Saving Everton? Realistic DOF Everton Save.

[DesolateCreator]

Hello all! Today I start a realistic Everton Director of Football save. I feel as if the most realistic way to play Football Manager is by being the Director of Football, and not making any decisions on the pitch. Due to how broken some of the tactics can be in the match engine, I want to get as authentic of an experience as I can. I will be the Director of Football at Everton, and try to clear our debts first and foremost, and try to escape relegation, while being as financially responsible as possible. 

I am starting with an updated database with "FM 25" style changes, and updated fixtures up to OCT 16th. I am using the editor to make realistic managerial changes due to my manager having to be an assistant and re hired the current manager (Sean Dyche) to make sure to keep everything in order. I will not use it for anything else. 

 

Feel free to follow along if you'd like, but in order to keep my interest in a save at this juncture of the FM cycle, I need to blog it. Sorry if it just disappears at a random time, as life happens. 

 

 

 

As you can see below, Everton has tons of debts to start with, and this is the cause of many financial issues in real life. I will be trying to sell before I buy, and never using installments until the debt is smaller at least. 

[leobiazzi]

Interesting idea!

[DesolateCreator]

First order of business is to examine our squad, and find players that are expendable, and are not performing up to standard. Hopefully we will find some players to sell to generate some easy revenue. 

- #1 on my list.....

Dominic Calvert-Lewin

 

Calvert-Lewin will be quickly going to the Transfer list. While he may only be 27, he is very injury prone, as he has had multiple injuries keep him out for multiple months since 2017. He is not being a difference maker on the pitch, and has not been one since 2020 when he scored 16 goals. He has barely been on the field for enough games to try and get close to that total recently.  As someone who is highly touted/paid, he is a prime candidate to be out the door at Everton. I will be trying to generate $35 million dollars at least from his sale. 


#2 - James Tarkowski

Tarkowski has not played up to our standard since joining on a free from Burnley last season. He still shows to have some decent value on the open market, so we are going to list him to see what his potential value is, and if it is worth it to move him. We have other people who could slot in at CB and give us the same or a little bit better production in the short-term. 

I will be making more decisions on expendable assets as the year goes along, I need to see more play from the team to make more decisions on that front. 

 

This is what Sean Dyche will have as his normal Starting 11:

 

I will be seeing to it that he keeps our young talent on the field as much as possible for development purposes. Those players are:

ST: Youssef Chermiti

MID: Tim Iroegbunam

CD: Jake O'Brien

CD: Jarrad Branthwaite

Hopefully Sean can pull out some good results, while still keeping our up and comers on the field. We need to develop some talent from within if we are going to fix these squad issues. There are no easy games in the Premier league, but I was hoping to start my tenure with some easier fixtures. 


Looks like it may be a long year!

[DesolateCreator]

Here are the first two fixtures of my tenure, and how they played out. 

We have not generated many scoring chances, but were able to at least steal a point from Newcastle @ St. James Park.

We are still in 18th place with 5 points, because of the points deductions from financially mismanagement, but with a less difficult next month, hopefully we can pickup more points. 

[DesolateCreator]

Three offers have been accepted for DCL. I thought about just accepting PSG's offer and sending him away from England. However, if he goes to one of the other teams, he may not be healthy enough to help them anyway. I will take the money regardless. 

 

I have created a target list of possible acquisitions that I might look into come January 1st. These acquisitions need to check 1 of 3 boxes. However, the main focus will be improving the first team in January. 

 

1. Can they improve our current team to improve our staying power in the Premier league?

2. Are they young with potential to improve into a 1st team player?

3. Are they someone that we can make a significant profit on in the future?

My goal is to keep player acquisitions as cheap as possible, but I will act if I believe there is an absolute bargain. 



My target list includes 5 players. Three will be to replace DCL in the short term, and two are possibly helpful, both now and in the future. 

1. Akram Afif (Valued 8.8M - 11M)

 

Guaranteed this player would not be first on most lists. However, Afif has many skills that intrigue me. He has wonderful physical attributes, and is a consistent scorer, both at the international level, and in the Qatari league. If Akram can be obtained around that 8.8M price tag, he might be a valuable DCL replacement. He checks box 1 and also box 3. If he comes in and contributes like he is capable, he could turn into more money for Everton down the road. 

2. Djed Spence (4.7M Transfer Listed)

Yes I know Djed Spence has not had a great time in his move from Championship to Premier League, however, he can play both sides of the field in our formation. He is very athletic and can get to the byline to cross balls into our strikers. Our RB depth is also very thin. I could see Djed getting some good work in our team, and possibly developing into a regular. Plus his price is very reasonable for a player that I believe still has a lot to give at only 24.

3 - Danny Ings (3.4M)

We do not have a full scouting report from our scouts on Danny quite yet, but what I do know about him is what matters. He has been a main stay in multiple teams in the premier league, and can provide some goals at this level. Although I do not necessary like the fit in our formation, he would be a possible replacement for DCL in the short term. 


In other news, we have been knocked out of the Carabao cup by Ipswich...

By the looks of it, Sean cares not about the cup competition, and his full focus is on our next league fixture, which is also against Ipswich. I can not say I blame him, we do not want to end up in the Championship next season. 

 

Annnnnnnnnd it looks like his plan worked. We came away with all three points at Goodison Park!

Broja, the loanee striker from Chelsea is who Sean chose to lead the line today, and it seems to have given us that much needed spark to get the win. 

Our midfield was tremendous in the victory today as well. Hopefully this is a fixture we can build off of, and pull off a couple of more wins this month to extend our points difference from the bottom. 

 

[DesolateCreator]

 

Arsenal is where DCL has chosen to go. Hopefully we can use the money from this transfer to find a valuable replacement. 

 

[DesolateCreator]

We are bringing in Djed Spence after the DCL deal for 4.7M

 

[phnompenhandy]

I don't generally follow top-tier careers, but this one totally works for me.

 

One question - if you're on a cash-dash, isn't Branthwaite your most sellable asset? Sell him before he gets suspended!

[DesolateCreator]

2 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

I don't generally follow top-tier careers, but this one totally works for me.

 

One question - if you're on a cash-dash, isn't Branthwaite your most sellable asset? Sell him before he gets suspended!

That is not a bad idea, although since he is a very good player, I might wait till I know we are safe before making that decision. I am afraid if I sell him too soon, we may not have someone to replace him. 

[DesolateCreator]

The rest of the month was kind of quiet, but we were able to snag two points from our next two games. 

Two 0-0 games? It seems that Sean's scheme is working defensively, but I hope that it turns into more goals in the long run. 

Another injury from Jesper Lindtrom. The Napoli loanee could be a good contributor this season, but he has been injured twice since I arrived. We created plenty against Nottingham, but are struggling to finish. Hopefully we will settle in on someone consistent up front. Broja has impressed so far.

 

It is good to see an Everton player on this list. Tim has been wonderful since Sean inserted him into the Starting 11. We do not have a large list of young players, but hopefully we can develop the ones we do have. 


Here are the fixtures for the month of December:

I see two or 3 winnable/important games here. 

- Wolves are in 13th place in the league currently, but I believe that they are similar in talent to our team. They have attacking stats comparable, but worse than ours, but there main defensive stats look better than ours. Our attacking hasn't been the highlight of our recent efforts, so we will need to figure out how to break down their defense. 

- Brentford and Brighton are the other two games to target. If we can get at least 6 points from those three games, I will be happy.

[DesolateCreator]

Our next two games, against Wolves, and Tottenham both went horribly. No points from the next two. We are not generating enough chances, nor finishing the ones they get. After my talent acquisitions, if nothing improves, it may be time to look elsewhere coaching wise. 

 

 

 

 

In other news, Akram Afif has agreed to move to Everton. For 8.5M plus a fee after 50games to make it around 10M. 

- He most likely will not be given a work permit, so he will take up one of our ESC places.  Hopefully he can bring some much needed spark to our team. 

 

 

 

 

 

[leobiazzi]

I think you'll need to sack Sean Dyche soon lol

[DesolateCreator]

10 hours ago, leobiazzi said:

I think you'll need to sack Sean Dyche soon lol

Yeah... I like Sean Dyche as a human, but this ain't working

 

[DesolateCreator]

Continuing with the rough patch of games... We have Man City... Yeahhhh, I think we already know how that went. 

Dyche decided to start DCL up top, even after him agreeing to leave the club, and left Jack Harrison in on a stinker. At least we created more right? RIGHT?

 

I have had a meeting with Sean Dyche. We discussed his future at the club, and I gave him a target to meet.

- Seeing as our position in the league is 19th:

But our next run of games looks like:

We have 3 games that I believe we can possibly get at least 1 point from. 

For Sean to still have a chance at managing this team into January, he needs to come up with at least: 4 points from the next 4 games. That is just to start the discussion.

- Any less than 4 he is gone

- If he manages 6 points he will be guaranteed to keep his spot. 

- If he has 4 points, the fixtures will be assessed and his place will be decided based on the quality of performances/wins.

I will not be forcing him to start the young players over these next 4 games so he can focus on getting the points required and put his for sure best squad on the pitch. 

 

The signing of Afif is final. I spent a little more than I wanted, but some of it is deferred only if he plays 50 matches. Also, we have a great opportunity to get a greater return on him if his performance proves good, or we get relegated. This contract gives both the player and the team flexibility for the future. 

 

We have now used 13.7M of the DCL transfer money. That leaves us with about 19.3 Mil left to spend at this time. There has not been much interest in many of our other players yet. 

 

 

 

[DesolateCreator]

These next 4 games are very important for Sean Dyche and his future, but most importantly for Everton. The longer we wait in obscurity, the closer we are to relegation. 


I want to see more from our guys as well though. With the way things are looking now, we may be sitting in the championship with a large amount of player turnover to begin next season. 

       

 Game 1 looks promising! 1 point for Everton but we need to see 3 soon. 

I like how narrow we played this game .It allowed us to control the ball a bit more and have more bodies in the middle of the field. This was important for us with their main threats playing in the AM and ST spot. We generated more, higher xG chances this game as well. Maybe a sign of good things to come. 

We also leaned on our left side of the field this game. Playing through Mykolenko and McNeil. Probably our best players on paper.  

 

On to Brentford the MUST win. 

 

 

 

I think this draw proves a few things.

- Unless Sean Dyche can pull a win out of the next two games, he may already have one foot out the door. 

- Selling DCL was a great decision. We are not clinical up front at all, and even though I moved him away from the team, Sean keeps bringing him back to play in the first 11. 

- We really need Branthwaite. He was suspended in probably the biggest fixture thus far due to yellow cards. 

I will be shifting my transfer focus to someone I believe can put goals in the back of the net, at whatever cost. We are missing that from our game. We are well below average in all stats. Could we benefit from a better midfield creator as well? Possibly. Our non penalty xG per 90 is just sad. We don't create enough, and we our strikers are not scoring. Beto is our leading goal scorer with 4. However, he has not scored in a single league match all year.

 

 

 

Edited October 19 by DesolateCreator

[DesolateCreator]

 

Well, well, well. We managed to find a way to win, and still only score 1 goal. Clean sheet!

 

 

It seems we aim to score early, and defend not to lose. We only had 33% of the ball, but we were able to use our speed on the outside to attack the wings on the counter. It is not a style I am necessarily proud of but it can be effective.  We have made it to 5 points in the last 3 games.  The team has a lot to prove, but they are showing resiliency and are fighting for their lives to scratch and claw these points out. 

Dyche is still not safe, but close. Lets see how the boys play against Arsenal in London. 

We are now 17th, and safe, as of now. 

 

BREAKING NEWS: Sean Dyche meets his target 6 points in 4 games. He is safe, FOR NOW.  

A mans word is a mans word. 6 points, and unconventional 6 at that, but the goal has been reached. 

Not much complaining can be done when you leave the Emirates with a draw in our situation. Not much good to speak of on the pitch outside of Jordan Pickford. I believe Sean Dyche owes him a nice dinner after saving his job. 

We will make our best efforts to improve the team for Sean's system, and we will see if he can continue this slight rise and bring us up the table. Another bad losing streak however, and a swift change might just have to be made. 

January is approaching. DCL leaves in two days, and a new era begins at Everton. 


Here is the Premier League table, as of DEC 29th:



 

The month of January looks promising. Hopefully we can take advantage of our home games, and our new signings can get settled in before another difficult stretch in early Feb. 

[phnompenhandy]

Loving the jeopardy in this. You just don't know what's coming in the next post!

[DesolateCreator]

To start off our January, we started off the transfer window with a BANG!

In his first game on the team, Afif gets a goal! Yes it may be from the pen spot, but it will help build his confidence for later I hope. 

We controlled the game in every aspect against Crystal Palace and got the ever elusive three points. Hopefully we can continue to build on this win. 

This win brought us to 15th in the table. 

We have agreed to sign midfielder Kjell Watjen from Dortmund on a free transfer. Something I have noticed since my arrival at Everton is the lack of players in our academy that, according to our scouts, have potential to be a member of our future first 11. I am hoping to bring in some younger players on expiring deals to fill in some of the gaps in our youth teams that hopefully produce fruit in the future. 

 

Kjell has a promising skill set that I believe bodes well for his future development. He is a sharp kid, and his physicals traits are not too bad either. Hopefully in his time at Everton we can work to develop his technical skills to be a holding midfielder. 

 

 

 

 

 

We came through with a come from behind FA Cup win over Watford. Afif strikes again! Not in the league, but a good sign nonetheless. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is another 18 yr old, end of contract signing for the future. Veljko Vukojevic is a talented Serbian youngster that my scouts were very impressed with. He is pretty quick, and works hard for his age. Hopefully that good work ethic can help him develop into a serviceable player in the future. We will have to train him to play deeper into the midfield for him to fit into our style of play though.

 

 

We are sending Youssef Chermiti on loan to Hull City to ensure he gets playing time. He is a really talented player at this point in time, but I am not sure how much he can help our relegation scrap, and he will get to play meaningful minutes and develop in the Championship. 

 

James Tarkowski goes to Brighton for 20M. That brings our spending possibilities to almost 40 million. Hopefully we can find a serviceable CB squad player, while finding some serviceable help elsewhere. 

 

And on comes Newcastle to ruin my day.

 

Newcastle has come in with an offer for Mykolenko worth up to 26 million. Mykolenko has been one of our better players this season. However, he has stated to Sean Dyche that he wants to move on to a bigger team and there is nothing that could keep him at Everton. 

We will try to drive up the price as much as possible, but as of right now, 39 yr old Ashley Young is the only fully trained LB replacement on our roster so I am not sure I will let him go. We also just brought in Spence, but he will need some time to train to be ready to play there.

Looks like we will might just have another search on our hands!

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19 by DesolateCreator

[DesolateCreator]

13 minutes ago, phnompenhandy said:

Loving the jeopardy in this. You just don't know what's coming in the next post!

I am glad you are enjoying it so far! It is a different style for me but I am having a blast.

[leobiazzi]

I'm loving this too. Thought Sean would definitely get sacked, but he's turning things around.

[DesolateCreator]

1 hour ago, leobiazzi said:

I'm loving this too. Thought Sean would definitely get sacked, but he's turning things around.

I was almost certain at a point, but here we are! Hopefully things continue to trend up.

[DesolateCreator]

Another game, another win! This time over Manchester United. The best win of my tenure so far.

 

This game was kind of wacky for us and we still got the win. Afif left for Asian World Cup qualifying the day before the game, and will not be back till the 11th of February.

Jordan Pickford got injured during the game at minute 39 and Sean Dyche does not keep a Goalkeeper on the bench. Loanee from Napoli, Jesper Lindstrom, got subbed into goal and finished the game out from there. He managed to not let United score at all during that timespan. What a game!

But now our best player is hurt for 5-6 weeks with Torn Wrist Ligaments, and my backup GK just left on a free to Toronto FC. We will be searching swiftly for someone to fill in until Pickford gets back. Good thing we have a couple of weeks till our next game. 

 

James McAtee was available at a very reasonable price from Manchester City. He is going to be a squad player, but he could bring some playmaking ability to the squad and that is something we need. 

 

37 million left to spend as of now. 


Highest offer I could get for Mykolenko was 30 million, and when I declined Newcastle's original offer, he got frustrated. Leipzig matched Newcastle's 30 million and that is where Mykolenko decided to go. I would rather him go there instead of to someone else in the Premier League. Now the adamant search for a LB begins. 

 

Another end of contract signing for us. The future is getting brighter by the minute.

\

 

 

He is 19 years old and has made some appearances in the top French league already. His estimated worth is already around 10 million. He is someone who could come into the squad as a sub, and also develop into a great player. At his worst, he will be able to make us a great profit later on. 

 

We are bringing in Jamaal Lascelles as a depth CB option that we needed. He is 1 year younger than the person who left, but is much cheaper, and will give us about the same value. 800k for a player of his quality that can do a simple job for us is always great. 

 

We have brought in experienced backup keeper Marcus Bettinelli to fill in for Pickford for the games he is gone. 

 

 and then during the first training session.............................

 

 

Edited October 19 by DesolateCreator

[DesolateCreator]

Ah yes, bring us back down to Earth please. 

Sean Dyche decided to play a rotated squad against League Two side Bradford City in the FA cup, and it resulted in a loss for Everton.

Although, there is not enough rotation in this squad to make me feel as if we should have lost this thing. These are the kind of games that could start a losing streak. Is the seat going to be hot for Sean Dyche again?

 

I think we are realizing how important Jordan Pickford might be to this squad. Afif came back early from international duty but needs a rest. Not sure I like what the near future looks like, but we will move forward. 



TRANSFER DEADLINE TIME:



I turned down an offer from Newcastle for James Garner. He got upset, but Sean  told him if someone offers 70mil for his services, he can leave. I do not think anyone is going to come with that kind of money. 

 

 

The target I have landed on for our Striker position is German Berterame from Monterrey in Mexico. I believe he can finish chances that are given to him. Our scouts have highly rated him from the start, and we have been scouting him for multiple weeks. He should cost us under 10 million, and that may turn out to be a bargain. 


 

We had 67 mil to spend after the sale of Mykolenko, and we have spent about 8.5 million as of now. 58.5 mil left to spend. Will we find a LB option?






 

Here is our kind of solution for the full back problem

 

Is he great? No, but he is really the best option that my scouts provided me with. He can play LB and gives us another option that is not 37 years old. I had to pay more than I would have liked for him, but my hands were kind of tied. I think the offseason will kick off by a mass change in the scouting department. 

 

Now we are at 44 Mil.

 

Transfer deadline is up. Tried to make a couple more moves, but they fell through. There was not many other moves that I could make that made sense at the current moment. I hope that the moves I made will be enough for us to grab a few points to stay up. Although losing Mykolenko may prove to be a bigger loss than we are aware of at the current moment. Hopefully Sean will use the new pieces he is given to make a difference. 

I am going to access each player on the team, and make sure that I am more prepared for the next window. I will know exactly what my needs are and who needs to go. Regardless if we stay up or go down, the next window will be very important. 

[DesolateCreator]

 

Here is the result of my squad research:

 

- Many improvements needed in both outside back spots.

- Midfield depth is an issue, but hoping our young players develop and produce. 

- Center back depth could be better as well. I only really have 3 rotational players there that can do a good job. 

- We are going to take a hit on depth in the outside midfield whenever my loans leave. 

- The general quality of the squad needs to improve. 

[DesolateCreator]

Here is the schedule for February:

 

Opens with two difficult games, including the Merseyside Derby. 

We will still not have Pickford, or Bettinelli for the game, so I expect a sad result. 

No magic in the Merseyside for Everton. This now sends Liverpool to the top of the Premier league table, and drops us to 17th. We created virtually nothing, and Liverpool had their way with us, Not much else to say. 

 

This game looked better and we created quite a bit. We just struggle to get over the hump against the good teams. We also had the 4th string keeper in goal today... Hopefully Pickford is back for the next fixture. 

We are still not able to score efficiently when we create our chances. With Dyche's system, we cannot afford to not be clinical in front of goal. Hopefully this changes with a couple of easier fixtures to come. 
 

 

[DesolateCreator]

Next game on the table is last place Leicester. I believe this is a prove it fixture. Are we good enough to stay up? Can we win the games we are supposed to win? 

 

Yes we can! Great performance from the boys. We have Pickford back in goal, and it showed today. Garner put us ahead early, and we stayed on the front foot. We had a lot of players assisting on goals today, and I see a lot of green in the average ratings. This proves that we might just have what it takes to stick around. 



 

Here is where we sit as of Feb. 23rd. We only have a -5 goal differential, but are still only 3 points off of a relegation spot. I would like to make that points gap larger, but that requires us to string some wins together. Jury is still out on whether we can do that or not. 



Another good win gets us in a better spot. 

 

Southampton are overachieving thus far, but we still proved we are the better team. It seems Sean's scheme works better against the teams more around our skill level. We dominated the game even though the score line really does not portray that. Beto came off the bench and made a difference, and Dwight McNeil continues to create good chances for us. 

Hopefully we can continue our streak of success into March, but with the fixtures that I see, I am not sure that is quite possible for us. We end February in 15th place with 28 points. That leaves us 6 points clear of the relegation zone. That is a decent cushion, and I hope that we can continue that trend with a win over at least Ipswich in this next run of games. 
 

[DesolateCreator]

After a rough night in Villa park, we are sad yet again.

 

I am not sure what Sean was thinking not playing James Garner in the midfield, he is our engine. We created nothing and did not show much spark at all. 

 

While it does look as if we will stay up, I am not too sure if Dyche will take us forward past this year. He seems to not be great against the teams that are better than us. Yeah that sounds odd, but we seem to just let them do whatever we want and take our defeat. Rarely do we try to go get the game regardless of the opposition. We have stole a couple this year, but they have not been impressive either. I just want us to show a little grit. If we are going to play a 4-4-2, lets at least embody it as well. 





Huh, seems I am eating my words once again. 



We starting this game behind, and actually came back to beat a much better Newcastle squad. Not sure where this came from, but it is a great unexpected come from behind win. James Garner did not play at all this game. He has been rumored to leave this summer, and there are teams gaining interest in him... But that seems off to me. 

But with another good win, there has to be bad news.... Oh Jordan, why Jordan.

 

Another injury to arguably our best player Jordan Pickford. Sadly, with this new found injury record, we might need to explore our goalkeeping options this summer as well. Hopefully we can continue our just decent form without him for a while. I am a sad Everton DOF yet again. Even after a win. 

[Sahaj Oberoi]

Great save so far.

[keeper#1]

I like this concept but how are you pulling it off.  Are you just delegating all the match day responsibilities to your assistant?

[DesolateCreator]

3 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

I like this concept but how are you pulling it off.  Are you just delegating all the match day responsibilities to your assistant?

The assistant gets all of the responsibilities a normal Manager would. So all media, training, tactic, match day responsibilities are given to him.

I usually have their preferred formation loaded up as a tactic just for logistical sake. 

 

Then you get to the day before a game, or the day of, and vacation to the day after. You can leave the boxes in the Tactics and Team Selection screen unticked, and the Manager will do everything tactic wise on their own. If you want him to leave players in, you can select the "Use current team selection when possible box." Just make sure you have his preferred tactic in the tactic selection screen. 

[DesolateCreator]

We are continuing to sign youth players from abroad. Camara is a 6'1 center back with some decent potential, but I view him as a potential flip for decent cash in the long run. 

 

 

Speaking of young players... It is youth intake day! It has been labelled as an excellent intake by our scouts!

 

 

Here are the highlights:

Rhys Roberts - GK 

Looks like he could be a generational goalkeeper with a resolute mentality!. Hope we can develop him properly and bring him into the starting 11 one day. 

 

Charlie Tomkins - Striker

Charlie looks like he could also be a first team player one day. He has good mentals at a young age, and is pretty quick. 

 

Scott Taylor - Striker

Wonderful in front of the goal already, but has been injured a lot as a youngster. Hopefully he can shake that off and have fruitful development for Everton. 

 

Jordan Brown - Winger

Jordan is another young player with a injury history, but hopefully he can shake that off, as he has great mentals as a young man, and could really prove to be a wonderful player in the future. 

 

Lastly, Dion Denson - RB

Good backs can be hard to find these days, but Dion could maybe get there one day. He has got a ton of work to do, but he has some decent skills that could turn out great with proper development. 


Overall I am happy with our youth intake coming in so well! We are desperately devoid of young talent at this club right now and can use every drop we can get. 


With a lot of excitement comes with some anger, and sadness. 

 

We lost a stinker of a game to Ipswich who are currently 19th in the league table. We just do not know what to do without Pickford. With no shots on target I am starting to get frustrated with the inconsistency of this team. There are also some big name coaches on the hot seat/ losing their jobs that might be worth taking a punt on. I do not want to miss out on premier coaches that might help us by waiting until the offseason. 

 

We are currently in 15th place, but only 3 points clear of the relegation zone. A couple of more bad losses, and we may be in trouble. There are no easy games in the Premier League. I do not know if a coaching change at this juncture would save us at all, but our scheme isnt really doing us any favors. I may be shopping around on the coach market to see who might be interested. 

[DesolateCreator]

I really do not know how to feel about this team... Rollercoaster if I have ever seen one.

 

Everton achieves victory at Goodison Park against West Ham. We dominated, had 7 shots on target, and Sean decided he didnt care if Pickford was hurt or not, he is playing. Great game overall from the guys. Which team are we getting next game?
 

I still do not really know how to feel still, but it is what it is. 


7 Games left, and we are in a decent position. I see a few games that should be winnable. We are currently in 13th place but are 6 points from the supposed 40 point safety mark. Will we be?

[DesolateCreator]

Another win for Dyche and the boys! I guess Everton's Premier league story might just continue.

Things just went our way this game. Two goals in 1 minute and a couple of goals from open play in the second half cap off a second straight win for us. While offense has not been our trademark this season, Dyche has seemed to figure something out over the last two fixtures. We did not dominate the ball by any means, but when we had it, we  took care of business.

Uhhhhhhhhh something has broken. I again, think it has something to do with Jordan Pickford, but I am not sure how this happens, and have honestly never seen a game quite like this one....

 

Was it an exciting game to watch? Yes. Do I really have words to explain it? No. How this many goals were scored in a 90 minute game of football puzzles me, but I guess I am going to lean back and wonder how we have gotten here. If you would have told me this score line was going to happen, I would have called you a bold face liar. 


Again could I spend 30 minutes analyzing this game? Maybe, but I am scared to do so. I will just pray to God that it never happens again. 

[DesolateCreator]

 

Crazy, crazy stat. I had no idea that this was true, but I hate to be on the losing end of this world class game. 

 

We added in an expected loss to Tottenham. We scored on 2 of our 3 shots on target, so we converted on most of the chances we created, we just did not create very much. Ange is gone at Tottenham and they have moved to a much more possessive system. 

 

We need to secure another 3 points soon so we can feel a bit safer going into a late Brentford match. Man city is next on the list and with them just securing CL in first place, I am not sure we can quite match up to them. 

It is still closer than I would like it to be at the bottom. Because a couple of more bad games and we could go against Brentford with the pressure of having to win. 

 

Man City clenches yet another Premier League title with a win over Everton at Goodison Park.

Haaland did normal Haaland things and demolished us at our own place. Our xG is deceiving as our only goal was from a set piece. Everytime Dyche starts Pickford while injured, I get a little bit more scared for his long term health. He is going to regress faster the more he plays him and that will be more money for us to spend. 

 

[Draakon]

Great thread, definitely following this.

[DesolateCreator]

On 25/10/2024 at 02:22, Draakon said:

Great thread, definitely following this.

Thanks I hope you enjoy it!

[DesolateCreator]

Another disappointing showing from Dyche and the boys in Bournemouth

 

This loss leaves us only 4 points clear of the drop zone, with 2 matches left to play. The first at Goodison Park against Brentford, who happens to be in 18th. We created more than Bournemouth today but didnt have the ability to finish in front of goal. Will the boys show up against Brentford? If not, we could be headed down.

 

The answer is no, the boys will not show up against Brentford. 

 

Another game with a ton of creation, but no finishing from up front. Dwight McNeil played his heart out, but he could not do it by himself. Now we play Brighton, in Brighton. We control our own destiny. However, it still looks like we are going to be safe due to goal difference. Even if we lose, and Wolves win, we will still be ahead of them. This proves to be lucky, because we have looked awful. That being said, Dyche will not be at Everton much longer. It really does not matter what happens in Brighton. 

There are not many positives to find about this season, but I guess this is one of them.

We have saved money on transfers this season, and are in position to be much financially better to start the next one. Hopefully that will give us the ability to have more funds available. 

 

A draw on the last game of the season seals our stay in the Premier League. Wolves, Ipswich and Leicester go down. I know one thing, us surviving is a miracle as we really didnt deserve it with our performances near the end of the season. We earned 1 point in our last 6 games, and it was the last one that did it. Many, many changes are coming on the horizon and the first one will be a coaching change. 

 

 

 

Leicester ended up with an almost historically bad season. The top of the table looks pretty normal. We are going to have to do a lot of work if we want to be back up there anytime soon. 

 

 

Let the coaching search begin. 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by DesolateCreator

[Draakon]

To be fair Sean Dyche did what he always does - kept his team in the league.

I'm fairly certain that this is the basis of his contract negotiations and promises every time he takes over a club - he'll keep them in the league. Has failed a few times, but usually he's the guy who gets that job done.

At the same time he never promises anything more, so it's perhaps foolish to hope he'll produce something special.

Sean has done his job, let's wait for the new chapter.

[DesolateCreator]

1 minute ago, Draakon said:

To be fair Sean Dyche did what he always does - kept his team in the league.

I'm fairly certain that this is the basis of his contract negotiations and promises every time he takes over a club - he'll keep them in the league. Has failed a few times, but usually he's the guy who gets that job done.

At the same time he never promises anything more, so it's perhaps foolish to hope he'll produce something special.

Sean has done his job, let's wait for the new chapter.

Great take. That is exactly right. Cannot do much else other than appreciate him for doing exactly that. Sadly though, in order for us to be ambitious as a club we have to go in another direction and find someone that can, hopefully, take us to the next level as a club. That may be hard to do with the financial situation we are in, but we can try to take a step in the right direction. 

In Everton's 123 years in England's top flight, they have an average league finish of 9.3. That being said, the goal is to try and at least get back to something of that ilk. We want to get back into Europe, and hopefully win the whole league one day. If we are going to do that, we have to make some hard decisions along the way. 

 

[DesolateCreator]

Here is some stats before we head to the Summer. 

 

These stats are across all comps.  

Mcneil's 11 assists were good for 6th best assists in the Premier League. I assume some of the bigger teams will be calling for him this next window. 

 

Dwight Mcneil was the only player on the squad to finish with a 7+ average rating. 


In the Premier League as a squad we finished with a goal differential of -12

45 goals for us, and 57 goals against. The put us a 13th in goals scored, and 13 in goals against as well. 



This is what our squad sheet looks like if you remove all of the players leaving on frees this summer. Needless to say, we have a lot of work to do. 

 

 

[DesolateCreator]

Lets look at some candidates for the Head Coaching job at Everton:


Graham Potter:

 

Graham Potter has taken a bit of a break from coaching, but is someone who might thrive with a club like ours. He worked wonders in his stint at Brighton, and reinvented them into a steady Premier League team. I think Chelsea was a bit above his depth but Everton definitely is not. We would be excited if Graham decided to continue his career here.


Gareth Southgate:

We all know about Gareth Southgate's run with the English national team, and it has been a long while since he has coached at the club level. However, I believe that this might be a good chance for us to take. He had marginal success with the England team but could never get over the hump. He is not a bad coach by any means, but would his tactical philosophies be a fit for what we are looking for? Is he forward thinking enough to coach us for multiple years if that is what is called for? Of these things I am unsure. 

 

Eddie Howe: 

Eddie was just fired from Newcastle United after finishing in 8th place, just out of the European spots. He would be a solid candidate for this job as he has been a consistent good coach in this League for a long while. He gives us experience and a more forward attacking style of football. With our lack of depth in the back we would need to address that quickly for his system to work but that is a small price to pay for a coach of his acumen.

 

Thomas Frank:

 

Thomas was fired from Brentford after their poor league position this season. I think Thomas is one of the more underrated, underappreciated coaches in the Premier League. He has brought this team into the Premier League and kept them there. Brentford never made big name signings, but they always put out a formidable squad. Maybe Thomas can bring some of the philosophies that were instilled at Brentford with him to Everton, and maybe help this team punch above their weight. 

 

Ange Postecoglu:

 

Ange was fired from Tottenham because their early struggles in the Premier League last season. Outside of Tottenham, Ange has succeeded everywhere he has been. When facing adversity over the years, he has came out on top. If we hired Ange, maybe he would have more success with a team that is not expecting to win immediately. 

 

 

Wayne Rooney:

Is it really a Everton coaching search without Wayne Rooney in the mix? 

 

Phil Neville:

 

 

Phil also a former Everton player, has had some decent success coaching in the MLS. This would be a stretch of a hire, but he will still garner an interview. Maybe he can convince us he is the future of the club.