Pressure Builds on Toothless Blues Ahead of the Deadline

Far from good but far away from Forest who crapped themselves every time we came forward. To hear cooper say they should have won is optimistic delusion. Any team with some kind of striker will annihilate them.

Even without a striker we should have nailed them. Look at the ridiculously poor defending for Gray's goal. Positives- Gray, Iwobi and Coady. Negatives- Tarkowski, Rondon, and Patterson from the hour mark.

Onano reminds me of a newborn calf, looks like he's struggling to stay on his feet.

Start planning for life without him instead of clinging to people who won't even be here, soon as.

Moussa Dembélé would be a good choice. IMO.

In the second half, Frank, encouraged by the first half, reverted to his previous formation subbing Rondon. Everton then lost their shape and space in midfield and found themselves up against a higher defensive line. Onano found himself deep and under pressure when he came on and Everton were pushed back to a deeper defensive line of five.

The other weakness of this is that both Gordon and McNeil are not able to hold a position on the defensive line or turn a defender. They play in front of the defence depending on runs for one-twos to get into attack space. Once up against a high defensive line, they a compacted in midfield are forced out wide to receive the ball. Gibbs-White is a far better attacking player than Gordon, and McNeil is pure lightweight and lacking in initiative. His breakaway pass in the second half was woeful.

I now don't believe that just a new centre-forward will add enough to Everton attack, they need players who can threaten to beat defenders.

As for Pickford, he regularly on saving on his right side parries the ball into that danger zone. He even did it prior to the goal. Unlike the goal, he was lucky there was not incoming attacker.

Gray's goal, like Richarlison's so many times last season, was a Get Out Of Jail goal, based on individual skill.

Onana was last weekend's great new hope after 10 minutes at Villa. Today's half-hour exposed the rawness of a young recruit, new to the country, new to the Premier League, and new to the club. He will need time to settle.

It was a relief to win a point. We had lost seven of our last ten home matches against promoted teams. If Forest were poor, which I would question, we have made a habit of making poor teams look good in recent years.

Once again the 3-4-3 with the current personnel left us vulnerable out of possession. Having settled into the game after the opening twenty minutes, Forest were able to play through our lines far too easily. I agree with Lyndon that keeping Tom Davies on the pitch and switching to a 4-4-2 or even a 3-5-2 would have afforded us more control.

I can understand people having their philosophy and their plans & goals - but it seems that sometimes this means they won't be flexible when circumstance seems to almost beg for it.

He never got those, left, and things felt apart under Mike Walker. We need a Lukaku-like transfer window – otherwise, history could repeat itself...

A 3-4-3 is fine if you have the right players. With a workaholic defensive midfielder such as Gueye and a strike force up front, it could be made to work for us.

Frank seems to be a manager who will not change his formation until the situation becomes desperate. By then, as at Villa last week, it is often too late.

I also think we need to beef the midfield up and stop this 3 centre-backs nonsense. It doesn't make us any more secure and deprives us of a more forward player.

I can't believe Allan wouldn't have made a better fist of it than McNeil and I would have taken Tarkowski (who had a very shaky day today) off and left Tom Davies on.

Gana will NOT be the answer at centre-half, end of discussion.

Until we learn to close teams down more and defend from the front, then we could have Maldini and the Chiellini sitting in our defence, it would still concede. Our fullbacks don't get tight enough either to stop things.

My biggest worry is when I look at the fixtures, I can't see a single win between now and October.

I'm concerned "Fire Without Warning" Farhad will strike again and sack Lampard only to go down the same old road that we know every crack in the pavement, and give Duncan Ferguson the job.

I too am not a huge fan of 3-4-3, not with the players we have. That can be said for any formation, but personally, if it's 3 at the back, I'd rather be 3-5-2 to mitigate being overrun in midfield.

I thought the substitutions disrupted our shape. But then that comes back to the elephant in the room. We took a striker off but had no striker to bring on.

Joking aside, Everton, need them now. I sense Calvert-Lewin has had the worst run of luck with injuries he could wish for, and he gets back chomping at the bit, and injury free, looks forward not backwards, and is on fire. Rise to the challenge hopefully of competition for the strikers role at Everton.

Overall really from yesterday, for me, the shape, cohesion, reliability, knowing what your playing colleagues will do next will come happen, over the next few games. It has to.

Improve on corners, deadfalls and make every opportunity count, and keep the opponents thinking.

But this season a solid unit with backbone and mentality, is needed ASAP to starting getting some victories, and avoid the potential for being stuck in the mud at the bottom of the Premier League.

Hope eternal.

It's a system that suits Holgate who looks comfortable and is playing well, but the other two are prone to giving the ball away or being caught in possession. In addition, neither of the full-backs are seeing enough of the ball to warrant their role as wingbacks.

It all seems very much safety-first but, whilst recognising that both Tarkowski and Coady are good players, all three current centre-backs favour their right-hand side when they are receiving or defending.

Maybe they will work it out but currently with these players the system is flawed.

I am sure that Rondon helps the shape of the team but anybody thinking Calvert-Lewin will be our saviour is delusional. Even if he comes back on time, he will be rusty – and we all saw how crap he looked last season after his long lay-off. Then he might break down again.

We need one, perhaps two strikers in pronto.

Saying that, despite the systems, we have shown that with even one quality goalscorer in the side things can get better. We were told to ‘judge us at end of the window' and there is still time.

But it's also fair to pass judgement on unnecessarily lost points due to not having a quality back up. As things stand, I am remaining patient for the sole reason that I'd rather get the right man in late than a panic buy that becomes a long term problem.

Judgement day approaches . The slightly odd one minute to midnight bid for Gibbs-White shows that there is some ammunition left to get a quality player in .

The problem with that is, if he is fit, he knows he starts, and where there is no competition, that breeds complacency. To be honest, I think Calvert-Lewin is vastly over-rated – I think Ancelotti was well aware of his limitations by telling him to stay in and around the penalty area and not to take a second touch. I don't believe that, if he had played in all 3 games, the results would have been different.

So, if they do sell Gordon – and I hope they don't – then spend it all on a top-quality striker that will mean, when Calvert-Lewin is fit, he will have to compete for the striker's role.

While I'm definitely no lover of Rondon, you're right in saying that we lost our shape once he went off. Strange decision that by Frank.

Also, I'm not Davies's biggest fan but thought he was playing very well. Iwobi and Gray were the two standouts for me and the latter showed his form of early last season. Iwobi just continues to amaze me with his workrate it's like we've signed a different player to the one we bought. Credit to Frank for that transformation.

As for Gordon, I thought he was shocking, the number of times he gave the ball away was shocking, and his head looked elsewhere. I missed the chance at the end as I left the ground bang on 90 minutes and still haven't seen it yet. Haven't seen MotD so not sure if they showed it.

We need 1 if not 2 strikers in and quick. Otherwise, it's going to be a struggle.

I keep repeating myself ad nauseum, but just watch Everton play, in or out of possession, and there is no balance to the team and players do not or will not just simply play and cover their part of the pitch. The team plays this chase around after players or the ball, often being reactive when you should be proactive.

Be in position early, there is too much wandering around for me and then mad dashes to cover lost causes, thus putting you in an even more poor starting position. It's the same in possession too. This is a coaching issue, which will only be resolved in training, and over time. If Everton keep sacking manager's then the cycle starts all over again and you are back to Square One.

Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole always had excellent positional sense when they played, so they will know it's vital. Teams they played in all had balance and structure, and were successful. Unfortunately, as Everton supporters, we are all going to have to bite the bullet and be patient – flirting with the Bottom 6 is again a possibility and a striker this week is a prerequisite.

But this "hire and fire", turnover of players has to stop and some stability put into this team. If these players are not good enough, then you will be relegated, but coaches must be allowed time to set up, coach and ingrain the core attributes of balance, solidity and football intelligence or this horrible, depleting, destroying culture will continue to dominate Everton FC.

Time to put our faith in the coaching staff and go long-term with a plan.

It also means the fans having patience too. The previous gratification for instant results has seen the back of managers.

Look at Silva at Fulham. He's not a bad manager, had the backing of Brands, yet he was fired on the back of temporary results. Is that any way to run a multi-million pound business?

Everton were at home against fairly mediocre opposition, yet the rescued point came from an excellent pass (blind punt?) by Pickford and one of those moments that make Gray so infuriating, when his intrinsic skill simply makes you gasp. He's got a brilliant skill set, but hasn't the resilience or nous to always make it possible to use it.

Their goal was the result of Pickford's push out. A corner is always preferable to pushing a ball forwards.

Calvert-Lewin still has 2 or 3 weeks according to the radio before he'll be playing. He also needs to get up to match speed as soon as he can, which may not be instantly.

My gosh, Gordon does work his socks off, but when you add his goals and assists, they don't actually add up to a £50 million player. It's a conundrum: sell a fan favourite with latent ability to fund the purchase of a striker or wait and hope that Calvert-Lewin hits the ground running and stays fit all season.

Andy, Gordon was playing well until he got booked after 20 minutes. At that point, his game deteriorated, he was scared of getting a red card from Marriner. Our performance also deteriorated then and we allowed Forest back into the game.

I thought that we were the better side, created the better chances and should have won. I don't need to explain why we didn't, and why we'll struggle until that problem is addressed.

As everyone else has posted, we need one or two goal scorers pronto, and a really creative midfielder please. Easier said than done at this late stage though.

We have our defence sorted, even though our two young full-backs who I like, are nevertheless pretty inexperienced.

The full-backs weren't high enough to be considered part of the midfield 4 and same goes for Gray and Gordon: they were too deep to suggest we had 3 forwards. That's why we had very few out-balls.

It's maddening and frustrating that we still haven't replaced Richarlison and we needed another striker even before he left.

Basically we're no good at transfers: we can't plan well enough for departures, and we can't seem to nail the players we need. I accept Tarkowski is a good addition but I don't agree we should play 5 at the back so I don't know why anyone(Coady, McNeil, Onana) was signed before a striker.

We should be on 5 points at least; instead, we have 1. We should have bought Dennis or Cornet. I note Chelsea are 2 down to Leeds – we could have beaten them. Villa's only points are against us… the management at Everton is awful. It's pathetic and could see us in major trouble again!!!

The administration at Everton is scandalous and negligent. I'm so angry at how incompetent they are...

Great to hear from someone who was actually there. IMO, Frank's idea of a forward is a token centre forward and attacks based on runs from midfield.

The problem is, if you don't have players who are comfortable on a defender's shoulder and with the ability to turn a defender, the team has no shape and is compacted into the midfield. Play is then pushed to the wings and it is easier for the defence to organise.

Everton then were up against a packed defence when they eventually got forward depending on the loss balls. Everton, even before Frank, had the players for his system. So chances Iike the one you missed are fleeting and it is luck if the player can finish.

Both Gordon and McNeil are not comfortable on a defender's shoulder and challenging to attack.
Defenders love attackers who want to play in front of them. Both Gordon and McNeil are being asked to play in a system that doesn't suit them. In Gordon's case, for a Club that appears not to want him.

As suggested, his yellow card did not help.

I wrote him off the moment we got him. Same with Tarkovsky - although he may end up better than Keane but that is a very low bar.

People and managers talk a lot about shape and balance. Well, even with Rondon as the focal point, the shape and balance looked better.

I think Frank has to be braver now. Playing 5-2-3 is negatively impacting Gordon and Gray. Playing wingbacks when our best attacking options are our wingers is not working for us.

I know Frank got burned with results when he first arrived but I think Patterson, Mykolenko, Gray, Gordon & McNeil would all benefit from 4-4-1-1 or 4-4-2, with Gray more central than Gordon as he's better off the shoulder of defenders and finishes better too.

With Gray, Gordon or McNeil wide on the wings, it creates more opportunity. If the opposition is looking after Gray and Gordon, it gives Mykolenko and Patterson the space.

Counter that with Gray and Gordon more central and the opposition only have to care of the wingbacks and you lose your width.

I know Calvert-Lewin is out. But he is not the answer to all our problems. He won't make opportunities, he will take some but we need to get the whole midfield further up the pitch to be a threat.

Get Brereton Diaz from Blackburn and one more, I think the squad has potential.

I've been saying that for a while, we don't need back-up for Calvert-Lewin, we need competition someone to push him. I still think his best game for us was the Chelsea win when Ferguson was in charge. He was unplayable that day.

But sadly, like Ferguson, he seems to only do it when he feels like it. Yes, he will score goals but if he put them performances in like that day every week, he'd be a 30-goal striker, not 15 to 20 at best.

If his starting place is under threat, maybe it will kick him on, maybe he will leave.... but, as Brian says, the lack of competition breeds complacency,

Look at Doucouré, he's known he was starting every match if he was fit because our midfield has been so shite. He's not been performing to his maximum, because there has been no pressure to.

Two strikers a must for me.

If Gordon's play deteriorated after 20 mins because of a card, he should be nowhere near a professional Premier League club. If true, talk about weak mentality…

And not to mention the verbal assassination players would receive from all the world class coaches, strikers, defenders etc that haunt ToffeeWeb and generously educate the rest of us with their boundless knowledge of football, systems, formations, injury recovery times, in fact everything relating to football. Christ knows what they're doing pissing about on ToffeeWeb, sat in their pants scratching their bollocks when they should be at Finch Farm dragging us, single handed, up the table.
What were you like at 20?

I was a bit of a tit to be honest.
Still am. Especially with some red wine inside me😁

Not referring to you in any of the above of course.

We played with a striker on Saturday but I don't recall him missing lots of chances. If we don't create chances then it doesn't matter who is up front.

(And Frank, please don't tell me we created 19 chances. Long-range shots that barely trouble the keeper are not chances.)

I suppose the Richarlison money has already been spent on McNeil and Onana. Let's hope they settle quickly as neither looked the part on Saturday.

It's going to take a while for Onana to get used to the Premier League, he's going to make mistakes.

I didn't think Tarkowski had such a bad game as most are making out. I think our defending the set-piece has improved dramatically, I don't shit meself every corner, so let's appreciate that.

And as for McNeil, get off the lad's back, he'll be okay once settled in.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

Sure he had a bad injury, but whoever signed him for us must have thought he could play well.

It doesnt look like Frank rates him much.

How we could have got it wrong time after time is ridiculous.

I was ridiculed for supporting Martinez for so long, but if he had been given the money that has been wasted since we wouldnt be in this fine mess.

Mr Gaynes thinks differently, but I don't think many exist. 12 months away is hard enough, and they usually come back a lesser player.

His body will be out of condition to play at that level, plus assuming his injuries will allow him to play at an elite level.

I would move him on for a nominal fee. I doubt we will regret it.

He's a hefty lad who probably takes a while to get up to speed.

Everton are toothless let's be honest.
Making chances and not having a class finisher is always going to be a problem unless something happens before the window shuts.

Even last season was a big problem as Richie and DCL both missed a lot of games but even with them it was a struggle.

The Barcodes were a revelation yesterday and have made astute acquisitions since Eddie Howe came in so why not Everton.

There was a time when I thought Everton may have tried to get Eddie Howe and Saint Maximan when he looked like he wanted to leave last year but it wasn't to be and just look how he is playing now.

I despair at the way Everton are being run these days and the apathy from the board. Too many deadbeats getting well paid.

Okay they don't have the big money to splash out like City and RS but good management helps make teams like Brighton, Newcastle and Brentford more than a match in this league which sadly the Blues are not yet.

And in the meanwhile WE NEED A FUCKING STRIKER you clowns

I assume your tongue firmly in your cheek with the 'deadly' claim. Runs a lot deeper than recruitment but I get your point – we just want to stay up by the looks of it. Big question: how do we start a season in September?

Our good years always seem to include having great strikers scoring a minimum of 20 league goals a season. I don't think we have had one since Lukaku, and still this board and manager don't get it.

Yes we need a striker, so do other clubs, and the type of striker we need that can get 15 to 20 goals a season don't come cheap. The only way we can come up with that type of finance is to sell.

We can not compete financially with other clubs, especially Newcastle, whose owners have £100 billion more than our owner.

Let's be honest about looking for a striker. Before the season started, our main concern was bringing in someone to replace Richarlison, strengthen the midfield and the back defensive line, and move other players on.

Everton were mentioned as looking for another striker before the season started and that was most probably as a back-up to Calvert-Lewin and to replace Rondon. No-one expected to lose their main striker 2 days before the season started and then lose two of their central defenders for long periods after the first game.

Eddie Howe was hired when Benitez was still Evetron manager, and was backed by the richest owners in the league with practically a full January transfer window to work. Lampard was hired 1 day before the window closed. Last season, Saint-Maximin had 1 good game out of 6.

Everton today appears for once to be set up correctly with Thelwell and Lampard. One finding the type of players the manager wants, going over it with the manager, settling on a player they can get, and starting the negotiations,

Kenwright's position in this is to make sure the finance will be available, the contracts are in line with FA regulations, and sign them. He has been known to talk to the player and if there is one person in the club who can bring in a player by just talking to him, it is Kenwright .

Note, I am not praising Kenwright for previous actions just how I believe the new set-up is.

Right from the first game of preseason we've been flat as a pancake. We've taken one point from three teams that other sides are brushing aside with ease.

People are talking about how badly Aton Villa and Chelsea are playing and yet both beat us without breaking sweat. Before we know it, we will be 8 or 9 points behind our rivals in another wretched relegation fight.

If you look at Lampard's demeanour in the interviews after our three games, he looks defensive and already behind the 8-ball. And we look set to replace our two most important players with Onana, McNeil, Broja and Gilmour.

This is no time for steady as she goes, we are already in deep shit.

We are looking at players like Adams and Guirassy who may score about 8 – and will not improve.

I am keener on the likes of Broja – who are also likely to score about 8, given a full season, but who could develop into a 15- to 20-goal player. That makes much more sense to me.

If we keep buying average stopgaps we'll never have a 15- to 20-goal-a-season player.

Frank said on Friday that he was not overly concerned that they had failed to bag a striker. Well, he bloody well should be! Although if I was in for a massive pay-off as he is, I'd probably care less than I do as a mere supporter!

Frank said on Friday that he was not overly concerned that they had failed to bag a striker. Well he bloody well should be ! Although if I was in for a massive pay-off as he is, I'd probably care less than I do as a mere supporter !

Linked to this and that player, can’t offload players, other then on loan, with an option to buy, which never happens.

After 58yrs an Evertonian I despair. Surely something has too happen positively!!!

I believe,as you obviously do, that there are two problems that must be addressed and sorted pdq.

Where the belief that once DCL comes back everything will, all of a sudden, be sorted and we will be alright, I don't know. And that thought is nonsense anyway and should be dismissed as it is false.

Even if he gets, and stays fit, he isn't going to score sufficient goals to keep us out of trouble and Rondon isn't going to be any help there either.

Our burning need is for a goal scorer to compete with DCL NOT a back up to him. When will this light bulb moment sink in?

I have listened to Lampard and Thelwell and heard nothing from them recognising that it is urgent and BK hasn't said a word either which is all is probably understandable given that showing your hand to the opposition is not recommended. I get that but it is no consolation. Action is concrete and shows what has been done so get on with it chaps.

I still think that this need is as yet unappreciated by those who are doing the buying and selling and we might end up with nothing at all. The clock is ticking. We need the Chelsea Gordon money to enable a suitable striker to be bought (FFP) so we need to get on with that too and we could lose that one if we hang around as time is not on our side now.