Away-day blues show no signs of abating

What worries me is the absolute joke regarding the centre half options. The priority at the end of last season was either sign Kurt or buy a replacement and that was not addressed.

Keane and Mina are both decent players but, as last season, it appears that they cannot play together.

Also, Digne looks far more dangerous with Bernard in front of him.

Sheffield Utd is going to be a huge test for us on Saturday – they give everything in every game and, it seems, we give either just enough or not quite enough.

I'm not sure what's happening with Davies? He played well for England U21s midweek, but he's not getting a look-in at all this season? He's had plenty of stick on here in the past, unfair mostly, but he's surely a better option than Schneiderlin when Gomes isn't available?

In the comfort of Goodison, the defence looks solid, but there's no leader on the road. it doesn't seem like anyone is in control. I like Keane, I think he's really come on after a difficult first season, but he needs someone in his ear or he needs to grow into that leader pretty quick.

One of the key skills in being a manager is identifying problems and rectifying them, and not to let them continue in a way that contaminates the psychological make-up of your players.

I would bet, dare I say it, that even big Sam would probably have at least 10 points from these fixtures – we haven't played a so-called good side yet! Silva has to go and we have to get the best manager available, a proven winner.

Not top 6 form.

Bournemouth were sharper of the mind than us and took advantage. Our defending was poor. Poor inaccurate passing throughout. Relying on the hoof of Pickford time and time again because of lack of confidence on the ball. Or just lack of ability or movement from players in front.

Bournemouth's Eddie Howe watched the Villa video, set up his team well and motivated his players well. He out-thought Silva and his players out-fought ours.

This performance was rank. It feels like it has been knocked to the canvas, we need a run of league wins now to purge it.

We accommodated during the course of the game a plethora of wingers, starting with Richarlison, Iwobi, and Calvert-Lewin, then bringing on Bernard, Kean and Walcott. I can't for the life of me see the balance in this team. Tosun does well for Turkey, but isn't deemed worthy even of a place on the bench.

Our back four is vulnerable to pace, and it looks like another long, hard season of disappointments.

However – we're not playing the best 6 teams in the league and it doesn't work against a lot of other teams.

We have the personnel to go with a similar formation to City and Liverpool, unfortunately that means dropping the undroppable Sigurdsson and playing 3 midfielders with more mobility than Schneiderlin. (Granted, Gbamin and Gomes we're out so we would have had to have gone with Delph, Schneiderlin and Davies.)

Silva needs to look at this and realise he can't keep setting the tram up the exact same way for every game and expect things to turn out differently.

Once the game is in progress – and if things aren't going well – he is devoid of alternatives and too often makes changes too late.

I can't imagine many of the players are motivated by him either. He's passionless and comes across as wet, weak, and dull as dishwater.

But worst of all for me are the inane interviews he gives post-match where he offers views that show he clearly attended a different game to the one the rest of us watched.

We're in for a horrible, long, painful season and Silva will not change that one iota. It's not premature to replace him. We need to find his replacement and quickly.

The team was setup alright, except for we were playing too much of a high line with that defence, which gives me cause for concern. Having such a high line, away from home in particular, is asking for trouble. However, to execute an effective pressing game, which was bearing fruit and causing Bournemouth no end of problems, has to have a high line. There's no getting away from that.

We pressed well and I thought we were by far the better side until their second goal. We certainly controlled the ball. Where we were going wrong was by not creating enough clear-cut chances. The players were getting into the right positions and were consistently picking the wrong pass or overhitting the pass. So Silva's coaching was working by getting the movement and the pressing right, but the individual players were failing to do as instructed with the key passes.

Let's not forget that Richarlison cracked one off the bar, the movement and the passing in that move was great to watch.

Each of the goals was easily avoided. The first was a corner where first Richarlison was beaten for the flick-on and then Calvert-Lewin was flat footed and watched as King got a touch, and then Keane and Schneiderlin didn't react quick enough as Wilson nodded in the goal. So Everton players all not switched on. But yeah, blame the manager for that.

The second was a terrible piece of defending where Delph just missed it by trying to use his left, when all he needed was to swing his right. I don't think any blame could be attached to Pickford, but I expect he will question himself on it.

The third was Mina and Keane. Mina won the header and stepped forwards. Then he and Keane stood gawping as it was lobbed over them for Wilson to run onto, and Pickford did his best but Wilson was too good not to score from there. Mina should have not admired his header and should have dropped back, Keane should have been wise to Mina and either dropped to cover or shouted Mina back.

The high line worries me. I don't think Keane is as bad as the hammering he is getting now in the press. I watched the game on Sky and the commentator was out for him from the first minute, going on about the England error. The narrative is now set for Keane. It will be difficult to turn that around in the next couple of games.

So, I would consider "taking him out of the firing line" as the saying goes, and putting the quicker Mason Holgate in to see how he does with Yerry Mina. I think they could complement each other's strengths and weaknesses.

As for the ridiculous team selection criticism. Silva put Calvert-Lewin in and he scored. He also forced a few turnovers in possession. He justified his selection. Kean is not ready yet. Sorry lads, you need to be patient with our young Italian, he will be in and out the side. When he came on he did nothing to suggest to me that he could have done more than Calvert-Lewin. I hoped he'd be on a little earlier, around the 60 minute mark, and with the score in our favour.

As for the other change, Gomes was injured and so he brought in Schneiderlin. What else was he supposed to do?

The only point I do disagree with is Schneiderlin instead of Davies. I can't see what the benefit is, he's slow and ponderous. Davies may have his limits but at least he adds zip and drive.

This is a time for some boldness and some ingenuity. I will be delighted if Silva can demonstrate those qualities.

The options are numerous: a direct replacement of Gomes with either Bernard or Sigurdsson and if the latter play Kean or Richarlison in Sigurdsson's usual position with the alternative of Bernard and/or Iwobi wide. He could even have asked Davies to play there and play in a more advanced position than Schneiderlin actually did. But no, he opted for two defensive midfielders who rarely helped out when attacking and didn't actually improve our defending.

If Gomes was unavailable owing to an injury from the Wolves game, then he had two weeks to come up with an alternative system altogether. It's more a matter of what couldn't he have done rather than what was he supposed to do.

Under Martinez, we attacked like demons away from home, I was there when we won at Old Trafford and bossed Arsenal at the Emirates, and was present in the 3-0 at Southampton and 3-0 at Stoke and witnessed the 3-3 at Chelsea, at 2-0 up we were attacking with 7 men in Chelsea's box. We played mesmerising football at times going forward.

The unraveling for that though was defensively we were like a block of Swiss cheese and was the eventual downfall.

Under Koeman, we never seemed anything other than workmanlike carried most of the time by a 25 goal striker that papered over other deficiencies, cracks that showed in Koeman's second season after Lukaku's departure.

Silva has not really proved to be too much more than a cross between Koeman and Martinez this far, less attacking than Martinez and slightly less defensive than Koeman.

Silva is stuck somewhere in the middle but the away form is grotesquely bad that we can't ignore it anymore. I don't know how he finds a solution to this problem because I've seen little evidence of a backbone in Everton's team for a long time and I certainly don't see it now.

The art of pinching 1-0 away wins has gone from Everton now, it's a scoreline that we have only been on the beneficial side of once (the win at Huddersfield in January) since December 2017.

I understand the new "style" of Management where it's all about showing the love etc etc, but sitting in the dugout and rolling your eyes is not enough for me. Show some passion ffs (even fake it if you have to). Add to that changing a winning side??

To note Mina is an "Oaf" — it's a call and I am making it. He causes and will cause nothing but chaos in any defence he is apart of.

Some armchair fans say he needs to be on the touchline more at home games. The reality is that he's never off the touchline. Could it be that you saw one split second picture, that might not even be a live image, used for dramatic effect?

If someone who was at the game wants to tell he was sat down for extended periods, I will accept that. But Marco Silva is always on the touchline, and never moves from there. He also doesn't stop gesticulating and shouting to the players, so to say he doesn't is ludicrous.

The biggest concern though is whether Silva has got the mental strength and the commanding nature to be what we need and have needed for years.

The jury is still out.

I also note he has never uses the word "embarrassing" despite overseeing any number of performances worthy of the description since taking over at the helm, maybe lost in translation.

HIs teams lack fight and bottle, teams reflect their managers and nice guys seldom win, the RS and City are dying for the cause every game I watch them. I know and see when both Klopp or Guardiola are angry though, funnily enough, and I watch their games on TV also??

You make some valid points but this phenomenon under Silva is not new. Pre-season showed that we couldn't score goals and leaked goals even though looking good in possession.

We have a back five of top internationals who cost over 𧴜M (even allowing for Seamus at 㿨k.) They look confused and lethargic so is it the players or the coaching?

I was convinced by your arguments last season when we hit that purple patch I thought "Yeah, we need to give this guy time."

But since last season, we can't even get the basics right and we still have the same issue of not scoring goals from our pressure and conceding them from being under pressure.

I don't think it's premature to ask questions when the mighty Lincoln, Villa and Bournemouth have just put 7 past us.

When can all make excuses about injuries or bad luck etc but when that is occurring frequently then questions have to be asked and answered.

I do not support the calls for his sacking, because it would be idiotically premature (and there is no replacement out there I'm remotely interested in), but I am increasingly convinced he will not succeed at Everton.

To me a key test of a manager is how his team executes the fundamentals, specifically in dead ball situations. And we continue to be, as we have been since Silva took over, the worst in the Premier League on set pieces. We have given up the most set piece goals, through disorganization and lack of fundamental marking ability -- either we leap highest or we lose. And outside of Digne's fierce left foot we are no threat to score on our own free kicks and corners -- they are slapdash and poorly planned, a kick-and-hope system with no choreographed runs like Bournemouth executed yesterday with Solanke's flick-on from the corner.

Furthermore, as Lyndon pointed out Silva's system, pretty as it looks with the passing out of the back, is as predictable as his refusal to change his substitution patterns or his formation. As you pointed out, he stuck with the ill-advised high line even when it proved vulnerable. If Plan A isn't working, Silva has no Plan B.

Silva is a fine players' coach -- the improvement in the individual games of Zouma and Keane last season and Mina, Richarlison and even Schneiderlin this season is clear -- and his work on the training ground is evident in our passing game. But, once the whistle blows, he is a weakness. In my view, Silva has been out-managed in every game this season, wins and losses both, and I don't think he's going to get any better when our schedule starts to get more difficult.

I think he may still be around come May. He won't be by June.

I was happy with team selection and set up on Saturday, I'd rather we press and leave the odd gap trying to win games. Problem is, we're not creating enough chances. Adding to that, our heads go down too easily, we don't look like a team that can come from behind.

Way too early to call for Silva's head. One goal and one point from those away games isn't good enough. He needs to work on the mentality of the team, or bring someone in who can.

Even with the positional mistake yesterday, Mina is our best CB, better than Keane, better than Zouma was last year. He might appear ungainly, but he has performed superbly, especially given his inexperience. He's dominant in the air, solid on the ground, relaxed and capable with the ball at his feet, and displays a passionate attitude.

I predicted before the season that he'd make some early mistakes -- yesterday was his first -- but that by Christmas he'd be one of the top CBs in the Prem. I stand by both predictions.

The whole club is a shambles full of weak minded people.

He has overall a better set of players and they are more use to the system. Fitness and preparation have to improve, they will, interrupted by the odd nightmare result.

Next year, Everton will have moved on the deadwood and Kenwright will retire. Problems solved.

Sorry but I must object, he may have been out-done yesterday in the incompetent stakes but the guy is an "oaf". I said it before; this season, I had my suspicions, and I am sorry but I feel now convinced.

You say "he has performed superbly" — are we watching the same team, you and I??? When? Against whom?? Please tell!!!

You may well eat those words, my friend. If you take a look at the game yesterday, apart from his glaring errors, he appears to daydream and sometimes seems unaware there are another 10 players on the pitch, let alone a ball.

If you're arsed watch the highlights of the game,1st half Bournemouth get a freekick, we play a high line, our defense stands to trap them offside and that buffoon goes racing over to chase the ball 10 yards behind the held line and only by the grace of god the flag had gone up. It's like he is in a world of his own

I will grant you he does seem a bit more interested than say "Scheneirdlin" but he will be badly exposed this season from open play, set pieces and indeed VAR

And again "but better than Zouma was last season"?? After 3 games, you must be joking — or 0know something thousands of Toffees supporters don't? I suspect otherwise and the stats don't back this up. How many have we conceded this season already??

I as always will be happy to eat humble pie if he turns out to be a great acquistion but I suspect it's you who will be dining on this one, my friend…

Watch this space. :)

Answer: Silva cannot break down poor teams.

Therein lies why many take issue with Silva.

I'm not too concerned about the attack. Decision making is poor yes but I think there's enough quality in attack to get that right, but in defence we really need to tune in, and quickly. Losing Gueye and Zouma has really bitten us.

As for Silva. I don't really blame him. The players need to take better responsibility with all of them goals. It's Brands who didn't get the centre back in. Marco is only a few games into his second season. Do we really want to sack another manager and begin the rebuilding process yet again? Like it or not we need stability, and to get stability requires time and patience.

As Marco Silva's most devout cheerleader, it is no surprise you continue to stand by your man. And I agree with you, it's silly and extreme to be calling for his head a mere five games into the season.

That said, the performances and results to date will inevitably lead to debate whether he is the right man for the job.

Given the way we closed out last season, retaining the bulk of the squad (whilst trimming the deadwood), our summer recruitment and our exceedingly benevolent opening fixtures, it is a tad ingenious of you to berate others with the line "We are one point off third position". We SHOULD have garnered more points (and goals!) by now.

An equally legitimate response to that is "Why are we 11th and just 3 points above the relegation zone rather than sat in the top three?" Because our opening five fixtures most definitely offered us that possibility. But we have blown our opportunity. Badly.

In truth, both views are absurd because the league table is still only embryonic. Five games is way too premature to read who will finish where come the final whistle of the season, OR to be calling for the manager's head.

I also agree with you that the image of Silva slumped (seemingly forlorn and passive) in the dugout that many are making a big deal about is an unfair one. Unless there is a 'manager cam' that viewers watch for the entire 90 minutes, nobody can categorically say when or for how long he was recorded in that position. As you rightly note, during games he seems (for the overwhelmingly majority of the game) stood on the touchline, shouting and gesturing to the players what he wants.

Where I depart from your support of Silva is what he does in-game to change a losing or stalemated situation. The fact that more than a year into the job that he has yet to win a game from a losing position strongly suggests that he doesn't hit on game-changing, or merely game-saving, strategies in-game.

Now personally I really dislike the psychobabble some claim about being able to 'read' the body language of any individual. But based on results alone and the substitutions he makes when we go behind, it strikes me he does not have, say, the Alex Ferguson touch of knowing what is needed and when to turn the game in your favour.

More than once he has gone all 'gung-ho' and randomly throws on more forward players, often sacrificing midfielders even defenders, in an attempt to retrieve a losing game. Oft times, it results in totally unbalancing an already struggling team.

With that in mind, it strikes me that Marco Silva may well be the great training ground coach you trumpet him to be (although your list of players he has improved at Everton is rather an inflated claim), but not a great in-game coach.

That is, he may be savvy to note in-game what is amiss and will work to correct that in training post-match, but to address it and improve things in a live game..? There is little or no evidence to date in his Everton career that he is capable of that.

It is a failing he needs to improve. Radically.

"it is a tad DISINGENUOUS of you to berate others with the line..." [etc].

Delph, Schneiderlin and Sigurdsson? Nah, not for me. Sigurdsson either needs a rest or can only play well when the team does. Schneiderlin is not the answer to losing Gueye.

Whilst we wait for Gbamin to get fit, play Delph, Davies and Gomes in the engine room. Iwobi on the left and Richarlison on the right and let Kean have a run of a few games as the striker – play this team versus both Sheffield clubs:

Pickford, Sidibe, Keane, Mina, Digne, Gomes, Delph, Davies, Iwobi, Kean and Richarlison.

We have thrown away a comparatively easy start to the season, are leaking goals for fun and finding it difficult to get shots on target, never mind score.

Silva may be a great coach on the training field but Premier League matches aren't played at Finch Farm.

I very much doubt he'll be here by the next AGM.

But Mina right now is miles ahead of where Zouma was at the same point last year. I stand by my opinion -- he has played very, very well, on the ball and off. The Forum consensus yesterday had him as MotM until that late error, and it wasn't the first time.

And I'm sorry, but I'm calling BS on the "appears to daydream" as I do with all the visionaries on TW who claim to be able to read body language. He's not daydreaming or drifting, he's constantly right where he should be.

Regarding the high line, Mina's never played it before, and he's learning it from a manager who, in my opinion, does a poor job of teaching it.

Again, he will make mistakes in the first half of the season, because he's new to all this. And you will no doubt jump all over them with the appropriate I-told-you-so. But I'll bet you that, by mid-season, you're the one dining on crow, not me.

I think you're being optimistic about his chances of seeing it through to May. His win/loss/draw pattern now seems established (even this early).

I'd give him until the new year or rather I think the club will give him until then. These two coming games against the two Sheffield clubs who on paper we should sort the pair of them out, but Bournemouth have just shown these two how to deal with our superiority on paper.

A win on Saturday is the only result I'll accept and Goodison Park will be expecting one as well. Sheffield Wednesday could have a big impact on our already dented morale. A cold Autumn night against a very physical Championship side, If we don't come out of our corner throwing haymakers, we could lose that one easily.

That would be a very serious loss for Silva.

We have the personnel for a 4-3-3 with attacking wingers/inside forwards like Man City and Liverpool play. However, we can't play it with Sigurdsson in the team.

We need to mix it up depending on the opposition as we're not good enough to set up the same way and let them worry about us.

Okay, this could go on forever let us wait and see Sir You claim by Xmas he will be "one of the Top centre-back in the Premier League" I don't see it.

The daydream comment is based on my opinion that his positioning is poor and his actions erratic "Oafish" so the body language theory does not apply here, Also, he never played a high line before??

We will pick this up at Xmas

I will be happy to tuck in to some Xmas humble pie if Mina is getting picked in pundits team of the week and standing out as our best centre-back – let alone the Premier League's

No recognised proven goal scorer / striker (and I mean proven) and no depth at centre back.

Notwithstanding these issues, Silva has had more or less his strongest squad available to him (aside from odd injury eg Gomes) and struggled to fashion a consistent improvement.

I was a Silva fan but:

- We keep conceding at set pieces
- he keeps on with this maddening 4-5-1
- he keeps playing Walcott (WHY?!?!)
- he keeps playing 2 defensive midfielders again WHY?!? It neither prevents us conceding goals nor provides an effective platform to be free-scoring – what's the point?
- he can't seem to acknowledge when something isn't working (see the above repeated and often made mistakes for evidence).

I admit, I'm close to wanting a new manager with a brain. Silva is yet to convince me.

It's not your strongest squad when you have just lost your best performing midfielder and centre back.

Of course Barca is famous for it, but Mina only started four games for them, and in one of them he was completely lost as they gave up five goals. So he is learning that system on the job right now. Thus the inevitable mistakes.

I agree with most posters that we are struggling defensively and, unfortunately, Coleman looks to be on a downward spiral from which there will be no recovery. Keane looks desperately short on confidence and we all know he lacks pace. I do believe that Mina will eventually become a top defender for us though.

I also firmly believe that Walcott is finished as a Premier League player and it's time to move on from Scheiderlin. But I also believe, as I have stated many times previously, that we are simply not creative enough. Sigurdsson is not good enough in that respect in my opinion and never will be. Yes, he scored 13 goals last season, and yes, he does work hard. But, as a number 10, he simply doesn't do enough.

For any of you stats influenced people, read the Adam Bate story on Sigurdsson's transfer to Everton. An extraordinarily high number of the chances he created in his final season with Swansea came from set-pieces rather than open play. The piece is a story Bate wrote for Sky.

The suggestion is that the chances he did create were far more difficult to score from than the one's created by top players playing in his position, as they created far more chances from open play, whereas Sigurdsson's creativity came from dead-ball situations.

So, in my honest opinion, until we have a quicker, more mobile, more creative, Number 10, whoever plays up-front for us will always struggle for goals. If we can't defend properly and can't create when going forward, then we really are in trouble.

But watching Napoli/Liverpool and I just wish that our manager had a fraction of the touchline presence of Klopp. He's a Duracell bunny for sure but, by Christ, he affects everyone, including the opposition I'd reckon.

Who is the centre back you speak of? If it's Zouma then he's not in our squad.

Point accepted re Gomes hence my ‘more or less' no manager will have his entire squad available injury-free for an entire season.

My point is that currently he's got pretty much his strongest options available and we still lose to Villa and Bournemouth.

What happens when Keane, Richarlison and Sigurdsson are injured and Delph & Iwobi (for example) are suspended? We'll be playing similar teams to dross like Villa/Bournemouth with a weaker first XI.

Doesn't bode well when our ‘best XI' (within reason) aren't offering much hope.

Yerry Mina is a Gangly and Slow defender who is anything but comfortable on the ball! He is supposed to show some prowess in the opposition box for scoring the odd goal!! He managed that against a pretty fucking good England Defence in the World Cup - One of the Primary reasons we bought him...!

One of the top centre-backs in the Premier League by Christmas? Absolutely NO CHANCE!!!! That is some Statement that!!

He will plod on, have an occasional good game when we get stuffed!! Other than that, he is bang average and was a "Huge Waste of Money"! I am sure there are a lot of Evertonians who agree??