Conjo

Great result for us.

I don't disagree. That's probably what I'd do as well if I was in charge, but I'm not and I trust Howe and his team has made a plan and picked a team based on wanting to give us the best chance of winning.

It's a matter of balancing it though, which I imagine is what Howe has done here. The body needs restitution after playing games regardless of match fitness, maybe even more so when it's been so long since he last played football. Tonali will get ~30 minutes today and I'm 99% sure he will start on Saturday against Fulham.

I get your point and frustration, and I defenitely do not think Murphy has more ability nor is more effective in front of goal than Barnes. I just don't get worried about Barnes feelings (he can leave if he doesn't like it), or that Howe has done anything other than setting the team up to do the best it can.

Except that Longstaff has had more rest and more time to prepare for the game. I know I'm being a bit contrarian here, but there's absolutely valid arguments for what Howe has done. We all want to see Tonali play as much as possible and do well.

Depends on Howes game plan. If it's to ride an early storm from a Wolves (Longstaff will be fresher than Tonali, Murphy works harder off the ball than Barnes) that will be desperate to bounce back from the trashing they got against Chelsea, and put on more quality players when Wolves are tired late in the game then it kinda makes sense. Or due to other considerations....prefer to not cry like so many on here and trust that Howe has this in the bag.

Terrible start, grew into the game and won it for us. Seen worse.

His selection clearly isn't only based on permanent first choice / bench players. Gordon and Barnes started just last game. It's clearly not performance based only either, as that would mean Barnes LW & Murphy RW with Gordon on the bench, which fwiw I bet you'd have a pre-moan about too We wouldn't have won against Tottenham if it wasn't for Murphy. Does he not deserve a chance when he does well too, or is that only applicable to our perceived best players?

Christ what a long day of football Thought I'd watch everything with pleasure having not watched any for 2 weeks, but really struggling to pay attention to this game.

I don't really get it. What exactly is it that Mitchell supposedly has said that contradicts what Howe has said? I've only seen some journalists spinning Mitchell words into something it isn't in order to engineer a contradiction and get stories and clicks out of it.

Meh. As a fan base collectively we've been shitting on him for 23 years or so now. Why stop.

He's never been responsible for finding clubs for players or approving outgoing loans, but some people think so and its stuck, so that's the new truth, especially when they don't get played or performs well.

Rogers is like a slightly upgraded version of Gutierrez. Would be a great player if he learnt to shoot, but will he?

If it's one thing you'd expect Michael Keane to do well, its winning those areal duels.

16% possession for Everton

Lots of underdog points - Man Utd, Leicester, Forest now potentially Everton unless they Everton themselves.

Who said there were no interesting games today? Been a brilliant day of football so far.

I'd much rather watch Fulham - West Ham than a top 6 club vs the other 14 unless the top 6 club is losing.

He'll need to be careful how he balances it At this rate he won't be getting starts for Crystal Palace by January, nevermind interest from other PL clubs.

Guehi has had a terrible start to the season.

I've gone against his wishes and captained him in my fantasy team. 1 assist at best.

fwiw fantasy football scouts predicted line-up Edit: I think and hope Tonali starts, but won't lose my shit if Sean does. I can see fair arguments for why Tonali would be benched for this too.

Bit early to write off Willock imo. He's been prone to injuries, but only since his first fairly lengthy injury at the very end of the 22/23 season, and has picked up a number of different injuries since then. When that happens, I feel like I've read somewhere that it often means that a player has not properly rehabilitated when other parts of the body gets injured as they are trying to compensate for lack of mobility/strength in the area that was originally injured. If he and the medical team get his rehabilitation right, I hope and think he can still overcome it.

Have FM fooled me all these years? I've just assumed, based on the game, that add-ons like that didn't count if the player was sold.