RandoEFC

My main concern is the manager now really. He played a large, possibly decisive, role in the capitulation yesterday by not putting fresh legs on in key positions to match Bournemouth. If he reflects on that and avoids the same mistake again, it'll be fine. If he's a stubborn goat about it and refuses to acknowledge it, he will make the same mistake again. And if he goes out in front of the press and throws the players under the bus instead of fronting up, he will lose the dressing room too, which will probably fuck us over for 2 months until his position becomes completely untenable and our ghost of an owner is forced to step in to make a change. I like Dyche, he has his limitations but he's largely done a decent job under difficult circumstances so far. He isn't untouchable though and while I think those Everton fans who think we should just do a Brighton and find a young exciting manager from Germany or Spain are idiots if they think there's a coach out there who will get this squad playing progressive football and scoring goals for fun, I'm also not having that Dyche is the only man who can get them fit enough, solid enough and organised enough to get to ~40 points again.

As long as the morale holds the overall performance is something to cling to. Ndiaye and Iroegbunam look like great additions, Calvert-Lewin doesn't look like he's going to sulk about his failed move and we still have Branthwaite to come back. We had Bournemouth comfortably beaten and they're not one of the very worst teams in the league. Even Everton won't blow that position several more times this season. It doesn't take much to stay in this league. You can comfortably afford to throw in 3 or more consecutive losses. It just seems worse when it's in the first three games but we did the same thing last year in very similar fashion, losing at home to Fulham and Wolves either side of a 4-0 drubbing at Villa. We're still here a year later after eating two points deductions as well. I'd be far more concerned if Bournemouth had turned up yesterday, weathered the storm for 60 minutes, done us on the break and then got another late on to win 2-0. The players have shown themselves they can compete and win at this level again this season. Yesterday was like doing your driving test, getting no minors all the way through and then failing because you crashed into a wall turning back into the test centre. It's easier to just not do the stupidest thing ever at the end of your test than it is to fix being a fundamentally hopeless driver.

Forgot this gem .

Lad won't give a fuck. We've generally had everything done to us by our football club bar relegation and administration by now. Heard every single joke that can happen. Just a few examples. The fans have really turned on Dyche now. Sounds like everyone in the ground wanted substitutes at 2-0 because Iroegbunam, McNeil, Coleman and Harrison had run themselves into the ground and he took Ndiaye and Calvert-Lewin off who were the only outlets on the pitch. Bournemouth manager used all five of their substitutions. Sacking Dyche and taking a leap into the unknown put people off last season when we didn't win for three months. But with Moyes available now as a better manager who could probably slot in without too much of an overhaul of tactics and personnel is too tempting. I'm on the fence personally.

Leverkusen leg comes in despite their first defeat in over a year. Over to Bayern tomorrow.

Another hat trick for Haaland.

I've watched up until the first goal and then I had to go out. I've only seen goal alerts since. It doesn't even surprise me anymore to be honest. The verdict from Twitter is game management from Dyche. Zzzz. Not letting it ruin my weekend anymore. We will probably be fine.

Michael Keane proving again he's the best finisher at the club .

We've done okay. Bournemouth have been quite sloppy. Hopefully we don't regret failing to take advantage so far. Neither side has really created anything other than goalmouth scrambles or pot shots from distance.

Ndiaye makes his debut for us and Coleman starts at right back in place of Roman Dixon. Still no O'Brien ahead of Keane, Calvert-Lewin still starts ahead of Beto who scored midweek despite trying to leave the club as recently as yesterday. Lindstrom, Garner, Patterson, Branthwaite, O'Brien, Mangala and eventually Broja are all yet to reach the point of being added as improvements to this side. If we win today then great but either way I think the upcoming international break will be viewed as an opportunity to have a bit of a reset after a poor start to the season and get some more of these players up to speed and ready to contribute.

Looked like Rice's second yellow was a bit harsh?

DeadLinesman: NOR NOR VER RUS 11th HUL

Probably end up the highest scoring Chelsea player this season after Palmer.

Not sure why we've done this. We now have Calvert-Lewin, Beto, Broja and Chermiti for one spot up front.

Ivan Toney - Talks a big game about moving onto bigger and better things while playing for Brentford. - Lets Brentford down by getting himself banned for over half a season. - Talks a big game about moving onto bigger and better things before he's even kicked a ball returning from said ban. - Scores 4 in 5 on his return and then doesn't score a single goal from February to the end of the season. - Seeks a "big" move at the completion of that season. - Now appears he's heading to Saudi League. Either LOL at him not getting any decent offers from European clubs or LOL at a decision to move to a high-paying retirement league without ever achieving anything of real note in Europe. That'll be his England career fizzling out as well. The guy was being touted as a £70m player before his ban.

A real shame this. Everton offered Calvert-Lewin a new contract that would have made him the joint highest paid player at the club alongside Pickford which in my opinion is a very generous offer. Calvert-Lewin joins a new agency last season to see what else might be out there for him. It turns out Newcastle may have been interested but they didn't value him anywhere near the wages he and his agency have convinced themselves were reasonable to ask for. Arsenal are keeping tabs on him as a potential 3rd choice striker but he isn't even their first choice for that. Chelsea keeping tabs as well but he won't be first choice there either. The only other links I've seen are Wolves and Brentford (not sure how reliable) who don't offer him the European football he wants and surely wouldn't pay him more than Everton have offered him. Maybe he'd move because he's fed up of living on Merseyside/up North? Either way, he now looks set to stay at Everton with a damaged relationship with the fans and a choice between signing the contract and committing to the club when everyone knows it isn't his first choice, or waiting until January to see if he can scrape around for something then. He could have gone to Newcastle and it probably would have been a decent move for him. But it's another case of a greedy agency pricing their client out of a move I think, and now he's left with no options.

£10 > £21

@OrangeKhrush @DeadLinesman @MUFC @Dave

Whiskey: Pole: NOR Podium: NOR, VER, LEC Albon: P16 Bonus: ALO

Norris Hamilton Norris Leclerc 10th Hulkenberg

I feel a bit for Villa fans so far. Their away games being Leipzig, Young Boys and Brugge probably aren't the European tour they were envisioning. At least they've got Bayern and Juventus coming to Villa Park. Drawing Celtic isn't that exciting though .

There's arguments for and against reforms for the domestic schedule but it's almost besides the point. Even if you think the outcome is for the better, the fact remains that a 92-team tournament is being adapted because a European tournament involving 6 of those teams has added extra games. Regardless of whether it's "rigged" or "pandering to them", the tournament is certainly being changed *because of them*. When we've already seen English football give up FA Cup replays to fixture congestion, in no small part because of some managers of elite clubs whinging constantly about their commitments, it's a bit of a piss take to then see the English domestic schedule undergo changes enforced by European competition adding extra games, isn't it?

Terrible signing for all parties.

The last eleven League cups were won by Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City or Man Utd so they clearly don't need extra advantages. I suppose what Dave said months ago about it guaranteeing more clubs further down the pyramid will face a big opponent is true but that wasn't the reasoning they've given. The bottom line is it's becoming an annual thing now that something gets changed about our domestic cups to pander to 6-8 of the 100+ teams that are involved. It's very literally the opposite of fair competition. The biggest farce of all was the scrapping of FA Cup replays because of fixture congestion and now they've added 2 more games to the European schedule and nobody's heard a peep about it from Pep etc. The rule should be that if you're playing in Europe, you can opt not to have replays before your FA Cup fixture but your opponent receives 100% of the matchday revenue and you also pay them a fine equivalent to an estimate of the matchday revenue that would be generated by a replay.