Ruthless Liverpool shred Everton's defences leaving Silva staring into the abyss
This fixture had become so painful as the years stretched on after 1999 that by the time Roberto Martinez had overseen two 4-0 defeats at Anfield, many Evertonians had developed a self-protective numbness to the derby. A certain level of defeatism and realism in the run-up to the game helps one cope with the agony of defeat and no one really gave Everton a chance tonight. But there’s always a part of you that whispers “what if?”, instilling you with that little bit of hope that will usually have turned around and stabbed you through the heart by the time the 90 minutes are up.
Whether this latest drubbing was as bad as feared or simply just depressingly predictable probably depends on who you ask but at the base level, the Blue faithful were failed by Marco Silva, the majority of his players and a defensive strategy so surprising in its naïveté that it’s hard to see how the Portuguese can remain in charge any longer.
The injuries to his three preferred central midfielders continue to provide somewhat mitigating circumstances but where Silva arguably erred was in persisting with Gylfi Sigurdsson in midfield alongside Tom Davies rather than restoring Morgan Schneiderlin, a player more used to playing in a withdrawn role in front of the back four, to the team.
Just as he did at times against Leicester on Sunday, Davies struggled with the demands of covering more than just his usual duties alongside the Icelander who was anonymous for long stretches even by the holographic standards he has set this season. According to Sky Sports statistician Matt Cheetham, Sigurdsson — and bear in mind he was the captain, playing in the middle of the park — didn’t touch the ball at all for a period of 17 minutes in the second half; a simultaneous illustration of Liverpool’s control of the contest at 4-2 after half-time and the vacuousness of Silva’s midfield. Then there was that high defensive line and the hapless trio charged with employing it.
Given the reds' form and reputation and the calamity that befell Everton in the final half hour at the King Power Stadium, at the very least, one might have expected a tight, compact and concentrated performance during the first half; one designed to nullify a Liverpool attack that, even without two of it’s much-vaunted forward trio — Jürgen Klopp was confident enough of brushing Everton aside that he made five changes to his starting XI — posed significant threat. Indeed, in Divock Origi, the German has a player who has a habit of scoring important goals when given half a chance…and seeing as he is given more than that every time he faces Everton, he now has a depressing proclivity for netting in Merseyside derbies.
Instead, however, the Blues were cavalier in the early going and, just as they were by the Foxes on Sunday, were undone with depressing ease by fast transitions in some instances and then balls over the top in the first half that were so simple in their conception that you were left wondering how Silva’s defence was still being caught out by them in the final 10 minutes when, in truth, Sadio Mané should have completed a hat-trick rather than squandering two clear chances. Far from learning from the error, Silva persisted with the high line and was probably fortunate to escape Anfield without an even bigger deficit as Klopp’s side very quickly demonstrated that all they had to do was catch Everton on the counter-attack or ruthlessly exploit a ponderous and shambolic back line with long balls behind the defence to tear up the Portuguese’s game plan.
They took all of six minutes to get the humiliation underway and it came from Everton’s first promising opening at the other end. Sigurdsson dispossessed Georginio Wijnaldum and collected Richarlison’s return ball to cross but Andy Robertson headed clear. Within seconds, the reds had powered into the opposition half through Mané and his precision pass caught Michael Keane flat-footed and Jordan Pickford in no-man’s-land off his line, allowing Origi to take it past him and roll the ball into the empty net.
10 minutes later, it was 2-0. Trent Alexander-Arnold raked a ball to Mané in space behind Sidibé and the forward carried it to the edge of the box and waited for Xherdan Shaqiri’s run across him before slipping it into the Swiss’s path, where he cut it past the stranded Pickford. Cue remonstrations between Mason Holgate and Sidibé and earnest conversations between Keane and Davies.
To their credit, Everton didn’t immediately fold and they were back in the contest within just four minutes. A short corner routine almost broke down with a poor ball by Sidibé but the ball broke to Davies, he slid it to Alex Iwobi who drove the ball into the box where it came off the sliding Dejan Lovren and Keane knocked it over Adrian to make it 2-1.
Four minutes after that, after Iwobi had just failed to put Richarlison in behind the Liverpool defence, the Nigerian sent Calvert-Lewin away with a beautiful slide-rule pass but the striker delayed his shot just long enough for Virgil van Dijk to make up ground and barge him over just as he was pulling the trigger. If there was a VAR check, Everton were never going to get a decision off Martin Atkinson and play continued.
Unfortunately what could, on another day, have been a turning point in the contest in Everton’s favour was followed by a third goal for Liverpool and, again, it was galling in its simplicity. Lovren looked up and sent a missile over the top behind Keane and Holgate which Origi brought down and then steered high into Pickford’s net.
That prompted an early change from Silva who hooked Sidibé, who had been dreadful, and threw Bernard, moving Holgate to fullback and pushing Richarlison further forward alongside Calvert-Lewin. And after Iwobi had side-footed disappointingly wide from 20 yards, Everton almost forced an own goal that would have reduced the arrears back to one.
Iwobi was involved again, moving the ball to Richarlison near the corner of the penalty area and when he slammed the ball low into the six-yard box, Lovren almost toed it past his own keeper but was relieved to see it bobble wide off his boot.
It was from the resulting corner that a rampant Liverpool accelerated away to score their fourth. Mane turned inside Iwobi in his own half and sent Alexander-Arnold away into a two-on-one situation and the young left-back waited for the Senegalese to arrive before teeing up for a tidy side-foot finish inside Pickford’s right-hand post.
If there was a beacon of light for Everton on an otherwise bleak and harrowing evening it’s that their two Brazilian lads never not lost their heart or desire and they combined to great effect in first-half stoppage time to send the visitors into the dressing room with some hope. Played down the left by Lucas Digne, Bernard despatched a left-footed cross towards the penalty spot and, throwing himself at it between the two centre-backs, Richarlison sent the ball flying past the goalkeeper off his shoulder.
Klopp had evidently seen enough because there was a clear intent by Liverpool after the break to get a stranglehold on what had occasionally been an end-to-end contest in the first period and slow it down. It meant that chances for Everton would be few and far between from then on.
Digne fired a direct free kick narrowly over from 25 yards in the 52nd minute, Richarlison planted a decent headed chance from a corner into Adrian’s arms and Davies tried his luck with an effort that was, perhaps, too accurate and the keeper made a routine stop.
It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes that what had at times been a typically fractious derby, opened up again and Mané was gifted two great chances in the space of five minutes to turn a 4-2 lead into a rout. One more long raking ball over the top, this time by Jordan Henderson, found the forward untracked and racing in behind Keane and all he had to do was control it and slot it past Pickford but he somehow stroked it wide.
Five minutes later, from another Liverpool counter, the same two players combined with the former putting Mané into the clear but this time a combination of Pickford and the retreating Holgate did enough to crowd him out.
If there was to be an opportunity for the Blues to sow some unease in the home crowd it came straight away at the other end. Iwobi picked his moment to split the Liverpool defence to put Kean in for a one-on-one confrontation with Adrian. Sadly, the moment got the better of the young Italian and he put his shot from 20 yards a few inches the wrong side the upright and the chance to score his first Everton goal went begging.
That just left time for the reds to add insult to injury with a fifth goal in the 90th minute. Firmino twisted and turned Holgate near the byline, cut it back to Wijnaldum and he sent an early shot through three Blue jerseys and inside the far post.
With his hands dug into his pockets, Silva had spent much of the second half with a largely expressionless demeanour, perhaps knowing that his team was struggling its way to another defeat. In truth, it was men against boys for much of this match and Liverpool toyed with the visitors at time, before ruthlessly exposing their defensive frailties. It's usually a given that you'd want to see your side go into a local derby on the front foot but, with Everton in a crisis of confidence, hovering over the relegation zone and with the manager hanging by a thread, tonight called for a wholly more pragmatic approach that Silva never seemed willing to entertain.
It was another psychologically damaging defeat and it felt like not much has tangibly changed since the defeat at Leicester – everyone of a Blue persuasion knew that the current difficult sequence of games until Christmas would yield few points given the team’s form this season – the sight of Everton in the bottom three with 15 games gone could be the trigger that finally ends Silva’s tenure at Goodison Park.
He will rightly point to injuries to key players, cite awful officiating and injustice by VAR and bemoan some pretty rotten luck but the scale and nature of this defeat unfortunately underscore that in a very Martinez-ian way, he isn’t good enough; he doesn’t learn from his mistakes; and his team selections and tactics (the decision this evening to bring Morgan Schneiderlin on for Davies at 4-2 smacked of damage limitation and job preservation rather than ambition and it was not looked upon favourably by the Blue faithful) continue to confound even the last holdouts among those backing him to stay.
With reports that the Board of Directors will discuss the manager’s future by conference call tomorrow, the axe could well fall swiftly now, albeit weeks too late for many. Whom they bring in to replace him will be just as important as the decision to finally put Silva out of his misery and it will say a lot about the state of play in the boardroom and just how much sway Marcel Brands now has.
Reader Comments (88)
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2 Posted 05/12/2019 at 07:04:40
Sadly, it is only the fans that are showing it, like you say these overpaid prima-donnas, don't give a toss, and do not share in our embarrassment even.
I have often brought this up post match days when another poor display, has been on a rain-soaked miserable away day at Brighton, where many fans have set out at ridiculous o'clock, to make the long arduous journey to support their heroes, and having to repeat the return journey home.
Only to be let down by a lack-lustre half hearted display, they simply don't deserve such loyalty, and if it was a one-off, that would be bad enough, but to repeat those performances week in week out, shows not only lack of leadership, but a total absence of any sense of duty towards those long suffering fans.
I just hope and pray that the Club/Board think long and hard and make the right decision regarding the next appointment, because if they don't, I feel it could be the beginning of the end for this once great Club as we know it.
3 Posted 05/12/2019 at 07:37:23
4 Posted 05/12/2019 at 07:39:51
Silva has proved to be the worst manager in our history bar Mike Walker, yet Moshiri appears to be transfixed by his ludicrous idea that the hapless Portuguese and his equally incompetent coaching staff can miraculously turn this disastrous season round.
Brands taking immediate action is now our only hope; Silva sacked this morning and an Argentinian appointed this afternoon (fill in the name - any one of three). Just dreaming.
5 Posted 05/12/2019 at 07:45:02
I empathise with Mark and Derek in the first two posts. We deserve better.
We have not one player who you would describe as a leader, as someone who gets the team going. No Bobby Collins, Jimmy Gabriel, Alan Ball, even Mick Lyons. Certainly no Peter Reid. Every decent team needs a leader, almost an icon and we have the most anonymous group of characters purporting to be Everton players that I've ever seen in over sixty-five years of supporting Everton. They are not lacking in skill generally, they are lacking in character.
6 Posted 05/12/2019 at 07:51:28
We have to accept that we are in the relegation places. Without doubt confidence is shattered. Our football is abysmal. We do not have the players capable to put in the fight and effort to get out of this rut. There are NOT 3 teams presently worse than us.
Once we accept our present situation and the reality of it, the next incumbent can totally concentrate on not playing free flowing football we all want to see. All's he has to do is anything, absolutely anything, he can to get us the fuck out of it !
7 Posted 05/12/2019 at 07:51:39
The absence of heart and soul at the club and in the team is devastating.
8 Posted 05/12/2019 at 07:58:55
None of them are good enough, too many don’t care and the few that do care a little bit are simply nowhere near good enough for this league, at least not where we want to be.
I have absolutely no connection or heart and love for this group of players.
In years gone by we’ve had emotional attachments to players, even the dark days of the relegation haunted 1990’s, the players were easier to love and connect with.
This group, it’s soulless let’s be honest, there are no household names, no cult hero amongst the fans, no characters, it’s just a bland bunch isn’t it?
9 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:05:54
A complete spine has to be brought in during the January window which is near impossible but we will forever concede goals at an alarming rate with this keeper, this set of defenders, this centre midfield and lacking a centre forward who scores. It’s as a weak a spine as I can ever remember.
Pickford whilst not making any howlers last night didn’t get near any of the goals. He’s such a bad goalkeeper and for all of his career, he’s Simply haemorrhaged goals at an alarming rate. The odd world class save and fancy long kick clouds so many deficiencies in his game. Can’t stand him and would sell him ASAP.
10 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:08:37
11 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:08:57
12 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:13:21
Between their individual quality, being poorly set up, poor recruitment and lack of confidence we're in a bad state. That being said, Liverpool played some great stuff last night.
I don't have the answers though. The right manager now probably isn't available, but if he was to come in, I think he'd get us back up the table with a couple of loan signings in January. I'm thinking Matic from United for six months for a start.
13 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:14:30
We are pathetic. We have no characters or leaders or even brains. We regularly choose the wrong option and even then fault o execute it.
Say what you want about Moyes but he played men: Cahil, Lee Carsley, Arteta, Graveson etc. Last night, we had children. It was embarrassing.
So disillusioned by it all. I'd like to commit football suicide and give the whole thing up.
14 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:14:49
A totally gutted, filleted and spreadeagled blue. Now let the crows do their work and leave me be.
15 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:15:40
Relegation could set this club back 20-30 years maybe more.
Our very survival and future depends on us riding the Premiership gravy train. Money breeds money. No money no new stadium and our future dies.
In terms of how are run we were once viewed as little Everton a nice well run club. Since Farhad arrived we have descended into farce. Sacking managers squandering money on pay-offs and mediocre over-priced players or paying big money to tempt bang average players to sign for us.
Such mismanagement catches up with you and this the 2019-20 season could be the season where we get caught out. Managers are savvy enough to know the wrong club at the wrong time could harm your career and reputation. Managing us is a massive task/risk and qualiy managers with options who don't need the hassle will be steering well clear of us at the moment. Well clear.
The irony of Liverpool's rise to glory (whilst buying well) with the blue half's decline (whilst blowing millions) is stark.
Relegation would simply destroy us.
16 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:17:31
They even rested players we are that crap. Club has bigger problems than Silva from the top down but he is the immediate one that needs to be sorted but can anyone get a performance out of this spineless lot?
17 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:18:06
I don't know if Walsh got very lucky before he joined us as the number of shocking signings under his and the Dutchman's tenure are really hurting us now. If you consider the the number of players that Brands moved on since he arrived and then factor in how shocking Pickford, Keane and Siggy are then it just defies belief.
Brands however is not blameless, his inability to sign a centre half with pace was shocking. He buys a right back who has no real interest in defending, a midfielder with a terrible injury record and a 19 year old kid from Italy who must be wondering what the hell is going on.
With regards to last night's game, if shows that we are back to pre Moyes era, do you remember when Man United could make 3 or 4 changes and beat us at their ease. The truly terrifying prospect of Relegation now faces us.
Whoever takes on the job in the days ahead deserves our total support!
18 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:28:18
19 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:31:54
20 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:32:07
It didn't fall on the date. I don't mind something on the nearest weekend but this wasn't it.
21 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:34:59
Now we are again having to fight for justice a huge game like this to get that message across makes sense.
22 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:38:37
As Kase has,stated, there's no more ribbing, the RS, just us,as another practice marc.
Last night wax tactics naivety, blindness,ignorance,incompetance shambolic and thoughtless.
The rot is,setting across each team. I don't see how,any existing or potential backers will want yo be connected with EFC.
BMD is a mirage, the club is rotton, there's no moral, physical and leadership courage, and the club is being devoured from within.
I am numb, and have been for donkies,years with this club. There's no expectation and very little laughter and joy these days.
The squad is no where near good enough and most of the players wont make Championship standard.
The new,manager, management team,must be ruthless.
I'd make several changes for Chelsea and the GK,in my view needs resting, as his confidence is deluding him.
But God knows what will happen over the next 48hrs.
23 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:46:47
Wonderful post! I like you saw the glory days and won't be around to see them again.
What has happened to my club? The situation of Liverpool getting stronger as we get weaker is so hurtful, it's far too late to match their success now anyway.
It's a shame you can't sack players for gross misconduct, it probably would cost us stupid money anyway, some of them couldn't look less interested if they tried. It's shameful the price we paid for Sigurdsson for what we get in return, but I suppose it's unfair to single him out in a team of dross.
If we do go down, and this has been coming for a while, the upside will be the desertion of the mercenaries. Also, it will be a field day for the agents!
24 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:54:56
In case some forget, the rot began prior to Moshiri and his money arriving at Goodison, in fact this well run club myth, was borne out of necessity and not necessarily due to good governence.
Mistakes have been compounded by bigger and more expensive errors of judgement, year on year. If Bill Kenwright is the Chairman, he is in a position of power, did he not think to stop Mr Moshiri from making huge financial errors, did he not think to question the players that were being recruited or whether they were value for money?
If Moshiri is a dictator, as some seem to believe, then why do we have a board of directors? Is it not their collective duty to argue and state their case as to why a decision may not be in the interest of the football club. If any of the Directors including the Chairman feel their advice is falling on deaf ears, should they not do the principled thing and resign from the board?
Moyes II with Cahill, is not a cast-iron assurance that Everton will survive in the Premier League, things have changed massively in the last few years and dealing with this current batch of Everton players is far removed from what Moyes had to deal with when he first arrived at Everton.
These players may not have the ability of the United squad circa 2013, but they will have similar traits to those United players, they do what they want, because they can afford to do what they want and no amount of Sergeant Major tongue lashing is likely to encourage them to put any extra effort into their game. They can of course be better organised and perhaps would be able to cope with different tactics, but whether they can scrap and battle the way that Moyes likes his teams to, is to me very doubtful.
I suspect that if David Moyes does arrive either on a short or long-term contract, his brief, aside from the obvious retaining of the club's premier league status, will be to oversee the overhaul of the squad by selling our best assets and replacing them with less expensive players, he was very good at that in his first spell at the club and there's no reason why he can't do the same again.
However, given that scenario, would it not render the position of Director of Football redundant?
As per usual every answer to a question at Goodison produces another question and we all get very dizzy trying to work out what really goes on behind the scenes and whether or not we are in good hands, alas the results and displays out on the pitch would suggest that all is not as it should be.
The gap between us and our local rivals has never felt greater, in their last 38 league games they have taken 101 points whilst Everton have taken 45. If we can get to forty-five for this campaign, I think we would all be very happy, but it's going to be a tough and bumpy ride.
25 Posted 05/12/2019 at 08:59:53
26 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:05:20
27 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:06:08
28 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:19:44
I am ashamed of Everton, and they should be ashamed of themselves. The club are an absolute embarrassment. All we are worthy of now is the pity of other supporters. The RS don't even count us as a rival these days. It's just another opportunity to take the piss and we have nothing to come back with.
Shame, pity, embarrassing. They are the words used to describe us these days. A club once full of grace, are now an absolute disgrace.
Fucking heartbreaking.
29 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:35:42
It’s a terrible time to start supporting Everton.
People used to say the 90’s was bad and whilst we had some relegation near misses at least we had some rollercoaster seasons and the unpredictability of the FA Cup success.
We also had Liverpool over a barrel in the 90’s, I always remember the joke that Roy Evans was awarded the CBE.
Can’t Beat Everton.
As I say, it’s a terrible terrible time to start supporting Everton Football Club.
30 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:38:24
That they care is irrelevant, they haven't the character to translate their "caring" into performance.
And to make it worse the answer, according to Sky is Moyes! Ye Gods, soullessness personified.
31 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:39:53
Just so many problems all over but I can't be arsed to go through them all
32 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:40:13
I feel sorry for your lad. In fact I feel sorry for all the youngsters who have grown up with this shit. Very difficult to know what to say to them.
At least we older ones have the memories of 63 and onwards, though they are fading fast.
Not to worry though this afternoon one of the players will be rolled out, though I think we'll shortly be on to the U 23 squad, to tell us how they understand and will fight on, just before they sod off in their Bentley's.
Oh. and we might get news of the BMD planning application !
33 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:41:58
34 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:42:48
35 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:46:38
Now Everton fans need to do the same
The club is a disease
There’s no new ground.
Stop going until the owners are forced out.
36 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:53:38
To play against a Liverpool team which is a) known for counterattacking b) has fast forwards c) is known for 'route one' football with a desperately slow back line which is stranded half way up the pitch and appears to have taken zonal defence to new heights where you zonally mark a particular bit of pitch whether or not there is an opposition within 5 yards, and when you see an opposition player, you run alongside (ok, behind) him at a respectful difference, is management incompetence of a type I have never before seen in football.
Adding to the expected level of refereeing (deliberately elbowing Tom Davies while he was on the ground, a few over the top ankle stamps on Richarlison, completely ignoring a penalty as blatant as has been seen in the Premiership this year - which would have involved a red card too), the only hope Silva had yesterday was to smother the attack and leave the last line of the defence on the edge of the penalty area at most. That way the hoof from the edge of the penalty area is always in front of the defence and they cannot be turned (as happened for every RS goal.
I also remember even when I played (we had to chase the dinosaurs off the pitch in those days), that "ball watching" was the first thing a defender was required to stop doing. For the (I think) second goal, there were SEVEN Everton players watching the player with the ball, while another player (the scorer) wandered through the "defence" received a pass and put it easily into the goal.
But let's suppose that Silva's plan was a reasonable way to start. How many repetitions of exactly the same goalscoring move should it take to work out that something was wrong. Replacing a full back and leaving the formation the same would be like the captain walking from the left hand side of the bridge of the Titanic to the right hand side when he saw the iceberg.
Only poor shooting stopped the same thing happening several more times.
I don't believe we have a poor squad of players, however, I think Silva plays virtually every one in the worst possible position for their skills.
37 Posted 05/12/2019 at 09:58:35
39 Posted 05/12/2019 at 10:02:12
Iain you should send that post to Moshiri in the faint hope he would understand
40 Posted 05/12/2019 at 10:09:00
Watching the long ball mob last night I wondered how many they would have scored had a Kevin Ratcliffe been playing in defence.
One, tall, lumbering centre half can work for many teams. Two of them, against one of the quickest front lines for many years, who specialize in playing on the break, had predictable consequences.
41 Posted 05/12/2019 at 10:24:38
Do your words carry any weight with those in charge and if so, one of your messages is very much due in the aftermath of what must be a watershed moment in the modern history of this club. We are no longer the Everton of many of us - something broke in me last night and I am sure I am not alone in that view. We are staring at the precipice of disaster here and need rebuilding from bottom to top in how we do things on and off the field
42 Posted 05/12/2019 at 10:26:44
I believe we have enough quality to get out of this mess but were going to need to throw good money after bad. If the appointment of Brands was to take over the footballing decisions then this will be his greatest test, I keep refreshing the BBC sport website in earnest
43 Posted 05/12/2019 at 10:31:19
It's hard to understand how it's come to this. How can spending £500m result in being so poor? Literally only Everton could get things so wrong. We've lost our identity and everything we once had. Only the supporters can hold their heads up high.
I'm big enough and ugly enough to deal with it, but for kids it's hard. I remember what it was like at school in the mid 80's, and we were good then. You go to kids football training these days and it's 90% RS kits. The future of the club really is at stake here. I hope the people running the club appreciate what they are dealing with.
44 Posted 05/12/2019 at 10:37:19
45 Posted 05/12/2019 at 10:39:44
There was little preparation put into the Norwich game, the Leicester game consisted of a defence type formation to shore up a failed season and it was the same against Liverpool. Leicester give Everton more respect by not pushing up into midfield, but the soft centre of Evertons defence gave way
Against Liverpool the defence was worked. more and the weaknesses where even, more exposed.
Silva has rarely been able to provide a treating attack or a secure defence. Both areas fall down on the coaching of players in the basics. This falls back on a static and easily pressurised midfield. All of this results in poor pass completion rates and lost possession, which is unfit for Premier League football.
Years of mismanagement have finally come to fuision.
46 Posted 05/12/2019 at 10:48:27
The Peoples Club, its sickening!
47 Posted 05/12/2019 at 11:09:43
When Sigurdsson is captain, you know you have problems. We need some dogs of war. And the spotlight turned onto some of these players stealing a living, who have now thrown another manager under a bus. Silva’s a problem, but he’s not the only one.
48 Posted 05/12/2019 at 11:44:39
"We cannot let our heads drop and we will go again. We will be mentally strong and prepared for the match. You want to come out on top in a derby, there cannot be any greater motivation, and I am sure we will pick up our heads and be ready to go again. The team did very well [at Leicester], we were just unfortunate with the result. I have played in London derbies and I am excited to see what happens in my first Merseyside one."
This is everything that is wrong with Everton. Players speaking platitudes to placate the fans and then turning in abject performances which are an embarrassment to the shirt and to the fans.
For the record, I thought we were woeful against Leicester. We scored one good goal and then constantly gave the ball back to them, inviting pressure. We played 3 centre-halves who are all slower than a tax rebate. Last night was yet another derby nightmare from the second the game kicked off.
Now it looks like Moyes is going to be returning.
We are heading to the football abyss like Leeds Utd and Nottingham Forest. Utterly depressing and I have no faith in the likes of Iwobi that we can turn it around, despite the promises to put it right in the media.
49 Posted 05/12/2019 at 12:10:06
Last night I did what I thought I would never do. I switched TV off as I couldn’t bear what I knew was coming. The only time in my life I’ve ever left the ground early was when 4-0 down to that lot back in 1982. It was too much to take. Last night I went to bed and tossed and turned all night. When I woke up I saw the inevitable had happened. This is the worst Everton team since Moyes took over in 2002 and quite probably longer.
Banter with that lot stopped for me a long time ago. I can’t even stomach trying to give as good as I get so I avoid those forums.
My dad, god bless him is 84 and has Alzheimer’s. His memory is very poor but still gets upset when we chat about Alan Ball leaving us. He gets very angry these days when talking about Everton, which is unusual as He’s as mild mannered as they come. “There’s something rotten to the core with our club” he has said for a number of years. He’s right. The views above from you all show that we all think the same.
We have a small time mentality, which only sends you one way, small time. I can’t see a way out of this mess. The last managerial appointment had to be right and it wasn’t. We’re paying now. Two more derbies to “look forward to” this season and a fair few “cup finals” as we “fight” relegation.
We were lucky, to a degree in 94, 98 and 99 (eternally grateful to Kev). We may not be lucky again.
50 Posted 05/12/2019 at 12:14:50
Well, last night we saw the outcome when you have five attacking players on the pitch. It was madness. For a team near the foot of the table it was suicidal.
51 Posted 05/12/2019 at 12:35:14
Paris Saint-Germain head coach Thomas Tuchel said he is saddened by Edinson Cavani's situation as the out-of-favour forward struggles for game time.
Whoever gets the job needs to make it a priority to pay Cavani a king's ransom to come and help us out until the end of the season. Now THAT would enliven our forward line whatever tactics Silva's replacement goes for.
52 Posted 05/12/2019 at 13:03:30
I cannot recall a single instance of seeing any 'talk' between Everton players. As for Silva, his gloomy countenance and occasional wave of the arm gave the impression of not wanting to be there.
Unlike Klopp's squad of assistants who were jumping around with excitement like a cage of monkeys our lot sat there with faces like smacked bums. Perhaps that was because whatever they do at FF was getting well and truly exposed.
53 Posted 05/12/2019 at 13:20:04
What we need now are points. If it's 2 banks of four KITP1 from now to May, so be it. I don't care how unpalatable it is, I'd accept Pulis. If he could make Stoke tough to beat with the dross he had available, he could do it with us. After all, we DO have some talent.
The bottom line is we need to accumulate points. With this charlatan Silva, we'll only do so by accident.
54 Posted 05/12/2019 at 13:32:47
The answer to our first team problems lie right next door...and I ain't talking Stanley Park neither!.
Who at this present moment Blues are the hardest working International team on the planet?.
55 Posted 05/12/2019 at 13:57:24
When you say force "the owners out" do you mean Kenwright only?
Or do you want Moshiri gone as well
Of so, why?
56 Posted 05/12/2019 at 14:10:55
57 Posted 05/12/2019 at 14:15:48
58 Posted 05/12/2019 at 14:26:17
59 Posted 05/12/2019 at 14:30:13
I'm not ashamed to say your post made me cry. It's so heartfelt and true. I have a grandson who I also feel for today.
I wish every board member and overpaid player were made to read it.
They should hang their heads in shame.
60 Posted 05/12/2019 at 14:32:44
61 Posted 05/12/2019 at 15:32:30
62 Posted 05/12/2019 at 15:47:29
I am almost lost for words after reading your first post. Just to echo what others have said, I wonder could Lyndon arrange for the club to be made aware ?
Your son’s thoughts should be printed out and stuck up on the dressing room wall. No team talk would be needed after reading that.
They are a shower of shite from top to bottom and I despise them for how they make me feel right now.
The only advice I can give you is perhaps tell your boy what my Dad always told me. all Evertonians go straight to heaven as we are persecuted whilst on the earth.
63 Posted 05/12/2019 at 16:07:52
Your second post #43 should make us all worry: "The future of the club really is at stake here. I hope the people running the club appreciate what they are dealing with."
It has now become an existential question and we are in severe danger of getting the wrong answer because the people running the club definitely do not appreciate what they are dealing with. There are a couple of people at the top for whom the club is nothing more than a lucrative gravy train, "lifelong Evertonians" whose own family members support other teams.
How can such people even begin to appreciate what they are dealing with? Nepotism and a very unhealthy incestuous "PLU" approach continue to prevent intelligent minds, fresh ideas and passion to return EFC to its rightful place from coming into the club and enabling especially our young Evertonians to walk as tall as I could as a kid.
64 Posted 05/12/2019 at 16:20:16
They said I stayed off all week, slaughtered me for years, but I had to take it on the chin, rather than give up my evidence.
Two years later, I was watching us win at Wembley, and 12 months later in Rotterdam, just after standing on the Gwladys Street terraces singing "Champions!!" — and this is what you must tell your son, Iain!
Nepotism, I fucking hate nepotism. I've got good reason, but I have to agree with you, Gerard, because the only way to get rid of it, is to sweep the club clean, and start again with a new direction.
We could start by getting some proud characters with loads of fight into our squad, and a manager who understands the crowd.
65 Posted 05/12/2019 at 16:20:48
I feel your pain mate. I've got a 10-year-old and he's exactly the same. It's heartbreaking to see him like that and tinged with no small amount of guilt because it was me who has saddled him with this love for a club that never fails to crush its long-suffering support.
66 Posted 05/12/2019 at 16:47:24
67 Posted 05/12/2019 at 16:58:10
Editorial Team
68 Posted 05/12/2019 at 17:01:47
Surely what he's witnessed is the appointment of favourites (not relatives) above and beyond their qualifications or abilities to perform the job?
Perhaps 'nepotism' has come to include this meaning in England, but the root is Italian for 'nephew' and the addition of friends or favourites, without there being a familial connection, has to be a modern English corruption of the original meaning.
69 Posted 05/12/2019 at 17:12:14
I'm made up Moshiri has gone and addressed everyone, and I hope they are ordering a load of food because this should hopefully be a very long night. loads of arguments, loads of disagreements, loads of home-truths, and a realisation that we need a united club, if we are to ever move forward.
Look at Wolves in 5th, they never won a game until their 6/7th fixture? Tell the players to stop hiding because what they are producing is nowhere near good enough for Everton FC.
70 Posted 05/12/2019 at 17:14:49
71 Posted 05/12/2019 at 17:16:26
72 Posted 05/12/2019 at 17:18:26
73 Posted 05/12/2019 at 17:22:00
Wouldn't the friendship need to be one of the main reasons for appointing them?
I just don't get the sense that that isn't even accurate in Everton's case. They are simply easy, mindless choices of (and by!) people who already have a long-standing connection with the club, instead of seeking out the best possible candidates.
74 Posted 05/12/2019 at 17:25:15
Any senior businesswoman I've met would have chinned Kenwright if he'd called her Little Miss Dynamite.
75 Posted 05/12/2019 at 17:33:30
76 Posted 05/12/2019 at 17:45:12
However, it's not so much the nepotism as the People Like Us (PLU) mentality that irks me. When did you last see a top post advertised? Barrett-Baxendale, in particular, brooks no argument with her own views and it follows that appointees will toe the line if they want to stay appointed. I don't blame the majority of them as they all need to earn a living, but I do reserve my contempt for the financially secure yes-men she has surrounded herself with who hold honorary positions or part-time jobs to supplement their pensions. They confer upon her the sense of acceptance from "important people" that she craves.
I remember with a wry smile how a small team of us travelled to London to make the final presentation to ministers and officials of the government's Department for Education to be allowed to establish the Everton School; she introduced herself with every title she could think of and then one by one the other members of the team, stressing always their titles as professors and sirs and their professional qualifications until it came to me. Then it was, "and this is Ged, he's one of our stewards."
The fact that I'd been a headteacher, a director of a group of schools, run my own successful training company and used all that experience plus the knowledge from a Masters degree in Education to do most of the donkey work over the previous 18 months in getting us to that day in London mattered less than creating an illusion that all these learned folk had made room to include 'one of our stewards' with the inference that as such I was not quite as literate as herself and the big boys but they were nice enough to bring me along anyway. It is this same obsession with creating an aura of "niceness", and it is a skin-deep aura only, that is holding this club back.
77 Posted 05/12/2019 at 18:15:38
Working in America for the last 30 years, I often forget the frustrating aspects of life and work back in the old country. The snide elitism, the hoarding of information as a tool of power, and what happens if your face simply doesn't fit.
Whatever you feel about the yanks, and I'm not a great lover despite how long I've been here, I feel the work environment here comes closer to being a meritocracy, where your ability matters more than most other factors... although being nice and chatty and social with people, rather than being a dick, does of course help.
Your story is really pretty shocking but it puts a lot more meat on the bones of understanding the true malaise festering within our club than many of the unsubstantiated inferences we see posted here from those (like me!) who will always be on the outside trying to get a look in.
Thanks again.
79 Posted 05/12/2019 at 18:22:33
80 Posted 05/12/2019 at 18:26:51
81 Posted 05/12/2019 at 19:02:44
In my opinion this will not happen or take a heck of a lot longer if someone does not make the symbiotic connection between what happens on AND off the pitch. There is no one qualification you have to have to become a CEO but in the shark and Daniel Levy infested waters of PL clubs I’d hazard a guess that you’d need more than experience of running a couple of charities, one of which was really tiny, to make a go of it. And that in no way precludes a woman, she just would need a PROVEN ability beyond being able to flatter and fawn.
82 Posted 05/12/2019 at 19:12:58
Now, count up how many posts over the last few weeks there have been hammering the line that "it's not just the manager, it's not just the players, there's a cancer that runs deep at the heart of this club."
Yet, when you started (some months back) posting your unique insights into the nature and location of that very cancer, some posters were all too quick to jump on your case. I still can't get my head around that one.
You'd think they'd absolutely be falling over themselves to finally hear some real and valid insight from someone who has actually worked inside the club and seen exactly how it operates. But no... you have an agenda... Fucken unbelievable!!!
83 Posted 05/12/2019 at 19:16:56
84 Posted 05/12/2019 at 19:36:06
We seem to think that Brands should be out there finding a new manager but it’s not that straightforward; yes he should identify possible candidates but the CEO has many many factors to weigh up as the club transitions from one management regime to another. Look at how quickly and stealthily Daniel Levy, CEO at Spurs, had his game plan worked out recently. Contrast that situation with the TW report today that Messrs Moshiri, Brands and Kenwright were heading for FF. Where was the bloody CEO?
85 Posted 05/12/2019 at 19:43:39
PLU, is a great description Gerard, and it reminds me Of the lyrics in The Jams, all mod cons mate.
86 Posted 05/12/2019 at 20:10:51
I thought Tony Marsh was being a tad harsh, with his 'formally in charge of soup and blankets for the homeless' quote...and now you come to think of it she does look like an 80s flight attendant.
But behind that facade beats the heart of a Delores Umbrage-esque, tyrant and manipulator.
Still, moving on and talking of under and unprepared.
Not even an after thought mention of who will be in-charge come Saturday.
87 Posted 05/12/2019 at 21:08:16
One day it'll all be worthwhile, and by God are we going to enjoy it!!
We don't care what the redshite say!!
88 Posted 05/12/2019 at 21:13:26
89 Posted 05/12/2019 at 21:27:49
90 Posted 06/12/2019 at 10:44:18
Just one issue which has hardly been discussed but which the Club should forcibly take up and get another apology for -- in the light of the decision to overturn the ref decision at BHA,the offence being that Keane stood on the strikers foot, how on earth did we not get the penalty on DCL. Particularly as Van Dijk's foul was deliberate. One can only assume that it wouldn't have just led to a penalty against the media darlings but also a sending off.
VAR, making the game fairer -- absolute codswallop. Consolidating the positions of the so called top 4 -- absolutely right
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1 Posted 05/12/2019 at 06:23:16
If you have any pride in Everton football club, run these people out of town. We have become a joke, it's only the fans that suffer the humiliation, THEY don't give a shit.
I would rather be playing in a lower league were the football may be a little bit more honest than be the whipping boys to the corrupt greedy phony's who leached onto our good name and history and have decimated it to a shambles and laughing stock.
Anyone who excepts Moyes back as manager backs Bill and you get what you deserve, NOTHING.
Cling on to your hopes and memories because that's all you will get for the next 20 years as you have for the last 20 years. This club dose not represent the Everton I grew up with. Liverpool city is now just a one team city and it's not Everton FC...
We need to go down then the rats will scurry off the sinking ship, only then can we rebuild, it may take decades but we will have our pride back. Everything goes in cycles. Sadly I wont be here to see it, but I did see it once and you young born blues will see it but not until we the fans take control and stop living in hope and faded memories.