Just the Start — A Long Way to Go

Mcneill has never been the same player since his injury last year and was totally anonymous yesterday.

Ashley Young didn't play too badly but is always a liability for a red card or penalty. Harrison and Ironman were the only positives for me and I think we all know that most Evertonians have no time for him, Holgate and Keane all of whom are not fit to wear the shirt.

Overall we are totally anemic in attack and I am hoping for a shakeup with some new additions before the window closes.

He does his own job and, without him, Tarkowski and Mykolenko look lesser players.

Danny, I think it's been reported that the ref wasn't looking at the blank pitchside monitor but was actually looking at a second monitor that was on the ground in front of it.

Maybe I'm just a suspicious getting old fool, but my other gripe is that certain clubs, get certain decisions and until we hear this unbelievably protected species speak, to explain themselves, I'm also going to be a repetitive old fool.

The Daily Mirror reports "The Premier League has since confirmed a back-up screen was available to the referee, where he watched the passage of play before confirming his decision to overturn the spotkick."

Ditto, The Echo. Ditto etc etc.

I don't recall the referee getting on his knees to look at the alleged small screen that was lying on the floor, which probably means he had a better view in real time when he made his initial decision?

I'm slowly getting past caring, Brent, because I don't think the present system is fit for purpose. It's very subjective, changes quite often, and this is all done without these referees having to explain their decisions.

Although I suppose it keeps a few people in a job on Sky Sports, whilst people just keep debating the controversy.

I doubt you'd need to bend down to watch any replay. You can see an official who to me looks as if he's about to go to close the lid after.

It is very rare to see the referee standing 6 feet away from the pitchside monitor when reviewing a decision, so I think it would be perfectly natural to get on your knees or at least crouch down to get a closer look at the small screen.

But either way, it doesn't really matter because the final decision is all that really matters, and I wasn't convinced he was going to stick with his original decision to award a penalty once he had been instructed to go and have a look at the pitchside monitor anyway.

VAR is simply not transparent in my book, even if it's true that the referee did review yesterday's decision.

Pictures in the press show him standing over the second monitor on the ground, not 6 feet away.

Actions speak louder than words in my book, even if the mainstream media tell me different!

"If I stand over something and look at it on the floor then I would be looking at it from around 6 fee,t away Brent. If I had just given a decision and wanted to review it again, I would at least bend over so as to get a closer look."

How do you know he was 68 feet away? How do you know he didn't bend down at all? Where did you see all that?

My overall take in summary is that we lacked guile, pace and goalscoring edge to get ahead in the game and ultimately paid the price.

Hoping lessons are learnt for future games, some of those that didn't feature yesterday are given a chance, but I also feel that we need to strengthen (ie, go back into the transfer window should funds be available).

It's no conspiracy, pal, just typical Everton luck.

Our home record has gone and we're on the back foot from Day One.

Not so much Spirit as dispirited. Christ, this club tests me!

It's not nice to see the fans leaving the ground before the final whistle like that but it is such a powerful display that it cannot afford to be ignored. Fingers crossed yet again but here's to hoping!

I have said all that needs to be said about the game and tactics; for me, the bottom line with Calvert-Lewin is use or lose him.

Harrison has no right foot and cannot cross on the run with his left; where McNeil was, only he knows… So no crosses. Doucoure was, well, nowhere.

In short, it did not matter if we had Haaland or Messi up front, without feeding a centre-forward or supporting him, its pointless having him.

Just putting Beto there had exactly the same result as Maupay did last time. Why people cannot see or get that, I don't know.

Spurs will be a different type of test and it looks certain we will be without Branthwaite, Garner and Young of course. Holgate will get another game at full-back ,I suppose, unless we go a back three of Tarkowski, O'Brien and Keane, with Mykolenko playing wingback instead of McNeil and a stacked midfield of Gana, Iroegbunam, and Lindstrøm, Harrison and Nidaye, with Calvert-Lewin up front. Early crosses at every opportunity with Harrison feeding off Calvert-Lewin.

I would be amazed if it happened but at least we would carry more of a threat than, well, ever!

At least you don't have far to go for the next game, Danny! Hope you are okay, thinking about you of late. Blue skies ahead, I hope!

Be sure to get yourself over, even though it's about a day's travel and more. That puts my 500-mile round trip to shame!!

I don't know what he'll do next but, in my opinion, he has to change players. That would help in changing the tactics.

I've no idea what he will do with the right-back position for Tottenham. As you say, maybe he'll go with a back three.

I'm not suggesting for one minute this could go Benitez style toxic, but a few poor results and the fans could turn. Me personally, I won't get carried away. He's done a decent job so far and now has a better squad. There's no point getting carried away with one result on the first day of the season, however frustrating it was.

Another nice account. You're right: Spurs will be different. They will come at us from the off and I think this group are better when their backs are against the wall.

I thought Brighton invited us on for the first quarter. Like a boxer wanting to see what his opponent has got. When they realised we didn't have much by way of creativity, they started to come out and expose the numerous holes in our team.

It's early days and Lady Luck was not smiling us. If that 50/50 penalty is upheld and scored then I wouldn't have been surprised to see us go on and win it. Momentum counts for a great deal.

Spurs away will be extremely tough. Dyche has had a habit in the last two seasons of picking up admirable draws so am hoping he pulls something out of the bag. Zero points after two games will get many on his back but this is a manager who managed 48 points with a worse squad than this. It's a long season.

The Telly might have been massive and the ref might have bent down or got on his knees “to take a closer look” but I didn't recall him doing this.

Thanks Hector, I'm sure we will see some footage of the ref looking at this other monitor, and showing the recording of the incident in the next few days mate.

I don't think it is a conspiracy, (I thought it was going to get overturned and would have been very disappointed if Everton, would have conceded a penalty in this manner, and the decision stood) but a part of me does think that the VAR ref, might have told him to rule out his original decision, especially because I haven't seen any genuine footage of the on field ref “intently watching the incident again”

I'm sure this is how it works in Rugby, and I would have no problem with the VAR ref making the key decisions, just as long as it was “explained to us” in real time. I don't think it would get rid of the controversy completely, but I'm sure it would slowly begin to eliminate the massively subjective inconsistencies, that we all see on a very regular basis?

I agree about Brighton, nothing special, they just hit us and took their chances.

I like your boxing analogy Dave. We'll be on the other foot against Tottenham as they will come at us, so we need to come out fighting. Is Tony Bellew fit?!!

I still can't believe that the referee never crouched down to get himself closer to the screen, which would have surely given him a better picture? So unless you can provide another link that shows me different, I'm genuinely none the wiser, mate!!

Tony, if you can tell me you were nearer to that screen than the ref and had a better view than him...

Being serious though, something I've tried to explain a few times is that if I was the ref I would have definitely got down on my knees (one knee now I'm getting old) and got myself closer to the little television screen on the floor, but the link you sent me only showed the referee standing up, which probably equates to being around six feet away from a little television screen.

That link doesn't say how many times the ref watched the replay on the small screen either Brent, but once again it doesn't really matter now because nothing is going to change the original decision of the official in the VAR room

These days, I don't have a problem going down on a knee, it's just getting back up that is the challenge!!

Penalty or not, I don't think he reviewed it and was probably told by Stockley Park.

Lets remember here, The ref was right on the premises when he gave the initial decision.

I have looked at this a dozen times and it is a stone wall penalty. If Dunks arse doesnt sweep away DCL's standing foot, he has a tap in..

If that happened at Anfield. the whole place would be up in arms, They'd be sceaming blue murder all over the world for the rest of the season....Not us

I make no claims about whether that something else was good enough (we don't know as we couldn't see the screen), or whether he was near enough to it (again, we don't know as we couldn't see the screen), or whether he made the correct decision (refs never do when it's Everton!).

We both agree that he looked at more than a blank VAR screen.

I hate VAR, the way it is operating under its present guise and I find it a bit condescending and very, very cynical, why people don't get to hear in real time, how certain decisions have been made, because it makes me feel that this allows them to change their very subjective views on a regular basis.

Even if VAR intervenes the referees decision is or should be final, so it would be very nice to hear both officials speak to each other, because I feel this would definitely help to build up their level of consistency, with regards these very subjective decisions that change weekly.

I don't trust none of them and why should I when Dermot Gallagher, is getting paid whatever it is, to help take a lot of heat off these referees, and their boss Howard Webb, has introduced a pre recorded show, which helps him give the answers to his own questions.

I didn't think it was a penalty on Saturday, so I didn't feel hard done by, but that doesn't stop me thinking that football has become a bit of a circus, and us fans are getting treated like clowns, whilst the real clowns are quite often making it up as they go along and getting away with murder.

Sorry for going on Brent, but if the ref would have tried to get closer to the screen on the floor, I might have had a bit more faith in him, but his actions left me feeling that he was taking the advice of his mate.

If I was Dyche, it would have been the first thing I would have mentioned in the interview, because if he thought it was a penalty, surely he's got every right to hear why the referee was told to go and check his decision again?

The score didn't reflect the game.
The other teams who are likely to be propping the table up did not win either, so at best are only 1pt above us.

To be fair to Young that Mitoma will give many full backs the run around.

European games don't seem to have massive amounts of added time, although the Olympic matches saw double figure amounts in some of the games. Is it time for the officials to 'stop the clock' so that everybody knows how long there is left in a game, rather than waiting for the dreaded board to be shown?