an away point at Fulham, we were second best, lost 2 - 0 and is this here we go again?

Yesterday was by some distance our worst performance of the season.

Losing to:

Manchester United
Tottenham
Newcastle and
Chelsea is not surprising as they are all top 7 teams and we are nowhere near that level.

The 6 week break is a blessing and we have to make the most of it to solve our problems. Finding a striker to come in and solve our problems up front is no easy task, who wants to joint a struggling Premier League club? We may have to take a punt on Diaz from Blackburn as no one else springs to mind at present.

I still say we have a much improved back four and a better balanced mid field than last year, however, I have to accept that we are weaker up front.

Gordon, McNeil and Gray are just not producing the goods.

I don't think we should change the manager at present, however, I can see a certain logic to making the change now rather than wait until end of January/early February. Again, what manager wants to join a struggling club?

What coaches are currently available who might be interested in the job?

Knowing how things work at our club we might end up with Stevie G.

Just look at that forward line - Leicester reject, Brighton reject and a player with no goals or assists last season for a relegated team. I doubt if there is a worse front three in the division right now.

So, sack Lampard, keep Lampard, we are not scoring many goals this season, and will be in a relegation battle whoever is in charge.

I see what he hopes to do, make the defensive unit really solid, but all that is happening is that, when we concede the inevitable goal, we haven't the creativity to get back into the game.

Maupay and Calvert-Lewin have such different needs that they are not interchangeable. Could they play together and sacrifice one of the wingers, or even braver, one of the defensive midfielders?

We need occasionally to set out to win a game, not just to keep a point or sneak a win from a breakaway or one of Gray's two wonder goals a season.

They're the same team that looked imperious in hammering Palace so you can't really blame him. He has also played with 3 at the back and it's looked dreadful.

On the wider issue, we're in this mess because we keep chopping and changing managers. We have to let Lampard build.

There have been some good steps forward, and he certainly speaks honestly about the team which suggests he knows what needs to be done. For me, that means he stays and gets two more attacking players in January.

Can't argue with that mate.

Sack Lampard or keep him, I can't see anything changing with this shower of shite.

Same mostly under Benitez and Ancelotti albeit we have lost three players that Carlo had and never replaced them, Sigurdsson, James and Richarlison.

This squad is struggling no matter who is taking over as manager, unfortunately.

Sadly Frank made a few signings in summer that have offered absolutely zero in attack, so he's probably not helped himself on that front.

The money was there, we knew Richarlison was going from a very early stage and, if we'd wanted to, we could have raked in more by the sale of Gordon but chose not to.

As I say, the summer was a huge opportunity missed to correct last season's catastrophe.

That's the top and bottom of it.

Add in a non-creative and unsecure midfield, including the increasingly disappointing Gana, and the yet to prove himself Onana, and we're taking the field with half a team.

Being skint means solutions need innovation and maybe a magic wand.

If something works in one game and doesn't work in six, I would not say it was the right system.

The rest of what you say is dependent on our financial situation. If we have the money, I'd certainly be all in favour of signing as many new players as possible.

I'll be here telling you "I told you so" when we're relegated in May!

We have needed a good manager, not a new ground.

The fact that the team has got far worse since we have had money to spend should have told everyone that a new ground generating money is a misnomer.

After the Ukraine war started, they've all been shut down by Western banks. I'm not sure Farhad Moshiri was ever the real shareholder, or more likely the decision maker. But how and why they ever kept Kenwright on is the real mystery to me. But Kenwright brought them in, which is irrefutable.

The sooner the fans get together and put pressure on this lot the sooner we see change. And it will happen. I don't believe the asset is unsaleable especially given the BMD development, so there will be buyers as there have always been.

Only Kenwright and his minions would play that tune because they want you fearful so they can retain control. We have to be brave. The future will look much brighter once they are gone.

There's no way Soren can predict if he'll still even be posting on Toffeeeweb in May when Fat Frank takes us down

To appoint a proper gaffer, you don't have to be a fortune teller you know!

I suggest you concentrate more on watching how your team is performing and less on lottery "bud".

The worrying thing for me is the way Lampard has the team set up. He has definitely tweaked where Onana is playing.

Gana is the lone holding centre mid and Onana playing more advanced in an unfamiliar role which is making the lad look lost on the pitch. At the start of the season Onana and Gana both played holding which helped out the defence.

Lampard is putting his own head in a noose. I thought the penny had dropped at the end of last season but the stubborn formations and tactics will get him the boot.

I was underwhelmed with Lampard initially and nothing he's done since has changed that - we hired a 'name' not a good manager (we stayed up last season imo mainly thanks to the good start we had under Benitez). However, although I don't think Lampard is/was the right choice, if we sack him now, the same people who chose Lampard will be choosing the next manager. So pot luck as to whether he will be better.

Really is an awful situation we find ourselves in and I only hope we survive the drop until BMD is completed so the club can then be sold to anyone that doesn't keep Kenwright at any level of responsibility at the club.

Should Lampard be sacked now? I'm 50/50 at this point as I just don't trust the powers that be to choose a sensible replacement. Then again, Lampard simply isn't a very good manager. He's a nice guy and says the right things but tactically he's well short of what's needed. Also, I'm still scratching my head at the summer transfers - c£75m spent on Mcneil, Onana, Garner and Maupay. All after we knew for months Richarlison was off and DCL probably going to struggle with injuries. With these transfers, how can be be sure the right players will be brought in in January - they had the whole summer and failed. So, chances are, if we stick to Lampard we'd be taking an equally high risk in going down.

The WC break is bad timing for us as I can't see the board letting Lampard go now and by the time we start again the next transfer window will only be 5 days away - i.e.if we have 2-3 bad results after the WC and Lampard is then sacked (as the board crap themselves), the new guy will have very little time to get to know the squad and get player in that he wants.

Tough times

The others playing ''midfield'' have become so inconsistent apart from Iwobi and the offense as we all know is awful.

I think if things persist like this into the new year then Lampard along with Moyes will be the first sackings.

Lamps. is trying hard but the plan he start's out with invariably fails once they concede and that won't change unless the board comes up with money to buy quality come January 1st.

It's been a miserable time for us diehards not just this season but for many gone by and we deserve better.

Just look how most of the Barcodes team has improved since last season thanks to Eddie Howe who many of us wanted to come here.

If he was with us he would have the same financial restrictions.

I don't know how much is Newcastle's net spend but that alone doesn't guarantee success particularly at the rate it's happening (so far).

I think we here at Everton have a kind of er, understanding of this.

I was surprised last season that we ended up in a relegation battle. I can't see this team and these players being good enough to stay up unless we buy a prolific goal-scorer in January.

Tactics or players?

We have had a merry-go-round of managers all with differing perspectives of how to organise and play but, generally speaking, all have been constrained by the players at their disposal. Despite clearing out a number of players surplus this season, and bringing in fresh faces, the issue that has dogged us remains.

We have seen one of the best in the business walk away from the club, we have seen others sacked; all have tried and all have failed to inspire the squad to raise their game on a consistent basis.

Are the players not good enough? I think this is undoubtably true, but are the tactics employed by the managers, and latterly by Lampard, making the problem worse?

Some are calling for his head, but one look at the list of managers before him begs the question: Is it the players, or the tactics employed that’s the problem for Lampard, and what, realistically, can he do to change it?

Crap is Crap… if the team isn't good enough, it hardly matters who the manager is, they will still be crap. They may raise a game or to but revert to type when they think they are comfortable.

For me, we have 7 players who are good enough. 4 blow hot of cold… the bench is a joke.. Frank is between a rock and a hard place: Does he keep hoping the current lot will have a winning streak or does he buy in, play youth... What are his options?

What we have seen during the week was the entire Everton squad on show, completely unprepared to play matches. Actually, I am not blaming Frank, but a group of players who in the main are being allowed to bluff that they are interested or prepared to put the effort into training.

Frank will have to address weaknesses in the structure, attitude, personnel and downright freeloaders within that structure. He will be attempting a Benitez approach and is likely to experience similar resistance as a result.

In the meantime, pressure will come on Moshiri to offload and Kenwright will supervise the return to Everton DNA for his own interests.

Lampard is having a shocker, but this is something that looked like it could happen, because our midfield three just don't look like they complement each other very much at all.

Gordon and Gray also haven't been good or consistent enough, and like Onana, they have been going missing for parts of every game.

Calvert-Lewin looked like he needed a few games but he's been playing injured and still getting picked, and we also heard Gueye and Onana had been carrying knocks but had still been selected, so maybe this hasn't gone down well with a few of the players, who the manager has refused to play?

People are saying that Coady should be quiet because we've heard it all before, but he's only been here for just over 3 months, so I tended to listen to what he said a little bit more, simply because he wasn't one bit complimentary towards his teammates.

Maybe the players have heard something is happening behind the scenes, and by downing tools on another manager, they might just get rid of him if new owners come in, but when it comes to Everton, most things are just speculation. The only thing consistent about our team is that we don't compete to win anymore.