Mentality Shift: Derby Milestone Can Define Everton's Season in the Right Way

We are all still euphoric over our much waited for victory at Anfield, but I think its a little early to say whether or not this result will be a mentality shift for this group of players. Certainly it should give them more confidence going forward, I think we have had some very good away performances this season at Spurs and a very important confidence builder at Leicester and a great comeback at Man Utd. But these games were interspersed with losses to Newcastle and Fulham at home, which have undermined the confidence we got from our good away performances.

The mentality shift is a very difficult thing to asses and usually the mentality shift takes teams to win a trophy before you really see a mentality shift or an inner belief that they can beat anybody you come up against. But what I think we can say is that this group of players are getting better week on week, yes we still get set backs but you can see the individual and collective improvement in players. But this is a really strange season throwing up some unusual results, I mean if I had told a West Ham fan that they would be in the top 4 after 24 games they would rightly have told me I was talking nonsense. Also Aston Villa like West Ham last year battling against relegation now comfortably in the top half of the league.
So is it the empty stadiums that is having an impact on the results, certainly in our own case you would have to go back to the 80s since Everton won so many away, yet our home form that has been our saviour on many occasions is pretty dreadful.

So I would just hold fire a little longer to see if there has been a mentality change or we are basing that on getting a fabulous result at Anfield, which is slightly tempered when you factor in that in recent weeks they have also lost at home to Brighton and Burnley as well as being hammered by City.

Thanks Dave I hope it didnt come across as being a negative as I have said from day 1 getting Ancelotti was a transforming acquisition and I genuinely believe we will win things with him in charge. I just question if one result however pleasing can be classed as a mentality change. I know many say the same thing about Inchys goal against Oxford, but I think it was a real kick up the backside that they had just avoided yet another embarrassing defeat in the FA Cup. For me the mentality in that team changed when Colin Harvey was made first team coach. Colin was a fabulous coach just a pity it didnt work out for him as a manager.

"It is with some hesitation that I find myself selecting Jordan Pickford for my team of the week.

It was Pickford who put Virgil van Dijk out of the previous Merseyside derby with an awful challenge that went unpunished.

However, football moves on very quickly and Pickford seemed intent on inflicting even more pain on Liverpool, this time, on his return to Anfield. The England goalkeeper made a number of first-class saves, not least from Jordan Henderson's volley.

I can't imagine the reception Pickford would have received had Liverpool fans been in the ground. Like on so many occasions, the absence of supporters has made such a huge difference."

I doubt that any pundit could predict the final outcome of teams making the top four at this stage of the season.

Our mentality shift may only solidify itself as we go through our remaining fixtures, but we have made progress this season and the summer transfer window will define future progress with commitment from the manager, staff and owner.

The gruesome spectre of the Fulham game only a couple of weeks ago is the elephant in he room. We were comprehensively outplayed. It was a mismatch , one that set alarm bells ringing.

So, because of that there is no justification for getting too carried away. It has become staple that we take one giant step forward then two steps back just when we are on the cusp of real progress.

With the win over Liverpool we have put ourselves back into contention. This time we have to get professional and get consistent. Ram home some wins that bona fide top 4 clubs churn out week after week. We need to get in a winning rhythm and state of mind.

This team, especially when fully fit, is well capable of it. Tom Davies has stepped up, Gomes has improved, Doucoure is a footballing machine, Allan is back. There's very encouraging signs Richarlison is finding top form. DCL looked fit and sharp when he came on. Pickford looked at his best against Liverpool and the confidence boost will do him the world of good. The defence is looking organised and solid, lead by Michael Keane.

Then we come to Ben Godfrey, this player has been a catalyst. He is rapidly becoming a cult figure and he's only been here six months.

I think Mr Ancelotti is gradually making the team much stronger and resilient whilst retaining top 4 creativity from James Rodriguez. It all adds up to us being a force to be reckoned with.

It was another Derby game at Goodison not long after Harvey's appointment that pointed the way forward to our imminent success, not a win but a 1-1 draw, I think Alan Harper might have scored the goal, Grahame Sharp missed a penalty and Liverpool escaped with a draw.. A lot of us realised that day “ We've got a team that can battle and beat these bastards, playing football at the same time”. Echos of Saturday maybe.

Rs are no pushovers in any game and even with some injuries they can be very dangerous as long as they have the terrible three up front.

Scoring so early may have been the big boost Everton needed to show the defensive intensity so often lacking this season and they rose to that challenge magnificently.

What remains next is to carry it over to the next game against Soton and then Chelski. Fourth place is beckoning and the next few weeks are crucial.

I agree, Brian and that was the intent of the article, really – not to say there has been a mentality shift but that there can and needs to be after Saturday.

Sorry Lyndon you absolutely did qualify the headline by asking will it be a mentality shift. I should have read the whole piece and not assumed you meant there had been a mentality change because of the result on Saturday.

This victory may well be a pivotal moment in the future of the club but, as in life, these moments can only be confirmed in retrospect. Only those with a pessimistic view on life would disregard the possibility of better times ahead; the rest of us can 'but dare to hope' for a better tomorrow.

The game you refer to was on 3 March 1984, but the cobwebs rapidly thickening in my mind have forced me to consult my books, although I do have a vague recollection of Alan Harper scoring at the Gwladys Street end; feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Something that occurred to me a couple of days ago, (I have no idea why), was the 'slow handclap' of crowds in the 40s, 50s, and possibly the early 60s, when they were displeased by the performance of their teams; there must have been an amount of booing but I honestly can't recall it.

After a heavy defeat on Boxing Day a 2-0 win at Birmingham gave us a big lift before the famous 3rd Round tie at Stoke. Then It took three games for us to get past Gillingham in the FA Cup. On that night at Oxford on 18th January it was hard to see where a goal was going to come from until Inchy capitalised on the Kevin Brock back pass.

It was really not until March that we started to gain consistency with the draw against the neighbours in the League, the League Cup Final performances plus narrow wins against Ipswich, Notts County in the FA Cup and three days after the League Cup Final replay, a 1-0 win over a very good Southampton side. That was the game when I was first convinced we now had a good team, capable of becoming a great team.

Thirty seven years later the path to greatness, if that is what it is, is proving just as bumpy. For years our players have appeared traumatised playing away from home. This season the away form has been sorted out only for home form to dip. Why is that? Is there a problem with the mentality or are there also issues with personnel, formation and tactics? Most of our wins have come with less possession than the opponents. Are we embarrassed by possession? Do we lack the players with the wherewithal to beat teams we would mostly regard as inferior?

His substitutions were also really good, especially bringing on DCL to keep Liverpool stretched and help us to beat the high press. If we can continue with this type of team selection and formation and build on it, especially with players coming back from injury, we could be looking at a very successful season overall.

I believe we have dipped our toes in that water a few times this season already and taken 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.

It is still early days but the confidence and aggression and spirit continue to build.

Together with returns from injury we should have a good run in and if we can get past City in the cup we should fear noone.

We have all dreaded of those poor performances, with no spirit or fight, often against teams that have struggled for months before playing Everton.

Hopefully Lyndon, Everton have turned the mentality corner, but years of poor mentality performances after International Breaks still make me nervous for the next fixture.

I have analyzed and blamed for this poor mentality for years, but have to admit that I am none the wiser. Ancelotti lately has openinly wondered about it, and must hope that Everton have turned the corner, like us all.

Have we been celebrating a historic victory, or have we been feeling intense relief that the embarrassment of being the subject of most talked about "inferiority complex" in football was finally being put to bed? A combination of both from my perspective.

I said we would beat Liverpool. I fancied us big time. I took the very generous odds on offer... but did I feel like that because I have seen a marked improvement in our play or did I feel "This our day" because I felt this Liverpool was there for the taking? I'd like to say it was the former, but it was most definitely the latter.

I'm still not sure that we have had that same inferiority complex at other grounds. I think we simply lost for all those years because we sent inferior teams. We were second favorites in every single one of those games. Unfortunately, we were less likely to spring surprises at these grounds because, although we didn't pose a threat to the status quo, we were still Everton and these teams always respected us too much to go with less than a 100% focus.

Football has always been cyclical: the high press, counter-attack has been countered this year with many teams simply defending deep. With the possible exception of Man City, KITAP1 is very fashionable. Nobody does it better than Carlo Ancelotti. I honestly think that we have become so difficult to beat, we need fear nobody... However, like many other teams, we are finding things a little more difficult when it is done to us. It's hard to counter-attack against teams who won't come out and play either.

This is a strange season. Very few results raise an eyebrow. The surprise result has become the norm. It's for that reason we still have chance of qualifying for Champions League football.

Besides the obvious reasons for celebration, The victory at Anfield will, for me, have little bearing on the rest of the season. We know we can defend but, if we are to progress, the flashes of creativity we saw from James and Richarlison need to be seen far more regularly. The defence will remain consistent.

To change the home form, we need to be far more creative. We need to risk a defeat in search of victory.

At the time Howard was under a lot of pressure with quite a few fans expecting him to be sacked before long. The win bought him some time and as you say that was quickly used very profitably with the signing of Gray and the promotion of Colin Harvey.