Everton banter 6

12 Feb 2026 01:31:48
The problem is that Barry is just not a very good footballer. He is poor at heading the boot up field, almost always losing out. When the ball does go to him his first touch is abysmal, almost always (maybe always) the ball runs away from him and he loses possession. He is not very good running with the ball, I haven't seen any evidence that he can dribble with the ball. He constantly seems to be slightly behind the ball when crosses come in. I don't see him shooting from distance very much if at all.
Even if we ignore al those negatives the major problem as I see it is he is mentally slow to react.

Yesterday was a good example, react quickly and the ball is in the back of the net. As it happens the defender was much faster to react. throwing his body in the way of the shot.
Barry will get a few goals, some will be good ones but they will be fewer than we need and even though he is relatively young I can see no reason how or why he has the basic technical or mental ability to get to the level required in the Premiership.

12 Feb 2026 06:49:43
It feels like another poor recruitment at the end of the day.

Loads of clubs are looking for a striker so I appreciate it’s a tough market but I can’t remember the last time we raided Spain, France, Italy or another European country and found a decent striker. We’ve done better looking in Championship or other prem clubs.

How come the likes of Brentford and Bournemouth seem to recruit decent players from abroad and we don’t always puzzles me. I wouldn’t say we were that bad a prospect for players to join so how come we always seem to pick mediocre strikers?

12 Feb 2026 07:30:02
200% agree.

12 Feb 2026 10:07:26
Not a single thing you have said there that isn't on the mark Mike. Solid analysis.

11 Feb 2026 21:31:05
Moyes lost that game yesterday with his negative tatics. Also tarkowski needs keep his head he costing us loads lately.

11 Feb 2026 19:51:59
Just been having a read somewhere Ed 025 that it has been 25 years since this site was created well done to all of the eds yourself included mate think I only found this site 3 years ago but brilliant format an best knowledge an feedback on here by far keep up good work.

{Ed025's Note - yeah its been a long time Andy, and still waiting for some success mate...cheers..

12 Feb 2026 07:24:27
I think I’ve been posting on here for that long definitely over 20years I think. Ed do you remember others of the time like the wizard of Osman and the original Degsy.

{Ed025's Note - i do Big C, and not forgetting Grumpy Toffee..

12 Feb 2026 11:35:49
Yes Ed025 Grumpy Toffee was a character, I miss him. His son came on here for a while but that did not last.

Bit sad really, it will not be long before supporters on here will be saying "remember that old fart BlueMike", he was at Wembley in 1995, pity he is not around these days to see our great team and all the trophies we are now winning.!

{Ed025's Note - i can see you at the 2030 European cup final waving a flag Mike, you are going nowhere mate..

11 Feb 2026 20:55:43
Beto and Barry are both nice blokes, and to be fair, both always give 100 percent, unfortunately, they couldn't finish their dinner, never mind finish in front of goal
You do not have to be a great coach to see that.

As things stand, till the summer we don't have the chance to go into the market.
So, the options seem to be, play one of our high scoring youngsters, or put Keane at center forward, and I'm not joking.

11 Feb 2026 21:20:20
100%! They don’t do the bits you’d expect an experienced striker to do so they are limited to scoring when the chance comes. The young strikers can do that so play them, they’d be no worse.

11 Feb 2026 20:28:37
I’d wish they just go back to the old school offside rule, if the ball goes forward and a player is offside regardless where they are, the flag goes up and if no advantage to the defending side, the game stops.

12 Feb 2026 08:16:55
Spot on BM there player didn't go for the ball ?‍♂️?‍♂️?‍♂️ so why did he jump for it then. And I'm not 100% but I'm sure there scorer of the 2nd was also offside when the ball was played into the box so 2 player's were offside. I might just have my blue tinted glasses on though ???. And SD lasted long at Forest didn't he.

11 Feb 2026 19:31:52
Read a few comments - really sorry but still think Barry is a really awful footballer - think our midfielders are even realising this and not passing to him
Any decent striker and we would be 4-6th in league - not changing my mind - he’s awful!

11 Feb 2026 19:49:30
There was a point last night when KDH had the ball looked up and instead of playing it through held on to it. Barry wasn’t happy. But to be fair he did have two defenders around him. I’m sure that’s why KDH didn’t pass it ?.

11 Feb 2026 20:09:58
Nico O'Reilly of City midfielder would be a better striker than either of the two that are stealing wages from us by pretending to be.

11 Feb 2026 20:52:13
Yeah he’s bad. Beto should be the choice now, he’s looked better the last few.

11 Feb 2026 21:01:35
I think that's one of the most worrying things about this squad - the disparity between the good and bad is so big that some players won't pass to each other. The amount of times Jack has completely ignored Barry and Myko while waiting for KDH to drift over, or Ndiaye has ignored O'Brien, is crazy - and the worst thing is, i'm on their side - if I was Jack, or KDH, or Ndiaye, or Garner, I wouldn't waste my time passing to Barry or Myko either - might as well just hoof it out of play.

11 Feb 2026 21:12:01
Beto for me is better of the two - much better in air and gives it 200% - but don’t get me wrong neither of them are good enough

Pickford
New right back OBrien Brainthwaite New Left back

Ndiaye KDH Garner George
Armstrong
New Striker

Subs
Beto
Merlin
Tarks
George
Dibling
Azuno
Alcaraz

Something like that for next season? Grealish if less than 10 million and Ghana if still has legs.

11 Feb 2026 15:55:29
Occasional poster but daily reader but this will be my last time on this site for a while, can't handle the negativity .
I know last night was disappointing but we have to have perspective .
Firstly people saying Barry is our worst ever player is harsh, should have scored in first half but players sometimes miss ( look at Palmer yesterday ) . The chance in the 2nd half was an unbelievable block from a player coming from his blind side, Ndiaye and KDH also had shots blocked where they probably should have done better .

Mykolenko should have been better for first goal but who was closing the cross down, for the second goal Pickford was caught in no man's land coming for a ball he couldn't get and it's not mentioned. We all know we aren't the finished article but we are better than we were and will take a few windows to get where we want to be but for now support the players we have . Anyway sorry for the long text,
bye for now.

{Ed025's Note - sometimes its easy to get caught up in the moment ST, when its still raw things tend to get exaggerated mate and people will always react, but in the end its a personal view and we are all never going to react the same towards a performance or indeed a player, thats what makes it interesting for me..good luck to you my friend..

11 Feb 2026 16:04:56
Shame we won't hear more sensible stuff from Sticky Toffee.

{Ed025's Note - it is BB he has been a very good poster for a long while mate..

11 Feb 2026 16:54:08
Thanks for the supportive replies, not gone for good just for a few weeks or so .

{Ed025's Note - have a nice break mate..

11 Feb 2026 17:13:19
Look we can't put to halves of football together whether it's the first half or the second, last night showed that. To compare Barry's miss to Ndiaye and KDH is well off the mark. Barry waited for the ball to come to him, had he moved towards the ball then the defender would not have had the chance to block it.
People saying we are better than last season, but to be fair that was not a high bar.
The main frustration for most supporters is the perceived stubborness of the manager to stick with players who are clearly letting him down.
At times it feels that he is playing players out of position just so they are playing.
Patterson may not be the best right back in most people's eyes but he is better than O'Brien who is a quality centre back.

He brings a better balance to the team, yet the manager insists on playing O'Brien who is clearly struggling in that position. As for left back we can see Micky is struggling and apparently Aznou has an ankle problem? Maybe look at the U23"s?
As for Tarks and Keane well the people around me all agree we should see the season out now with Branthwaite and O'Brien. Let them use the rest of the season to build a partnership. Let's be honest playing like this we are not going to qualify for Europe, and we are not going to get relegated. so let's start building now for the future.

{Ed025's Note - cracking post that Brass..

11 Feb 2026 17:57:09
Brassington that is exactly what we should be doing. Prepare now for the next season and get some partnerships at the back. Great post.

11 Feb 2026 18:25:49
2nd that Ed. On the money there as per Brass.

11 Feb 2026 18:29:50
I understand some fans saying look where we are this season compared to the last few. But the bar was incredibly low. I prefer to look at where we could be, if not for wasted opportunities and we have had plenty of those this season. Rather than saying "Look we are 8th", it is "We could have been 6th".

Just because there has been progress doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for better/more, especially when small fixes are so easily identifiable to improve us further still.

{Ed025's Note - yeah im the same BN..

11 Feb 2026 19:11:08
It's just frustration Sticky Toffee. We get ourselves in a good position and then blow it, mainly at home. We should have had the match yesterday sown up by half time and we didn't. That's not being negative, it's a fact and it happens too often.
Pointing out how improved we are verses the last few years is a pointless exercise, just as me comparing the present team with the success that we had during my lifetime is a waste of time. At the moment we are a slightly above mid-table team playing some average football.

I for one expect better than that.
We are safe from relegation so why not try playing some of the fringe players, start playing players in their right positions and drop players who constantly have poor performances.
It's not rocket science we just need Moyes to step up and get the best from the squad he has at present. For the record I don't believe that we have a bad squad, yes we need certain positions strengthening, but we have a squad that should get us into a European spot.

11 Feb 2026 10:39:05
Bournemouth have some really special players but above all the 19 year old Brazilian Rayan looks an unbelievable talent, why can’t The Everton scouting team fine young players of this calibre, Bournemouth seem to consistently fine young players with stamina, skill and pace, please can we head hunt their recruitment team.

11 Feb 2026 12:32:35
Because all our scouts do is sit on their hands for 10 months, then look at who is listed for cheap on deadline day. Any other business in the world and that department would have been absolutely gutted and rebuilt years ago.

11 Feb 2026 14:24:05
What’s to say we didn’t look at Rayan?

From Moyes own admission he has final say on transfers - the way he currently uses the youngsters available to him wouldn’t suggest he’d be happy to sign more.

We could have the best scouting team in the league but if the manager has final say on signings then it’s a pretty pointless set up.

Need to get back to recruiting players to match the club identity and vision and move away from recruiting players managers want.

We’ve got a mismatched unbalanced squad from all the random signings.

Manager should manage the players they’re given.

When that mangers time is up you then recruit another manager who comes in to suit team identity and vision - for way too long we’ve pandered to managers and let them sign players they want who then don’t fit the next managers plans.

11 Feb 2026 16:09:02
We can say many things about last nights game but it was plain to me that it was won on the moments that count, which is converting your chances. We had three golden chances that weren’t converted whereas they had two that were.

We have to address the striker situation this summer. We can’t go on missing sitters - and I mean real basic tap ins - and expect to be higher up the league. Barry has converted a few but has missed so many. We are losing points because of our strikers. Just like last night.

11 Feb 2026 10:35:58
Last night, we attacked for around 90 percent of the game, but scored 1 goal, and that from a penalty. We defended 10 percent of the time, yet conceded 2 goals from open play.
Yes the referee was deployable, but the result, was the product of very well paid profetions not doing their job, and a managers awful decision.

There are under twenty ones players, ripping up trees on the goal scoring front, yet we persist in saying their not ready, surly, given our failure in this department, their is little to be lost in finding out if they can produce at the top level .

{Ed025's Note - im with you AB..

11 Feb 2026 11:23:03
Think your stats are a bit off there mate. Difference was they attacked at pace, we plodded forward with hardly any movement from the players.

11 Feb 2026 12:33:47
I think you're spot on about the young players and terrible management, but not sure i remember the 90% attacking ? I remember 300 unsuccessful long passes by Branthwaite to no one, but that's about the sum total of it.

11 Feb 2026 14:27:51
We were half decent for some parts of the game last night (definitely not 90%) .

However we are slow and lack a cutting edge - complete opposite to Bournemouth who attacked with pace and took chances well.

Barry unlucky with his 2 chances but apart from those what other big chances did we create? Not many.

Also why does Tarkowski want to concede a foul in their box when we’re attacking a cross? Too many stupid mistakes costing us.

However manager picks players and decides to play them out of position so ultimately results in him.

11 Feb 2026 15:41:02
What makes you say Barry was unlucky? Where did luck come into him not sticking those chances away?

{Ed025's Note - for me it was nearer incompetence than unlucky..

11 Feb 2026 16:10:26
Ball coming back to him on a slippy surface and catches it wrong.

Second one was a great block from the defender.

Frustrating but not as if he tried to miss both chances - he was as gutted as anyone, evidenced by how he was sat on bench when subbed.

Palmer missed a sitter yesterday.

{Ed025's Note - im not blaming Barry Dan, im blaming the people who scouted him and the finance team who thought we should pay more than 20p for his level of ability mate..

11 Feb 2026 17:16:34
Both of them chances should have burst the net, inexcusable really. We should have been 3 up at half time and had the game done and dusted. If our forwards can't score from two yards out, under pressure or not, then we will always run the risk of throwing games away when the opposition apply pressure.

What can the manager do about a forward fluffing his lines? Players have got to take the share of the blame as well as the manager.

11 Feb 2026 20:05:25
Ball coming back to him on a slippy surface? I am confused. They play on a carpet. It is purposefully watered every game. Not to mention the fact that Petrovic took all the pace out of the shot. It literally didn't touch the "slippy" surface after hitting his gloves.

The finish is as BP said inexcusable. The chance got given a 0.72 XG rating. Bear in mind that a penalty is only 0.76.

11 Feb 2026 10:33:58
Frank is free.

{Ed025's Note - no franks.. :)

11 Feb 2026 11:23:57
Shows you just how tricky it is to find the right man for the job.

{Ed025's Note - very true BMD..

11 Feb 2026 15:32:04
And, don't we know it .!

11 Feb 2026 10:04:08
Some need to volunteer to scout. I played football as I suspect did some on here and I respect their knowledge and opinions. Mykolenko criticism for the goal, as a player as much as I wanted and practiced, I could not jump better for a ball from a standing start than a running to jump attacker. The equaliser (from where I sit) was down to O'Brien (and Moyes refusal to play Patterson) . Mykolenko quite often is last defender, moving central when the CB's venture out. Tells me two things, the coaches obviously trust him and Moyes tactics dictate.

Aznou is and was bought as a wingback, the fact Moyes has brought in George tells me Moyes does not believe the two lads Dibling nor Aznou are ready yet. My opinion! but quite often my son as do some on here disagree, that's fine. We Everton supporters are not the only moaners but we are near the very top in flip flopping! We win and by God this is a good team, lose and the same Team is the worse we have seen, sack the Manager *that is the only disagreement I have with skylark*.

11 Feb 2026 11:29:50
dms get what your saying but if you watch the replay Micky points to their goal scorer he knows he’s there, yet he drifts into the middle and leaves him. When I played you were told to pick up your man and do your job.

Had he done that last night he would have cleared that ball. And it’s not the first time it’s happened with him.
Glad to see your back,

11 Feb 2026 11:32:25
I am not sure what criticising Mykolenko's abject defending for their goal has to do with scouting tbh. The boy was brought in from a farmers league for a fairly substantial fee and has had 5 seasons at us now, amassing 132 PL games. In that time he has mustered a measly 7 goal involvements. For context that works out at 1 goal or assist every half a season.

Now some might say that the attacking side of football is not his game - fair enough. I could pull some other names that are more renowned for their defensive skills. Mitchell - 16 goal involvements. Wan-Bissaka - 13 goal involvements.

With the way the game is played these days, even defensive players still get involved in goals at a greater rate than what Mykolenko has served up. It is simply inexcusable.

It is an absolute myth that he is some great defensive full back. I think that has stuck due to just how poor he is going the other way and the 2 games where he had credible performances against Salah and Saka. I really cba going into the numbers of his games this season but I have seen plenty of performances like last night, Leeds, Brentford where his defensive display has been atrocious, both in numbers and the eye test.

On the subject of the equaliser last night, O'Brien had no involvement other than the fact he went and closed the earlier ball in the centre. The ball was played into Adli and O'Brien is the only one to go and close him down. Should he be doing that, probably not but no one else did and he had Ndiaye directly to his right covering Truffert, who ultimately gets the assist. Adli plays the ball out to Truffert and Mykolenko signals to George to pick up a Bournemouth player. I suspect that he wasn't even aware that Rayan was out on the flank. JB and Tarkowski are marking Unal in the centre, so there is absolutely no reason for Myko to drift inwards. He then clocks the approaching Rayan, still having 5 yards or so on him and signals to George a second time to mark a completely different player than the one he pointed to a few seconds earlier. The ball gets played in, it is a good ball but it isn't hit with much whip or venom. If he jumps, he gets a touch on it, simple. The absolute minimum he should do is jump towards the ball to stop Rayan from getting a free header, to at least make it more difficult to finish. He does neither.

It is dreadful defending and if I was on his team or if I was the manager, I would be absolutely hammering him for it. That piece of defending doesn't come down to talent or ability, it comes down to the basic desire to want to protect a winning position in a game of football.

The scouts at the club identified a player in the summer. In his short cameo in the cup, he showed more ability and desire to compete than I have seen from Mykolenko in his 5 seasons with us. What he has shown on a consistent basis is that he is unequivocally short of the mark to play as a starting LB for Everton Football Club.