nogs

He cocked up for the goals and had a very poor last half hour. But I actually thought for an hour he and Sigurdsson did a brilliant job implementing a plan which naturally neither of them are particularly well suited to, they gave no one in Leicester's midfield any space to play at all. The turning point was Iheanacho coming on, him being prepared to drop off the back three and run with the ball caused chaos in our two defensive lines and it took us a while to react. You have to say great tactical awareness from Rodgers. Davies has to take this on the chin and get his head right for the derby. We can't afford him taking a backward step in performances with our injury situation, so it might be a good idea if Everton fans got behind one of our own for once.

Couldn't bring myself to vote yesterday but Sidibe proved why he has a World Cup winners medal yesterday. Bit concerned about what's going on with our other French full back though, couldn't make a pass yesterday.

Yesterday still feels like a horrible kick in the teeth, I feel sorry for Silva and for the team because we did show real fight and got nothing for it. But I still have to go back to Norwich - surely anything like the application we showed yesterday and we'd have beaten them. That to me was a turning point - win that and we could take a couple of plucky-but-unlucky performances against the three teams who are absolutely flying were playing this week. We keep putting in God awful displays at the wrong time, and that will get you into a lot of trouble in the PL. I just don't see Silva injecting the change of momentum we need.

Absolutely gutted. Thought it was a pretty disciplined hardworking performance, plenty of hard work but with little quality. But the way we're losing games, the people at the top need to wake up. We will get relegated if we don't make a change now.

He's going to have to beat some of the top 6 in December then. I can see us bottom 3 by Xmas, his job will be untenable if so.

Or he's been sent out set put the official club position out there with speculation rife. He can hardly come out and say we need to change manager if the top brass have decided not yet!

Yep. Means they are in the hunt first though. I'm pretty depressed by the rumour that Silva has been kept on because Kenwright and Moshiri don't agree on what to do next. That spells massive trouble for me. I'd rather both were kept well out of it. Brands has been given a place on the board - for me next manager should be his pick, otherwise what's the point of having a DoF with such a senior position at the club?

I'm fuming Arsenal have sacked him first. They've lost 3 PL games this season, we've lost 7 and have had a dream run of fixtures really. How much shitter do we have to get before our board say enough is enough? And yeah, I was against jumping the gun sacking Silva. But losing at home to Norwich with a display that abject had to be a line in the sand. I honestly cannot believe we haven't acted.

I'd be happy to take three points from the next three games. I think we'll get 0 and be utterly mired in the shit

Not a great assessment of our fans then. Benitez is a better manager than fatty five chins could ever dream of being.

So as fans should we just keep holding grudges even if it means cutting our noses off to spite our face? It's a professional game. Look at The job Rodgers is doing at Leicester - forget that he managed the shite, he's a cut above any manger we've had donkeys years, and I'd include Moyes in that despite being a Moyes fan. I know he's not a realistic option now but would we exclude him from our list too on principle?

You are one stubborn bastard. 300 games Pete, 300 games!! A pretty decent career for a manager that didn't rate him and played him out of position. And when did I say I'd produce another list aside from those already mentioned - Rooney, Vaughan, Anichebe, Rodwell, Osman, Hibbert (kind of), Coleman, Barkley? Oh and for the record, and to hopefully close down yet another painfully repetitive debate, I do agree Moyes could have done more with young players, Duffy and Mustafi were a waste, he also had issues with discipline around talented kids like Baxter and Green. But still, I stand by my original point that his record of bringing through academy graduates was better than we've seen since he left. One playing regular first team football for us in 5 years isn't great imo.

How many league games did Ossie play under Moyes? More than 300?? Yeah, clearly never rated him. And yeah Chelsea are my go to team for how kids can be used effectively - look at the table!! I thought you were all for bringing more kids through anyway?

I meant Lampard use of kids for Chelsea this season, and Southgate for England. Both are happy to play teenagers. Is Lampard endangering Mount's career by playing him so much, not just this season but last year at Derby when he was still a teenager? Osman was 20 when Moyes took over, 23 when he broke through into the first team after a couple of loan spells. That's good managed progression of a young player. And so what that he got played right mid - he had a great season, was an integral part of our most successful league campaign since the 80s and wouldn't have got in ahead of Carsley, Gravesen/Arteta or Cahill in the middle anyway. Managers are entitled to play players 'out of position' when it works.

I dunno, why don't you ask Lampard? Or Southgate?

Not saying I want him but I wonder if Brands would be interested in trying to poach Cocu from Derby given their history at PSV?

Moyes was the one who sent Ossie out on loan, then integrated him into the first XI. And I don't get your point about 'adult workloads' at all. Are young players meant to put in less of a shift even if they're picked for the first team? I don't remember the likes of Vaughan and Anichebe playing many games from the start anyway.

Good post. One thing I would say though is he isn't being brave, he's sticking with 4-2-3-1 and fielding players who just aren't up to it. If Gomes, Bernard, Delph etc were fit we'd probably have beaten Norwich, but I wouldn't put money on the XI he put out beating anyone in the PL. If it was me in charge I'd be playing 4-3-3 with Beni, Davies and Iwobi in midfield and Richarlison, DCL and Kean/Walcott up front. At the very least we'd have more mobility and hopefully more intent getting the ball into the front 3. I think Kean should be given a go in a front 3, his movement looks decent and he could work well off DCL who is the best target man we've got. I also think it is amazing that in Kean and Iwobi we have 60m in new signings warming the bench while Sigurdsson and Schneiderlin serve up exactly what everyone knows they will serve up, opponents included. That in itself should be setting alarm bells ringing - Silva knows his job is on the line, yet he's still fielding the flops the manager two before him signed instead of his most recent buys. Wtf is going on??

Osman? And isn't that a slight contradiction, saying he ruined certain lads careers by putting them through the mill physically but then not playing youngsters enough?? Vaughan was tragically unlucky. Rodwell, I dunno if he was born with dodgy hammies or just didn't have it upstairs to play at the top level. Anichebe didn't have much wrong with him physically, just wasn't a great footballer.

You could say exactly the same about Silva. The sum of it is we're in a mess. Again.

I'd suggest that to finish top 6 every season we need to be doing anything but looking at the Mourinhos of this world. We need a hungry manager who gets the club, has the talent and leadership to impose a vision and the commitment to stick at it over several years.

Bailey I found your last post really bizarre. You really think Silva came to us a 'proven manager'? And yeah, I mentioned Wilder coz he has been a manager nearly 20 years, he's been round the block, learned his trade and now we're seeing the results of that at the highest level. Yet you list Bilic and Villas Boas as 'solid' - they did NOTHING in the PL. And do you really think Southgate would leave the England job for us right now?? And I dunno what you're on about half the players not caring. I'd say there are a handful of teams where that is a serious problem, and you seem to be suggesting that lack of effort isn't our problem, it's just our players are shite!

I'm not saying I agree with Palfy on him being the worst thing to happen to us. But I think Moshiri carries a lot more responsibility than being 'a bit naive'.

The difficulty we're in now is that Silva was the 'up and coming young manager' pick and it has backfired. We can't risk going down that route again now. We're back into damage limitation, inspiring a badly underperforming and unbalanced squad, someone who can hold some ground while the squad rebuild continues, someone who knows the PL. There aren't many who fit that bill. Rafa makes a lot of sense, but would he do it? Howe seems to need a certain profile of player to work with, Wilder won't leave Sheff Utd, we've missed out on Rodgers (and Mourinho for people of that persuasion). I don't think it's an easy next move at all.

He brought through more youngsters than we've managed to since he left. Even though I still wished he'd been a bit braver blooding youngsters, his record wasn't that bad.