Calvert-Lewin unlikely to face Bournemouth on Saturday

We are definitely in a relegation battle this season

Haters of DCL better wind their necks in because we need him

I can't honestly believe the people responsible during the summer really thought after a while season injured that Calvert-Lewin would be relied upon this time around.

I said in August I'd be astonished to see him play 15 games and I still will be.

We need a replacement for him in January and then when he's fit (if ever) we need to be touting for decent offers for him.

If we can get a combined 60 million for DCL, Gordon, Maupay and McNeil then Jesus Christ (pardon my blasphemy) we should think Christmas has arrived.

Bernie #5 I’m not saying you’re clearly wrong about how good he is, but his success was always going to depend on 1) him being healthy and 2) the players around him. He never seemed to have the ability to score from outside the box or beat players one-on-one, but at his best under Ancelloti he was getting into great positions in the box to finish good service, especially with his head — but then we had James, Digne and Siggurdson, who all were top class with their deliveries. The problem now is that even when healthy, Gordon and Gray and Iwobi, Patterson and Mykolenko are wildly inconsistent at best, generally not even that, with their crossing ability. The hope I think was that McNeill could remedy some of that, but that assumes he’s getting the opportunity with time to hit balls with his left foot and that’s clearly not happening. So is he average? I think he’s a bit more than that, assuming a lot of other things are happening around him. He’d certainly look a lot better in a much better squad, but then wouldn’t all of our better players.

Maybe a review of our fitness, physio and recovery program may be necessary?

Obviously mistakes were made in recruitment yet again - but we don't have a horrendous squad. On paper it's the best in a while.

However, despite decent squad depth across various positions, it is a squad that has had goals ripped out of it over time. No Sigurdsson, no Richarlison, no DCL.

It's worrying.

We never replaced Sigurdsson.

We never replaced James Rodriguez.

We still haven't properly replaced Lukaku.

Pretty much says it all.

We could have signed Brereton-Diaz from Blackburn but, despite his contract running down this season, we didn't offer them enough and spent the money on Maupay, whilst the widely rumoured loan of Broja didn't happen.

Meanwhile, our golden prospect is booked again after another dismal performance.

Defensively we are sound but we offer little threat in the opposition's half, let alone the final third or in their box! We need goals from multiple sources and Gray, Gordon and Iwobi are not going to be consistent here.

Bear with me as I have been impressed with Iwobi and the way he plays but I don't think he creates enough or scores enough to justify his position. Defensively his work rate is outstanding, but I fear that this sacrifices any creativity behind the striker.

If we are going to play a 3 in midfield then I'd advocate for 2 of Iwobi, Onana or Gana. Not all 3. Why not play Maupay off the striker in the No 10 role instead and be more offensive in that role?

On top of this. We need goals and creativity from out wide. None of Gray, Gordon or McNeil are the answer here. Look at all the top teams in the Premier League and they have goals from multiple sources – even Leicester the other night were a great example of goals from Midfielders and wide men. We don't have this.

With our defensive base we could afford to have 2 out and out attackers with a goal threat on our wings. What we have today is hard-working players who flatter to deceive.

Gordon being the prime example – physically he should be destroying defenders with his pace but his lack of quality both in terms of passing/crossing and finishing renders him ineffective for us.

Rather than focusing on replacing Dom, I'd advocate wide attackers who can contribute at least 10+ goals a season to reduce our reliance on a sole striker.

If you play 3 up front, make sure they are all goalscorers. Ours don't even create chances for anyone but themselves and even then, on the majority of occasions they fail to register.

We used to complain about Barkley, Delofeu, Siggy etc but oh for somebody with their goalscoring ability now.

We often talk about being one dimensional as a team and we are - we rely on Dom digging us out with pace, aerial ability, skill or strength. But he’s not reliable.

That Kudus from Ajax would have been interesting if we had got him. But it’s the wingers/attackers we need as well.

Look at all the teams above us, most have goals from across their front 3 and we have a total of 7 from Gordon, Gray and DCL.

We are the second lowest scoring team in the prem - that’s our issue. Why is this not being rectified in terms of our formation/player selection? Only the top 3 are better than us defensively

Treat him with respect but do not let him be something that we are waiting for. Time is up and we need points. Sorry mate, get well but we've got things to do.

Its not the lads fault that he appears fragile but that no good to us we need him on the field every game.

Fahrad needs to get his cheque book out again and get a good striker if we can find one, and we still don't appear to have a midfielder who can score and create goals for others.

We should be able to get a few million in for 1 or 2 of the out of favour players.

Frank needs to forget him and get innovative; I found this master plan at Betsw y Coed last tuesday near fairy glen hidden in a Fox's biscuit tin. It's a doozey

Play a rigid 8 at the back and forbid any to cross the halfway line to keep it nil at our end. Instead hoof it to Mina at every opportunity to win headers for the speedy Gray to run onto and score 3 in the first half.

Swap Gray for Gordon at half time and repeat. We win every game 6 nil what's not to like?

I think we need at least 45 goals so we need another 34 starting from next Saturday.

We will get a few from Coady and Tarkowski from set-pieces – maybe 3 each if we are lucky. Possible a couple of wonder strikes from Mykolenko – that's 8 so far.

We are unlikely to get any from Gana, Onana, and Davies. None of them can head a ball or shoot. We might get 2 or 3 from Doucouré if he could find his form from Carlo's season.
The only midfielder we have who can shoot from the edge of the box is Garner – he's a 3- or 4-goals-a-season player so another “maybe” 2 or 3. Iwobi might weigh in with 3. The problem is, they can't all play, so Frank has at least one tough call to make there.

Possible 14 so far (optimistically speaking). So we need another 20 from the forward line. Gordon, Gray, McNeil, Maupay, and Rondon are our options. I am leaving Calvert-Lewin out of the picture because he won't be available until Boxing Day and, after watching the 25-minute highlights of the Leeds v Bournemouth game, I reckon we need at least 2 this Saturday.

The first four have proved that any permutation of them is not going to produce many goals so something has to change.

Here we go – for me, that means Rondon has to lead the line and produce the knockdowns and layoffs for one or two other forwards, depending on his system. By the way, I reckon he would have got on the end of that cross from Gray against Leicester.

Can we get an 8 & two 6s out of them for the 20 goals we need? Gray and Maupay can shoot from the edge of the box and Rondon can get across his marker – that's what he does. So I think we can scrounge the goals from Maupay 8, Rondon 6, Gray 6. That's my starting forward line.

With the players available, I would go 4-3-2-1. I said I wouldn't pick any more teams this season but I have changed my mind.

Pickford
Patterson, Coady, Tarkowski, Mykolenko
Gana, Iwobi, Garner
Maupay, Gray,
Rondon.

Off to the Nissen hut.

We play 4-5-1, 4-3-2-1 or 4-2-3-1 with the '1' isolated for most of the game and the rest doing their best impression of The Chuckle Brothers.

It should have read “is not going to produce many goals” and the line-up should have read 4-3-2-1 – with Gray and Maupay playing off Rondon.

Just look at Danny Ings's career. 14 appearances and 3 goals in 3 seasons with Liverpool, then 67 appearances and 34 goals in 2 seasons with Southampton.

Dom did well playing for Carlo and there is no reason why he cannot get back to that form.

It's not too early to write him off I'm afraid.

We've sat and waited a year for him to get fit.

At what point do we say this ain't working?

What if he only plays about 15 games this season?
Apparently he's not even training properly anymore due to a fear of aggravating the injury.

We can put our faith in this type of player unfortunately and it's sad for Dom, he was effective during the Ancelotti era feeding off Digne, Sigurdsson and James deliveries.

I'd push my money on Brereton Diaz, a similar kind of Number 9 but I think with a more cultured touch and finish than Calvert-Lewin.

We got away with playing Richarlison up there, but did we really? Teams with aspirations definitely have more than one centre-forward in their squad, with the greatest of respect to Maupay, and Solomon Rondon.

Of course Lampard should have rectified this in the summer, because he got two new central defenders in for nothing, so maybe the elephant in the room is the expensive Onana, or maybe it was just the shambles of a squad that Lampard inherited?

Years of mismanagement, and managerial changes have left us with a lot of players who don’t know if they are coming or going, and judging by the other night, players who don’t seem to be very committed to the cause.

Maybe Lampard isn’t the right man for the job, but he needs our support right now. He fucked up with his team selection the other night, but Everton have been going out of the cup for years without a real fight, (THIS REALLY STARTED TO ACCELERATE WITH PLUCKY LITTLE EVERTON) and we have got a front three that blow a lot more cold, than they do hot right now. We are finding goals very hard to come by, and this isn’t being helped by the gilt-edged chances that we have not been taking in quite a few of our games.

I hope that the six week break will sort DCL out. He wasn’t very good against Leicester, but it was only on rare occasions he had any support. Dominic looks like a man who has been doing way to much gym work, so hopefully he can try and lose a little bit of muscle, and gain a bit more flexibility, over the next six weeks. This might help take away these little niggles and strains, that he seems to be constantly suffering from right now.🤞

It could be one of the reasons he's breaking down so often. If he's that finely tuned, muscles will go more easily in my experience, although I'm no doctor or physio. Plus for a young player, he's been carrying the forward line pretty much alone for a few seasons. It seems to have taken its toll. A bit like Anthony Gordon, who looks jaded and tired.

I'm probably stating the blindingly obvious now, but right now, let's get him fit and play to his strengths. That's where McNeil may play a part. Also Gray, Gordon and Mykolenko from dead ball situations. The former two if they can just learn to look up up more often.

Ancelotti done it. I'll stand by on that one. Get him fit, get him playing, play to his strengths, and get him doing so more consistently. He's never going to be a Harry Kane or Thomas Muller or Lewandowski. But he's a very good young centre-forward and we're not going anywhere near that level of quality anytime soon.

You need a good side before you think of a stadium – just look around the UK… it's full of good stadiums and poor sides, many whom ended up being relegated from higher leagues.

Total madness.

I hope Frank can forget about personalities and select a team that can grind out a few results.

I really worry about us putting our hopes on something wonderful happening in the January window. How many years have we all been banging on about that? I don't think it has ever happened. It's pie in the sky as far as I am concerned. No, we need to face the facts, unsavoury as they may be.

I want our manager to succeed as much as anyone but he has to develop a streak of pragmatism; otherwise, he will go the way of his predecessors.