nogs

Can I just remind everyone discussing Tosun's merits as a finisher/footballer he has an inferior goalscoring record for us than Niasse.

No agenda. It's equally 'fact out there via google' that he never established himself at Spurs and was moved on accordingly. But hey, maybe Poch will be so keen to work with a player he admires so much that he'll jump at the chance to come manage us and turn Sigurdsson into the creative genius he hasn't been for us over the past three years.

It's his mobility up and down that would worry me. Think of how much work Pienaar uses to do covering for Baines, I dunno if he has that in his locker.

I don't really agree that a winger is defined by whether a player runs for the touchline or cuts inside. But I take your point, that is what they prefer to do. So again the question would be, they've been signed with a certain style of football in mind. But for the life of me I can't work out what that is or how it's meant to be working atm.

He was nearly sold back to Reading 6 months after arriving at Spurs. He scored 8 goals in 58 games and was quickly overshadowed by Eriksen.

So would you play him wide in a 4-4-2?

Sigurdsson flopped badly at Spurs. And for all that he can score attractive goals we've not been great since he's been at the club, under three different managers. How do you think we should play with him in the side? He seems to just want to be fed balls 30 yards from goal.

Richarlison? Walcott? Iwobi? What are they if they're not wingers/wide forwards?

I don't get this at all. If Silva really want to play 4-3-3, then why isn't he? Does he feel he has to play Sigurdsson, and adapts the system to suit him? Or does he feel he hasn't got the players to play the way he wants, especially in the middle? Even if that is the case, playing the same way that got Koeman sacked two years ago is just madness.

I don't see Moyes working with a DoF set up. One of Moyes's big strengths for us was recruitment and he ran the scouting set up. Moshiri has changed the management structure so we should be looking at coaches who can improve what they're given to work with. To be fair that was what Silva was meant to be. Just turns out he's not very good at it.

Usually I'd agree with you. But you've also got to look at what's going on on the pitch. We started playing some decent stuff back end of last season, or at least better than we had been used to. It's shocking how far backwards we've gone in 8 games. If he insists on playing the shape and the style he keeps sticking to I can't say where he's going to improve it. It isn't working.

Yeah maybe. I think DCL and Kean could work well. Our problem is that we haven't got the right mix of players for any system. We haven't got the quality all round midfielders to play 4-4-2, we haven't got the CBs to play 3-5-2. It's a fudge to get Sigurdsson in plus two wingers. And it still doesn't work because we don't have a good enough lone striker. It's just a mess really.

He played as a striker for Sheff Utd youth teams, on loan at Northampton and for the England youth sides so I'm not sure that's true. Richarlison can't handle the physical side of the game playing CF.

Which is exactly what Martinez tried. And then Koeman.

Silva isn't turning this around. This is no different to two years ago, we're in free fall.

Our entire team looks utterly shot of confidence. If we'd beaten Bournemouth we'd have gone above City. Wtf has gone wrong??

I said I'd give Silva three more games... Not gonna give him to the end of this. Wrong selections, wrong tactics, shit from set pieces, unwilling or unable to change. This desperately needs change, has to start with the manager.

We're playing exactly the same system as we did under Koeman two years ago. I cannot for the life of me understand how, two managers and a new DoF later, the tactical approach hasn't changed.

Barnes is playing every game for Leicester. McTominay has played loads for Man Utd over the past year plus and has been widely rated as one of their better players through a generally shit period. Mount, Abraham aren't going anywhere. Anyway, you make my point for me. "The players we have signed have not been good enough" - so why are we sticking with them rather than blood youngsters? And using the three 10s we signed is a strange point to make coz two of them have been shipped out because they are shit and the mega bucks star should be dropped coz he is badly out of form, but we apparently don't have anyone else! I agree that recruitment has been a massive problem. And I go back to the point Shukes makes, for whatever reason we're not signing players with the hunger or personality to improve us.

So we're either signing the wrong type of characters or our last three managers have been utterly uninspiring

But what does the last 5 years matter? I'm talking about now and the fact that young players can't get in our side even though we're not very good! Leicester - Chilwell, Barnes, Choudary Chelsea - Abrahams, Mount, Tomori, Loftus-Cheek Man Utd - Rashford, Lingard, McTominay, Tuanzebe, Greenwood, (Pogba) Arsenal - Maitland-Niles, Nelson, Willock, Saka have all played in the Prem this year. I cba looking up West Ham but when you add Liverpool, City and Spurs, that's 7 clubs. Anyway, my point is not to get drawn into a debate about whether our current youngsters are good enough for the Prem. IMO we are stood still as a club atm, potentially in danger of going backwards, and two key areas I think always need looking at when that happens is youth development and recruitment. For one thing, I don't think there's enough competition for places in our squad to keep certain 'senior pros' on their toes, and for that reason alone I'd like to see more youngsters coming through.

I don't agree with your first point. Man City, Liverpool, to a lesser extent Spurs, you can understand lads struggling to come through the ranks because they have world class first XIs and more. Yet you've named examples of young players making it at each of them. Man Utd and Chelsea are kind of forced to play loads of homegrown players at the moment for different reasons. At the start of the season I was genuinely hopeful we'd finish higher than both. I don't see that happening now. Arsenal have historically been good at bringing one or two youngsters at a time through. Leicester are regularly playing lads that have come through their youth system and look a much better side than us. So no I don't think you're 'bigger picture' holds at moment, especially as we're struggling to cling on to being a top 8 club. I've discussed elsewhere that I don't like the system we play with Sigurdsson. I agree it doesn't suit Davies, he'd work much better in a flat 3.

Wow for once I agree with Pete! My point Steve is why, if we consistently have one of the best U23 teams in the country, are more of them not making it through to the first team? I don't really buy the not good enough argument. I do agree with the short term outlook that results from managers being under such pressure for their jobs. But my gripe is this. This is third season running we've got a two, three, four months into the season and things are looking far from pretty. And look at the spine of the team that hast started the past few matches - Keane, Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson. Exactly the same as when we fell apart under Koeman two years ago. I just can't get my head around that. Yeah I know Gomes and Gbamin are out, but we have no idea if Gbamin will turn out any good anyway. If Davies isn't good enough when we keep losing with the current starting midfield, he should be out on loan learning his trade. Same for Holgate, coz Keane is back to being bullied again. Our squad is still wafer thin, so if you aren't going to give a few lads a chance when you have a few injuries, what are you going to do? I don't get not charging a losing side, whatever the size of your squad. BTW Steve I agree with you on the impatience of the fans. I think it's a unique Everton problem too and it bugs the hell out of me.

So if we do say Davies isn't good enough and wipe our hands of him, it still begs the question - why are so few lads from our supposedly world class academy not progressing into the first team? To me there's a serious developmental issue there, especially as over the past three years we have wasted a criminal amount of money on players who just aren't up to it. I just think there's something wrong when we're paying Schneiderlin £100k+ a week and then you have a lad like Lundstram who has now played in every division of English professional football and is now starting every game in the Premier League for another club, and doing pretty well at it. Clearly there was always a player there, why did it take other coaches at other clubs to bring it out of him? There's other examples too, Forshaw at Leeds, Ledson at PNE - could both be playing Prem football next season. I'm not saying 'oh we have to play Davies so he progresses' by the way, coz you can only play players on form and he's obviously been struggling for a while. But I would have though the glass ceiling between our excellent academy and the first team is something Brands is looking at very carefully, especially as we have developed a knack of wasting millions on mediocre players.

Again, underlines the Sigurdsson problem. Praet and Tielemans are forward thinking midfielders, but they get back when not in possession like you say. I just don't think Sigurdsson can/wants to play like that. I don't think it's just a Pep influence. Klopp plays a very flat midfield 3. Sheff Utd, who deserved a point against the shite yesterday, play their best ball player (Norwood) deepest of a very well drilled 3. I reckon more than half of Prem teams now play with a genuine three man midfield. We're getting found out because we feel we have to play Sigurdsson.