Seasons 2019-20
Opinion & Articles
Contributions from our editorial team, featured columnists and readers.
Everton end awful season in typically dour fashion
Lyndon Lloyd
26/07/2020You would think that a team bearing Ancelotti's fingerprints can't possibly keep playing this badly but they have managed it right up to the final game and it doesn't bode well for a 2020-21 campaign unless something significant happens in the transfer window.
Signs of life from Everton as they thwart Sheffield United
Lyndon Lloyd
20/07/2020Not only did Everton win their second away game since the post-lockdown restart but they did it with the kind of defensive resilience and resurfacing attacking enterprise that they will need in order to make 2020-21 a much more successful endeavour
Everton emerge from their slumber in time to snag a point against Villa
Lyndon Lloyd
16/07/2020For all the reasons that have been thrown around and dissected in recent weeks, this was another illustration of the work that lies ahead for Ancelotti and Marcel Brands in the transfer market on the one hand and the manager and his coaching staff at Finch Farm over the other in the coming weeks.
Checked Out
Lyndon Lloyd
12/07/2020This was almost as bad as anything served up under either Marco Silva or Carlo Ancelotti this season but the alarming drop-off in form over the past three games is further evidence of a mindset that urgently needs to change
No fans, no passion or drive
Lyndon Lloyd
09/07/2020If the mantra of “football is nothing without fans“ has become a bit of a cliché in recent weeks it's with good reason
Serial Let-Downs
Lyndon Lloyd
07/07/2020The Blues bottled another opportunity and without significant investment or miraculous management by Ancelotti, European competition could remain a flight of fancy for a while to come.
Ancelotti's game management preserves victory over Foxes
Lyndon Lloyd
01/07/2020In the wily Italian, Everton have a head coach with the ability to actually manage a game and it he did that with aplomb this evening
Take the points, move on
Lyndon Lloyd
25/06/2020While this was an utterly forgettable game, dragged down by a truly dreadful first half, Everton accomplished the most important thing — they eked out a victory
Derby luck remains elusive but Everton make champions-elect look ordinary
Lyndon Lloyd
22/06/2020Few would have begrudged the Blues if Tom Davies's late effort had crept in to claim the points after a solid defensive display that just lacked consistent quality going forward
Ticking the Boxes
Lyndon Lloyd
10/06/2020The Premier League will take its tentative steps towards reopening this month. It'll be football, Jim, but not as we know and love it and it makes it difficult to gin up much enthusiasm
The Predator
Lyndon Lloyd
31/05/2020The coronavirus crisis came at the worst time for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, forcing the shutdown of football when he was in a rich vein of form and on the cusp of the England setup but the young striker is no stranger to hard work and difficult circumstances
Misfits, Mysteries and Nearly-Men — Luke Garbutt
Lyndon Lloyd
13/05/2020When he signed a five-year contract in 2015, it was greeted with relief. Instead of a blossoming career as Baines's natural successor, however, Luke Garbutt will leave Everton this summer having never fulfilled his early promise
Misfits Mysteries and Nearly-Men — Henry Onyekuru
Lyndon Lloyd
06/05/2020Player recruitment under Steve Walsh showed ambition even if things didn't work out
Unchartered waters and difficult decisions
Lyndon Lloyd
14/03/2020The Premier League has pencilled in a resumption of action for the first week of April but the feeling is that that is optimistic. The question that will be pondered anxiously between now and then is what happens next?
Looking Forward to the Past
Lyndon Lloyd
12/03/2020As the 50th anniversary of Everton's 1969-70 League championship triumph approaches, Lyndon Lloyd chats with Dr David France about that wonderful side
Different manager, same old humiliation
Lyndon Lloyd
08/03/2020Carlo Ancelotti's Everton were made to look second best in almost every department as they were thrashed by Chelsea's injury-hit but superior side
The malignant hand of Moss
Lyndon Lloyd
01/03/2020The reviled referee took the easy way out with his controversial decision to take away Everton's stoppage-time winner and failure to give the Blues a penalty for a clear foul on Gylfi Sigurdsson
Not your average Emirates defeat
Lyndon Lloyd
24/02/2020Everton showed their soft underbelly again and gave Ancelotti more headaches where the defence is concerned but the return of Gomes and the creation of some good chances bode well for the future.
Rub of the green and Brazilian gold lift the Blues to victory over Palace
Lyndon Lloyd
08/02/2020Bernard scored a peach and Richarlison raced away to bag the decisive goal but Everton needed a little help from the woodwork and Jordan Pickford to come up trumps to beat the Eagles
A Smash-and-Grab Raid Against the Odds
Lyndon Lloyd
02/02/2020Everton came from behind to win a game for the first time in over two years thanks to a 90th-minute moment of redemption for one of their most consistent under-performers
Ancelotti — Can the Quiet Leader Bring Order to Everton's Chaos?
Lyndon Lloyd
31/01/2020The question, "What is Everton?" has been asked a lot by outsiders recently. It's unlikely many thought that Carlo Ancelotti could form part of that answer but the calmly authoritative managerial great is the latest step in Farhad Moshiri's gradual shifting of the identity of the club
A Truly Evertonian Act of Self-Sabotage
Lyndon Lloyd
21/01/2020This was one of the more comfortable 90 minutes that the home team have had under the lights in recent season. Then “Everton†happened; that infuriatingly weak and soft-centred entity that seems to find new ways to shoot itself in the foot
A game neither side proved capable of winning
Lyndon Lloyd
19/01/2020This was one of the most frustrating games of a season that was full of them prior to Silva's dismissal and which starkly exposed the midfield, meaning the point gained was probably a decent one
Atonement, Step 1
Lyndon Lloyd
11/01/2020It was in the spirit of a reset of sorts that Ancelotti sent his team out against Brighton this afternoon and while the resulting display was far from transcendent, it produced three vital points.
What are you made of?
Lyndon Lloyd
08/01/2020Evertonians were let down wholesale by their team last Sunday but by the older, more experienced heads in particular. The backlash against them has been righteously indignant but now it's time for them to front up as men in a way they didn't at Anfield and set off on the path to redemption and a possible road to the top six
A Disgrace to the Shirt
Lyndon Lloyd
05/01/2020So early in his reign, this one wasn't on the manager; this was squarely on a group of players who have largely escaped the worst of the criticism and allowed Marco Silva to carry the can but who have nowhere left to hide.
Everton out of energy and ideas in standard defeat to City
Lyndon Lloyd
01/01/2020Apart from a few moments, Carlo Ancelotti's men gave a really poor account of themselves today in what was their third match in six days
Ancelotti has Everton looking up as 2020 beckons
Lyndon Lloyd
28/12/2019The Blues' supposed month from hell end ends on a high with a 100% record for Carlo Ancelotti from his first two games and 11 points from 15 since Marco Silva was sacked
Everton have just enough to get Ancelotti off to a flyer
Lyndon Lloyd
27/12/2019Carlo Ancelotti described this as the perfect first game and while it was short on genuine thrills and entertainment, few Blues would argue given the wider context of the season
Duncan Ferguson, take a bow
Lyndon Lloyd
21/12/2019This was a forgettable game bereft of quality but Everton's indomitable Scot has managed to wring five precious points from three daunting-looking Premier League fixtures and paved the way for the appointment of one Carlo Ancelotti.
Time for Marcel Brands to take the wheel
Lyndon Lloyd
10/12/2019He was hailed as the exciting next piece in the Blues' jigsaw when he arrived last year. He must, now, as the most qualified person on the board and as the director of football, be allowed to get on with making decisions, formulating strategies and to steer Everton forward… starting with the selection of Everton's next manager
Everton break through wall of worry under Talismanic Ferguson
Lyndon Lloyd
07/12/2019Everton badly needed a result today; one point would have done in the circumstances but three would have been priceless and cometh the hour, cometh the man to inspire a performance of high intensity, desire and determination that was matched by a raucous and then rapturous Goodison Park.
Belated mercy for Silva, Moshiri's failed gamble
Lyndon Lloyd
06/12/2019Marco Silva's time as Everton boss is over just halfway through his three-year term. Let down in large measure by poor recruitment and bedevilled by some awful luck, the Portuguese was ultimately exposed as being too stubborn to change or simply out of his depth
Ruthless Liverpool shred Everton's defences leaving Silva staring into the abyss
Lyndon Lloyd
04/12/2019Whether 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.
El Muñeco — Could Everton go for “the next great Argentine manager”?
Lyndon Lloyd
04/12/2019An international team-mate of Diego Simeone and Mauricio Pochettino, Marcelo Gallardo has spent the last seven years building an impressive resume of trophy wins in South America and has restored River Plate as one of that Continent's giants. On the landscape of potential replacements for Marco Silva, the 43-year-old is easily one of the most intriguing and, interestingly, he has leapt into pole position in the betting to be Everton's next manager.
Fine margins but reality's grip tightens around Silva's Everton
Lyndon Lloyd
02/12/2019Everton have taken some punches to the solar plexus already this season but this one hit particularly hard and it will leave Marco Silva, if he is indeed to survive until the Merseyside derby, with a huge task in trying to lift his charges off the canvas in time for Anfield on Wednesday.
Dead Man Walking
Lyndon Lloyd
28/11/2019Farhad Moshiri and the Board may have resisted any knee-jerk impulse to fire Marco Silva and appoint an unpopular interim coach like two years ago but it still leaves the Portuguese hanging by a thread for at least the next two games. Barring a miraculous run of results, the hierarchy will surely act but they must use any time in the interim to find the right successor.
The Revolving Door
Lyndon Lloyd
26/11/2019There has been huge reluctance to usher in further instability at Everton by removing Marco Silva and triggering yet another change in manager but if the Director of Football model works as intended, it need not be all that disruptive
The Protégé — Would Mikel Arteta represent gamble or coup for Everton?
Lyndon Lloyd
25/11/2019He has been lauded by Manchester City's players for his role in their success, Pep Guardiola feels he already has the tools to become a top manager and Arsenal are reportedly considering him again should they sack Unai Emery but would Mikel Arteta represent too big a gamble for Farhad Moshiri as Marco Silva's replacement at Everton?
The Terrifying Spectre of Moyes
Lyndon Lloyd
24/11/2019The shortlist of potential candidates to replace Marco Silva is just that — short. Which is why the leap for the media to David Moyes, currently unemployed because of a string of failed or middling managerial spells, has been so easy to make but it would be a hugely retrograde and deeply unpopular step to bring him back, even for just a few months.
Canaries in the coal mine portend the death of Silva's Everton tenure
Lyndon Lloyd
23/11/2019This was so bad, so disorganised, passionless and lethargic that even if they had managed to rescue a point, it wouldn't have been enough to dampen the growing sense that Silva's week-to-week case for remaining in the post now needs to come to a definitive end.
Blue Dragon — A chat with David France
Lyndon Lloyd
14/11/2019With another seemingly interminable international break upon us — albeit, thankfully, the last one of the calendar year — I took the opportunity to catch up with the Good Doctor Everton and ask him about his new collaboration with Rob Sawyer, the biography of striking legend Roy Vernon
Everton grateful for rare away win but Silva still has plenty to prove
Lyndon Lloyd
09/11/2019This was an absolutely vital victory but the performance that underpinned it was largely unconvincing and there was little here to advance Marco Silva's claim to be the man to realise the club's ambitions at the top end of the Premier League.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Lyndon Lloyd
07/11/2019Marco Silva's admission that he is impressing on Richarlison the need to stay on his feet is long overdue because, while Everton continue to be the victims of galling double standards, the Brazilian needs to do all he can to change the perceptions of him.
Injury curse strikes again before Tosun rescues a point
Lyndon Lloyd
04/11/2019It was one of those days where the final result felt rather immaterial; where a long-term injury to another important player, another largely disappointing performance, more infuriatingly poor refereeing and the damningly criminal injustice of VAR all combined to leave you with a sense of futility about 2019-20.
The Mis-Handling of Moise Kean
Lyndon Lloyd
01/11/2019Marco Silva's management of the young Italian has gone from frustrating to highly dubious.
Silva's men buckle at Brighton as VAR finally comes for Everton
Lyndon Lloyd
27/10/2019The “VARce†at the Amex Stadium was only part of the equation because there are deeper-seated issues at play in this Everton side behind why they spent the long journey north mulling yet another defeat
Changes for the good earn reprieve for Silva
Lyndon Lloyd
20/10/2019Together with Marco Silva'a adjustments in terms of personnel, Everton set a benchmark today for the minimum effort, tempo and drive that his required in every game and they have to meet it now on a consistent basis because they proved how much better they are than recent form has suggested.
The Change Imperative
Lyndon Lloyd
18/10/2019Marco Silva goes into a match that he himself has declared as "must-win" against a talented but unpredictable West Ham side.
None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See
Lyndon Lloyd
08/10/2019The incomplete summer recruitment made for less than ideal circumstances this season but none of Everton's personnel issues, even in aggregate, really account for how poor the team has been. That is clearly down to other factors that ultimately rest at the feet of the manager.
All the Hallmarks of a Death Spiral
Lyndon Lloyd
05/10/2019This was same old, same old and it can't continue any longer. Marco Silva's position is rapidly becoming untenable, his status as Everton manager is in danger of being critically undermined by a stubborn refusal to change.
Blues can't bridge gulf in class but will take positives from defeat to City
Lyndon Lloyd
28/09/2019Evertonians will come out of this game with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the Blues suffered an almost entirely predictable defeat; on the other, there was a noticeable response from Marco Silva's players to the debacle against Sheffield United
Crisis looms for Silva as another season derails
Lyndon Lloyd
21/09/2019Following an utterly dreadful performance against Sheffield United, the Portuguese can be under no illusions about the mess he and his team have made of the new campaign
Away-day blues show no signs of abating
Lyndon Lloyd
15/09/2019This team is as firmly ensconced in the recent Evertonian tradition of serial underachievement away from home as any in recent years. Everton rarely win away matches and with defending like this, these sorts of ugly reverses are going to keep happening.
Everton's under-performers rediscover their mojo in exciting win over Wolves
Lyndon Lloyd
01/09/2019Together with a trio of new signings making their full debuts, Richarlison, Sigurdsson and Gomes emerged from their early season funk to drive Everton to what feels like a huge victory
Stars new and old point the way forward as Everton deal with Lincoln
Lyndon Lloyd
28/08/2019Everton discovered their shooting boots and quadrupled their scoring tally for the season as they progressed to the third round of the Carabao Cup at Sincil Bank this evening
The Scripts Write Themselves
Lyndon Lloyd
24/08/2019A result and the performance that under-pinned it for the most part, were unsurprising — it was all just depressingly familiar; another potentially strong start to a season undermined by a display that served to highlight rather than mask the deficiencies that still exist in this Everton team
Our Proposed New Home
Lyndon Lloyd
16/08/2019Like the overwhelming majority of Evertonians it seems, judging by the voting on our current poll, I was pretty pleased with what I saw when the first visuals of Bramley-Moore Dock were revealed. I'd love to see a couple of unique touches added to the inside, though.
H8 LFC
Lyndon Lloyd
13/08/2019A chat with Elizabeth France, wife of the good Dr Everton, on renewed hope for the new season — possibly the make or break season under Mr Moshiri's ownership
Familiar story for rusty Everton against stubborn Palace
Lyndon Lloyd
10/08/2019“Plus ça change…â€, "deja vuâ€â€¦ pick your French cliché. Everton began a new season with yet another draw — their seventh in the last eight seasons — in a game that was eerily similar to the one between these two teams in late April.
Top-6 tilt could be touch-and-go as summer business falls just short
Lyndon Lloyd
09/08/2019The failure to replace Kurt Zouma was frustrating because the recruitment this summer has, otherwise, been hugely encouraging, leaving Marco Silva with a more dangerous outfit going forward but thin at the back. Everton will rely on Keane and Mina forging a meaningful partnership, some luck with injuries and some help from the some of the so-called "big six" this season.
The Most Improved
Lyndon Lloyd
03/07/2019It's not hyperbole to suggest that at one stage Michael Keane was close to being written off in some quarters as another expensive but ultimately inadequate signing from the Steve Walsh era. He's come a long way since in the space of Marco Silva's first season in charge.
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