Your morning Everton headlines on Friday, November 18.
Worrying Everton trend leaves Frank Lampard's priorities clear amid 'naive' transfer warning
With 15 games of the Premier League season gone and a six-week break ahead, now feels as good a time as any to reflect on the campaign so far.
From the highs of Southampton and Crystal Palace to the lows of Newcastle United and that miserable final week before this break, there is plenty to look back on as our writers attempt to assess what they have seen. They also have their say on what needs to happen during the coming weeks as Frank Lampard and those around him look to drag Everton away from a relegation battle.
So here, Chris Beesley, Matt Jones and Joe Thomas take a look at everything that has happened since the campaign began in the early August sunshine, and share their thoughts.
CB: I thought it was negligent to go into the season without a striker – they’d sold Richarlison and unfortunately given his injury problems, it was always a risk expecting Dominic Calvert-Lewin to stay fit – but things had been ticking along as expected until the Leicester City game. The concern over where the goals will come from remains but I’d predicted a 13th place finish for Everton before a ball was kicked and had been hopeful that slow progress was being made to get there or thereabouts after the trauma of the previous campaign.
MJ: Sadly, the familiar pangs of terror that underscored the end of last season are beginning to return. Everton have clearly made minor progress in some areas - there is seemingly more heart in this team and defensively they’ve been able to adopt a ‘bend but don’t break’ approach. But there have been some worrying trends throughout the season. Ultimately this is a team that concedes lots of chances, is still lacking balance in midfield and can’t create chances. Performances against those trends are the anomalies as things stand and that must change to prevent this downward slide.
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Everton defender Conor Coady shuts down 'tourist' claim after World Cup call-up
Conor Coady has dismissed the idea he is heading to the upcoming World Cup as a 'tourist' and is prepared to give maximum effort whenever called upon by Gareth Southgate.
The Everton defender was unofficially declared England's player of the tournament by assistant manager Steve Holland during Euro 2020 for the camaraderie he helped create among the group despite failing to feature for the Three Lions.
Coady will look to have a similar impact in Qatar having been reunited with the group but faces a battle on his hands to force his way into Southgate's starting eleven.
While fully committed to supporting the group throughout regardless of whether he features, the 29-year-old has insisted he is not there to simply make up the numbers. Jokingly asked what a good tourist looks like at a World Cup, he told reporters: "He has just called me a tourist! I don't think of myself as that [a tourist] if I'm being honest, I think of myself as a player who's coming to try and affect, to try and help as much as I possibly can and to push everyone.
"I've said it plenty of times before, if you're not going to play in a team, what are you going to do? You're going to sit and talk and go back to your room or are you going to try and give the best of yourself to try and push people as much as you possibly can?
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READ NEXT:
- Goodison Park's top 10 non-Everton occasions as new stadium set for major boost
- Three blunt questions Frank Lampard must answer during World Cup break amid Everton 'crisis' claim
- 'We're there again' - Frank Lampard makes 'tough' Everton relegation fight admission
- New signing breaks duck, penalty woes and 50-goal glut - Everton's previous trips to Australia
- Everton 'cool interest' in Udinese defender as transfer 'update' emerges ahead of January
