Silva's men buckle at Brighton as VAR finally comes for Everton

History tells us we have to cut loose, I simply don't believe he is going to put us on the path we want to be on (given the financial support he has had). Can you honestly see him making a genuine attempt on the top four in two season's time?

What Silva needed to do from the start was get the team organised and make us hard to beat. He has failed miserably and we are easy to beat.

The signings have made us worse and it was criminal to let Jags go before securing a replacement. It was Jags who settled the team down last season when we were on that horrendous run of form.

The only thing to do now is bring in Mourinho who will get us organised and will win more games than Silva for sure. It would be an appointment Kopites would fear and we would at last have a big personality to rival our neighbours' manager. He would get our club buzzing right from the off. It is a no-brainer.

But we understood that VAR would only be used to correct clear and obvious mistakes by the officials. But what has become clear under the guidance of Mike Riley who was an awful referee, but is now in charge of match officials, that this original remit of clear and obvious mistakes is anything but clear and obvious. When some decisions are taking up to 7 minutes for the muppet at Stokely Park to adjudicate then it neither clear or obvious to take that long.

So why is Riley allowed to bring his own set of rules in to play, and when are these people ever going to be scrutinized for the decisions they make supposedly for the good of the game. I have never seen any interview with Riley regarding what the VAR official would and wouldnt be looking at. Whose idea was it to put monitors at the side of the pitch yet as far as I am aware no referee has ever gone to the monitor to review the decision. When VAR gets involved the customer ie us fans are not allowed to see what the VAR official is looking at. So how come when they have a similar review system in rugby,cricket or tennis the customer is allowed to see what they are reviewing so why not football fans.

So the match official is told by the VAR official what he is checking, but isn't allowed to see the review for himself so has no imput into the review decision. Yet yesterday in the Rugby the referee Nigel Owens went to the video referee on a couple of occasions and what they were reviewing was up on the big screen for everybody to see. Also everybody could hear the conversation between the Referee and the adjudicator looking at the incident and between them they came to a decision.

I am afraid that unless that VAR is only used as an advisory tool to assist the referee then its days are numbered. For me the system should allow a VAR official to contact the referee to say you may want to look at this incident. Then the referee goes over to the pitch side monitor to check and what he is looking at should also be displayed on the big screen. But ultimately the on field referee makes the final decision.

The VAR referee Lee Mason has decided the result a game of football on a very dubious decision.

The first pen this season given against the refs decision so you think it would be 100% clear cut.

It was clear and obvious that it was not ''clear and obvious''.

Lee Mason VAR ref should apologise and should step down. If not he should be put on gardening leave.

Its been almost good for offsides , but decisions like this are just a case very debatable opinion. It renders VAR useless in these instances and menace to the essence of football.

What a waste of time and money for our fabulous travelling supporters.

PS Any news on why VAR wasnt used for Richarlison's shirt getting tugged and being manhandled to the ground ?

Or any news why Mina's header was ruled out last week ?

The beginning of the end started the moment Gylfi Sigurdsson stepped on the pitch at 30.’

Yes we still controlled the majority of play to see out the first half, and Gylfi had what, 2 touches, 1 shot before going even more invisible than ever? If that’s even possible. Moving Iwobi out wide to accommodate him ruined what little cohesiveness and flow the midfield had left. So now to start the second half, Iwobi had little to do with much play, Gylfi assumed his role as the do-nothing guy, and we were back to having a giant, gaping patch of space in the middle of the park. Potter very astutely realized this and brought Trossard on to utterly demonize us and take advantage of that error for the final 30’

I’m not saying the outcome would have changed because I can’t possibly know that, but a simple Kean on for Bernard and assuming the center forward spot with Richy moving wide left where he loves to play, leaving Iwobi in the middle, surely would have produced a better outcome, no?

Then bringing Delph on for Davies (which should actually have been for Gomes) makes sense, as does DCL for Walcott, and we get a formation that looks like this:

Pickford
Sidibe Keane Holgate Digne
Davies Iwobi Delph
DCL Kean Richarlison (or whatever combo you want up top)

DCL and Davies and Delph are all smart enough and get around the pitch well, and IMO would never have left Sidibe out to dry like that. Besides Holgate’s beautiful pass to DCL, can anyone point to another decent run of form in the entire 2nd half? Hard to do so when you’re playing a man down. I’m 99% sure we don’t lose that game. Lots and lots wrong with the match, but to me it all began when Gylfi came on at 30’

Curious if I'm alone in this thinking.

And then that maddening inconsistency you mentioned. Why did Mason not whisper in the ref's ear to let him know he completely missed what should have been an awarded penalty to Richy?

Forget the Mina thing. The moment he blew the whistle VAR is removed from the picture. Not sure if you're interested or not, but ESPN did a very thorough write-up on how VAR is supposed to be used in the EPL:

Link

For a few years now I’ve said that I’m done with football but my passion for all things Everton always pulls me back - I really think I am close to giving it up now though especially as I also love rugby and that is at least still played in the right spirit and is less morally corrupt than the grotesque PL.

Oh, Silva out too - the substitutions yesterday were obscene (despite DCL scoring) and the guy is a loser

On a lesser issue is there anyone else out there sick and tired of Richarlison throwing himself to the ground as if he had been shot. He should have had a penalty as he was pulled but the way he goes to ground does him no favours.

No pal there hasn't been an explanation and there won't be because these officials can do as they please. I still think VAR is good in principle but these utter idiots can't or rather won't apply it correctly and fairly.

Apparently Mason has awarded more penalties against Everton than any referee post war, just another day on the Everton rollercoaster.

You must of watched a different game to me, as i wrote after the game last night 'Silva's brave new world of 4-3-3 looked sadly out of touch as the usual fault line of midfield incompetence took hold of this match straight from the kick off. Brighton where pouring through the middle and it was no surprise when they took the lead'.

We were already a goal down when Siggy came on, Silva had took the fans advice and stuck to the same team but we didn't have a shot to speak of during that first 30 minutes, the fact is we just don't have or Silva can't get the right attitude out of the players available, whatever formation he picks away from home, but for some there always has to be a scapegoat.

Sigurdsson has been awful, but don't be ridiculous and suggest it's his fault we keep losing. Bernard, Gomes and Iwobi were annoymous early on and I thought Iwobi did a bit better on the wing once the substitution was made. He's definitely not a CM. He's far too erratic in his distribution of the ball.

Gomes didn't have a good game but Iwobi was involved in a lot of the good things we did until he was taken off whereas apart from press every now and then, have a pot-shot from 25 yards and jog back lackadaisically while Brighton attacked, Sigurdsson did very little.

Brighton showed, just as we did against West Ham, that pace, tempo and speed of thought win matches. Sigurdsson's not the sole reason why we're not winning matches but I believe he is a big factor because he is badly out of form.

He's not my latest scapegoat by a long shot; I've felt he was a ginormous problem since last year.

Re: Iwobi being/not being a CM. You probably know better than Arsenal and Nigeria, so when you have a moment let them both know they've used him wrong this entire time.

We need a massive personality in charge that can give a rudderless club some direction and impose himself on the club, training ground and dressing room.

We need someone that can change the entire culture. That can end the loser mentality and inferiority complex that has permeated the entire club.

'Silva is turning decent players - who have proved they have what it takes to play and win - into hesitant average performers away from home. bereft of belief and confidence' 

I think the above comment could be directed at any of the managers we have had of late, especially from Martinez onwards. Although we have had a large turnover of players of late, we have had decent players/squad for a few years, but no-one seems to be able to get the team to be motivated enough to put in a performance over a consistent length of time. General malaise has set in.

I think we need another root and branch sort out of the club. Could take years...

However, the sad part is, we are only 5 points off 5th place...so with a bit more effort, luck or whatever, the season could look so different.

You want to put everything on Silva where I've admitted he's part of the problem while simultaneously not putting any weight on the players. It is a fact that with Sigurdsson, Morgan, Coleman & Delph NOT in the lineup we've played better football.

Evidence A:
(with them) 2-1-5 6 goals
(without them): 1-0-1 5 goals

Evidence B:
I don't need evidence B

Your dodgy stats don't prove a thing the fact is we've only scored 3 goals in 5 away games in the league this season. Two of them yesterday, one an own goal.
So you think that's not down to Silva's awful tactics and lack of leadership ? If Newcastle win today we will be 4th from bottom how much evidence do you need ?

Hey Newcastle only tied!

Yesterday was a disaster and the lack of heart and belief in the players is a hole that gets bigger by the game.

What the fuck are we doing as a club?

Pessimistic, I know, but I looked at our players yesterday and I realised finally that they’re just not good enough or strong enough. That’s been the case for an awfully long time, apart from the odd brief interval. I salute those who retain their optimism but my hopes for any serious progress at the club are gone.

The names we’re throwing about as the possible new manager will make no serious difference.

That substitution was on the manager and smacked of a safe, conservative move. Just another mistake on his charge sheet which is as long as my arm.

Silva is not for me. The end cannot come soon enough.

How much do you think Kean was salivating when he saw a forward sub was going to need to be made? Drives me batty that a vocal minority are seeing fit to put any blame at all on the kid (not for yesterday, but for his signing, period).

It’s one good game then six shockers.

Gomes, amazing one week, all the talent in the world, then for five or six games he plays like Claus Thomsen.

Richarlison plays souped up one week then follows up with disinterested performances.

Lucas Digne has played poorly this season and nowhere near his standards last season.

Pickford, I would have dropped him after that bollock at Anfield last season, I certainly would have dropped him after the 6-2 hiding by Spurs, and the Newcastle match at St James Park would have been the very last straw for me, the guy knows he’s untouchable.

We have too many players sitting in the comfort zone.

Thought Koeman may get raised, although he certainly isn't what I described in my initial post.

Koeman was a detached, cold fish, who gave the impression that he didn't want to be here and was merely passing through for 3 years - on his way to better things - via the golf course.

His management record was/is patchy and I feel that at Southampton he may have benefitted from working under the recruitment set up headed by Les Reed.

One of the reasons Koeman had a phenomenal playing career is that he was very strong mentally. He didn't really need a great deal of input from managers, he took care of himself. One of his weaknesses as a manager is that expects that same level of self sufficiency from his players.

Michael Ball played for him at PSV. He said that when things are going well Koemans great. But when things are going wrong then he can't relate to players or lift them when they need it. He's a decent manager, no more than that. He got the Everton job because he's called Ronald Koeman.

Everton needs a talisman. Someone that is going to live it and breathe it. That can get the club by the scruff of the neck and make his presence felt in all corners of it. Who's personality is stamped all over his team and transmits itself to it. That can light a fire under the club and fanbase and confront the loser mentality that has become the default setting.

If your wondering who I think that may be, I want Bielsa.

Sigurdsson looks finished, his legs have gone. Walcott also has gone. He had three good chances yesterday and turned them into half chances through poor control. Pickford is vastly overrated especially by himself. Sidibe is no better than Coleman. Iwobi loses the ball far too often. Digne is off form and Keane too slow turning. Gomes poor.

After the December program we will be in a relegation fight at this rate. We are using up our “easy games”.

We look scared, we never take the game by the scruff of the neck, we never assert ourselves quick enough, when is the last time we actually scored the first goal in an away league game?

I think we have won 8 from the last 51 away matches going back to Koeman’s first season in charge.

Our December fixture list, well starting with Leicester on November 30th, is pure evil.

If this Everton team wins at Anfield I’ll walk the streets butt naked until Christmas Eve, or at least until I’m hauled in by the chestnuts.

Imagine the Professor and Brands if Bielsa turned up in his trackie to some gig.

It’s cosy at the top and they’ve cemented themselves in.

Blaming Iwobi & Sidibe is utterly foolish though, they bring so much more to the table than either Gylfi or Coleman. Everyone was all over how great Gomes was last week, and then of course he went out a laid an egg yesterday. Keane & Pickford can go out with Wednesday's trash as far as I'm concerned.

Why?

Imagine a Klopp type character coming into our shambles of a club and telling them how it needs to be. They would wet themselves, what about EITC, People's Club, plucky Everton we are nice people they would cry, its not about winning, its about being nice and cosy.

Appoint a proper manager who knows how to win FFS or one season we will slip up and go down.

We cam from behind and deserved to win that match. Even their manager and players implied as much.

Yes we collapsed after their penalty and yes there are still problems but that was a game which we did for large parts take by the scruff of the neck and assert ourselves in. Confidence is a fragile thing and its a real shame that we fell victim to a VAR aberration as I believe we would have hung on to win that match and would currently be 11th above Tottenham with a little puff of wind in our sails. As it is things are grim.

Small margins. That have not gone Silva's way. And he will likely pay the price for it. But up till the VAR we were on top and no-one would have begrudged us the 3 points.

We dominated the first 30' but Davies (turnover) -> Gomes (terrible foul) -> Pickford (utter garbage) awarded them a goal. We should have been up, even when Bernard went off, and then the doofus-in-charge (usually a term I reserve for tRump) brought on Sigurdsson and completely ruined any semblance of flow and/or creativity.

So now, down a man, it was a sloppy mess of a game but you could see the momentum decidedly swing toward Brighton, especially once Potter brought on Trossard to take advantage of the huge hole in the center. Because we were down a man. Because Gylfi.

THEN, he makes a panic decision to bring on Delph with DCL, which wouldn't have been a panic decision when we were up, and would actually have preserved a cohesive midfield (though I would've brought on Delph for Gomes instead since his head was somewhere not on the South Coast). Yes, DCL scored a beauty, which actually should have put the game away or close to it. And then sure, VAR came into play, but the ~75 minutes before that should have made it a moot point.

The subs, primarily THE sub at 30', are what cost us that game, nothing else IMO, and that is on Silva.

We certainly did not play perfectly and perhaps we could have been more than one goal up but nonetheless that moment was huge. We lacked the resilience to dig in afterwards and I agree that Silva's subs were not helpful but up until 70 minutes and that travesty it had been a decent, not inspired but effective performance that had us heading to 3 points.

All I'm saying is that we would never have been in that position if the decisions and poor play of the first 3/4 of the game - save for a few good moments - is what truly did us in, IMO. Bad keeping (shock), bad fouls (shock), poor subs (shock), bad strategy & formation brought on by bad subs (shock).

Le sigh

But given that the confidence is low I’m not sure it’s fair to totally lambast that performance. Teams have played a lot worse and won. We were doing ok till VAR and lacked/lack the mental strength to recover from such setbacks.

Having said all that, such adverse decisions HAVE to be taken in our stride, otherwise we will never progress. It can't be easy dealing mentally with incessant bad officiating, but it has to be done. We just have to 'keep calm and carry on', otherwise we'll continue to shoot ourselves in the foot, which will only reinforce the effect of the bad officiating.

Regarding Silva, although his changes are often confusing to us, we do have a side that can dominate games. The problem is, we cannot kill games off when we're on top. This situation contrasts with pre-Silva, where too often we couldn't even dominate games, and the football was dire, let alone kill games off.

We just have to bed-in, get a grip mentally, and use what happened to motivate us to fight harder. That way, we can start creating our own luck, and if we can do that then we'll finally build momentum and move forward rather than this hamster wheel of going nowhere.

With VAR, let me just get this clear quickly, I despise it, it’s completely ripping the heart and soul out of football, the instant jubilation and ecstasy of celebration after a goal has gone now while we check EVERY single goal to make sure it was a ball that hit the net and not a meteorite.

I assume it was brought in to take human error of judgement out of the game, made by our already woeful standard of officiating in this country.

But the fact is, the final decision is still made by a the human eye, some bellend sitting behind a monitor screen miles away from the match itself, it’s not to the benefit of helping in the way goal line technology is.

The fact that the final decision is made by one of the already woeful referees in this country pretty much says it all, why is it being used at all?

The same biased decisions are still going the way of Liverpool, United, City ect ect and the same daylight robbery is still going on at corners, players bear hugging and nothing being done. (Davies and Richarlison both grappled by Brighton defenders on a corner neither spotted).

It’s ruined the game of football and for me now, football is on the way down in terms of overall surprise element and entertainment, it’s too scrutinised now, too stop start and is heading the way of American Football.

I hope Leicester win the league again, they won’t, but I hope they do, another two fingers up to the Sky and BT babies.

The worst of all, VAR is overtaking the more pressing concerns that we have here at Everton Football Club.

It went against us on Saturday, but bloody hell — what about the farce of a season in the other games?

My concern is that we repeat the same mistakes weekly such as not defending set-pieces, goalkeeping errors, poor retention of the ball, no pressing the opposition, full-backs exposed, give away cheap free-kicks in dangerous positions, etc, etc.

If I could see improvements in any of the above, then let's carry on as we are, but I do not. I really want Silva to succeed but it ain't going to happen... see lack of change in the above paragraph as the evidence.

Take the FA and league cup for example. Clubs make massive changes in these games for fear of injury to their more established players, and missing games, which could cost them points. I don't know the team Watford put out on Saturday, but you can bet they will make massive changes for tomorrow night.

So yes, for me football has been on the way down years before VAR.

Watching the England vs NZ rugby game Saturday made me realize how shallow modern football is with real athletes taking and giving big hits with no writhing on the floor in feigned agony.

I feel sorry for any kids who are just start to follow the game now because they’ll be wondering what all the fuss was about.

I can gladly say I started watching it when it was purely about that, football, and each team went on the pitch to win, the objective was to win something either a cup or the league, none of all this tactical scrutiny and why this or that has happened, just purely about 11 men on each side and a ball on the green grass.

It’s a simple game that over the years has been over scrutinised and tried to become a stylish sport with all this technology and wizardry ideas that taken the joy from it.

I’d say it’s last hurrah was maybe the early 2000’s when it still had that oomph and the entire league wasn’t solely reliant on mega millions.

I know many posters have suggested different options, I know some have suggested Benitez, personally I don't want him, but I don't believe Moshiri will want to spend the vast amount of money it would take to get him out of his present contract. So I think he might make a short term appointment maybe till the end of the season, a bit like the Allardyce appointment everybody knew he would be gone at the end of the season.

So if he does go down that route he has to hire someone not under contract at a club or appoint from within. Seeing he pulled the plug on Unsworth last time I don't believe he will promote him. So that basically leaves him with few options, yes Mourhino is out of contract but there is no way he would consider the Everton job. So I fully expect Moyes to be appointed. I know many don't want that but I don't see many alternatives out there should he fire Silva.

Sorry but two thirds of that sentence is rubbish. We are not a significant level below Palace and we will not be lucky not to be relegated.

People were banging the similar gloom drum last year and we ended up 8th, a long way from relegation. If there was no VAR and we'd won yesterday we'd be 2 points behind Palace. As it is the gap is only 5 and I'd still bet you we finish above them even if Silva is in charge all season.

Silva was the only candidate who was willing to take the job, he was unemployed at the time. Pelligrini wasn't contacted.

After two more years how many Candidates do you think their will be for the job this time? Maybe someone will take a punt if the wages are big enough and a big transfer budget available. How many players will want to join his project ?

That's what you get with a badly managed Club.

I desperately hope you are right and Martin is wrong, but last year we had a lot harder games in our first 10 games than we have had this season. I fear what impact Saturdays game will have on the team, they were on for all 3 points with 15 minutes left and ended up with nothing. Yes the VAR decision was terrible but to go on and concede again was unforgivable.

With a lot harder set of fixtures to come in our next 10 games I really worry as to were we will pick up the points needed to move us back into the top half of the league.

Stan @60, there's so much right about what you wrote, I won't reply with anything other that you're 100% correct IMO. My only question is, because I haven't been a supporter and masochist nearly as long as many of you: have we always gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to officiating like this? Seems like at least some calls should go our way.

But did we really have a more difficult start last season?

Wolves
Southampton
Bournemouth
Huddersfield
West Ham Utd
Arsenal
Fulham
Leicester
Crystal Palace
Man Utd

Incorrect. VAR awards a penalty to Brighton.

No appeal.

Decision Final.

Everton: none of the aforementioned.

I agree 100% the Liverpool players look stronger, fitter, willing to chase everything. Most of all they have the ability to pass the ball directly to each other.

Everton lack energy, fitness, and have no stomach to fight they look weary and weak. Everton are incapable of retaining possession and breaking the opposition down.

Jose will then turn to Mr Moshiri and say: "Give me another £400M to spend!"

You can forget the "special one" — we have a stadium to build; whoever comes in will be on a budget.

Better to have an old ground, no money and have a great manager than all the facilities and money going and a shit or average manager.

Having the right man in charge is everything and the club must move heaven and earth to find him.

We are in the relegation zone after a quarter of the season and having played in the main games an average team should win.

We haven't won anything for years, we haven't won at Anfield for years and there is no sign that we will in the near future. Long-term, our support will suffer because of the massive gap between Everton and Liverpool.

What the hell should we be doing? One thing for sure: keeping Silva or sounding out Moyes is a suicide mission!

I completely agree with what you've said, we need to be a winning football club again, a new stadium will not guarantee that.

Unfortunately, that's not the way those who matter at EFC think, they've got their eyes on a shiny new stadium and it well take first call over all other expenses.

I think the Morinho and Guardiola types just won't be a good fit for us at the moment (because of the above).

Here goes, there's a Spaniard in China at the moment who, I feel sure, if we offered him a nice bowl of Scouse and a new challenge, he would rise to it and not be quite as demanding as Jose. I'm so desperate I'm prepared to forgive any banter or rib-tickling from the past to have some success. He should be a serious target for us.

VAR DOES NOT MAKE THE DECISION. The on field ref does. Madley chose NOT to check again after Mason declared it a foul. By omission, Madley then granted VAR the ability to make the ruling.

Your decision may be final, but your decision only shows that you don't understand VAR.

Once Brighton had scored from the penalty, it seemed we were caught between two objectives: settling for the draw or chasing the win. We lost all coherence with our players all over the place for the winning goal. A more pragmatic manager would have given clear instructions to shut up shop, take the sting out of the game, and take the point. Of course, fans don't really want pragmatic managers.

I still think we are generally in better shape than we were this time two years ago but we do now badly need to put a few back to back results together. Teams are being gifted goals while we have to work hard for every chance and goal. The defending (and goalkeeping) at free-kicks is abysmal. Sorting out the positioning of the wall and keeper would have prevented two goals in the past four weeks. Surely not beyond the capabilities of Silva, his staff and our ‘international class' players?

We badly need to increase the pace and power of our midfield play. Sigurdsson can no longer be accommodated. Gomes is also a big problem, especially away from Goodison. Apart from last season's derby at Anfield and our 2-0 win at West Ham in March, he has been a nonentity in most of the away games and awful in some of them. He looked like a double decker bus on Saturday chugging backwards and forwards while a fleet of blue and white striped sports cars danced around him. He appears to lack the pace and fitness levels required in the Premier League.

Can the ref check the screen, or isn't that allowed in the Premier League?

As a newcomer to Everton and ToffeeWeb, you are living up to your name – you're certainly leaving your mark! I can't speak for anyone else, but not only do I not fully understand it, I have no wish to. The perfect scenario for me would be for the use of VAR to be abandoned. I don't know your age but I would hazard a guess that you have been reared on VAR.

I watched loads of footy pre-VAR, but I'm typically very open to change and progress, and I have a soft spot for technology (a field I've worked in my whole life). I think what colors my perspective is that I watch a lot of football other than the Premier League, so I have a pretty solid idea of how VAR can be used successfully.

The Premier League and its fans are very resistant to this, I've noticed. But I would agree with you, it should be taken away if it isn't going to be used properly. Cheers, sir.

Tony @87... aye, therin lies the rub. Mike Riley (finally figured out his name) has instructed Premier League refs to not use the sideline booth monitors. I don't know why. But not doing so makes the VAR decision the final decision, when it shouldn't be.

John (88), I think Mark lives in America and VAR is used in a different and seemingly better way over there, maybe Mike (Gaynes), Jimmie (Crowther) and Mark could confirm this and explain the difference?

I feel for you and the others who have to endure the trek and suffer the disappointment. I've had my fair share down the years, initially lack of finance took its toll, latterly 'Father Time' stepped in.

John, what was the title of the book you had at the last get-together? I'm dropping hints for Christmas...

A simple solution for me, would be a VAR official has 30 seconds, or five looks at the review in question. If, after 30 seconds or the five looks, he can't come to a decision, then the original decision of the on-field official stands, as clearly it cannot be a clear and obvious error by the referee.

My two doubts about Benitez are:

1. His constant team changes to the Liverpool team when he was manager there.<2>2. Taking over a team near the bottom, I'm not sure he is the type to get us battling to pull us clear.

Otherwise a good shout.

Re. Jose - surely its about powers of persuasion. Take the challenge, sort us out, then we will give you the money. And surely we need to try.

Anyway, my perspective comes from watching (mostly) Bundesliga & La Liga in addition to the EPL.

The biggest and really only difference is that the EPL is refusing to encourage it's refs to go back to the sideline booth to make THEIR final decision before ruling. If the refs don't do that, then they are allowing the VAR "decision" to be the ruling one, when in fact it should never be. It's the sole reason for having the sideline booth monitors.

Using the sideline booth for a final review allows the in-game ref to make judgment calls regardless of what the VAR ref says, or encourages. It allows for a ref (Madley) to tell the VAR ref (Mason), "thanks mate, I see what you're saying, but that to me was an accidental foul (Keane) so I'm sticking with my original no-foul call."

To me it just reeks of idiocy. The in-game refs are neutered of their ruling power, and their judgment and decision-making are completely marginalized.

So either use VAR right or don't use it at all, in summation.

:30 seconds isn't long enough; the average VAR review takes 1:22, and really that length of time is only that high because of the 5-10% of calls that are really difficult or important. Most offside, foul reviews, etc. are done for in under that :30 duration.

I do think there could be some form of compromise at say, maximum 1 minute, though.

I understand your worries about going down, but if that team did go down it would be the most expensive in the history of top flight football in any league (most probably?).

If Silva stays we'll probably finish about 15th with about 40-45pts, if a new manager comes who knows?

I wouldn't worry too much about Benitez pulling us out of the brown stuff and also I believe the club would help him out with genuine forward once he or any other manager is in place. They are not going to spend that money on Silva while performing like he is.

His constant changes of team, we'd have to judge him when in place, I doubt he'd sabotage himself like Silva is doing though.

Jose, if the club could persuade him to takeover without his usual massive transfer kitty, excellent. There is something about his general demeanour that I feel he looks a bit tired, the flame is not burning as brightly as it once was?

At ManU he got involved in a fight with the players he couldn't win and should have known better. We're now after stability, he might just down tools like at United and wait to be sacked? I'd be cautious about him.

There's no easy choice here.

I am in despair over how our great club has been run since the '80s. I am just old enough to remember the '60s when Everton with Man Utd was the biggest club in England and, apart from the mid-eighties, we seem to have been in a downward spiral ever since.

And the simple solution to me is make sure you have a good manager, preferably a great one.

You have made the most valid point though Mark, they should do it properly or not bother at all, which is how I feel watching Everton lately, where the intensity of the players only seems to rise at Goodison Pk, and I know that Rob H, and the genuine away support, deserve much better, for their obvious dedication.

The mls version is so much better. The prem had the blueprint from that and then world cup but chose a different route. Obviously

Hi John [101], thanks a lot for that information, it will strengthen my 'hint dropping' no end, and with a little luck I'll be reading the book on Christmas Day.

Think of it like voting. If you don't vote, you're voting for whoever wins by default.

David @102, spot on, I said to a few folks I know that it appears to me as though the EPL begrudgingly implemented, then made damned sure it would fail, so they could turn around and say, see? It's too bad. They've alienated fans who want it to work, they've validated fans who said it wouldn't work before even knowing about, and now we have this mess.

I read a really good book about the birth/formation of the EPL, and I found it surprising that in the early days (circa 1992-1994), the owners were enamored with how the NFL produced Monday Night Football, with all the pomp and circumstance and such, and actually tried to implement some of the aspects of it, including the cheerleaders!

I believe it was rightfully shouted down pretty quickly. Best wishes to you too, sir.

I can only think that you read it in an American publication because I personally have no recollection of it here in the UK. It would be interesting to know how many over here have read the book, or witnessed any of the 'Pomp and Circumstance' that you've referred to, in that period.