Leeds United v Everton

Leeds look a decent team and not as open as they were under Bielsa. It will be interesting to see how fare against them and how we line up in defence with Holgate out.

No reason why we can't take 3 points if we keep our shape and concentration.

UTFT

However, given that we are yet to win and also taking into account our upcoming fixtures, I feel tomorrow we need to be winning.

Leeds have started quite well, at Elland Road you know they'll be rocking, but we need to learn how to deal with hostile atmospheres and play the fixture.

We have won one away game since August 2021, that's something that Lampard must change ASAP because we can't rely on the home form either with any major confidence.

It will make for an intriguing game, one where I think Frank needs to alter the formation and also the starting lineup from the Brentford match.

They scare me, and I don't have a lot of hope going into this game.

Tyler Adams is a brilliant footballer, and will shine in the Premier League. Ted Lasso is a great manager, should be the USA National Manager, knows what he's doing, and will be prepared. Aaronson is a spark plug / Energizer Bunny who I'd swap for Gray any day of the week.

I have no confidence going into this game. But that's probably because I overrate the Yank players. Who knows?

He is a spectacular manager.

Ain't even worried. 0-5 to us. Goals from Tarkowski, Mykolenko, Onana, Gordon and Rondon. Red card for Marsh and Rodrigo.

I really hope you're right. I'm not near as confident.

If you look at our schedule (fixtures) it's pretty much hell after this game until right around Halloween!

I've tried not to be a doom-monger, but frankly we look like a blunt weapon and if things don't change I'm very confident we will 100% be in a relegation battle two years in a row.

I'm beginning to get very concerned. Our football doesn't bother me, I like Frank a lot, we just can't score enough goals.

Well done to those who have managed to get a ticket... (Neil)!

I base my prediction on the phenomena of the team that can't score randomly scoring a bunch of goals.

I remember when GG was at Arsenal and Wrighty was the only person scoring and he got injured before they played Standard Liege so there was great consternation. Yet they won 7-1, and 10-1 on aggregate.

Likewise, the Walter Smith Everton same thing then we randomly thrashed West Ham 6-0. I think it's time for this rare, solar eclipse-like event to strike again.

No mention on here as far as I can see. It's on the BBC and has been since yesterday

Leeds 0 v Everton 1 - Iwobi, 88,

Leeds have had a good start to the season but I still expect them to be in the mix at the bottom of the table by the end of the season so a win will really will be a good result for us.

Leeds United away is always tough for Everton even going back to our 60’s glory days, so while a point would be welcome all three points would help our current league position no end. My feeling is that all three results are possible although like the bookies I tend to favour (but hope not) a home win. How Everton it would be for us to win only to have ToffeeWebbers complaining that we should of taken a point and left the win for Saturday coming.

Frank Lampard has us playing a faster more watchable game in patches to date and as this seems to be on an upward curve at the moment changing coaches any time soon would be a mistake. Thankfully he seems level headed and intelligent enough to play his strongest eleven and to give youth its chance along the way. The amount of English born players in the dressing room is surely a good thing for team morale and bonding and with the sprinkling of some overseas stardust will bode well for the future.

Little steps seem to be being taken by all connected with the club to make us better both on and off the field and long may that continue. It seems that only if Moshiri sells will there be any changes at boardroom level. So unless the likes of Don Alexander, Jay Harris and Brian Murray come up with the money to buy the club outright we will be living with what we have for some time yet. I commend the club on the work to date at BMD but as the boardroom is aware the finest stadium in the Championship is not an option.

We have just less than two seasons remaining at Goodison Park and although highly unlikely we will add to our Champions haul of nine in that time. A Cup success is not beyond reason and hope springs eternal (copyright Danny O’Neill.)

The Spirit of the Blues.

Even if I had the money (and I had more than Bill in 1999). I would not put it into a football club.

Although we all throw our opinions and desires here on ToffeeWeb none of us could run a Premier League club, let alone my beloved Everton, as top football people would.

I do feel that many of us would run it better than Moshiri or Kenwright though and that still remains a bone of contention.

I like the improved style of play that Frank has introduced but bemoan how easy we are to beat.

I just hope we get some better players and goalscorers and am yet to understand the logic of acquiring McNeil for £20M which we don't have.

Frank Lampard has us playing a faster more watchable game in patches to date and as this seems to be on an upward curve at the moment changing coaches any time soon would be a mistake.

I agree with this 1000%!

If we had a decent pacy striker and could beat the Leeds high press we may have got something tomorrow.

Fingers crossed

They've got legs all over the pitch and I fear that will be the difference tomorrow night, particularly when it comes to us trying to play out through their press.

My cousin lives near Leeds and has messaged me today asking for a ticket. I have told him to keep an eye on this thread as sometimes they get sold here but should he be successful in his quest, I can't see him watching anything other than a Leeds win unfortunately.

I fancy 2-1 to the hosts but I hope I'm wrong.

Full support.
Onward Evertonians 💙

Oh and by the way, the Leeds manager is a bell. Just a pure simple bell.

2-3 points from the first 5 fixtures is embarrassing given that 4 of these fixtures are against teams in and around us.

Criminal and embarrassing for the club to say judge us after the window closes, almost telling its fans we are writing off a possible 15 points.

I'm still hopeful of us getting another point tomorrow, but we will have to score at least one goal to achieve it. Maybe Maupay or even Onana can open their accounts for us tomorrow or Gordon might possibly demonstrate his shooting skills once again, preferably in the 94th minute.

Hoping for a Rondon-free evening and a point, so we can face that lot on Saturday with some confidence.

I'll take a point from Leeds tbh.

Overall, I think we look better than last year but it will take time for the new players to settle and formation to come good.

I dunno Mate, I think you are over-optimistic with that score.

I am expecting a win; but more like 3-0. with Moupay, Gordon and Onana doing the honours.

Stay positive all and safe journey!!

Pickford
Coleman, Tarkowski, Coady, Mykolenko
Allan, Iwobi, Onana,
Gordon, Maupay, Gray.

Only been to Elland Rd once in the '60s. Horrible place.

Up the Blues!

Then comes the long slog of sweating on the next transfer window.

What we should do is organise a protest for the derby game, worked when we played Arsenal and also worked for Man Utd against the Red shite, whenever a demo is arranged, the teams involved seem to turn out a result.

Nothing to lose. :-)

Leeds have lost their two best players from last season. We should be able to give them a good game.

Time will tell if they’re an improvement.

Fingers, toes, eyes crossed.

Pity as, despite the prevailing opinion, we have a fairly decent side.

Best we can probably get is a point – in spite of Lampard's stubbornness.

It would be nice to think we could get a win tonight, with the players in their best and most natural positions. If we can do this and start to build a little confidence results will surely improve.

Leeds knew they were very likely to lose Raphinha and Phillips. They bought Aaronson and Sinisterra to replace Raphinha and Adams and Roca to replace Phillips. They also bought and excellent young RB in Kristensen for £11m and a very young talent in Gyabi. Crucially they finished all of this about a week or so before the first game of the season.

We on the other hand are still scrabbling for 2-3 important players after we've played our 5th game. I know it's not easy but this habit we've developed of waiting till transfer deadline to make our moves is really damaging.

As for the match it will be a tough one (they all are). Marsch has Leeds better organized and we tend to melt under aggressive presses like theirs. Maupay will not be totally match sharp after very few minutes this season and we have to hope that the likes of Gordon and Gray can be be clinical and use the ball better when we get it.

As much as we could use a win I'd be relatively content with a draw.

Are you telling me if Brighton had an injury to one of their strikers, they would not have risked him because he had not played enough first-team games?

I think a point tonight would not be a disaster but 3 points is what we need. COYB

Will Lampard be given enough time, if that is the case? I really hope so because I can see what he's trying to build despite working with one hand tied behind his back.

I'm just hoping that sometimes the Blues do better in games when you have low expectations. If it were me, I would sell Gordon and try and get 2 or 3 players in to bolster our attack.

It's going to be an interesting week, anyway. It's never dull as an Evertonian is it?

Even so, attack is the best form of defence, so that's how I'd play it.

Pickford

Patterson
Tarkowski
Coady
Mykolenko

Davies
Onana
Iwobi

Gordon
Maupay

I like your confidence, expecting us to beat them with only 10 men!

Lampard was born to be cautious and will hail a no-score draw a victory. Thus he will continue his path to relegation.

Frank is changing the way we play which will take time and some iffy results along the way. We need a win tonight as the following two games are very difficult.

Maupay will make a difference as will Gana if he ever gets here. In the meantime I would go 4-3-3 and play young Warrington as the holding midfielder. He looks ready to me and we badly need someone to play in that role. If not him then Tom or Allan.

We can win this.

Lampard's in-game management is also suspect, he looks clueless as our goal comes under bombardment and appears to just have his fingers crossed that we won't concede, his subs are also baffling.

How about we just try 4-4-2 Frank which can change to 4-5-1 when not in possession, is that too complex for the poor little feeble minds of our players.

It'd be nice to watch a game without constantly having your blood pressure going through the roof as highly paid professionals constantly struggle to do the basics, keep it tight don't concede early and please can we pass and move, preferably forward.

With Calvert-Lewin likely to be in and out all season as he prevaricates on his career choice, football or fashion, the signing of an out-and-out centre-forward before the window shuts is an absolute must but the club is run on such a chaotic, amateurish basis that I doubt it will happen

Heartbreaking that this once-proud club has been brought to this place where we are now has-beens and rightly dismissed as non-contenders.

Kenwright OUT!

But then I'm also expecting Jesus to return this afternoon, world peace to break out by dinner time, and to win £100 million on the lottery (which will be extra impressive because I don't know how to buy a ticket).

If you swap Forest for one of the teams that went down, we are already 4 points down on last season's memorable fare, and that moves to five if we are pointless tonight. And we've had an easy start and aren't even out of August.

Normally you'd get shot down for such pessimism but does anyone seriously expect us to win tonight? We were very poor last season, as were Leeds with their new guy. Now, well we can barely see them in the distance. They've hammered the team that beat us on cruise control at home.

The thing which really is starting to bug me is I think Frank doesn't rate us. He's behaving as someone would who's gone to a terrible club, and been asked to do the best for them.

Right, we're hopeless at the back, let's go with five at the back, home and away. That then allows our weak fullbacks not to be so exposed, and who knows they might get forward every now and then.

That's now our threat from the flanks: 'we might get forward once in a while'.
Obviously, this retrograde set-up has left us totally rudderless going forward.

The only ploy we have is literally a well-timed big hoof. It's not fucking good enough. I want the two wingers back, four at the back, and a passing game.

If Frank thinks that's pie in the sky, he needs to go.

The blame is all on Bill Kenwright and his cronies that have systematically ruined Everton through total and utter incompetence and greed. He is a cancerous wart sucking the last vestiges of life from a decaying carcass.

If we get a point tonight, it will be well earned. However, I see no evidence it will be forthcoming.

It's 3 at the back in possession and 5 for stability whilst defending. People are forgetting how poor we have looked defensively the past few years, and I personally think we look pretty solid. My only concern is, whilst using this system the intention is to attack with 5, the two wing backs and the front 3.

A lot of teams – including Brentford, Forest etc – play the system with 2 strikers. From what I can see, we rarely get people in the box when we are attacking which is an issue.

If we play this system with a striker it should hopefully work. Bare in mind we're in early days in building a system that works, rather than comparing us against teams who have had years to get used to it.

We've looked abysmal at the back Lee. The ideal is that it's a 3 man back line in possession.. but that's only the case if you can keep possession and transition forward. Second half at the weekend was a permanent back 5 with us hoofing it away in possession. We looked confused and bewildered playing that system. Tarkowski looks utterly clueless in it.

And then there's the impact on midfield.

Most teams are not playing a back 5.

Worryingly delusional stuff.

Brentford chucked everything at us and on another day they could have scored 4, but I would argue if we had an outlet, it wouldn't have been coming back as easy.

Most teams are playing a variation of 3 at the back, with wingbacks, I said.

Four at the back and five in midfield with Allan until such time we get the world class players to play Frank's way.

It's not like we've conceded 6 goals a game. Last season, every time we conceded a corner, we conceded a goal. No-one has even scored an own-goal yet.

The other thing to consider is that our attack is weak. Consequently our defense is under pressure for more of the game. At this level, even a good defense under the kosh is bound to concede sooner or later.

And what's your benchmark for a good defense? Man City? Man Utd? Chelsea? All of whom have been torn through already.

I like the way we are building from the back this season with an intention for the long cross ball, passing between the lines to Iwobi to build and over the top accurate passes from Coady for the goal we saw on Saturday.

The last few seasons were unbearable watching the nervy slow passing between Keane and Godfrey until someone wellied it up to Calvert-Lewin expecting him to magically pull it out of thin air surrounded by 2 defenders.

It's work in progress at the minute without any attacking threat and little on the bench.

Did you watch Tarkowski against Forest? He was all over the place. Patterson was not much better.

That is exactly what we have been experiencing.

A 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 can work but you have to push up and control the transition of play.

It fails miserably when you hoof the ball forward to a non-existent centre-foward to bring it under control and hold up play. Maupay will not solve this problem, and neither will a front 3 consisting of wingers whose goalscoring record is abysmal.

IMO we should play 4-4-2 in away games and 4-3-3 at home especially now we seem to have Gana Gueye back.

Agreed, Tarkowski made some poor mistakes against Forest. And I am not saying we are perfect by any means but we are a lot more solid and comparatively much better defensively than attack.

In recent seasons if someone made a mistake, Ashley Williams would put his head under his shirt, Pickford would scream, Mason spit his gum, and Coleman pat the culprit Keane on the back as they all stopped play and allowed the goal to be conceded.

Now, at least if someone screws up, someone else will make an effort to stop it. That's a big difference. But over time I think, with the better quality players we now have, the misunderstandings and mistakes will also become more infrequent.

Just because the (overly average) opposition haven't capitalised and put 6 past us doesn't negate the mistakes that have been so obvious in defending (although on another day Brentford could have).

I'd also suggest that we are weak in attack precisely because of this formation – it's a regressive argument to say this formation isn't working because our offence is weak. The offence is clearly weakened by the formation... and there appears to be no added benefit to the defence given the bewildered performances.

If Lampard can't do anything else, then I fear he is for the birds.

In my opinion, we'd have been better off loaning Levi Colwill (or someone else mobile) than Conor Coady for this reason.

The verbal commitments we've made to the new signings really does mean we're stuck with this formation for the most part. Just have to hope everything clicks together at some point.

Also of note will be the defence. If he decides against a back four, then we can assume that is what he will be sticking to.

I haven't a clue about the result. We are capable of tearing teams apart with our approach play but can we find the net and can our midfield screen our ever-retreating centre-halves?

Pickford

Mykolenko
Coady
Tarkowski

Patterson
Onana
Iwobi
Vinagre (or perhaps McNeil)

Gray
Maupay
Gordon

Why anyone thinks we're going to change with Kevin Thelwell at the club is beyond me.

If you don't know what I'm on about, feel free to Google his book and get yourself a copy. It's a thrilling read.

Not taking the mick here but we're you being serious when you said:

“We are capable of tearing teams apart with our approach play”

???

Onto tonight, we really, really need the points. Let's hope Maupay gets off to a flyer.