Yep

Anxiety starting to creep in both on and off the pitch. It just feels so unnecessary

We could have easily been 3 up after 30 minutes And we’ll worth worth it.

The Decision to replace Ndiaye with McNeil and not give our forty million kitty -busting Summer signing a Run-out, is becoming curiouser and curiouser!

Not hooking the phantom KDH earlier was also strange… if not bizarre !

I think along with Ndiaye and Jack, he has become a confirmed favourite to Start … even after consecutive ineffective performances.

I mean, how unready does Dibling have to be?

Tarkowsky has now cemented his liability status, that Keane once was and seems to be doing a better Job at it!

It’s not a good feeling for myself and I’m sure for my fellow Blues, to be posting negative remarks, but there is no Sugarcoating it.. is there?

I’m sure Moyes told them to slow it down After the half hour mark.

To be Frank about it… or even Earnest!… His in game management has become dreadful and frustrating.

I bet he was glad to get back to his Cardie and slippers, along with his undeserved Cup of Coco!

Probably the best decision he made tonight, was to ask the Wee Hen for an extra Blanky!

After the BIG MISS, we seemed to morph into rubbish, miracle we only conceded one 2nd half.
Keane was MOTM again, that’s probably been the case most of the last 4 or 5 games.
Such a disappointment as we were fantastic for 25 minutes.
Another issue is how subs can influence and change a game, for the better, unfortunately 3 of ours, McNeil, Beto and Alcaraz had a nightmare.

Not Moyes' finest hour. An uninspiring, conservative team selection that made me eat my words for 30 minutes, followed by a reminder of why I was concerned before the game.

The midfield was crying out for a solid, steady presence. Rohl is 'impressive' in training but stayed on the bench. The attack was crying out for a bit of invention. Again, apparently Dibling 'impresses' in training, but again, stayed on the bench. For McNeil.

Barry missed a sitter again, but tell me, what kind of a manager spends that money on a striker and hooks him early every game he picks him? Tell him he's getting a six game run as a starter and give him a proper chance.

Regarding Dibling, I know two Saints fans. Both tell me that Dibling is a quiet lad off the pitch, looks languid when he's on the pitch, but is at his best when he gets the ball early so he has space to go at players.

Put O'Brien at centre half for Tarks so we move 10 yards up the pitch. Garner or Coleman at full back. Rohl in the middle. Barry up front. Alcaraz behind him to move the ball forwards more quickly.

It strikes me that Moyes is picking players based on what he wants them to be like rather than their actual strengths.

He has to do better.

How long can this go on for?
Sunderland we’re finished, all at sea, and completely lost there nerve, there was no way back even the ref seemed to be on our side.

Then Moyes signals from the sideline slow it down! Slow it down at half hour, you coward Moyes! You’re a disgrace! Get out of this club you are not wanted!

He brings McNeil on ahead of Dibling? What does that signal to everyone? McNeil as we know is done, hasn’t played in god knows how long, he obviously doesn’t like Dibling.

Nothing will change why Moyes is here, he’s clueless, old and out of date, for him mid table is a success. Friedkin please pull the trigger before we we fall any deeper.

the McNeil sub was jaw dropping. Our star signing was not trusted for 20 minutes against a desperately poor Sunderland team, instead Moyes preferred a player he clearly isn't interested in, and in fact played him out of position. We've spent £40m for a right winger, and then play a left winger who's on the way out in his place. WTAF. So that's £70m (when you include Barry) of players Moyes ins't sure about. And when you think Rohl and Aznou haven't started a game, you can say we've spent a hundred million pounds, and the manager doesn't think any of them can get into that shitshow of a team.

I have to agree with Harry and Kevin.

It’s absolutely lamentable.
McNeil had a stinker in his last outing and he wasn’t great playing for the u21’s.
He’s an extremely limited one footed player, who in my opinion lacks Premier League quality.

Paul 4

I would prefer Garner to keep his current position, as he is creative and knows how to Shoot.

Seamus isn’t the player he was. He’s lost pace and could be prone to injury, if he was to bust a gut for us. The leg Break didn’t help either.

Besides, if we have Seamus, Tarkowsky and Keane on the same Park, that’s nigh on one hundred collective years of very limited Talent.
that wouldn’t be a sign of a «  work in progress » to me.. more like regression.

We seem to have a knack over the years of unearthing players who Flatter to deceive and we become terribly reliant upon.
We had players like Mirallas and Dulofeu and now we have KDH and Alcaraz.

Not many of our players can put in consistent 7/10 performances.
It’s rare that we have the whole team Marauding.. we are consistently lacking.

I feel that that transfer window and the inability to adress urgency in defence and attack, notwithstanding our outlay on unprepared personnel, has seriously stunted our «  Progress » and could well have knocked us back a tad.
I know it’s not time to panic, but there are teams below us, who could well hit form and surprise us.
These days a mere 4 or, 5 points could seperate several teams.

We played well for half an hour before losing control of the game. In some ways that has been the story of the season so far. The team seems unable to put a full 90+7 minutes performance together. Even the performance in the 3-2 win at Wolves was patchy with periods of dominance followed by lapses.

Why did we lose control after the opening half hour? I don’t subscribe to the notion Moyes instructed his players to drop deeper. I think Xhaka and Sadiki simply got stuck into our midfield and asserted themselves having been totally outplayed previously.

Our response lacked physicality as well as belief. It is noticeable that once we lose midfield control Dewsbury-Hall might as well not be on the pitch. He is hopeless fighting for the punts out of defence and is heavily dependent on having players around him, especially Grealish, to make themselves available for a pass. Put simply, he looks a capable player in a team playing well but a liability in a team struggling for possession.

The McNeil substitution left everyone in the away section dumbfounded. The player seemed hell bent on proving his many doubters correct, giving away possession cheaply and running into hopeless dead ends. The away fans were understandably calling for Alcaraz well before Moyes brought him on. That change should have been made twenty minutes earlier. Likewise Iroegbunam, who added much needed physicality in the closing stages when we finally managed to break forward with some intent. That was too little too late but in truth we were mightily relieved to escape with a point after a very poor second half performance when, with better finishing on their part, Sunderland might well have recorded another win.

What is it with Everton that just as we start to hope that we have turned a corner and things are looking brighter, we frustratingly revert to form? Is there any Evertonian who watched that match last night and have followed the Blues for any length of time who didn't know that we would regret the squandered chances?

The massively frustrating thing for me is that, at times, we look a decent team. Ndiaye, Grealish, Garner, Dewsbury-Hall are good players. Pickford is one of the best keepers there is. It's very early days but perhaps Roehl can fill the Gueye boots (who looks like age has caught up with him, to me). When Branthwaite is fit then we have the nucleus of a good team. Keane has done well, this season. However, supporting Everton is like a game of whack-a-rat. Just as you solve one issue, things that were working then go to pieces. We never seem to have a solid defence, a competent goalkeeper, a potent attack and some creativity in midfield all at the same time.

This season, my heart is in my mouth every time Tarkowski receives the ball or a player attacks him. I'm getting sick of him smiling to the referee or his teammates because he's either committed a stupid foul or made a ricket. The much-derided Keane has been our best defender this season by a country mile.

McNeill gave one of the worst performances from a substitute that I can remember. He seemed to lose possession every single time he got it. His set piece delivery was atrocious as well. Just what exactly does the two-arm signal mean? My interpretation of it is "I'm going to put it in the 'keepers hands now".

I'd have taken a point before the game but you just knew that when we didn't go 2-0 up then we'd concede. It doesn't matter who the manager is; we never seem to be able to string two good halves of football together. The only surprise to me was that I thought Sunderland were nailed on for a penalty at some point last night.

Dewsbury-Hall needs to start shooting as well. He gets in good positions but chooses to feed it out wide too often for me. When we shot, we looked dangerous but the only shots I remember other than the goal were from Garner, Grealish and Mykolenko (I'm discounting Barry's miss as that hardly constitutes a shot; it came off his shin). We constantly get in good positions but then try and knock it out wide, invariably resulting in a player being in less-threatening position. One of my other pet hates is that our players never seem to have an awareness of what's around them. Very often, I'm watching thinking "do NOT lose the ball there" because we have no cover whatsoever. Sometimes we can have the ball in their half and you know that if we get caught out, Pickford will be fishing it out of his net.

Moyes needs to find a way to get goals from this team or this season is going to derail in the way it did under Benitez and Dyche.

Whoever was responsible for signing Barry, for quite a bit of money, wants shooting. He is nowhere near being ready for the Prem League (as is Beto by the way) and should be sent immediately to the U21's not to emerge from there until he shows some semblance of being able to hold his own as a centre forward in the Prem League.

I'm not sure if that will happen though but at least we maybe can find out, without damaging our first team, if he is going to be any good to us. I feel sorry for the boy as it is not his fault he came here as a centre forward, to all intents and purpose, replace Beto. He is even less a Prem League CF than Beto.

One last thought. When I saw the team and subs announcement I was please as I thought Moyes was going to do the right thing and, if things weren't going to plan he was going to use the strong looking bench to change things around. Wrong. He did his usual Moyes thing and went for the "we are not going to get beat if I can help it mode" at the first opportunity.

I am worried now about the rest of the season if we continue as we have shown in the early season with the players we have played to date.

Some things never change do they.

John Raferty,

Let’s say for arguments sake he didn’t say the words “slow down” from the sidelines although I saw it as did others.

What does he’s actions and approach tell us?
He has players capable of making a difference and possibly changing the flow of the game in our favour like Dibling, Rohl etc but opts for McNeil?

Not only that but on the right side? Sorry no excuses for it.
He was trying to hang on and get a point, negative tactics that invariably will cost us points.

I’ve just learned the reason why Moyes chose McNeil over Dibling,

Apparently, according to Moyes, McNiel was tearing it up in training.

So, that can only be be construed as.. we have an absolute Duff, that is better than our 40 million potential star player.

Now, please feel free to correct me if I’m on the wrong piste, but, have we been had?

Paul @12. Not answering you directly but I do feel that we made some real mistakes during our summer business and those responsible, including Moyes if applicable, should be held to account if proven.

I'm not sure about Dibling. From the little that we have seen him I would put him into the 'not ready' category and therefore we overspent in a big way. Not sure about Dewsbury-Hall either but the big mistakes in my eyes was Barry. Never in a month of Sundays was he scouted properly and we paid well over the odds for what we got.

If you look, with the benefit of hindsight of course, at our incomings how many are now in the team week in week out. The fact that the answer is very few is revealing. It was poor recruitment or Moyes is at fault. I don't know which but our results tell us that somthing is wrong. Not sure about Grealish either. Wonderfull player but doesn't he slow things down when a fast break is called for?

I may be barking up the wrong tree of course but they are my thoughts on why were are in a pickle at the moment.

Peter @ 13

The reason I asked «  have we been Had ? », in my post @ 12, ( although, I admit that you weren’t referring to that particular post), is for the following reason:

Way Back in 2016, we signed a certain Oumar Niasse.

It took what seemed like ages Before we saw him take to the field.

To finally see him in Royal Blue, we were more than curious, of what he would offer and thought at the same time, that HE would be chomping at the Bit!

The excuse was, he had a hand injury !.. a very strange injury, that could impede anyone from using their feet.

There were rumours at the time, that Joe Royle had said that he was «  Shit » in training !

Now, I don’t know how true those rumours were, but, once he took to the field, he showed all the attributes of someone who played nowhere above non-league football.

The problem was, that like all Everton supporters, we want to get behind and Support all our players, with passion, but for the hapless Oumar, he provoked Ridicule from members of the Fanbase, after some very unconvincing performances.

Oddly enough, in hindsight, his efforts were no worse than what is on display, from our current Charges !

So, has Dibling been so bad in training, that McNiel, (who has been complete gash!), gets the nod before him!

I personally find this suspicious and alarming.

Agreed Paul. My take on it is that we should look at our recruitment with suspicion. My view is that this summers efforts have been less than helpful to our cause and that Moyes, rightly or wrongly is equally unimpressed. In other words there is something wrong with what we are doing. Do you agree?

Peter @ 15

One hundred per cent !
Moyes knew he was taking over a Broken Train set when he was recruited.

He knew he would have to delve and dabble in the Summer Transfer Market, albeit with limited funds.
Although he did spend over 100m …unwisely, it seems.

He had several months to study
his potential targets, so he wasn’t under pressure.
I keep on about his out dated number Nine strategy and his insistence on the same game plan.
He is going Down the Dyche Road.

His pressers are becoming nauseating and once the mumerings of discontent have started, there can only be one outcome.

We, as fantasy managers have already seen the limitations of the personnel at our disposal.
I only hope that us, as fans, do not have to suffer another long drawn out tooth- pulling saga!