Everton are bringing some overdue enjoyment back to Goodison Park

I would say overall that I wasn't as 'invigorated' as yourself.

I enjoyed a lot of the teams plus points, an ever improving Lukaku, a winger in Deulofeu who opposing managers and defenders fear and other young players who, if we can keep them, could lead to a bright future.

Despite hitting the woodwork 3 times Palace still made Tim Howard pull off 3 very good saves, should have had 2 pens and we conceded another goal from a corner!

We did great to get back into the game straight away but I still want to know why Mirallas can't get a game to provide some much needed balance to the team.

Not until we can start winning back to back games on a regular basis will I be as 'invigorated' as yourself but I admit the future 'could' be bright.

We don't seem to have trouble scoring (unlike in previous years) our problem is defending. Get the defensive side sorted and there could be no stopping us. December will be crucial if we are to stay with the leading pack going into the new year.

I want wins and top 4 but at least we're starting to play like an Everton side should play and, in truth, I'm not sure even our 1980s sides had the instinct to take some risks and attack entertainingly. Last time I saw it was 1970.

I know we have defensive issues and there is a long way to go, and that things could unravel, but I'll take what I'm seeing just now and I also like the high quality young players we have waiting to come through.

This was exciting football against a team that parked a bus, which was unthinkable last season when used to we set records for the most sideways and backwards passes. Disappointed not to win but it's progress at least.

Last season, we'd have been clueless – back, sideways, repeat.

If we can just get the bloody defence sorted....

Going back 3 or four years, I remember us keeping a clean sheet against a mighty City team with Silva, Tevez and Dzeko up front. What's more, Pienaar was sent off for two reckless yellows and we played the last half hour with ten men.

The starting line-up that great day was,
Mucha
Coleman Heitinga Distin Baines
Gibson Fellaini
Mirallis Osman Pienaar
Anichebe.

A pacy, clever side with plenty of height and muscle. Result 2-0. (Coleman Jelavic, late sub.)

How does this present side compare, especially middle and back? I think we finished over our neighbours that year.

Yes, there are many frustrations, not least the seeming intransigence of our manager over things which are clearly wrong. But there is also some highly entertaining football, and the game on Monday was one of the best I've seen for a long time.

However, I am one of those cynical supporters who have become able to accept that we will always do well to finish 6th/8th and that this season will be no different.

We are currently blessed with some most exciting players but damned by the fact that the same manager who provides that excitement is as naive as any in the game when it comes to drilling his defence and making game changing substitutions.

But then, not too many of us were around when someone was there 'to put it all together' so we should be thankful for what we are seeing now – in spite of the frustration we all feel that only five games have been won.

We have some great young talent, and we are playing much more attack-minded football, and with pace. Compared to last season, we have vastly improved. COYB!!!

Michael (#12), quite right, it is vastly improved from last season but the cynic in me would like to see this carrying on for quite a few games before I get too excited.

If I am going to be critical, the defence issue notwithstanding, we still look unbalanced as the left side is extremely lightweight. Most good things are now going down the right and it was evident on Monday night that the Palace defence all gravitated to the right, nullifying Deulofeu in the 2nd half for most part. Kone has done well this season but we could really do with a real threat on the left. He would make such a difference.

Taken in isolation, it was a positive night as Palace are a decent team and really, we dominated the game for the most part. If only our manager would sort the defence out then we could actually do something as sloppy defending is killing us. If we don't sort it out, then we can kiss goodbye to any kind of top 6 finish.

Roberto was castigated post-Bournemouth for stressing the importance of "performance" – but, one defensive lapse-aside, this performance was great against a team that are no mugs and have strengthened since their last two wins at Goodison Park.

Stones waltzing past 4/5 Palace players was worth the entrance fee and Deulofeu's slalom run brought back memories of Duncan McKenzie's cross-field run in a cup match vs Stoke in the 70s (its on YouTube somewhere). Sometimes, three good strikes hit the back of the net – but sometimes they hit the woodwork. The difference is fine margins.

Strong grounds for optimism, I thought.

On the way home (in between multiple text messages to her friends about her new favourite hobby) she said "I wish I could play football like Everton".

As you would expect, the main discussion was around football and virtually all (Liverpool fan aside) were drooling over Everton's football. It was one of those nights where you were proud to be an Everton fan.

Plaudits abounded for Lukaku, Deulofeu, Stones and particularly Coleman as the best right back around. Only obstacle for us NOT reaching a Top 4 place was thought to be a lack of a 6ft-4in in monster at centre-half. Though, all-in-all, the major view was that, if we don't reach a Top 4 place this season, we never will as a few will go.

The Southampton lads actually thought our 3-0 win at their place in August was more of a rout than Liverpool's recent 6-1 win.

We have just got to sort out our inability to defend set pieces and crosses.

I think we were unlucky but so were they.

They could have had 2 pens with another ref and Howard pulled off a few good saves.

This "open" style is great to watch but will not get us top 4 and will not retain Lukaku and Stones without better defending.

IMO the weakest t link is the manager's intransigence with regard to Defending set pieces and crosses and making timely substitutions.

On what basis (beyond the fact that some of them are relatively young) can you state with such authority that this particular group of players....this particular manager...will "inevitably" learn from such lapses. They're suffered eerily similar setbacks at regular intervals over the past two years and have shown very little to suggest such 'lessons' have even begun to sink in.

Proof?

Simply think of the times you've (anyone) frustratedly said - 'how many fucking times is he (whoever) going to do that?'

And for the 'thats' see..

Not release a ball quick enough.

Fail to find a man.

Pass the ball across the face of goal when being pressed.

Pointlessly over-pass.

Pass balls in at pace to a forward (one of ours) when he has his back to goal and a centre-half 'stuck right up him.'

Consistently lose concentration and/or do dumb sloppy stuff like hit balls in behind players who have made a run but now have to come back a couple of yards to retrieve it.

Be seemingly magnetised backwards towards your own goal when a goal up, encouraging the opposition to swarm forward.

Be seemingly hypnotised and consequently not close down some big prick known to have a shot like a mule as he barrels toward with just one thing on his mind

Not come for a cross and stay rooted to the goal-line even though you're a fucking big grock who is allowed to jump and use your fucking hands.

Etc etc.

Re 'enjoyment at Goodison' this is well worth a look if only to hear Clement Freud's pronunciation of Labone.

Link

That is not a goal, it simply means a miss. it isn't unlucky, it's a lack of accuracy.

Barkley was played in with a lovely one-two with Lukaku, and then with just the keeper to beat, went for a right foot curler that whizzed wide of the far post. A poor choice of shot, as he had the option of either side of the keeper, and could have rolled it in either corner or blasted it hard and low.

These poor decisions are why these games are slipping away.

The defence is prone to error. Whether it is down to the boss or not, I don't know, but I feel like we have to score three to get a win, and even that wasn't enough at Bournemouth.

I like the new name given to the 'fab four', cue t-shirts bearing the same name being sold from St Lukes the next home game! Ultimately the lure of the Champions League will lead to all four leaving us I fear in the next three years or so, so let's enjoy them whilst we can.

i thought in the second half we suffocated the life out of Palace, but not particularly in a 'dogs of war' way, there seemed to be an uncanny belief in the majority of players that we would score without reverting to 'route one', even after we conceded a late goal, I've berated the manager in the past, but I have to give him credit on this aspect of our play.

In one respect, the forthcoming massive injection of new media money next season, has meant the board have an unexpected credit line, and can abandon (for the time being at least), the necessity of having to sell at least one of our crown jewels each year to balance the books.

Paradoxically, whilst we can now see our younger players develop each week, and get better and better, it's even more likely that we will lose them to a 'bigger' club offering bigger contracts and the holy grail of the CL?

No doubt John Stones and his agent will insist on a buy out clause in his next contract allowing him to move on, if a CL club comes in and offers £50m.

Failing that he just sits tight, and waits until the last 18 months of his contract rolls down and forces Everton to sell, or we risk watching him walk away for nothing, a situation we couldn't allow to happen.

The same will go for the other three as well. Until we change the current business model, I don't believe we could realistically sustain CL football on a regular basis anyway.

I'm simply going to sit back and enjoy the ride.

'She loves you yeah yeah yeah'

I was niggled by our manager not finding Palace "pleasing on the eye". I've worked in property for a long time, the foundations are rarely pleasing on the eye but I'm always delighted to find they exist.

Kevin Ratcliffe and Dave Watson were not always aesthetically alluring, but I loved it when they kicked a Koegl or hacked a Huckerby.

And Labone, clean player though he was, also ensured opposing forwards took no liberties.

We could do with a tough guy.

Palace could quite conceivably have scored four and that's without going into the Barry shirt pulling incident (nailed-on penalty). The fact that our much-maligned goalkeeper was one of our stars on the night will tell you everything you need to know.

Ask any Evertonian if we are a better team than Palace and are we making more progress and the answer will probably be yes. The fact that we are better in just about every position (goalie aside) would support that argument... but ask a Palace supporter the same question.

Palace are above us in the league. They finished above us last season. You have to ask the question: If our players are so superior (and they are), how have they been above us for the best part of 18 months? Why, in that time, have they played much better football and been involved in so many more entertaining games than us? How has Alan fucking Pardew managed to get them above us? And, although most of us will expect to finish above them this time around, how many of us think it's a certainty?

Counter-punch footy is in fashion; when done properly, it can be both thrilling and devastating. It will trump tippy-fucking-tappy all day long.

Yes, we were unlucky, you don't hit the inside of the woodwork three times often in a game, but Palace consider themselves more than unlucky. They think they were robbed.

I'm not a great believer in "Decisions even themselves out, throughout the season". We're Evertonians and know better, so I'll take the decisions favouring us for a change.

Anyway, back to OP. A good read and I'm largely in agreement with it. We are building a great team... but, at the risk of sounding like some bearded twat from "Lord of the Rings", I would say look to the South and Middle Earth, other army's are being built.

The Premier League is awash with money right now. Even the so-called "poor" clubs can afford superstars, the playing field (for the moment) is as level as it's been for a long time. Only Arsenal look convincing out of the traditional "sky four". Are we seeing the start of a new order?

No room for Patience here, we need to improve at a quicker rate than the others, we have to be beating the likes of Pardew... Luck should have nothing to do with it.

I hope I am wrong because I believe that with two top class signings next summer we will be ready to challenge and the future will be great.