Ranking the importance of offering contracts to Everton first-team players

Although all of them have their moments, none of them are are especially good. Would any of them have got into the First XI of Palace who beat the RS yesterday?

Garner possibly - ahead of Kamada alongside the excellent Wharton in midfield. Mitchell is definitely better than Mykolenko. Tarkowski is nowhere near mobile enough to get into the athletic back 3 used by Glasner.

I expect Tarkowski will be overtaken by O'Brien at CB once we get around to buying a RB (probably next summer but hopefully January). Plan A will presumably be for Aznou to takeover from Mykolenko within the next 12 to 18 months.

Keeping these three therefore seems logical and helps us spend out money on other more pressing areas of the pitch.

Realistically we probably need to keep all three on but ideally on wages that are somewhere between first team and squad player. Tarkowski especially is on big wages and will rightfully point to being an integral part of keeping us in the league.

As Robert says Branthwaite and O’Brien is probably the long term pairing at CB and we need to buy better a better left back and central midfielder asap.

Tarkowski is definitely better than Richards who struggles to start for USA and is often the weak link in their defense as highlighted yesterday. Lacroix has done well for Palace but he is working in a tight compact well coached system where the Centre backs rarely get exposed.

Comparing Mitchell and Mykolenko is also difficult. Mitchell is suited as a wing back as he is quite poor defensively even though he has improved this under Glassner.Obviously going forward he is different gravy to our boy. Put it this way if Mitchell was playing for us in a back four and up against Salah I wouldn't be looking forward to it and that is the reason he can't make an England squad who haven't had a decent left back for a number of years.

If Moyes doesn't rate this kid like most youngsters in his care then it wouldn't surprise me to see him move for Cirkin in January. A British/Irish player who did well in the Championship at a good age and is quite good going forward with only a year left on his contract. Seems like your typical Moyes type signings.

Mykolenko: we might see a significant improvement with an injury-free run and time with the squad. He's stepped up since joining but not seeing a world beater at this point in time. Keeping him would mean we'd want better quality to come in ahead of him. Again, potentially a squad player in future? If we're looking at where the next signing(s) need to be in defence, a new right-back is needed ahead of a new left-back.

Tarks: we should keep him, unless he's now gone past his peak. I'd like to see how O'Brien and Branthwaite pair. It could be they're too similar and an alternative style player is needed to balance the centre pairing. We've seen O'Brien do a solid job at right-back but we know a high-quality right-back will offer defensive and attacking duties and a different balance.

The only thing keeping Mykolenko in the list is the lack of an alternative and the higher priority for a right-back, in the current squad, albeit Garner has proven an option in the short term.

Mykolenko might have a good game against Salah 2 games a season (albeit we typically lose at least one of those games) but he makes pretty much no impression otherwise.

Although they can be stout defenders, I think there's a very good case to say we have the worst full-back pairing in the Premier League.

As for Tarkowski, I do see your point... but he's too slow and immobile to play in that Palace back 3. Richards might be an inferior footballer but he's got the physical attributes for the role which Tarkowski lacks.

Even now that we get more men forward, it seems less than others who manage to get 5 or 6 into the penalty area when attacking. We have improved with Ndiaye joining in at the back post but we rarely seem to have more than three (Dewsbury-Hall near post, Beto hard to say where each time, and Ndiaye back post), corners excepted as Mykolenko doesn't take them.

Garner and Gana tend to stay around the edge of the penalty area and Grealish turns to and from several times.

And don't anybody say that I've listed 5 around the penalty box as, when Dewsbury-Hall gets forward, then either Garner or Gana hold back out of his run.

I think the corners themselves are the problem, still no variation on them whatsoever, every single one is the same, hit into the 6-yard area and hope one of players get on the end of it.

They are one of our main tactics of scoring a goal but we ain't Arsenal when it comes to putting one of those corners into the back of the net.

Why did Moyes let that dead-ball genius of a coach leave!

Being put in the ludicrous situation we were at the start of the season was never going to be addressed in one window. Even with our finances being positive. Our reputation as being relegation material and shit at enticing anything other than duffers (for decades), and straight-out lying about the recruitment ahead to potential new comers is also a massive hindrance.

Now we have to address low numbers. Still low quality just about everywhere, and age. Coleman was there in an emergency... and straight away we had it. With Gueye, Tarkowski, Keane all pushing for bus passes, I mean punditry, we are nearly in the same position as this season's start.

January has to be about quality. Paradoxically, numbers in have proved terrible and a waste of valuable hundreds of millions.

Anthony @5 is spot on about Garner. Keep him at left-back. He disappears in midfield. He has shone there so far. With a lack of natural central midfield replacement for him (a position we have spent the most on and failed at addressing), we would have to think who can go in there until we buy quality. Tim Iroegbunam is useless.

Alcaraz is not coming good which leaves the lightweight but high energy Dewsbury-Hall. Put Ndiaye or Grealish to feed Beto... Dibling filling their vacancy.

Can't knock his performance but he isn't at Liverpool yet.

We still seem to play the first corner passed the back post for Tarkowski to head back across the 6-yard box and then start on hitting them as you say, and that's all the variety we seem to have.

It seems as though we don't have anyone on the coaching staff who can manage more then one thing at a time.

Garner is the only centre midfielder we have of resale value in all honesty. His co-workers, Timmy and Gana don't have much in terms of value.

Mykolenko has to get a new deal as he's our only left-back, and going forward, if we signed better, I'd still imagine, against the top clubs, Mykolenko would be the man trusted especially with his history vs Salah, Saka etc.

Tarkowski is a difficult one for me. I think he's showing signs of decline... do we really offer him £100k per week for anything more than 2 years? If so, will he sign that 2-year deal, or will he get a better option as a free agent!