Everton’s performance against Manchester United was typical of their season, every so often they’re putting in half-decent displays against top teams but at the end of the day, we’re not winning football games and it’s a results-based business for the players and managers.
We all know that if Frank Lampard had been a manager in the early part of Farhad Moshiri’s ownership then he’d have been long gone. We’re aware that chopping and changing managers is not working and whoever is making decisions at board level, it’s not working. The club is all over the place right now.
Fans are protesting – and I’m fully behind each and every one of them because all they want is what is best for the football club – but what is the solution? We know the issues that the board have created and we know we need communication.
Supporters are frustrated because somebody has to take the blame for this. It can’t be every manager and we’ve had directors of football who have come out publicly and questioned the remit they’ve had to work in.
Who is making these decisions? Is it the owner? Why?
Is it the chairman? Why?
I know they don’t ‘have’ to provide a response but it’s getting to the point where the fans are going to make Goodison Park toxic each and every week until they get answers. Those who are in charge at Everton need to come out and be more transparent and not just issue a dismissive kind of statement that could be blasé about the situation.
As fans, this is our life. This is our livelihood, our community.
We know that the owner has put money in and made mistakes when trying to do the right thing – of course a billionaire doesn’t want to waste money – but he and the board have got it horribly wrong. We’ve changed direction so many times with Lampard the seventh manager in six years.
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As a fanbase, we’ve got to turn up again and try and pull this team through over the second half of the season. We did it last year and I’ve huffed and puffed at Goodison Park this season saying ‘do we have to do it again?’
Unfortunately we’ve got to stick with this group of players because we’re not going to bring in a dozen Diego Maradonas in the January transfer window. Getting frustrated with these modern day players is not going to make them any better.
Maybe 20 years ago, if the fans got on a players’ back they might have gone ‘I’m going to prove a point to you’ but we know this group haven’t got that backbone to do that. They’ll go into their shell, under-perform and unfortunately we end up losing football matches.
Trust me, moaning and groaning for 90 minutes is not going to help any player. No opponent likes to come to Goodison Park but their Plan A is ‘we know what these fans are like, let’s keep them quiet for 10 minutes, frustrate them and the crowd will turn on the players.’
Protest as much as you want before and after the game – I’m right behind you – because all we want is what’s best for the football club but right now our issue is winning games. Let’s play some high percentage football because while they’ve done it in moments, like against Crystal Palace, everything has got to be perfect for those type of goals to happen.
We’re creating fewer chances than ever because we’re trying to score the perfect goal. Instead we need to be putting the ball in dangerous positions for the opposition and if you put them under pressure for 10-15 minutes then the game might open up and allow you to play some decent football but as Carlo Ancelotti found out, these players can’t play wonderful football but Frank is stuck with them and needs to put his arm around them because he’s going to need them if he wants to stay in a job.
Everyone at the football club from top to bottom is under-achieving. There’s nobody who can put their hand up and say ‘well I’m doing a good job’ from board level, Frank Lampard or his players.
Nobody is standing out. But I tell you who will stand out, the fans, we will have to over-achieve again.
If the owner and the whole board were to go tomorrow, nothing is going to change on the pitch though. That’s what counts, more than anything, even the new stadium, I wouldn’t swap that for our Premier League place.
Nobody has talked about us bouncing back if we ever went down. We could struggle for a few years, who is to say we wouldn’t drop down another division into League One the following season like some other clubs have done if we are relegated.
I know it’s difficult and we’re all frustrated but we’ve got to get behind the players and resign ourselves to the reality that it’s going to be a tough, horrible and long five months. It’s going to be difficult for every Evertonian but we need to dig in for the long-term health of our football club.
This board, this manager, these players – like myself when I was at Everton – are all just passing through, at the end of the day, they’re not going to be here in 20 or 30 years, they’ll have moved on to other things. But the fanbase – like Michael Ball the supporter – will still be here.
We lost 21 games last season, sold our best player and haven’t found a replacement so what did we really expect? We’ve still got the top six to play, including leaders Arsenal twice and Chelsea so you might be left with about 10 games after that and you’ve probably got to win eight of them.
We’re going to need a miracle to stay in the Premier League. A couple of teams who were struggling are now finding form but the table is still very tight.
People from outside the football club laugh at Everton. We wanted money for so long but when we got it, it’s been one decision after another that has gone wrong.
Blues showed fight at United but technical play was still lacking
The trip to Old Trafford for the third round of the FA Cup was brilliant for the fans from a supporter point of view with over 9,000 Evertonians making the trip. I turned up there with a gang of us and we weren’t expecting much, just a bit of heart and desire like the Manchester City game and the lads did that.
We conceded a very soft goal, which has been our downfall this season, and you were left fearing ‘this could be a cricket score’ but credit to the players, they didn’t down tools and they fought on. Manchester United are a much better side than us and they were pulling us all over the place, going through the midfield easily and toying with us but ultimately they never killed off the game until the very end.
We stayed in it and probably had the better opportunities with Demarai Gray and Vitalii Mykolenko both having chances but while it was good to see a bit of fight, let’s step back from this. Against Manchester City and Manchester United we put in good performances because we sit back and play on the counter attack against the bigger teams, it’s not nice but if that’s the best way to play, you’ve got to stick with it.
It plays into our hands if our forward-thinking players are up for it. I thought Gray was fantastic against United but the rest of the players need to be switched on.
As soon as we switched off against Manchester United, they punished us. That was through full-backs not getting tight, centre-halves not covering full-backs and that’s what happens when you play against good teams, they drag you everywhere.
However, good football teams stay with the same system because they have consistency and they understand their jobs. When it comes to recruitment and bringing players into the football club, it makes things much simpler.
That’s why our recruitment has been so mismanaged because we haven’t got an identity or a system of how we want to play football. Rather than knowing what the ‘Everton system’ is, we go off plan and get somebody totally different like when we bought three number 10s in one transfer window.
While I was pleased with the performance, it wasn’t a 3-1 game in terms of the balance of play and we might have deserved a replay for the amount of effort that the players, the level of technical ability on the pitch is not good enough. We’re only saying that was a positive display because we’ve watched some dire performances both this season and for the last few years so when we do ok, we’re happy about it.
Set pieces need sorting out
Frank Lampard realises he’s very lucky because every Evertonian is behind him and wants him to succeed but he needs to grasp who is putting it in for him, working hard for that shirt. Someone at Finch Farm must be having one over on Frank because as a manager you’re not daft, you’re watching these players turn up every morning.
Frank was a very professional, hard trainer as a player and he’ll want that from all his players. He needs to figure it out because somebody is conning him as he’s seeing them at Finch Farm and thinking ‘wow he deserves a place’ and when they go over that white line, they’re not putting in performances.
We need to be concentrating on set-pieces, why aren’t we wreaking havoc in the opposition box? As a player, I used to love set-pieces, you could play the best team in the world and struggle against them but if you get a set-piece, there’s your opportunity, make the most of it.
Why are we doing out-swingers on wide free-kicks? As a defender I’m thinking ‘brilliant’ when that happens, you’re helping me to clear it.
Who is going to score a header from 25 yards out? There’s nobody in the Premier League anymore who can do that, there’s no Duncan Ferguson or Tim Cahill.
Why are we doing out-swingers that over-hit everybody then we get caught on the counter-attack? Every other team are doing in-swingers and if anybody misses it, the ball goes in.
I’ve never known a team to make basic football look so difficult. It’s just pass, pass, pass and put each other under pressure.
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