Partnerships

What The Fuck??

Only Everton...

True enough but sadly, they still have to drag the double millstone of Moshiri and Kenwright around.

The willingness to go all out for each other will be the most rewarding thing on view this season and it absolutely gets my blue blood flowing. All we need is a little bit of crafty togetherness in the final third and several forwards should get some good looks and a nice little run to the corner flag.

I think the main one in the Thelwell and Lampard partnership is Thelwell.

I have the feeling that Lampard will not be long term at Everton, nothing to do with his ability but the fact his wife has her own career to look after and I don't see her settling down in Liverpool.

Just the way I see it, I hope I'm wrong.

The current team is finding its way and there are few players so established that they are automatic choices. Tarkowski and Coady, though newly put together are experienced and sensible enough, are showing signs of becoming a reliable defensive pairing. Of the rest I'm not convinced that too many players are that established that I could name our first choice in most positions.

However, Lampard and Thelwell are in their early days and hopefully they have an idea as to which players will become the nucleus over the next three or four years and who they want to add to the squad and who they want to move on.

One problem is that the age of some of our recruits means that they are probably short-term options (Gueye, Tarkowski and Coady), but this season has been considerably better than the previous one and my fingers are crossed and I'm more optimistic than I have been over recent years.

And with a bit of coaching thrown into it to improve players and their confidence. As well as very deliberate and discreet changes behind the scenes at Finch Farm.

Putting their own system in place without interference from non-footballing people. A DoF being allowed to be a DoF and not getting sucked into Boardroom politics. A footballing staff being left alone to make footballing decisions. That's how it feels.

Suddenly, the defence is transformed from 12 months ago. The midfield looks different even if some of the players are the same. If we're all honest, once we eventually came from that Wednesday night, I don't think many of us would have seen that coming in July.

I too hope you're wrong, Dave Abrahams. I was on the fence with Lampard but I've really warmed to him as much as he seems to have done with Everton.

But I would be sad to see Lampard go. I think we've got another 18 months or so with him. Wouldn't surprise me if he left for the England job at that point.

In the meantime, he and Thelwell can put in place some really good foundations for our BMD era.

Some promising partnerships blossoming. It's the forward line partnership that will be the one that takes us to the next level. With Calvert-Lewin back, all eyes will be on the forwards and how they play together.

Any of Gordon, Gray, Maupay or McNeil could hit it off big time with Calvert-Lewin. It's going to be very competitive get into the side when he is fully fit as all those four players have, at the moment, a legitimate claim for a starting berth.

If we can find that magic formula up front, this side is going places.

Tim Cahill and Lescott belonged in trophy-winning teams though. A Man City fan at work always stated he was gutted when Distin left.

To actually win things with a defensive pairing like Coady and Tarkowski is difficult. As we saw against Man Utd, they are a bit susceptible to the counter-attack – and they are nothing like as good on the ball as, say, Lisandro Martinez.

Big clubs who win things tend to play on the front foot – accepting Martinez's defensive weakness (he's short) because of what he brings to the table offensively.

That is why Pickford is a Champions League goalkeeper.

As said on another thread we're a work in progress. These partnerships definitely represent part of the progress.

To win things we need to transform the club, as Roberto Martinez tried, into a front-foot club that focuses on beating teams with attacking talent.

That's our next step from here.

Interesting comment on Pickford, Robert. He is a great keeper and arguably Champions League standard if that is the benchmark.

For me, he is a great shot-stopper, but doesn't command his defence or his penalty area and is reluctant to come out of the 6-yard box.

Unless he addresses that, he won't realise the obvious potential. Sadly, it's why he is still with this current Everton squad.

I think these are not opinions shared by clubs that win things. They were true of our successful sides in the 1980s but the game has moved on in 30 years, because of tactics, fitness levels and the backpass rule.

Pickford will be valued highly by Ten Hag and other Champions League coaches because of his ball control (with his feet) and distribution.

At the start of 83-84, there wasn't a settled team and, as a result, no partnerships were being developed.

By 84-85, the team picked itself and the team was littered with partnerships: Heath and Sharp, and then Gray and Sharp when Heath was injured; Steven and Stevens; Reid and Bracewell; Mountfield and Ratcliffe.

The 84-85 team clearly had a system and, when the so-called lesser players came into the side, like Richardson, Harper, Atkin and Wilkinson, it didn't affect the performances too much.

That is hopefully where we are heading now, the team almost picking itself, with thankfully a back 4, a developing system where players are developing partnerships and where players on the bench will fit into the system, no problem.

Just to highlight Robert's point of suspecting Patterson and McNeil could develop a good partnership. It is so important for the full-back and winger to develop a good understanding so the winger can help the full-back when we are defending (something we didn't see against Man Utd) as well as the fullback supporting the winger going forward. Pienaar and Baines, Steven and Stevens perfected this.

We are hopefully now heading in the right direction but the Man Utd game was a big disappointment and the team now needs big performances in the next two games.

I for one, as a completely straight 100% male do not find it compulsive viewing watching some plastic-faced trout-mouthed bint flashing something that looks like it's just crawled out of Ripley's pants!

What's the betting Bill will want the mural of just that on the goal stand. Please no!