Everton hard to beat as Pickford saves Gordon's penalty

Predictable but we should have Gana instead of Doucoure in the middle.

We look way too light in the middle defensively.

Hoping for a positive outcome, but if not, have the courage to stand by and to explain your decisions.

They are going to have to work harder than they did in the last game from the start. Hopefully this is a reflection of a similar attitude in training.

Garner should be playing in a three-man midfield, he's not a full-back.

Dyche playing his favourites Doucoure, Young, Keane and Harrison.

If McNeil is playing behind Calvert-Lewin, you cannot have a midfield of one defensive midfielder. I think this is tactically stupid with Tim and Gana on the bench.

What has Iroegbunam done wrong?

Concerned that your tactical nouse is superior to our manager.

2-1 to the Blue Boys with a late winner to send the faithful home happy and the ToffeeWeb followers buzzing going into the international break.

If Gana had done it, you would have remembered.

We are playing at home with a defensive back four missing 3 first-team choices and offering them no defensive cover. Nuts...

Doucoure is the selection that continues to mystify me. I can not see what he brings to the table in any role and particularly tonight where we have no recognisable full-back.

But hey ho, Christine, what do you and I know? Only been watching 62+ years.

Hard to see a win today unless we get lucky like last week.

Very few teams ever win back-to-back home games.

Dyche tactically stupid?

How dare you! 😱

I'd have Tim and Gana for Doucoure and Harrison, 4-3-3, against Newcastle's three in midfield

But Dyche hasn't played three in midfield this season. We're overrun but Dyche won't change formation: stubbornness.

Just had an earthquake here... very wobbly — and I haven't touched a drop.

I thought Finch Farm was to train players – not injure them.

Lack of quality from players and management.

More importantly, Christine has been proved correct again. Every out-ball from Newcastle is going into the middle of the park where there is just too much space and puts us under the cost all the time. As things stand I will happily take a point and turn over and let Mrs L watch Strictly. (Just one tele here on holiday in Cyprus!)

I've not even seen a replay but I believe we've had a goal disallowed and again Doucoure doesn't seem to know the offside rule but our midfield again seems uncoordinated and very little support up front.

The penalty was an act of stupidity by Tarkowski but if VAR gets involved then it has to look at who started holding first and none of this "but it always goes on".

I only caught the penalty on replay but that wasn't the best and if Gordon had done as he did against City and hit it the other way then who knows. Mind you, Gordon does look better in central midfield.

A good omen? Not with Idrissa Gana's shooting!

And that, my friends, is the Dyche philosophy that will never ever change.

Hopefully, we have our defence back in 2 weeks.

Our squad is thin enough without having three quarters of the defence out injured, so I'm happy with today.

But Anthony Gordon should be playing for us, not them. Perfect example of what's gone wrong at this club. Very sad.

And that, in this instance, is no bad thing.

Big picture George, big picture.

Garner had an outstanding game. Gordon got what he deserved, missing two absolute sitters (one a penalty).

Grit in abundance, but creatively we weren't really there.

However, we are a poorly organised team and so hard to watch and to be excited by. I truly believe that if set up differently with a better tactical approach that we could be more positive and more challenging.

That requires a change of manager.

We totally lost the centre of the park tactically and they won every second ball. No real service up front.

Disgraceful decision not to award a penalty on Calvert-Lewin. Especially when you see what does constitute one now. Clear and obvious.

Will take the point but could so have been better.

But it seemed that Dyche had made his mind up 5 minutes into the second half that he was going to play for the draw and I didn't really see the point in Gana for Mangala unless there was an injury but he didn't look injured.

Or it was a matter of a substitution for the sake of it and the same for Iroegbunam for Harrison. Somebody should take Gana aside and explain to him where his shooting is going wrong in not leaning back, stay upright and just follow through rather than trying to put everything behind it…balance and weight transfer.

At times, I find it difficult to see what Dyche is trying to get them to do; what's the plan and pattern. And I don't think Garner brings much to the right-back position that Dixon won't.

MotM, didn't think we had one.

Gana might be 60 years old, but he's still a better player, despite that ridiculous miss.

What is beyond argument is that Gana should have buried the rebound. That could have been the game.

And yes. Your comments pre and post-match about our gaping midfield are so pertinent and so obvious. To us at least.

That was a dire watch. Newcastle are not a good side at the moment but we are absolutely shocking. Like all, I will gladly take a point but, Christ on a bike, that was a piss poor performance. If I was Calvert-Lewin, I'd be looking for a move to anyone come January.

To think I took time owing in work to rush home and watch that turgid shite… I don't know why.

But it's ok because with our advanced technology we can convince people that Calvert-Lewin actually kicked Burn.

No. Anyone who ever played football knows what Burn tried to do and what he did do.

Oh my God, how sad is that?

We're a poor team with a lack of quality. Yes, we're hardworking, but some players look almost out on their feet because of the demands of Dyche's tactics; no wonder we have so many injuries.

It's an excellent point. I've seen ordinary managers, lots of them, and this one knows what he's doing.

He's too much of a footballer for Dyche, I'm afraid.

We can all hope and wish things were different but they're not and probably won't be for some time.

And Ndiaye has a permanent contract already.

Young, Keane, and especially Garner did well filling in across the back. Idiotic from Tarkowski giving up that penalty.

And even though I generally expect Gueye to shoot over the bar, that was an unbelievable miss.

Take the point and move on, hopefully get some injured players fit over the break.

Was he fucking joking???

Doucoure is either playing just off DCL or he should be in the stand. However, we took a point from the game and, with some players back from injury, we will be better going forward.

Ndiaye is on a permanent contract, I think

Dyche should be more tactically pro-active and should look at making impact substitutions. Dyche can help us survive another season but he is surely not a progressive and tactically strong manager to take us forward playing front-foot football.

Perhaps when players like Jarred, Coleman, Patterson, Chermiti, Broja, Lindstrøm come up to full speed, Dyche may get more adventurous. But till then, he needs to build the foundations for the season, and he is doing just that.

If only the team had held on for the win against Bournemouth, things would have been looking quite different, so Dyche has had to press the reset button, and rebuild from there. 5 points from the last 3 games is a step in the right direction.

Great analysis Les and I'm sure that you will join me in congratulating Keane for being joint MotM with Garner.

Can you see why I frequent my beloved TW less and less now?

Add to that some decent stuff going forward, that on another day might just have come off, and it's a good day at the office.

Shame we didn't hold in against Bournemouth. Had we won that, we'd be sitting very comfortably right now.

Again, the area in front of the Central Defenders was empty allowing Newcastle to run at the back four. It worsened when Gueye came on as he ran up the pitch like a headless chicken.

Calvert-Lewin was isolated. Our sole tactic was to hoof the ball to him and invariably it came back.

The only bright spot was the performance of Garner who was superb at right-back.

The sooner the takeover is confirmed and Dyche booted, the better.

That 90 minutes was utter dogshit.

Have a nice trip home.

Do you really want the risk that open play causes? Or do you just wait for the outcome to complain about whichever is convenient.

Newcastle were clearly better everywhere but at striker. And that is an actual question, not a rhetorical one.

Dyche's formation leaves a lot to be desired, he leaves the midfield with only two in the middle under severe pressure… and yet again tonight.

A patched-up Everton went toe to toe with an expensively assembled Barcodes side. We got a valuable point. We kept a clean sheet. Not much to complain about.

We were totally wasteful in possession and, while I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of Keane and Young, I was very frustrated at all the percentage balls we kicked long.

With the likes of Managala, Ndiaye and McNeil, we have the players to build up play and control the game and don't mention Pickford and his wannabe midfield kicks to the opposition.

Also shout out to Harrison who I thought had another good game today and should not have been subbed.

I guessed that mate. 😁

Midfield never got involved. Hoofs from the back over their heads.

The football isn't exciting but, if we'd seen out the Bournemouth game, I think people would be pretty satisfied with the season thus far.

I have now found the mission of Dycheball: To baffle the opposition. The fact that he baffles Evertonians as well is a byproduct.

Good result.

Ndiaye is on a permanent contract, my mistake. Sorry, chaps. 😥

Tarkowski made a huge error for their penalty, and I can't make my mind up regards our no penalty.

Ndiaye reminds me of Gray - very few of our players are on the same wavelength as him attacking wise.

Ndiaye needs a player or two closer to him – quick one-twos, he is trying to do too much himself – Dyche and the coaches should know this!

He said no other Premier League team look so uncomfortable in possession.

We got lucky. Newcastle dominated us. That performance was just kick the ball as long as possible.

It was disgusting. We should be better than that.

What worries me slightly is that the performances and underlying statistics are worse than they were last season. We were pretty lucky today that Newcastle's finishing was poor and the likes of Keane, Garner and Pickford had good days.

Today was gritty but we will lose far more than we'll win of such games and, whilst I'm not expecting us to be dominating the ball against Top 10 teams, Dyche needs to find a better balance. Two shots and zero corners at home is not really good enough.

Still, 5 points and unbeaten in 3 games is a better little run and grinding out points is what will keep us safe ultimately. I suspect TFG will be expecting more though – and rightly so.

Avoiding relegation is the one and only goal this season, we are not good enough to win a cup even if we went all out for it.

This bizarre excuse that we had a patched up team and three of our back four missing is not really a valid argument. Branthwaite is obviously a huge miss but Keane played well today. When all are fit, Dyche has generally preferred Young over Coleman. So the other change was effectively Garner for Mykolenko which I don't think is a massive downgrade.

Just as we had lost our outstanding centre-back so have they in Botman, yet we never really tested them despite that. In addition, without Isak and Wilson, they were totally impotent, especially with Gordon forgetting his shooting boots.

Today was a great opportunity to beat Newcastle – we were woeful. I think the point was as much about their deficiencies on the day rather than a well-deserved one and a big moment from our much maligned goalkeeper who rarely gets the credit he deserves yet gets blamed for everything that goes past him.

But we need to play better. We can't rely on close games like that by sitting back. 6 points from the next 2 please.

Agree ref Pickford, the bashers of England's No 1 have gone a bit quiet.

We should put in an official complaint – not that it would do much.

Sometimes it works and we scrape a draw. Often it seems we lose. Occasionally we win.

His shtick is always that we need to beat the teams around us, the shitter teams. Points against other teams are bonus points.

Dyche will be delighted with a point today and he'll praise the players for it because they ran about a lot and kept a clean sheet – largely through sheer luck more than judgement.

I'm rarely one to lay into managers but I'm beginning to lose the will to live watching us play. We're so uninspiring to watch, we offer very little in terms of the Premier League product.

I might start supporting Villa! 🤣

After the first bunch of games I'd quite like to see Keane next to Branthwaite. Tarkowski needs to have a word with himself.

We win the game if Gana gets his knee over the ball but it'd be great to win it through passing the ball to each other quickly rather than this attritional shite (and I think Dyche is perfect for these players ‘cos they can't do much of anything else).

Sorry mate but you can't physically throw someone on the floor in the manner Tarkowski did and get way with it. Watch it on MotD tonight. If we didn't get a decision like that there would be murder, stone wall penalty.

Ours was 50/50... the defender gets in front of Calvert-Lewin and his shooting leg kicks the back of the defender's leg.

I’ve now been banned but fcukem!

“Look up the word schadenefreude. And the new dictionary explanation is “Anthony soon to be a redshite Gordon having a penalty saved by geordie hate obsession Mackem Jordon England number one Pickford in front of fat, shirtless horsepunchers with inflatable TRexs who think they’re a big club despite having won absolutely fcuk all since the 60’s and even then it was the fcuking fairs cup (exactly!) deluded plastic koppites”

Up the fcuking Toffees!

🤪”

Both teams might look upon it as 2 pts lost. Shovel foot Gueye though could've made it all moot.

Fullbacks, Garner especially, still too narrow for me.

Edit; to say that Tarkowski wrestled the guy to the ground is neither here nor there.

Branthwaite got nothing and at any corner there could be 5 penalties - but they choose not to see them. Penalise ALL or NONE.

I think a lot of us wanted more subs, only two were used, but who else on the bench were we going mad to see, Harrison’s work rate meant he was knackered so it wasn’t surprising he went off.

Pickford will get MOtM for the penalty save, Young was again cool calm and collected, Kean was steady and Garner made some well timed tackles and little Dniaye gave us a few more moments to savour reminding us that we came to watch some football and not all grit, toil and hard graft.

People need to get real and understand we really are a painfully poor outfit with hardly a proper footballer in the squad.

We have to scrape points where we can and hope 3 teams end up worse than us but throwing the dummy out because we're not playing on the front foot is delusional.

The DCL incident is a pen all day, great defending from Burn but a pen. Pawson is a terrible ref.

I honestly don't know what people want from this squad. We have struggled for 3 seasons, sold our best players, got injuries across the defence but we come away with a clean sheet and a point against a pretty strong Newcastle.

James Garner motm and should be converted to full back, the cross for Doucoure is something we haven't seen for decades from a right back at our club.

Garner wasn't that good at rb, he is not a natural for that position, he could have given us more in the middle and Dixon pace would have been a plus too.

Decoures best moment was an off side goal, gana starting would have helped our shape and possession.

Ndajae and Dwight were not on song because we were playing the wrong tune, on another day with a better conductor, we could have a team reading from the same song sheet...
Picks v Gordon was a good moment
Our pen claim was a 50 50, tarks blunder was awful,
Keane had his back a couple of times today...
On balance we take a point, but it felt like a missed opportunity to me.

It’s a decent outcome given what we have. Sad though to see how Newcastle can spend responsibly and give a manager time and do well versus us doing the complete opposite over and over again for 10 years.

I would like to see 451 with Ndiaye and McNeil wide with mangala gana and Tim down the middle.

I would play Garner RB until we get someone better.

We lack quality all over the pitch. I don't see how we can play open attacking footy with this squad.

Mind you, that same argument was used in the Liverpool game when St Virgil held Guehi late in the game. It's a foul and should have been a penalty.

Then we've got the DCL foul. If the ref gives that it doesn't get overturned. It doesn't get overturned because it was a foul.

I understand people making the argument that DCL kicked Burn - but only because they're being conditioned into thinking VAR judgements are actually rules of the game. They're not - they're massively inconsistent interpretations by people who are ruining the game. That's a foul everywhere on the pitch at every level of the sport for the full history of football. Burn isn't standing still - he inserts himself into that position to impede DCL who is about to score a certain goal.

But hang on, let's check the slo-mo. FFS that's not a decision that needed much analysis. DCL is about to score, Burn can't get to the ball, he can't get between ball and goal to block the shot, so he takes a risk and steps into the only place he can impede him. It's natural, it's instinctive, and it's a clear foul.

Of course Gueye should have rendered it irrelevant but it's Gueye. It's pretty expected. Except for the Expected Goals stats which would have expected him to score.

If you had uttered that post for the last two seasons I may have tended to agree with you. However this squad has had a massive upgrade in quality with the additions of Mangala, Lindstrom, Ndiaye and O Brien. The young boy from Villa looks decent as well.

Today if you go through the starting elevens I would make a combined team of 6 Newcastle starters and 5 Everton. Moreover Newcastles superiority came from the full back positions and middle of the park.

The only real goal threats they possessed today are Gordon and Barnes. We have Calvert Lewin and McNeill. Doucoure and Guimares are comparable in terms of goals. We have two players in Lindstrom and Ndiaye who have excellent goalscoring stats(though not at Premier League level yet)

We were at home, we had arguably the more potent firepower of the two sides and they had two elite players from the spine of their team missing so why shouldn't we play on the front foot when they were weakened in both departments?

Play the man, not his reputation!!

Last game against Palace it was how well the defense played with Branthwaite strengthening it. We play this game with no Branthwaite no recognized left back and another player brought in to replace a regular right back, against a team in the top 6 that held City to a draw last game.

I believe that the majority of supporters may not want S.Dyche to stay but if you give him the points back that poor management lost he did not do too bad last season, but I will not be surprised if he is replaced when the new ownership comes in..

He is there to keep us in the premier, and so far he has done that.even though sometimes it is ugly, but to have to replace 2 regulars a couple of days before a game he deserves a bit of credit, He is not on the pitch during the game .