FairWooney

DELE he's on the bench

serious strength in attack up that left wing Not so sure about the defending though! Looks like Lampard wanted to go with an unchanged (apart from Mina in for Godfrey) team but denied by Mykolenko

Pickford Coleman Mina Keane Mykolenko Allan Gomes VDB Gordon Richarlison Gray I'd just swap out the 5th defender for Van De Beek, I'd say this is a pretty likely line up. Dele will come off the bench, I'd expect the preference would be a swap for Gomes but if VDB isn't match fit for a full match he may swap him for Deli IF we are chasing goals. Makes for a pretty solid bench Patterson, Holgate, Kenny, Gbamin/Onyango, Dele, El Ghazi, Rondon, Tosun

good performance all round but i'll go with the early votes, Gomes put in a good performance, looked to drive forward and look for balls forward all the time. Didn't always come off but always looking. Hopefully keeps that up and challenges for a spot in the team. Gordon, Gray and Richarlison all did a good job in attack, good pressing and pressure on their defence all the time. Defensively we still looked a bit ropey but lots of positives to be had. We looked decent on the ball, had a good bit of purpose in attack and unusually scored off of 2 set pieces! Much more enjoyable watch us working the ball around than constantly sitting back like under Rafa.

I stand by this one after watching today. When DCL is fully fit he can get back in but right now I like Gray, Richarlison and Gordon, all press really well and put in a lot of work. Just wish Gray and Richarlison would work together better!

semantics really, that line up though not my choice has Townsend in the middle who would essentially be playing midfield, by 3 midfield players it's not that you need to 3 people stood on the half way line tackling as long as your attacking mid is someone that will work and get involved further back up the field, press the opposition, and be there further back in build up play. Ie not like a Rodriguez really is just wanting to be involved in attack. RPG's initial line up with Ali and VDB along with Allan was also 3 in midfield but that one could be said to be depicted as only 1 in midfield! - It'll be interesting to see if Gbamin impresses Lampy enough this week to get a run out or if anyone else like Onyango can get in.

sounds like unlikely to be fit for Newcastle but not certain. To be honest I was liking the idea of Gray, Richarlison and Gordon leading the attack on Saturday anyway for the pace of attack and that Brentford are decent in the air anyway but DCL is a preference generally. Though Richarlison isn't an out and out poacher like DCL I think he is more than capable of playing centre forward with 2 attackers like Gordon and Gray to his side and with the support of Ali/VDB behind him. He is well capable of finishing crosses and getting in to good spaces in the box, the only thing i'd say is that he puts in a lot of work chasing and may leave the box empty when you want someone there.

god official interviews are so cringey! the leading questions basically set up all of the answers. How does it feel to be at a team with such amazing support as Everton? Are you ready go give everything for the team? You've scored loads of goals in the past, would you like to score some more? Do you see yourself staying here and doing well for a good while? I like the "i'm ready to give it 100%....110%!" Footballers and managers never think 100 sounds like enough! Hopefully he can get his passion back for the game and as has been mentioned, he spends more time working on his football than his computer games and other outside interests! He's got plenty of goals in him which we have been lacking. -- I had a brief scan through their comments but I'll reserve drawing an opinion based on his past and watch and hope that Frank gets the best out of him.

DCL was a notable absente for me. Hopefully not injured/ill. Be interesting to see if Gbamin gets a chance under him, with the 2 new guys not available and Doucoure out I'd be tempted to throw him in for the cup game on Saturday if he puts in a good shift in training. You never know with a new manager, a bit of game time and staying fit he could actually do a job!

Probably nothing but i noticed no DCL in the recorded training today. Hopefully not out again!

can't really complain, we've added a bit more quality to midfield both of whom can score goals and both who should be keen to impress after being in somewhat flagging careers at present. They are both a bit of risk in terms of not having been impressing enough at their current Premier league clubs to get regular game time but both look like players that can add something to the team if given the chance and played correclty. Ali is a bit of an odd one after such a good start to his career becoming an England regular at just 18-19 he dropped off majorly in the last couple of years. Lampard seems like he was very keen to sign him up so hopefully he believes he knows how to get him firing again and can see a place for him in the team. The 2 full backs are both a work in progress, Patterson looks the more promising based on what I've seen of him elsewhere and at u23's but hopefully Mykolenko can come good (if Ashley Cole is in as has been mentioned then we have 2 top left backs to mentor him if he's got it in him!). I'm surprised no one left but the players we really want rid of I imagine we had no one wanting them! Probably better to hold on to players till the end of the season anyway for numbers and give Lampard a chance to see if there's any under performing players that are worth another shot.

Van De Beek is cup tied by the way, came on as a sub in the 3rd round. Christian Eriken is a new signing for Brentford, expect he'll be on the bench having not played in a long time. Good to see him back and a good signing for Brentford if he can stay healthy and get back to half the player he was for Spurs

I remember how much stick Gueye used to get for his lack of footballing ability. Allan gets a lot of stick but for me he both gets around getting the challenges in and has much better ability on the ball. Gueye probably better at winning the ball but often got accused of being a headless chicken! would Allan then be benched for Gueye? Doucoure, donny and Gueye in midfield when all fit? obviously depends how Donny gets on though I guess where you need more defensive strength in a Game you could have Gueye sat behind Allan and Doucoure. It’ll be interesting to see how the attackers fit in as all 4 are tough to drop.

Think a few months of regular competitive game time will rely do him good. Would say the same for Dobbin but we can't afford to let both go out

Perira says the same Rob. I've no issue with a manager that want to play with possession if they want to do it with a reasonable about of pace (not like Martinez), after all having the ball is ultimately better than not having it! Yes we've had the debates before on not needing high possession but on the whole, good teams will have more of the ball and have control of a game. However anyone coming in has to understand that the aim for the rest of the season is not to suddenly change the teams set up completely but put in small changes that they can work with to ensure that they get results that allow the club to finish safely away from relegation. Once that objective is made they can look at progressing plans more towards how they see the team playing going forward

I think the lack of trophies is used as a show of lack of success but it doesn't really mean much, Portsmouth won the FA Cup in 2008 and were relegated in 2010 and in league 2 by 2013! Wigan won the FA Cup in 2013 and were relegated a few days later! I'd love to see us win a trophy again but it's not necessarily what you can base overall club success on as a strategy. Are the existing board lacking football and commercial experience? Looking at the website most of them have been at Everton a long time, they seem to have relevant experience to their roles and I whilst there may be better people to do the job I have no major reason to doubt them. I think the person everyone is really looking at is Moshiri and Kenwright. And what we want to see as a long term plan for the team that includes the youth section that will produce a positive upward trend over time without jumping managers every year and without wasting lots of money on players that don't do a job for us.

As we are likely to have a new manager we may see changes but I'd expect a strong team as the manager looks to get his team playing gow he wants them to and to learn about them before a big league game the next week

A bit early on this as I was thinking it was this week but now i see we have a week off this week. Good timing with the manager situation This would be my line up based on current availability Begovic Patterson Branthwaite Godfrey Mykolenko Allan Onyango Gomes Gordon Richarlison Gray Tough call to drop one of the front 4 but I think we need the presence in midfield that we've been begging for. Also as Brentford play 3-5-2 I think we need to match them in the middle and play with pace to counter them and expose their back 3. I know we may not be fussed about the FA cup given our current predicament but I think this is enough change giving the full backs a chance to impress and get some more game time and give Onyango a go. I'd probably go Godfrey rather than Mina just becaue of how injury prone Mina is. I think there's really good pace in that side with Patterson and Mykolenko able to overlap and support Gray and Gordon and Richarlison also able to run at them. Brentford are typically strong in the air which is why i'd favour playing on the floor pace running at them. I'm ignoring Gbamin purely because the mangers seem to anyway!

I've not really watched the U23's before but after watching most of the first half thought that while some individuals showed some quality and a bit of spark I thought as a team (much like the first team) there wasn't much of a game plan. The ball was up and down and all over the place. I know the team changes a bit and some will spend more time getting first team training and others will be with Unsworth but I guess that's where the benefits of a cohesive approach to our game play would help. Kyle John seem to get quite a bit of action up the left wing, Astley also looked solid at Centre back. Says Kyle John is a right back on the site but he seemed to be playing either left wing or an attacking left back.

most managers sound good in tactical reviews but this is quite an interesting review of his Kovac's tactics https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/tactical-analysis-niko-kovacs-monaco/ Obviously need to get it working with the players but like that he was also working with a very young squad, hopefully another that would be keen to make use of our young talents

former EPL winner Ranieri is available!

I agree it's not a terrible formation if it's done right, under Rafa no only was it not done enough for the players to really settle with it but also we had so little of the ball that it just turned into a back 5 where we allowed them to push on further towards the goal than if we had an extra body in midfield. The issue for me if someone came in and did this now is they would need to implement this very well and get us more on the ball than we were also to avoid it looking like the same mistake Rafa had with it.

If the new manager would like to appoint me as Assistant they can make use of my 100% undefeated record at Goodison. I'll be happy to help out and take a seat in the dug out, I'm happy to not offer advise if that's what they'd prefer.

was nothing in that and the commentator was going on like it was an awful challenge, he's put his foot past the ball to turn on it and the players come into the side and got caught, no malicious intent at all and just unlucky. I think a yellow card would have been fairly hard on him let alone a red. You could see his confusion at the yellow let alone the red!

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/article/vitor-pereira-fenerbahce-202122-tactical-analysis-tactics Interesting read on his tactics all be it in his last job that he got sacked from after 6 months! It seems the board had planned transfers around 4-4-2 in the 16-17 season then he decided to change to 3 at the back! I see this but with someone shouting 3 IN MIDFIELD! Fenerbahçe manager Vitor Pereira's lack of understanding for proper offensive strategies cost his team dearly on Sunday against Alanyaspor. The organizational deficiencies are so prominent that the team’s great physical effort falls short of securing three points most of the time. (https://www.dailysabah.com/sports/football/fenerbahce-cannot-continue-like-this-under-clueless-pereira) Not the ideal thing to be hearing when we are struggling to find goals currently! One thing i worry with someone with very distinct ideas, particularly around possession the same as Martinez is that it's a risky thing to try and change to at this point in the season. We've seen in the past how trying to make players play it around at the back too much when not used to it results in mistakes