That was then - This is now…

90 minutes highly-intense action.
Lots packed into one individual game.
Very, very strong feelings in its’ conclusion.

Let’s get started.



FPL Tweets everywhere on the internet were forecasting this fixture as one to ‘Free Hit’ and bring in the maximum three Man City players to (apparently) exploit weak opposition in Everton.

Old-school demographic ideologists waiting to stick the knife in. Hmm…

Those of us who recall last season’s epic matches at Old Trafford and against Spurs – all of which results have been replicated this season – would not need telling that our players CAN raise their game – when it suits them. I’ll touch on those for whom “CAN” quite literally means ONLY “when it suits them”.


First though, the very good news.

Frank Lampard can now say to his players with a straight face: “You know you can raise your game and play much better than our League position suggests. It happens every time from now-on.” AND expect it to be that way, more-or-less five-out-of-six times.

Similar personnel to previous management. So what are the other differences?

Passing has improved. Confidence to pass dynamically, to take the game to the opposition, instead of waiting for the game to come to our players – fairly obvious to anyone watching.

A big game that Lampard would presumably not have needed to motivate even our lot to be up for come kick-off time – thankfully a reality yesterday evening.

Whilst the 12th man wearing royal blue was very much an indicator of how a collective improvement was clearly evident, what had gone into the week’s planning prior to this fixture was there to see as well. Our players didn’t just try to run and run for the sake of trying their best. Careful co-ordinating of how to function running as a team to deny Man City easy passing opportunities to slice our midfield open, proved very successful. And this can be tangibly measured by the simple fact: one of the best midfield footballers in the world was more-or-less a passenger for City through the entire 90 minutes.

Well done if you DIDN’T select Kevin de Bruyne in your Fantasy team yesterday!


But in forcing Pep’s player’s passing repertoire backwards, or at least delaying any attempt to pass forwards, co-ordinated working off-the-ball was only half the duty needed to be fulfilled. We also had to keep their defenders honest to our own forward threat; again – this was a 12-man duty, and again – it was fulfilled to the best we could realistically have demanded from everyone. Doucoure and Allan repeatedly were wiling to run forwards and draw extra City midfielders backwards with them, whilst Richarlison and Gordon unselfishly drew their defenders as far away from the point of possession, giving the Everton attacks a realistic chance of materialising to a far greater extent than Pep would’ve liked.

Understanding of this unfortunate inferiority as athletes – and that Man City would enjoy far more possession, if commendably less of a lion share than we’d surrendered to in previous encounters – required a mature change of mindset for Van De Beek. He too delivered a very good game, if limited to more defensive duties than he’d otherwise have liked.

So in game time during this match, City didn’t fear us, but afforded us MORE RESPECT than their previous experience in Goodison victories would willingly have acknowledged to us. Respect earned, and earned on merit. And earned with a full game from a returning Doucoure WITH an absence in full-time #9 DCL’s presence.


There’s a lot we can take from that superb collective performance.


There’s a lot Lampard has already achieved from better personnel application to mid-week planning
(for match-day preparation).

Pride internally-restored for all of us.

Though Lampard cannot say to his players: “You can do this. But if Saturday is to mean anything, then we MUST draw at Spurs, at the very, very least”, that is exactly what must materialise in north London.

It’s likely that Lampard will make several changes for Boreham Wood, and if it’s likely that they’ll see a weakened Everton line-up as a slightly disrespectful gesture towards them, a narrow 1-0 win for us would then only raise the nasty undercurrent outside of Merseyside that led to Brands sacrificing himself for our club’s immediate future, earlier this year. We have to be very strong internally ourselves on climbing off the canvas, however painful the small, but repetitive uppercuts that may have felt in taken us down for.


So much to take from a (hopefully) defining performance.

The bad news – other than a fresh injury?


There are many ways that you, I, anyone can look at why we lost that close match yesterday.

Many want to hold certain personnel to account, in varying capacities, and right now few would blame them.

When the heat of this defeat subsided, Lampard – not that he wouldn’t already not known, would have said to himself: “We’ve bought BOTH Keane and (Ashley) Williams with less money than what we sold (John) Stones for. The outgoing defender didn’t do one of my predecessors any favours by forcing the transfer issue late on in that 2016 Summer window, but we’d been helped, were a clearly more physical-balanced athlete had stayed here for the long run.”

The fact that we’ve repeatedly bought in the £20m-£30m price bracket for players is not down to Moshiri, Brands or any of our managers. We simply were handcuffed the moment UEFA decided to enforce the FFP protocol, which we were not ready for (in comparison to City, Chelski and those in red). Protocol that not only prevents us spending where and on whom we need to, but in writing off contracts of players for whom professional honour is less a priority, every time, than it damn well should be – and replacing their wages.


It is perfectly common in all highly-intense, team sports that officials’ first instincts upon somewhat difficult decisions is to ask themselves: “Why would a player/players on ‘the better team’ do – or fail to do – that offense or pull off a great play?”

It’s anything but common for a large governing body of a sport celebrated as much as football is on a global scale, to monumentally narrow certain avenues of progress with such lack of foresight.


Yes, football needed to have a reality check.

And yes – football, like ALL commercial team sports needs fundamental reviewing in its practice, should it want to gain far greater respect from a wider audience.


UEFA though has made a very big error in FFP. It has moral duty to apologise for getting it hopelessly wrong, as well as not acting far sooner than it did.

The sooner this long-awaited review happens – AND SEES SENSE – the better for everyone involved.


Despite a huge mountain to keep climbing as best we can in very difficult, long-term circumstances, there’s a lot to be quietly optimistic for. I sincerely hope you enjoyed yesterday’s 90 minutes for what I hope the performance will define us by – not the result.