Testing pre-season friendly ends in a draw

(See link above... but you probably need to be a paid up and logged-in Member of Forever Blue)

How pathetic was we tonight? No idea, no vision, no idea !!

Sack the board.
Sack the manager.
Sack everyone!!!

😁😂 all in jest.

Welcome back lads and well done to the young lads who did well. Looking forward to a good season.

Sorry, got carried away re: the Wham Stadium.

Anyway, I always see these pre-season results and think: “shit, we’re absolute shite and gonna get destroyed next season” and then see us start fairly well pretty much from the beginning of the new season; so I should really say nothing. I guess it’s like target practice. Pre-season is just about waiving your gun around and firing when you want. The actual season is far more disciplined and means trying as hard as you can.

Shit analogy but you get what I mean.

UTFT!!!!

Yes a bonus if you win a few games but it means nothing more than getting ready for the 1st game of the season.

TBH I thought it was great to see the amount of youngsters given a try out, Harrison looks like a decent squad player for us this season and 1 for the future and I was impressed with Issac Heath when he came on, nice composure, direct which won us the penalty. Young Tamen at rb yes raw but faired well and battled well.

Given more game time I believe Tim will be a good asset.

That said I do believe we need another 6 players before the 1st game of the season, one being a starting rb and another covet at lb as Patterson is not the answer.

Onto Blackburn

I don't think the saying "you don't win anything in pre-season" is actually a saying... just saying like.

"Last season...the takeover joys
The very next day...you brought back the Moyes
This year... it will feel just like heaven
"The Return of the Magnificent Seven"

Fitz #15, I'm guessing Osman? Seems like it's been more than ten years.

These games are all about match fitness but I thought Isaac Heath and Justin Clarke did well and turned the game in our favour when they came on.

Hopefully it was just a case of fitting people in during pre-season, but he used him wide last season. A good transfer window will mean buying a quality right winger and hopefully loaning another, so I’m hoping Alcaraz will be played centrally.

There’s a lot of ‘hoping’ in there though.

Edit: Paul (21), yes we have easily the smallest and weakest squad in the league at the moment. We’re now 6 players short by my reckoning: RB, LB, CM, RWx2, AM/LW (depending on where N’Diaye will be used)

Off topic, I was sat next to an Accy fan who told me Billy Crellin was the worst keeper they've ever had, "he must have cost us over 20 points last season". Good job we never had to use him if he couldn't handle League 2 football.

The players may have been back in training, But training gets you fit, not match fit. Only matches do that, and this was our first one back. It's easy to forget how quickly you can lose match fitness, and it takes a few games to get it back.

I thought it was a decent workout and it was good to see some of the younger players. No disrespect to Accrington, but it's hard to gauge how they would fair against higher level opposition.

Armstrong looked composed, tidy and comfortable on the ball. He has an eye for a pass and his link up play is good. Not afraid to have a shot from distance, drawing a good save.

I thought Patterson and Mykolenko played well, with both full backs getting forward. Mykolenko in particular has carried on from where he left off in the second half of last season and seems to have shaken off his what, at times, was almost a fear of crossing the half way line.

Chermiti looked good, only denied a goal by a couple of good saves. Don't loan him out, we're going to need 3 strikers next season.

Oroegbunam looked assured. I wonder with Tim, Gana, Garner and Armstrong, the midfield berth becomes less of a priority?

Tyrer looked confident and Isaac Heath gave a good account of himself. Direct running and tricky. Justin Clarke looked a right handful, but as I say, we have to remain conscious of the opposition.

I'm still of the opinion that only Armstrong is good enough to feature next season, along with Tyrer as 3rd choice keeper.

I noticed a few of the more senior players pulling out of 50-50s. Understandable and I think you'll always get that in a pre-season friendly as they won't want to risk injury.

Frontline central strikers so not the likes of Sterling, Salah, Semenyo etc. We need more versatile wide players, but I'm not sure Chermitti is that.

Liverpool have 7 listed in their first team squad. Chelsea 6. Without looking, there are probably more.

Arsenal fell foul last season when, through injury and failure to bring one in in January, they played without a recognised striker.

All it would take is for one of our 3 to get injured and then we're down to 2. And if anything else happens, as was the case last season, we're down to one.

Good teams who compete build depth in all areas. I don't expect it to happen next week, as we've got other priorities, which is why I think keeping Chermiti would make sense to me.

And, they are all different types of forward, which allows the manager to change it when required.

We do not need more than 2 central strikers. We defiintely do need more forwards who can play out wide or a second striker possibly. As far as I know Chermitti does not play wide. Was he playing wide last night?

Al I'm saying, and it's fine that we disagree, is that I would rather we have 3 in that position. We already have them anyway.

Chermiti played as the forward. Moyes traditionally has done that, although we had 2 strikers on when Beto came on.

All about getting the players back up to speed and a work out, results unimportant for me at this early stage, just a game to blow the cobwebs off and let’s not forget, that was Accrington’s third pre season game, so just a case of getting fitness levels up.

I hope we get to see Braidon Graham and Martin Sherif get some minutes against Blackburn before the team go off the the states,, both look good prospects.

Maybe he had more money to buy them of course. But what I feel we need (and I am sure the management are aware of this) is a winger - a David Thomas type - to provide the ammunition for our strikers. Bob Latchford would have been of little use without service, and I don't think recent Everton strikers have been very well served in that department.

The central midfield options we currently have are far too lightweight, save for Gana who shouldn't be playing every game.

We are crying out for pace wide right.

Sorry but whilst Myko is dependable that's all he is imo, and we have zero cover.

We have no Premier League level right full back, as things stand O'Brien would have to play there again.

Holding Chermiti as a third central striker makes no sense to me, he would get little game time and what he needs right now in order to progress is game time.

How about belting out the la,s there she goes, will soon catch on, obviously just the chorus 😁

I cannot make the Blackburn game but be good to hear a new song from the Everton faithful and what better than there she goes.

Up the Toffees.

Fine to have different opinions but all I'm saying (to back up mine) is that very few PL teams had 3 central strikers to cover one starting position last season:

Liverpool- Nunez, Jota and sometimes Diaz

Arsenal- Jesus and Havertz

City- Haaland and Marmoush

Chelsea- Jackson and Broja (who they loaned)

Newcastle -Isak and Wilson

Villa- Just Watkins?

Forest- Wood and Awoniyi

Brighton -Welbeck and Pedro (arguably a 10)

Bournemouth- Just Evanilson?

Brentford- Just Wissa?

Fulham- Jiminez and Muniz

Palace- Mateta, Nketiah and Edouard (hardly played).

West Ham- Fullkrug, Antonio and Ings/Ferguson (hardly played).

Man U- Hojlund and Zirzkee

Wolves- Strand Larsen and Cunha (who plays mainly as second striker)

Spurs- Solanke and Tel

Leicester- Vardy and Daka

Ipswich- Delap and Hirst

Southampton- Archer, Onuachu and Armstrong.

Obviously these teams have other versatile forwards (who mainly play wide but can play central in a pinch) and this is what we desperately need but this idea that teams need more than 2 central strikers is not borne out by what other teams have and I would be sad to see Chermitti's (or anyone else's) development stalled by sitting on the bench.

There she goes
[Clap, clap, clap]
There she goes again
[Clap, clap, clap]
Racing through my brain
[Clap, clap, clap]
And I just can't contain
This feelin that remains.

Then repeat; it will sound bloody marvellous belted out at the ground.

Squads just aren't carrying multiple striker options like they used to.

Lets cordially disagree Sam. Liverpool definitely have more than the 3 listed. I think I get what you are basing you viewpoint on; a focal main striker??

Liverpool don't play that way, even if one of them is central.

Back to Everton, it's not just the numbers, it's the options. All are different.

Beto: Clumsy, which works in his favour sometimes. Often the opposition defence don't know what's going to happen!!

Chermiti: Now fit, looks to be the most comfortable on the ball and has a good touch.

Barry: We're stepping into the unknown and he may take to settle and adapt, so I don't see him starting straight away. From what I have seen, and was only a few appearances for the French 21s, he looks quick, powerful and is 6ft 5in.

Disagreement is fine but you are going against the norm as I hope I've demonstrated. The list above is (unless I've made an error which is very possible) all the forwards who played more games in the middle (as central striker) than out wide or deeper.

As Robert @47 says, very few teams carry multiple striker options. We need more versatile forwards. And Chermiti needs game time.

We need a winger with pace who can cross a ball, and go forward, not go backwards.

We didn't sign Jordan Henderson.

This is an opportunity to upgrade — not stand still.

I don't even want them as squad players. Hopefully it's just speculation.

Sam, our neighbours don't play with a recognised No.9 like we do, maybe Toshack was the closest?

On the 'should he stay or should he go' Chermiti question, maybe a compromise is a loan with a call-back clause? Will probably mean we get no fee and have to pay his wages though, but no worse off than him staying.