After reclaiming their seats, the dissidents ended in ebullient mood, thanks in part to Farhad Moshiri’s most controversial callPerhaps it was the first protest to be delayed because Richarlison won a corner. Militancy was put on hold for 30 seconds or so until it came to nothing. And then the stream to the exits began. Not all Evertonians, not a majority, but enough to leave the Gwladys Street End and the Park Stand looked more deserted than usual. While the cynics wondered if, as thousands remained seated, Everton could not even stage a convincing mutiny, this was a movement with a difference.It was a cry for competence. Everton have had a surfeit of ambition and a shortage of good judgment...
Derby defeat was chastening in almost every aspect and Everton must hope Dominic Calvert-Lewin regains fitness soonDerbies, if received wisdom is to be believed, can be very handy for arresting a slump. They can jolt players out of a rut, or the heightened passions can occlude differences in class. Not at Goodison on Wednesday night, though: not only did the form book not go out of the window, not only did it stay resolutely in the room, but it made itself a feature and across its pages in enormous letters was written the simple message: Everton are in trouble.Perhaps that’s unfair on Liverpool. They tore into faltering opponents from the off. They racked up a greater xG in the first...
The manager spent £1.7m in the summer and is doing his best but structural flaws overseen by Farhad Moshiri and Marcel Brands are the root of the club’s problemsThe reaction to Everton’s 13-minute collapse against Watford was telling. Scorn rained down on players and manager alike after a 2-1 lead in the 78th minute became a 5-2 defeat by the 91st, but a sizeable number of fans in the main stand at Goodison Park headed for the directors’ box to accuse the major shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, and the director of football, Marcel Brands, of deep-rooted mismanagement. Anger has understandably risen to the top.After three successive Premier League defeats, one win in seven matches and a woeful response to the Watford...
Everton manager’s rice-and-vegetables approach is not to all tastes but who better to lead the club to the game’s high table?What we want and what we need are often very different things. You get home weary in the evening and look around the kitchen. You probably could knock something reasonably tasty together from the vegetables and the brown rice, but you feel the urge of the delivery. Perhaps you go for the familiar pizza, the comfortingly big easy flavours. There’s the greasy satisfaction of feeling full, but in the morning you feel bloated – and then a glimpse at the receipt provokes another wave of regret.Or maybe you try the fashionable new German or Swiss place everybody’s raving about. It...
Bruce potentially set for his final game at Newcastle, Ranieri begins tough spell at Watford and Guardiola has Sterling decision It feels trivial discussing mere football matters when set against the ethical concerns arising from Newcastle’s Saudi takeover, but it feels as if whatever happens on the pitch against Tottenham will accelerate Steve Bruce’s departure. He is unlikely to get much credit if his side record a first league win of the season; instead it will only heighten the sense of “new broom” momentum that would require a bigger-name manager as soon as possible, while defeat would only serve to demonstrate the immediate need for change. It helps Bruce that Newcastle’s first opponents of the new era are a side...