DownUnderToff

Need "Team" as an option today.
Just a huge well done to all the Lads, great effort all around.  2am start for me but the team delivered.
No idea on MOTM but special call out for Iwobi.  I've been very critical of him in the past, today he was sensational for both effort and touch.

Scored again tonight.

Gordon very sharp. Get him on the ball. 

Think @Matt is right, both are very short on match time.
However... assuming DCL is still out (?) and Alli was definitely starting, I'd be dropping Gray out and shifting Gordon there. 
Don't think Richy and Gray are playing great, team, football together.  Both selfish and doesn't seem to be much love there, yet at least. 
Also think Gordon's form is better than Gray's right now.

Or bring them on to switch things up. Neither have played much so will need easing in. 

The question is where does Gordon stand when we have DCL, Richy, Alli and Gray all fit and ready to play?
I think he's played his way into this team with his performances this year - but will Lampard want Alli to get some games in as soon as possible?

Not a fan of this.  Don't rate him as a player, attitude is shit and (as others have said) wages will be high.  Same old mistakes.
Also worry about what both DVB and Alli do to Gordon's game time and development.

I'm hoping that we're only doing loan moves or buys of young, cheap, players.
Want us to secure ourselves from the drop without pissing more money away, then look towards a proper reset in the summer.

Agree in general, we're paddling in a very shallow pool here.
I'd prefer Lampard over Pereira, but pretty bloody embarassing that we (seemingly) haven't spoken to any of the more credentialed managers available.  Maybe they've just flat out refused to entertain us a possibility at all...
 

The really frustrating thing is that we've had many weeks to experiment with our younger strikers. Instead, we wasted it by playing an older China league player who won't be in any future plans.

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/01/25/manage-suggests-hed-take-everton-job-explains-crystal-palace-snub/?amp
 
Doesn't mention anything specific, but I'd defo have him!

I think the long term strategy is that we buy both players and sign managers that fit the same philosophy. 
Clearly a manager will have certain ideas with players that may or may not fit as well as others but on the whole you don't want that strategy to change too much over a long period of time.
For example if the person in charge decides that they want to see Everton football club play high press, high line, dominant, attacking football then the players we buy and bring through the academy need to fit that mould. The managers we hire also have to fit the same profile. We can't go from Martinez, to Koeman, to Allardyce, to Silva, to Ancellotti and then to Benitez. 
IMO a well run club will have been scouting managers as well as players in the knowledge that good and bad managers dont tend to hang around for much longer than 2-3 years. 

We'd be doing very well to get Kovac.  It's him or Favre for mine.  Both of them are polyglots as well. 
Only concern with Kovac is whether he can save a sinking ship (halfway through a season), whereas Favre has done it previously.  Think Kovac is probably the better long term option though.

Would be thrilled with Kovac

Sorry, the software isn't giving me the option to change numbers for some reason, it always used to. Bloody updates
But vote noted.

Lucien Favre is high on mine. 
Out of Work. Trilingual (at least).  Known for being tactically astute, and imparting that on players. Good man manager (see Balotelli).  Teams are good defensively and play attractive attacking football.
Players improve under him and he has notably done well with a number of young players, he's supposedly very big on really smashing them on the training pitch.
Biggest selling point for mine is that he's turned lower half and even relegation teams into champs league spot contenders.
He won't win us the league, but think he'll hopefully turn us around and stabilise us for a couple of years.

I’d like to see Duncan leave and go and be a manager somewhere else, learn his trade and grow into a good manager then come back. 

'Everton board meeting to discuss Benitez future'
http://www.skysports.com/share/12517144
Read Jamie Redknapps words - exactly why we should have swerved this guy. Forget his Liverpool connection, he's not a good bloke to have at a club.
If you can't be arsed to read it, he says he has a habit of causing chaos at clubs, is a politician, always blames everyone else, puts this person against that person, creates an atmosphere of the crowd vs the board.
Tell me Redknapp is wrong? 
Even tonight, when questioned, what was Rafas response? Not 'yep, we need to do better'. Not 'I'm responsible for these results and I must do better' but to say he's trying to fix problems of the last 5 years, it needs time, the top scorer has been missing.
Now, to be fair, he's not too wrong HOWEVER take some accountability. It's the medical department. It's the DoF department. It's past decisions. Everything is about reflecting elsewhere. He has too many ready made excuses here and it shows. It suits him to have so many ready made deflections.
Let's be honest, these same defenders didn't do too bad last year. Now they're a shambles. That's coaching. That's the Manager.
A lot of people at this club are taking the piss. The decisions are woeful. Fancy getting us into a position where we have the worst run of results in the past 5/6 years but we can't sack the bloke because we've either fucked it up before or we've given him to much say and power within the corridors. Who's managing the manager these days? Fuck me.
And I'm sorry guys, but we as fans have to hold our hands up too. We've wanted every manager sacked as soon as they hit a poor run. We've booed them out and forced the decision. We've not allowed any potential project to properly find its feet before We've got restless. A whole generation has been born, grown up, had kids, who have also grown up since we've had a run of success. We can't be classed as a big club, rather a club in a big city. I know that won't land well but it's reality.
I just hope we find a way that makes sense and allows everything to settle. From the boardroom to the players to the fans. At the moment, every part of this club is ripping it apart. It fuckin sad mate.

I know we will but I do not even want him to have a spot on the bench, he is absolutely useless. Dobbin or Simms, or even someone like Tom Cannon would be of better use to us coming off the bench.
I can't wrap my head around why the manager is still persevering with him because he really does offer nothing. 

Neither of the chuckle brothers (Moshiri and Kenwright) should be anywhere near decision making at this club. If only we had a DoF that had been allowed to do their job with no interference and could make this decision for us. 

If he can’t man manage what he’s got he doesn’t deserve another window never mind two. Im sick of hearing give managers a couple of windows every time we get a new one. 
 
Managing is about getting the best out of what you’ve got. It’s about pushing the team under you as far as they can go. 
 
BENITEZ OUT 

Defensive according to my reading.

Yes we were shit at home under Carlo last season. But last season right across Europe there was a massive increase in away wins while there was no crowd in. It’s more than just us being shit. 
 
On Rafa, safest job in the premier league now. Moshiri has gone all in on him, we could be 18th in the league and he would still be safe. 
There is enough quality in our squad to beat the teams that have had a great time over the last few months. I keep hearing we’ve got a shit squad, but so many of our players are good enough to do better than one win in 12 or whatever it is. Because they all manager to do better under previous managers. That’s the worrying bit for me. 
I said when Rafa joined that this would inevitably end in tears, it’s been tears for months. It just won’t end though. 

I’m going back on this now - I don’t want Barkley, I don’t want Coutinho - I want young and hungry players to build with and work with the already experienced senior players (on high wages) we already have e.g. Allan, Doucoure and Gomes in midfield.
There’s plenty in the Championship - O’Hare at Coventry, Knight at Derby, Carvalho at Fulham, even Swift (a bit older) at Reading - all would be on a fraction of a Barkley £150k or Coutinho £300k wage - we have made the same mistake over and over again with high earning 28-30 year olds and need to break the cycle.

Were you really expecting them to come out and publicly pot him?  Even Digne hasn't done that and look what internal disagreement got him.
That said, not surprising at all that Gordon (for 1) would be reasonably positive.  Career's just starting to take off, getting game time, good manager attention, and visibly growing.
Doesn't mean that Benitez is the right manager for us but he's what we've got...