Pre-season Friendlies

So we are up & running with a 3-3 draw against Sligo Rovers & a 2-1 defeat against the mighty Salford.

Looks like we're in for another great season   

UTFT !

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:So we are up & running with a 3-3 draw against Sligo Rovers & a 2-1 defeat against the mighty Salford.

Looks like we're in for another great season   

UTFT !

Neither Salford nor Sligo are to be underestimated. One point out of six on the road so far is a solid start. And it's important for DCL to get his cow's arse/banjo misses out of the way early in the season.

hairy cataract wrote:

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:So we are up & running with a 3-3 draw against Sligo Rovers & a 2-1 defeat against the mighty Salford.

Looks like we're in for another great season   

UTFT !

Neither Salford nor Sligo are to be underestimated.  One point out of six on the road so far is a solid start.  And it's important for DCL to get his cow's arse/banjo misses out of the way early in the season.

My fear is that he's perfecting his cow's arse/banjo thing. Does anyone remember when we last thought that DCL was a potent finisher? 2021, early 2022?

Sell the man. If DCL's all-round game means that he contributes to a fuck-ton of goals for all of these new signings we're bringing in, fine. A sort of Mikhail Antonio who can jump. Otherwise, well, he's out of contract next summer. Cash in now before any directors of football watch the Salford highlights.

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:

hairy cataract wrote:

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:So we are up & running with a 3-3 draw against Sligo Rovers & a 2-1 defeat against the mighty Salford.

Looks like we're in for another great season   

UTFT !

Neither Salford nor Sligo are to be underestimated.  One point out of six on the road so far is a solid start.  And it's important for DCL to get his cow's arse/banjo misses out of the way early in the season.

My fear is that he's perfecting his cow's arse/banjo thing. Does anyone remember when we last thought that DCL was a potent finisher? 2021, early 2022?

Sell the man. If DCL's all-round game means that he contributes to a fuck-ton of goals for all of these new signings we're bringing in, fine. A sort of Mikhail Antonio who can jump. Otherwise, well, he's out of contract next summer. Cash in now before any directors of football watch the Salford highlights.

That one on one yesterday was in a class of its own. Shocking miss. If it was a one-off you'd think, ah at least he was in the right place, but it's par for the course with our Dom.

Love him as a footballer, and as role model, and for his sultry good looks, but as a striker he's definitely in the great tradition of Evertonian banjo-wielders.

I only watched about half of tonight's match at Coventry, so only half a report:

DCL was absolutely fucking....
He couldn't hit a.....
Holgate needs to be.....
Coventry made us look......
We're going to be in a......
Slow, unimaginative and.....
Beto looks like's never.....
Iroegbunam and Ndiaye both looked useful but Dyche will probably.....

So pre season is going well...

3-0 defeat against Coventry.
2-1 defeat against Salford.
3-3 draw against Sligo Rovers.


Can't see any reason not be confident about a top half finish this season.

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:So pre season is going well...

3-0 defeat against Coventry.
2-1 defeat against Salford.
3-3 draw against Sligo Rovers.


Can't see any reason not be confident about a top half finish this season.

Early days, and I think they might have just suffered "Gaffer's Day" which means they're knackered, but there was little to be confident about last night. Coventry looked by far the brighter team, passing the ball quickly and leaving our midfield floundering. We desperately need Branthwaite and Tarkowski back, and starting the season with Coleman and Young as full backs would be pretty disastrous.

I love Seamus - there should be a statue of him at the new ground, but he's definitely looking like he might be past his sell-by date, as is Young. By October they'll have a combined age of 75, has there been an older full back pairing in history?

Garner looked solid and, as I said, Iroegbunam and Ndiaye both looked useful but I have a feeling Dyche will start with the same team that he relied on last season.

hairy cataract wrote:

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:So pre season is going well...

3-0 defeat against Coventry.
2-1 defeat against Salford.
3-3 draw against Sligo Rovers.


Can't see any reason not be confident about a top half finish this season.

Early days, and I think they might have just suffered "Gaffer's Day" which means they're knackered, but there was little to be confident about last night.  Coventry looked by far the brighter team, passing the ball quickly and leaving our midfield floundering.  We desperately need Branthwaite and Tarkowski back, and starting the season with Coleman and Young as full backs would be pretty disastrous.

I love Seamus - there should be a statue of him at the new ground, but he's definitely looking like he might be past his sell-by date, as is Young.  By October they'll have a combined age of 75, has there been an older full back pairing in history?

Garner looked solid and, as I said, Iroegbunam and Ndiaye both looked useful but I have a feeling Dyche will start with the same team that he relied on last season.

Cheers Hairy... I feel much more optimistic now you pointed out gaffers day, that I forgot about.

So, 2 defeats & a draw against (very) low league opposition with 2 weeks to league kickoff.... and they're knackered.

..and we haven't had the latest round of FFP corruption deductions yet. So expect -6 to -12 points somewhere along the way.

great 

I'd like to give you an update on today's game at PNE, but our glorious club can't even get the live stream working. They really are fucking useless.

Booooooo!!!!

Anyway, we're one nil up through a DCL penalty. Give that man a £130k a week contract! In fact, give him a knighthood!

ooooo Lindstrom scores a peach of a free-kick! And that was after O'Brien scored a debut goal too.

WE'RE GOING TO WIN THE LOT!

17 year old Harrison Armstrong looks really good. Not often we've been able to say that about one of our kids. He's very strong on the ball, a bit like Onana - hard to knock off it.

Final score 3-0.  Seemed to be a much better performance, though hard to tell because the Everton OS feed kept breaking down, and I was doing a bit of DIY at the same time.

Anyway, UTFT!

  UTFT 

Good to see that not only did we win, but DCL scored, albeit from the spot. We need a decent striker to score some goals.

Another note, we won which is great but it was again PNE, while the top teams in the league are either playing each other or top teams from other leagues. I guess the Roma game will be a bit more of a real test to see where we truly are from a competitive point of view.

Highlights from the PNE's OS.

I watched the highlights yesterday I think it was and was happy to see the aggressiveness in the middle of the park from Ndiaye. Looking forward to seeing more of him.

Highlights made us look pretty decent (apart from in front of goal… plus ca change) Iregbonam (sp) looked a real player, if he’s Obama’s replacement I don’t think we’ve done too badly out of it.

Tonteau wrote:Highlights made us look pretty decent (apart from in front of goal… plus ca change) Iregbonam (sp) looked a real player, if he’s Obama’s replacement I don’t think we’ve done too badly out of it.

Can he win the swing states though? I could see him doing well in places like urban-centric places Michigan but he'll struggle in redneck states such as Georgia and Arizona.

Yeah, Tim Irogneubom (sp) has looked really good, but he's very young.  I was looking at some of the QPR forums from when he was on loan there, and they seemed divided about him.  General impression was he was better going forward, but gave the ball away in dangerous positions when defending, and disappeared for large chunks of the game.  To be fair, he was even younger then, and I've seen nothing to suggest that's still the case so far at Everton.  He's been very Onana like in his tackling, but much more box to box about him than Onana had. He definitely looks a great addition so far.

Time will tell. He might be an absolute steal, or he might be a huge disappointment. Or something in between.