Pizy

What in the actual fuck!? Just signed a new deal and the season is days away. Sounds fishy. Refuse to believe it.

Not criticizing, just pointing out how odd it is. A club that has never spent huge money just out of nowhere becoming potentially the highest spenders this summer.

Everton acting like a guy who just won the Mega Millions jackpot. Throwing money at every flashy thing they see. I swear they've bid for about 15 players this summer. Whats weird is that they've just unveiled plans for a new stadium just a week ago. Usually that means tightening the purse strings, not going crazy with the spending.

Everton bid £70m for Zaha. A medium sized, midtable club can afford to bid £70m on a single player! The money nearly every PL club has these days is bonkers! 😂

Reports suggesting Spuds are on the verge of bringing in Countinho on loan and Dybala for big money. Why they would want both when they are best in the same position I don't know, but they've definitely taken a big leap up in their recruitment if the pull it off. No more scrounging the bargain bin for deals I guess now the stadium is done. All these clubs who have never spent big before are going bananas this summer. At a time when we have more money in the coffers than ever and can't sign anyone.

Even with a year left on his deal Spuds would be morons to sell Eriksen to a direct rival. I'd just let him walk for free when he's a year older.

How exactly are Everton able to splurge this mega money while abiding by FFP rules? They haven't generated huge funds from player sales and they aren't a commercial juggernaut. If they pull off these moves they're heavily linked with they'll have spent like almost £200m.

What a weird transfer that would be. I still think it's super dumb the way they've essentially flushed Lukaku down the drain. Think there will come a point during the season when they regret doing so. Neither Rashford nor Martial are consistent goal scorers. No guarenteed Mandzukic works out, either.

Think about what a statement of confidence it would be for Mount to get the nod on opening day against United at OT. The lad will play his socks off.

Anthony Taylor, huh? Great. Worst referee in the league.

Pedro is the counter attacking teams dream player, that's why I think he'll start this one. I think we'll surrender most of the possession to them at home and have Luiz and Jorginho repeatedly try to play balls over the top and through the midfield to the sprinting Pulisic and Pedro. For this to be successful, we must hope Kante is is up to good fitness levels and that our defense isn't a shambles. Otherwise this could get ugly.

This will be a quite considerable step up in quality compared to what we've faced in preseason. This being their home opener I expect them to really raise their game and be massively up for it. Just can't see him leaving Pedro out.

Not sure we can afford to bench our best goal scorer. We're already a side that struggles for goals.

And he tends to do best against bigger, less pacey strikers and forwards where he can man-mark and physically battle with. Struggles against quicker players. So it may not be best to start with either Tammy or Giroud.

I'm just glad to get Old Toilet out of the way so early, win or lose. Better now than in the run in at the end of the season when there are loads of fixtures.

Yeah, this preseason has been a big reminder for me about Zouma's shortcomings. His concentration/focus isn't great (which the espn commentator mentioned seemingly a dozen times yesterday) and his ability on the ball is very subpar. He almost never made forward passes this summer that were more than a few yards. He always plays the safe sideways or backwards pass. I think Zouma will be fine this season against certain teams but I 100% would not play him against super quick, highly technical teams like City/Liverpool/Arse. Luckily, it seems like Rüdiger isn't far away. Hopefully back to his 18/19 form.

It is, indeed. Live by the Luiz, die by the Luiz. Hope like hell that Kante is ready by next weekend. Rasford, Martial, etc running at our defense doesn't exactly sound exciting after what we've witnessed in preseason, does it? 😅

Think he'll 100% go with Zouma and Luiz until Rüdi gets back.

Nah, Jorginho's skill set is just much greater than Kova's. He offers way more. All of those long balls into channels that he loves to play should be much more dangerous with Pulisic, Mount, and hopefully soon CHO getting on the end of. Kovacic offers literally zero offensive output and is also suspect as hell defensively.

Do think we will have to accept that as long as Jorginho is in the team we must take the good with the bad. He's great on the ball and as an outlet for Kepa and the CB's when they're being pressed. But he's a big Achilles heel in quick turnover situations. Opponents will continue to target his area and he will certainly struggle against athletic midfields. With Luiz behind him....yikes. Kante hopefully moving back to his natural position will improve things. God, I hope so. I could see us really struggling this season defensively if he doesn't.

I want an update on Batshuayi. He may be our best option up top. Not convinced by Tammy and Giroud is no more than a bench option. At least Bats has the talent and shows flashes of being top class. He should probably be our #1 striker.

Completely one sided second half after a terrible first half. Should've scored 4-5. Clearly going to take quite a while for Frank to sort out our biggest problem which is transition defending. Same as it was under Sarri. When we lose the ball in the center of the park or a team plays a piercing ball between the lines we are absolutely dead. Like, every time we get killed that way. Hopefully Kante getting up to speed makes a huge difference.

Mount again! He's so good!

Mount has been our best and most dangerous player today. Excellent runs off the ball and good pressing.

Clinical striker on any of these Tammy chances today and we'd be on the board.