Jake O’Brien hails Everton’s resilience after scoring 91st-minute equaliser against West Ham

Stepping up so professionally after being abandoned on the bench for months speaks well for his confidence and cojones. He's shown good pace and poise on the ball. I believe he's in line for a long and successful career for us.

Anjishnu, you've twice described Gana's brilliant pass as a half-volley, but it wasn't. No touch on the ground was involved. It was a full volley.

Amazing how two minds have such a different perception and how Dyche didn't deem Jake as an option boggles my own mind.

It almost feels like when we had Joleon Lescott at left-back again, the most unimaginable full-back you could think of but he was absolutely fantastic there and made a mockery of it.

The fact that Moyes has talked about teaching Jake the position is revealing. I find that a lot of coaches simply don't do this (I saw no evidence of it under Dyche) and almost expect players 'to know'.

Players who are always willing to listen and learn are generally the ones who get the most out of their ability.

I also happen to think Moyes would have got more from Arnaut Danjuma, another player grossly underused by Mr Cautious and another of Thelwell's signings that he didn't like.

The team as a whole was quite flat and to be fair to West Ham I thought they were okay and gave as good as they got.

Iroegbunam needs to start getting a bit more game time in my opinion even if it's we just start bringing him on as a sub earlier.

He so quickly showed his quality on the ball when he started getting real game time that it does boggle the mind he was languishing on the bench.

George, 11, while I’d rather see more of Chermiti and Broja up top — and I get the half-joke like previous calls to put Keane up there — Jake’s laser of a shot in the first half plus his recent finishes do make you believe he’s got 5 goals a season in him when starting 35 matches.

I’m fine with him playing out wide again next year if Jarrad is still around and Tarks is healthy and at the same level, but 2 years from now if he were starting alongside Branthwaite that would easily be a top 3 defensive pairing in the league.

Jonathan, O'Brien had never played right back in his entire career, but he's had some great teaching, and his poise on the ball is impressive. If Jarrad isn't sold, Moyes has a nice problem next season.

What on earth are you talking about Mike ? "EVERYBODY" ? He doesn`t get a mention by ANYBODY on this thread.

A few on here got carried away thinking Beto had turned into a scoring machine.Because of a month long purple patch. That's all, but putting foolish stats up do him no favors. They will not disguise his limitations. They are there or all to see.

Beto is loved by the fans here and I am sure he will score more goals. He plays with his balls out, but if he misses chances or plays badly I hope he does get criticised. The fact is. The affection in which he is held, as saved him from the sort of bile we often see directed at other players.

Harrison, Duke and DCL (even though he isn't playing) are the hate figures around here. We wont have a vacancy for another one until one of those leave.

I agree with the Tarkowski, Branthwaite and O'Brien assessment. Jake will continue at right back next season, but eventually it will be him and Jarrad in the middle. That is, all being well, we keep hold of them, which I'm confident we will do.

Right now, Tarkowski brings much needed experience and leadership, not just to the defence, but the team as a whole.

Beto has been very poor in the last three games but, apparently, if you point that out, the corrector-in-chief thinks it is 'ripping him {Beto) a new one'.

There is no defence of Beto for his recent misses but, like you Colin, I hope he comes good. Hope rather than believe. Beto will go in the summer. The corrector-in-chief is already jumping ship to Chermiti who, apparently, only he believes will come good for us in much the same way as said corrector spent all fecking winter telling us how TFG had it all sussed and had a CE0 lined up on Guy Fawkes night.

The corrector loves stats.I wonder if anyone on here has posted as many wrong predictions on here in the last year as said c-i-c. who told us that DCL has never scored a 'great goal' for us with very revealing responses when a bunch of us called hi out.

Beto clearly has big deficiencies in his game that stand out more when he’s not scoring. He’s been poor for the last few games but he’s still our joint top scorer this season in an admittedly a low scoring team. Whether he is still here this summer remains to be seen, we will want/need a better striker in the future I’m sure but they are usually expensive and we have many areas in the team to improve. It will be interesting to see whether Moyes puts the outward bound DCL straight back in when fit.

I'm not a big fan of stats. They can be adjusted to suit a narrative.

If a player does well and puts the effort in, he'll get the praise. If not, he will be criticised.

Made up with young Jake. It still baffles me why Dyche ignored him. He still has some going to match Derek Mountfield as a goal-scoring centre-back though!!

Your belief that I was referring to you is every bit as bizarre as Mike's claim that everybody was ripping Beto a new one.

I wonder if you guys are crossing threads in error because neither you nor Beto had been mentioned on this thread.

Two things are vital - delivery (obviously), and having planned routines. This is why these set-piece coaches are all the rage.

I found it telling that Dan Burn said after their game yesterday that they had been working on those corners for 2 weeks solid.

I've mentioned before that Dyche wanted Greaves who was at Hull City but he ended up choosing Ipswich.

Thelwell then signed O'Brien against Dyche's wishes. Consequently he wouldn't play him, choosing Young instead. Stubborn to the point of stupidity.

I bet Greaves is made up with his decision! I'm certainly glad we got Jake instead.

It would be great if we have both of those at centre-back in the new stadium – the English and Irish captains of the near future.

Seeing such a big lad run and cross at speed from Jake is very encouraging. Now he's chipping in with goals, he may get close to Degsy status. (Wasn't it 14 in a season? Gwan Jake, beat that!)

On Beto, I love him but he's not got the same skills as Calvert-Lewin, who I am still a big admirer of and hope we keep. Compare the two similar opportunities of Calvert-Lewin v Spurs and Beto v West Ham. Both did very well to make the chance but whilst DCL leant away from the ball to clear his feet, Beto kicked the ground.

I hope that DCL stays and Moyes gives him the service he was starved of under Dyche. I think Chermiti will be an asset also so best of luck in Italy, Beto, and thank you x 100 for the big-hearted effort you gave.

I don't know if George @(11) was serious or not but I would try him as a striker and maybe get a success like Fred Pickering who was converted from a defender to a goalscoring centre-forward.

Dyche wouldn't have wanted Greaves once it became clear Branthwaite was staying. And Greaves wouldn't have joined to sit on the bench when he was being offered games at Ipswich.

I think it's also fair to say the O'Brien signature was something to do with the Textor links – given we also signed Mangala in strange circumstances and were strongly linked with so many other Lyon players – and players playing for Textor-owned clubs in Brazil.

It also doesn't seem particularly wild to have persisted with Branthwaite and Tarkowski as first choice – with Young at right-back. Although unpopular, Young has been one of our better performers this season.

It is good that O'Brien is now doing well and getting games out of position. He could be a really big part of our future – but I think you're reading a lot into his limited game time pre-Moyes which doesn't really stack up.

And we had a lengthy debate about Beto and indeed your negative feelings about stats during said purple patch. Great if you weren't referring to me but clearly it's the same ballpark.

Nevertheless, I think Moyes will bring him on to be a top centre-half.

And that's not reading a lot into anything, it's just my observations in what I see on the pitch. Whether or not Greaves choosing Ipswich was, in a roundabout way, because Branthwaite stayed put is, again, conjecture.

I don't know about you, Robert, but I only breathed a sigh of relief once the transfer window closed. Sorry, slammed shut. Did Greaves know Jarrad wasn't going for certain?

As for the Textor links, I think we did pretty well out of it. Shame Mangala got injured but maybe we wouldn't have had Alcaraz if he hadn't. If he regains full fitness I would have him back in a heartbeat.

I think O'Brien is better going forward than defending and Pickering wasn't very fast but had good control, could hit a ball and wasn't bad in the air.

It's unlikely to happen, Jake being converted, just a thought. By the way, I never thought Mountfield was a great centre-back. I loved his goals though.

When Mike claimed everyone was ripping into Beto he was screaming for a penalty without even getting into the box.

To put up a stat which says Beto has scored 5 in 8 is in my opinion an attempt to distort the true picture. It ignores the other 43 games he has played for us (in which he scored 4).

I wont say anymore on Beto for fear of being accused of "ripping him a new one" (Especially as nobody else had even mentioned him) and I wont make any apologies for taking selective stats with a pinch of salt.

There's a lot to like about him and I think he could be a really good player for us for the next 5 to 10 years as he settles down and takes up a position in central defence.

Ray you're right it's all opinions. Personally, I just think Dyche saw O'Brien as behind Tarkowski, Branthwaite and Keane for the time being and hadn't considered him as a right-back. Plan A was probably for him to get up the pecking order with Keane leaving, Tarkowski aging and Branthwaite being sold.

In fairness, Keane was our best centre-back at the start of the season — with Tarkowski the weakness.

One of the big differences between Moyes and Dyche was the pressing of other teams, the opportunities to show what players can do (O'Brien), with no expectations and the consequential building of 'team' spirit under Moyes.
This belief and team spirit is waning now because Moyes has asked and named players that need to 'score' if they are to be in the team next week or even at Everton next year.
In one game Alcaraz was fuming with Beto because he had a clear chance but Beto with 'a need to score' in the back of his mind went and tried a very marginal chance himself and failed to score. This 'need to score' is now spreading to Harrison and Linstrom. This will only get worse now that Linstrom was dropped for most of the game against West Ham.
Beto's earlier poor form, before Moyes's arrival was also due to his selfishness which made him easy to defend against.

The mind set of the manager will ultimately determine where the team will finish. Look at Nuno Espírito Santo and his stats, they are amazing ( https://uk.soccerway.com/coaches/nuno-herlander-simoes-espirito-santo/252341/ ) he wants to win each week not survive. When his teams falters he says things like ' we need to work on that' and a week later it is obvious that he has worked on that problem. Eddie Howe is another manager with amazing stats who wants to win not just to survive.

Yesterday the team across the road lost the cup in the same week that they exited the Champions league. Their manager made similar mistakes to Moyes making substitutions too late and too many. However they finished the week off making £60M+ from their exploits. Our 'dropped' 8 points would have made us an extra £10M+ from prize money in premier league positional improvement ( nearly enough to pay for Alcatraz's purchase).
Slot is not a great manager his lack of class showed again yesterday when you could see the annoyed look on his face because he believed his players were not playing great when he knew that they should because they were LFC players. Instead he should have become detached and made professional decisions and made substitutions earlier.

One other extremely key poor management action that Moyes is showing is the way he is dealing with contract extensions and negotiations. With the first paragraph in mind he should be saying NO talks will take place with any player until we are mathematically safe.
I have seen many people lose their jobs and the last thing they want to do is too pull out all stops for a company that they soon will not belong to.

Credit to Moyes that this time our players are no long giving our tactics away on Motd. I hate to say it but watch a master Van Dijk. When they win he says we deserved it when they lose he says we had lots of chances but did not take them. Not once have I seen him discuss LFCs tactics.

Michael Keane gave us some great moments of late. The screamer against Tottenham and that Palace goal as well as being part of the centre back trio that gave us the 99th minute equaliser at Molineux to take us to the wire. Tarkowski to Keane to big Yerry to slide it in at the back post.

But most of the time, during his Everton career, he worried the shit out of me. Every player makes mistakes, but too often the lapses in concentration and lack of anticipation, watching the ball go over his head before reacting without the pace to recover.

It will be interesting to see where he goes in the summer. Maybe one of the promoted teams from the Championship?

You're right about Mountfield Dave. I was amongst those who booed Dave Watson, when he replaced Derek. Not something I'm proud of, many were upset that he was making way. But in hindsight, it appears injuries also limited his chances. He still went on to play a fair few games for Aston Villa.

I think in 84-85, his score tally was in double figures. And who can forget the winner in the semi-final at Villa Park and his celebration, which was met with a mini pitch invasion?!! Black eye and all!!

Richardson was a very good player, who also went on to win a league title with Arsenal and a trophy with Aston Villa.

The most underrated player of that period was Alan Harper. It seemed he could play every position on the field of play.

But Howard was strict. It was a different era in terms of subs, but if the manager's first 11 was fit, they played, with Richardson and Harper making way regardless of how well they had performed.

It was sad the way it worked out for Gary Speed at Everton. There were rumours of him not being happy with how his boyhood club was being run, and with Kendall in particular, but I don't confess to know the detail and he was respectful enough not to mention it.

I spotted a similar situation against West Ham around the 61st minute. Beto had the ball in our half and Alcatraz was drawing level with a West Ham player unmarked and onside urgently signalling Beto to pass to him who then turned back without trying the pass so he could not be blamed for losing possession.

Robert (36) on a really good day most of the players in our team and the four teams we recently played have the ability to 'seem to possess' unlimited energy, win the vast majority of tackles, complete passes and sometime score amazing goals against teams like Liverpool.

However confidence, results and league direction play their part. Until the last four games we have been moving rapidly away from the bottom of the league whereas Man Utd, West Ham, have been losing games, Brentford seem to be losing most games at home and Wolves had lost their main striker. Apart from Wolves the teams were either in stationary positions or falling down the league, apart from Wolves who were starting to move away from the bottom three. So when we played them our players were filled with confidence.

A great example was the game on Sunday night Leicester vs Man Utd. I had to switch off after 20 mins it was embarrassing the home team's positions, passes and tackling were terrible. Not even good enough for the Championship.

This has also been the case for the Southampton and Ipswich games. This is one of the reason why I blame Moyes for our draws. None of those teams are going to get to 40 points I even doubt they will achieve 34 points.

Robert the only player I worry about at the moment is Dacoure we have no idea which player is playing even during the game he is brilliant and then erratic.

I am sorry but the last 9 RESULTS can be mainly put down as Moyes's STRENGTHS in management. At the moment in Moyes's mind this idea of maintaining an unbeaten streak is A key thing, though he publicly claims the top priority is the need to get to 40 points, WHICH WE CERTAINLY WILL. For me we have now GAINED 16 points due to this thinking - ALMOST HALF OUR POINTS TOTAL IN LESS THAN A THIRD OF THE GAMES. We were better, man for man, than the other 4 teams in every game AND DIDNT LOSE.

UTFT

Beto will start over there a week on Wednesday. But he will not start our first game at the Dock.

I wouldn't call the number of goals a "selective stat" for a striker -- in fact there's nothing more important IMO. But I think Sam is right to wonder whether Beto keeps his position when Dom returns healthy.

I don't think that Moyes was the one moving Beto's limbs Frank and putting thoughts in our #14's head when he fluffed the opportunities he has had over the same stretch of time.

A top striker does not miss all of those.

So, some on the LF apparently gave Beto grief for squandering chances which lost us points I think. What are they supposed to say?

"Oh jolly bad luck Beto old bean better luck next time as the old saying goes fifth time lucky or is it six or seven"?

As for saying we're better than Man Utd player for player - that's just daft. I know they are in terrible form but the playing squad is streets ahead of ours in pretty much every position.

I'm with Paul and Mark on this one.