Report Happy October... Please I'm relieved to see the back of September as it's been disastrous. I firmly believe that, come the end of October, we will have won at least two of our three league games against Burnley, West Ham United and Brighton; and will have despatched Watford to make it into the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup. Paul Traill 29/09/2019 15comments | Jump to last We arrived at the pub at around 3pm and couldn't believe how quiet it was. It wasn't my intention to get through five beers before kick off but the beers flowed nicely and with plenty of time before the game, that's what happened. The free burgers and hot dogs were also a welcome addition, as too was the team news. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, unsurprisingly, got, and took, another opportunity in attack and despite rumours of sickness Lucas Digne began, and finished the game. Theo Walcott, deservedly given an opportunity in my view, had it snatched away from him within one minute of the game as he was forced off through injury. What a smack in the face. Yes, literally. Goodison Park was buoyant before kick off. We were sheltered by the superb anti-racism banner in support of Moise Kean as the teams came out to rapturous applause. Manchester City were quick out of the traps, Riyad Mahrez having an early dip at goal that was palmed away by Jordan Pickford. Theo then took one in the face from Raheem Sterling's cross and was forced from the field. He was replaced by his ex-Arsenal team mate Alex Iwobi, who was disappointing and ended up substituted himself later in the game in Everton's search for an equaliser. This forced change certainly didn't aid Everton's attempts to take the game to Manchester City early on, with the visitors well on top. They should have gone ahead when Kevin De Bruyne's cross, following a botched Yerry Mina clearance, was struck onto the crossbar by Ilkay GÅndogan. Manchester City kept on knocking on the door however and Gabriel Jesus' headed goal from a delicious De Bruyne delivery was fully deserved, the irony being that it immediately followed Everton's first meaningful attack. Thankfully Everton were undeterred by Manchester City's goal, if anything it sparked us into life, and we were level around 10 minutes later when Seamus Coleman dinked the ball over the onrushing Ederson and it was headed in on the goal line by Dominic Calvert-Lewin. The ball was going in anyway, but it was nice to see our striker be selfish to score his fourth goal in three games. Gylfi Sigurdsson also had an effort at goal prior to that, and should have done better when played in by Alex Iwobi. This was much more like it from Everton and we went into the break all square, and deservedly so. The second half continued in a similar pattern - Mancheter City with good control of the game, but met by a dogged, determined and aggressive Everton who matched them all the way. On balance Manchester City probably deserved the win, but a draw wouldn't have been unfair and Manchester City won't get challenged this much very often during the campaign. I saw on Match of the Day that this was the highest number of shots on target Manchester City have faced since the 2015-16 season and a couple of the lads, Dominic and Yerry, will rue some missed opportunities which may have grabbed us a draw, perhaps even a win. Yerry surely should have converted at least one of his headers, and Dominic might have taken his chance with his left foot rather than trying to sweep it in with his right, but we can't knock the effort from the lads. This aggressive form suits Everton better. The crowd like it and it draws encouragement, play like that most games and we will win most games. While we rue missed opportunities in attack, Jordan Pickford will do likewise with Manchester City's second goal as he should have kept out Rayem Mahrez' well-placed free kick. As good as it was, it should have been saved. There were also some suggestions on Twitter that the goal should have been disallowed as Manchester City had a man within a metre of our wall. I don't really want to see goals chalked off for stuff like that but given how goals are being ruled out with VAR throughout the league, it is a reasonable point. Everton tried desperately to respond and were a shade unlucky not to do so. Manchester City's third breakaway goal was somewhat irrelevant, though Raheem Sterling will be relieved to have scored this time having practically missed an open goal earlier in the game. Thankfully Jordan Pickford's blushes were later spared when he went walkabout, leaving his goal unguarded, though Manchester CIty failed to capitlise. 1-4 would have been incredibly harsh as the game was much closer to 1-2 than 1-4. A quick word on the referee, Michael Oliver. I thought he was outstanding. He was fair and did his best to let the game flow. That's exactly what you want from officials. We're quick to judge and criticise our referees when they make mistakes, God knows there's enough of them, so I think it's only right to give them praise when they do a good job. Another defeat then, though there is certainly reasons to feel optimistic. Not many teams will push Manchester City that hard this season. For me, Marco's team talk going into the next game should be relatively easy, “Same again” should do it. If we are as aggressive as that each game, and take the game to lesser opponents than Manchester City in this way, we'll be just fine. I'm relieved to see the back of September as it's been disastrous. I firmly believe that, come the end of October, we will have won at least two of our three league games against Burnley, West Ham United and Brighton; and will have despatched Watford to make it into the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup. I think we'd all agree, we'd be happy with that. Player Ratings Pickford: Certainly at fault for Manchester City's second goal. He did make some good saves in the game but this goal was critical to the result. I'm a bit disappointed with Jordan these last few games. After a bright start to the season he seems to have slipped back into last season's methods of going from the sublime to the ridiculous in the same game. Like a lot of the team, it's frustrating because you can see he's got the ability. Maybe Marco needs to focus more on the mental application of the squad and utilise his sports psychologists, because you can see this team has a lot of talent, but make basic, costly errors at key times which is clearly damaging to our results. 5 Digne: Maybe not quite right due to his sickness but he kept on going. Beaten too easily for Manchester City's opening goal. 5 Mina: His best performance for some time. Will rue not putting one of those opportunities away. Maybe he'll make amends next weekend. He got one there last season, let's hope lighting strikes twice at Turf Moor. 7 Keane: A bit timid for Manchester City's third goal and wasn't quite at his best throughout. 5 Coleman: Did very well with our opening goal and, perhaps it's a response to the pressure of Djibril Sidibe's performance on Tuesday evening, but that was a lot more like the Seamus Coleman we know and love. More of that please skipper. 7 Delph: A stellar effort from Fabian against his former club, typical of what we have already come to expect from him. I like how he always tries to keep play moving. 8 Schneiderlin: Much more like what we know Morgan can do, and if he and Fabian can play like that in every game I don't think a lot will get past them. Made countless good tackles and interceptions, took a good yellow card for the team and showed plenty of character throughout. Well done Morgan. 8 Walcott: Poor lad. You wait for an opportunity it's gone in an instant. Unlucky Theo.Richarlison: Full of effort and was buzzing around all evening. That's what we need from Richarlison, not the incredible sulk we saw on Tuesday. 8 Sigurdsson: Had a good game. Unlucky not to have assisted one for Dominic. Just the one goal for Gylfi so far this season, and that a penalty against Lincoln City. I fancy him to come good at Turf Moor next weekend. 7 Calvert-Lewin: A great effort from Dominic, capped off with a stolen goal. He should have scored another one, yes, but his performance was top draw and he caused Nicolas Otemendi and Fernandinho problems all evening. Certainly justifying his place in the team. Maybe it's all them beers I had before the game, maybe it's blind optimism, I don't know, but I really fancy us to score big at Burnley next weekend and for Dominic to play a key role in that. You heard it here first. My Man of the Match. 8 Iwobi (for Walcott): Obviously wasn't expecting to be involved so early and his performance epitomised that. Not a great performance from Alex. 6 Kean (for Iwobi): I thought he did really well. It looks like he's getting into the swing of things. Though tempting to give him a start from the wing at Burnley, I'm not sure a tough physical game away at tight Turf Moor is quite what he needs, so I'd leave him on the bench for now but I don't think it'll be long before he's starting more games and making a good contribution. 7 Davies (for Schneiderlin): Got involved and tried hard to make an impact on the game. 6 Share article: Reader Comments (15) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer David Pearl 1 Posted 30/09/2019 at 15:11:47 Good report and fair player ratings as per usual Paul. Pickford needs to start being the rock we need him to be, maybe then our fortunes can change. This was the first time this season that Silva tweaked his formation so he proved he can do it. Much more to come from the players (and the manager). We were shit scared at the start of the game but grew into it when they suddenly realised they are good players too. Glad to see Coleman play well, my MotM. I'm guessing you won't take part in sober for October Paul? John Raftery 2 Posted 30/09/2019 at 15:27:28 Thanks for the report, Paul. I am no fan of Pickford. At the time in the Park End, I thought either Pickford or the defensive wall must have been at fault for the goal. Having seen it on TV it appears Pickford was unsighted by Delph standing to the right of the wall. It seems to me the wall should have been further to the right. Of course, the positioning of the wall is primarily the keeper's responsibility but it is impossible to cover the whole of the goal. I think we also have to give credit to Mahrez whose shot was very well placed. That was in contrast to Digne's effort a yard over the bar in the first half from an identical position. Dave Abrahams 3 Posted 30/09/2019 at 15:47:17 I liked the way you picked out Michael Oliver's refereeing, he is possibly the best English official at the moment and as you say tries to keep the game flowing, he also a referee who seems to listen to the players instead of waving them away.Everton improved their game from previous performances this season, Silva said it proved the earlier games were only a blip, well Mr Silva keep it up at Burnley and future games, the season has been very poor for us supporters up to now. Jay Harris 4 Posted 30/09/2019 at 15:49:43 Enjoyable report and very appropriate player ratings, Paul.Good to see more effort all round but we have to improve our contribution from midfield. We are far too reliant on playing down the wings and we don't have a strong enough midfield. Enough of this 4-3-2-1.I give Iwobi a pass because he was suffering from the same illness that wiped Bernard out apparently. Martin Mason 5 Posted 30/09/2019 at 17:37:14 Thanks for being positive Paul, when I'd watched it I was quite positive with caveats but the overall response was negative so I assumed I'd misread it. We must not sack Silva now or we are finished. When 4 reasonable managers perform so badly at the club, it would seem that the club is the problem — not the managers? Steve Hogan 6 Posted 30/09/2019 at 17:57:55 PaulI honestly wished I shared your unbridled enthusiasm for the future. But to suddenly believe that we are about to 'come good' based on what I have seen this season is pure conjecture I think.The ongoing problems we have converting defence into attack means our strikers are being fed on a diet of bread and water.We are ponderously slow moving the ball from back to front and I don't think an improved performance against City, will suddenly see us playing fast, free flowing football.I WANT us to succeed, but I'm not convinced Silva even knows what his best starting eleven is, before we even get onto the subject of tactics.The next month or so will I believe, determine his future.And by the way, I don't want us to become a club changing manager's every year, but this was the season we were supposed to be challenging the top four/six, we seem an awful long way off at the minute.I hope I'm proved wrong. Martin Mason 7 Posted 30/09/2019 at 18:10:16 I hate to say but I think that what holds us back is having overpaid and overrated players like Schneiderlin and Sigurdsson in the team. Gylfi has talent but doesn't fit into any system, not good enough to be a striker and doesn't have the motor to function as a midfielder. Morgan has moments but 2 minutes in 80 isn't good enough and he lacks intensity which you need to succeed. Look at Liverpool and Man City, they have intensity. Playing Everton must be like being savaged by a dead sheep in comparison? Andy Crooks 8 Posted 30/09/2019 at 20:48:30 Top stuff, Paul, as usual. Your fan's day experience continues to be a great read. Martin, that is an interesting post and I think you might be right. Why do you not post an article and develop your ideas? Brian Porter 9 Posted 30/09/2019 at 23:53:53 I can't share your optimism, I'm afraid, Paul. The last three games, have for me, epitomised the weakness of the manager in his general demeanour, as witnessed on the touchline and in the dugout. His body language has been that of a beaten man, and I can't see how he can be an effective motivator of men, when he displays such characteristics for all to see.We actually have some very good players but Silva appears incapable of getting them playing together as a team. I want us to be up there challenging for a top six place at least but I can't see Silva getting us there. He's had plenty of time to make this onto HIS team so he must take responsibility for the current state of affairs. Yet all we hear from him are these pathetic attempts to make it sound as if we've played better than we have, and that we've been unlucky not to get something from games. He's beginning to sound more like Bobby Brown Shoes every week.I'm hoping and praying he can turn things around but hold out no great hopes, when all I can think of when I think of Silva is Hull City and look what he did with them. Frank Wade 10 Posted 30/09/2019 at 00:18:29 Thanks Paul, very good report as always.Some positives to take from the game, but a lot of work still to do. When we play against the better teams like Man City who employ a director of operations at the base of their midfield, Rodri in this case, Jorginho and Pogba key examples from last season, Silva seems to allocate Sigurdsson a role to shadow them and keep down their impact. He does this very well and lessens the impact of this quarterback-type player. This has helped greatly in our displays against the better teams at Goodison late last season. The Silva system works best against the teams who take the game to us. We haven't been able to up the tempo and attack with any fluency against teams who are prepared to sit and wait such as Palace, Bournemouth, Sheffield Utd etc. If we can be more assertive and dynamic when in possession against these sides, we can begin to get a few results. Our tendency to play to wings rather than mixing it up and finding Sigurdsson in pockets of space, lessens the impact he can have as he gets very little service in the No 10 position. Unfortunately the one time his run into space was picked out by Iwobi in this game, he made the wrong decision and fluffed the chance. He can make a big impact with players moving off him, making darting runs, as per chance created for Dom, which I also felt on first viewing, he should have taken on his left.Nice to see you give some deserved credit to Schneiderlin, who played well and covered a lot of danger as best he could. What a pity we couldn't replace Gana. We had come to rely on him so much. I can see him in my dreams appearing on top of De Bruyne as he received that ball from Mahrez for their 1st, nipping in to whisk the ball away from De Bruyne before Mina committed to the tackle which led to the 2nd and he would certainly have been in position to clear away the Pickford deflection, before Sterling could score the third. In my almost 60 years of watching football, I haven't seen such anticipation and athleticism; only Kante in his Leicester days comes close. I was expecting to see him line up in the 5,000 m World Championships final in Qatar earlier this evening. Derek Knox 11 Posted 01/10/2019 at 05:03:09 Good report as per usual Paul, and no Sat Nav problems this time. Never expected to get anything from this game, especially after the recent showings, which quite frankly have been diabolical.It seemed that City had to score before it galvanised any sort of response from our players, it was always going to be a monumental task, even if we had been on good form.I thought Mina was extremely unlucky with his headed goal efforts, hopefully he will be working more on his direction of headers, but having said that, Ederson pulled off a couple of top class saves.It will be interesting to see how the response to a better performance, in which ironically we were beaten by a top class side, carries over to Burnley, who themselves seem to be on a decent run of form. Martin Mason 12 Posted 01/10/2019 at 08:30:41 Andy @8, Many thanks, I often think of doing a write-up on why I think Everton are so ineffective (or is it why Liverpool and Man City are so good) but when it comes to it I'm just a layman with the dreaded enough knowledge to be dangerous. Let me think what I can do that would be of interest. Danny Broderick 13 Posted 02/10/2019 at 01:27:39 A very well balanced and fair report, Paul. Some of the match day reports were riddled with criticism of the players, fans accepting mediocrity, calls for the manager to be sacked. It's nice to read a much more balanced and considered report. The only thing I think is harsh is Michael Keane's rating - I thought him and Mina kept Jesus well shackled throughout, except for when he allowed Jesus to have half a yard for the first goal. Even then, I don't think he did that much wrong - it was just an absolute peach of a ball from De Bruyne...Anyway, let's hope October is kind to us and I look forward to your next report. Dan Murphy 14 Posted 03/10/2019 at 02:22:57 Good to hear views of someone who watched the game objectively, not through their own biases. Schneiderlin was excellent. Liked the way he dealt with De Bruyne. Richarlison was very good too. Both put in lots of graft.Our defensive shape and work was excellent. However, in games like this you will concede lots of corners and free kicks outside the box and you can't afford mistakes like Pickford's for their 2nd.Bit more luck and class in front of goal and we'd have got something out of it. Jim Harrison 15 Posted 03/10/2019 at 05:38:11 I thought Richarlison was good too, and was happy to see him run with the ball more. Recently I have thought there needs to be a bit more of that, players taking on defenders, running at them rather than always trying to play incisive passes that to my eye are getting cut out too easilyAgainst Sheffield Utd there was far too much of that, balls being played from deep in not Iwobi or Richarlison that were cut out, conceding possession and turning forward movement in to counter attack, where they just ran at our midfield. 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