How do you rate the first quarter of the season?

[Eggs]

That's fair enough Eggs if that's how you see it, that's what debate is for. I'd disagree, I think we have been better than that in the main.

..i’m happy with the direction of travel, but the home league games against Huddersfield, West Ham and the cup loss to Southampton inform a reasoned evaluation. 3/5 is ok.

 

[BernieH]

I actually would say it’s been quite frustrating.

I’m looking at that table, and scratching my head and thinking “what if?”.

Wolves, Bournemouth and Huddersfield are three prime examples of 6 points dropped.

Those 6 points would put us joint 3rd, and just two points off top. I’m certain we’ll come a cropper against the likes of Chelsea, City and RS away, but even West Ham and Arsenal are frustrating results.

Overall, I’m happy. We’re playing good football (especially away from home). The conceding of goals, seems to be stopping too.

That says to me our system is working, the players are understanding what is expected, and we’re playing some exciting football to boot.

Silva has brought in exciting players, with bags of pace such as Richarlison and Bernard; then steadied the team with astute signings like Digne (whos settling in, just about), Gomes (looks like the midfield passer we’ve needed for a while), then Zouma. Zouma has been a rock and he and Keane have looked formiddable. We are yet to see Mina as a result, but if he’s as good as the other signings, then boss.

What you forget is that he’s been behind the turn of Keane’s form, Sigurdsson has probably been our best player too.

So things are early, but they’re looking much better.

I guess the test now is looking more comfortable at home. It’s crucial time, and if we revisit this on January 2nd, having played Cardiff, Brighton, Watford, Newcastle, Spurs and Leicester at home, and haven’t taken a very decent return I’ll be disappointed.

The away form can only be a bonus in that stretch with United, Chelsea, City, RS, Burnley and Brighton. I just home the heads don’t drop it they lose a couple!

Roll on!

Some good points there, Wolves and Bournemouth games were probably frustrating because of silly red cards and letting leads slip, we couldn't keep a clean sheet at the start of the season. We are looking more solid in that department though and Keane has been a particular surprise, i thought he was on his way out but Silva along with Zouma have allowed him to regain his confidence. Having Mina chomping at the bit is a good headache for the manager to have.

 

[evertondotcom]

We should have 4 more points minimum, that would have had us in 6th place (Wolves Away, Bournmouth away).

And if we didn't have a nightmare and bottle it to West Ham, we would have been sitting in third.

Clear improvement in play, the quality of football is better and the team spirit seems great.
7/10 so far.

 

[banno]

creating those things we forgot about...chances. Moving in the right direction. Brands/Silvas signings have improved the team. Brand of football has improved 100%. What is there not to like. We all know (or should) that we still have a mountain to climb to get top 5/6 but at least we have started an ascent.

For the Palace match I said that we needed an early goal to prevent pressure from the fans but it didn't come yet the fans stayed onside and showed the patience required for a 90 min tight match. Feel that helped the team enormously.

 

[BernieH]

..i’m happy with the direction of travel, but the home league games against Huddersfield, West Ham and the cup loss to Southampton help a reasoned evaluation. 3/5 is ok.

Definitely, improvements are needed I agree, we still lack a striker who you know will slot if put on a plate for him and because of that we can waste a lot of chances, against defensive teams this can be a problem.

It's not a complete bed of roses and not without frustration but it's nice to know we aren't going into games settling for a point or an 'expected loss'.

 

[BernieH]

creating those things we forgot about...chances. Moving in the right direction. Brands/Silvas signings have improved the team. Brand of football has improved 100%. What is there not to like. We all know (or should) that we still have a mountain to climb to get top 5/6 but at least we have started an ascent.

For the Palace match I said that we needed an early goal to prevent pressure from the fans but it didn't come yet the fans stayed onside and showed the patience required for a 90 min tight match. Feel that helped the team enormously.

Yeah, as I mentioned earlier it's great to hear the ground rocking and that shows the crowd are mostly on board with whats happening. After a tough few seasons to have the Goodison roar back is magical.

 

[Hickson9]

If we hadn't lost to West Ham and also held on to win one of those away draws, I'd vote in the top bracket.

We're not far off and the potential evolution is obvious.

 

[Barnfred 55]

I'd give it an 8. I'm taking into account the number of injufies we've had whilst the likes of Wolves and Chelsea have had their best XI available every game. We've also had poor refereeing decisions go against us and our away form has been very good and could easily have given us another 4/5 points.

 

[tonyhorne]

It's a 6 from me. I'm not sure it has always been at least 'decent' but it has often been better than 'poor'...

 

[The binman chronicles]

We are middling, haven't hit any particular heights yet. Could have got a few more points from some games but equally dropped some we did get from others.

It is far better than this time last year though and with a fairly new team and manager he deserves the time and patience from the fans to see where we go from here.

 

[toffeejack]

6/7 because if you look at the fixture list we should have had more points even for a team in transition, but the last few weeks has seen us turn those type of draws to wins.

Baring in mind we had a horrific injury list, have still yet to get our best XI on the pitch and have been undone by some shocking decisions, 8th is as good as it could have been. We'll climb above Watford and Bournemouth soon enough as well.

 

[BernieH]

I'd give it an 8. I'm taking into account the number of injufies we've had whilst the likes of Wolves and Chelsea have had their best XI available every game. We've also had poor refereeing decisions go against us and our away form has been very good and could easily have given us another 4/5 points.

Good point about the injuries, we've coped fairly well really and arguably if you think Mina should be a starter, we still haven't had our strongest team on the field. Keanes upturn in form has been a nice surprise, never nice to see someone lose form to the point he did. it will be interesting to see what Silva does with those three.

 

[BernieH]

It's a 6 from me. I'm not sure it has always been at least 'decent' but it has often been better than 'poor'...

I know what you mean, obviously the West Ham game was bloody terrible, just asking for an overall gauge really.

 

[davek]

I voted 6/7.

The biggest upside for me is that we have a manager with quiet intensity, determined to make the team the story, as opposed to the last two bellends who were a) clueless and listless, and b ) all about themselves.

Downside is that a major error was made in the summer by not bringing in a quality attacker, and that means we have to reshuffle a bit to get a cutting edge.

 

[RomanReigns]

West Ham at home