Another excellent article Lyndon. As soon as Michael Keane came on, those of us who have suffered his awful career at EFC, knew what was coming. It was hard to fathom what possessed DM to make this decision. Broja is just not the player we might have expected from Chelsea. No more experiments with him please.

Dwight McNeill cannot play down the right, Alcaraz can only play down the middle and Tim is another signing by our soon departing Director of Football who is not displaying Premiership ability. DM has a huge amount of work to do this summer to end up with a balanced squad which can compete next season. There are some important building blocks but when you compare the City bench to our group of misfits it really does make you realise how far we have to go.

Watching Villa hammer Newcastle and to see the squad they have built shows it can be done but it depends on our new owner's resolve and bank balance!!!

Excellent report Lyndon. I agree with everything that you wrote. Broja has little to offer - slow and does not read the game so we will need to find a striker. Alcaraz has played well before so I would not abandon him for today's poor effort, same for Tim, but they both have something to prove in the last five matches. We definitely need to persuade Idrissa to sign another contract. Michael Keane appears to be finished as a premiership player. He is no longer worth a place on the bench.

For an hour or so we held our own against a resurgent City team which looked much stronger than the team we had drawn against at the Etihad in December. Their play suggested perhaps they are indeed a better team, in the fullest sense of the word, without Haaland as the spearhead of their attack. The loss of Tarkowski was a key moment with our team suddenly looking totally bereft. The previous manager was often criticised for not making enough use of his bench. The last fifteen minutes today suggested maximum use merely adds confusion when a team is already under pressure.

Our best players today were Harrison and Mykolenko. I gave the man of the match billing to Harrison who was involved in most of our attacking play, especially in the first half. Pickford made several fine saves while Garner, Gana and Doucouré were as industrious as usual. I was disappointed with Ndiaye who had one of his least productive games. All of our substitutes failed, their only impact being negative.

Moyes is but the latest in a long line of managers to find that winning our games at Goodison is difficult. Since his return we have won three away matches against only two at home, those against a limp Spurs and a woeful Leicester. Arguably the brand of football has improved but at home it remains ineffective against the strongest teams. This milestone campaign will see us fail to beat any team in the top half of the table at Goodison. Creditable draws have been the peak of our achievement against the best. Yet again the fine performance and the late win at Forest may prove to be a false indication of the squad’s true potential.

Interesting but sobering stat that, John, but perhaps indicative of our lack of quality when the onus is on us to attack and create going forward rather than trying to remain compact and capitalise on the break or from a set-piece (although, ironically, that’s where our best chances came from today due to the strength of the opposition).

The key factor for me is that we’ve had to sell all of our potential match-winners or they’ve been injured — the likes of Richarlison, Gordon, Calvert-Lewin, etc have weighed in with winning goals at Goodison against the clubs who usually make up the top half or top six teams in recent years.

Hopefully we can remedy that this summer by adding genuine quality in attacking areas.

6, or 7 of our players on the pitch today, I will ( imo!), deem not good enough for the model we are trying to mould, to grace our iconic Stadium, when we eventually move there.

the sleeping Giant has come out of REM, but it will take better Quality before it finally awakes !
players played out of position, Under- performing cast offs, try before you buy, aging has beens, or, Journeymen, looking for a last Payday.
That has to be a thing of the past.

We need to find players that we want and not players that are offered to us.
Players who want to play for us, by desire.
We don’t want to play every game, like it’s a KO Cup Competition!

We need stability, consistency and our own Rhythm.
i can understand offering Gana a year extension, as he’s been Consistently good over the Season.
In fact, he’s been one of our Standout performers.
But, there’s rumours about offering Doucoure an extension … seriously ! He’s had a few good games, but that shouldn’t warrant an extension.
We need to be ruthless now.

Emlyn Prydderch 2

it’s a long Time since Michael Keane has been Finished, as a PL player.
It’s hard to believe, that he’s only 2 years short of a Decade with us!!
It’s even harder to Believe that DCL, is one year short of a Decade !

Back in my day, ten years playing service was rewarded with a Testimonal, which I thought was reserved for Club Legends!

Ruthless, but not stupid, Paul. ‘Try before you buy’ is a legitimate tool especially for a club with very limited resources, no European football on offer and a huge recruitment gap to fill. As Lyndon notes we need to add genuine attacking talent. That may entail taking a chance on young, hungry players including some who have struggled to settle at richer clubs.

Loan deals simply reduce the club’s exposure to risk. Pienaar and Lukaku are the two most obvious examples of making ‘try before you buy’ work for the benefit of the club as well as the players themselves.

Without guile in the midfield there is no real excitement watching Everton…oh for another player like James Rodriguez pulling the strings

john Rafferty 7

You have a very valid point and I am ranting out of frustration.
You mentioned two players, Pienaar and Lukaku, as examples.

But those two players also highlighted our tendency to encourage, coach and nurture players to another level, only for those players to be sold on and no equal replacement to be found.

lukaku and Pienaar being prime examples.
One to Spurs and the other to United.

Pienaar coming back, when he was surplus to requirements.
A similar case with Gana, although, we made a Tidy Profit, he’s really only showing up this Season.

if this trend continues, we may see the return of Richarlison!
With the new owners and some more spending room ( revenue from naming rights), I would like us to change the Ethos.

Paul, much as I admired Richarlison in his four seasons with us, I would hope the club has learned enough not to bring back a player with an awful injury record in his time with Spurs.

john 10

Regarding Richy, That’s exactly what I was thinking.
I forgot to mention Rooney!😀

Lyndon, it wasn't just allowing the ball to bounce (no bounce being something you are taught at 10 years old), but the half hearted attempt to nod the ball back to Pickford, which simply played in the City player in on goal. Fortunately, on that occasion, his keeper bailed him out.

There was one before that, where he got caught too high up the pitch and trotted back. We had a back three of O'Brien, Branthwaite and Mykolenko holding the line as Keane stopped and watched from somewhere around the edge of our box.

I did initially think this morning that Pickford could have done more for the first, but once again, with the benefit of hindsight and watching on Match of the Day, once again, Keane in particular, stops allowing the goal scorer to run across and in front of him with a free pass.

John, I'll agree with you on Mykolenko.

Great report as always Lyndon. I don't take your excellence for granted, but do appreciate it.
May the finishing of our forwards be as accurate and professional as the writing on this site next season in our fabulous new home.
It was a sobering result after the high of felling the Trees last week.
It was also sobering to me, in that Moyes got the Tarky replacement so wrong.
With Keane out of contract and O'Brien being up to speed with the game, with a dedicated RB choice on the bench, to not give Jake chance to build a centre half pairing with Jarrad was a missed opportunity and a tactical error. Hindsight is wonderful of course, but if fans felt that at the time, why didn't the manager?

Excellent report Lyndon, the sinking feeling when Tarkowski went down was exacerbated when it was Keane who came on, perhaps he felt O'Brien was doing a great job as full back and didn't want to change and thought a like for like would be less disruptive. Sadly he was wrong, perhaps many of us could of told him having witnessed the same so often. It is perhaps a sad curtain call but he really does have to move on for his well being and our nerves!
It shows too just how much needs to change before we can once more mix it at the top.

O’Brien and Branthwaite need to be given the rest of the season to forge a partnership. Chermiti should be given the rest of the season up front to see if he’s up to scratch. DCL, Beto and Broja all look a bit hit and miss to me.