Haaland double breaks Everton's defensive stand

Put Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne in our team and it would transform us, hey, but that is the case for every team I suspect. Too much top quality.

Tactically, I think our manager was spot on, the players were excellent in their execution of the plan for the most part, great effort.

No injuries was my biggest hope pre game.

May the lads gain full strength, form and fitness for the tests to come, starting with Crystal Palace next up.

UTFT.

Playing as the lone striker is a thankless task but it's a hugely important role in our team, particularly at places like the Etihad. DCL is clearly bereft of confidence but he could start helping his cause immensely by being more considerate with his use of the ball. If he found another "hot coral" (apparently!) all afternoon, I don't recall it.

He wasn't the only one to waste what few chances we had to build attacks – we're demoralisingly poor going forward at the moment – but we're not going to get better in that regard without him improving. It'll start with him. Maybe he just needs a goal and hopefully Palace at home is the time.

Our strikers are being asked to do a different job than that of a striker. They are expected to occupy two defenders, not just with their back to goal, but 40 yards away from it. That in itself is a thankless task, but when the rest of the team are 30 yards away and don't get up to support them (as happened repeatedly today), the task becomes impossible.

We either have to get up and support our target men (Calvert-Lewin or Beto) or we change tactics.

We ain't changing personnel.

I thought he did okay against Spurs, but he his being asked to play with his back to goal across the whole length of the pitch, and also run the channels. It must be soul-destroying at times when he's turning forward and nobody is really trying to support him.

My gripe is that, at the moment, he isn't even doing the basics when he has the ball and he is being too greedy in areas of the field where he has no right to be. We had three or four genuine openings against City and, playing the way we do, that's about all you can expect.

So you have to make the most of them and that's where you should be able to rely on an experienced Premier League striker to choose the right option or gamble on a ball coming in from the flank rather than hold back lurking behind or amongst defenders when he should be busting a gut to get in front of them.

Maybe the donkey work is knackering him out so he doesn't have the physical or mental energy when he does get an opening but, as Dave says, something has to change.

It's easy for us watching from the sidelines or in the comfort of our living room but it's definitely not easy for Dominic right now, because, as you say, he's not being allowed to conserve any energy for when it's needed the most, although I'm not sure everyone will agree with this assessment.

I think it's very difficult not to be greedy when you don't have a team mate near you. At one stage today, he looked for the cavalry 2-3 times, they didn't arrive and he was easily dispossessed. Give 3-4 top class defenders one man to mark and that will happen.

I think it's even worse than what you say Lyndon. I'm beginning to see signs of despair.

If we are going to persist in this way of playing, Beto is our only other option, but on the rare occasions he has started, he has barely had the energy to get off the pitch when he is substituted.

I've been reluctant to criticise Dyche; I can see his predicament. This way of playing can be effective if you have Doucoure. Somebody with the power and athleticism to get up and make it a two. Unfortunately we don't have anybody else. Jack Harrison is an honest little player but, like Garner and McNeil, he doesn't have that in his game.

I'm all for playing this way when Doucoure is fit. It may not be pretty, but it is a means to an end, but when he isn't, we may have to be a little bolder, braver as a unit. If we don't push up as a unit, our attacks will keep breaking down and our defenders will continue to see the ball come back at them.

I don't think Man City deserved that today, but most games go for nearer 100 minutes than 90 these days. It's a big ask to expect your players to go all that time without one of them suffering a momentary lapse of concentration.

The cup game against Luton frustrated the life out of me because, if we would have had a midfielder player who could pass the ball, then I believe we would have been out of sight by half-time.

But the other thing that frustrated me was that I thought we played the system totally wrong from a defensive point of view, considering the way the game has gone now with a lot of teams flooding the midfield.

I don't think we should play 4-4-2. I can only think there's some kind of nostalgic attachment to this system. No team in world football would play Beto and Calvert-Lewin as a double act. They are both far too limited on the ball and have little to offer dropping deep or wide.

Much, much different to, say, Vardy and Okazaki at Leicester — who were even then only very loosely a double act because Okazaki's true positioning made the formation more like 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1.

Where you have genuine striker partnerships (like Dzeko and Lautaro recently at Inter) the formation is 3-5-2 to ensure a competitive midfield trio. And that worked because of Inter's quality in midfield and on the flanks and Lautaro's high technical ability.

Unfortunately, with what we've got, 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1 is the way to go.

It's so frustrating, we really have become over the last 25 years (Lukaku aside) a club that specialises in non-scoring goalscorers.

Even strikers who notched 20-plus goals before they came here were ruined by the isolated striker tactics. Awful to watch low low-scoring team year after year.

You need speed and high technical ability in these positions - and we've had very very few players like that.

Calvert-Lewin would be doing fine at Villa with Bailey, Diaby etc in support.

Yes, they both put a lot of effort in but, in the Premier League, you need more than effort to win games. I don't think McNeil is anywhere near the form he showed prior to his injury, but again like Harrison, he starts every game, why Dobbin doesn't get more minutes, I don't know.

As for Calvert-Lewin, he is being asked to do far too much work, especially seeing Doucoure isn't there to provide help. While he is arguably still our best option up top, I don't think you can keep playing him when he is in such awful goalscoring form. Lets not forget he has had some great chances to score in the 18 games he has played without a goal.

I said a few weeks back, I wonder if it's the way Dyche has us playing that is why whoever he has played up front doesn't seem to work. He plays 2 holding midfield players who very rarely make runs beyond the forwards, so the defensive side of our game looks strong but is that because for large parts of the games the midfield 2 sit just in front of the back four?

I did really worry that, with us unlikely to get anything from City and Luton home to Sheffield Utd and Forest at home to a Newcastle side who have lost a bit of form of late, I feared a gap may have opened up between us and the clubs just ahead of us.

Thankfully both lost and let's hope Chelsea win at Palace which, apart from our result, will make it a good weekend for us.

Young has been a passenger the last two games imo, hardly getting involved at all. What has he offered us over the season, no goals, no assists I can remember?

Calvert-Lewin was at his lowest ebb yesterday, distribution poor and fluffed our best chance. He needs to be omitted but Beto doesn't look up to Premier League standard. I doubt we will make a bid for Harrison in the summer.

Calvert-Lewin is simply the best striker we have, in doing what the manager wants. Which is told to hold the ball up and win free kicks in advanced positions.

Beto simply doesn't have that skill set and is why I think we'll see more and more of Chermiti (next season) than Beto, who I think may be sold or loaned in the summer.

It was a committed display from all of the team and I am grateful that we were not spanked but we showed zero ambition.

I think Dobbin is worthy of more minutes and I would move McNeil inside to the No 10 role. McNeil is a lovely footballer but slow, so it might suit him.

I was seated at the opposite end to our supporters but in line with them. My admiration for them went up another notch yesterday, they are amazing.

On the pitch, we played a very high line at times in the first half, I was surprised at same. We defended well, Mykolenko, Branthwaite and Tarkowski were all very good and only Godfrey was a cause for concern, Doku caused him problems. Pickford was largely redundant except for the two goals.

The back 4 came under more sustained pressure in the second half as we were pushed back but the introduction of our captain was a help. Their first goal was opportunist in nature and, once we went behind, we were unlikely to get back on level terms.

I am not going to get involved in the Calvert-Lewin debate, however, it has to be said that he is not at his best at the moment, but he is in good physical condition after such a long period when he suffered injury after injury.

I would also say that any striker would struggle to do the job that he is being asked to do given the current set-up. It can't be easy for him to keep his morale at a high level when he becomes more and more isolated as games progress.

We are a mid-table team and hopefully when the final whistle blows at around 9:55 pm on the 19th we will be out of the bottom 3 after taking 3 points from Palace and after having clawed back all or some of the points lost as a result to our outrageous points deduction.

I could not help thinking back to the times, fairly recent by the way, when we were a match for our opponents, we put 4 past them one Sunday afternoon when Tom Davies looked like he might be the real deal. Now sadly, the gap is huge.

Though a member, I won't see Goodison before she hears her final whistle. Too many sad recent memories, it's like remembering a parent who spent a significant time in hospital just before they passed, your memories of them are coloured.

My next day out will be a Premier League game at BMD, a new dawn.

Calvert-Lewin would have suited better at several clubs, not just Villa.

The only other striker we've had in recent years was Louis Saha, who was sublimey talented with two feet and had great pace.

Dom isn't a good footballer, I'm sorry he just isn't and there isn't another club in the top half of the table who will show the blindest bit of interest in bidding for him this summer.

He's a limited 6-yard box player that needs spoon-feeding chances every game and even then he doesn't make the most of them enough.

He wouldn't have lasted five minutes with this team. He simply would not have been prepared to put in the sort of graft Dyche is demanding. He was agitating for a move every week when he was getting chances put on a plate. There's no way he would have stuck around for this.

No doubt he knows where the net is, but his own personal glory is/was far more important to him than any of the world class teams he has been fortunate enough to play for. You only have to look at his winners medals (or lack of) to see that.

He left nearly 8 years ago. He won't be coming back. He has about as much relevance to our current situation as Gary Lineker

I think it is most effective when you concede one half of the pitch, and don't really press, until the opposition come into your half.

We don't have enough partnerships in our squad for it to be effective though, because when thinking about it logically, the only two players that really complement each other seem to be our two central defenders.

We don't have our fullbacks linking with the players ahead of them, we don't have midfield players complementing each other, and Beto and Dominic also look to be on completely different wavelengths when they are on the pitch together.

This means that the team is doing better than the sum of its parts right now (if you take away the asterisk) even though Calvert-Lewin is suffering because of this.

I understand we couldn't do anything with regards to the Sigurdsson situation; I also understand the release of James Rodriguez due to the cost and everything else.

But we've lost Gordon, Townsend, Gray, Richarlison in the last 18 months and we've replaced them with probably not as good players, let's be honest.

They all work hard and they are all 10/10 for endeavour, the likes of Dwight McNeil, Jack Harrison, James Garner etc etc – but there's no touch of class and no pace there at all anymore.

I don't really think Dyche can do anything else with this crop of players than he's already doing, as much as our style of play is tepid at times. We do eek out more presentable chances than some fans will have you believe, we just don't have quality in the final third, midfield or strikers.

I know we're going to be safe because we do have the ability to beat the teams around us. Living in Sheffield, I was chuffed for my United mates and thankful for us not going 4 points from safety!

Why we didn't sign Haaland when he was on trail under Big Dunc, god only knows!!

Give the lad a go – tell him he's got to match Harrison's work-rate but show he's got the edge around the box.

And if Calvert-Lewin's header or shot glances off any of his extremities on the way in, for fuck's sake, give it to Dom!

Saha and Eto'o are definitely our most talented, technical forwards in recent years. Yakubu was an excellent finisher. Lukaku had incredible physicality and an ability to create his own chances too.

All better finishers and, probably, footballers than Calvert-Lewin.

Calvert-Lewin is completely different of course. He is competent technically, has excellent physical attributes and works tremendously hard. As we've seen in the right set-up, he'll score regularly. In the wrong set-up, he will work his arse off and sacrifice his goalscoring in the process.

There would be plenty of interest in him if available. The obvious team is West Ham. With good full-back play, Ward-Prowse on set pieces and Kudus, Bowen and Paqueta playing off him Dom would probably score regularly but also create a lot of space for the talented attacking trio.

But even Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd might quite like to have this sort of player as an option.

I do think that, with the 2 years Dom had out, though, he's regressing as a physical athlete; the attributes he had 4 years ago at the age of 23 and prior to injury, I don't see him getting back to be honest.

I think if we give Dobbin a few games, he'll become another Branthwaite!

I like Harrison for his industry but he gives up possession too easily. He does have a goal in him though.