Ben, Adam and Andy gather to talk about the latest Everton news, including a VICTORY. Are Everton now, not terrible?
Hello and welcome to episode 63 of the Blues Brothers Everton podcast. It has been here in the captain's chair today. I asked him. Unfortunately it can't be with us, so he's handed over the hosting duties to me temporarily and I shall wield that power with the same dictatorial approach I take to every island of my life. So Andrew and Adam are with me and they will get to talk precisely when I let them and never before. Adam, how are you? That was too perfect, and nobody who knows us believes that I would have the power to do that over either of you.
Speaker 3:Anyway, yeah, I'm good. Thank you, just finished a sort of a second 13 hour day, so enjoying just some time to relax.
Speaker 1:You know there's 24 hours in a day. Right, You're teaching the kids, there's only 13. Because we've got a problem. Very good, thank you, andrew. How are you?
Speaker 2:Hi Ben, I'm good. Thank you At the risk of making Adam rather jealous. Today was my last day at work for 12 days, so I'm looking forward to some time off.
Speaker 1:The podcast format doesn't lend itself to the fact that Adam was just giving Andrew the middle finger down the camera.
Speaker 3:I didn't want to tell someone to fuck off twice in like two minutes.
Speaker 1:I'm funny enough, our dad who listens to this podcast, hi, dad. And one of the things he has raised with a couple of us previous is like I really like the podcast, but you swear too much and it's like sorry, sorry, sorry dad, so sorry dad. Oh, I'm not. I don't know why. I'm apologizing, it was Adam that did it Twice.
Speaker 2:And then we've got a title January. I'll tell the story dead quickly. I was me and dad were at the Etihad several years ago when Everton won there 2-0, when David Moyes was manager and the Everton fans were chanting 2-0 and we spent full call and I thought I can't join in because I'd be swearing next to dad.
Speaker 1:Then I turned around and see dad chant along vociferously with all the Everton fans, so I thought I'm on pretty safe ground now.
Speaker 2:So I then felt okay to join in myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and what's the point about that? You mentioned about what like 32, 31? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:It shows us the level of respect that you would steal that 30 something years old unwilling to swear at a football match in case it upset your dad. But the rules don't apply, as we know. Okay, cool. So we're going to rattle through quite a lot of stuff on this podcast. We're going to talk about Brentford, which was obviously great. We're going to talk about the other weekend's Premier League action, because there was quite a lot of stuff going on those were talking about, like, sheffield United forgetting how to defend and whatever the heck is going on with Chelsea in a minute.
Speaker 1:We're going to talk about the Luging game which is coming up this weekend. For the timing purposes, I want to tell you that we are recording this literally as Everton are playing Aston Villa. It is currently the 72nd minute and Everton are 2-0. So we may well be able to do a bit of a live reaction at the end of that game, but we'll keep an eye on the score and keep an eye on the timing and fit that in if we can. But let's start with Brentford, and, andy, I'll throw to you first, because you were the first person that I looked at on the screen. There's no more logic to it than that. What did you think? Did you feel like this was a different performance? Was it a different level of quality, or was it just getting what we probably deserved in other games of the season and being able to take our chances over to you? I?
Speaker 2:think it's a little bit of all of those for me, but primarily it was a case of the performances that we put in against Fullerman Wolves. We put in the similar type of performance against Brentford and actually managed to convert some of the chances and score some goals and obviously win the game. There was a bit of bemusement in the national media after the Brentford result as to wondering where that result had come from, but anyone who'd watched us play against Fullerman Wolves could see. Well that sort of performance has been in the pipeline. We have threatened to score goals in games against the teams that we're going to have to get results against.
Speaker 2:Obviously, the Villigan Arsenal performances were disappointing, but our season not going to be defined on that. But the whole performance was really good. I like Beto. Every time I see him play he looks like a proper Everton centre forward. He's got all the attributes of an Everton number nine that you want us to have. The performance was really really good by all accounts, but I've only seen the match of the day highlight of this game. I didn't watch the whole live game. By all accounts, brentford were a touch undercut, but that's an art problem. You can only play what's put in front of you. So to get a first win in a game that not many of us thought we would get anything out of. I certainly would have been happy with a point prior to the game. The performance was really good. It was good to see us still create chances and convert them. It obviously bodes well for the next few games in the upcoming weeks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think the point about, like it being a quote unquote, surprised to the media suggests that they should all watch a bit more fucking football. Right, because we've had that performance in us for a couple of weeks now, for a couple of games. You know we've been able to, we've been creating chances, we've been able to put ourselves in positions where we should have won games. So the idea was some giant, enormous shock, akin to you know, loot and playing man City off the park, which is sort of how patronizingly quite a lot of the media treated it in the run up, in the run up to it, the way they talked about it and then in the analysis after that.
Speaker 1:You know you listen to the Guardian Football podcast, which I mean decreasingly in love with nowadays. I used to be a big fan of it, but like you hear them talk about it and it's, it's. It's like Guatemala have just beaten Brazil in the World Cup, because they're also astonished that Everton can actually play football and actually create chances and actually score goals and it just shows them they're not actually fucking watching us. But these people just aren't actually watching us on a regular basis and understanding the positions we're putting ourselves in and the chances of creating and the job that we're doing, because, yeah, I thought it was a. I'll come on to my thoughts in a bit, but I don't know, I've got a little rant out the way. Tell me what you thought about Brentford.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll start with a little rant about I'm I'm feel similar about the Guardian Football week. I think it's really, I think it's really good, I mean in general. But you know, the Barry Glenn Deng is, I don't, I don't think he actually watches the football matches that he described, and you'll notice now that, now that I've probably pointed this out, you'll notice another list of notices that you basically never use as any stats at all. It's purely he basically says what happened in a game. There's never any actual analysis of what he says. God knows how the hell he has that job because it's he. Just I could do a better job than what he does.
Speaker 3:Anyway, on that note, it was nice to sort of shut a lot of the the media up about and remind them that we are better than the position in the table that we are, because you only have to look at the Fulham game and the the wolves game to show that. And I'm not going to, you know I agree with everything that you guys have you guys have said so far. But I'll add a couple of things. It was good to see, obviously, see Calvin Lewin. You know back and score, and obviously he's been on the score sheet tonight as well, two similar goals, both one on one with a keeper, so it's good to see him have that, you know, confidence in front of goal again. So, and it was also nice as well to sort of shut a lot of the Everton fans who are almost desperate for us to to prove their point, to prove themselves as being the most the most glass half full Everton and Everton fans amongst them, because they are the most mind numbingly boring bunch of people on on on X Twitter and, and the people were like if we lose to Brentford, if we lose to Brentford or we don't beat Brentford, dysha's got to go, and it's like an absolutely fucking silent when we comfortably beat them three one.
Speaker 3:So that's how it works, right, lads. So we know we beat them and then you know the manager stays as that is that how it works. You know it's like an unto your point, ben, you're absolutely right. Like the media have not been watching us, so obviously some of that are some of our fans having to either. It's like they're so desperate to be to be so desperate to be right. Genuinely think small minority of them want them to be right more than Everton do. Well, I really do believe that that's how it appears. But no, it was a great. It was a brilliant, brilliant victory, thoroughly, thoroughly deserved as well. And you know, tonight at the minute, as far as I'm aware, I'm not seeing the score in the last 10 minutes, but as far as I'm aware we're still winning 2-0. So you know, it's great that we're hopefully going to go have back to back wins before we come into another two really important games against Luton and Bournemouth over the next couple of weekends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there is. You're right, there is a segment of our ad base, unfortunately, it seems to wallow in the misery of the failure and wants the club to want to get it. You like don't like to think that they want the football to lose, but seems to be very quick to indulge in that misery when it comes along and not equally quick to indulge in the positivity when that comes along as well. Because, as you said, there was an idea that like needed to beat Brentford, who were a good team away from home, like in our sixth game of the season, for Dice to keep his job. It just nonsensical, whichever way you look at it. So yeah, it was, it was. I agree, it was hilarious that they'd set these totally unrealistic like high bars but to clear in relation to what success looks like. And then you know, and then we still clear them. I mean, without wanting to get ahead to the Luton preview, I fully, fully expect that if we don't beat Luton 15-0 and you know, like, with three atrix from you know the centre backs and Jordan Pickford, it'll be, it'll be a what I'd disgrace. Can't believe that. You know, dice out whatever. You know where these people are, just like so quick to jump on anything that's perceived to be negative.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was really impressed with Brentford's game. I thought it was the. It was the performance we've been threatening to put in all season. I think it was the. You know, we finally took our chances when they, when they came along. I think Beto probably could have done better with the couple of ones that he had, but he was getting in the right positions. We were still creating chances. Cavalluin came on and scored, you know, tarkovsky from a set piece, which I think has been one of the ways that we've got a lot of goals last season, which really hasn't worked for us so far this season, which was good, and I think couple of call outs. I would make the decorate.
Speaker 1:Obviously, you know we got the goal, but I mean I'm pretty sure he's still running, like he's probably ran home because he covered so much ground and even in the 90th minute he was still charging around and I think he has his limitations. And we sort of jumped about this on the, you know, on the wise-hand group. It's that sometimes he looks like a ban bion ice when he's got the ball and he just sort of is all sort of limbs everywhere and doesn't really know what to do with it. But the energy he brings and the pressing he brings and the ability, those snapshots, those sorts of one-touch finishes, he's probably the best striker of a ball, one of the best strikers of the ball we have at the club. But he sort of doesn't do it as often but it's like if he has more time he sort of loses all like his footballing ability sort of goes to pieces a little bit. So I thought he was super. And the other person I thought was super and he's got, quite rightly, you know, now talked with a new contract with Jared Branthwaite. So I think for somebody so young coming into a new team difficult situation, you know, challenging, like Alquac, I think he's got composed, he's got calm, he's got for somebody who's, you know, he looks like he's been playing in the Premier League for much longer than he actually has. So I think we've really, really stumbled across somebody special there. We should enjoy him while we've got him, because he's absolutely with the sort of centre back I could see man City paying 50 million pounds for him approximately 18 months time.
Speaker 1:The only thing I would say and I say all of that, their goal, I think, was it was disappointing because it was quite soft from a positional point of view. And there was soft for two reasons. One, michael Encosour, which is often leaves the guy like to run in behind. But then the other thing is Branthwaite charges across to what the shot, when he doesn't have to like Tarkovsky's already out there. You could sort of see in Branthwaite. You could see what Branthwaite was trying to do, because he was guessing the guy was going to shoot. So he was like I'll charge out there, I'll block it. And then the professional footballer does the smart thing and just passes into the space that Branthwaite's just left and the guy is by himself. And then we were unlucky because Pickford gets a touch on it and if he doesn't get a touch on it, tarkovsky on the line and gets cleared.
Speaker 1:So it was disappointing, to concede. But I think it's the sort of thing where, defensively, the team will learn from that and Branthwaite especially. We will learn from that. But I thought he was sensational other than that. So yeah, really really good performance, really happy, and it's just good to get a win on the board. Like you can almost feel the energy like lift now that we've got three points, because if you don't get three points. It just becomes about when you get three points and always you're going to be this week, are you going to be this team or you've got to win here. And it's just you know. You look down the table and you're sort of wondering like, oh well, where are our next three points going to come from? And if we don't pick up we're going to be bottomed by this. So just getting a win going into the losing game is massive. Ok, anyone want to share anything else about Branthwaite before we move on to other weekend's fixtures?
Speaker 3:I think, just very quickly on. Like you know, tactically, I think, with you know, I think that was the game that we really saw what better can bring in terms of our ability to be tactically diverse. You know, before our game plan was, like you know, trying to get players like D'Core and Anana to sort of hold the ball up and then look to play from there, when we were going to try, and you know, play from back to front. Obviously, we never do that in terms of the number of passes, but we do it a lot quicker. But, and obviously our main tactic is to try and win the ball high and catch teams out of position, but which we saw against Brentford.
Speaker 3:But you know, beto put a couple of players through through really clever flick-ons and he won pretty much everything there was to win in the air. So, and and We've it's great that you know all the time, all the other time that we talked about, about you know, calvin Lewin, and you know how, unfortunately, we need someone who can replace him and play ahead of him. We've now got that person and hopefully Calvin Lewin, with the pressures off him and he can get back to what he was like a couple of seasons ago and you know, beto is not going to be someone who's going to score loads of loads of goals that's not going to be what he is but he's been, he's doing, or at least up against Brentford he did exactly what we've bought with him to do, which is to provide a different style of play that Calvin Lewin provides when he's when he's fit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll just add I'll stick my head on the, stick my head on the line and say I think Calvin Lewin is now going to stay fit through a run of games because Andy and D hear me out, hear me out.
Speaker 2:It would just be like the gods of football after, or spending such a large period of last season with essentially almost no centre forwards. Finally, but get better on a, you know, buy now, pay later deal. It would just be like the gods of football to let us go from famine to feast, where you know Beto and a fit DCL. You know Dan Jume are up there as well, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he and he's now and has and has just been alluded to DCL hasn't got to play every game. He can afford to be rested a little bit now as well, which is obviously going to help him. Help it. Help it if he is any, as an iniggly injuries. So so.
Speaker 1:Sorry, we're all napping. That's right, I'm nearly finished.
Speaker 2:I've just lost my train of thought.
Speaker 1:For those of you who might not have picked that up, Adam has left his microphone. He did, and I don't know, was watching a TikTok, so just played over the audio.
Speaker 3:It was actually pertinent to the podcast which will come out in later on. I do apologise, that's right live recordings.
Speaker 2:These things always happen. It's just good to see, obviously, our options up front and I wouldn't be at all surprised if DCL could now hopefully have a running game in the side, aided by the fact that he hasn't obviously got to play every game now because we've got better there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's a bigger part of it is that being able to say, hey, hey, we could start Tonight. He started the Carabao Cup game, which has just gone to 2-1, so it's 2-1 to have it in 86 minutes. So he started the Carabao Cup game and came off at 70 minutes, so you can do that. And he didn't start at the weekend and he came on his club. So, yeah, having the ability to not be reliant on him to basically play every game is massive. Right, let's move on to other weekend's football. I want to start with. We're going to talk about two things primarily. One is we're going to laugh at Chelsea, because that's always fun to do. But the second thing, we're also going to talk about the Newcastle-Sheffield United's game, which I think is probably the most talked about for the results of the weekend, given that Newcastle United stuck eight past them. So, Adam, I'll go to you first, and I know you wanted to talk about Chelsea, so crack on.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So what I was doing when I rudely interrupted Andrew was I was just double-checking one of the stats that I prepared for this little segment. So if you enjoy laughing at Chelsea of which the three of us all definitely do then you'll enjoy this bit, dear listeners. So Chelsea are you know that idea like a club can underperform for a few games and you say amongst your mates, oh, they're shit, and they're not actually shit, it's just a word that sort of used Like Chelsea are actually shit. They are an actually shit football team, and here's why. So some of these stats are incredible. So Leicester have Leicester, bear in mind, they are now relegating the championship. They have scored more Premier League goals this calendar year than Chelsea have.
Speaker 1:That is an absolute belter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I must say, like I mean, these stats are you know, Nick, from very good content creators on your platform, Ben. So there's none of these on mine, so credit to, I think it's James. James Cundey is primarily responsible for most of them on Talks, but who's obviously a Chelsea fan, so watching him sort of read these out must have been quite painful for him. I have a guess over the last 35 games, how many points do you think Chelsea have actually accumulated?
Speaker 1:35 league games.
Speaker 2:I think it's a lot less than what you might think. I think it's relegation form. I'm going to say 29.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go for I think it's lower than that. I think it's like 22.
Speaker 3:It's 28. Which is like so, if you do, what's that? What's that as a points per game? That's 0.8.
Speaker 2:0.8 points per game yeah, it's relegation form.
Speaker 3:It gets you relegated every single season in the Premier League and it gets you bottom most seasons, in a lot of the seasons rather. So when I say they're actually shit, they really are. They are an awful team. Another couple they've only won two league games since Graham Potter left and they've only actually got seven wins all calendar year. We're at the back end of September and that's as in wins in total, not just Premier League wins. Yeah, I think it's fantastic. I think the sort of idea that you can just go into a club and just rip apart every facet of what made it the Champions League win as a couple of seasons ago, and just spend loads and loads of money on loads of different players with quite patently no footballing strategy whatsoever is absolutely hilarious.
Speaker 1:Yeah and also it's worth remembering, they've spent a billion pounds to get to this point. Some people come into clubs and I know they've sold out players and a mortisation, but it's not a point about can they afford it. But some people come into football clubs and they spend a bit of money and it's not successful. I'm not sure there has ever been a situation where the return on investment for a football club has been so, so atrocious Because they've not come in and spent oh you know, it's 20 million here, 20 million there. It's a couple of good players.
Speaker 1:They have spent money like it's going out of fashion. They've spent a billion pounds and, yes, again, they've sold lots of players as well. But the investment in that squad, the amount of money they've put into that squad to basically I mean they don't have a striker and of course, jackson looks like you know, at the risk of using the same analogy twice in, it would have been Bambi on ice when he's playing up front, their bench is regularly full of children Like I don't understand how you can spend that much money and have a bench that is so weak?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:They're really slow and long yeah.
Speaker 2:It is, but even for that, I mean the bench for the last game I looked at and thought I literally don't recognise any of these players. And Nicholas Jackson, I know he was booked four times for dissent in the first five games and I believe he was cautioned on Sunday at home against Aston Villa. So he's now got a one-match band for five yellow cards and they've only played six matches. That's quite the achievements.
Speaker 3:The dude who got? I mean, I like to think I know a lot about football players and stuff, but on on, when Chelsea played even playing Villa, you know and that their right back got sent off Like I'd literally I didn't know, I didn't know who was like.
Speaker 1:I only know who he is because he's my fantasy football team. Okay, I mean before that not a clue.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm still 10% convinced that he's a football manager region, because I've never, like never, heard of the dude. And he's now playing right back for Chelsea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he also does have a name that sounds like a gourmet meal delivery service as well. Yeah, chelsea are hilariously bad relegation form and you still wonder if you're like, at what point does do you start? Do they start going? Well, could do we sack Pochettino? Does that solve it? And like there was an interesting thing that we're talking about I can't remember where it was In one of the articles I read where it becomes it's a culture problem rather than a manager problem, is that?
Speaker 1:And it's a little bit the same as us. Right Is that the problem isn't the manager or even necessarily the players or whatever. It's a cult. If you get culturally, you get. You get teams that just behave in certain ways. It's why the whole spurs eating became a thing, right, because culturally they had a problem with, like you know, losing with games from winning positions or conceding late or ever.
Speaker 1:And we go, and you know, we always say, like it's the Everton way or it's everton that, and like to the extent that my wife, who's knowledge of football is not anything that she would necessarily pick as a specialist subject or mastermind regularly says to me when we're winning one meal or drawing or whatever she regularly says, I don't worry they'll concede in the last minute and, like she, just she doesn't really know that much about Everton or whatever, but she absolutely has nailed the.
Speaker 1:You know the culture of last minute, you know conceding last minute goals, that we've, that we've absolutely mastered. So yeah, it is. I think Chelsea becomes a cultural problem and then they fall. They fall into a culture where it's they are underperforming and it's really really difficult to sort of turn that around. And how do you like I'm an United of the same. It's like you know, 10, they've tried, 10 hard, they tried and Reno, and it's just the same problems. And at some point it becomes about like to shifting the culture of an organization is much, much more difficult than shifting the. You know you can change the individuals as much as you like, you don't change the culture and ever going to succeed in failing organizations, whether that's in football or anywhere else.
Speaker 2:There's a story doing the rep what. There was a story doing the rounds Todd Bowley's first game at Stanford Bridge when he was in negotiations to purchase Chelsea. Chelsea scored a goal that was obviously offside. Even the Chelsea players and fans didn't really celebrate much because it was clearly offside to anybody with any modicum of knowledge about the laws of football. Bowley apparently carried on celebrating far beyond you know everybody else to the extent that sort of people nearby were sort of looking going.
Speaker 2:This dude doesn't know that it's offside and that's only a small story. But you're sort of wonder. Does it illustrate that he doesn't actually really know what he's doing? Because you know people with lots of money have gone into industries before and and caught it up because they've had had bravado and that you think well, they must know what they're doing. But I get, it's a source very small. It's very small incident in itself, but does it illustrate a wider sort of just lack of knowledge? And if you've got somebody that's hot without lack of knowledge, that makes changing the culture and the direction of an organization even more difficult.
Speaker 3:Yeah, totally so it's well. He also said on that point about his lack of knowledge. He also said, like describe Mohammed Salah and Kevin de Bruyne as as Academy products as well when you talk about how good their Academy was. Yeah, so the guys. Football knowledge is obviously not fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's always interesting when you get these non football people who commit to come into clubs. It's like we've had our discussion about 777, so I'm curious as to what their approach will be in that. In that sense, let's jump to Sheffield United, newcastle. I mean I watched this and I it felt like every time I like looked up, the score was, you know, ticking up, do you know, like when you old style but you know, like you filled up petrol and you used to have the actual, like physical numbers rather than the digital display and I think would like click, would click over at rapid rate, as you it sort of felt like that's what the scoreboard was doing on for that game, because it was just like I mean Sheffield United were awful, I mean we've played bad, I've watched those based on bad games, but they were rancid and it's the sort of performance that you either go one or two ways from. You know it happened to Bournemouth at Anfield where they lost nine nil. You either sack the manager and have a restart, and it's a galvanising thing, or, and I think actually it's more likely to go the other way. It just becomes like a you know a thing that you just never recover from. It is a moment or a result that just demoralises the squad, the fan base, and you know. You look at the table now. Is you know, burnley, luton, sheffield United, in the bottom three? I wouldn't be surprised if that was the bottom three come the end of the season.
Speaker 1:I think Burnley maybe have a chance of getting out because I think they will play. They might have tougher in a fixtures and I think their style suits games against teams that are also down there better, I think. So I could see them getting results against fellow relegation strippers, but I wouldn't I think you would be. It would be odds on that. The three who came up with will be the three to go down from at this point in the season.
Speaker 1:Now, because I mean Luton famous last words, because they're playing goes on Saturday, but Luton just look like they're trying really hard but are unequipped for this level, which is understandable. They're actually, you know, relative to terms, really a small club in compared to the sides of the Premier League teams they're going up against Sheffield United, I think just are broken from a tactical point of view, as we saw on Sunday. Burnley will see their very shaky in the back and their style doesn't suit games where they're not dominating possession, like we're in the championship. But so that's my view. But, adam, did you watch the Newcastle game? Where do you think it leaves them? Thoughts on the general sort of relegation battle as it appears to be shaping up.
Speaker 3:No, I didn't watch it, but I did watch some and I knew the result of the London Derby. So when Sheffield United Newcastle was first on Match of the Day, having not been the result, I knew what a good game the London Derby was. I thought, right, what's happened here? So, yeah, I think we said in the podcast that, andrew, you made this point and having one of your friends, I think you said, was a Sheffield United fan, and sorry if you're going to make the same point here, but they are just literally does not equip for the Premier League. They've lost their two best players in the summer and I think financially, from what I can tell you, they were not in a position to replace them without paying for huge wages. So I think they've sort of seen this as like a.
Speaker 3:You know, we've got promoted, we weren't expecting to, and their squad is just, you know, one of those many squads Seel, so West Brom, seel so Watford, where it might be a bit too good for the championship and not good enough for the, not good enough for the Premier League. And, yeah, I think them and Luton are gone, but I think Burnley I agree with you, but I think they'll have more about them. I think Vincent Company is a good coach. I just think they're going to take some time and I think it won't be long before they actually go on a little bit of a decent run. Actually, because they will. They will be other teams that are, you know, around us and around the other teams around the bottom of the Premier League.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, it's unfortunate. I do like you know, I do like Sheffield United, but it's unfortunately for them. I think it's going to be a case of, you know, they take the Premier League money, take the parachute payments and look to genuinely rebuild sort of long term, which is the sort of approach that Norwich always went into it, which was the genuine approach by them. But, by the way, it was like that was the actual thing that they did, where they didn't really actually try and put much effort into staying up. They did it over a long time. Their yo-yoing was actually a tactic of theirs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's intentional.
Speaker 1:And if you look at the players that, like Luton, have signed, especially they've signed. You know they signed to Heath Chong from, I think he came from Birmingham City and like he was like one of the best players in the championship and so they've not spent a huge amount of money trying to stay in the Premier League. You can almost see this plan is like, hey, let's use this opportunity to buy a load of really good championship players so that when we go back down we're in a position to come straight back up and benefit continually, as you say, from the money, rather than rather than, going on a spending spree to try and stay in the league and then potentially not, and having to then sell all those players and leaving yourself open problems if you go down. So I think it's smart. It's smart in that sense to be realistic about your expectations.
Speaker 3:I just don't think they have the. I just don't think they Luton and Chevrolet Dye respectively have the coaches necessary to sort of get more of the sum of their parts, which we've seen, you know the likes of, you know on paper, like a Sean Dye side, for example when he was at Burnley and other managers where they've managed to do that. But I just don't think Paul Hackingbottom and Rob Edwards you know, as Rob Edwards in particular, as good as a young coach that he is, I don't think they're just not the capable of doing that yet and you know, I can't imagine I think they'll stick with them regardless. I mean, sort of a funny point is like um, you think if you take a hundred Derby fans and go like right, do you want your record to be broken?
Speaker 2:This point is like some sort of enjoyable badge of honour.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly like to 11. Because I mean they are both genuinely in tenders to beat that record.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're both seriously undercooked, aren't they? And we've spoken about this on a few polls now, and now the team has done anything remotely to suggest that it's not going to be anything other than a long hard season for them both. The only other thing I'd like to mention about the Sheffield United Newcastle game I've got strong belief that once the games get in the way for you, if you've got two teams in the same division playing each other, one team goes five nil up, the other team should just go right. You know five nil is not brilliant, but it's a relatively easily acceptable scoreline. You just park the bus, go like a seven three nought formation and don't concede any goals. I don't think it's acceptable for it to, even as undercooked as Sheffield United are. I don't think it's acceptable to ship eight goals to a team in the same division as you, because once the games run away from you and I'm sure yeah, it's difficult.
Speaker 2:You're at home, the home fans, you know everyone's on your back and the other team are doing really well and they've got better players than you and a better in most departments. I understand all that, but defending it, it's far easier to stop the opposition score and then it is to score yourself. So I think, even as undercooked as Sheffield United are, I think they should be able to, just once you got to five or six, just go right. Let's stop this becoming an annihilation. You know it's already embarrassing. Let's stop it becoming an annihilation. And it speaks volumes, actually, that they won't even do that. They just gave up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's and it does. It becomes about. It becomes about like effort and application at that point, not ability, because, you're right, like no team in the Premier League should be conceding that money. The skill, the skills sort of quality gap is big, but it's not eight nil big between two teams in the same division. And I'm going to move this on because we've got, we've got about 10 minutes left to do and I want to want to get two things in and so we can give you a live reaction to the Carabao Cup game, which is finished to one to Everton. So ever since I've been victorious there, gold by James Garner in the 15th minute and then Dominic Calvert-Lewan in the 50th minute, and then I think it's Buber Carcumara, I think it's the Aston Dillopay who scored in the 84. So, andy, I'll throw to you first very quick 30 seconds and then we'll go on to Luton. Reaction to this game is important. What do you think?
Speaker 1:Because you know for everybody's, for everybody's visibility in the WhatsApp group. Before kickoff, andy said that he didn't care about the Carabao Cup and we should just feel the team of 11 fans off the bus. So I'm curious of whether, whether his view has changed now we've won.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm obviously pleased as an avatownian that we have won this football match. However, I yeah I freely admit I wasn't putting any stock in it at all Very in mind opposition. The League Cup is low down to this, to priorities. Having said that, obviously to keep the momentum going following the win on Saturday is really good. It's good as well. We were at Villa Park in the league of the season, stacked the place out, got beaten deservedly. So this result is very, very good indeed and it's a good carry on momentum into the Luton game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Adam thoughts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it was important to back up the the win with not I mean not necessarily a win tonight, but a good, you know good, solid performance. And if you look at Villa's, villa's team, they've not changed their, they've not changed their whole, the whole 11. From what I'm just looking at now, you know they've only got, I can only really see two players who would not be start, no, three players, sorry, who would not be starting for them. You know, watkins is not playing, dean's not, dean's not playing and Emiliano Martinez is not playing, but the rest of them are, you know, comfortably their first 11. And bear in mind, you know, with play Villa this season, and we're well beaten, you know it's absolute chalk and cheese compared to that. So you know we can't really be asking for much more going into, going into Luton and yeah. So, yeah, we know, we all know what's going to happen on Saturday, don't we?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're all. We're all prepared for that Luton. Luton lost to Exeter. Yeah, luton lost to Exeter. They look like the worst, possibly the worst, tv program in league history. We've just won two on the bounce, so fully expect which one of their players hasn't scored since you know, god was a lads.
Speaker 3:It's gonna be that. It's gonna be that dude who's like the first player to go through all five. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Exactly I don't even know his name, and that's just.
Speaker 1:I don't know him, but there is. So for those of you listening who aren't aware, there is a Luton Luton Luton player who fair play to it and has joined them when they were in the, basically in non-league, and has gone. I think it's non-league, it's a non-league or league too. It was the course on Luton Luton's tier. So when they were in the conference he joined them in the conference and he has now played for them in every single division. Have they been promoted through, which is an amazing achievement. He should be very proud. It's great when that happens to players rather than promotion and then they get discarded for better players. But yeah, he is absolutely fucking nailed on to score at the weekend, as some you know, celebratory. It's probably his birthday as well. I mean it's, it's, it's like it's like Everton.
Speaker 1:It's the most Everton thing that could happen for this stuff. So so nice segue. Some segues are better than others. Let's talk about the Luton game. Adam, I want what, how you think it will go, score prediction and any other thoughts on how we should set up tactically, because we saw a couple of changes tonight. You went to a back five, which I don't think you'll do against Luton, but he played Calvillou in, jack Harrison started, dan Juma was back in. So what teams you want to see and how do you think it's going to go again?
Speaker 3:I think in terms of the team, I think we really want to go as a tap-minded as we can. Unfortunately, we're in a position now where we're getting players back and there's good competition. I can't imagine Harrison against Wolfstart because he's coming back from fitness. He started tonight, obviously didn't complete the game, I don't think, so it's unlikely he'll start. I think Dan Juma will.
Speaker 3:I'd like to see Dan Juma play and I'd like to see a midfield three of Anana, anana Decorate and Garner, as in James Garner, because I don't think Garner is good as what we've offered. I don't think it's necessary to play him against Luton. We should be going into that game as the firm favourites that we are, because Luton are a poor footballing side and I think they'll struggle with our high press. We've got players who can combat their very few attributes that they'll have over most teams, which is their physicality. We've got Calvert, lewin and Beto and our defensive. Brantz-way and Tarkovsky are very strong athletic players, so I can't imagine that they're going to cause us too many problems. We've just got to go into that game believing that we are the better team, playing that we are the better team, and I think we'll win comfortably. So, ani, over to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'd echo all that entirely. I'd like to see Beto start up top. I think he's got the strength and the physicality to, quite frankly, bully the Luton centre harps. I agree James Garner in midfield will fancy his chances about getting his foot on the ball and dictating things there. I'm going to go to this game on Saturday with Dad and I've got every confidence that it should be a win. And also it is a must win, of course, because it'll help undo the damage from those defeats to the Fulham and Wolves. So I think we will win. We're definitely capable of winning. I'll be very disappointed if we don't, and I'm going to be more optimistic than Adam. I'm going to say 3-0 to Everton.
Speaker 1:Okay, great. Yeah, I probably agree with all of that. I think I want to see Calvert-Lewin start, not because Beto has been bad or anything, but I think Calvert-Lewin has scored tonight. He scored against.
Speaker 2:That is true. He's obviously a bit of a good run of form, that's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I would start Calvert-Lewin. I think you'll see McNeill back in the team. I agree with Adam that I would want Dan Juma back in there because I don't think he needs to have the defensive. You know you might explain to James Garner on the right because he works hard. You would like to think in this game that you would be able to get around that. I don't think he'll change the midfield 3. I do agree with you, adam. I would sort of want to do because I really like Garner in there. He scored tonight. He looked great in advanced positions. He had the assist against. I just think he's really settled on the Garner and Arna to core a like engine room. So I don't necessarily see him changing that and I think I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1:And then the back four sort of picks, itself based on the performances against Brentford. I think Gluten will cause us some problems physically. I take all what you said, adam, in relation to size and whatever, but I think they will just cause problems for our team this season because of how they style football they play. But I think overall we should have more than enough to sort of get past them. I'm going to go for a 2-1 Everton victory because I think we'll create enough chances to score a couple of goals. I think they will probably, you know they'll get one off a set piece or on for how I suspect, which is how I think a lot of their approach has been this season. So, yeah, we've all predicted Everton to win.
Speaker 1:So we'll see you next week when we're dissecting a 1-0 loss to the worst team in Premier League history because it goes off someone's arse in the 94th minute. Okay, great, that is all we have got time for and everything that we wanted to cover. So thank you very much for being with us. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts Like, comment, share, subscribe, do all those things so that you get, like it delivered into your podcast feed, because that helps us and it helps us spread the podcast to more people, so more people can listen to us talking about Everton on a semi-regular basis, and we will hopefully see you next week talking about a third win on the bounce, but it's Everton, so you never know. But thank you very much for joining us and we'll speak to you soon.