Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde and the Pantomime Villain

Or, is this is his best and there is no future?

Another embarrassing afternoon and weekend of football spoilt by overpaid dicks masquerading as professional footballers.

Oh for the days when there was a bit of pride in supporting Everton.

He isn't and so it seems like it's just a question of time before Moshiri decides it's not working and never will. That's not a very optimistic outlook but it's just how I feel at the moment. Maybe I'll feel differently at the end of the season if he has overseen some genuinely good performances and results against the likes of Chelsea, United, Arsenal and Spurs in the weeks to come but, honestly, as we sit here this evening, who amongst us is confident of that?

I hope he and his devoted Twebbers learned from the Football Management Master Class handed out by Rafa, but I doubt it.

I honestly cannot see us laying a glove on Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd or Spurs, we rarely score against the top six let alone beat them, best we will get from those four is one or two goalless draws hanging on grimly.

The season has been a complete disaster that promised briefly in early autumn after a mediocre August and September but finally died on its feet once December came.

Since the start of November, we have beaten Brighton, Cardiff twice, Burnley, Bournemouth and Huddersfield, that pretty says it all.

Any hope of winning the harder fixtures remaining this season, just put it to bed now because it ain't happening.

Move this loser on ASAP.

He got it right earlier in the season bringing on Jagielka against Chelsea in response to their changes. Going 3 at the back to plug a hole. This time, however, we needed to wrestle back control and bring on fresh legs in midfield and up front.

I know Richarlison is young and could improve dramatically in the coming years but my God he is so frustrating. Good to see Calvert-Lewin playing well, he also has his best years ahead of him. Gomes looked okay if not fantastic... but with Gana and Siggy they did well in the first half. Digne also played well to a point, as in giving away sloppy balls and from good positions. Bernard seems to be getting to grips with things and he was my MotM. Keane was weak on a few crosses. Mina needs to play games, he is our player and he will also be better with a run of games. A more possession-based game would help him. I don't think he has the right manager.

It's frustrating because you can see how good we could be with these same players playing with the right attidute and a strong tactical manager. I've a feeling that Silva will be given more time. I'm not sure how l feel about that. If we can sell some players early in the summer we can try to get the striker we know we need. Of course we might have to spend 㿞M to keep our loan signings. Phew, it's not easy being a blue.

Because he cannot put together a team which can halt a slide and still pick up points that tells me he isn't good enough for my expectations for the club. The club needs to walk away from this guy and go and spend the money we have on a proven winner. I don't care how hard it is but it will make the difference. If we can make 㿙M available for a player, we can do it for a coach.

We have never in the club's history invested in a big name manager. Go back through the appointments and our managers even the successful ones come from pretty minor clubs. Norwich, Oldham, Preston, Watford, Southampton, Wigan & Blackburn to name a few.

We have to break the habit of many years and get the best.

Unfortunately I have to agree with your summation.

The big question is how long do we keep faith in him? Can we really start next season with him if we see no noticeable improvement in this season's remaining games?

Pickford was absolutely hopeless. It's not a very nice thing to say, but the lad seems completely unhinged. He's weirdly animated. Always laughing when he gets away with a mistake, punching the air when he does something well, overly gesticulating to defenders when they mess up... he's not in charge of his own emotions. The way he throws his entire body into kicking the ball off the ground. He's just a very unusual character and I don't think he has the temperament for the job.

Richarlison, his goal aside, had another stinker. His work ethic is the only thing keeping him in the team. His footballing ability is close to zero. He just cannot do anything right.

Don't want to berate young Kenny too much but I thought he was very poor too. Defensively he looked lost on many occasions. He's a good player but he had a poor game.

I might be delirious here but I did see plenty of positives in the football today, and also in the manager. I feel like we were let down by some of the players.

Gomes, Bernard and Digne were all very good.

I cannot see much point in clinging on to a vague hope of improvement. Today should be a defining moment in his tenure.

Two things... With the exception of EitC, the club is a joke. Who is there to make the big decisions? Secondly, these “big” names we should be going for. Why in the name of God would they come here?

We are NOT a big club. It pains me to say this as I remember when we were. But with exception of a few seasons we have been mediocre since the week that Panathanaikos and then Liverpool did us back in 1971.

We are a mid-table side, living in the shadow of a world-renowned club. Yeah we may get a nice little ground on the docks but I don't expect anything to change.

Sorry, fellas, but Neil Warnock is about our level. Nil Satis? Oh please, you're having a Turkish...

It has been a problem for a long, long time now – we just have no leaders that will willingly get ripped in and give it back if needed, far too many worried about getting hurt.

Like when the Newcastle player just floored Digne, nobody in our team did fucking anything, when they should have been in that guy face big time.

Fair play to Newcastle, because if it was Everton who were trailing by 2 goals I don't think we would have showed the same fight as Newcastle and their manager.

As for Pickford, he is Joe Hart Mk 2, Newcastle's second goal was totally down to him not doing the right thing – fucking pathetic goalkeeping.
It's no good being a good shot stopper, if you keep making stupid mistakes that cost the team.

I would drop him, he totally deserves to be dropped and it makes no difference to our season now anyway, he is a liability and I think that those who have said he unsettles our defence could be right.

Silva similarities with Martinez are all too evident, especially game management. I don't know what the fuck Moshiri is going to do, but I just don't think Silva is the answer.

I agree Pickford at times almost seems unhinged. His Hollywood kicks into touch and his over exuberant simple saves are indicative of someone who loves the limelight. He believes his own hype way too much. It's almost as if during a quiet match he has to get involved because he's out of the limelight.

He's young and will make mistakes but he's already had around 5-6 genuine howlers this season (that have cost us points). If this was a keeper from our own youth system making these mistakes he would be pillared and dropped.

He now needs dropping pronto – his overall goalkeeping standard and the cocky way he carries himself at the moment is not worthy of being our No 1 keeper.

For me he's a player we can do without there are a lot more robust, sensible and reliable keepers out there. Move him on. Let his faults and development be someone else's problem; he's a massive liability who's more likely to make a gaff than he is a world-class save.

Pickford undoubtedly had a ‘hand' in the destiny of the result but, up to the Mina (Weird) sub we had largely gotten away with his errors.

If anything is Kenny that was struggling, on a yellow, misplaced passes everywhere and Rondon killing him on the diagonal. The sub was either Davies at right-back, or Mina, moving Zouma to right-back.

The change of shape was pure amateur hour. It let Newcastle out, full-backs who had previously been pinned back now had freedom, we dropped deep and lost 1st & 2nd balls regularly.

Credit Newcastle; shame on Everton.

He was utterly abject today, has been, and will be again. Robles, with a run, would have saved us some money. We should cash in as soon as he gets another cap.

Jonjoe Kenny gave one of his worst displays, apparently disorientated by his late inclusion. Bernard again performed well on the whole but, as always, offered no goal threat and was guilty of losing possession in the build-up to one of the goals.

Gomes who is embarrassingly slow when confronted by opponents with pace did nothing to suggest he will be worth anything like the transfer fee Barcelona are expected to demand for his services.

Sigurdsson did nothing to suggest he is anything other than a tidy finisher in and around the opposition area. Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison took their goals well but lack the maturity and control to link consistently well with those around them.

Not for the first time in this campaign our best players were Zouma, Digne and Gueye with the last named our Man of the Match. It is probable, not to mention worrying, that at least two of those will not be with us next season.

I see things he does and when I'm at the game live I study him closely and his actions and behaviour is frankly bizarre.

The constant hurried kicking in which the ball, 8 times of out of 10, ends up going out of play for opponents throw in does my head in, why can't someone at the club tell him to calm down?

The jack-in-the-box madcap behaviour when we defend corners or set pieces is worrying and you never feel safe because you know he isn't tall enough to command the area needed.

He makes great saves at times, so too did Tim Howard, so too did Richard Wright, Thomas Myhre, Paul Gerrard etc etc but they all had a similarity to Pickford: poor decision making and poor concentration.

Major work needs doing with this goalkeeper if he's not to just become another Joe Hart, Richard Wright, David James – one-time England keeper but eventual lost cause.

The ball is blasted at Pickford and instead of making a calm efficient save, he palms it away. He makes the save but with a weird Hollywood bomb blast over-reaction. It's like he was hit by a bomb. Because he was making this weird theatrical over-reaction to the shot, he doesn't have enough time to get back into position and try and save the follow-up.

He's pure pantomime and an unhinged cocky brain-dead idiot.

I agree with Andy Crooks, in that we should not have allowed Robles to go. He was also young and had improvement in him. He was tall but had a presence. A couple of mistakes here and there but nothing like Pickford... who I think has cost us more points than he has saved us this season.

At any moment he might sprint off his line because he can't read what's happening in front of him. I'm not sure exactly but isn't Pope from Burnley available?

As for manager. Yes, I'd have Arteta; however, I'm not sure our fans would put up with possession-based football again. Maybe even Southgate could do a job. Who else? Ron Burgundy would be my third choice.

Hmm. I'm not a doctor but, unless Coleman got a migraine, I know of no other illness can overwhelm you that quickly.

So, if it wasn't a migraine, I suspect Coleman was feeling pretty ropey well before he went out and, being the pro I believe him to be, I expect he'd have told Silva. So how would Kenny feel when he finds out that the manager has more faith in a poorly Coleman than him? Hmm.

And having just watched MotD (glutton for punishment or what?) young master Pickford needs to learn that great goalies don't earn that stature by poking their tongue at opposition fans. There's a bit more to it, Jordan, trust me.

I am always nervous just watching Pickford this season. To play in front of him must be very difficult. Anyone who has played as a defender, at any level, will tell you how painful it is to have a nervous keeper – and he is one big bag of nerves.

While I certainly cannot defend Silva for many of his substitutions no manager will ever be a success if he has a keeper who is only a stopper. Pickford cannot decide when to come out, he never moves confidently off his line, and he seems to punch the ball right into the middle of his own penalty area.

The meme for today – well it seemed to be trending a few hours ago - was that the manager had contrived to throw away this game with a simply ludicrous tactical switch. Well, I've just watched the whole game and I'm calling that as bollocks too.

As Lyndon states, bringing a midfielder on may have been a better option, with hindsight, but the reality is that over half of the second half had passed without us really looking like we were likely to score that killer third goal, in spite of having plenty of the ball to work with.

What was obvious was that the Barcodes would rally at some stage and so I would say that trying to shut up shop and eke out the last portion of the game was a valid option. Equally, giving Mina a bit of time to settle into the game before the to-be-expected assault doesn't seem outrageous to me.

Would Schneiderlin have been a better option? Lookman for Richarlison, or no substitution at all? It's all guesswork. Can anyone say we have shown any ability to close out games cooly and calmly this season (or even for a fair few seasons)?

That's the crux of the problem. We still lack that midfield general who can pull the strings.

Don't think I'm giving the manager a free pass. We should be able to get that crucial third goal or hold what we have for the final quarter.

Overall, poor defending, calamitous goalkeeping and shocking officiating are fairer targets than alleged tactical ineptitude.

And some of us wonder why next season is so worrying?

Pickford needs to rest his demons, as he takes the bait every time, and effectively his concentration in many games is lost.

Incredible how the coaches haven't contained this obvious failing. The more I think about his on-pitch behaviour, the worse my gut feeling is, but it's not for me to decide.

A stinking end to what turned out to be a good start to this last week. Typical EFC.

We lost today because Marco Silva panicked. That's inexcusable.

The barcodes had raised their level – to be expected of a side so hot at home. We'd given up a goal and lost control of the midfield. The manager should have been prepared for that. If the problem's in the midfield, you fix the midfield.

Need more composure in front of the back four? Fine, Schneiderlin for Gomes.
Need more workrate there? Fine, Davies for Gomes.
Richarlison lost the plot or Bernard got tired? Fine, Lookman or Walcott on.

Instead, he brought on Mina to help the two guys who didn't need any help, Zouma and Keane. And in so doing, he waved the white flag, bunkered in, parked the bus, whatever you want to call it. He ceded midfield. And half the guys on the Forum predicted the result.

This manager hasn't got it. There's been no fundamental improvement in the side, no fire added, no real change. I said it on the Forum and I'll say it here – if Silva isn't binned after the season, Brands isn't doing his job.

As for Pickford, today was a tragicomedy. Errant punches, dropped crosses, shanked kicks and a tackle that should have seen red. Yes, he made great saves and was only really responsible for one of the three goals, but he is simply not improving – particularly in the area John #20 and others mentioned, and that's maturity.

Andy #19, sorry, no, Robles couldn't save anything, least of all money. He proved repeatedly that he wasn't good enough. He's now 28 and sitting on the bench at Real Betis behind an unknown free transfer four years younger. He ain't it, never will be.

As many have said, moving to a back three simply invited pressure when we had already lost our nerve.

But Pickford! If he laughs again when he has made a mistake, can one of the centre backs deck him at half time for me? An unprofessional liability who has been up his own arse since the World Cup. Drop him for the rest of the season and play Virginia regardless.

I could not agree more. You summed up my thoughts perfectly and eloquently in your first five paragraphs, better than I could in probably 10+ ranting posts strewn throughout TW.

Thank you, my countryman.

Imagine Pickford laughing and arsing around if he had a defender like Dave Watson in front of him?

Watto would have soon put a stop to that let me tell you.

He is simply voicing concerns about games where we face vastly superior teams and expressing his lack of confidence in us winning them. That probably sums up the feelings of most. Nowhere is he saying we can't win any of them.

A real white-flag waver will give up on ALL of the games months in advance. He will try to justify his claims by claiming he is merely expressing an opinion to counter the one offered by an imaginary group of people who "think we will win every game" – Total bollocks; if this group exist, where are they?

I feel a little sorry for the defeatists, they seem to have painted themselves into a corner, they can get no pleasure out of victories because they feel they have been proven wrong. Their lack of posts on this website after a victory speaks just as loudly as their numerous posts stating the blindingly obvious after a defeat.

Breaking news: Everton are a poor side. Our defence is simply incapable of dealing with bread-and-butter high balls – that flaw leaves us vulnerable to anybody at any level. We have a record signing up front who acts like a 5-year-old every time he plays.

We have four or five players who are only here for the massive salary and don't give a flying fuck about the club. Our goalkeeper is completely unstable and we have a manager who failing to rectify any of it.

We are likely to lose at any time. Most Evertonians recognise this. but the white-flag waver wants to appear smart. The sole reason for inventing this group of people who think we should win "15-0 every week".

If you know and understand football, you will be aware that results are anything but cut and dried. If they were, we'd all be millionaires. To meekly give up a whole block of games is to go against the very ethos of the game.

They would even be deprived of their desperately sought I-told-you-so. As Lyndon points out, if we were to play the teams he mentions today, we would be second favourites against all of them.

If the roll-over merchants really believe we will lose all our remaining games, why are they still watching? Why are they not lumping on down at the bookies to give themselves a whopping big pay-out with which to console themselves through the summer?

Talk is very cheap – especially when you can just disappear again after a victory.

As soon as we lost our lead today, people who hadn't posted a word during the first 75 minutes of the game – some of them names I'd never seen before on TW – were suddenly piling in to gleefully vent their spleens. And had we come back to win, they would have vanished into the mists again.

Some, no doubt, are trolls. But I think most of 'em are Blues who just wallow in whatever goes wrong because they think it's the thing to do. You can see them in this thread and the other game summary, ranging from conspiracy theorists to mind-readers to contributors of blanket statements that are patently ridiculous.

Just makes a bad day worse... which is probably their perverse objective.

I would give them far more credence if they balanced it up by appearing when we are winning too.

Getting on to the mental side, I believe it's our biggest problem and goes back to Moyes's times. I don't know what the solution is but we don't have unlimited resources to just get rid of all players and replace. In any event, if we're honest, it's in the psyche of the whole club, including fans.

I would suggest that the only way to change would be by the power and will of a manager. Unfortunately, I can't see how having a director of football allows this to happen and even more concerning, the board still lingers from era of mediocrity.

Sorry to be pessimistic but I don't see anything changing for a long time.

Playing in front of a defence that can't stop making horrendous mistakes will do this, he's a great shot-stopper, one of the best, and has saved us many times – the save from Salah in the derby was world class. He probably needs a rest right now but Silva hasn't signed a decent back-up... surprise, surprise.

We have 8 games left; let us see where we end up points-wise and then make a call on the matter of the manager.

Our Director of Football brought Mina to the club during the summer, stated that he was afraid that he would lose out on the player because of the World Cup. If Mina was the solution to the problem with 20 minutes to go yesterday, then God help us.

As our new, CEO Little Ms Dynamite is whacking out the soup and sleeping bags and building a shelter for the homeless, other CEOs in the Premier League are building football dynasties. You see, at EFC, it is all about being nice. On and off the pitch, we are all so very nice.

Yesterday, up at Newcastle, the Everton we've all come to expect didn't let us down. This shite has now gone way beyond football and has become a shamefull blight on the club and our loyal supporters. The football is infuriating and pityfull to watch but the whole set-up at the club from Kenwright to the players to the stadium is embarrassing and farcical.

What goes on at the top in the boardroom filters down to the management and the players. A clueless ineptitude runs through the club's DNA and it has done for decades. David Moyes brainwashed Bill Kenwright for over 10 years into believing that Everton were merely a mid-table club that should be thankful to compete and just take part and survive. Lose to the big boys and maintain the Status Quo. Don't ever believe we can rise above our level – just be happy to be in this Division. That shit has stuck and Bill has passed it on.

What real chance does this club have of makng progress when all positions of power at the club are held by clueless non-football people? The Big 2 – Farhad Moshiri and Little Ms Dynamite – are fucking useless clueless fuckers when it comes to running a Premier League football club. It's actually quite frightening Kenwright has made these appointments.

As in all business models, the buck stops at the very top. The bosses live and die by their decisions. What you see out on the pitch on a Saturday afternoon is a direct result of decades of boardroom incompetence. Until major changes are made upstairs at EFC, the shit we endure as fans will continue to happen.

If any of these clowns that run Everton FC cannot grasp the enormity of our situation, then I'm afraid, next season, the trap door beckons – it's that serious. Silva should've been fired after Millwall yet here we are again, watching an exact repeat of that shit.

I can't believe what we supporters have to put up with. We deserve better.

Perez should never be winning that header between our 2 defenders for the first goal. Pickford needs a reality check, he has used all his spare credit from the World Cup; he is now officially a dodgy keeper. As has been said, he needs to grow up fast, he looks an immature idiot at times.

He needs to find a way to focus 100%. He is fantastic at some aspects of goalkeeping but his mental ability to manage goalkeeping decisions is looking very suspect. That intelligence issue is very worrying.

Bringing on a rusty Mina for Richarlison at 1-2 was the decision of a frightened coward. Trying to see the game out with 20 mins still to go. Every single Everton fan on here, bar none, could see that was a poor strategy, inviting a rejuvenated Newcastle to attack at home. That was a move that Silva cannot defend. That was a last 5 mins substitution to fend off high balls punted into the box in desperation.

Sometimes I think Marco Silva is learning to ride his first proper bicycle in managing this Everton team. He keeps stuttering and falling off. Then getting back on and trying again and riding for a bit longer. Then, when the path bends and undulates, he falls off again. He will be back in the saddle for the Chelsea game, and probably should put his helmet on for that one.

I really don't know whether this naivety will be ironed out through his experiences of this season.

The jury is still out on him after 30+ games in charge, and the verdict will shift one way or the other before the season's end.

Yesterday, we had the bonus of scoring just after the penalty save. After the second goal, Newcastle looked lost. We went into cruise control and slowly let them start to believe. Eventually, even if the offside winner had been chalked off, I think the belief was with one team and they would have still scored again.

It is down to these fine margins but, of course, the manager has to make the right decisions – and Marco did not.

If we could get upwards of 㿊 million for him, I think a stable experienced keeper would work wonders for the defence.

Even the best defenders (and I don't put any of ours into that category) can look nervous if they don't have confidence in the man behind them.

Mason should be assessed by the referee panel and dropped down a league, he tried to keep the game flowing after some strong tackling with no retrospective bookings. and the offside goal, well how can a player be inactive and then active from a clearly offside position by putting his hands in the air?

I felt sorry for those players, who put a shift in, but it's worrying if we start crumbling in games from a winning position.

I'm yet to see Virginia play, but reports are excellent, both from fans and staff. For God's sake let's give the lad a chance and remove Pickford immediately.

I am not jumping on any bandwagon, I have stated my case against Pickford from the word go. So I say it again: disregard penalty saves and the odd acrobatic leap, his positional sense is atrocious and he has no confidence when dealing with high balls.

His attempts at punches are pathetic and he parries rather than smothers shots delivered with pace. His temperament is erratic and his rapport or lack of it with his defence gives no confidence whatsoever.

We have been ahead so many times this season, only to see good work ruined by his inadequacy. I have been slagged off for daring to criticise Pickford on here many times by fans blinded by his media hype, I am pleased to see that some are finally seeing through it.

He is becoming a Bruce Grobelaar type for me. In fact, I would go as far as saying Grobelaar was more reliable.

There are other areas where we are lacking. Big-money so-called 'Stars' – Richarlison, Sigurdsson and others – fail to consistently impress and flatter to deceive. But, mark my words, we will never progress while Pickford remains first choice.

.As for Pickford, I thought it was just me. He's turned into a grinning, gurning clown. Head turned by the World Cup run?

I suspect many would like to be commenting on wins. The problem is the current clown management and coaches and gutless and guileless players make that difficult.

However, we had been playing atrociously unattractive football until the Man City game. Silva had to find a way of making the midfield more competitive and he managed this (until the last half hour yesterday). He had to find a way of creating chances and scoring goals, which again he achieved against Cardiff and Newcastle. Maybe not so many chances against Man City and Liverpool but he managed to keep the games tight and competitive.

He has had to look at how we defend corners. It is now a few games since we conceded from one. Liverpool had about eight corners that were all well defended.

In short, Silva has inherited shite and has had a lot to do. As demonstrated above, he is evolving, just not as quick as we would like.

He now has to focus on managing winning positions but the least every Evertonian can do is to be supportive over the final eight games and at least give him a chance to do what he needs to do.

People talk about our main problem being scoring goals, but we will score more than we did last season. However, it defies belief that we can be undone so often, so easily. We have three big defenders and not one of them can judge the flight of the ball.

It doesn't matter how well you play, goals don't come cheaper than those which come about through conceding to a Route One alehouse ball. Lesser teams always have a chance of scoring against us because, like Newcastle, they will persist with it all day.

I would ask one question: since we bought Pickford, how have we performed? Koeman lost his job; Rhino didn't get appointed; Big Sam got us over the line; and now, Silva is likely to go. In all cases, defensively we are a mess – despite trying many combinations. The one common denominator in all those combinations is Pickford. Also, don't forget he was Sunderland's goalkeeper when they went down. Coincidence??

Remember last season, Pickford was acting the clown when he clattered into Ashley Williams – and how many goals did we concede from balls parried into play from Pickfords “saves”.

He has only one attribute: he is a good shot-stopper but he lacks all the other qualities a modern goalkeeper needs.

1. Doesn't hold shots or crosses... too often parries back into play;

2. Doesn't command his 6-yard box, hence we are brutal at set pieces;

3. Can't pass the ball — how often does he either put a defender under pressure or kick the ball straight out of play?

4. Doesn't take responsibility; his rationale for the error at Anfield was not credible.

5. He is not a leader or organiser of the defence which is essential for all great keepers.

It is time he was dropped. After all, everybody else has been... so let's see if this gives us more stability.

I did say Pickford needs to be rested; Stekelenburg will probably play against Chelsea.

I think you have a dream Silva will make good if given enough seasons and our bad defending is not his fault, the whole back four are useless and should be replaced by Silva?

It's been happening all season, our coach has failed to address it.

Various factors at play for each of the goals but I think he had a part in the first we conceded: Zouma is on Rondon just outside of the box, loses him but tracks back to try to pick up Perez who is already covered by Keane and, at that point, Kenny also moves towards Perez – 3 men going for one with Kenny having left Rondon free to score.

At the other end, though, I felt Calvert-Lewin again had a decent game, as well as scoring. Slowly but surely he's going to make it??

Mina might not have been directly at fault for any of the goals but the shape killed us (5 at the back as we were pushed back, with depleted resources ahead of them to stop Newcastle attacks). I know defenders should be able to adjust to changes in tactics and formation during the game but I suspect Mina's entry to the back line disrupted things – he was all over the place, and the others have to adjust to, and compensate for, that.

When you have, at best, an average squad you need a coach who knows what he's doing and can get the most out of what he has. That, clearly, is not happening. Forget about luring a top class multi-title winning manager, that's not going to happen. They won't come to a now small club.

Look for a manager who already knows how to do the job of coaching, organising, game planning and inspiring his team. Silva hasn't shown any of these characteristics. We can't provide on-the-job training if we want to remain a Premier League Club.

Benitez persisted with the same tactics that he had employed at Goodison and which were followed by subsequent teams. Silva never seemed to work it out and seemed to apply a type of lottery selection to try to change things. Liverpool, under the Prancing Clown, are not able to employ these tactics, and will never win the Premier League under his tenure.

Against Cardiff, we were plainly hopeful. Ironically, Silva, against a poor Newcastle side, hit on the right selection. Coleman sick before the start and the introduction of Kenny was for the good. The torrid time Kenny had would have been a total collapse for Coleman as Benitez targeted the perceived Everton weakness on the right flank.

It's obvious that Gomes is not at the right level of fitness for a full game and Sigurdsson can be played out of the game by a high defensive line. Gomes needed to be substituted at half-time, the signs where there. . . I would have preferred Schneiderlin on from the start, but Gomes did play well.

The introduction of Scheiderlin at half-time would have been even better. Because of a tiring midfield, the support for the forwards wasn't there and the inevitable loss of possession happened. I thought the introduction if Davies would be ideal for this support, but we get Walcott, who in the circumstances was a very poor substitution.

The introduction of Mina was unbelievable and showed that Silva hadn't a clue about tactics. Pickford was plain awful; Robles would have been better. As for the ref, I believe you can never beat the ref.

The annoying thing is, Everton are capable of good football and have the necessary players, but Silva is in no-man's land as far as tactical management is concerned. I actually think that Benitez is the ideal manager for Everton and would really make a big impact.

I remember way back, watching Nottingham Forest. They got relegated soon afterwards but I really thought they were a good footballing side. Clough and Taylor took over and the rest is history.

That's how I feel about Everton at the moment.

Rafa told his team to bombard the centre of the EFC defence with 40-yard long balls, missing the midfield out completely. Rondon was giving Keane and Zouma a real hard time and won most headers and knock-downs. Putting another centre half in there seems to me to be a perfectly good tactic.

Why he chose to take Richarlison off... god knows. Sigurdsson should have been the one to make way – he did sod all from what I've seen and heard.

The tactic was right – the centre-halves we have hate being in a battle. Troy Deeney sorted them out and Rondon did too yesterday – Keane and Zouma are not the answer when played up against brute strength. Mina is the only centre-half on the bench so it's him who has to come on when the other two don't have a grip.

Until we buy two real proper centre-halves... why the fuck did Koeman miss out on Van Dijk, god only knows.

Keeping Richarlison on would have given us a much better chance of getting a third goal.

Pickford was a joke yesterday and Stekelenburg or the young kid, Virginia, should replace him for the next match to teach the overconfident egotist a lesson in humility.

If Silva does not sort the defence out in the summer, he will be another failure in that ever-increasing column of names inside Goodison Park.

A very jaded blue.... Btw, Rafa, who plays long ball now???

Some of them get paid more in a week than most fans get in a year and put quite simply they ain't performing. Any other job, they would be looking at a written warning for job performance. They should all donate this weeks salary to charity.

I do like a good rant.

This clown has cost us a lot of points this season; if the manager had any balls, he'd drop him and give the kid Virginia his place. Let's be honest, he won't do any worse. No, he won't do it, though, because he's a coward.

Pickford always gives me the impression he thinks he's doing us a favour playing for Everton. I've got news for him: he's not – he's a very ordinary keeper who's got a very high opinion of himself. He certainly isn't wired right...

If cloning is available, let's clone D Watson and R Gough – they'd sort the likes of Rondon and Deeney out!

The direction of travel is downwards under Silva and the coaches he has working for him and his previous records indicates he does not have the ability to turn the ship around. He has to go and the entire first-team coaching staff must be reviewed to see if any one of them is up to the task of improving players.

I think the answer will be No and they should follow him out the door — whatever their previous links and standing within the club.

If Silva had any character himself, he should have players in today starting with the clown between the sticks. A good goalie gains teams points over a season. This fool has lost us more. He needs to be reminded of that and shown footage of his foolhardiness to the home fans yesterday.

The defence and midfield and forwards should be reminded a team plays together whether going forward or defending. The fact none of this is happening demonstrates the manager is out of his depth, clueless in terms of team set-up and weak in terms of character.

It's far from a rant, it's an extremely valid point. Especially donating to charity or even paying for the away support costs.

The buck stops with the manager but there are a lot more people culpable in the garbage we have witnessed the last few years.

We have played 30 league games (forget the embarrassing cup games); out of the 30 games, we have won 10. Think about those 10. Apart from the results, what positives have or can we take from any of them?

We had decent results against Burnley and Cardiff but what of the other wins? Some were absolutely dire.

We were stupidly hoping to see a more entertaining football under Silva. Has it really significantly improved since say, the Arteta, Baines, Pienaar, Cahill days?

Not that much to shout about really, eh?

Our back four (or 5) collectively shit themselves at any high ball in the box, this is our biggest problem. And this is inspite of having, individually at least, good defenders. So it is a combination of coaching and confidence. Silva is failing on both counts.

But, even after the tide had turned, we did look dangerous on the attack. But Bernard, who played well in general, seems to get very clumsy with his passing after 60 mins – whether it is tiredness or the pressure of the game, it is a recurrent theme. It was his stray pass that led to their first goal, and he gave it away a few times trying to do clever passing when what we needed was to keep possession.

And Richarlison's touch seemed to lose him, he could have won it at 3-1 but a miserable touch took it away from him.

So at this stage, we should have brought on Lookman or Walcott (or both), kept the shape, and maybe we could have made it 3-1 and closed the game. But Silva brought on a defender, invided pressure and broke our attacking system and the rest is history.

Positives are Digne, who does look top quality; Bernard for 60 mins, who could develop into a real attacking threat next season; Gomes, who put an imposing midfield display until he tired (a problem.of his he needs to resolve); and Calvert-Lewin, who scored a great goal and played well before being isolated by Silva's suicide tactics.

As I was game of the day on Sky I got to watch the entire 90 mins without being caught up in it the way you are when it's live. A few points.

Passing-terrible; If Silva is trying to build a team of pass, pass, pass, then they need to start passing to teammates, it would be helped by movement off the ball being better, and switching play. The amount of times moves broke down because the players run into traffic.

All talk of fancy formations: 4-2-3-1, diamond, 3 at the back etc — we were done by a good old-fashioned hoof up to a target man who knocked it on to a nimble partner. A tactic everyone sniffs at but it's obvious, to quote Corporal Jones, modern centre-backs don't like it up 'em-and this from Benitez a supposedly fancy foreign manager!

Finally the officials; the only thing Lee Mason's got going for him is that he isn't Jon Moss. Surely the FA have got to do something about the appalling standard of refereeing. How did Pickford manage to stay on the field? Couldn't the linesman see that there were 5 barcodes offside for the 3rd goal? Clear penalties on Digne & Sigurdsson missed. This is ineptitude on a grand scale.

And finally back to Pickford — fucking grow up! You're a highly paid footballer, not a Mackem giving it loads to the Barcodes fans; you can only hope he learns from this. It was the equivalent of Rooney's badge kissing, but he was a brilliant player — you, less so.

All of the talk about zonal marking forgets that there is one zone which should be owned by the goalkeeper and that is the 6-yard box. Pickford is extremely poor at commanding the box. Too easily beaten and an accident waiting to happen every week.

The defenders must be terrified having this clown behind them even without factoring in the other huge waste of money that is Mina. Not even half a step forward but two back with Silva I'm afraid in recent weeks. I want him out as soon as possible.

I watched the whole game after knowing the result and reading a lot of vilification of Silva's choice of substitution. I failed to see any real capitulation or real wilting in the face of the very-much-to-be-expected late rallying of the Barcodes. The real problem came before that when we failed to actually trouble the goalkeeper for the first half of the second half.

A poor error by Jordan Pickford and a blatant offside undid all of the good work across the majority of the game.

That aside, blaming him for the defeat is not really fair as he made a couple of good stops as well as being at fault for at least one of the goals.

What killed this game was the Mina sub. Bizarre. Mina is our player, and should start every game for the rest of the season. His problem is lack of game time. He'll be starting the next game anyway, so why not leave him in there?

It appears my post @18 has been edited. You've change my ‘Weir' sub to Weird. Whilst indeed the substitution was weird that's not what was meant.

‘The Weir sub' - a common reference to when Everton bring on a CB to hold on to a result but never see it through often losing the game as a result.

Just for your delectations

Very fair observation although I would exclude Gana Gueye from the list of regressives. However, I feel that is more to do with Gana, than his coaching team. In my opinion, he is worth more than the 㿔m being floated. My favourite player by a mile.

If Gana had moved to PSG in January, PSG would still be in the Champions League ... discuss.

A further thought – it looks like Man Utd, languishing below us a few weeks ago, might easily finish 3rd in the league. Who might be our Solskjaer (spelling?)

Instead, later, when Everton went from 2-0 to 2-1, Silva brought on Mina (not match fit) and the inconsistent Lookman. Then it went to a final score of 2:3.

Conclusion, Silva does not know how to protect a 2-0 lead with proper timely substitutions.

Marcel Brands has gone very quiet of late, when he joined us he had something to say by the minutes, but now?

Moshiri issued the statement backing silva, not him (Brands), who's actually running the football side of the club?

It's like we have a self-professed expert at Championship Manager in charge. He proves time and time again he is tactically naive. Several times this season, he has thrown in a 5th defender when we have been in a positive position and it has backfired big time – Anfield, yesterday and Millwall spring to mind.

This is the most disappointing season I remember in 35 years. One to forget. False promises were made and large sums of money spent. We are worse than last season and this will be confirmed come May when we are lower than 8th with a lower points total than last year.

Surely that will mean a new manager next season... Hopefully

Here we go again with the utterly bizarre 'Rafa' worship from some posters which I thought was confined to the gobshites across the park. What exactly did this 'genius' manager do yesterday? His team were comprehensively outplayed at home for an hour by a team as utterly shit as ours.

We lost because our goalkeeper is fucking shite & our manager is a fucking moron who's completely out of his depth. Benitez was nothing more than an impotent observer on the sidelines who's team got lucky, which actually quite nicely sums up his whole fucking career.

3rd goal: exactly as written here. 100% offsides. How can a professional official miss that easy fucking call?

We lost 8-1 in the end, the psycho was fucking useless at the basics, but a great penalty stopper. I often wonder where that kid is now. Can't remember his name, Justin Pickman or something like that.

Rafa switched his tactics putting an extra man in midfield. They got hold of the game and their long balls were won by them putting two players in the box.

By that time we had encouraged them to attack us. So Rafa was far from being impotent.

Would you choose Silva over Rafa?

With a competent goalkeeper & manager we would have cruised to an easy win regardless of the great Rafa, who's own shiteness had been exposed for an hour.

Regarding your question, you might as well ask me would I choose Ted Bundy over Peter Sutcliffe.

You see him ultra-confident in interviews, with the bravado and the chewing gum. He seems to be possessed by the ghost of Joe Hart – who Pickford has repeatedly said is one of his role models.

Like Hart, Pickford is in danger of letting his talent go to waste by believing in his own hype when he really needs to knuckle down and keep improving. Hart should have had another five years at the top but Pep saw through him before most, leading to a sequence of moves culminating with him being unable to hold down a place even at Burnley.

We really need to stop this “England's No 1” bullshit on the screens at Goodison and instead remind him that he's still a young goalkeeper with a lot to learn and a lot to prove.

Come to think of it... when did we supporters last have a dope test?

Great keepers like Banks or Southall read the game. They anticipated events and reacted accordingly. Pickford will have great games, but consistency will never be his thing.

A Sunderland lad at St. James's Park, he was a time bomb and he reacted as such. Add Pickford to a tactically naive manager who hasn't a clue how to set up a team and can't create a midfield that can control a game, and the disasters keep happening.

Everton were cruising toward a well-deserved win when Rafa made his first successful tactical move, which was bringing on Dummet to tighten his midfield. That was enough to flummox our brain-dead attackers.

Then Rafa negated our fullbacks raids by playing long balls over their heads into space they left behind.

Then he got his twin strikers to play in the faces of our three confused centre-backs. That confusion was created by Silva's stupid decision to bring on loose cannon Mina.

Rafa's managerial master class that I mentioned in #4 has clearly failed to educate commentators other than Silva.

The point tactically is that Newcastle are able to get possession of the ball at 40 yards so as to launch it at the Everton defence.

You are making the same mistake that Silva made: Silva was reactive to the Newcastle tactic by taking a forward off and putting Mina into the defence. The result was to aid the Newcastle tactic, by pushing Everton deeper without any midfield support.

What Silva needed to do was to be proactive. He needed to substitute a tiring Gomes with Schneiderlin, who would have added a second layer to the defence, preventing Newcastle running onto loose balls and providing support to Sigurdsson. The introduction of Davies would have provided support to the forwards, aided maintenance of possession, and the high press.

Basically, what Silva did was to surrender the Everton final third to Newcastle. The final third can only operate with support from midfield. This was brilliantly demonstrated in the first half.

It has already been pointed out that they had been employing the long ball tactic that gave them their first goal throughout the game. It is bizarre that people seem to have seen us retreat into our own half when Mina came on. That didn't happen.

They simply went all out to get back into the game, much as they have done before in the good run they have enjoyed recently, and we failed to deal with situations even these players should be capable of handling.

If Seamus had been playing instead of the erratic Kenny I reckon we would have strolled it yesterday.

So a player who racked up 269 appearances for Everton, by coming on as a sub under certain fairly specific circumstances as you describe, thus gave his name to this tactical move?

To even have a chance of establishing such a pattern, you'd expect he would need to be employed in that manner a fair few times, would you not? At least a bit more often than barely 15 times in his 8-year Everton career. So that's not even twice a season? Yet, on this basis, you say we have the commonly referenced "Weir Sub"???

Nah — I think I was right: that's just Weird.

It screams out to me of poor or a lack of effective coaching for him. He needs a coach that he respects, that he will listen to, even when it's a message he doesn't want to hear. He has flaws, and needs to own them so he can work on improving.

If Silva is the man to continue with, and I'm not sure he is (tactical nous is lacking), but the coaching staff seem to be very light on.

This is the test for Brands, get the right backroom staff in, not yes-men to Silva, and not club hangers-on.

He is coming across as an arrogant wildcard. He has regressed since the World Cup instead of that being a springboard for him.

Both the coaching staff and Pickford himself need to get a grip of the situation and turn it round fast.

We might not have been working the keeper, but we were definitely working Newcastle's outfield players and, with a touch more quality, Silva, might not have had to make such a defeatist change, which played right into Rafa Benitez's hands.

At least we created a decent amount of chances against Newcastle (who actually have conceded the 6th least goals in the league). And we looked quite sound defensively against Cardiff and Liverpool. We just need to get both aspects right in the same game! Simple... right?

I would love to see Silva's team become more defensively sound (wouldn't we all?) but I'm not sure it's possible with such an expansive system. This is why I'd love him to employ a more defensive coach alongside him, but I'm not sure this would do anything more than have them both contradicting each other, though.

The manager got it badly wrong on Saturday, and this was more galling because for the first hour his team had got most things right. With 8 games to go, I hope people can concentrate on the positives, but once we make our minds up, it's usually very hard to change it.

Bernard was great until he suddenly ran out of gas and started coughing-up possession. Gomes too has done this so many times. When you tire, your brain slows down and you make poor decisions as well as your motor skills becoming impaired.

I once boxed a Royal Marine Sergeant in a sparring session. I was 23, playing 4 games of footy a week and training TaeKwondo. I thought I was fit. In the 3rd round he said "Drop your guard and I'm gonna make you see stars". I kept my guard up but it was a long 3 minutes.

Fitness is key to everything in sport.

I'm still not sure whether he is a second-tier luxury player we can't afford to accommodate with the spasmodic frailty within the team.

As when Martinez was here, it seems there is too much time practicing pretty passing triangles and dribbling the ball around. I suspect this is also why our defence is so bad – not enough time spent on drills and defensive shape or organisation.

I don't know but I also suspect it is too easy within the club after losing games like at the weekend... Do the players and staff really hurt enough when this happens?

I'm not talking about feeling a bit disappointed for an hour after the game before then going out with their mates for a night out. I'm talking about old-school reactions to losing where players would be in moods for the whole of the next week, and not even talk to their own families for days after, because they were so mad.

I seem to remember reading that, if the players played badly and lost a game they were expected to win on a Saturday, Moyes would be in a terrible mood until the next Wednesday or Thursday with them all. They wouldn't even try to talk to him or go near him. Can we imagine the same from Silva? I don't think so.