Rapidly-improving Blues make their point in pulsating derby stalemate

Tom Davies was better in that first half than many here would want to admit he could be. Maupay may have missed a sitter (and his pass(?) could have beaten the VAR to give Coady a goal), but it was his first game, and he was thrown into a derby for his debut...

Overall, I'm very happy! We have lost two, drawn four, as we try to get our very new team to gel.

How many goals did we lose by in those two losses? We are not melting any more!

UTFT for the future, I'd think! :)

If Milner touches that ball, then once again the official in the VAR studio absolutely stinks, which is also something West Ham and Villa fans will be saying tonight, as last season's top three, all get lucky. Weren't we supposed to be hearing the contentious conversations at the end of each game now?

I thought a draw was about right, although Liverpool finished the stronger, which was to be expected, considering how many changes they made, because their bench had so much more quality.

Made up with our fight, made up with our discipline, and made up with our young right-back, who didn't give a fuck for his Scottish teammate.

Now … week-in & week-out, let's match or better it!

Hope we can now go forward with consistency COYB!

We just need a player to start regularly to find the 'inside' of the net.

Van Dijk knew exactly what he was doing and was intentional. Should have been a red, but the ref and VAR were never going to do that. We all know why!

There have been Derbies won with worse goals than that perfectly legal disallowed goal and Everton players given a red in such games for a lot less than Van Dijk's professional foul. clearly late, high, and aimed over the ball.

Now I'm sorry for swearing at Jimmy Hill, come back – all is forgiven. A lot better than the tripe pundits of today.

How does that make any sense at all?

Also, no mention of the probable legality of the Coady goal, given Milner tried to block it.

However, yesterday proved once again that the Sky 6 are being protected against defeats. Lee Mason, who was the VAR at the Barcodes match, apparently did not show the ref all the angles for the disallowed goal.
Why? Surely there is only one answer to that.

The West Ham 'goal' was also a joke of a decision. Last season the VAR literally handed the title to Man City after the Rodri 'handball' at Goodison. It has to be stopped. In my eyes, it appears the VAR is deliberately being used as a means to aid the so-called Big 6. Enough is enough.

My solution is fans across the country should stop their Sky subscriptions until the problem is sorted. Jesse Marsch, who I can't stand, got it right, when he said we have to respect the refs but they are not showing any respect for us.

Possibly Maupay was below par, but it was his first game, every other player was superb. From Pickford's frantic brilliance to Gray's and Gordon's ability to go past world-class defenders at will, to Tom Davies's coolness and toughness and Iwobi's energy, we gave our all and could easily have gained 3 points.

Yesterday, there was pride and desire, those things can in odd games make up for the skill gap, over a season they don't, but yesterday they did and it made my old, faulty heart swell with pride. My pre-match pessimism was banished by the courage and resilience of those players.

COYB

On BT Sport (I don't have Sky, got rid of it many years ago) the commentator, and McManaman and Jenas, were extolling the virtues of any Liverpool player that did anything remotely good.

They were all very happy to accept that Saint Virgil should only get a yellow and wheeled our former ref whatsisname to let us all know that, as the force of the tackle was on the foot, even though it started on the shin and therefore it is a yellow. Utter bullshit.

I have said on other threads that, if one of our boys and done something similar, he would have been given no such understanding and we would have had Klopp pointing his corroding finger at us for being too physical.

The incident shows that Van Dijk is still a wannabe bully. The game when Pickford bumped him saw Virgil try to injure Richarlison and James. A streak of shithousery is running through his angelic mind.

I think Van Dijk is looking a bit slow so far this season. That injury and a few years of hard graft are taking their toll. The recent matches involving the favoured ones have seen quite a few clear mistakes in favour of the big boys.

We should have an official clock on the scoreboard and an official timekeeper stopping the clock at every break in play. It should be clear and there for all to see. The current system with the 4th official putting up his board for a recommended "minimum" amount of time leaves far too much to the ref's discretion.

The beautiful game stinks.

If you’ve got enough money (Newcastle) you might be allowed in, eventually, like Man City were. But if not, know your place in the food chain as you won’t get anything from bent refs and sell-out pundits.

If VAR had been around in the Clive Thomas semi final the entire history of the 2 clubs might be different as we would have won.

VAR is the greatest advancement in football since the advent of snazzy footy boots

We are one of two clubs yet to register a win. After Southampton we then go into a difficult run if fixtures.

There is no if, buts or maybes. This side will have to start producing wins and it must start with West ham at home.

I hope 4-3-3 is now going to be how we set up for all our future games, as it allows us to have more players getting forward than a 5-2-3. I thought there were a lot of good performances right through the team.

Coady and Tarkowski give us a solid pairing in the middle and in Patterson and Mykolenko we have two very good young fullbacks. I thought Mykolenko kept Salah very quiet for the majority of the game and Patterson is like a young Seamus with his forward runs.

I thought Davies had another decent game and seems to be getting better as he gets older. Onana is looking like he can be anything he wants to be, has all the tools to be a very special player.

Gana Gueye looked like he had never been away just slotted right back into his central midfield role. He is a naturally fit player and his experience will be a big help to Onana.

Iwobi continues to amaze, I doubt if many Blues would have complained if he had been moved on 12 months ago, Lampard and his coaches deserve a lot of credit in the improvements in Iwobi but the player deserves the most credit for turning his game around.

Gordon continues to improve and I was a little surprised Lampard withdrew him when he did but maybe with all thats go on regarding the transfer speculation maybe Lampard was right. Gray is a real enigma he looks one minute like a world beater and the next like an average wide player.

Thought McNeil did ok when he came on, I guess it looks like Brighton supporters warning was right about Maupay works hard but isn't clinical enough in front of goal. I think at 5ft 7ins you need to be either quick or clinical but sadly Maupay has neither. But you can't expect anything else when you spend such a little amount of money on a striker.

Moshiri asked to judge him on the close of the window, my take is 7 out of 10 if we had enough to have got a quality striker it could have been at least 9 out of 10. But Lampard and Thelwell seem to be moving the club in the right direction in a short space of time, just hope our lack of goals doesn't put us in trouble.

I feel like a never-was, who has empty pockets and who can still often talk bollocks. But my wife loves me (I think).

Kunal is surely right. The improvements are there to see, but now is the time to translate performances into points.18 clubs in the Premier League have recorded at least one win. Sadly, we are not one of them.

Surely we have to start taking points at grounds we never do sometime in our lifetime.

It would appear that they must have been selected to partake in the TV football shows because they never made a mistake in their careers, and we should be grateful to them for sharing their knowledge.

No reason why we shouldn’t cause an upset if we play like we did yesterday, not many teams will be able to deal with that level of commitment and desire.

" an afternoon where both goals seemed to live a charmed life, both goalkeepers had to underline their world-class credentials and the fortitude of the Goodison Park woodwork was tested at both ends". That is so much more balanced than the mainstream media trying to make it all about Pickford, a sly way to trying to project that it was all one way traffic. It most certainly was not! They had some lucky breaks - some deflections that took the ball away from goal - the Patterson and McNeil shots were arrowing into the top corner - but for Van Dijk's arse and James Milner's (I think) hand getting in the way.

One comment that I don't agree with your report, LL, ". the debutant (Maupay) had the first chance of the game, a shot he scuffed across goal following good work by Demarai Gray". I believe it was a deliberate cross by Maupay across the box, and if Gordon had been a bit more alert and had a proper striker's instinct, that would have been a tap in.

All in all, I agree, a hugely encouraging performance by everyone involved. Not 1 bad performance. Liverpool, I think have weakened this season - Mane was their main man, and a huge mistake by Klopp to let him go.

Looking at the players available, I think a 4-4-2 might well suit the team:

Pickford

Patterson Coady Tarkowski Mykolenko

Davies Gueye Iwobi Onana

Gordon Calvert-Lewin (or Maupay)

With Doucoure, Garner, McNeil, Gray - all excellent options to come off the bench.

I'm staying on the positive juice, but VAR or no VAR, this fixture haunts us when it comes to officials and decisions going against us.

Pickford was undoubtedly our best player, closely followed by Patterson as I said on Michael's report.

But I agree with Lyndon about his distribution. He played a couple that met Gray but mostly yesterday, he reverted to his Rugby player seeking to gain territory by kicking into touch. But that's nit-picking a tremendous performance.

I would just like to concentrate on my beloved Everton really, but the swines with the money won't let me! A horrible lot indeed!

More importantly though, I think the team is heading in the right direction allied to a long term plan by the coaching staff- long overdue!

Whilst on the subject of pundits, may I refer you to last night's MotD and one Mr Danny Murphy. After dissecting the current, stuttering form of our charmless neighbours, he gleefully reminded Gary Lineker that despite their start to the season, they “still haven't lost a game.”

It took a second or two for his pea-sized brain to recall the Man Utd game from a few weeks back and then he corrected himself but that is what we are up against with some of these so-called experts.

As for the game yesterday, I have mixed feelings really. Despite the fact that I thought we were excellent, I have never, ever, ever been more convinced that we will never again triumph over the club of the devil. We are quite simply, vexed when it comes to that crowd.

Finally, the midfield that finished the game yesterday should start at Arsenal as far as I'm concerned. Tom was much improved yesterday but should have scored and he also shit out of a header on 48 minutes which is unforgivable, particularly in a derby.

Up them Toffees. 💙

I reckon he'll score 3 or 4 this season. A great buy to replace Seamus, and the old master will also help him improve.

I thought it was a hugely encouraging performance by Amadou Onana.

He's just turned 21, been in the country 5 minutes. Less than 20 top-flight starts in his young career. Playing his first Merseyside derby – incomparable to any other game he would have experienced in France or Germany.

He then gets booked on 38 minutes. I thought that could knock his confidence and affect the way he played. But I thought he only got better, and grew into the game the longer it went on.

Then that Dutch prick decided to leave one on him. He was obviously in a lot of pain. Could have said "That's me done for the day." But he got back up, hobbling, and then proceeded to put in some hefty challenges of his own. Not dangerous tackles for retribution, but proper decent challenges.

Despite a few nervy moments in his first few appearances, I'm starting to like him a lot already. I think we've got a potential superstar there.

For me, Van Dijk's challenge was in the ‘orange' zone – you've seen players walk for very much the same (and less) but it wasn't a full-on lunge, nor was it airborne or two-footed.

I don't care a hoot for Van Dijk but, for me, I couldn't see anything ‘deliberate' about it – he was just too slow and clumsy on this occasion.

I'd still call Taylor for favouritism because I didn't think Onana's challenge deserved a booking. That was just a fraction late and about his first offence of the game.

I don't think there is any conspiracy but the favoured get the better treatment through the common human failing of confirmation bias. Highly paid professional referees should be better trained to overcome it, but they obviously aren't. I think that probably comes down to hubris and simple closing of ranks.

Along with Pickford they seem like a real unit. This is a mile away from last season – I think Keane is actually a good defender but he's far too quiet and doesn't have the same authority as these 2. So let's hope they stay fit and stay tight.

The other point is Gueye, Tom had a great game but you could see when Gueye came on just how comfortable he is in that holding role. He's been playing with Messi, Neymar and Mbappe, for fuck’s sake, so he should know how to defend!

First time I've watched Onana, Jamie, and I thought the kid was absolutely brilliant. He looks like he can do absolutely everything, you want to see from a good midfielder, and looking back he probably impressed me more than any other player on the pitch.

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Looking a bit further into Saturday's game, I find it incredible that Everton are under so much pressure with regards FFP, when you consider that just Alisson and Van Dijk cost just as much (possibly more?) as the thirteen players Everton used on Saturday.

I have to give a shout out to Tom Davies though. The lad never gives less than 100% despite all the abuse he takes on here and as for criticising him for the shot off the post, some posters it seems have never actually played the game.

Tom was really stretchig to get to that ball and could only get it with his right foot. If it had gone in, they would have all been saying what a great goal but for the sake of a couple of inches it is a "bad miss" in some people's eyes.

For the Arsenal game, I think we need to shore up the midfield and just play 1 up front so I would give Tom another start and bring Doucouré on as sub when legs tire.

Van Dijk should have been off.
Maupay should have scored.
Onana is looking the business.
Widemouth will be sacked.
VAR is a joke.
Can we beat the gunners?

Spuds, cornish pastie, carrots, brocoli and gravy for my dinner.

A new Everton we can finally get on board with

Is it just me or am I missing something?
I find it really worrying that the VD assault has not been brought up on radio today.

I'm sure the likes of Coady and Tarkowski have enough about them to let him know if he oversteps.

I'm happy for him to be well chuffed by his sterling contribution on the day. First clean sheet of the season and another step in the right direction.

Also noticed how Mason Holgate obviously deliberately waited to personally ‘welcome' him off the pitch after he had to do that after match / on the pitch interview and receive his Man of the mMatch award.

Oh, and I heard an interview with Keith Hackett on Radio 5 about the current criticism of the VARs and refs not getting things right where the interviewer pointedly inserted Van Dijk's lucky avoidance of a red card. Agree with Hackett; it's poor quality officials, not some media led conspiracy.