We were absolutely rampant in our first venture into the Europa League under my management and recorded a massive win over our Turkish opponents! What a way to kick start the group and send out a statement of intent that we're not here to just make up the number in Europe this year! Jack Clarke and Mitchell Weiser both bagged their first goals for the club!
Another solid performance in our first home game in Europe as we beat the second best team in our group with relative ease! Four different players got in on the goalscoring act as we make it an incredible 13 goals scored in just 2 games in the Europa League, with Odsonne Edouard bagging a brilliant hat trick!
Spurs have made a much more encouraging start to this season than they did in the previous 2 and looked like a much better side here as well! Martial got us off to a perfect start, slotting home a penalty, before Pickford made a real hash of Christian Eriksen's free kick to allow them to equalize! From that moment, it was end to end stuff and looked like anyone's game! On 67 minutes, Richarlison came so close to putting us back in front as his shot struck the bottom of the post, before Wilf Zaha nicked all 3 points for them in injury time as we were caught short at the back! Disappointing that a lack of concentration from my lads left us in a situation where they were 3 on 1 so late in the game and literally just had to pass the ball into the back of the net!
**** poor performance from us in a game I'd definitely expect us to win! We were absolutely terrible and the lads got a severe bollocking at the final whistle as I made my feelings clear! I was actually livid after this one as this was possibly the worst we've ever played under my management!
After our recent poor run of form in the league and the disastrous performance against Newcastle last time out, this became a must win game for us! So I demanded a good display from my lads and they duly delivered to be fair to them! Anthony Martial orchestrated virtually everything we did in attack as he was on fire and inspired us to a comfortable home victory!
Odsonne Edouard picked up an injury on international duty with the France U21 squad that will keep him out for a few weeks!
I really expected us to push on from the Brighton game and win this one as well, but again we suffer another defeat and put in a lacklustre performance! Another bad result as our league form continues to falter!
There's only one way to describe our league form so far this year....not ****** good enough! I'm not sure if we're struggling to balance domestic and European football or whether we have just been **** or what is is, but it needs to improve quickly or the top 6 will be out of reach very early on in the season!
The Carabao Cup will need to be used to rotate players this season and I was prepared to sacrifice our place in the competition to do so. However, we march on with a win over Leicester here after fighting back from a goal down! Antonee Robinson was handed a debut at left back, whilst Viktor Fischer, Beni Baningime and Dominic Calvert-Lewin were also handed their first starts of the season!
Friday 27th November 2020 'League Form Still Patchy, But We're Simply Awesome In Europe'
I was asked in the post above by Travis Comery if I can pinpoint the reason for our poor league form this season so far, so I've done some digging to try to work it out! One thing I can say is that the team as a whole have good average ratings with most of the lads recording above 7.0 so far this season, so individually they are doing a decent job!
There's no cause for concern with the squad dynamics either, with team cohesion being very good and the dressing room atmosphere being OK.
I do have 3 unhappy players, but none of them are team leaders within the squad and shouldn't cause so much disruption that it would effect our form!
We've conceded a fair few goals this season already and I think I may have found the issue. When I compare our defenders stats against the rest of the league, I can see that we are well below par against all the other teams. Our pace at the back is decent as our defenders are rated 6th for pace and 3rd for acceleration amongst the Premier League teams. However, our standings in the other areas read as such; Tackling (10th), Heading (13th), Jumping Reach (14th), Marking (18th), Positioning (13th), Strength (16th)! So basically, I need to improve my back 4 would seem to be the answer!
WOW! I was expecting a tougher game out in Russia, but we were again on absolute fire in Europe and smashed home another 6 goals!! We're making waves around Europe and I know this is the lesser of the two European cups, but surely everyone has to be talking about our performances in the competition this season! Anthony Martial hammered home a first half hat trick to take another man of the match award!
With us having won 3 of 3 so far in the group, I decided to rotate the squad a little here, leaving out the likes of Martial, Richarlison and Palacios, and even handed a debut to 17 year old winger, Carl Phillip! The youngster made an immediate impact as it was his through ball that set up Dominic Calvert-Lewin for our opening goal and Phillip had chalked up an assist within 20 minutes of his debut! Viktor Fischer sealed victory for us late on with a beautifully curled shot from just inside the 18 yard box that tucked neatly into the top right corner of the net!
With two group stage matches still remaining, we have sealed qualification to the knockout stages of the competition.
Based on the fact we have already won the group no matter what, I wanted to rest as many players as I could with a Premier League game against Bournemouth only 3 days away! Starts were handed to 19 year old keeper, Nicolas Hansen, 20 year old left back Lewis Gibson and 22 year old Beni Baningime in the DM role. I also started the game with three 16/17 year olds on the bench in Gabriel Maragh (AML), Carl Phillip (AMR) and Tom Davidson (ST). All the youngsters featured at some point as well as we cruised to a comfortable 4-0 win!
Tom Davidson's appearance off the bench makes him the club's youngest ever player!
I was a little worried going into this fixture as it came only a couple of days after our Europa League match against Lokomotiv Moscow. After spending most of the week prior travelling to and from Russia, we'd not had much time to prepare for this one and our league form has been suspect of late to say the least! However, we produced a decent enough showing and picked up a much needed 3 points!
Another absolutely dreadful result in the Premier League as we lose away at Fulham! This could be the worse one yet and I'm starting to worry about the board and fans starting to get on my back if this form keeps up much longer!
Charlie Taylor made his first appearance of the season against Fulham, but was forced off with another injury before half time. He will now miss another couple of months!
Huddersfield have made a decent start to their campaign and sat 10th at kick off, but we knew we could leapfrog them and propel ourselves into the top half with a win! And that's exactly what we did!
Defensively we've been a bit all over the place this year in the league, but here we were fantastic and held Chelsea to a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge! A good result away from home, and it's definitely the back 4 we have to thank for this point today!
Our league form is still leaving something to be desired and we remain just inside the top half of the table, but still 5 points off the top 6! With a break coming up in European football for a couple of months, we need to really knuckle down domestically and string together some good results to get ourselves back in contention for European qualification again!
This was our 3rd game in a matter of 7 days and it showed as the lads looked fatigued! It didn't help that Arsenal brought a full strength side as it seems they are taking this competition more seriously than us this year (or they were just desperate for revenge for us knocking them out last year). Patrick Cutrone was a bit of a beast up front for them and his hat trick saw them through as he tore our defence apart!
Player Watch
Jordan Pickford is a world class keeper, there's no doubt about that! However, his league form this year has taken a little bit of a dive and he has made a couple of silly mistakes that have cost us! In the Summer, he did mention that he might be looking for a new challenge with a bigger club at some point and I have to wonder if his heart isn't in the Everton badge anymore. Or it could just be that Stekelenburg retired and I didn't bring in another keeper, deciding instead to use my young keepers as backups...maybe Pickford doesn't see genuine competition for his place in the side and is taking it easy! Not sure, but I definitely need to get the best out of my keeper if we are going to improve our league form and fast!
Hey mate, just wanted to address how much of an amazing story this has been! I've taken some inspiration from it with my Hull save and have adopted a similar style - hope you don't mind! Great job, keep it up! An amazing read.
Hey mate, just wanted to address how much of an amazing story this has been! I've taken some inspiration from it with my Hull save and have adopted a similar style - hope you don't mind! Great job, keep it up! An amazing read.
Bournemouth have been brilliant over the past 2 seasons finishing 7th and 6th, but this year they look set to be embroiled in a relegation battle as they came into this game in 17th place with only 11 points! However, we're pretty **** in the league this year and some shocking defending cost us dear again here as we twice threw away the lead and fall to defeat on the south coast!
My Assistant Manager seems to have given up on this season already!!
"See lads, you can do it!!" That was the message at the full time whistle to my players after a best league performance of the year! We were fantastic here against one of the best teams in the world, let alone the country! Lewis Dunk really shone at the back and it was his header that rattled the crossbar and rebounded off into the path of Odsonne Edouard to score our opener!
****! This is not good! Jordan Pickford is going to miss around a month and a half through injury, and my backups are basically a couple of youngsters from the U23s. Is the decision not to bring a new keeper in during the Summer transfer window about to come back and haunt me?!
Nicolas Hansen is the 19 year old American keeper that's about to get his shot in the big leagues!
Whilst Joao Virginia has been promoted from the U23s temporarily to act as Hansen's backup!
A valiant effort against The **** and if it wasn't for Granit Xhaka scoring two absolute bangers, we might have won this game! Can't moan at the lads here as they gave it their all and deserved more from the game!
With Zinedine Zidane getting sacked from Chelsea, I'm a little worried to see my name mentioned as one of the favourites to be the next Prem manager getting the chop!
I really badly needed us to win this game to relieve some pressure on me as my job was now showing on the job security page as insecure! The lads got behind me and produced a decent performance and put a crucial 3 points on the board for us! Now we need to kick on and string together 3 or 4 wins!
A really boring match for the supporters as both teams struggled to create anything! With a young and inexperienced goalkeeper between the sticks though, they were able to score two of their half chances which gave them the win!
The board wanted an explanation for the poor performance against Southampton and at the end of the meeting, I have been given an ultimatum...get a result in the next game against West Ham or I'm gone!!!
Just how important could that 90th minute winner from Anthony Martial be?! It might just keep me in my ****** job, that's how important!! We were well on top for the whole game and fully deserved the 3 points so I'm glad we eventually got over the line!
I can breathe a big sigh of relief...for now!!
We hold on to 10th position at the moment with our form still being very up and down! With a couple of wins, we could easily move into top 6 contention, but with a couple of losses we could just as easily drop into the bottom 6! The board are losing their patience with me, so lets hope and pray it's the former!
Another weakened side was played here and another debut was handed out to 17 year old centre back, George Armstrong! We suffered our first defeat in the competition, but with the first team played and the fact we played half the game with 10 men, there's no shame in it!
We won our group easily, scoring 26 goals in the process! It's Anderlecht who progress to the knockout stages alongside us after beating us in the final group game!
We'll take on Dutch side, Heerenveen, in the first knockout round!
Wow, its all getting interesting for you. The Europa League could be your saving grace!! That goal almost certainly secured your fate! Unreal scenes when he scored. Have you considered changing shape?
Wow, its all getting interesting for you. The Europa League could be your saving grace!! That goal almost certainly secured your fate! Unreal scenes when he scored. Have you considered changing shape?
I’ve thought about it mate but the thing is we are actually playing well, good football a lot of the time as well. Just conceding too many goals and I’m convinced it’s because our defenders are not good enough. I’m being stubborn for now and sticking to my guns.
Saturday 6th February 2021 'I'm Still Here...Just!!'
Bid Rejected; It seems Odsonne Edouard has attracted the interest of Real Madrid and they put in a bid of nearly £30 million! However, that's nowhere near enough to convince me to sell! However, me rejecting the offer definitely has the potential to upset our main man up front...and to be honest I couldn't really blame him right now! I mean, one of the biggest clubs in the world wants you, but instead you are forced to stay at an underachieving mid table side in the Prem....hmmm know how I'd feel about it!
Bid Rejected; On transfer deadline day, Manchester United made several bids as they seemed desperate to bring Ross Barkley to the club. However, I didn't want to let him go and certainly not with only hours of the transfer window remaining as I might not have landed a replacement for him. So the bid was rejected and again I'll probably have to suffer the backlash from Barkley who has immediately brought his discontent to my door complaining that I didn't allow him to move!
Outgoing; Ademola Lookman has hardly got a look in this season, with me having much better options down either wing, so he copped the ump a bit! I can understand it as he is a good player and should be playing regularly, just not for us! He has left the club for a fee of £10.5 million to join Huddersfield and I wish the lad all the best!
Outgoing; I had Kieran Dowell sitting in the U23s on £15k per week, so was keen to offload him and get his wages off the bill as he isn't good enough to get near the starting lineup anytime soon. He leaves for Swansea for a fee of £3.6 million.
Outgoing; Antonee Robinson was also promoted to the first team squad this year, but finds himself behind Digne and Taylor in the pecking order, so it was time to let him go as well! He joins Brighton for a fee of £5.75 million!
Outgoing; Another player offloaded as James McCarthy joins Stoke for £3.8 million (plus £1 million after 50 league appearances). He'd barely played this season and with the likes of Baningime and Thuram coming through in the DM roles, I'd rather focus on their development!
Incoming Loan; There was no doubt I needed to bolster the defence this window, but with funds at an all time low, I could only realistically look at a loan signing! Arsenal have decided Javi Martinez is surplus to requirements but he can definitely do a job for us for the next 6 months at least!
We fully deserved this victory as we were the much better side throughout the entire game! Newcastle were lucky to even be in it and on another day if we'd have taken our chances better, we could have put 4 or 5 past them easily!
Jack Clarke picked up an injury in the Newcastle game that will see him out for about a month!
More Premier League opposition up next in the form of Brighton, and again we cast them aside as we progress to the next round! Although the scoreline suggests a tight game, it was anything but! We had 61% of possession and 23 shots to their 5, so we really should have won by a much bigger margin!
More Premier League opposition in the next round as we invite Norwich to Goodison Park!
A solid home win and finally we seem to be stringing together a run of results, after I came so close to losing my job! We were really good here and Leicester simply couldn't match us anywhere on the pitch!
Mitchell Weiser will miss a few weeks through injury after coming off against Leicester!
Just when it looked like we was starting to hit a run of form, we go and lose to bottom side Norwich, who have only won 3 games all ****** season (including this one)! Well, this is massive 'food for thought' for the board who I might have just been starting to win round again!
Another Merseyside Derby that ends in defeat, but again we have a right to feel hard done by here after matching Liverpool on the stats! We just need to find a way to cope with their world class attack! However, that is now 6 straight Merseyside Derbies without a win for us now!
WOW, where the ****** **** did that come from?? Again, I seemed to be on the verge of the sack after a couple of bad defeats and then we go and thrash Manchester United just to give the board something to think about again and keep me in my job for at least another couple of games again! Our attacking play was out of this world today and was probably the best I've ever seen since I've been at the club!
No changes were made to the starting lineup that had thrashed Manchester United in the previous game as we looked to keep the momentum going against Spurs! But it didn't quite work out that way as we fall to defeat and fail to capitalize on the high we were on from the week before! After being red hot in attack against United, we were surprisingly lacklustre here and the closest we came to scoring was a Ross Barkley free kick that was saved well by Hugo Lloris!
Sitting in 11th place and with a 9 point gap to the top 6, most people will be looking at this and wondering how I'm holding onto my job right now, INCLUDING ME!!! The fact we are still in the Europa League and FA Cup might be my saving grace at the moment and I start to wonder if I need to deliver a trophy this year to keep myself in a job!
What a back and forward season this is turning out to be, just don't seem to string a good run together in the league which is unlike the last couple of seasons. Sure you'll weather the storm and come out fighting next season. Win the Europe league, get into champions league and all will be well
Awesome stuff in Holland as we smash Heerenveen and all but book our place in the 2nd knockout round of the competition! We were sensational in attack and Martial was on fire as he bagged a perfect hat trick...one with his right foot, one with his left and one with his head!
Despite a large amount of rotation amongst the starting lineup, we still managed a very comfortable 3-0 victory in the 2nd leg and cruise through to the next round. A Richarlison hat trick earns him the match ball today, as he shows Anthony Martial that anything he can do, Richarlison can do too!!
Oh dear!! We knew AC Milan would pose a much bigger threat to us, but this was a shocking performance and half my team just didn't turn up! We were awful and without an away goal, it's fair to say we need a minor miracle in the home leg to get through!
A much improved performance on the 1st leg and a good win over a very strong side, but the damage was already done and we crash out of the competition!
I really wish we could convert our cup form to the league as again we were brilliant here! We lost to Norwich 3-2 in the league a few weeks ago, but here they couldn't deal with us at all and we dominated them all over the park! Seamus Coleman got us on our way with his first goal of the season, a powerful effort from close range!
We might have crashed out of the Europa League, but we are still going strong in the FA Cup and we're into the semi final after a magnificent victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge! It was a pretty even game, but we just had that little bit more than the London club on the day and showed we wanted it more than they did!
We'll take on Leicester at Wembley in the semis. Arsenal will play West Ham in the other semi final!
There were plenty of rumours flying around before kick off that a bad result for us would see me sacked, but again the lads came up trumps for me as we make it 4 wins in a row in all competitions! We got off to the worst possible start when The Magpies took the lead inside the opening minutes, but my boys showed good character and determination today to grind out a massive win and put 3 much needed points on the board!
Brighton started this game 4 points adrift at the bottom of the table, and in our current predicament we had to see this as a 'must win' game! But despite having 60% of the possession and 24 shots on goal, we couldn't find the back of the net and suffer one of our worst defeats of the season! As I wave to our fans at the end of the game, fearing the worst, I wonder if this is the last time I will have stepped out onto the pitch as Everton manager!
I was as surprised as anyone to be leading the team out against Aston Villa, as I genuinely expected the chop after the Brighton defeat! I pleaded with the lads to fight for me, not just the Everton shirt here! And it seems the boys want me here for a little bit longer at least, as they gave me the performance I asked for a chalked up another hard fought win! Exequiel Palacios scored the pick of the goals as he volleyed home a powerful effort from 25 yards!
We were pretty poor and Stoke actually outplayed us at times. Credit has to go to Jordan Pickford for the point we did take from the game as he made some amazing saves throughout and finished up as our highest rated player!
We were decent going forward, but as has been the case for much of this season our defence was nowhere near good enough and Huddersfield looked like they'd score with every attack. We looked nervy at the back and the team is severely lacking confidence in the defensive side of the game! This was a really bad result and the pressure is mounting again from the board and fans!
I know it's looked very unlikely we'd finish in the top 6 for most of this season, but now it's official that we are a mile off with only 7 league games remaining! Our best hope of qualifying for Europe next year now is to win the FA Cup. And I fear if we dont, I might be out of a job!
Without a doubt the biggest game of our season so far, and probably the biggest of my career to date as well! It was a tense, nervy affair with both sides defending well and cancelling out each others attack for the standard 90 minutes and with the score at 0-0, extra time was required to settle things! We attacked hard for the extra 30 minutes and created a number of chances, but were unable to take one despite coming very close a couple of times! The dreaded penalty shootout was going to be needed....Martial netted to get us off to a perfect start and Pickford pulled off a fantastic save to ensure we led 1-0 after a penalty each. However, a miss from us and a goal from them soon levelled it up! Both teams scored their 3rd pen, whilst we missed out 4th with Palacios hitting his effort straight down the middle for an easy save! Barkley stepped up and needed to score to keep us in it and he hammered home, which left Pickford needing to pull off a save to keep our dreams alive....but he dived the wrong way and we were out! With tears in my eyes, I left the famous Wembley pitch fearing the worst!
We went 1-0 down early on and I feared the worst, but by half time we were in front! Fulham piled on the pressure in the 2nd half but we held on well to secure a good victory against a side that are massively overachieving this season!
Mitchell Weiser set to miss a few games after picking up an injury in training!
Our upcoming game with Bournemouth was billed as 'El Sackico' with both manager's positions looking precarious!
Bournemouth find themselves deep in the relegation battle, so on paper you'd expect us to win this one, but we knew they'd be giving it everything! We also had the disappointment of crashing out of the FA Cup to contend with and we now had virtually nothing to play for in the league...it wasn't looking good for me as a manager looking to save his job! I was now heavily reliant on the lads wanting to keep me around as an incentive for them to play well between now and the end of the season, and that seemed enough to motivate them for this one as we battered the Bournemouth goal for 90 minutes and ran out easy winners!
A game of two halves as we dominated the 1st, but failed to score, then they dominated the 2nd and with a superior attack they were able to score a couple and take the victory!
Only 6 teams made a bigger loss than us in the Premier League this past year!!
After dominating this whole game, it looked like we were going to have to settle for a draw. That was, until Richarlison popped up at the back post to volley home from Seamus Coleman's cross in the 87th minute to give us a big win over The Gunners!
Jordan Pickford won't play again this season after picking up an injury that will take him beyond the end of the season!
A good away win at West Ham as we notch up back to back victories and seem to be finishing the season with a bit of a flourish which might just be enough for the board to keep me on next season! Richarlison scored the pick of the goals with a nice effort into the bottom corner after dribbling past two West Ham defenders cutting in from the left side of the box!
Where on earth has this form been all season?! Another awesome performance and another massive win as we beat Chelsea with surprising ease in front of the Everton faithful! You have to wonder if the players are just turning on the style so late in the season to attract interest and earn themselves a Summer move elsewhere...or maybe I'm just being sinical!
Our final game of the season was away at The Saints, a club we have a pretty poor record againt. Under my management, we had only beaten them once in six games coming into this, losing four! And despite dominating this game, we couldn't get over the line and defeat them again here, instead having to settle for a draw to end the season!
We finish the season in 9th place, with 11 points less than last season, but with 5 points more than in my first season! ****** Liverpool win the league again for the 3rd straight season as they are really dominating English football at the moment under Jurgen Klopp! Both the Manchester clubs make the top 4 this year, whilst Leicester are probably the surprise team to go down!
Only £23 million received in prize money from the Premier League this season!
Which isn't enough to help with our terrible financial situation! Despite me staying within my budgets, the club finds itself in more than £80 million of debt!!
Despite the club's financial situation, the board still hand me a mega transfer budget of nearly £60 million for the Summer window. Not sure where they are planning to get the money from?!
Talking of the upcoming Summer transfer window, I might have a hard job keeping some of my players here this year, with substantial interest from a lot of clubs, and without the lure of European football next season to keep them here. Current interest in my players stands at...
Jamaal Lascelles - West Ham Lewis Dunk - West Ham Charlie Taylor - Brighton, Huddersfield Khephren Thuram - Bournemouth, West Brom Jack Clarke - West Ham Anthony Martial - Manchester City, Inter Milan, AS Monaco Yerry Mina - Fulham Cristian Pavon - Sevilla Jordan Pickford - Tottenham Odsonne Edouard - Valencia, RB Leipzig
Final news for this update is that I will definitely get the Summer window to do my business and will definitely lead the squad out for the first game of next season! The board invited me to a meeting at the end of the season asking me to explain our poor performance this year...they seemed determined to sack me, but I have managed to persuade them to give me a chance! However, I have had to give them assurances to keep my job...I must deliver 11 points from the opening 5 games of next season or I'm sacked! Yes, that means I need to win 4 of our opening 5 games of next season to keep my job!!! The pressure will most certainly be on!!
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