Ferguson gets fight but little finesse from struggling Everton

Spend your time bringing in a quality playmaker, probably on loan. You will have to pay over the odds but, without bringing quality to the middle of the park, we are doomed.

I find it hard to criticise players who clearly wanted to do well for Duncan.

Shape wrong again today but we will pick up points soon. Something to build on... but let's stay together.

Fair play to him wherever he ends up. Pure class.

We need some midfield skill. Gordon showed what was needed, but he was rather alone. Lingard? Barkley?

But the owner has total faith in the Board. The permanent fixture, who has survived numerous managers, drops the best in-form player and runs out of ideas.

Yes, we need fresh eyes and some tactical nous. Don't think that's going to be Ferguson. Rooney probably has a better football brain and might just find a way to get something out of this lot.

Given our predicament, recruiting a manager from abroad at this stage of the season might actually make things worse. This is not a squad with underperforming stars who can quickly be put back on track.

As for Lampard, he does not strike me as the sort of tough, hard nosed bruiser we need to eke out a few wins as well as deal with all the stuff going on in the background.

That leads me to agree with those who argue we should leave Duncan in charge. Give him a rolling 6-month contract and send a message to the players that he is here for the rest of the season.

While we struggled to have any kind of possession or attacking creativity, largely down to the fact that we have players who just outright lack the ability to use the ball, we had to watch Villa be improved by the player we sold them on the basis of a taking out with a manager we then immediately sacked!

I've been an advocate of taking time with this managerial appointment... but who is going to identify the players we need in the next week?

Without recruitment, I just don't see us staying up. We need full backs who can use the ball, midfielders who can offer some creativity.

I was desperate to be excited by a raucous atmosphere and swashbuckling performance, but the players simply aren't up to it.

If I am correct (and I apologise to either/both players if I am wrong) then their behaviour is also despicable and reprehensible. Has this aspect been picked up anywhere and commented upon?

We keep losing in embarrassing fashion to out-of-form teams. Watford, Palace, Norwich, Villa, etc. Our one chance to escape this spiral was the transfer window in January yet this has been played so badly it almost defies belief – two rookie full backs, an incoming loanee that no one sought and the sale of one of our best, most creative players before that manager sanctioning all these moves was understandably relieved of his job.

Hemingway wrote that bankruptcy happens gradually then suddenly. Similar could be said about Everton's decline under Moshiri – we could easily drop badly after years of thoughtlessness yields it's reward.

The BBC didn't see fit to mention Buendia's role in the incident, which was silly given the atmosphere.

Doesn't excuse throwing things but actions do have consequences.

I'd snap your hand off for 17th and a few months for the club to attempt to start a turnaround in the way we operate.

If we end up relegated, I think we'll look back on a few decades of mismanagement, lots of poor decisions, but a huge misstep in appointing Benitez that ultimately dropped us.

At Everton, we need to make more good decisions than bad, but it's accepted that when you're playing catch up, you're put in tough positions and have to make decisions that don't have a great chance of working out.

The worst thing about the Benitez decision is that it was completely avoidable – we didn't need to appoint him and what happened was so predictable. Anyone could have told him what would happen, and I imagine they did. It really wasn't a hard decision to make – don't appoint him. The support he got just made the situation worse.

The linkage between midfield and the forwards is letting us down – Gomes and Doucoure overhit the ball at crucial moments during the game. The aggression was there but not the subtlety. We desperately need a quality midfielder.

I am getting increasingly pessimistic about this club. One truism about this game is that, if you want to see the future of a player, a manager or an owner, you look at their past.

Too often we recruit players that have fundamental flaws in their game, thinking that these flaws will be ironed out with the promise of a new opportunity. Too often in recent years we have hired managers that are more 'safe' than fresh in their approach to the game, or people that have been round the block too many times, or even those who are willing to jump off the bus when they get a better offer.

But the most disturbing situation is where you get an owner who consistently makes appalling errors of judgment. At a time when the club is in a mess it is difficult, given his recent track record, to see this owner making the crucial decisions that are needed.

We live in times of rampant excess and where the gap between rich and poor is expanding rather than contracting. Increasingly money is tantamount to power and influence. Being an expert with money does not translate into being an expert in football, but the sense of hubris and status that comes with owning a club can make fools out of the most wealthy.

This situation reminds me of the kid who gets a Meccano set for Christmas but he does not have the aptitude, patience or resilience to get it right. Every little project is compromised by missteps and is half-completed.

Everton is not a toy but this is what this great club with a wonderful history feels like at the moment. With continued failure in ownership, for the sake of the club and the supporters, there must be a realization on the part of these people that they do not have the football knowledge or expertise to make the right decisions.

That said, I hope the (alleged) bottle throwing muppet has the book thrown at him.

I checked the live reporting on the Beeb and you'd have been forgiven for thinking they were snipered while shaking hands on their way back to the halfway line.

1) Calvert-Lewin clearly isn't match fit: when he is, things will improve.

2) Richarlison tried but was often isolated.

3) I liked Mina: calm, authoritative, encouraging others – a captain's display.

4) Villa were a typical Gerard team: lots of unpunished fouls, and dives Salah would be proud of.

5) Gordon is class and should always start.

6) Much better second half but we need a midfield general… soon!

This wasn't a bad performance and a draw would have been fair. But, as we all know, life ain't fair…

a) It was almost a carbon copy of the West Ham game; could have gone either way and yet again we were done by a set piece.

b) We're all screaming for 4-3-3 and rightly so, but how to accommodate our 4 top players, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin (both of them some way of match fitness), Gordon and Gray into a 4-3-3? Do we play 4-4-1-1, or even 4-2-3-1 (a formation I don't like, plus it means Doucouré would play as a holding mid)?

But in agreement with most of the posters: we need 2 midfielders and I wouldn't mind Barkley on loan or even a No 6 so Doucouré can push further forward.

Really scary at the moment; we need to scab a win from anywhere. Oh, and a clean sheet.

We are a team that is so one-dimensional and easy to set up against.

If you really want to depress yourself, think on the players who will stay and who will want out, when we get relegated!!

Now where's that 3rd bottle of Scotch? 6 months ago, I never ever drank!!

David #21 – my answer to your question is leave one of them out because we can't play with 4 forwards.

Richarlison scored a real striker's goal when he came on against Norwich. We should start with a front three of Gray, Richarlison and Gordon and go at teams on the deck. If need be, Calvert-Lewin can come on off the bench in the second half and replace any one of them because the remaining two, whoever they are, will both be able to play out wide.

I was surprised at the back four Duncan picked but they all played well. Our problem is lack of guile and craft in the middle of the park (as every man and his dog knows).

Lyndon's headline says it all really – plenty of fight but no finesse. If we had a midfielder that could pick a pass from tight situations, the front three will score goals.

I watched Duncan Ferguson's post match interview. He looked heartbroken. I think he loves the club and the fans too much to take on the manager's job. It would kill him.

If we go on spending, I can see us being punished in someway. This battle is difficult enough as it is without the threat of FFP sanctions.

We have to really dig in for 1-0 wins and the players have got to give it everything. Calvert-Lewin has to stop poncing about and get stuck in. Richarlison has got to be smarter and take defenders on when he can.

Let's hope Doucouré is not injured because we would then be relying on youngsters in the most critical positions.

We simply have to beat Necastle to stay up, in my view.

Yes, he got them running and a bit more comittment but that was a dreadful team he picked. Over-run in midfield, Jonjoe Kenny passed to their team more than his own. Three players signed and not even in the squad.

Not all his fault, of course... but, if his answer to keep us up is that, then we are finished. That is our full-strength team now too.

Jonjoe Kenny looked like a rabbit in the spotlights, and whether it was his nerves, or simply a lack of true ability, I think he's not up to the mark for us. Tellingly, his loan clubs did not seem keen to pursue a deal for him either.

Patterson or Godfrey to his natural side would be better. Seamus is a busted flush now, sadly.

Mason Holgate started with an awful ball forward, and did not improve. He appears to believe he has a Bobby Moore or Beckenbaur amount of time on the ball, and must also be partially deaf, as both his team-mates and the crowd start shouting at him like a pantomime villain is approaching!!

Abdelaye Doucouré I can only assume has some sort of post-covid colour blindness as from going from a really driving defence splitting midfielder, he now looks like he needs his feet straightened in a vice. The 2-on-1 break with Richarlison destroyed by a terrible pass is becoming the norm.

Calvert-Lewin I thought was very poor. To me he is suffering form the "Marcus Rashford" syndrome where things outside football appear to have made them forget what exactly they are supposed to be doing for their pay cheque.

During the time he was out injured, his reputation - as so often happens - improved enormously. Even Benitez and Farhad seemed to be intimating 'Wait till Dom's back, we'll win every game'.

He may be a little ring rusty, but I still think he should have been in Mings' face all day yesterday and showing quite a bit more fight than he did. If Richarlison had Calvert-Lewin's physique, he would be unstoppable, as his appetite for the game of late has been superb.

Dom (and Tom) might be better concentrating on getting fighting fit for the team rather than wondering when Rimmell will release their next lipstick range, and if it will match their Michael Kors handbags.

I wasn't really happy with the team Dunc picked yesterday, and I would prefer an outside face to come in who hasn't been too near the coal face for a goodly number of years and pick the best team form what we have.

On a final note, I could even see from the Park End lots of missiles being thrown at the Villa players when they scored. I do not condone it at all, and whoever did it should be banned and/or Police action taken.

However, the action of the Villa players prior to this certainly made them culpable, especially Buendia, and especially Matty Cash, who could be seen from the Match of the Day cameras shouting at and goading the crowd. The latter also systematically kicked every one of our players yesterday, something which escaped the attention of the (very poor) referee.

Those, including Dunc, who thought we weren't in a dogfight had better rapidly re-appraise. They would also do well to remember a local saying – "It isn't the dog in the fight, it's the fight in the dog that matters".

As Ferguson said after the game, we didn't really play well in the first 45 minutes but I think probably deserved a draw on the chances they created in the 2nd half.

I was a little surprised that both of our recent signings didn't even make the bench, and even stranger, I haven't seen where anyone asked Duncan that question.

I thought for a 20-minute spell in that game was the best I have seen from Gomes for quite a while, but it didnt last. I know Duncan the last time he was in charge set us up in a 4-4-2 formation, but Calvert-Lewin was in better form than he was yesterday, although he still had an excellent chance to open the scoring from a great ball from the fast improving Anthony Gordon.

Demarai Gray always looks a threat when he is on the ball, but playing out wide the opposition just double up on him and limit the space to work in. I thought Duncan may have swapped Gray and Richarlison in the 2nd half and play Gray more in the middle.

But the biggest problem yesterday was Calvert-Lewin, he is coming back from a long spell away after a bad injury, but he just wasn't at the races yesterday. His main attribute is his heading ability and yesterday he hardly won many headers and he has always been a limited player.

I think having Allan come on in the 2nd half helped but we seem very reluctant to go to 3 in midfield for some reason. Doucouré struggles when in a defensive role and he needs to play further up the pitch but to allow him to do this we need another holding midfield player.

But I am still not wholly convinced about Doucoure and that shocking pass to Richarlison when we had a 2 v 1 was awful.

I really didn't think Villa were all that good; apart from their goal and a header from Couthino, we looked quite comfortable.

I don't know what has happened to Godfrey. Since Ancelotti has left, he doesnt look the same player, and has gone very negative. Yesterday, we had a free-kick by the touchline a yard inside Villa's half and, instead of getting our team on the edge of their box, Godfrey passed it back to Holgate who passed it further back to Pickford.

So I don't think anyone is in any doubt that we are now in a relegation fight, and I fear it could well be a bumpy ride till the end of the season. But there are some plusses: Gray and Gordon are exciting players and I think until Calvert-Lewin gets back to full fitness, we should start with these 3 up front and maybe bringing Calvert-Lewin on for 20 or 30 minutes till he gets back to himself.

Kenny was really poor, I thought, as was Holgate in his dithering and being caught in possession. I thought Mina and Godfrey were okay, as was Pickford.

The thing that got me was barely if any shots or headers were on target. We have this uncanny knack of missing the target. On occasion it seems harder to miss that it does to score.

Calvert-Lewin was very poor. I know he's just come back from injury but this is 3 games down the line now and I don't think Mings will have an easier game. Calvert-Lewin needs to work on his toughness and practice heading, please practice heading. I don't think he seriously competed against Mings yesterday for any 50/50 header.

To be fair, he wasn't in his own in that. Our players seem to jump out of the way rather than compete for headers. It's shocking how often that happens.

Villa were no great shakes either and their time-wasting tactics, even when it was scoreless were awful. Having said that, we were weak in the tackle and never really stood up for ourselves when Villa did some cynical fouls. That's endemic of the club these days though, no team spirit and no sticking up for each other.

We also should have been in the ref's ear as he was pretty dire too. It was only when Allan came on that we actually got a bit of steel about us.

We only came alive really in the 2nd half which was a real disappointment given what was at stake.

I was expecting a full blooded guts and glory performance but instead we got a Bambi on Ice, just goes to show how poor this squad is.

As to some suggesting Barkley back, fuck that for a game of soldiers, he can't get a game anywhere else, shat on us from a great height, and can't tackle, work hard, or be a team player to save his life. Another passenger in this team is exactly what we don't need.

I feel sorry for Duncan yesterday. He made all the right noises, challenged the players to show what it means to play for Everton and got it thrown back in his face by a bunch of highly paid mercenaries. There aren't many in this squad I would keep.

As to the bottle-throwing incident, I could clearly see in the Main Stand and while I would never condone that kind of action and am glad the fella got arrested, Villa were shocking really in their celebrations, it was like it was their intention to goad the fans the way they celebrated right in front of them. It was typical shithouse Gerrard behaviour. Wouldn't surprise me if he told them to do that.

All-in-all, though, it was a poor performance from the players and shows why we need a proper clear-out. Relegation does beckon unless they show a bit of heart and fight.

After watching Villa waltz through the midfield and win second balls in key positions several times in the first half, it's even more bewildering that he didn't change it by putting Richarlison on the right and replacing Townsend with a central midfielder. It would have solved so many problems: extra body in the middle; Richarlison getting out of Gray's space; and Richarlison running at Digne who we *know* is weak at defending.

I think we're going down. A team cannot be this bad, badly run and unlucky (and yes I do think things like Sigurdsson being unavailable for the whole season is unlucky for Everton) without being relegated.

It's going to hurt.

I read Lyndon's article, mainly because I consider him to be more realistic, less aggressive and even more likely to come up with a "Solution" than his fellow writers. And if he couldn't then surely one of the posters may be able to do so. Again generally valid observations but once again no "Solution".

The only consolation is that on Toffee Web I am amongst fellow sufferers and we all have shared miseries in regards to football at the present time. It is good to have company in misery, but that is merely comforting and not a "Solution". Believe it or not, but neither do I.

We have complaints in abundance but no "Solution". We can blame every past manager or player. We can allocate blame as well as any Evertonian. That also may bring some form of relief but once again it does not bring about a cure.

I know I am too inclined, in the relatively few posts that I send in, to repeat myself and even live in the past too often. Mainly because I have had many great times in the past and they were usually provided by very successful Everton teams. However I have also been around long enough to have experienced the worst: Relegation in 1951. I was only 13 but the memories are still vivid.

Unfortunately, I feel similar vibes once again. We have a poor team with no confidence, lots of criticism from all around and no easy way out. However, I think we have a much better team than in 1951 and, for the first time in a while, a possible "Solution" Basically it is relatively simple and does not involve complicated systems.

The one word I have already used in this paragraph: "Confidence". Every player in any league needs to know they are good enough to be a success. All Evertonians need to show a belief that somehow we can get out of this mess. The person in charge can do so much, but not everything. We need to at least "Hope" that we can turn the vicious tide.

If it requires drinking from a bottle as opposed to throwing one, then as one famous Scouser penned "Let it Be". We can get through this.

Give those under performing players some confidence and show the Management that we just cannot afford to be "Relegated". Come On You Blues – we still have time and as faithful Blues we may be deluded, but we are still Evertonians. We really don't have much choice.

I am still disappointed in Ferguson's team selection and 4-4-2 line-up. Having read the opinions of others particularly in respect of individual players I wanted to see how valid they were.

Of the starting eleven I don't think anyone played particularly well but then no one was awful. Gordon and Allan were good when they came on. In repect of Gomes, Holgate and Kenny I think some contributors simply 'cut and paste' their negative comments from previous postings and are not based on reality.

I believe Everton will struggle in attack and defence until three midfield players are selected and the best combination currently at the club is Allan, Doucourè and Gomes.

The pairing of Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin up front is something of a conundrum, they are the two most likely to score but they don't complement one another. It may be the case that one of them has to be dropped to ensure that both Gordon and Gray, who are currently the most dangerous players, play.

The fullback position is a concern as neither of the new signings appear to be up to speed at the moment which means Godfrey has to play on the left. I would probably persevere with Kenny on the right until Patterson proves he's ready or not.

Ferguson has a fortnight to get things sorted; otherwise, relegation is seriously on the cards.

Deadline at 1:59 and all I get is a message on the website saying 'no tickets reserved'

But what about the two new full backs. Surely Patterson (a Scottish international) should have been given the nod instead of Kenny and both new lads not even on the bench!!!! Just what's going on.

Hope it's not a Ferguson vs Kean episode again - does he not rate them or aren't they ready. But for goodness sake someone should have asked Ferguson what's going on.

Until we play 3 in the middle with a playmaker as one if them we are doomed.

Too many wingers - Gordon, Gray, El Ghazi Townsend, Dobbin, and not enough creativity in team since Rodriquez left and Sigurdsson suspended indefinitely.

Until we replace one of them then it's 4-4-2 with us getting ripped apart through the lines.

I don't think you'll have any problems getting tickets for the Brentford cup game; I doubt very much if we'll get a gate near 25,000.

I got mine last Wednesday morning at Goodison, easy for me as I live a 5-minute bus ride away. I just went there and paid cash over the counter, so I think you will be able to buy one on the day of the game.

Whereabouts do you sit in the ground? Brentford have taken up the full allocation of 6,000 tickets, meaning some season ticket holders in the bullens road stands have been re-allocated.

If you're one of those who will be re-allocated, then you may not have a “Reserved Seat”, ie, your normal seat.

Thanks for the advice – we are in the Park End but we go as a group, one of whom already booked over the phone.
You can't contact the box office on a weekend and no-one was answering the Everton shop phone in Liverpool One!

Teams around us are winning and we aren't. I am shitting it that we will go down.

Never had this feeling in the past, even in the season when we ragged a win against Wimbledon.

Desperately need a world-class midfielder, but I don't think no-one would come.

Patterson was a, Brands/Moshiri project. Digne 's transfer paid for Patterson and as his replacement ( not someone you would expect Benitez to sign). Azhagi loan came as part of the Digne deal. It was reported that Moshiri wanted Coutniho and Benitez did not. Was Countniho a loan rather than a signing?

It occurs to me that Benitez having no input into transfers took the opportunity to offer to go for compensation, as was reported. Moshiri underpressure accepted, meaning that Benitez was not sacked, but left under terms of mutual agreement.

So who was actually involved in these tranfers?

The answer could have repercussions on the Manager selection process.

It just all seems really strange to me. I accept El Ghazi could not play against his parent club, but he is more a make do, than targeted transfer.

It could explain the pop decision by Moshiri, compensation agreed and then Benitez to all extent and purposes looking out. There is a possiblity that there was no manager involvement in these transfer decisions. If so, no wonder Benitez went quietly.

There is very little that adds up at Everton at the moment. It could be that all January transfer business has been completed. Someone could be skimping and interfering in football decisions.