Thanks for the re-cap and detail, Lyndon…still learning the game as a Yank, but why not more rotation?- McNeil? Alcarez? Ndiaye as #9?? Or are these guys now considered not useful by some criteria I’ve not yet learned (quite possibly🤣)?

Whatever criteria were at play, they were in Moyes’s head — although, to be fair, McNeil blew his chance to impress at Wolves last Tuesday so no surprise he wasn’t involved against West Ham.

There’s mounting evidence he isn’t quite convinced by Alcaraz, despite his lovely goal against Mansfield and the key parts he played in last season’s wins at Palace and Newcastle, but I thought he could have added some much-needed thrust last night. Next week against Palace again will be telling because Dewsbury-Hall’s suspension opens up that central attacking midfield slot for someone and Charly is the obvious choice if not Ndiaye.

And with neither striker staking a claim at centre-forward, there is scope to try Ndiaye as a false 9. Personally, I’m all for giving Barry a run of starts up top for now because I feel he has more about him generally than Beto who is a one-trick pony.

Nice to read a good match report, even if it was too kind to Beto. He was so anonymous, ambling around like a tourist, getting beaten in the air, being muscled off the ball. His second touch….. well he doesn’t seem to have one. No more please, his only position is as an impact sub.
We can’t win games with only 10 players.

It’s a Team of two halves.. good quality and low quality.

It certainly looks that way to me!

Ndiaye, Garner, Grealish, KDH, Gana, Branthwaite, Pickford and Dibling, who is showing signs.

The Defence ( without Branthwaite), is totally unreliable and never in Harmony.

For every defender who has a good game, one of them has a stinker.

The whole unit is disjointed.

I think Benitez was trying to dismantle us, because

Mykolenko was a Terrible replacement for Digne.

In the French language, the word Digne, among other meanings, means Merit, or Value.

In my estimation, there was certainly none of that, in that Transaction !

Normally you get an upgrade or, somewhere near the equivalent.

The same unbalance, in our quest for a Striker.

Barry has the Physical Presence of a Shuttlcock.

In fact, a cat who Runs onto the pitch, has more influence on the game!

As for Beto!.. well, he has feet like flippers on a Pinball Machine,.

His first touch Is a rocket. His passes are too heavy and the receiver very often has to take a second touch and we loose momentum.. he’s a Pinball Wizard !

Grealish really needs to Cross that Ball, as soon as he receives it. He is one very gifted player, but too often, he takes on to much, with the result being.. all that.. for that !

Moyes can’t see when things need changing up and that’s a big problem for me.

We get undone, by other teams use of their Substitutes, while Moyes waits until the last 15 minutes, to introduce a Gamechanger!

Last night, Ndiaye was dead on his feet, after having done half of Beto’s shift

To cut him some slack, he probably has zero confidence in who is on the Bench!

Especially after what we witnessed against Wolves, in the Cup!

Lyndon, regarding Alcaraz, personally I saw a dip in form, up until that strike you mention.

So, since that promising start, albeit a tad fortuitous, are we witnessing yet another false Dawn?

Although, we are a project in the making, some bad decisions have been made regarding the transfer window, with who we got, as opposed to to who we need.

if we lose against Palace, things could change shape for the worse and Jack could become a very Dull Boy indeed !

As Lyndon notes there was a worrying lack of urgency. Having taken the early lead against a team in poor form, our players started to coast their way through the game instead of going for the jugular. They are not good enough to get away with that against any Premier League team.

Our build-up was far too predictable, the passing was painfully slow and at times over elaborate when the situation cried out for some direct running and shooting. Grealish in particular was guilty of holding the ball for too long when an early cross, or even a shot at goal might have paid greater dividends.

The attack was not the only problem. Gana, who seemed to take a couple of knocks, had his least effective game for many months. It was alarming how easily West Ham were able to find gaping holes in our defensive half the longer the game progressed. Tarkowski’s continuing struggles and Michael Keane’s current excellent form raise a genuine question about the central defensive positions once Branthwaite is ready to return.

I sometimes think we create our own "false dawns". We accept, even applaud the most bizarre situations.

James Tarkowski has been finished as a center half for at least two years. Unfortunately, huge sections of the fan base still afford him hero status. No. I havent forgotten his goal against the RS. but I found nothing comical about the way Diouf powered past him as if he was pulling a tractor with the hand brake on. Nor in the number of goals we concede which can be attributed to him. They're rising at an alarming rate, but hey!... He does a mean last ditch tackle and gets everyone out of their seat shaking their fist. "Tarks for England" Sigh.

Talking of defenders past their sell-by dates. Who in their right mind decided to continue the now customary annual one year contract extention to Seamus ?...Both Tarks and Seamus are adored by the fans but for me they epitomise just about everything wrong with this club. One earns around 3m a year and the other earns a whopping 5m. If that's the going rate for rewarding "great club servants" of the PAST. We cant afford it. That money could and should have been put to far better use.

I'm happy that we have reversed the long standing policy of only signing players who are better when we havent got the ball (which was around 70% of the time), but the footballers we now have in midfield have to have something to work with. Beto and Barry are a footballers worst nightmare. They can both control a ball further than DCL could kick it. If you include wages. Those two have cost the club around 85 million. So I really don't want to hear that we cant afford new, younger and better players. Not while we are squandering so much on people who no longer, or never were, up to the job.

We are still a badly run club. If our decision making on the pitch is poor, it is only reflecting the choices we are making off it. I have to hope TFG can see this, unfortunately I cant help worrying that they are already part of it. The signing of Barry, Alcaraz and the return of David Moyes have all happened on their watch. As did the ridiculous contract extension of a 36 year old player who has been gash on each of the very rare occasions he has been able to hobble onto the pitch during the past 3 seasons.

In a recent article. I stated that I didnt believe Davey Moyes understood the Evertonian throughout the duration of his first stint. I wondered if he had a better idea this time around ? He gave me a very definite answer at Wolves. As Lyndon quite rightly points out. We've seen this film before

BTW; I was very relieved to see we haven't quite cornered the market when it comes to making idiotic choices. Summerville was running riot and had our defenders on their knees. The decison to take him off almost certainly saved us a point...Now that was comical.

Thinking about it, West Ham had two players in their team that were quite recently available, and reasonably affordable, that fulfil roles and positions we are crying out for.

Summerville- lightening fast on the flanks.

Walker-Peters a very competent full back, that can play LHS or RHS.

Our squad would have benefitted with both.