Coleman's chest defines Cherries catastrophe

Mykolenko injured some hasn't. More of the same?

3 months since a league win. Why change something that isn't working?!!

Mykolenko has got flu.

And Newcastle have gone 4-3!

I can't see any rhyme or reason to our play, did Dyche actually give them any instructions before the game because I can't see what we are trying to do.

Bournemouth don't seem interested.

Everton just have no quality.

It's a boring, tedious and nerve-racking game at the same time because of the importance it is to us, Bournemouth have practically no worries so less excuse to play like they are, I don't know how you watch it, Michael, and write about it at the same time.

I'd like to think the game will improve and we see some goals, I think they will come from mistakes, I hope we are not the team to make them.

Newcastle got 2 today for less. Why didn't we surround the referee> Typical Everton… too nice.

Their 2-week holiday really paying dividends so far, isn't it?

I wouldn't swap our squad in a million years with theirs and yet….

Try optimism.

Try…

Try.

Unless there is an wholly unexpected turnaround in the last 10 minutes then it truly is time for Dyche to go. There can be no excuses from him.

We are going down unless someone has the balls to do something with this useless bunch of overpaid and horribly underperforming group of so-called footballers.

Fuck off, Everton.

Ruining weekends since 1878.

Cowardly from the manager and pathetic from the players.

Relegation beckons. Dyche should've gone weeks ago.

He should have had Harrison, Doucoure, McNeil and Calvert-Lewin off earlier but 1-0 down with 20 minutes left and he brings on Young!

Who would I replace him with? Does it bloody matter? Get somebody out of the crowd if you have to, 3 weeks off to practice that shite!

We only scored because their keeper and defender got in each other's way. Then, yet again, with Tarkowski out of position (which is becoming a regular feature), Godfrey again shows just how poor he is in the air, and then the clowns all doing nothing for the second with Pickford taking most of the blame.

One thing is for sure: we won't be getting ourselves out of relegation troubles.

Dave @11, it's turned into an excruciating experience in self-harm, trying to put words down that adequately do any justice to the crass ineptitude on show.

I feel like I have been gutted — as in eviscerated!

Saying what we all feel.

Absolute shambles of a performance bereft of idea, invention and players just going through the motions it seems.

Dyche will take us down as he has no plan other than hoof hoof hoof and Pickford shits out twice when bravery was called for. Should have cleared the lot out for that cross but stuck on his line as per usual. Ball was only two feet away from him when it was headed.

Could criticize them all really as they were all absolute shite.

How many times has it been said on here about our last six managers "doing the same thing over and over again" and expecting things to change. Nothing changes at Everton and with this bunch of wasters we can't change it unless we change the set-up.

Pity those who trek up and down the country to watch that crap.

Why didn't Pickford come for that ball? It should have got nowhere near to Coleman.

Newcastle on Tuesday is another defeat and can anyone see that absolute shower of shit breaking down teams at Goodison.

Let's not mention a points deduction which the club clearly know is coming given Chong was sent to rally the troops.

But instead he'll wait it out to get fired, assuming there is anyone who has the balls to make a decision.

Crap football and clueless players stealing a living.

Dyche could be replaced by a computer and our results would be no worse.

In fact, you should be able to construct a 'match report template', and just fill in the odd details. Think of the time you save yourself!

As for Coleman's error, why didn't Pickford come for the ball.

A definite penalty when Calvert-Lewin was clipped, but with Oliver on VAR, forget it… but why weren't the players shouting in the referee's ear?

Can he please drop Harrison Tuesday night, it's harder to be dropped off this team.

Today suggested to me, and I hate to say it, that Dyche seems uninspired and bereft of innovation. That was truly and utterly grim.

Fact is that the downward spiral is accelerating and the brakes have gone.

The St Seamus Society isn't going to like today's caper.

Lovely fella that he is, and undoubtedly a staunch Blue, Seamus Coleman as an integral part of the first team squad symbolises the utter disaster recruitment has become at this club.

Not that he's alone — there's barely a footballer worthy of the name on the books. Bring on relegation, so we can have a proper reset and drop the slack-jawed delusion of "We'll beat these".

At least they had a holiday.

There was no motivation or drive in this team. We had no less than 5 players who did not deserve to be on the pitch today: Godfrey, Harrison, Doucoure, McNeil, Garner. Take your pick.

On top of that, not one player, not a single one, can take anything good from it. Shapeless, effortless and worthless.

Bournemouth were dreadful but we surpassed them in that measure. This was a relegation performance. No confidence and no effort. Given up.

Everything about the team and performance was wrong today but, after a 3-week break, to come back like that.. that's the very first time this season that I have felt we deserve to go down.

Bad performance, yes, but a truly awful one by the manager. Christ, what a ruined season.

Masters wants us relegated, 777 Partners are ready to make a quick buck and flog us. No one gives a shit about the fans.

We are a nothing of a football club.

I think like Mark @17, and many others too, pissed off to even read all the post-mortems. How can you keep the same formula, which is not working, and expect different results?

Enter Young, Coleman and Godfrey...

I hate stubborn dinosaurs.

I've always thought Dyche was the right man for the job considering the circumstances but I'm starting to question it. The lack of passion in these insipid performances are truly sickening.

Surely even Everton can muster 9 points out of that, can't we?

Can't we……??

I love Everton but hate this team – no characters, no fighters, no heroes, no mavericks.

Only Luton's run-in will save us as we won't save ourselves.

I think we would've got the penalty if the players would've protested to the ref more, but of course they didn't have the energy, like the performance really.

Who on earth would pay £50M for that sack of shit Onana?

I'd play Gomes.

I am fuming with them all.

But I was hoping despite slapgate that our jaunt to Iberia may have somehow freshened things up. They say if you leave a monkey with a piano, eventually he will figure out how to play Beethoven. That seems to be Dyche's mentality. Same team, same tactics, one day they'll win.

Frank Lampard, despite his many shortcomings, at least occasionally tried something different. This long balls to an isolated out-of-form Calvert-Lewin is crap. It hasn't yielded anything in 4 months!

The dodgy centre-back as a full-back is utterly bizarre. I just don't see even a glint of positivity on or off the pitch – conceptually or in actuality. Utter shambles.

Is it the right time to sack him? I'm not sure, but how can he survive, given team selection, performances and the players attitude, which looked somewhat doubtful.

Sheffield United and Burnley are pretty much down but showing some fight and our games against the Relegation Quartet are becoming increasingly ominous.

I personally have no doubt the Premier League jerking us about has had a big impact on the players and has taken its toll on their confidence. Now, both the fans and players are waiting for another kick in the nuts from the Premier League. Until we have some resolution of that situation and know exactly where we are, this uphill struggle will continue.

Seamus has been a stalwart for a long time, a great player; not his fault that he's still having to play. I actually feel sorry that he's having to bear the brunt of scoring the own goal that defeats us.

But of course, according to you as one of the TW "sages" that we've heard repeatedly over the last god knows how many weeks, no blame to Dyche. 12 games and still awaiting a win.

You and others like to slag Moyes and, while he had quite a few faults, he picked up a team pretty much like the one we have now and not only beat relegation but achieved 4th place the following season and ultimately made us competitive. But no, for you TW "sages" he was a disaster.

What have we got now? Dyche makes Moyes look like a football genius. We are playing some of the worst football I have watched in over 50 years, even worse than Allardyce and that's saying something.

Now we have records that the awful Mike Walker set in danger of being broken and you have a go at Seamus. You keep supporting Dyche and you'll see your wish of watching us relegated.

Fuck off, Dyche, and take your hoofball with you. 😡😡😡

"Tres Turmas Peiores Solum Requirimus"

Housepoint for first successful guess.

But then again …….. it's not the Everton Way. Cobblers, it's time we came out fighting.

"They say if you leave a monkey with a piano, eventually he will figure out how to play Beethoven."

I assume you mean the 'Pathetique'! :-)

On paper, we are way better than the rest who are in danger but there is no real fight. Luton scrap hard every game and get points; we run around a bit but don't really fight for our lives.

As others have said, he needs to change things around, give Chemitti a chance even if he doesn't think he is ready. He might just have the strikers instinct to get on the end of something.

If we had a board of directors and an owner, the manager would be gone tonight. The manager should be asking why we were so poor after three weeks off. Do the players believe? Do they want to play for him?

As for Pickford… don't get me started!

Apart from making a laugh over Coleman's goal, but if you think relegation is the best option, it's a sad day.

Luton don't really get points though, certainly they scrap but for all their huffing and puffing, they usually lose. They've won once in 2024 in the league. They've gained a point more than us in that time.

That said, I don't fancy our chances when we go there!

I bet they're rubbing their hands that they've still got Everton to play.

He would have the same players to pick from, they are just not good enough.

We sold 3 of our best goalscorers Richarlison, Gordon and Gray; admittedly Gray didn't get many but he could pull one out of the bag now and then.

If Dyche had those players to pick from, do you think we would be in the position we are now in?

The players that Dyche is picking are the best we have, they have had fucking hours of playing time to produce goals but seem incapable of doing so.

Surely we should have had a penalty for the trip on Calvert-Lewin. Disappointed that the players aren't up and screaming at the referee for the decision. We're too accepting of this shit and it's why we don't get penalties.

Dyche could be setting us up to try and work the chances better, and be prepared to commit more men forward. If we're going to lose, then at least get the forwards scoring. It's a shame Danjuma has been injured because we need what he offers.

But the real issue is that we shouldn't have lost. Should've had a penalty; and shouldn't have conceded the goal which was an absolute shocker of an own goal with no pressure on the defender.

The message from the CFO was getting out ahead of some bad news on the points deduction front. Add to that that the best we can realistically hope for from the remaining games is 12 points, and the inability of the club to cover day-to-day spending without making significant loans, and we're toast.

Who knows what the future holds? But any hope of a relatively smooth ride in the near future is ebbing away at an alarming rate.

If there's money to do so, a roll of the dice on a managerial change might be a risk worth taking. It's not just matters on the field; his old school approach off it is affecting morale. But I'd suggest it would be futile at this point.

Then get someone to look at the African players who have pace, something we lack.

No player could be satisfied with how they played today, Beto excepted, because he only played a few minutes and he did score a (gifted) goal.

Coleman will have to take his share of the blame for their second goal but Pickford was more culpable, going for the ball, stopping, and then just looking at the whole scene like he wasn't a part of it.

He also takes the blame for the first goal, stuck on the line like a dummy. How many goals has he given away with his continued reluctance to move off his line? And it won't be the last time.

Dyche too must take his proportion of blame but, let's be honest, the whole squad must hold their hands up to the utter mess we are in especially since before Christmas.

I feel so desolate watching Everton now and I know that I am far from being the only Evertonian who feels like that tonight. I pity the fans who are coming from places thousands of miles away to watch us in the next few weeks.

Dyche is the sort of bloke who would persist in using a pozi drive screwdriver to take an old Victorian flat-headed rusty screw out of an old wooden plank because it's his favourite screwdriver.

He can't change, he won't adapt. He'll just keep at it until the screw head disappears. Only then would he change.

The answer is "anyone", before you ask… simply anyone, please.

We are terrible to watch, no inspiration at all, with no ambition. Every single time we go forward, we allow defences to get organised and easily defend any crosses.

We could do with Danjuma back asap to give us some directness and pace.

Some massive games coming up against teams all around us in the Bottom 6. It's these games that will seal our fate. No Excuses.

Glad Beto had the calmness and readiness to pop it in the net. A striker's tap-in, but not unfluffable this season!)

Moments of clarity at the back also needed. I absolutely have no criticism of Seamus, but one to forget for sure.

I struggle to think of another club anywhere with as rich a history as Everton FC who have gone so far backwards — it's almost as if it was a different club altogether.

That's what 25 years of Kenwright and the happy clappers did. Purgatory wouldn't be good enough for these people.

People will hate me for saying it but we miss Iwobi badly too. He was a rare player for us, playing constructive football to move the ball up the pitch with passing and movement. It didn't always come off, but he was at the heart of most of the decent football we've played in the last couple of seasons.

What a shit team that is. Wasters.

The only thing we are doing is crossball into the box that never reaches its destination. Maybe we need to practise more crossballs or change strategy?

Also, please stop Pickford's long balls. It's a complete waste of possession.

I'll have to watch it back, my instinct at the time, and it was pretty much in line with where we were stood, is that Pickford was at fault. It should have been an easy take if he'd taken control of the situation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the imposter that is Ben Godfrey. Does anyone actually watch this guy's positioning, aerial ability, and all round awareness?

Considering Michael Keane is absolutely pillared on these pages, this guy is the elephant in the room since the last days of Carlo. At fault for so many goals or nowhere near where he should be.

We're are actually better defensively with Keane rather him, yet he flies totally under the radar for his errors, mistakes and poor marking.

No-one says a word? I'd rather play Young, Keane or Patterson over him any day of the week. No coincidence for me that we are conceding with him in the side.

And don't get me started on Seamus. He was finished 2 years ago and still costing us games. Don't complain about defeats like today when we're still picking him. Winning clubs don't do sentimentality.

So what do you think the plan was that Dyche sent them out with today?

Even if you think the players aren't up to it, you must as the manager have some idea of a game plan or is he just unlucky that this is happening to him at consecutive clubs?

And if you did see any sort of a game plan today, how do you rate it? Let's not even bother talking substitutions…

You are totally correct in identifying the players we should have kept but the alarming thing is we brought in Onana, Gana and Garner as well as Beto, Danjuma and Chermiti and yet we continue to play with no real desire to score goals and win games.

It's as if everyone is in a trance. That game today was one of our very winnable remaining games and there was no inspiration or motivation from the coaching staff. Everyone is so passive — summed up by the lack of claims for the penalty.

He's fucking boring and his tactics are shit. What happened to the attacking style from the Spurs second half, the attacking flair from the Brighton game last season?

Get rid. I hate his football.

Hope that makes you feel better despite you echoing what I said.

Many guilty parties off the pitch, past and present, but the end result is this less than average group of players with no creativity, no pace and on the whole, unforgivably, little heart.

Shameful and sad what we've become. Unfortunately Moshiri's legacy, and that of those who served with him, isn't complete yet.

You don't deserve that support!

Fuck off, the lot of you, and play the reserves next game. I'm fucking sick of you all!

And the Gripes of Rath is at it again in his remedial anti-Coleman rant masquerading as a post.

To be fair to Barry Rathbone, Sean O'Hanlon calling Pickford a "world class coward" is even more disgraceful.

Then again, they might have been ours, and have a point!

I do, yet Seamus is still better than most at the club and, while I take your point at the shit recruitment policy, most of what I said is still valid.

It's still a crap position to highlight Seamus as one of the reasons we will go down when you advocate keeping Dyche.

The Titanic would steady our ship in its present state! :-)

As things stand, it's hard not to crave something else, anything else, as a change of fortune might only be achieved through a change in approach – and Dyche seems fairly committed to his system as long as the stats show that we're not being torn apart.

Maybe it's time to find a manager who will show the sort of abandon that occasionally results in overloading the opposition and getting bodies into the box?

It's very hard to win games leaving a striker isolated and no attacking threat from midfield. And he still waits until the last quarter again, when we're 1-0 down to change it.

Playing 4-4-1-1 hasn't worked. Danjuma is probably the only player with pace and he's injured.

We lost Richarlison, Gray (who Dyche didn't trust), Gordon and Iwobi, and young prospects in Cannon, Simms and even Samuels-Smithlost players who were fast and offensive.

We've been deducted 6 points, maybe more, not Dyche's fault, and it's hard to replace quality when the club was run into the ground, but he has to play a different game. To have so few chances in every game is down to his defensive formation.

But they are playing us over the coming weeks. Talk about 6 pointers. It's in our hands, but there are few signs we are capable of dealing with it.

I think that Seamus Coleman, whom I have championed on this site since the day he signed for us, would read your comments and nod in agreement. He deserves to have a collection of medals but he won't.

The fact that he still represents all that is good about our club is a monumental damnation of the mismanagement that has been inflicted on us by self-serving nonentities.

We are still in the driving seat if we grow a pair.

This is the lonliest trip home from an Everton match. There aren't even any opposition supporters to debate with.

It's still in our hands.

It would be easier, to resurrect the Dodo, a Sabre Toothed Tiger, and cultivate a Field of Asphodels!

Really felt (again) for all you loyal supporters having made the journey to be let down yet again!

We've tried sacking the manager umpteen times and it hasn't made a blind bit of difference… plus who is going to sack him and who is going to choose a replacement?

The other sneaky fly in the ointment is how do we afford yet another colossal payoff?

It isn't a matter of wanting him to stay, more an acknowledgment of reality – Dyche has no options beyond moving the chairs around the deck of the Titanic.

Of course some just don't want to deal in this unassailable reality.

I totally agree there is no self-serving trait to Seamus. I imagine he can't believe he's still involved in the first team, but that's Everton for you – fucking amateurs.

We might be in the driving seat but there's no steering wheel. Heading head-first for a crash into the Championship unfortunately.

We haven't won all year and he still picks the same players. He still makes subs only when we go behind… surely you have to mix things up? Shit squad it may be but how could academy players do worse, we aint winning games anyway?

The reality is, I don't fancy these players to beat any other Premier League team and that includes Sheff Utd and Burnley. Playing at home seems a hinderance to this shite.

I will finish with this: What Club would bring in 2 strikers costing a small fortune to replace Simms and Cannon who are no better than the 2 kids sold? The service is disgusting but not for a minute do I believe Beto and Chermiti are any better yet Dyche and others thought this a good idea.

Last time we won I was wrapping Xmas presents

No other club would tolerate this shit.

Owner doesn't care, fish rots from the head, blah, blah, blah.

I wish I could give up like they have but I can't, it's in my blood.

Hate them.

Safe journey home.

"Shit squad it may be but how could academy players do worse?"

That's what I'm saying; a squad this poor leaves a manager with little to no option – as suggesting academy players demonstrates.

I agree the squad is awful but it's his job to get something from them. Different tactics, a change in formation, earlier subs, Dobbin for a bit of pace, injured today but something.

A youngster to stir the experienced players into performing but trying anything cannot be worse than drifting towards poor results that we have had not just today but all year.

Gana has to come back – he was playing his best football of the season before the Afcon and he will at least battle.

A positive thinking manager could easily win 5 of our last 9 games.

I completely agree with your second paragraph.

I admire your optimism but I've seen enough this season (well, the last 3 or 4 seasons) to conclude "you can't polish a turd".

I just think we have nowhere to go and are entirely in the lap of the gods.

I've backed Dyche all the way. Yes, he has limited options, but he's not even using the limited options. Madness is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different outcome.

We haven't won in months, so it's not like changing a winning team, there's nothing to lose if you keep losing anyway.

Bournemouth made us look Championship at best… Bournemouth!!! Not Chelsea, Arsenal or Man Utd… Bournemouth!!

Yes, we can moan about the penalty, or the own goal, but we created nothing, gave them nothing to deal with, carried no real threat, and didn't have any real appetite for the battle.

That's the worry, they don't look like they can dig in and grind out results, like the start of the season.

I fear the worst!

Once we go a goal down, Ben Godfrey has to be subbed as he isn't going to create a chance to equalise.

To stay up, we need some points from games where we'd reasonably expect nothing. We could have had one of those today, but we threw that away. I just don't see us staying up from here.

Which options is Dyche not using? He has tried starting with Beto. It didn't work. Many fans complain he isn't of Premier League quality.

Danjuma and Dobbin have been injured. Godfrey has been used at right-back and left-back, looking equally uncomfortable on either side of the pitch.

Perhaps Chermiti should be given a chance but, from the little we have seen of his cameos in the first team and his occasional Under-21 appearance,s he has hardly given the impression of a player ready to make a difference in the Premier League.

"To stay up, we need some points from games where we'd reasonably expect nothing."

That could be any game really.

Everton are purely irrelevant now. It will be the ineptitude of the teams below them that will save them from relegation and nothing else. If these teams win 2 or 3 games Everton are going to be relegated.

Get him out and put anyone in charge now.

It's not a case of not wanting to deal with the unassailable reality of the situation, we all know about that and the points you've just made are valid. However, that's not the agenda you've been pushing over the last few weeks.

You've been saying it's not Dyche's fault, he's dealt the hand he's got, etc – but all he's done is make it worse.

We have England's No 1, a great new prospect in Jarrad Branthwaite, Tarkowski is decent, Calvert-Lewin scored with other managers, by the words of others, Onana is the next big thing…

It's not like all our players are shit, yet Dyche can't even get a line let alone a tune out of any of them.

As I've said before, Moyes got his shit squad back in the early 2000s actually playing for each other, but he was dog shit, yet Dyche gets a pass. Sorry, not from me.

It's a different conversation about how we've got to where we are, most of the managers we've had since Moyes were not right at the time, but let's not start rewriting history suggesting that Dyche's hands are tied and he can't do anything about it.

A half-decent manager can and should get the team fighting for all their worth for the cause and make sure tactics fit the playing staff.

Dyche hasn't done any of that. He's a dinosaur who has no Plan B and shouldn't be anywhere near our club — any more than Allardyce should have been.

Whether it makes any difference now is a moot point, I guess, as we probably don't have any money to mop up the shit show past and present incumbents have inflicted on us… but saying that Dyche is blameless, as you have before, is nonsense.

When Walter Smith left. We called on Moyes. We are in a similar situation. Financially stranded needing a manager to find bargain buys/loans.

The club must call Moyes and his agent, begging him to come back in the summer. Those thinking I have lost the plot? No! I want stability! Those years of Top 6, 7, 10 places were successful. A top manager wants top players. A manager lacking experience at this level will be gone in months.

No guarantees with Moyes but is anyone better with experience of digging a club out of a hole?

The truth of the matter at this moment in time is that we are passengers at other games, hoping, more desperately with each passing week, that teams around us lose or at least draw.

And if a number of key things show no sign of changing then the time might come (thinking also of another potential points cut) when that bird has flown too because we are about to move into a vital must-win stage where we play nearly all of those teams.

We are not in the "driving seat" Danny. We are perched precariously on the edge of a precipice. In other words, we are in the shit and seven or eight more displays like today and we might not have enough to get out of it.

At least, at long last, Dyche has finally accepted responsibility for a dozen winless matches. He'll go down in history if he manages a baker's dozen and breaks our winless streak record.

Accepting responsibility might possibly lead to our three baldies thinking about how we are set up and selecting a little more critically. Mind you, Barry Rathbone claims that Dyche has "nothing" to do with results, although Dyche disagrees.

I think anyone expecting a notable change in selection or tactics was deluding themselves but, even so, today was uninspiring. We've struggled to score all season but recently we have begun to give up more chances as well. A worrying combination.

The form is dreadful and the performances show little sign of improvement.

The overall picture is somewhat better. We'd be 14th and 9 points clear of relegation if not for the deduction. That represents a decent season so far for Dyche and is one reason why he won't be sacked yet. The other is the cost of replacement and lack of current leadership.

I would be very surprised if Dyche doesn't get at least the next 3 games but, if he fails to find a win or at the very least some battling draws, then whoever is supposedly steering the ship at the moment might be forced to act.

Thank goodness the teams around us look similarly wretched for now.

I'm in the same boat. I thought he was the man for the job but this is becoming like his last dreadful season at Burnley.

They are limited options, John, I know, but something needs to happen to change the momentum. Because Burnley, Forest, Brentford and Luton will be more than confident against this side!

" it's not a case of.not wanting to deal with the unassailable reality of the situation, we all know about that and the points you've just made are valid."

So what can he do?

I Agree. It's hard to defend someone when not just results, but performances are so poor.

I backed him when performances were good but we were not getting results, and we probably deserved more from games.

Recently though, apart from against Man Utd, where you could argue we deserved at least a point, we haven't really performed to deserve much.

He could actually try doing what I imagine he's being very well paid for, coaching the players. Contrary to popular belief, he is being paid to use his allegedly vast knowledge of football to blend his players into a coherent team, something he currently is failing miserably at. Could have sworn that's his job, isn't it?

He's not the first to be tasked with "polishing a turd"; others have succeeded, where he is failing. 12 games without a win now!! He should be getting more out of these players.

Maybe I could rephrase. Our fate is in our hands. We have points and a game in hand above those below us: Burnley, Brentford, Sheffield United and Luton.

And who knows we might get something out of Chelsea and Newcastle once we climb those 140 plus steps.

And then the Derby. Why not?

How do you know he's not coaching the players?

An old pro told me you don't coach top-level players, you give them a strategy and that's it. Presently Dyche is doing what all managers do with mediocre players – keeping it simple.

I just don't get what meaningful difference he can make to this squad of players and, more importantly, no-one has come up with a specific solution. Unless you go along with putting the academy kids in.

You are a True Blue, I love your write-ups, they are always a good read.

I watched the game at home, we just cannot score. We look worse. I hope I'm wrong… Surely, surely we got wins in us. What do you reckon?

I would have been happy with a point, especially after speaking to my oldest lad who told me Everton had offered nothing. But I wasn't going to let Coleman's own goal spoil my mood after enjoying the afternoon watching loads of young kids working very hard and fighting for every ball.

Be careful of Michael Oliver on VAR; I wrote on the match day thread last night because I have long built up a picture of how incredibly inconsistent this official can be, especially when it involves Everton.

If this was any other year or club I suspect that Dyche would be out of a job. Your point about where we would be without the points cut is well taken. Maybe more importantly, we live on loans now and would much rather prefer not to have to sack Dyche and pay him off.

This might be the key reason at the end of the day:

"whoever is supposedly steering the ship at the moment might be forced to act".

Who is that someone? Has anyone issued statements in public? The Monaco fella is an absentee landlord.

We are a mute club.

To get to this level you have to have a certain amount of ability, it's Dyches job to coax that out and harness it into some kind team that plays for each other. That certainly isn't the case and hasn't been for quite a while now

A joke on the Patterson incident, of course, but unbelievable considering all the hate, racism, pro-Russian hawkish, authoritarian, radical crap on there goes unfettered. Fuck Elon Musk.

Sometimes academy players improve if given the chance, a packed Goodison would inspire and the higher level might be needed to bring the best out of youngsters? Ideal no but better to try and fail and, let's face it, most games we might as well be playing with 10 men.

Patterson might not be the best defender but would give more chance of creating something. Playing with fullbacks that the opponents know cannot create does nothing for us. Patterson has never lacked effort and must play before a centre-back and two players at the end of their careers.

One thing is for certain: if things don't change, we will be watching Championship football from our home in its last year — which is an unacceptable thought.

In all fairness to Seamus, I don't think he would have started if Mykolenko hadn't been unwell.

Dyche was put in a position there: Coleman or Young? — and to be fair, a lot of us have been crying out for Seamus to return.

It says a lot of what Dyche thinks about Patterson though… ie, very little.

But you're right: 3 games in a week was a bridge too far for Coleman.

I'm going to hazard a guess at Dyche's response to your groundhog day observations and it is "these players aren't up to playing any other way at this level. They would be picked off mercilessly if caution was thrown to the wind".

He might also add we had a bit of a winning streak earlier in the season playing this way.

Putting all that to one side we are on one of the worst runs in our history - matched with Mike Walker (the worst manager I’d seen in my lifetime managing Everton and I’ve seen some crap) - and Dyche like everyone at the club seems to have given up. 3 weeks they have had, 3 flaming weeks to get fit, get a plan and give everything for this game.

And they showed absolutely nothing.

This isn’t defendable. We have some quality players that are full internationals and in any other team I’m confident they would play much better. The manager has to take accountability, the chairman has to take accountability, the players have to take accountability. Not one of them will.

We are just flaming rotten. Honestly, list all the things that have happened to this club since about 3 seasons ago when Siggy started us rolling with his alleged offence. You couldn’t make this shit up

As far as making a “meaningful difference” that’s why we pay coaches/managers isn’t it? The fact is Bielsa got more out of Harrison than Dyche has. Carlo more from DCL. Southgate fewer crazy moments from Pickford. Granted Sean has got more out of Gomes in a few games than any of his predecessors did but having done so he dropped him. Obviously a coach makes a difference. Newcastle were dead and buried under Bruce but well clear of relegation under Howe before they started spending money. We were a laughing stock under Walker and won the cup with the same team under Royle.

If he does use three either Godfrey or Keane play. A lot of Evertonians say they wish to see neither player in the team again. Others argue for Keane being used up front which would in some eyes confirm Dyche’s dinosaur credentials.

I would love to see three up front but without players like Richarlison or even Gordon and Gray it has no chance of working. Even when we had those players under Lampard it failed because we didn’t have the players to control midfield.

As for the right flank, Dyche was criticised in the early weeks of the season for using Garner there instead of in the middle. Once Harrison became available Garner was moved into the middle and results improved. Plainly Harrison is struggling now for form and there is certainly a case to be made for moving Garner back to the right with Gana slotting into central midfield. Would that make a huge difference? I don’t know.

What I am saying is that over his fourteen months in the job Dyche has used several permutations. He found one which worked in the autumn and understandably has been loath to change it when the alternatives are at best questionable.

Well, if that is Dyche's response, then you, me or anybody else on TW may as well have the job if that's the sum total of his vast experience. No wonder we are where we are and in the shit we're in.

As to the so-called winning streak, it's become very apparent that it was the exception rather than the rule; otherwise, he would have taken whatever magic formula got us those wins and applied it now.

The bottom line is that he is responsible for performances and results – same as every other manager in this league – and he is woefully under-performing.

There was a time not so long ago when beating a team of Everton´s pedigree would have been a major achievement for us but not any more! It was a routine win for us against a team and club seemingly in permanent and irreversible decline... my how the tables have turned! UTC!!!!

A change is needed. I'm not calling for Dyche to be sacked just yet, because I think, with the power vacuum at the top of the club, it's futile. He's not getting sacked just yet!

I'd play 3-5-1-1, pack the midfield.

Some of these players are coasting, because they know they will be picked every week. It's not Dyche's fault his squad is so thin, but players get complacent when they know they won't be dropped, so take a couple out!

There was me thinking football was supposed to be entertaining. Granted he's had barely any money to spend etc but, for fuck's sake, come on… how can anyone defend this with a straight face? It's utter shite and everyone knows it.

Oh, and the attitude in the press conferences doesn't cut it either — he's extremely lucky to have this opportunity, it's about time he started acting that way.

That's wrong. Newcastle spent £100m in the January 2022 window on players like Trippier, Wood and Guimaraes.

When we played them in February 2022 they were still very much in a relegation fight. They beat us 3-1, a result which marked an upturn in their fortunes.

In his post-match presser, Dyche tells the interviewer "We've been away, some of the lads have just returned, we've only had 1 day to prepare for this game."

What the Fuck!!! Is he 'avin a laff?

Complaining about Coleman or Pickford is on a direct level with complaining about xG in my opinion.

Individual singular contributions might cost or save us but, over an extended period of time, it's the performances that are the best indicator. And we've been playing crapball for a long time.

At the moment, Dyche would get a bye from me if we lost trying something different. Anything different. There isn't really anything that isn't worth trying at this point.

He had 3 weeks to work on something and what he came up with was the same approach that keeps failing.

He'd be under threat at any club that was even slightly functional.

But I would say that about 90% of managers they all revert to Allardyce, Moyes, Dyche method when the chips are down. Kieran mentions Bielsa, who is different, but eventually a lack of enough quality players did for him.

I don't agree with it but I can see if managers don't have the motivational skills of Clough or Shankly or the innovation of Wenger, then without money they revert to same old, same old.

I've asked this before but name me a club as crap as us who have turned things around by going on the front foot?

I can't think of one.

Silly us! Everything is sound and shipshape because we won a few games in a row a third of the season ago. Nothing to fret about. Put the lifeboats away. Not necessary.

May I point out, Rip Van Winkle, that we have not won a fecking match for 104 days! But we must pack all our troubles in our old kit bags and smile, smile, smile, because we won a few games around the start of winter.

104 days!

Funny though, said Mr Rathbone claims that Dyche has "nothing" to do with results. So, ergo, he deserves no praise whatsoever for winning games (or is it just losing games, Mr. Rathbone?).

There were no excuses for today's performance.

Newcastle: bottom of league with no wins in 11, finished 11th.

When was this and what is the context?

You can always turn a negative into a positive… Say we do spend our last season in in the Championship, we could sign off Goodison with a league title paraded around the old lady — it was good enough for the great Dixie Dean.

Either way, no matter what, we will all still be there following our Beloved Everton, whether in the Premier League or the Championship.

What will be will be, we cannot have a divine right that other clubs will save us, it is in the hand of the players. We have 9 games left to somehow end this horrible run, we have hit rock bottom.

We have to hope we can hit the reset button, get new investors in, and the right people at the top and boardroom to sort this mess out. It may get worse before it gets better, but better it will.

Keep the faith and up the Toffees.

I like to think that my views are not so entrenched that I can't contemplate being wrong. I'm beginning to have a Paul Ferry moment.

For me, today was like a Martinez at Southampton moment. Being unlucky happens, sometimes a lot. Sometimes loads, then all the little things start to accumulate.

The holiday incident, the late subs, the blaming referees, the xG, the picking favourites, the horrible realisation that I would not bet on us to beat any team in the Football League.

I was going to say this is a horrible time to be an Evertonian but, holy fuck, these could be the good times!!
I need to speak to Danny O'Neill!!!

The players have got no confidence and I'm sure that nobody in football could genuinely blame Sean Dyche for our present shitshow, so the only thing the fans can do is get behind the squad, imo.

This might not be easy for a lot of people (because I'm sure a lot of fans do blame Dyche) but, whilst the club is totally rudderless, I don't believe us fans have any other option unless they want to give up on the club, which is very understandable, but not really an option either.

Your post and references to the changes previously made, show there are options. Apart from Godfrey at left-back, I reckon most people on TW could have predicted that line-up 3 weeks ago!

So every opposition can predict us too, predict our tactics, predict our set-peices, and predict when our subs will be made and who it will be.

When we played 3 at the back in the Villa game, it was a bit of surprise, and it worked. Why not try and surprise the opposition again with something different?

3 at the back might not work; 3 up front might not. But what we are doing now is definitely not working. I don't see the argument!

Did Beto also score a goal against Newcastle last time?

Just waiting for Doucouré to come back into form, or Tarkowski to score off a corner, or the wingers are due a goal too.

Brentford are woeful too and definitely in a relegation battle.

Trying to find something that says these factors are in our favour.

If we do this, we might be able to afford taking a chance on players like Danjuma, players who are suited to attacking more than defending.

Bring McNeil inside because he's one of the few who can play on the half-turn, higher up the pitch… and sort the fucking sale of our club out!

I think I found the season you referenced Newcastle as 2021-22 which was effectively the start of the Arab takeover. Coincidently in that January transfer window, they spent £90M on players.

That's probably the reason things changed.

The dawning realisation that just believing and being us might not now be enough.

Doesn't mean that we have given in. Not for one minute! It's knowing beyond knowing that we are in deep trouble and water. Still waving though.

Knowing this, it is reasonable to question things. And the most important common denominator is the three baldies on the sideline and the one in the C&A suit with the painfully short tie more than the other two.

He and they decide who plays and how (although I've also heard it on the grapevine that Mr Dyche does not always take advice that gladly).

It is up to these three to change things. They are ultimately responsible for what happens on the pitch, even in this season when we seem to have the world and his wife ganging up on us and not the best tools (word chosen advisedly) to work with on the pitch.

I'm now going to play Devil's Advocate against myself but, if you're negative about an Everton manager, then you'll eventually be proven right. There's no great tactical genius in opposing an Everton manager. But I'd like to think I've dished it out on Dyche because I genuinely believe that he is a problem for our club.

The only positive I can see right now is that there are some really poor teams in this league. Dyche knows that too. It's the only explanation for him figuring that playing this way we'll pick up the few draws that will keep us up. And I suspect that, at all costs, he'll want to avoid the sort of drubbing that would impact his reputation as someone who can get his team defending well.

When was the last time Everton brought joy to us.
It's a curse !!¡!!

I love your enthusiasm and optimism but, if we get more than 3 points further deduction, I wouldn't believe it's in our own hands and, the way they are playing, they are sleepwalking into relegation.

They need a good shake and I was hoping the 3-week break would do that but, on today's evidence, we didn't even threaten their goal in a very winnable game. So how can we believe they can get something out of other teams, never mind Newcastle and Arsenal away and the other shower at home???

That's 3 games written off and I know you'll say "Don't be defeatist" but I can't see where the inspiration is going to come from as so many supporters have lost faith now and Sean Dyche and the coaching staff look numb and uninspiring.

If his only plan is to get crosses into the box, my opinion would be get the best crossers of a ball on the wings and two of the biggest and best headers of a ball in the box. or is that over-simplifying it?

I'm 52 and my wife thinks I'm bloody crazy for letting 11 men kicking a ball on grass upset me so much. But I do, it's ingrained, always will be. I have far greater things in my life to worry aboout, but some how Everton always come out on top.

I hope and pray we somehow stay in the Premier League (why, I don't know – it's so corrupt). But I fear with Dyche it could be the end for us.

Us supporters are deluded in thinking we will survive this season but, hey ho, we have plenty of things to blame. Points deductions, VAR, dodgy refs – the list is endless. We have allowed this decent to relegation to become a reality. We accept this shit.

Meanwhile, our AWOL owner didn't reckon he would be here to see us go down...

Sorry, Danny, but we are as good as down and the next points deduction will make sure of it. But we will go on moaning about it while accepting shit throughout this club.

Football is cruel, feel a bit sorry for Seamus, only he knows what he was trying to do, but regardless of what those around him were doing, we deserve better.

But we are at the point where pressure is going to build quickly if we don't put in a performance on Tuesday.

I don't understand how after a 3 week break it can be so poor, unless Dyche has lost the dressing room and the players see him as a dead man walking. No response on Tuesday and Burnley at home next week will be horrible.

I know I'm better, possession football is nine-tenths of the law.

Sorry, but I know I could do better.

So thanks, Bill, thanks, Farhad, thanks Alisher (and others) – you played (Russian) roulette with our club, and you lost. How much we have, only time will confirm...

ps: Mr Dyche, you're not fit for the top two divisions in English football. If at all.

I think you have absolutely nailed it there. I suspect that Dyche has, fair play to him to some extent, mapped out our survival. Today was a monumental kick in the bollocks to his plan but not the end of the world.

Our situation requires a point sneaking, dour, pragmatist. We have, fucking hell, got one.

No joy to be had, Ernie, but this is it.

If you only watched Everton, you'd be justified in thinking football just isn't like that.

We're not even tepid. We're turgid.

No win since the middle of December.

No clean sheet since January.

8 goals scored in the last 12 games, 21 conceded.

Clearly a long-running shit show of a situation that sorely needs turning around… somehow. Yet, the manager has the players away for a mid-season training camp during a 3-week break and admits during his press conference they ‘didn't work on anything new'.

Well, why the fuck not?

Then the bloated Bill Burr looking bluffer attempts to justify yet another imagination-free, desire-devoid, quality-drained queef of a performance by claiming they only had one day to prepare for today's game?

So, if he didn't work on anything new during the recent break and didn't work on anything tailored toward the Bournemouth game, what the hell did he work on, other than his own Three Stooges dinner table tribute act?

“I said to the team we can't always score perfect goals”. Yeah, because that's where it's been going wrong all along, Sean. We're just a side looking to score sublime goals.

No change in plans or personnel. Godfrey, McNeil, Calvert-Lewin and Harrison have been out of form for so long but still start. It's just beyond a joke.

Never thought I'd be saying this, but I'd sack the manager if he starts the same 11 on Tuesday. All 4 of those should not be starting. That own-goal was 100% on the captain. So poor.

Get rid of this rugby up and under idiot.

I think we play pretty good now and have no problems with Dyche or how we play. It's a myth that Dom doesn't get service, because he bloody well does. We just need some of the squad moved on – Pickford first and foremost for me.

Anyone who thinks another manager could do better with this team is fuckin mad. Dyche is what we need and he'll keep us up – of that I'm almost sure. Then we get new owners in to spend some dough after the PSR shite and see what happens.

We need goal-scoring midfielders and forwards. The new owners will have seen that already…. Missing out on Kudus was a big loss, he is great. But I reckon Danjuma is good and has goals in him, just needs to get fit.

Today's starting 11 but with Danjuma for Harrisson and Beto for Dom would be my ideal team.

I haven't been able to watch recent games due to not being on Peacock or working but late last night I realized I could watch this game and my reaction was “Fucking hell, I will have to watch it.”

I got up early and tried to watch the turgid shit, not helped by the fact half the pitch was in shadow and the other half like looking into the sun. Then that overrated lump Solanke scored and I thought “Should I continue watching this knowing it will end in misery or put on something else?”

To my shame as an Evertonian, I found a show on Hulu about how Hitler was a total wanker and flipped to that before, a few hours later, checking we had indeed lost.

Now maybe I'm a miserable old git Fairweather fan. Or maybe these fuckers have just broken me after 40-plus years.

The game was 2 am for me. I've been doing it for two decades since I left the motherland. I keep doing it but it's purely out of some sense of duty... or maybe I just think it's my penance for something.

I have no expectation of enjoyment. Nor excitement. Nor any kind of 'watching that moment live' kind of thing.

I've spent my parenting years bringing up good young blues on the other side of the world. I tell them to sleep now.

The responsibility of the custodians of this club is much bigger than they know and they're failing.

I was on board the Dyche train but I'm really getting fed up with him now. Surely he has to see that things need to change?

We can't change the team too much but change the formation and stop playing it safe... we need to get the wins – and quick!

Then you listen to Dyche in post-match press conferences telling us the obvious, him and the team have to find ways to get results and there is no lack of effort. The minimum should be effort!

We seem to be trying to draw our games but we have no Plan B. I'm very concerned about the direction things are going in.

Let Seamus pick a squad and then first eleven out of the hat let's them decide amongst themselves how they want to play.

Yes, that's no leadership and no direction, exactly what we have at the moment. Why are we paying a dinosaur and his mates to do what a pub team manager could do?

The huge chasm between the back line and the lone front striker with a keeper continually hoofing the ball into no-man's land takes the midfield out of the game. It's not called the engine room for nothing.

Down we may go based on the evidence of the last 3½ months. A holiday in Portugal would have been probably best served at Pontins. Who sanctioned the money for that at a bankrupt club?

Do we have any value in player sales once we go down as the exodus would be not nice but necessary and who would take any of this shit off our hands?

A keeper who wouldn't get anywhere near a top-six side. A sought-after midfielder who gets a nose-bleed whenever he goes over the half-way line, and a promising young centre-back. I don't think these three would raise anywhere near what we think they are valued at.

The rest we probably couldn't sell at a car boot sale so, if we think we are in the shit now, then god help us wherever we are next season.

Let us pray and have faith, says my fanatical blue-nosed brother-in-law who is the eternal optimist whenever we discuss Everton. I'd prefer to be realistic because no amount of faith or prayers is going to bring us three to four wins from our remaining games repeatedly doing what has been proven ineffective since before last Xmas.

Sad sad state of affairs for which we are powerless to do anything about.

Sean Dyche will take us down.

I honestly don't know how you play football without passion.

Dyche is picking his favourites as usual. Godfrey is just not good enough, especially out of position. The cross for Coleman's dreadfull error came from our left.

To put on Young when we are chasing the game was baffling, surely Chermiti was worth a roll of the dice.

However the defence, which has been fairly solid, has recently been looking very sketchy.

Corners are now giving me palpatations. Tarkowski's game has fallen apart. Only Branthwaite played well out of the back line. Seamus was not getting close enough to snuff out crosses from his side either but it was Pickford staying on his line that gave them the goals. He is a tremendous shot-stopper but his thumping long balls were giving possession away.

So many players were going through the motions. The trip away has done nothing. Just like the jaunt to Australia during the World Cup did nothing.

The players aren't good enough and Dyche has shown his own limitations. He talked after the game about management and how he is a psychologist more than a coach.

Well his psychology is clearly not working. This is an unmotivated group of ponces, some of whom are taking home massive wages.

Dominic failed when he had his chances, Harrison was terrible, Godfrey and Doucoure are not footballers, Tarkowski has lost concentration (why was he on some silly TV programme?) and Young is too old, and poor McNeil has massive personal issues to deal with, and has been drifting in and mostly out of games for months.

It's going to be a close thing and the next PSR decision will be fairly crucial to our chances, as points are as rare as hen's teeth.

However, we just have to stick it out and hope.

For my penance, I watch the recording of the game on Sunday afternoon – regardless of the result – which has become morbidly predictable.

Having watched this game, I have come to the conclusion that not only have the manager and players “forgotten how to win”, they have also forgotten how to play football. They don't even know how to create space to put a cross into the box.

I don't know what the answer is but I do know what was served up at Bournemouth is not it. That display was absolutely soulless. The worst part of all this is it is all so predictable.

Where has Everton gone?

"Bravery is wanting the ball and believing in yourself," I said, "and if you do both of these things, then every single one of you will improve."

People blame Dyche, who is probably very lucky that Everton are completely rudderless right now, but it's clear that the malaise is running a lot further and the only way that Everton are going to survive is if everyone starts pulling together and starts believing in themselves and each other once again.

The Premier League have damaged us but the mismanagement of Everton Football Club over many soul-destroying disastrous years has definitely damaged us a lot more. So hopefully Moshiri is telling the truth for once and the most disastrous era in the club's entire history is nearly over before the blood is totally sucked out of the fans.

What the fuck?

Have a look at the passing maps that are available: no midfielder trying to break lines, no width whatsoever, just the same shit he has served up to us since he has been here.

His interviews after games are embarrassing, "xG, blah blah blah, we're doing all the right things, blah blah blah." I've never hated an Everton manager as much as this fella, I couldn't stand Benitez but at least he had credentials.

Dyche is just a bottom feeder, under no circumstances should he be here next season. Personally I'd like him gone today but we have no one making decisions.

Hear, hear!

These players earn more a week than a lot of us do in a year and frankly all of them look they are enjoying the free ride and mugging us fans off in the process.

There are plenty of options for Dyche to look at in the squad that for some reason he refuses to entertain. I am sure that the likes of Chermiti, Dobbin, Beto (given a run of a few games) would perform so much better and actually try to play – and if proved wrong, what have we lost by giving it a go?

Takeover bid still dragging with yet another loan payment being made by 777 Partners to see us through because Moshri has lost interest in his toy since the oligarch can't subsidise things any more.

No functioning board as far as things seem.

Further risk of yet more points being deducted.

A manager who is out of the Jurassic period.

A team that have given up for all intents and purposes.

How can anyone see things ending well?

Sorry to be so negative and pessimistic.

My first game was in 1960 when football was a proper game, so I am fortunate to have been to see some magnificent teams through the '60s and the '80s as well as suffering some harder times.

I moved away from Merseyside in 1970 but still go to as many games as I can, we have tickets for the Burnley game. I also rarely miss a game by watching on VIP box.

I have had Everton running through my blood for 64 years but the last few years have nearly drained it out of me. Yesterday really put everything in a nutshell, a team with no spirit, no drive, no plan, a blatant penalty not given, why weren't the players in the ref's face like other teams?

A farcical own goal in injury time. It hurts but I will be sitting in Bullens Road next Saturday with the hairs standing up on the back of my neck and a tear in my eye as Z-Cars starts to play.

I pray that the players turn up with the same passion but I fear that they won't. It's getting to the stage where I am beginning not to care anymore.

Please, Everton, pull me out of this; play like your lives depend on it and make me proud to be an Evertonian again.

We have a Championship-level manager who has turned any potential into dross. King Midas in reverse, if you like.

When he was basking in the glow after that early 1-0 win over Arsenal, he said words to the effect that he liked a good 1-0 win.

Whilst that leads to a defensive mindset that'll be passable until the other side score two. He seems to have forgotten that two teams take to the pitch and the other one is more likely to be braver and more adventurous than us.

Burnley scored two, Sheffield United three and our next opponents four yesterday.

Goals win games, defences win leagues but both aspects of our game are failing now.

For me, Seamus was our best player yesterday, he showed more commitment and passion than the rest of the team put together.

Dyche has now matched Mike Walker's no wins in 12 games and, with Newcastle away on Tuesday, that will probably stretch to 13 to give Dyche the record for any Everton manager in the Premier League.

I think, if we had a functioning owner and board, then Dyche would have already been shown the door, but without an interested owner or board, it will be sink or swim with Dyche.

I know in his defence the points deduction is not his fault, but the football under Dyche has been awful. At no point during that game did I think we were going to score. Yes, we should have had a penalty but, apart from that, we created nothing.

I genuinely thought we would start with Gueye in midfield as at least he gets about the pitch and injects some energy, and to see Dyche again revert to bringing on Young for another cameo performance says a lot about Dyche and his managerial style.

We have 2 wide players with no pace and, because of that, most of the time they recycle the ball backwards rather than take on the full-back.

I would really love to know what Dyche sees in Harrison that makes him an automatic choice every week. Considering Dyche seems reluctant to let Onana or Garner go into the opponent's box, then it puzzles me why teams seem to be able to break quickly against us without either of our holding midfield players stopping that happening.

I blame Pickford for their winner, he could and should have come and claimed that ball but, like their first, he is very reluctant to leave his line, so no help to his defenders.

In the context of goalkeeping, Jordan Pickford is a world-class coward. He never commands his area, he will not come out and take high balls if he knows opposition forwards are going for the ball.

Yesterday was a prime example of his cowardice – rooted to the goal line, when he should have been out punching the ball clear. I also blame him for the second goal. Any decent goalie would have come out and claimed the ball – which was exactly what Coleman was thinking.

You use the word "disgraceful" – which exactly sums up Pickford's performance yesterday. I've said it many times before, Pickford will cost us at least 12 points a season with his cowardly performances – 3 more yesterday.

Some may blame Dyche, some may blame Moshiri, some (including me) blame the late great Chairman Bill; at this stage, it doesn't matter, the damage has been done.

Mike Walker's record will probably bite the dust this week.

We need new owners and if that comes about as a result of an administration process, at this stage… so be it!

Though I respect your posts and your views because you've played the game at the highest level, Does Dyche get a pass from you because you know him?

I'd suggest to you that you ask him to read these pages because I'd say at least 90% of us are absolutely pissed off with his tactics, his limited knowledge of the game, and his moronic post-match interviews.

You could actually bring a chimpanzee in and he'd get more out of these players than Dyche.

Me personally I'd bring Sheedy and Baines in until the end of the season and then weigh up our options from there. I'm sure they could engineer 3 or 4 wins and a couple of draws from the remaining games.

Unfortunately for the 90%, he's got the safest job in the game with this car crash of a club, him, stone and woan must be pissing down their legs at us.

I said after the Palace home game to the lads on our way home, we won't win another game under this clown this season. I was laughed at.

They're not laughing now, bring someone in to save our season now or perish without a wimper because, let's face it, that's what's unfolding before our eyes.

Now it's abundantly clear that either the system isn't working or the personnel used isn't working, so surely it's time to change things.Most teams know barring injuries what our team and set-up will be, because that's how we have set up all season.

Against Man Utd, we started with a high press and it rattled them as they weren't expecting it; had our finishing been better, we might have got something from the game. I thought we may have done the same yesterday but we just reverted to type.

The Man Utd game sums up our season. We looked sharp and incisive and had them under the cosh, only to let it slip.

Imo, Pickford was at fault for both goals, especially the second. All keepers should really be claiming any ball coming into the 6-yard box, never mind who calls it.

Calvert-Lewin… 23 games now without a goal??

We also have mid-table, middle-of-the-road footballers who are being told what to do by the aforementioned average, uninventive managers. As a result, you get dull, uninspiring football.

We have almost zero players with a good football brain – barring Gomes and Dele, that's about it. The rest of them are bang average so we get bang average football.

Back to my original point – the psychology of our players must be a problem, though Dyche has never admitted it. They know what a shit-show it all is, they see it day on day and know full well what a mess the club is in. I'd imagine many of them probably want out, and we'll lose Onana and Branthwaite in the summer, possibly Pickford as well.

I get the feeling they're a bunch of players who know the group is going to be broken up in the summer, and that's having a massive effect on morale, as well as motivation.

The squad is no worse or better than previous incarnations, indeed many of the same players still munch the dandelions and plod the same pastures, the difference is they never suffered a 6-point deduction. If they had, our previous 2 seasons would have seen us finish in the Bottom 3.

3 managers trying with more or less the same crew suggests it might not be the manager's fault.

Seamus's unfortunate goal is down to Pickford. He's a mouthpiece but hasn't the balls to command his area. I think Seamus was surprised by the ball reaching him and mouth almighty Pickford passes the blame entirely on to Seamus. Fucking coward.

In regard to our staying up or not my position is if we get another 4 to six points then put us into administration. We are heading there anyway as we haven't a pot to piss in. Take the hit in one go and start again in the Championship as we are heading there anyway.

As for Dyche, get rid — he's an imposter as a premier league or championship manager.

If Dyche's admission that they didn't work on anything new in Portugal is true, then he either is a dope or he doesn't give a shite. He's also a coward he didn't slap Tarkowski around the head in Portugal because he knows what he would get.

At least Patterson showed balls – something that's missing from our teams of late.

But why is it that Everton are such a Jeykell and Hyde football team? Put them in training and all you see is short sharp passing, goals scored from every angle, and looking fit and sharp. Put them in a match, completely different. Play slowly, methodically, looking for players to pass to and seem as they have just started to play together.

Dyche is the manager and he is responsible for their performances. Forget the points deductions, his overall ratings are pretty poor.

Actual games played: 29; W8 D7 L14 that should have given us 31pts. Deduct the 6 points penalty and that gives us today's total of 25 points.

His average of roughly 1 point per game will not improve but may save us from relegation… but his record is not much better than previous trial managers.

Read an article on the last time Everton suffered relegation: (a) English roads had no Zebra Crossings; (b) English cities had no tower blocks; (c) Nobody had ever been to space; and (d) the Beatles had not yet been formed.

Let's not go back to the dark ages even if it means a new manager, but surely Dyche should be able to get at least 10 out of 27 points that should see us safe.

And stop saying "I can't understand why we are not scoring as we have plenty of possession." Your system was found out a long time ago by other managers and they know how to play against it. Take your dark glasses off and see where and how the modern game is played.

I'd put Dyche on gardening leave and send him back to Portugal to improve his slapping technique. We'd do better with no one in charge the way things are now.

At least Big Dunc would have got the crowd behind him and tried to change things. His pigeons would do a better job than Dyche. I dread what the atmosphere will be like at home games from now on. The other relegation candidates will be counting on getting three precious away points against us.

As for Harrison, I simply cannot see how he justifies being selected. One of the worst players I've ever seen in an Everton shirt and that's really saying something based on the last 30 years.

We go into games knowing there will be bad refereeing. How the ref couldn't see there was a stonewall penalty for the foul on Calvert-Lewin beggars belief.

But no VAR review tells you it is now just a corrupt farce. Instead, we get the ludicrous TV commentators saying it was not given because the players didn't appeal. Calvert-Lewin goes down like a sack of spuds, two players are going mad at the ref, but play continues so they have to get on with the game. But right there is a new excuse. They didn't appeal hard enough. Unbelievable.

A nailed-on sending off not given just before their second goal also totally ignored.

We start the game with the team already weakened. Mykolenko out, Godfrey at left-back. Harrison in instead of having Patterson and Coleman sewing up the right flank.

And worst of all, our best ball winner and closing down midfielder is left out and we have the overated 'Ononymous' Onana yet again in the team doing absolutely nothing. Yet another awful display from him. This great player who is wanted by all the top clubs doing absolutely nothing to swing the game in our favour. I just can't believe what I am watching and then I hear he had a quiet but okay game. He was shit and he is nearly always shit.

We get the goal and I yelled at the TV "Bring Gueye on right now". Just to shore things up in midfield and stop Bournemouth coming at us. Because you just knew they would. But no, there was no game management whatsover from the manager to see the match out.

We only had Garner and Gomes in midfield at this point and sure enough, Bournemouth just ran through the midfield and it was panic stations at the back resulting in the Coleman - Pickford mistake. Set the team up right these things rarely happen.

And to a certain extent, you could say it was unlucky. There was no one behind Seamus to call leave it and presumably he got no call from anyone. It was a horrible ball to deal with and he should have tried to chest it out for a corner. Easy for me to say of course.

But of course if Kelly had been sent off, like he had to be, I doubt that incident would ever have happened.

Dyche appears to have absolutely no idea on managing games. Doucoure got injured before Christmas and he had no clue how to manage without him when, in my opinion, there were plenty of options. The easy one being, just play Dobbin and who knows – the lad might have blossomed into an essential player.

Players need a run of games before you can see their full potential, as Simms is proving. Dyche didn't manage the Doucoure injury or the fact that Gueye was also missing and the bad run just grew and grew.

I'm afraid we've got to stick with him now, whatever happens. Obviously, the Premier League can seal our fate on their own but, if we get off lightly, I still think we can survive. Not getting beat at Luton is paramount. I think we'll win there, by the way.

It was clear to me a while back that he is a bullshitter and the players know it too. He struts around stinking the place out.

If we don't act now, he'll still be with us next season in the Championship. The man is uninspiring to me and I expect the players see it that way, surely?

If he has, he is finished and we might as well put Baines in charge.

Very very worrying.

Goalkeepers have a different role today but I still believe that they get off lightly. Not everything back in the day was shite and goalkeepers did dominate their penalty box. I think that great players could play in any era; I think that any first division goalkeeper from the Seventies would be better than today's best.

I absolutely disagree that Pickford is a coward but I do see why the point was made.

I thought some of Pickford's decision making was very poor yesterday, and for Coleman's own goal, he came for the ball and then stopped, and did the same earlier where Solanke nearly scored from his mistake.

Harrison was also poor again, and so easily knocked off the ball for their opening goal. I still can't believe why Dyche is still sticking to the same formation and tactics when it's totally broken.

Tuesday night, put Gueye as defensive midfielder with Gomes and Onana and play Garner on the wing in a 4-3-3 formation. We're not going to score goals playing 4-4-1-1.

Every other team around us are creating and scoring goals, Dyche's formation is rigidly defensive and Calvert-Lewin is living off scraps, and for a player who won a good few heading duels yesterday, but no one to feed off it, because of Dyche's robotic tactics.

Dyche after the latest dismal defeat, “Players have been away, we've only just gotten back together, we've had one day to prep them for this game.”

It's great when a plan comes together.

When we played Spurs, both the ref and linesman had a clear view of the Gomes tackle and neither had a problem until VAR stepped in, when we played Man City had no problem with the hand ball and gave a corner, until Var stepped in again.

So if we are asking for fairness, then why did VAR not say have a look, then let the ref decide?

It was the same when we played Man Utd, both penalties before their player even hit the turf, the ref was pointing to the spot, could not give both penalties quick enough.

It's all right pundits coming out saying it should have been a spot kick, we are getting on too many wrong decisions, it is happening too often.

When we play the Red Shite, they will do everything they can to give Klopp his grand hoorah and keep them in it til the final game, we will get nothing in that game, be non-penalties sending off, regardless of us having little chance, we will get absolutely nothing and would not be surprised if Oliver refs the game, or is on VAR duty.

It really is us against the rest of the world.

Our bad run started when the VAR ref, Michael Oliver, told the on-field referee that there had been a foul in the build up to Calvert-Lewin's goal at Spurs, and for whatever reason, Everton have been regressing ever since.

The football that day was very impressive, and there was no mention of Dycheball or hoofball after that display, with the only negative thing envisaged was that Michael Oliver never favours Everton, and I think there was proof of that once again yesterday.

Yesterday, it looked more terminal. A team that knows it can't score has become a team that doubts its ability to do anything. An absence of bravery and responsibility. An absence of genuine fight, to the degree that the denial of an obvious penalty is met with a muted protest. I suspect 3 months ago, the referee would have been surrounded by our players.

Everybody seems to be waiting, hoping for something to happen, rather than making something happen.

Dyche is at a crossroads here. We all know he's been given a bad hand. Bringing on Young when you're trying to chase a game was mystifying. Safe pairs of hands are needed when you're shoring up a lead, and they have to actually be safe.

Can he lift the players? Has he lost the dressing room? Time will tell.

There'll be at least three teams below us at the end of the season. That doesn't disguise how dull, impotent and weak this team has become.

Time for a reset. It's down to Dyche to show he's the man to flick that switch.

The goal v England this week, another Pickford howler. He's been at Everton for over 6 years, and no one has made an approach. In a way, a bit like why Dyche was out of work so long after being sacked by Burnley.

He absolutely should have taken control. If necessary, taken Seamus out.

I would have expected my keeper to do so and he was a big lad.

Let's face it, the players have no excuses for our run of results, there's very little creativity in the squad and Dyche knows it.

We are lacking in the midfield, that's where you need someone who can open teams up, we haven't got one that's good enough.

How are we going to win games if they can't put the ball in the net? If the other side score, we are in trouble.

We are a selling club who can't keep hold of players when the usual Top 6 clubs want to sign them.

If Richarlison, Gordon, Gray and even Iwobi were still playing for us, we wouldn't be struggling like we are, you can't keep letting your better players leave and expect to be successful.

From not stopping the cross (our full-backs' speciality – whoever is playing there) to Pickford being glued to his line (as per every game) and then Seamus inexplicably deciding he wanted to play like an under-'s kid in their first game.

It superbly summed up the mentality of our squad – weak, feeble and lacking in heart, belief or basic ability.

Bournemouth were terrible yesterday, their goalie looked a bag of nerves all game but, yet again, we gift the opposition the game. The calamitous own-goal being the icing on the cake.

I can blame Godfrey, McNeil, Pickford and Coleman for the 2nd. I can blame Doucoure, Harrison, Coleman and Pickford for the 2nd. All schoolboy mistakes that top teams don't make.

We look devoid of ideas and confidence shot. What has happened since our mini run of wins? The system relies on Doucoure, if he isn't playing well we don't play well. Dyche has to find a way out of this quickly or we are doomed.

Expecting another 4 points deduction this week which will be the final nail in the coffin, I think. I can't find any positives at the moment.

Even the first goal, come out and punch it, that's what I like about Virginia, he controls his area. He had two good performances in the cup games, his weakness is his kicking and distributing the ball, but he certainly has improved as a goalkeeper.

Pickford has got to start controlling his area better instead of staying rooted on his line.

Two years on from his infamous 'Everton have forgotten how to win!' well he is proving it in spades.

However I doubt we have the money needed to make yet another managerial change. Somehow they have to find three wins out the remaining 9 games with what we have.

If it wouldn't make a difference, why do any team, ever, change manager? Of course it matters. I would say it's pivotal. There are so many examples of that through history.

I would guess that if we weren't a rudderless ship, Dyche would have been gone by now. My final straw was Crystal Palace at home. A team depleted and out of form, there for the taking... and Dyche has us playing a defensive game... it was mind-boggling. Two points down the drain.

I hope someone will take charge of this rudderless ship soon, otherwise we will be in danger of going down... Famous words: "This team don't know how to win".

Dyche out!

Or is it down to Dyche.

If it is, that too is mind-boggling, and suddenly it's apparent why we have such poor goals per Gx numbers...

Dyche “Here’s the tactic. We just hoof it downfield”
Patterson“Yea boss”
Dyche“Thar was a joke. it went over your head. Get it?”
Patterson“What was the joke the tactic or the pun?”
Dyche punches him in face.
“Ow, why did you punch me?”
“It was another joke that went over your head. Or straight into it. Get it?”

Some reasons we are where we are, are down to to Dyche.

Some are down to the longterm management of the sqaud.

Some are down to the longterm financial running of the club.

Some are down to the impact of the deduction ( financial running of the club)

In any other season, I struggle to give an argument for Dyche to stay

This is an extremely extraordinary season, which any manager would struggle to deal with, I've backed him against all the naysayers, but he has to prove he can make a difference, a difference to results, a difference to performance and a difference to points on the board most importantly.

It's these crucial games coming up, where we, or I at least am thinking, Brentford is a hard match for this team, Luton will feel like they want to play us, and forest have nothing to fear from a team on a run like us ! Sheffield utd have nothing to lose, so they are dangerous.

Positivity is great if its rooted in realism and facts. If not then it's just blind faith. Which I I have no belief in.

As there's noi facts to backup the notion we can score enough goals to survive.

I fear for us now like never before. I always believed we had a match winner, someone we can rely on.

I don't see it in this team, they're scaring the shit out of me!!

Brentford was bad and the players basically got told to go away (I could use more colourful language).

And then Norwich. Now that was when it finally turned and it got very toxic. There was no going going back.

Apart from the long journey home.

Anyway, looking forward to putting it right on Tuesday and picked up tickets for the barcodes and Kings Road today (thanks Greg you are a true hero).

We can help each other up those steps on Tuesday!!

Drop me a message when you are there.

Ha ha, either that or try and find the lift and will do.

As I understand it that's against Premier League “laws”??

Away supporters are supposed to be allocated at least one section pitch side.

How Newcastle get away with it defies their own direction. Why hasn't it been challenged?

I thought Dyche did an unbelievable job in keeping us up last season, and I think he was doing a decent job this season before the Premier League intervened.

It's obvious he knows a lot more than a monkey, and it's obvious that he is managing Everton, at possibly the worst period in our entire history, although this is probably also the only thing keeping him in a job right now.

I don't have his number (so I can't tell him) and the last time I spoke to him was when some of my family bumped into him in London the day after Everton had played Fulham.

My stepson's agent went over and threw my name into the hat (probably because he didn't believe I knew him!) and he went right over and introduced himself to my partner.

She panicked and phoned me up and when he got on the phone, I asked him to speak to my stepson, and tell him how much the Millwall crowd valued hard work, because he was signing for them that day.

He spoke to my stepson, and his advice was both appreciated and valued, because he has actually played for Millwall, after he had spoken to me on the phone about how his squad had been really stretched but how he was optimistic things would begin to improve once he had got a few players back.

We haven't improved and the natives are getting very restless but, to be fair to Dyche, the circumstances he has been given are absolutely horrendous and I think it's very easy looking in from outside to forget this, and especially if you don't rate him, Andy.

My own view is that it's well past being about the manager, which possibly makes me sound like a monkey, considering how important having the right manager is!

In any other season, Dyche would be out of a job. Because of our circumstances, we have no choice but to stick by him, but that's doesn't mean he gets a free pass, his team selection is poor, substitutions too little, too late.

It's not working whether he wants it too or not. Our squad is poor and paper thin but it's the persistance with Harrison and McNeil, Godfrey and Doucoure that's criminal.

The absence of crosses, the lack of creativity in midfield. (No one ever, I mean ever, tell me James Rodriguez was a luxury!) It's no wonder we have had Simms, Calvert-Lewin, Beto, Maupay unable we buy a goal!

Of course as you rightly point out, it's not all Dyche's fault but it's the manager's job to recognise what's wrong and fix it, to get the best out of players and know when to change. Clearly Dyche doesn't.

Having said all that, he is there for the season, no matter what, but once new owners are in and this season is done, I would be surprised if he is still in place.

I couldn't even face drinking my tea out of my Everton mug this morning, Tony, it's upset me this much.

I could point to the Premier League, Dyche, the players, Moshiri, Kenwright, Benitez etc… but it's all of the above and the total, utter lack of leadership, honesty, common bloody sense, lack of integrity of a board, an owner and the loan sharks we used that have eventually done for us.

I have never known a business get out of a hole unscathed after two "going concern" warnings in a row. I fear this week more than any other as it will almost certainly see us deducted more points.

I agree with a lot of what you say, but I would persist with McNeil. I'm undecided on whether we play him wide as, when in tune, his delivery is great. Or play him more central in what we now call a Number 10 position.

Doucoure is what he is. At times a headless chicken. But when he fires, he scores goals and wins us games.

For now, we have what we have and have to make the best of it. I think we've got enough to keep the football grimreaper away.

I’d try Danjouma on the other side, and I’d play McNeil ahead of Garner and Gueye. Onana might be a better footballer than both of them, but we need players to fight right now and this is something Onana, might learn better if he is watching from the sidelines, especially because it won’t have to interrupt his cheerleading routine.

Seriously though, it’s a squad game now and I don’t think Dyche has utilized the squad enough, and it surely can’t be a coincidence the number of late goals we have been conceding, quite regularly lately, although I don’t know if it’s because other teams have been freshening it up a lot more by frequently bringing on their substitutes.

Someone once said “don’t just stand there do something”. I think Dyche would have many more options if he could work up the nerve to go 3 5 2. For example:-

Virginia,
Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko
Garner, Doucoure, Gueye, Gomes, McNeill
Beto, Danjuma.

Not quite sure about Danjuma but the rest have a bit of fight in them. He gets in because he can run at a defence.

Subs:-
Defence - Keane, Coleman, Patterson, Godfrey, Young
Midfield - Onana, Harrison
Attack - Calvert-Lewin, Chermiti, Dobbin.

If he is not prepared to change, nothing else will change and we will be left waiting for the hammer to drop before every game.

By the way, after watching Newcastle v West Ham this afternoon I definitely want us to be in the Premier League next season - it was a terrific game and pleasure to watch.

Moyes lost them that match by taking Antonio off.

We have to battle it out and hope that results will improve and we don't get too badly hit with another points deduction.

We beat Newcastle at home and we have got to believe that we can get something from the away trip. Christians all over the world celebrated the Resurrection yesterday, hopefully, we can celebrate ours on Tuesday night.

By the way Laurie I’ve never asked you this but did you have any relations in Liverpool? I knew a Laurie Hartley from the same school as me, a bit older, but although small he was a very good goalkeeper, he was still going last time I saw him, he couldn’t half rabbit, a bit like me, his younger brother, Brian, was very quiet, they lived near the City centre same as me.

Who in the squad is going to give you something from nothing. When the chips are down, who is going to rally a fight back?

Dyche is out if his depth, and if we had any type of leadership in the club he'd be getting a P45. Instead we have no one running the show, and probably can't afford to fire him given the dreadful state of the finances in anycase. You'd then need to ask who on earth would take the job with any pedigree?

The squad is completely under cooked in terms of quality. You try and put together a team, and you're struggling to justify many after picking a core 6 or so. That's a joke for a Premier league that's been in the top flight since its inception in 92.

The squad lacks class and pace. A team that looks beat as soon as they concede.

Pickford
Patterson
Coleman
Tarkowski
Branthwaite
Mcneil

Onana
Gana
Doucoure

Danjuma
Beto

Dyche has little to work with but obviously, like all managers with a losing record, he will be the first to go – especially as a succession of more ''renowned'' predecessors'' were sent packing for underachieving.

Sad to say that is a harsh reality of life in the Premier League.

It is now very apparent that this team cannot defend either zonal or man to man and so many points have been thrown away late on to some other poor teams.

Forest, Luton and Brentford are all seeing real hope in the demise of Everton hope at this juncture.

No relations in Liverpool that I know of but I don't know much about my family tree before my mam and dad's generation.

I have got two other things in common with him though, I can rabbit (if you hadn't already noticed) and I was a good footballer – it's a Birkenhead trait! 😉

And who is that down to, Tom?

The problem is not the manager or this wouldn't keep happening – it's the players. This group of players are just not Premier League quality overall (apart from a couple of exceptions) and don't have what it takes to win games regularly at the highest level.

Most only seem to play to their maximum capabilities when they feel like it (usually for a short period after a new manager arrives) and have a very bad habit of downing tools when things get a bit tough (as we see with long winless runs like we're on now).

I don't know whether they lack what is needed mentally to succeed at this level or it is a technical ability problem but it is there for everyone to see most weeks.

The complete failure to put the ball in the net over the last few months is a good example and not something you can lay at the manager's door. Same for the many mistakes supposedly professional players have made over the last few months to cost us valuable points. Most are just not good enough for the Premier League.

You can change managers again but we will still be having the same conversation with this squad – whoever you bring in.

All we can hope for now it seems is that Luton, Burnley and Sheff Utd keep losing because this bunch of players showed on Saturday that they can't be relied on to get us over the line. 3 weeks to rest and recover for a massive game and we get that performance from them – capped off with one of the stupidest own goals I have ever seen. Embarrassing.

When I worked in Cammel Lairds, the one thing I enjoyed was the kick-around in the dinner time, 15 or more a side, no give or take, mad tackles galore but plenty of skill and everyone enjoyed it because we just enjoyed playing football and the ages playing were from 18 to 40.

Those were the days, I never wanted those dinner hours to end!