Godfrey facing 'months' out with fractured tibia

Please please please sign a couple of forward players though. It's criminally poor management of the club to say that we're at this stage of the season with no decent forwards. Captain Obvious, I know.

Someone said a very sensible thing on ToffeeWeb today about defenders needing to play together, to build up a better understanding, so to lose two today is very frustrating, especially Godfrey, because the ball had already gone out for a corner and, if Chelsea would have scored, VAR would have had to overrule it.

The positive was Tarowoski, and to think Everton paid 㿅 million for Michael Keane, not long after Burnley had bought this fella for around ٤ million, shows how bad our recruitment has been for years.

He needlessly tried a back pass that was poor and put Pickford in trouble. He galloped back and somehow avoided taking Havertz out and instead injured himself.

I had high hopes for the lad but he plays like a 14-year-old and simply isn't showing any signs of progress.

We have too many 'stupid' players – especially defenders – who make far too many wrong and rash decisions

Pickford's the same. People say he's improved. I don't see it. His much-lauded distribution is average and he makes constant poor decisions.

I certainly don't want to spend any pennies we have left on a keeper of defenders as we need goals from the forwards and midfield. Hopefully a top quality player on loan or a free.

The decision to make a back pass wasn't stupid - in your own words, it was a poor back pass. The execution, not the decision, was poor.

Or are you saying that trying to win the ball was stupid? At that moment, it was the right decision. He's a defender; that's his job.

Many have warned that the now accepted practice of the flag being kept down would lead to injury. Today it did.

This area of the rules is undergoing change, I believe – or there's been discussion at least.

However, the outcome is about as expected when our luck is involved. Awful for Godfrey, and the team. It was a similar kind of action that led to that horrific David Busst injury years back: if those studs catch...

If the referee's assistant had flagged for the ball going out of play then he would have either had to have bionic eyesight, or someone in his ear telling him to do so having seen the video footage (which is not within the rules), or guessed (which would be poor officiating).

The assistant running the line in the Everton half is on the other touchline (ie the Everton left), and their job is to stay in line with the deepest Everton outfield player - so they would have been 30-odd yards away. The other assistant referee was in the other half of the field. None of the referee team were in a position to judge whether the ball was out or not, and nobody should have expected them to either.

Anyway, tough one for Godfrey, and hopefully his recovery is quick.

No offense, he seems like a good guy, but that's the way it is.

As Brent rightly points out, it was bad execution. As Andrew rightly points out, the assistant referee's job is to be in line with the second-to-last defender including the keeper (99% of the time, the "last defender") and there's no way any assistant referee could sprint that fast to be in position to judge whether or not the ball crossed the goal line.

Godfrey busts a gut – as he always does – to sprint back and cover for his error and boom - planted foot due to over-aggression to make up for his error, results in a freak break. It's all just awful luck. Happens, that's life.

I sincerely hope Godfrey has a quick recovery and is back in the side after the World Cup / come Christmas. I said on the Live Forum, it's like having aces cracked by two-seven off suit in poker. Terrible odds but it can happen.

Get well quick, Ben!

I don't think anyone could have done anything about that situation yesterday. Kind of related, but I'm not a fan of the late raising of the flag for an offside. Okay, try and let the game flow, but they are almost allowing the game to run for almost a minute before then raising their flag.

Oh and why wasn't I shocked when soft lad Mina pulled up? The number of times I've argued his case in The Harlech after a game when the lads say he's a liability.

Well, guess what – he's a liability! Get rid and quick.

I wish Pickford or the officials would have made a quick decision about it being out and made it more obvious but that didn't happen and ultimately players have to take responsibility for their own mistakes.

Presuming Godfrey and Dom miss a large chunk of this season and they're both now 24 / 25, I don't feel they will improve this season or next. So for me they, along with Pickford and Keane, should be sold.

Coady isn't the long-term answer, he's a little slow and weak. But he's a lot more consistent which is what we need our defense to be. Therefore, he's an upgrade on the jokers at the back.

I suspect my judgment was swayed by the severity of the injury, and by the fact that through my (very non-bionic) eyes at the match, 100 m away from the incident, my thought was that the ball was out. However, as you say, the assistant referee was not in a clear position to see, and the referee was some way back.

He didn't injure himself and it wasn't his own doing. It's football. Mistakes happen but he showed more than 100% commitment in trying to protect our goal once he knew he made the mistake. And he did at cost to his own body.

I'm not going to criticise a player for that.

Sorry, I can't accept that view.

Tarkowski + Holgate (or Keane or Mina when fit) could become quite a good pairing with Onana and Gueye in front of them.

Branthwaite can then return next summer to take over from Mina (departing then on a free).

Dropping a centre-back would also make room for Alli (an additional goal threat) with Gordon and McNeil wide of Calvert-Lewin (or maybe Kalimuendo, Kalajdzic or Broja if rumours are to be believed).

As for Mina... I couldn't give a flying fuck about him. I am sick of the "man of glass", I just want rid of... he's simply yet another foreign fraud.

Our need for a couple of strikers is now of paramount importance after yesterday's display!

Time for Brexit, let's take our borders back?

I do agree that Mina, as an individual, cannot be relied on because of his injury record with us, but "another foreign fraud" is perhaps a little offensive.

Why in God's name is he still hanging around like a bad smell?

Not a striker in sight, this club depresses the life out of me.

Get well soon, Ben Godfrey.

Wishing Ben a speedy recovery, any chance of him returning when the league restarts on Boxing Day?

Wishing Godfrey a good recovery.

I like the lad, and think he could become an excellent defender.