Premier League — Matchweek 11

Rebecca and the lads on NBC prattling on about Edu leaving Arsenal... who cares? But it tweaked a long-buried memory from years back that Edu was going to be the world's greatest ever footballer who would blow everyone else away.

Thought I'd check to see if they were connected — and what did happen to Edu? Well, Wikipedia list at least 40 'Edu' footballers… so which one is it???

Brighton showing what can happen by not being frightened by Man City's reputation.

Man City have been frightened of Brighton for most of the second-half, Bill, and that's why they are now losing.

A bit of an Everton-like performance from City, take the lead and then sit deeper and deeper until the inevitable happens, albeit with far superior players to our lot.

Well I suppose once more supporters will be asking Where the hell do Brighton get their managers from?

I suppose the answer is, unlike Everton, they have people that understand the modern game.

Ah shite.

Salah would catch Doucouré if he gave him a 20-yard start.

That's where most of our problems lie: pace (or lack of it).

That was a very fast goal.

Bailly should have got a red, goal or not.

Villa playing right into their hands by throwing everyone up for corners and getting transitioned to death.

Do you mean Freddy Adu, Michael? The US wonderkid who flopped? It's not him.

The Edu who has just left Arsenal as DoF or similar is the left-footed midfielder who, I think, replaced Petit. He's credited with recruiting / assembling the squad which has got them back on track under Arteta.

What a block that was by Torres.

Watching the shite game with music on (Buddy Guy 60s Chess masters), I must say it's a delight not to listen to the commentators. I don't normally watch the Orcs but it's more palatable with music on.

Maybe it's the way forward when watching the Blues? Felt like using an ice cream scoop to remove my peepers this afternoon.

Bill, Hurzeler is doing well, that's true. But I suppose you could also say that Brighton are bearing the fruits of painstakingly building a squad through top-class scouting, statistical analysis adapted from the owner's betting business technology, youth development, use of an affiliate club in Belgium etc etc and then spending over £200M this summer.

I think if we'd done all of those things in recent years, we'd find it fairly straightforward to get ourselves a decent manager.

Robert.

This is a half-decent squad of players we've got now, we obviously need 2 full-backs and a half-decent striker who's a 1-in-3 goals-per-game man.

But other than that, there's some good young players here, Iroegbunam, Branthwaite, Ndiaye, Mangala – albeit on loan… I've not seen that much of Chermiti apart from the odd cameo but he may come good.

Dyche is wasting Ndiaye playing him out wide, he's a playmaker and would be better suited playing just behind the strikers. Yes, because a new coach might possibly play the thing that Sean would have nightmares about: playing 2 up top from the off.

It's the manager who needs changing and the system tweaking because, believe me, these players aren't as bad as some make out.

Under Dyche, we've got to believe there's 3 worse teams, fortunately there's 2 in Ipswich and Southampton… who that other is, god only knows.

Brighton have shown that it doesn't take years and years to get a structure in place. It takes getting a good manager in and a brilliant scouting system and teaching them how to pass, move, pass, move, pass, move, shoot, score, press.

It's honestly not that hard, and it's not something that takes years. You are talking about coaching professional athletes some basic skills which many already have otherwise they wouldn't have made it so far already.

I'd wager if, for example, we had Eddie Howe managing some of these players we have now, we'd be a far far more adventurous football team and you'd see Ndiaye, McNeil, Harrison, Calvert-Lewin prosper more than we are now.

Harrison under Bielsa, Kalvin Phillips under Bielsa – two prime examples of a good manager getting hold of players and maximizing them.

Dyche is the most basic of basic football managers. A negative pragmatist that, at the age of what, 54, is unlikely to ever change his mantra now.

He falls into the Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis, Mark Hughes school of thinking. As long as he doesn't lose thats all that matters.

Every game Everton win is like a non-league team in the FA Cup shocking a higher-ranked team, it shouldn't really happen and we should be eternally grateful for when it does happen and all hail the Messiah we have in charge for making it happen.

Jim #15,

I think (hope) some of the building blocks are already in place or getting there at least. We've begun recruiting more heavily at age 15 to 17 - players like Clarke, Loney, Graham and Gomez. We've beefed up our scouting in Scandinavia as a reliable low-cost market. It's a start.

Ipswich 2 up at Spurs !!!!

We need Spurs to come through for us in the second half.

Ipswich have gone away to Spurs, not shit themselves.

And are winning 2-0!

Need to follow Liam's idea and play some Junior Kimbrough or RL Burnside. Richy for the comeback.

Richarlison injured unfortunately.

Spurs, one back.

Damn, goal disallowed.

I've got Spurs in last man standing today…

Of course they are shitting the bed, for fuck's sake!

Thanks Kevin, I'm watching from the kitchen barely awake.

Alright then.

Spurs one back again!!

This one's standing this time, game on!

If Man Utd score again, I believe we go above Leicester City.

Not much time left though.

Funny how we can never go to a tough away ground and get a win.

I think our aggregate score against Spurs away over the last 4 matches is 18-0.

Think Ange might be looking for a new job after that defeat.

Not really funny, Daniel.

One word is all it comes down to.

Belief.

That's because we never go away with the intention to win.

A draw or get lucky appears to be Dyche's only tactic.

Dog eat dog at the bottom. Three from seven to go down.

I still believe it will be the three promoted sides that will get relegated come May.

Forest looked weak to me. Barcodes deserved the win. Curse of manager and player of the month strikes again!

Ruuds brought a smile back into Old Trafford – an outside shout for next Everton manager? We'd keep hold of Branthwaite if that happened.

Spurs doing a "Spurs that!". Arsenal will win to rub it in now.

Watching Chelsea v Arsenal, with the commentary on, which is highly unusual for me, and the constant interruptions from Mike Dean are so annoying, why do we need a former referee in the comms team?

Spit the dog is bad enough, but Mike Dean??

Mike Dean is a tit, Fred.

How many leads has Arteta now lost?

I really don't get the praise he gets with the backing he's had. Tactically inept and his game management is questionable.

As Paul Ferry mentioned on one of the match day threads yesterday, some managers do hold their hands up and say so in public, when results or performances are not deemed good enough.

When asked about the reasons for their inconsistency, Postecoglou told BBC Sport: "It's just down to me. I'm not getting consistent performances from the players.

"It's something I need to address. I'm the person in charge so that's usually the way it goes.

"I take responsibility when their performances don't meet the levels that they should."

How long do Evertonians have to wait for a 'good' weekend or even a good football day this season? Every set of fixtures seems to end in a plethora of good news for our Nay Bores.

So, in the absence of meaningful footy this weekend due to some tinpot international shite, I filled the void by watching my local side, Horsham, beat Maidstone in the FA trophy.

I had a few pints, caught up with some mates, and occasionally watched the game. It was shite.

Nothing beats a Saturday watching Everton, no matter how shite we are recently.

I'm enjoying watching the English public school lads being taken apart by South Africa, Mark.

I've got a top dry white for later and a biography of Monet that I'm loving and the sun is shining and I'm gonna nip to the local deli at half-time who make the most incredible pepperoni/roast beef sarnie.

Maidstone isn't too far from me, Mark, and the club I coached, Hayes and Yeading, used to play them.

Not so much at youth level, but the senior team tactics could be summed up with pass, pass between the centre-backs and goalkeeper. Sound familiar?

The clock is counting down and we'll be back at Goodison next Saturday.

Paul #41

I'm in Donegal (Ireland)... freezing and dark several hours ago.

But there's a little breakfast spot less than five minutes walk away... I'll be hitting it in the morning when the "sun" gives us half a nod. You can order Guinness with your cereal and no... I've never done it.

Dry white and Monet... I've had worse evenings.

The whole public school in sport thing is interesting. For example, 15% of the England Football team squad at the Euros were privately educated, which looks pretty high for such a traditionally working class sport.

Part of the reason for the rise in privately educated footballers (even good old scouse "Trent" was moved by the RS from his private school to a club sponsored state school), is that there are so many young players of African, often Nigerian, descent coming into the game, particularly in London. Some of those families put a really high emphasis on education and will find the money for a private school.

And then there are the clubs themselves, who sometimes put their young players into private schools to further their development. So Cole Palmer and Phil Foden were both privately educated at St Bede's in Manchester, despite being solid working class Mancunians.

The same has always applied for rugby and tennis players. The ones who are discovered early often get full burseries to go to private school like Millfield which have top facilities and coaching.

So, right now, the England Rugby squad only has about twice the amount of privately educated players as the England football squad, and I wouldn't be surprised if the gap closed even more.

Example - Tyrique George, Chelsea's brilliant young Saka-esque winger, went to Royal Russell School, a private school in Croydon. Ethan Nwaneri, latest Arsenal prodigy, went to St Johns in Enfield, another private school.

Deeply moving piece about the great Sunderland, City and England center half Dave Watson on right now.

Poor chap seems to be the latest footballer shown to have incurred brain damage through repeatedly heading the ball for years. His Mrs says he has virtually no short term memory

Fitting and deserved tribute to one of the bravest men to have played the game. He was invited to be a guest of honour at the England game, but Ian Wright weighed in claiming it's a too little. He says the powers that be have not dealt with this issue as robustly as they maybe should have

Not sure if I've seen any mention of today's women's derby. Currently beating Liverpool due to a very strange penalty decision. The decision looked so decisively dodgy that I think the ref might be a relative of David Coote. :)

PF and Brendan, got you both beat. Today's my birthday, and in keeping with Chinese tradition my wife and her Mama are hand-making my favorite wide noodles for me. You wouldn't believe how good they are.

No Guinness, though.

Great to see the women beat Liverpool, especially due to the controversial penalty. Ha

Happy Birthday Mike👍🏻🍾🥂

Talk about KITAP1! Great defending by the Everton Women.

Miracles sometimes happen.

Everton amazingly get the benefit of a refereeing decision
in a Derby match and win as well.

Well done ladies !!!

There were several highlights to the women's match.

1. A dodgy penalty for us.

2. Several shouts for a rs penalty in the 2nd half, all waved away, to the dismay of the Sky commentators.

3. Hearing loud female voices singing “And we'll fight, fight, fight, with all our might, for the girls in the royal blue jersey. Kopites are gobshites”

4. Most wonderfully, a superb double save by our goalie, Brosnan, diving to her right for the first save, then scrambling to thwart the unfortunate Fuka in the red shirt for the second!

I started watching casually and ended screaming at the telly.

Well done the Everton Women.

Mike #48

Happy birthday & enjoy your noodles.

If I had known you were celebrating I may have chanced that Guinness this morning.

Have one for me, Brendan!

Happy birthday MG! Bit shitty, having a pot noodle on your 70th.

Happy birthday Mike and here's to many more of 'em. 🎉🍹🍻🎊

Peter # 53…….there was also another poor refereeing decision in the first half go in our favour, when a foul was given on our keeper, which was never a foul, with the ball being put in the net by a RS player. As well as the penalty in our favour, which was never a penalty, the several shouts by them for a penalty, the funniest being the last one, I think, when one of our defenders was clearly pushed in the back, falling onto the ball, and the female commentator shouting for a penalty.

Now they know how the rest of us feel every week when decisions don't go in the favour of RS opponents.

I believe following the women's controversial derby win that the redshite have demanded Coote be arrested because it was his fault.

Happy birthday, Mike? Chinese food? I hope it’s kosher, mate😉😄😄

Brian, they will probably demand a replay!

Banners already being printed Rob. The march is tomorrow. 🤣

Clear penalty for England.

Actually Brian. They're asking for him to be sentenced.

Happy Birthday Mr Gaynes

Paddy Carsley's lads get a pen.

Skunk maggot cry baby makes it 2-0.

Now that was a great goal.

Jimmy Joyce's boys are falling apart.

🦨 🔔 end! 😁

Oh dear, 6-0

Nooooo Paul it's just one goal per errr goal.

He's going all Dyche Paddy Carsley, bringing all these kids on

Gallagher looked offside when putting in the third, but it was only his arm.

Harwood-Bellis is dating Roy Keane's daughter. He'd better get her home by 11-00.

Looked off to me

took Gordon 9; took Bowen 14 and first touch

Harwood-Bellis is going to get battered tomorrow or tonight.

Another one and it's mystic Ferry never mind mystic Meg. 🤣

6-0 in bookings Brian. Actually it's 7-0 now.

That last booking was a soft one.

That sending off was very harsh; never a second yellow. Refs normally go easy in that situation.

And now it's Thomas the German.

First time ever that England have been promoted.

Thomas the panzer you mean?

The double-agent twat still say's that Hurst's goal was not a goal CG.

Happy birthday MG.

Paul 85 - it wasn't a goal but no ref at Wembley was going to call that!

We have a great Scottish referee of a certain age who officiates at the young grandsons' games. If ever a shot goes in off the crossbar he'll shout “No chance, never a goal, this isn't Wembley ‘66”.

Only the grandads understand!

Alright, I'll defer to older wisdom and sagacity.

I've just had a good look at our penalty today and I'm smiling from ear to ear.

Never a penalty in a month of Sundays but what schadenfreude now the shoe is on the other foot.

Word of the day: Sagacity

That's the level of erudition I've come to expect from TW and keeps me returning.

I've had the pleasure of meeting and drinking with Peter in Crosby Neil. He is the epitome of being sagacious!

From reading his posts I don't doubt it for a second Paul

Fantastic free kick from Digne.

Criminal selling him.

Go on NewsNow Everton, and one of the news pages is asking should VAR be introduced into the women's game after what happened at Goodison today?

My own view of the VAR vote in the summer was that the block voting was probably engineered by the television industry behind the scenes, but maybe I'm just a conspiracist.

Ha, ha, Paul #91, so sagacious that I couldn't wait to use the line about “the unfortunate Fuka in the red shirt”, hoping that nobody would beat me to it!

I'd scrap VAR completely, Tony.

It's a load of bollocks and causes more confusion than before we had it.

Tough loss to take at Chorley of all places yesterday, Peter, after murdering the yokels in the league.

Mind you, we can concentrate on the league and try to hover on the right side of the relegation zone. It's a big step up. But I but that Barry Lenton is having a ball.

On VAR, I think, if an offside decision is close enough that they have to draw lines, then it should be onside.

But they'd probably still find a way to fuck it up!

It's not been been implemented properly.

And the fundamental issue in my opinion is the standard officials and the decision makers at Stockley Park.

VAR can work if implemented by competent officials, as it does in other sports.

Happy Birthday Mike G, enjoy your noodles.

Danny, being transparent would be a decent start and introduce a time limit for the VAR decision, which if exceeded or expired, would result in the on-field decision standing.

They always seem to be looking for a reason to disallow a goal for offside whereas I think the benefit of the doubt should always go with the team on the attack to help promote a more positive game (unless it's the RS of course in which case offside should always be given!).

Paul #97,

Three generations of the family took the short trip to Chorley. It was a good game, the Mariners could have been leading in the first 20 minutes, then again had a period of dominance after halftime. But they are struggling to score goals, which makes football a hard game, as we know.

Even then, at 3-0 down, we scored with about 10 minutes to go. The Chorley goalie then made a great save, had the effort gone in it would have been game on for a penalty shootout. But it was not to be.

We had an excellent day, the 2 grandsons each having a game in the morning before we set off. And no Everton to worry about.

Neil #98,

"I think if an offside decision is close enough that they have to draw lines then it should be onside".

But what is "close enough", Neil? Your "close enough" might not be mine. And we go home arguing about whether it was close enough, whether it was on or off.

Whereas VAR takes all the doubt away. Ah, well maybe not! But you see my point.

Great stuff Peter. Makes me homesick!

Thanks for the BD wishes, guys.

It was, Colin. No pork sausage in the noodles.

Neil and PF, Pete left out the best thing about his day out -- his grandson scored a goal and lofted a lovely high shot off the post.

Brent, close enough that they have to draw lines to determine, i.e. not obvious to the naked eye.

If it's that close, just call it onside, we'd get more goals and less delays. But as I said, they'd still fuck it up somehow.

Michael #45,

Watch "The English Game" which is all about how football was originally a "gentleman's" game played by southern toffs until those northern factory workers started fielding professional Scots players and took it over.

One of our TW parish wrote one of the episodes, sorry I can't remember your name!

I hope you had a good one, Mike.

Talking of football documentaries, I recommend the Maradona one, the Francesco Totti one and a not-so-well-known one, Tony Kroos.

Talking of good watches this video is well worth a watch and goes into more depth about the migration to the new stadium:

How Everton Plan To Move You Into the New Stadium | Everton's Head Of Data Science and Insight: Mike Gittins

I know somebody already posted this link but felt it merited more exposure.