Everton vs Tottenham Player Ratings: Undefeated home run ends

Jim Bennings

1 Posted
26/10/2025 at
19:55:41

Very generous with the ratings for me.

Tarkowski I wouldn’t give more than a 4 at best, yet again the decision to offer a contract extension seems hasty as it’s a player looking on the decline.

We were one-half wonders as usual, Ndiaye played well for one half which seems to be the limit at the moment, and when he doesn’t play well, we don’t seem to play well.

Grealish was okay but little end product and he is supplying ammunition to a gun with no trigger unfortunately.

Joe Hurst

2 Posted
26/10/2025 at
20:22:16

An accurate review of every Everton player in tonight’s game:
…Shite

Paul Hewitt

3 Posted
26/10/2025 at
20:24:34

I do often wonder why getting beaten by a better team makes you shit?

John Williams

4 Posted
26/10/2025 at
20:27:49

I blame Moyes, he should have played the tea lady in midfield and chosen a couple of burly stewards from the stands to play in the centre of defence.

I presume some on here will blame Moyes for picking the wrong team!!

Ralph Basnett

5 Posted
26/10/2025 at
20:28:30

The players are playing to the best of their ability; unfortunately, it isn’t good enough. The squad problem is down to owners and manager.

Owners gave Moyes money and he has chosen to bring in a forward that isn’t ready and failed to recruit right and left backs.

We have very little pace in the team and everyone we play exploits that.

The only way any youth get experience is sending them out?

Same shit… just a different location!

Bill Fairfield

6 Posted
26/10/2025 at
20:45:54

Huffed and puffed, but we desperately need a striker and a couple of strong running attacking full-backs.

Until then, it’s plod on with what we’ve got. A long way to go yet.

Tom Bowers

7 Posted
26/10/2025 at
20:58:41

I agree we are not blessed at full-back. Jake is not a full-back and Mykolenko is quite slow on the turn and is often beaten.

However, the offensive side of things is very weak but we have to suffer it until at least January.

If Jack and Iliman are snuffed out, then we will struggle, as they did today. Most teams will realise this.

Craig Scott

8 Posted
26/10/2025 at
21:39:39

It seems clear to me that Grealish and Ndiaye are our biggest attacking threats but they do so from the flanks. There isn’t anyone in the middle running off and firing shots from the deployed lone striker.

Defences can just double up on the striker in the middle and snuff out their threat, which in Beto’s case isn’t great.

I support the idea of trying either Ndiaye or Grealish interchanging as a false nine with Dibling on the right. Today demonstrated that we should try something different as we had good possession in promising positions on the flanks but no threat when the balls were swung in to the middle.

David Bromwell

9 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:01:06

I couldn’t go today so had to watch on telly, with sound down.

Very familiar current Everton performance, which in part is nice to watch but we simply cannot finish.

Obviously we also struggled every time Tottenham crossed the ball into our box… worrying as our back line has traditionally been more resilient.

Ryan Holroyd

10 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:06:18

Could someone please tell me what exactly Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall does?

£25M and he’s not even as good as Alcaraz.

Robert Williams

11 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:06:19

I’ve no idea how Grealish gets a 7. To my mind, all he does lately (after bursting on the scene) is slow the play down, doing his own little ‘cameo’ on the touchline.

The whole team was poor today. Did Beto split his pants with that overhead kick he tried?

We appear to be settling into a pattern of mediocrity, but maybe that is what Moyes is trying to achieve at this stage of the season, so that the owners will take notice and cough up some more ackers for another inflow of uselessness.

I will be away, so will miss the next two games. Let’s hope there is an improvement by the time I get back!!

Ryan Holroyd

12 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:12:02

Robert – I agree with you about Grealish. All he does is gets the ball, slows the play down, checks inside, or gives to Mykolenko.

No wonder Man City got rid.

Them three of Ndiaye, Grealish and the dreadful Dewsbury-Hall are basically the same players. Fur coat and no knickers comes to mind.

Ryan Holroyd

13 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:17:21

it’s like watching the same clip on repeat with Grealish. He does his shuffling, stuttering run with two defenders in front of him, then has to lay it off usually backwards or square, and the attack expires.

Or he wins a free kick which we just whack into the area.. Never looks look like scoring. Doesn’t look like setting anything up. He is a bit of a one-trick pony.

£12M in wages with no return.

Jim Bennings

14 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:29:43

Ryan,

Probably not easy when you have a carthorse in front of you, a full back that hasn’t got a clue how to overlap you, a middle of the park that doesn’t take up a position around or in the box to give you a target to hit.

I imagine Grealish would look a much much better player if he had prime Leighton Baines passing him by, or Lukaku showing for passes up front or even a player like Naismith in this side that could take up a dangerous position in the box.

All we do is pass to him then stand there watching him almost with the attitude of “Right, you do it yourself, Jack, we’ve passed the ball to you.”

I’ve seen more movement in a tortoise tank than you get from our attacks.

Jim Bennings

15 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:36:30

More concerning for me are the following:

How on earth have we persisted with one of the most un-modern left-backs in the Premier League in Mykolenko, who can’t run, can’t pass, crossing awful, and is just so unlike the majority of full-backs in this era, yet we have churned him out for 4 years.

How on earth we identified needing to replace Seamus Coleman way back in 2019, when we signed Djibril Sidibe, but somehow still haven’t replaced him.

How did we persist with Calvert-Lewin from 2017 to 2025 knowing he’d been injury-prone and not good enough for 4 of those seasons, yet we still have not signed a striker who can even look like he’s been trained professionally.

We are watching a very much declining central defender in James Tarkowski yet wanting to offer a new 2-year contract.

Those are bigger concerns at this club for me right now.

Jim Bennings

16 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:40:33

Our midfield still lacks any real bite, any real power or pace. That’s why I wanted to sign Kubo and John McGinn.

People didn’t want McGinn but I tell you one thing, he’d have improved our midfield no end.

I wanted us to push the boat out on Kubo and was erring towards that move ahead of Dibling.

Ryan Holroyd

17 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:49:17

I agree in part with what you say, Jim. Although he was doing the same at Man City, so who knows? He definitely slows the play down a lot.

In answer to your questions, because the club is rotten to its core. Has been for decades and ain’t changing soon. Pitiful really.

As I say, we’re the most pointless, sterile, 1970s style football club as there is.

I mean fans clapping Richarlison when we’re getting beat 2-0. Absolutely pathetic.

Jerome Shields

18 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:51:21

Jim #16,

McGinn would have made a big difference, but playing for Moyes didn’t seem to be an incentive. I suspect Kubo was similar.

Ryan Holroyd

19 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:53:18

Or he was happy at Villa, Jerome.

Ryan Holroyd

20 Posted
26/10/2025 at
22:55:27

I wish the club would just fold and end this misery they inflict on us every season.

Ernie Baywood

21 Posted
27/10/2025 at
04:53:39

Feels like a slight over-reaction, Ryan.

I might be an eternal optimist but I see progress. We’re signing young (which will come with its blunders) and we’re actually attempting to play football.

Yes, we lack plenty of the parts needed to be a good side, but we’ve just spent the last few years barely playing football, staving off relegation, and being stripped of any decent playing assets.

You’ve only got to look at the selections. We lack a cutting edge… Yet Spurs can introduce a Brazilian international striker off the bench. The same guy we had to sell to them to meet PSR limits! If you wanted to sum up the respective clubs, it was right there in that moment.

Jonathan Tasker

22 Posted
27/10/2025 at
04:54:09

Ryan is right.

Close the club permanently.

Kenwright has won.

Jerome Shields

23 Posted
27/10/2025 at
06:30:31

Ryan #19,

Same reason. Moyes: same old tactics — which may look good but are painfully slow in the buildup. The opposition just has to shepherd the threat up and mark up the stationary attackers.

This has been the way the opposition have played Moyes for years. No proper preparation is being put into set pieces, whether attacking or defending. That is a real problem that Moyes should be held accountable for, especially when his main strength is supposed to be to contain the opposition.

The way Moyes’s tactics are, there are only two ways of scoring. The centre-forward gets the right connection on a half-chance, or from a set-piece. Neither are going to happen.

I think TFG should be looking at Stage 2 asap.

Jerome Shields

24 Posted
27/10/2025 at
06:46:00

Moyes should have kept Lindstrøm — at least he knew how to play a through-ball. When was the last time we saw an Everton player play a through-ball through the centre?

Moyes may not even want players to look to play the through ball.

James O’Connell

25 Posted
27/10/2025 at
06:52:28

It’s all down to match days. Clearly we don’t like playing on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays.

And every other Saturday.

Friday night football and we win the league.

Ian Bennett

26 Posted
27/10/2025 at
07:39:21

No proper preparation is being put into set-pieces whether attacking or defending. That is a real problem that Moyes should be held accountable for, especially when his main strength is supposed to be to contain the opposition.

Jerome, we have one of the highest % of scoring from set pieces in the Premier League over the last 12 months, and we’re the last of the 20 teams to concede from a set-piece this season. Your statements are not backed up with actual facts.

The bottom line was our keeper was nowhere near 3 headers in his 6-yard box. Garner and Mykolenko were bullied out of their header duels fairly easily, and the 3 big dopes were nowhere near Micky van de Ven who is a clear danger. Oh, and we had a set-piece disallowed by VAR.

The bigger issue is our players are not very good. The defence is poor without a low block, the midfield aren’t great on the ball, and shooting is dreadful. Oh, and the big lad up front has the touch of a kerb and turning radius like he needs to be on the Mersey.

The team had good chances to score yesterday despite all of that, and gifted shit goals to Spurs. Christmas came early for them.

My criticism is not getting Alcaraz on earlier. I thought Dewsbury-Hall was pretty poor. I’d like to see Barry and Beto together at some point, so they’ve some pace in the side to unsettle teams — 2-nil down is that situation. The O’Brien experiment is meant to help set-pieces, but defensively it didn’t. Tarkowski worries me.

For the next game, I would like to see some of the finishing XI start:

Pickford
Garner
Mykolenko
Tarkowski
Keane
Röhl
Gana
Alcaraz
Ndiaye
Beto
Grealish

Is it a great team? No. But that’s where we are. Spurs were no great shakes either. Their centre-forward from PSG was pretty rubbish — and they’ve plenty of others in Tel, Richarlison, and Solanke that they’ve squandered on.

Not easy, this centre-forward lark.

Mark Murphy

27 Posted
27/10/2025 at
07:44:09

We’re still playing football that went extinct 15 years ago – too slow and methodical.

But, if Branthwaite had been in the middle yesterday they wouldn’t have scored those corners.

We need asap two fast dynamic fearless full backs and get Branthwaite and O’Brien in the middle. Add a competent striker (or go all out on Barry) and we’ll not be far off.

But in the meantime, we need a big change of mentality.

Bring in Iraola asap.

Neil Cremin

28 Posted
26/10/2025 at
07:49:56

Totally agree with Ryan on Grealish. He is a very talented footballer who doesn’t lose possession. However, from what I have seen to date, he is now double-marked, he holds up the ball and ends up passing into our midfield, usually to Dewsbury-Hall who is not creative enough to carve out openings for whoever is playing up front.

Grealish doesn’t shoot, Dewsbury-Hall doesn’t shoot. Our typical pattern of play in attacking is getting inside their half, and whoever has the ball doesn’t see any options, so passes into the middlem and ultimately a nothing ball is crossed into a crowded organised defence and cleared.

Another observation from yesterday is that two of the goals were from corners where we looked very vulnerable. Jordan Pickford is a great shot-stopper, as he showed when saving against Richarlison but has no command of the 6-yard box.

Compare that with Vicario where any corner we had was either underhit, collected or punched well clear by Vicario. The only exception was Jake’s.

My fear is that Thomas Frank has shown other teams exactly how to score against Everton.

Mick O’Malley

29 Posted
27/10/2025 at
07:58:31

Bournemouth lost 3/4 of their back 4 from last season and are in the Top 4. They’ve got a 19-year-old centre-forward who’s scored 3 in his last 4. They don’t mind putting in players who aren’t Premier League ready, we sit ours on the bench and they get 5 minutes at the end of the game if they are lucky.

I was fuming with Moyes yesterday bringing Alcaraz on with 6 minutes left.

I know he has his fans on here but it’s about time Gana was put out to pasture. Okay, he wins the ball back but, more often than not, coughs up possession, he contributes nothing offensively and his shooting is woeful… mind you, he’s not alone there!

Bill Fairfield

30 Posted
27/10/2025 at
08:08:29

The early-season optimism has evaporated already.

The fear of another season of struggle is once again upon us.

Ian Bennett

31 Posted
27/10/2025 at
08:10:20

Neil – right on set-pieces. Franks works hard on that aspect, but others will cotton on.

Agree on Grealish. You need someone at Number 10 that can exploit that space when players are dragged out to Grealish. Ndiaye would be the main beneficiary, but with no one on the right, it will need to be Alcaraz.

Röhl should start next game. It’s where Garner plays now? Midfield or right-back.

Mark Murphy

32 Posted
27/10/2025 at
08:17:53

Mick, Bournemouth are fearless and have a strong team mentality. It’s why I want Iraola in, and wanted him in for this season.

I’m not anti-Moyes — he did a great job turning us around last season — but we should’ve dumped the “old” Everton mentality of the last 35 years when we left Goodison.

Jim Bennings

33 Posted
27/10/2025 at
08:18:18

The early season optimism amounted basically to two of the first three games in August.

Since then we’ve been pretty much abject.

We were poor at Anfield when they were vulnerable.

We didn’t capitalize on a poor Manchester City at the Etihad and we were poor at Wolves in the Cup.

West Ham at home when they are abysmal was also a shocking performance while we got lucky at home to Palace when we could have been 3-0 down before Ndiaye scored to level it

Sam Hoare

34 Posted
27/10/2025 at
08:21:55

Mark@27 we’d love Iraola but I’d say there’s next to no chance. Despite history we are currently a step down from Bournemouth who have better players, better recruitment and better prospects. They have a genuine shot at CL football within the next few years whereas we will struggle to get into the top ten.

There are lots of talented young managers out there and I wonder if Moyes will come under pressure around Xmas if we are languishing around 15th-18th which feels distinctly possible. In theory we should have a better second half to the season with a raft of new players getting settled and finding synergy but a lot of these new players (Barry, Dibling, Röhl, Aznou etc) have barely featured as Moyes seems loathe to tinker with lineup and formation. And to be fair to him when he did name a much altered lineup in the cup few players if any made a case for themselves.

The recruitment was strange. We bought more wingers who want to cut inside despite having no overlapping full backs and more players who want to keep hold of the ball and play it around despite having no forwards who excel in linking play.

Andy Duff

35 Posted
27/10/2025 at
08:27:53

Grealish isn’t the problem it’s the players around him. Mykolenko offers nothing going forward he gets no support. The strikers in the middle do I have to say more. He somehow still managed the assists he did despite this. Put better players with him and you’ll see his quality. I was at the game yesterday and he was trying to tell his team mates to move etc. You would not see this if you watched on telly

Ryan Holroyd

36 Posted
27/10/2025 at
08:44:43

Agree Grealish isn’t the problem as such but he should have scored yesterday to put us one up which seems to get brushed under the carpet.

Also one of his ‘assists’ was passing the ball 5 yards to James Garner.

We definitely miss Branthwaite and Calvert Lewin on set pieces Jerome.

Mike Doyle

37 Posted
27/10/2025 at
08:51:01

Jim #33] I think you sum it up quite nicely.
The teams we are up against will all have figured out how we play – and that we have zero pace and limited finishing capability in the team.
I fear we’ll see repeats of yesterday as the season progresses – not helped by Ndiaye and Gana disappearing for a few weeks.

Anthony Dove

38 Posted
27/10/2025 at
08:52:32

O’ Brian is a good defender but when you look at
Porro yesterday you realise how important it is
to have full backs with pace who can be extra
attackers.

Colin Glassar

39 Posted
27/10/2025 at
09:04:35

We have become stale in team selections and tactics and we’re still only in October.

Moyes need to shake things up a bit, be a bit more creative and risky. Try and out wit opponents because that’s what they are doing to us.

Tony Abrahams

40 Posted
27/10/2025 at
09:05:24

I’m just glad I gave my ticket away yesterday because I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days.

The more things change the more they just stay the same, with most of our play going through our two wingers, with teams just doubling up on them.

I thought Gueye, was as bad as I’ve ever seen him, with Dewsbury Hall, playing his normal game. His normal game keeps him on the pitch every week because we simply have a manager who is reluctant to change, imo.

Dwight McNeil, is not a world beater but he’s been a decent player for Everton, and yet he has been completely banished, so when I watch Grealish, bringing defenders towards him and flicking it into the space, I often scratch my head and think that would have been perfect for a player who has probably/definitely got the best shot in the squad.

I could go on but what’s the point, because anything that is said, is often jumped on as a criticism of our manager, who can hopefully steady the ship and bring stability, to a set of fans that are absolutely desperate for a tiny little bit of success.

Marc Hints

41 Posted
27/10/2025 at
09:14:37

#26 Ian – good team except I would now give Barry a run of games instead of Beto and change Keane and have O’Brien at the back with Tarkowski