Mansfield Town make Everton work hard for the win

Be interesting to see what sort of shape Coleman is in as he seems to have been kept around more as a motivator than active player.

Strong enough team tbf

Can he make it three in one week by playing Wolves on Saturday?

That would also mean an incoming 3rd striker, either on loan or off the free agent list.

It will be interesting to see if Armstrong can seize his opportunity to press for a regular place.

We need him fit and ready for as many Premier League games as possible.

No-one needs to be ‘rested' at this point in the season. This is our best chance of winning a trophy and qualifying for Europe this season.

'Rested' was the wrong choice of word, rather not risked.

Sending Chermiti to Rangers would be a mistake. They are rubbish and so is Scottish football. Somewhere like Stoke, Preston or Blackburn would be better. Toughen him up.

The thought of him getting injured after the euphoria of Sunday scares me. His presence lifted the club.

And he's clearly a cut above every other player we have, imo.

Strong team, get it won, then make changes. Not the other way around. Start weak and end up chasing the game.

I suppose the only time a cup isn’t meaningless, is when you have just got your hands on the trophy and paraded it in front of your supporters, and the only time a club isn’t meaningless, is when it competes to win bloody cups.

No wonder we have never gone so long without winning a trophy before?

If every premier league game is meaningful, then surely every single cup game must mean even more, with my logic being that we might just be capable of winning a cup, whereas we have got absolutely no chance of winning the league right now?

I'll see your Rangers and raise you Liverpool (the horriblest team in the universe).

COYB

Remember when kids had half n half bobble hats in the 80s. Those kids who wore the RS/Rangers ones all ended up with brain damage.

Chaos at the turnstiles?

I see where the redshite scouts are barred from the Chelsea academy after poaching the winger who scored the winner, expecting big compensation.

Christy - the redshites have been trawling around south London for a few years now poaching all sorts of players. The absolute Biffs.

Has Dibling convinced the doubters after this?

McNeil and Ndiaye did a lot more dribbles than he did. The lad has confidence, you can see that, but I wanted to see him do more with the ball.

Still I should be grateful he actually got on the field. And that kid Armstrong got a full 90+ minutes.

Absolutely brilliant strike from Alcaraz. That is exactly what I want to see him doing.

There were multiple moments tonight when we kept the ball in situations that so often have undone us in the past. We usually make easy things look tough, so I enjoyed watching us looking in full control.

Mal, I think it'll continue to be disjointed for a while. Some of these guys barely know each other. It'll get more fluent as time goes on.

Half the teams who qualified for Europe, except Palace, get a home draw so they can't be drawn together. What the Fuck???

I'm still concerned up front. Would love to see a genuine goal scorer leading the line but I can't see who we could get.

Players at this stage need games and that was a decent competitive but comfortable runout.

Our problem will obviously be carrying a real threat in attack... but that's nothing new. At least we should see goals from the players in behind.

Myko back is probably the big win of the night.

I think Harrison Armstrong was a bit unlucky his touch wasn't quite enough to stop Grealish's firmly hit ball from squirming slightly wider than was ideal but he still has to fashion a shot across the keeper if he can't quite play it square for Barry to finish.

Grealish and McNeil have to get their chances on target.

But I'm not complaining too much as I've seen us play much more conservatively in these sort of games.

Jimmy G, Armstrong and Seamus (rolling back the years) all backed up the flair players with accomplished performances.

A moderate performance by Dibling showed good maturity. He knows there will be plenty of games to come when we really need him to let loose.

It's pretty amazing how rapidly we've gone from a hard to shift first eleven to a squad with multiple options. If the goals are shared around then we won't need the 20 goals a season focal point.

Thierno Barry actually started really well with good control and some neat touches. Then he had one that he messed up completely and his composure deserted him.

For reflection, Fernandes dropped a clanger for Manure at the weekend and fluffed penalties by Cunha and Mbeumo dumped them out of the cup against League 2 Grimsby tonight.

We could loan Iroebungan but he's already had a year in the Championship with QPR so it would need to be a European loan for me, or taking the money if someone came in.

Harrison is so composed on the ball his age.

I can't see why Henry was praising Baby Beto AKA Thierno Barry. I know its early days and he needs to adjust but the ball doesn't stick to him considering we we told he had decent hold up play.

I think we need a new striker before deadline. If we spending our remaining budget on a RB and DM, it might need to be a loan.

I wouldn't be adverse to Vardy on the bench for a season. Or even taking Hamza Igamane on a loan with buy option. He seems to have burnt his bridges at Rangers and they want Chermiti on loan.

Chance to set down a marker for that game on Saturday and keep the current momentum going in the right direction.

Gavin, why are you ushering players out the door?

We don't need another midfielder — he's here already!

I don't mind adding more players anywhere if they are undoubtedly better than what we have now, but RB is the only real absolute necessity for me.

If he stays that pushes Iroebungen towards a loan and I don't think he needs a domestic loan unless its to a newly promoted PL club and would another Prem club want him?

I think 5 central midfielders, those being a new signing, Dewsbury Hall, Garner, Gana and Armstrong is enough.

I'm also not counting Alcaraz as a midfielder and categorising him as an attacking player.

We need depth on the bench but it also needs to be balanced.

So the story goes.

I am in the upper North, it took 45 mins in a queue to get in. With only 4 turnstiles which face each other the whole thing is a hazard.
How has this happened, anyone who has ever been to a match would have done a better job.

The game itself wasn't anything to write home about. A win and move on, positives being Coleman and Mykolenko playing most of the game.

We let 11 players go and have brought 8 in. That’s still a deficit from what was a small squad to begin with. Some of the newcomers are definitely going to need time to settle.

Until more better players arrive why speculate?

Used to have to queue from hour and a half before the game just to be sure to get in at the Gwladys Street.

Supporters used to being molly-coddled these days?

I thought the game / performance was pretty good considering how new half the squad is. Massive improvement on the Leeds game which was only 9 days ago.

I'm happy to keep Iroebungen, but it looks likely we're bringing in a defensive midfielder from all the reports, from Alan Myers to the Athletic who say we still want a DM and RB.

Personally, I'd bring in another striker, or striker winger hybrid over another midfielder, because Armstrong looks so good.

There's been a lot of speculation that Armstrong, as with Chermiti, that they will go out on loan if we bring in another striker or midfielder, I'm surprised you've not read that anywhere.

I struggle to see what his strengths are, little signs that there is something soon to blossom.

He doesn’t seem technically gifted, blessed with real pace, a stone cold finisher of chances, physically dominant and his hold up, touch and passing seems on par with Beto tbh.

Am not trying to slag him off, hound him out the club or declare him a failure but from what I have seen for us and from his YouTube collection, he seems a bit gangly, awkward and average. I hope am wrong and will gladly raise my hands if so but I think for all his faults, Beto will prove to offer more threat, be more of a handful and score more goals

McNeil was also poor tonight.

Alcaraz was near and tidy, Armstrong was busy, garner involved a lot but the game felt a bit flat and slow. Would like to see more width, wingers and fullbacks switching who hugs the touch line, overlaps when the wingers drift inside and inside runs when the wingers provide the width. Give the opposition more to worry about as we currently funnel centrally to much

You say the reports are we are trying to bring in a DM and RB but where are the credible reports that say that automatically means someone will go out on loan?

Our squad is still very small and will have to cope with an unknown number of injuries and players representing their countries at AFCON. Some versatile players may end up covering more than one position.

I don’t think we need to worry about players needing games to develop. Other clubs seem capable of keeping their best 16, 17 and 18 year olds close and using them when needed. We actually have some exceptional players now who can surely spread their know-how at Finch Farm?

Thank god the Kirkby/tesco arena failed because BMD is unbelievable

Seems to be he already has improved us.

For now I'm confident we'll avoid relegation and reasonably confident we have another trophy-less, non-Euro qualifying season to look forward to.

After years of dread, boredom and anger I suppose I'll accept that.

What does Friedkin think though?

I am interested in incomings, but outgoings leave me cold. Not something I can influence and it quickly becomes ‘water under the bridge’, so why worry about it?

I’m merely trying to understand what you get out of speculating who is going to be least useful to the club if, and only if, a series of other things - which you can’t specify - happen first. It seems like a good way to ramp up anxiety.

There is a ‘sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander element’ as well. Fans get enraged if their players (or their agents) show disloyalty by even considering leaving their clubs, but things aren’t reciprocal if fans fantasize about who they think is redundant? Try that out with your missus.

I definitely don’t see speculation on who should be ditched as integral to appreciation of the game. Just looks like the love child of ‘Football Manager’ and the over-hyped transfer window to me.

Each to their own.

I want squad depth but I also want balance on what we have on the bench. I just don't think we need 6 central midfielders (7 including Alcaraz) even with Gana going to to the AFCON for a month or so.

I'm certainly not trying to usher Iroebungan out of the club...I'm happy to keep him, but if we do buy another midfielder, which I expect we will, I worry about the number of games and minutes Armstrong or Iroebungan will be involved in as they are likely to be the 5th or 6th choice in the pecking order.

If this is the case, I'd prefer one of them to go out on loan be playing every week.

All I'll say, is that if we bring someone else in, I think one of them to be allowed to go out on loan, or even sold in Iroebungan's case.

And just to speculate even more and go into full football manager mode... if we were to sell Tim we might have another £15m or so to go towards buying or loaning a 3rd striker we look as though we need.

Wouldn't mind that Kellen Fisher from Norwich and a cheeky bid for Richy as our new number 9.

No Gavin, I was asking if there had been any credible articles about Armstrong being ‘earmarked for a loan’, not just speculation by you or anyone else.

If you are just speculating based on others speculation it seems like a good way to promulgate ‘fake news’ to me.

Fine, carry on. Just make it clear you are heaping your speculation on top of someone else’s from the outset, so I know whether I can mentally file it as ‘probably nothing to worry about’ or not.

For now, I’m going back to being content about the squad that is being assembled.

I don’t understand people getting prissy about being asked to back-up what they choose to post.

People can say whatever they want as long as they make it clear it is only their opinion, if that is what it is, and are prepared to explain it lucidly to others who don’t get it.

Otherwise this isn’t a ‘forum’, it’s just an internet version of a toilet wall.

All the speculation can be deemed as 'fake news', as you call it until a player signs on the dotted line but we're still allowed to speculate and comment on it.

I don't see what purpose it serves for you to keep responding and going over it, when at your own admission, it makes you cold to think about possible outgoings.

if we bring in a new striker and midfielder before deadline, we have to think about young players development so I've merely posed the questions...It not about me wanting young players out of the club...Its about the best way for them to reach their potential and also take the club forward.

Got through the the first outer gate okay. Got to Gate 16 and got through there, however as my seat I was right at the back top of the stand, and being partially disabled ( knees and hip) I asked the Steward where the lift was ? I was led back out to another small queue !

When I got to the head of that queue, a female steward asked again for my Ticket. I produced the Print Off which had been accepted twice, " that is no good I need to see a Ticket or Google Wallet ". Needless to say my usually cool demeanour was becoming frayed. After a lot of toing and froing the Head Steward verified that I was ' legit ' so then on to the lift fiasco. It eventually arrived (FULL) no room people who had got in but were too slow to get out at Level 3 were back down again. This happened a few times, and again on leaving.

That is one of the reasons that the match was delayed, many Stewards were clueless about what to do, except be pedantic, and relish their few minutes of self importance, to the detriment of genuine match-goers !

I have read articles this summer that Tim Iro, Chermiti, Armstrong, Patterson and Dixon might go out on loan. It would help develop their game as it did with Jarrad and Harrison.

Probably speculation but interesting to read, and some may prove correct if we can bring in the players we want. If a poster finds is uninteresting, then skip past the post in question.

The issue is the game time that Harrison will get this season if he stays. If Moyes starts him then fine, but I would expect him to feature mainly as a substitute.

He played 15 games for Derby after he joined them on loan at the start of February, most of them as a starter. He has definitely benefitted from this and looks a better player.

It will also be interesting to see how many games Dibling starts this season.

Sorry to hear your visit was such a ordeal.Hopefully Everton will sort themselves out.

They seem to have adopted a new policy too. I had two separate appointments with different Departments at Chester Hospital. Received a letter saying because I had NOT turned up for an Appointment I was to be removed from the list and would have to get my G P to make arrangements to have me re-instated.

Thing is, I NEVER received the Appointment Letter in both cases. Oh, I see, this is how they are reducing Lists ! 🤬

We have all queued up for years to get into games it's nothing new.

I am assuming the The north stand has a larger capacity than the park end where I used to sit.

The park end had better access and egress than a 750m new stadium!

Having 4 turnstiles in gate 1 and 4 turnstiles in gate 2 isn't enough.

The turnstiles face each other which creates a heard. I just don't think it's safe. People jumping the queues or trying to get into the assisted entrance.

At the very least the club should put some barriers in like at the airports.

I had a similar experience on Sunday and that got into the ground 45 mins early. Last night we got in at 1950 after queuing from 1915.

Maybe I am moaning too much and shouldn't have expected a better experience than at Goodison.

The main issue last night wasn't to do with people all arriving at once or anything else to do with supporters.

Everton cocked up on the digital access. Digital cards weren't updated correctly, information wasn't provided and when it was it was incorrect.

Plenty of people had difficulty accessing their wallets, hadn't had their tickets updated or had issues with stewards.

My experience was as follows;

1. Bought my tickets in the priority window and was told my ST would update automatically

2. Got an email from the club at 10.34 on Tuesday to download separate tickets, so got confused.

3. Went to ticket office in person on weds and was told to ignore email as it was sent in error and they were having problems due to bank holiday

4. Recieved email at 14.32 from club saying ST would be updated before the game.

5. Recieved 2 separate emails to both my main email and back up email to download tickets separately at 15.32

6. ST updated at 6pm

7. Received another email at 18.35 to say I hadn't downloaded my ticket.

8. I then had both an updated ST and 3 separate tickets for one game. Had to scan them all in to see what one would work.

Given that clusterfuckery, I'm not surprised that people had problems. My dad is in his late 70s, not computer literate and struggles to walk with replacement hips. He was literally panicking all day.

He also had the issue of trying to use the accessibility gate. He was told by the steward that next time he needed a card or wristband from the club to use it.

He's already tried to get a card from the club 3 times, been up the ground, been told the request has been submitted, only to be told each time, they have no record of it.

He's 100% convinced that the box office is run by RS and they are doing it on purpose! In all seriousness, though, its really poor. I don't accept that its to do with a new stadium. We've been using digital cards for years now and the process of getting them to people's phones hasn't changed and when you get them they scan fine.

I had to advise a few older guys in the queue last night who had blue wristbands to use entrance 3. There are only signs above the entrance and not on any of the columns.

The digital card is nothing new and I could write a book about the messing around I have had with the auto cup scheme.

My main gripe is the lack of turnstiles and the fact they face each other. I don't think I have been to any other ground with that set up. I don't think it's safe.

I personally wouldn't like to see him go out on loan again. He's showing enough and can develop in the first team squad at Everton. He will get opportunities.

For years, we have been crying out for better players and more of them. We are assembling a squad.The midfield now has 10 players at the manager's disposal.

With Harrison on loan, that's down to 9. Then there will be inevitable suspensions and injuries. Combine that with Gana and Ndyiae disappearing for AFCON, and it's not unfeasible that we could be down to 5, for 5 places for a period. Back to square one.

I don't see the point in offloading players just as we're building a squad.

You apparently base this on rumours from weeks/ months ago and your opinion that we will end up with too many midfielders yet you stated, not suggested, Harrison Armstrong was ‘earmarked’ to go out on loan.

I’ve seen nothing about something you represented as a certainty so asked for the source of your information so I could check it myself. The only source you quoted was about incomings only.

There was lots of speculation about having to sell to buy this summer, but then the narrative seemed to switch to a situation where we actually could spend more.

There is less than a week to go but we have potential for loanees to join on a try before you buy type of deal if the coffers are rather sparse. You can’t name anyone sure to come in but you are deciding who should be sold right now?

You seemed to post as if you had some real insight and I thought you would clarify things. Instead you’ve just muddied the waters.

Now you mention Chermiti, who wasn’t any part of the posts I asked about. He is a very different situation as he’s really not getting any game time at the moment.

I’ll reiterate. This is a fans forum which means anything posted is supposed to be up for discussion. If people are not willing to answer reasonable questions and take umbrage at being disagreed with then they are not entering into the spirit of things.

A loan move is being talked about right now and is even referred to by our manager.

https://www.everton.news/david-Moyes-responds-when-asked-if-harrison-armstrong-will-stay-at-everton-beyond-the-transfer-deadline/

True it is speculation but it isn't made up and I think legitimate for a fan forum to debate the merits. In fact that seems to me what fan forums are for.

Regarding Chermiti, Moyes pretty much admitted that he wouldn't be around for selection.

Debating the merits is exactly what I was happy to do once we’d established where Gavin was getting his information from. I never said he shouldn’t post what he did, just that it seemed to be putting the worst spin on what is only potentially on the cards.

A loan involving Harrison Armstrong would presumably be half a season only, perhaps cancellable under specific conditions.

He denied he was effectively ‘ushering’ one of our players out of the club and tried to make out it was essentially necessary because of decisions the club had already finalised, which he’d gathered from media reports.

I asked for directions to the reports as I haven’t seen them myself. I didn’t get anything specific, just mention of reports of the type of player we are still after.

Personally, I don’t see the need to send someone as useful and apparently seasoned as Harrison Armstrong out on loan unless the manager has some real aversion to rotating players / giving maximum numbers 20 - 30 minutes off the bench week in week out.

This is probably the first season for a long time where we are likely to have the strength in depth to make it reasonable to use routinely use 16 players that way each game.

Unless my list is wrong we are still 2 players short of a full 25 player squad even if you include Nathan Patterson’, Tyler Onyango, Youssef Chermiti and Harry Tyrer.

Admittedly, I don’t know whether the club is in a situation where it will be necessary to sell players to bring better ones in, but the Transfer window closes in 4 days so we will know for sure by then.

I still find it faintly miserable to be imagining scenarios where you needlessly lose a young player, who has been featuring recently, permanently rather than another prospect for maybe a few months of experience that could accelerate their development? We will know 100% in 5 days and everyone can say why they agree / disagree with what the club has actually done.

At this point, Grealish, Dibling, N’Dyiae and Alcaraz seem to be ahead of him. But an injury, suspension, loss of form or AFCON thrusts him into the starting line up. If we add depth and can afford to loan him out for game time at a good (not relegation battling) EFL team that might make sense a la Coleman years ago. But if we don’t add anyone his departure would leave us short

Chermiti I see differently as one who hasn’t made it. A loan with view to offloading

I think it was clear to everyone else but you what I meant regarding ongoing summer speculation about Armstrong and Chermiti going out on loan. As well as my opinion about possibly selling Tim Iroebungan if Moyes decides not to loan Armstrong and brings in another DM.

I also referred to Chermiti earlier in thread. I didn't just bring his name up on my last post.

As Kieran says, Armstrong is only gonna go out on loan if we bring someone else in, which is the point I made. I wasn't advocating depleting the squad, or being negative, or trying to get players out of the club. I just say, AFCON or not, I think we will be top heavy in midfield with another midfield brought in and I'll be worried how much Armstrong will play.

You seemed to be trying to convince the rest of us that there was no other reasonable option if even one more midfielder comes in.

Kieran’s post is a long way from that point of view with all sorts of ifs, buts and maybes.

Others have questioned why anyone is talking about selling players in this transfer window.

In my opinion Chermiti will be loaned out and replaced with a serviceable third striker from the free agent list or a loan. He desperately needs games to prove himself. And I think he will -- I just love the way the kid moves.

And if we do pull in another midfielder on loan, I assume it would be for the purpose of loaning out Armstrong. A year in the Championship will bring him back to us ready for stardom. A year on our bench waiting for Cup ties, or for one of the six guys ahead of him to get injured or fly off to AFCON, does him no good at all.

I believe Armstrong at 19 is further along than Iroebungan and if we bring in another midfielder one of them needs to go out on loan, or even sold in Iroebungan's case, because I don't know how beneficial it is for us to be loaning a 22 years old who's already had a season in the Championship on loan.

Kieran's post is in line with me in that he states any possible loan of Armstrong is dependent on someone else coming in. That's what I've said, except I also opened up the alternative scenario that Tim could out out instead.

You're saying we should keep Tim and Armstrong even if we bring in a new midfielder,

I don't think we need a new midfielder, Iroebungen, Armstrong, Dewsbury Hall, Garner, Gana and Alcaraz.

I don't think we need 7 central midfielders when we are light in other areas like full back and right wing. I really don't know what else there is to say, Si?!

We will lose players to AFCON and probably injury etc. Armstrong has to be here after Christmas.

And on the subject of repeating oneself, you have used that toilet wall analogy about three times on the same thread now.

I made my points and explained to you what I meant by transfer speculation, as did a couple of other people who commented after I broke down my comments for you and you still wanted to keep it going

Someone else also suggested to you that if you only want to talk about incomings and see outgoings as negative, fake news, or not of any value to TW then maybe you should bypass commenting on those posts...Perhaps you should follow their advise.

I am happy to discuss my points on Everton with anyone, that is the purpose of a forum but does going over same things for the 3rd or fourth time really serve any real value?! And is there any need for you to respond to this post now?! There isn't...but I know you will.