 Welcome to Toffy TV, it is the match preview Everton vs Legionite at Gullison Park Saturday's 3 o'clock in simply what is a must win game for Everton. 17 matches to go this season, Everton in a very precarious situation and it's a must win game as far as I'm concerned. You are, you're nailing that aren't you? Now it's a listen, it's a, the other week it was, we've got half a season to go, there's 18 games to go and now there's seven so we've lost four games on the run and it has to stop this weekend. It's a hugely difficult fix yet, these are, they run around like loons and they're so dangerous. They're wide open as well, watch them a filler, they give you chances but they work so hard they never ever give up. It's going to be a hugely difficult game but we've got to use the cloud and everything because you're right we've got to simply start getting points. Yeah listen, the reason I'm making that point is I keep on seeing people say we've got 17 games to go and it'll be fine and this. It has to start somewhere doesn't it and the losing run has to end somewhere. What we all need is, look at last Saturday the feel good factor that we got off beating Brentford, everyone felt so much better, everyone felt like there was hope going forward. Then you go to Newcastle and suddenly you're back on the floor again injuries and losing the game in the way that we did to a team that were just below us. Now we're playing a team that are just above us, we have to start winning games of football. We keep looking round, looking at other people's results going on, I hope they don't win, I hope they don't win. That doesn't matter if we win our games and if we can bring our leads into it, if we can bring our Brentford into it and drag them into the mix. Because that's what Newcastle are going to try and do, that's what Norwich are going to try and do, that's what Wofford and Burnley want to dream of doing. We've got an opportunity with 17 games left to get ourselves out of that, but it doesn't happen by just saying it, it doesn't happen by just saying we've got 17 games to go. We have to actually start winning games of football. If we want to be truly safe we have to win a third of our games. This is a team that has won one since October, so we have to start really affecting things. Because as you just said there you don't win this game, then you have to get six wins out of 16 games and then the next game is Southampton away and then it's Tottenham and then it's Man City. And then suddenly you're going oh my god we've got to get six wins from 14 games and that's what I'm saying. There has to be a realisation that it has to start somewhere and it has to start now and for me that means that ultimately there's got to be an agency and the agency's got to come from the fans. We know this, we've heard, there's a lot of people who don't matter already. Saturday has to become an absolute bear pit of goodness and the atmosphere has to be intense, we have to get on the lead players backs, we have to back the evident players. We really have to make it intense so that they start making mistakes and our players hopefully can flourish into it and hopefully what that says as well is that sets the tone that our players start feeling that when they're playing at home they're going to be backed. And listen, if the result doesn't necessarily go the way we want it on Saturday but we see the desire and we see the effort and it's something we can get behind then let's make it feel at least like our players feel at home comfortable like they were against Brentford and relaxed and going to play the game in a more relaxed nature that leads you to score a few goals. And that's where something I can't overemphasise is that we have to understand the agency of the situation now and start getting those wins and obviously for me that starts on Saturday. Yeah, I don't disagree with any of it even though I do look at it and go try to look at a big picture and have some perspective because sometimes I think, I think it happens to be said next end of the night, everything was put on it almost like this is all or nothing now. If we don't get something, you can't go with that and it isn't the case but you're absolutely right, you have to start somewhere because each week that goes by the window for error gets smaller and smaller and smaller. We all want to get wins quickly so that we can breathe because we want to look forward but we do have to, on the back of that we do have to keep a little bit of perspective and say that the manager has only been in a week. I've got to give them time to understand these players, the coaching staff, there's a temptation to go, we've won one game since October, it's 27, 25th of September wasn't it, won one league game and that is fact, these players, albeit different players and injuries but that's the fact, that's what's in front of us but this coaching staff and manager have only won one game since then. So there's new things that they've got a luck, there's things they might be able to bring out that get us a bit more points but ultimately when they cross the white line those players have got to stand up and be confident. Do you want to be part of history by taking this team down and having your name on it, 68 years I think, do you want to be in that team? When these players, if they play to their full potential would be more than good enough to keep everything safe easily. However it's easy being technically great, it's great being boss and training one league to Friday, we can't do it on a Saturday, then maybe you're not that good at all, maybe you are relegating further. So it's up to them now, we've got to play our part and we will and I think, I don't trust them players on their own, I don't trust that they've got the mental fortitude to drag us out of trouble so it is going to be on us, we've got nine home games. For me six of them are very winnable, it doesn't mean they're easy because they're not, Saturday will be anything but easy but the winnable games and what I mean, people have got any games winnable of course it is but nine home games should put all of your future in your own hands. If Everton can really pick up the home form and it hasn't been great in these last 12 months but we have to start it somewhere and the fans will have the help to do that but the players have got to go out now and realise that you can't keep, I think what you're saying is we can't keep putting it off going. Well, by the middle of March we'll be alright, we've got to go now, get the win now, like you say, pull Leeds closer to us, pull Brentford closer to us, move away from Norwich and Burnley and go right, go to Southampton next week and we can't get something there and that's what you have to start doing but continuing game by game, losing, losing, four defeats on the run and I went into those four games looking at going we can get ourselves into a good position after these four games where we can't breathe and we've lost all four games. Brentford, you normally don't get it any easier so it is a case of now or never, start now, put the foundations in now that are going to carry you through for the rest of the season and carry you to be able to get to the summer and go, we're still a Premier League team and allow Frank Lampard and his coaching staff to go right now, we can plan. Because in the long term, what Frank Lampard and his coaching staff are going to be putting across is obviously a different message and doing things slightly different and that will take time. We saw that from the weekend in Tuesday's game with the weekend where he wanted to play the football, it worked because Brentford didn't pull his under pressure but then suddenly Newcastle did pull under the pressure, you could see the mistakes were happening by trying to play it round. So you've got to keep the philosophy what you want to play but it's the other side of the game for me, when a new manager comes in you expect a bounce, you expect to get some kind of bounce and that comes from a freshness, that comes from new ideas, that comes from a new perspective. We've got to gather that bounce, not just the one game in the FA Cup, that has to start in the Premier League because otherwise as I said we're going to put ourselves in more and more pressure and that means Saturday, we know what leads are going to do, they're going to work hard, they're going to under miles an hour stuff. Dan James was playing up front for them against Villet, so it's a little bit something different, he's going to stretch them with his pace and you know they're going to be under miles an hour so we've got to match that and we've got to be clever and then we've got to expose the gaps that they'll leave which they do leave. They're only four points above us, they're only just above us on the table, it's not like they're absolutely flying but you know you've got to match them and you know you've got to be up for it. That's where I think a positive crowd on Saturday would make such a huge difference is the fact that players will hopefully feel a little bit more relaxed but as I said the stakes are huge and everything has got to start understanding. I think the manager understands he's sitting himself in a relegation battle because we are but we've got to start reacting within games to the situations that are going on within the games and I find that almost the biggest crime of these players is what they lack technically which a lot of them do. So you know you can make up for that in having you know reading the situation of the game and understanding where you're being maybe pulled apart in the game or where you're not working as hard as the opposition and step it up and that's where leaders and characters and you know have to come to the forefront who's going to drag us through this. After 15 minutes I was down for one of our players to grab hold of the game and grab hold of the team and say calm down. You're playing to the way these want you to play. You're rushing everything and it's getting these going and it's getting the crowd going. Where's the leaders? You're saying let's settle down. Play at our pace not their pace. I think on Saturday we're going to need that. We're going to need that you know in spades. We're going to need characters to stand up for us because obviously you know we're not going to have our first choice team. We're not going to have our first choice centre back partnerships for you know a month. It's not the midfield make up is going to be new again. You know it's going to be difficult for us. But we've got to like you just said it's a honking. We should be throwing everything at it. Everything at it and do these players understand where they are? Do you understand how critical it is? Do you understand that? You know this is heaven football club. You shouldn't be in the bottom five. You know never mind anything else. You should be striving for European football. Striving to be the best. And I know that's not always possible. There's always teams that can be better than you. That should be your aim. That should be your aim and that only comes with it. Working hard. Working and realising that we are in it. We are in the mix. We are in a mess. And we've got to start picking up points by hook or by crook. And that's the top and bottom of it. I think if we can. We can't say in the season around. We've seen teams do it before. You know I remember and I know people will say well they have different players and they have characters and I absolutely would agree with that but we've seen a situation where Leicester looked like they were gone and ended up going on an incredible run. I'm not saying I would do that of course. But what I'm saying is sometimes in desperate situations teams are able to just start putting runs together. That pulls them clear. We've had experience of this before. You know David noise took over with nine games to go when we were in. It looked like we were gone. To be honest we had nothing. And he somehow managed to galvanise them enough to get them over the line and he built friendly then. We've seen other times where it was Kevin Campbell that inspired us when we were gone. You know remember. It's still imprinted on my brain that Sheffield Wednesday came around when he took our bonus goods too. You know and I thought we're done. We are gone. You know it was just we had nothing. We just were flat. We had absolutely nothing and we ended up staying up. You know Campbell got important goals. We stayed up with the last day of the season against Conti. You don't want to go anywhere near that because obviously our last game was awesome anyway. We don't want to go there needing something. But we have to realise it now. We've had the bounce. We've got a new manager in new coaching staff. We proved last Saturday that when the players worked hard and the crowd helped them we swept aside the Premier League side comfortably by four goals someone. For everything we did well on Saturday we did poorly at Newcastle. I still think that game was a little bit of a cup final kind of failure at Newcastle. They made it a cup final. They responded to their fans. They gave the energy. And I've seen people saying if their fans influenced it, only a couple, but people saying well I'm going to have their fans influenced it and they're that good, why are they in the bottom? And it was like because the fans haven't been like that all season, they're energized because they brought players in at a break and realised we were turning up where it was an opportunity to pull us right in the matter and they took it but they still needed an own goal. They still need a deflection to give it to them and they stand the third goal we give them as a go free kick by trivia. So we've got to use that to our advantage and it'll be difficult. Like you said, Leeds are a really difficult team to play against but they're not amazing because if we win they're in the relegation battle with us. So we have to use that to our advantage as well. Newcastle beat Leeds last time before they played Everton at Leeds so it's going to be difficult. The crowd can play a huge part because ultimately it's our club. These players, if Everton get relegated some of them will go off to pastures new. Some of them will leave the club anyway because the contract are up and we'll still be there and we've got to go again and they'll look back and go oh yeah I'll play for Everton but I'll play for whoever. And they move on, we'll be a thing of the past but for us it's real, it's our club. We'd have to go through all the turmoil which we're going to have to do anyway till they get safe then all the summit and then in the championship. I've never seen anything in the championship, neither have you. Neither have loads of Evertones watching this but never have seen anything in the championship. But this is a club who we should heed the thing of that. These were a team that had not long been in a Champions League semi-file and a few years later got relegated because it was a case of the two go to go down, the two go to go down, the two go. Then all of a sudden you're losing games, you should be winning and you're in it. So you're right we've got to wake up right now the players. Us as fans we can do our bit. I still feel like the nine home games is where we can really get safe but Saturday it starts, one of the nine home games because it's one of the six that you'd look and go very winnable at one. But once it's played it's gone, it's away it's gone and if you haven't won you don't start going well there's eight. And you just said it yourself, Newcastle made the other night a cup final because it was such an important game, it was about pulling the team above them down to them and it's exactly the same for us. Exactly the same for us, Newcastle are a point behind us now but if we were to beat Leeds we'd be a point behind them and then they're part of the mix. Yes so they're part of the mix then and we've got to treat it the same way. I just can't have this attitude of well it'll be alright because we've got loads of games left, this is one of the games. So let's make sure that we're on it from the start. I think the fans are going to be fantastic on Saturday. Leeds will come strong with three thousand of them. I think our fans will be right on it. I really do, I think enough Evertronians now that it's about scrapping and I think a lot of people enjoyed last Saturday, they enjoyed being at Goddus and they enjoyed the noise, they enjoyed the singing and it was fantastic and because of that the players really responded. This will be next week but we've sat there and seen these games, we've seen all this before, it's not our first rodeo, we've seen it but the crowd can influence it and I think they will. And again it's going back 20 years now unbelievably but David Moyes' first game, that full-on game which was, you know, we were terrible and we came on that full-on game, the noise obviously he got introduced on the bit, the noise was incredible. We got a man sent off, you know, we got the goal late 27 seconds and don't score, made it sooner but then Graveson got sent off and they scored but the crowd pulled the team through when it wasn't capable of keeping clean sheets. It pulled the team through and we went to Derby the week later and won, which was another tough game and we were four on that one so you can't turn it, you can't turn it but we have to do our bit which we absolutely will do. I know the fans are going to be unbelievable Satie and hopefully the manager and the coaching team because it's their responsibility this week to come up with a way of playing against Leeds. What Leeds last night which they will have done, they will have seen that Leeds give you opportunities every game, they give you five, six, seven good chances a game but they also create a lot so it's a way of how you can try to negate that. Carl-Aman Cialotti did it, Rafa Benitez did it, everything should have won on the road earlier in the season. We did win on the road last season, Leeds were excellent to Goddison so it is a little bit of a flip but the crowd and the players having to work together on Saturday, if we do I'm confident we can get a win but this is going to be a tough game. Probably going to have to go back to a back four aren't we? Absolutely. It's not going to be any Michelin co let's be honest, these are going to be ours. We've lost me in it and we're going to go again with the three. Leeds played four at the back last night so match them up and you know what it might be a Davey for Patterson but at left back. You play for Rangers, you play four games I think for Rangers. Or John Joe at left back. Well if John Joe plays left back I want Patterson at right back and what I'd like to see and I'd be saying to John Joe is don't cross the half way line but he's up against Rafina, it was fantastic. So you just basically do your job, you just do the defensive job, get rid of it. Franck Llympard and his staff may have to sacrifice a little bit of we're going to play through the lines because these pressure like motors. So sometimes we might have to turn it round the corner, we might have to go long to them, we might have to do that because it's all about the now. If we can get safe we can really plan for playing through the lines for next year, not the last few games. Not saying give it up now. No, no. But I'm saying just be a little bit smarter than what we were the other night. We scored the other night and give ball unnecessarily give a goal away. Can't do that at the weekend because the smell blood didn't go for it. So that's all we're going to have to do and there will be changes. Obviously we don't know how bad Damari Gray is. Hopefully he's still got an outside chance of being in the squad. But maybe just if you start on the bench and you put the Charleston into the one of the wide positions, put Dom up front. Well at least you've got a focal point then with Dom, haven't you? And then maybe it might be a case of Deli and Donnie van der Bey coming and take Gomez out. And just be busy in the field. The thing about it is you could go defensively, but then defensively we had Gomez and just Alan. Gomez is terrible defensively. So you're not losing. Donnie van der Bey came for Gomez. In fact you'll get more out of van der Bey because he gets you playing. Deli, get him in the middle and just work his socks. He's played at 4-3-1 last night at Ville. So they only had two holding the fielders as well. They had two sat as well in a double pivot serve. Everton could match that up, which means you've got Deli Alley then breaking. Try and get in to break the lines. But the problem for me why it didn't work the other night, the manager made mistakes the other night with the subs. I thought personally because I thought he should have gone life for life when Deli came on it should have been a winger. Maybe you just don't listen what I've been saying. Listen it could have worked. But I just think what happened was we lost our shape. I think Saturday would be really important for shape. Obviously you've got options off the bench then like Elgarzy we've not seen yet. Might be a different. Just because he's different it might give us a different time to end off the bench rather than playing. So it's going to be tough. Yeah it's going to be tough. It's just a case of, as you said, fans stepping up and hoping the players can do that too. Well if you're a player and you can't support it, you're mad. And now you disagree. I don't think you've got a very good side of it. I don't think they've done any loads the other night that proved it. But what they did, that energy they took from the stands, they went everywhere. And when we saw it like with us to a certain extent last Saturday, when it's noisy and it's energetic and you're on the players back to make that tackle, they go and do it. And that can knock teams out the stride. Ever at the waist when they're just passive and they stand off and all that. And then the crowd lose interest because the players don't look interested. We've got to make it hostile. We make it hostile. Leeds will give you chances because they're open that's the way they play. Yeah let's just look at Leeds' top man. Obviously Raphine has been excellent since he joined the other player. He'll be the kind of player that others hire up the Premier League will be admiring going forward. 20 parents, 20 starts, 8 goals and 2 assists. And he averaged three shots up again. And he did score the winner last year in this fixture. And scored against the Zirell yn Rolff. And scored a great goal of Ellen Bowles. So the first thing is to stop him shooting. Block him off. Cos he is a fantastic player. And he's been carrying a little bit of an injury. He was doubtful and he obviously played the whole game last night. He took him out of the game quite nicely for the Saturday but he's there and you have to cope with him. And in some respects, at least if you know, if you kind of look at it and say that he does this, he does that, you can plan a little bit better maybe than someone coming in. And we'll have to do that because he's a fantastic talent. A type of player I wish we'd have brought. Well he done very well. He's been super forward. Let's just have a look at day 11, last time off as well. Yeah, so see the 4-2-3-1 is whatever it might match you up with. On the other hand, Llucia Ealing, Jarentey, Stroik and Dallis at the back there. So back 4 obviously. And then Cork and Glitch in the double pivot. And then it's those four, Jack Harrison, Rafina in wide areas. And obviously you've got Roger Eagle, who's a more natural striker but the else has played as like a number 10 really. And then obviously the pace of Daniel James and he got himself a couple of goals obviously. Billy is the first one was a cracking goal. So it's, you know, you're going to have to be wary of that because he is lightning. He's lightning Daniel James. I mean the biggest criticism people have from him was his end product. Got himself in but he's had a couple of goals there and he's done all right for Leeds. But I watched him the other week. He won at West Ham the other week. He gave up loads of chances but he got three goals again. So you know that. You know, you're going to have to score a few goals because it's difficult to keep them out at the other end. But I don't know, I think I haven't scored more than them or I haven't certainly conceded less than them. We've not done that with no teams in the Premier League this season. So it's going to be a ding-dong game, I imagine. And they are a good side and we have to be prepared to match them and battle and scrap with them. And if we do, we could get the win and it would be a huge win. Because I see them winning games because of the way they play. So we've got to use this throughout a fantasy. So there you go. Leeds won this exact fixture. And they will last season following a 13-game win this run against Devon before that. Smart, isn't it? I mean, this is the thing. Since the start of 2021, Everton have lost more home Premier League games than any other side. 12. This after having only lost 13 between 2018 and 2020. The trophies lost their opening through home games of 2022. Never previously losing their opening through. Since the returns of the Premier League in 2020, Leeds have lost all of their four away games kicking off at 3pm on the Saturday. Everton have lost each of their last four Premier League games, which is just scandalous, isn't it? Since the start of October, Everton have won fewer points than any other side in the Premier League, six. The trophies have won just one of the 15th. 15 league games and have kept one clean sheet. That's the thing. There's just no clean sheet anyway. It will be Frank Lampard's first home league match in charge of Everton. And Rafina has scored all three of his Premier League appearances. I've scored in all three of his Premier League appearances for Leeds against Everton. The winner in this exact fixture last year, the last Leeds player to score in four against an opponent was Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank. There you go. We didn't know Rafina's brilliant Daniel James as fast and Leeds worked the socks off. It's all stuff that you know. Bielson never changes the way he plays. They fly at you, they leave huge holes at the back. And they're a massive headache for you because you never stop running. Last night he scored in the ninth minute of injury time in the end of the first half. And also, Frank Lampard's got a little bit of needle with these, hasn't he? He has from Spygate, when he came and they were watching Dabi in the trees. So what are you telling me that someone's a Finch fan now in the trees? I don't know, I'm just saying that. Bielson's got a drone. Yeah, because he beat them, didn't he, in the semi-finals of the playoffs as well. Dabi beat them, and obviously he got beaten in the final by Biller, wasn't he? Biller, yeah. So there was a little bit of a thing between them, so that'll be interesting. What was mad was that Bielson done that, didn't he, and then he played them in the game and Leeds won. Made it worse. And then obviously he had the first leg of the playoffs semi at Dabi, and he won the Leeds one again. And it meant obviously Dabi had to go to Ellen Mould up against it and he was brilliant. He beat them 4-2, I think, on the night he was brilliant. And Lampard loved it, but there was a little bit of needle. But he was laughing, and he said it was. He said that, you know. Yeah, I've seen him talking about it and he said he had to act a little bit more outraged than what he was, but he said it was the kind of thing that managers and clubby don't. It's the kind of thing that you know what they've done because they got away with it. So, now, it's all on. Satie. It is. And it's just not. I'd rather the pair of us were battling for a place in Europe where we'd battle like that, and battle on to stay up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just before we finished, Leeds, they'll be thinking where in it they're still going to move away because of the team. Of course they will, but I don't know. I don't know how they would feel their fans, though, because they have been, they were down for a long time, and this is only their second season back. I don't know. I can't presume to say where, you know, towards it's worse, because I don't know how they're back now. They don't want to go back down there. They don't want to feel. But they'll probably be confident that their home games, without a load, with the crowd, that they'll get enough wins. And that's how we have to look at it. We have to look and go, make it hostile, make it horrible, and, you know, we'll see where we're going. And if the worst came to the worst, you keep saying it, don't lose the game. Yeah. Do you know? We need to win, but don't, you know, if everything got a draw, a draw might be. A draw might be. Like the same games, where if you pick up a point, it's going to help you because the teams below us are more likely to pick up the odd point than the odd win. So if we can pick up the odd point and then supplement it with the odd win, then, of course. But, you know, just like a win. We need a win because if we can get the win, we do pull Crystal Palace and Brentford and Leeds all back into it. Exactly. There you go. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Are you optimistic? Are you optimistic for the rest of the season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Don't forget, give this video a like. Subscribe if you haven't already. 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