 Welcome to Toffy TV, obviously in the last few weeks there's been a massive uptaining form for Everton, even though some people haven't noticed, which has led us to the verge of the European places, or in the home for the European places, let's just say. Leave it at that, yes. Now obviously there's been, with the uptaining form, there's been an uptaining of individual performances, namely Mason Hallgate, Dominic Calvin Lewin, and in just general play, but we just thought we'd have a little chat about, you know, certainly, certainly Mason Hallgate has started. What was weird was, going into January, there was a bit of talk, certainly, that Mason Hallgate could be on the radar of a few teams below Everton, like a Newcastle, like a Bournemouth, and there's a couple of others in there. Obviously his contract is hopefully getting sorted out now. You know, it's mad the way to turn around, hasn't it, for him? I mean, there's a story this week saying that Everton would have sold them in August if they would have got K2M, which we don't, you know, whether that's right or wrong is up for the big, but for 10 million quid, because there's inquiries from Bournemouth and teams like Sheffield United as well, there's another one. You know, and then when you think of that now, you know, obviously West Brom inquired about him, and knocked that back because he'd had a good season of West Brom. You look back now, I think. I imagine if we had sold them for like 9 million or something, because you think, well, he's not playing anyway. Now, the talk in, you know, England, because that's how good this form's been. So it shows you that players, particularly ones that are unknown quantities, because I think he was an unknown quantity, he's been here for a number of years now, Mason. We were still like, is he going to be able to do it? You know, a member of us doing a live show in about October, and we were like, do we throw him in, because Michael Keane's not playing, but may as well throw him in, because Keane's just not playing well, and we'll know then. And he's come in alongside Jerry Meadar, and they had a face choice partnership. It's weird, isn't it? Because I remember earlier on the season, we were talking about Keane, and we were all talking about having to bring somebody in, and the club had basically said, well, we're bringing somebody in, it doesn't matter. A lot of talk about Zuma. And it was weird how there wasn't that. You know, when some people say some things, and you just go, no, that couldn't happen. Not couldn't happen, but you know, you just go, no, you dismiss it, the idea of it, because it is unlikely. And it was one of those things that I'll just put a whole gate in there, like, no, you can't do that. And then when he came in for the Sheffield Wenzie game, he looked a little bit ropey. And it was almost like Michael Keane played himself out of the team, rather than Holgate forcing his way in. But once Holgate got into the team, and has stayed in the team through those performances, he's not looked back, and now his general performances are, you know, sevens out of ten every week. OK, he's had a couple of dodgy moments, of course, he has. He will have, all centre backs will. There's not many, you know, and they're classed as the very, very best. But for me, he's just come on leaps and bounds this season, and the way he, the confidence he exudes as a player, I think is so important to not only the players around them, but the fans as well. Cos he's got that kind of calmness, I think. And, you know, there's a lot of talk at the moment about a certain centre back who plays on me, as he said. And he sort of exudes that as well. I'm not saying making Holgate on par with him, but it is that calmness, I think. Because when you're a fan and you watch players, and they're erratic, and you go... Cos that's what we said about Yeri Meir in the first season was, he looks to go play, but he's got those Bambi on ice legs. And even though he's taken that around, that was one of the things. I mean, you know, in the summer, we were talking to different people about it, and going... We said about Michael Keane, oh no, yeah, Michael Keane's doing great, but I'm not sure about that meanie. And it's weeks, Michael Keane, you know what I mean? It's just a far better player, and a better defender, Michael Keane. And yes, he still has those legs, but now that we got used to them, we don't find that a problem. And I think with Mason Holgate, he's got that as well, he just takes you to that confidence, that you've forgiven the odd mistake, because most of the time he just has that calmness. The defenders will, like you just said, the defenders will make mistakes, and ultimately, or a lot of times, it leads to a good opportunity for a goal, and then you're required to keep it to get you out of trouble. But Holgate has, he's had, listen, a couple of moments like 10 on his back on Delhi Ali trying to tackle him the wrong way, and they've ended in a goal, and one of, you know, he should have done better with the Norwich goal at home, and less the second goal. But in general, he's been excellent through playing games, and the more experience he gets, the more he'll cope with those moments as we go forward. I mean, the loan at West Brom did him the well, because he said himself this week, I think it was or last week, he was the best thing he ever did making that decision, because Evan didn't really want to let him go. I think the most important thing about that is though, is that, and this is where we're probably found with the improvement of certainly him and Dom is, is that if you do make mistakes, and you are a young player, and then the next week you find yourself out of the team, you don't get a chance to rectify those mistakes. Or learn from mistakes away, and when you come back in, there might be a little bit of rustiness and people go, oh, he hasn't learned, so he's still that same player. But I suppose the one thing that does benefit you from going on loan, is you will learn. And the following week, you know, we've seen it with John Joe over in Chelsea, you know, one week he got an absolute chasing against Bayern Munich earlier on the scene, and then the next week he played, and it wasn't a case of, oh, you're out of the team, the next one's coming in, we can't, we can't. It was like at Schelcher, he's been giving the assurances that he's going to be in all season, and I think he actually, he actually missed the cup game this week because he is a first teamer. Like that kind of, that kind of thing. And then we're, and that's the big, that's been the most important thing we're making in Hallgate is, the manager's probably just looked at him and gone, you're a first teamer mate. You will, don't make too many of those mistakes laying in front of him, but you're a first teamer. And I think that's been, that's been the big leap for him and Dom this season. Yeah, definitely. Once you feel like, it took him games to settle in, Hallgate, and so that's, I think I actually angled enough to be in here, but now he's settled in, you would look at him and go. People are saying, well, he's great, he can add a play defence on midfield now, because Tint Bergus can put him in midfield against United, and we've seen him go into that role a couple of times in games and just step straight into it. We've done it last week at Wafford, when Delft got sent off, he just went in midfield and was excellent there. So, I think that belief, he has that belief in him. We've seen it last year when he was on loan, you know, megging people and then kicking people and saying who are you and all that. You know, he's got that little bit of self-belief, we've seen it with the Firmino incident that I'm fielding the cup a couple of years ago, you know, we've stood up and he exudes that what he had to do was back that up with performance, so that people kind of went, I'll allow you to have that little bit of arrogance now because you can play well, you can perform. And he's done it in a time when it's been tabulant for everything with Silver losing games and then losing the manager and then a caretaker manager taking over then Carlo Antioati coming in. And he's gone right through that consistently, like you said, you can almost hang your hat on him. So, he's made an incredible start in the season, much to the talk of the new contract now when people are like, we've got to get inside now and there's a big talk that he may be included in the England squad. That's for him, not for us. No, no, Evertonians always have mixed feelings with that. I think it does him good if he was just included in a squad on him, he was back hard again for a bit because I think that's always that recognition. I don't think he needs to be included in the England squad because it's not like it's the second season and he's been saying that he's getting over it. I think it's proved playing for everything you do get in, but he's had the great time. He's had the great time. We'll see what happens. And obviously, Dom as well, he's getting the plot that's now, he's getting mentioned for England with their lack of, you know, with strikers being out for him, but he's another one. Ever since Duncan came in and basically said, you know, we're playing two up front and that's been the big thing, hasn't it? Having two strikers instead of one and when you've only got three strikers really at the club, suddenly it becomes a lot easier. And he is at Old Fashion Centre forward who suits playing as a target man with that player off and whereas before he was running, he was chasing and he was after lost causes, but he was never in the box. And suddenly now he's in the box. He's not snatching the chances, I don't think. He's not snatching the chances for the start. So when chances come, he's having a little bit more time and composure on them. And then the other side of his game is that I think he is also the kind of striker that walks off after the game. And if he hasn't scored, he'll have wanted to score. But as long as he's played well and done something for the team and the team has won, he's quite happy with his game. You've seen him on Saturday against Waffer at the end, you know, what it meant to him. He wasn't great, he wasn't brilliant, but he also helped win the corner for the first goal. And it's like little things like that that he started ladding to his game with, like you just said he's affecting it now. I think the thing with him was under the previous system, with Silva, and towards the end of Cuman and whenever Aladise played him, just one up front show, he just was never in the right place because it's very difficult to go and win the ball and then get older and knock it wide and get back in the middle. I mean, we talked to Kevin Campbell the other week about it, and he was saying he was doing all the good work outside the box, he was never in the box, which was always my concern with him in criticism. He's not in the right place, you're our striker, no good to being out in the wing or midfield. And now he's got someone alongside him to shade the load. He's getting into those areas, and like you said, cos he's getting more opportunities. He's not snatching at things anymore, so he's not going to score all the time, but he's getting shots away, and we've seen him have half a dozen shots in a couple of games this season, which is a lot for him. He used to go six games without a shot, so it's big improvements, and with that we've seen him score goals. I think the big evidence of that is from last season, towards the end of the season last season he had a great run in terms of games. Maybe not scoring but games. But when we went away from home, he'd never looked the same, and he was missing chances because we were playing away and we weren't committing as many men forward. But when we were playing at home, obviously we were doing a lot of flickhons, doing a lot of good work in the air, holding up the ball, allowing them to like sort of charlotson and the full backs and zigotson to drive forward. But when we were away we never took those chances, cos we were playing one up front. So he was snatching the chances and there was times that they like to fall them in Crystal Palace where he really should have scored goals. But that was highlighted because we weren't getting any other chances. So this season I think he's all round game, and again like we said about Hoggate, that confidence of being, he decided to take the number nine shot. He was in and he was out and he was in. Even after the ballmuff game when he scored, I think he was out the next game. Yeah, he was dropped the next game. He didn't even get on. When we played Sheffield United, he didn't even come off. Exactly, and I think we had 4-4-2 in that game as well till the end. So the manager didn't have a clue what was the best system. And I think that always helps, it goes against you if the manager doesn't know the best system has always had a set or something, it's not going to help the players. So, and again, since Duncan came in, given more coaching, I think, Duncan taken the coaching, putting the aggression into him, belief into him, saying to him, you'll play every game. You will play every game, so stop worrying. Again, take that factor away of, stop worrying about playing, you're playing next week. Relax and start playing this game. And, you know, we've seen him come on so much with that, I think, as well, that confidence I think. Leave some bounds, you know, he's linked with a move to Manchester United and by anyone who wants to go to United, it's beyond me, but he's been linked with a move away and evidently it's all going to seem like we've had a new contract on all that. And he's improved one of the most, I would say, in our squad over the last 12 to 18 months, really gone up levels because it was big, you know. People still say he's a champion to play, which is bizarre because he's a brilliant centre forward. 10 goals in the Premier League? 10 Premier League goals, yeah. That's not easy. That is not easy? No, when he's in about, I don't know why, when he starts, but there's a lot of times you've knocked the team early in the season, so he's done incredible. And he's played 100 Premier League games as well? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the thing about it is it's improving every season. You know, six goals, eight goals, you've got 10 now, so he keeps going. You know, that's the trajectory you want. You don't want a great start to tell off. I just think having another centre forward up there helps him. Having someone like Richard Charles up there who does a load of work as well, the pair of them working tandem. It's a nightmare for people and then you've got Dom's abilities. And I think, I don't think we make the most of his abilities. No, not all the time. I think he's great at running in behind if we give him the opportunity. We don't tend to do that with him, but he's proved he can do it. And also, our delivery's into the box. He's great in the air, so let's, you know, let's wrap it up. We've been changing the angle of where he comes from, especially with Sadibi. He tends to bring them in from the edge of the box rather than from the bar. So, where it's coming back and you've got to meet it, he's putting them in way centre forwards coming up to them. And we've seen that with Richard Charles and we've seen that with Dominic Harvill. Anyone else sort of caught you like, I mean, mwys Keane lately has been improved with games again. Yeah, he's been much improved over the last month, definitely. And he looks like a handful now. I mean, he was heavily involved in the winner of the weekend against Wafford. And I love, I think I love more than that was his hold-up play at the end in the corner flag trying to win the game. And I like that because of what happened to the game before. It's like he struck it on and kind of understand that lesson. Let's not do that again. So I think he's going to really be a handful. Yeti Mina, you mentioned that before. He was ravaged with injury last year. I think he only played 15 games all season. But I think this year, I still think he's been the most consistent player all season. I think Holgate has been glittering lately with his performances. But Mina for me has been our best player this season for the simple reason that he's got in and he's took that by command. Other players haven't played as well, but we've seen a real uptane in the likes of Bernard's form since Angelotti coming as well. But then again, he wasn't even getting a pitch last week and he's been speaking this week about how he's calm. The manager wants me to do this and he wants me to do that. So that's more because of Bernard's role has changed. Not going down the byline and then now with him coming inside more and actually being that playmaker, that number 10. Well, he got into double figures for Shakhtar doing that and we saw in the last game he played, which was Newcastle. He got the stand on the basin and all that because he was brilliant that night. He had four or five shots I think in that game. One of the things we've said for Aida just doesn't shoot. He gets the opportunity and looks to pass where against Newcastle. He should have scored one of them with a brilliant move and he'd think they're over the keeper. But if he can do that more, he'll be more of a handful again. His game will go up another level. I think other players are there or there about. Form's got a little bit better. Some players still haven't reached the heights like Llyfridine and that, but if you're looking through the team. The big one is always Tom Davis. When you're talking about Paul Gaetan and Calvert Lewis, there's two young lads who've really took their opportunity. Tom again seems to be trefwing water. You're still sitting there going. He's played a lot of games, only 21 still. So he is only young but he's had a lot of Premier League games. Do you think now, and I think we've already mentioned this on maybe a couple of videos this week, do you think now is that time that maybe when you look at his progression you say maybe now you do need to go on loan now. You've played a lot of games. You've hit a bit of a wall. You've got good players ahead of you and maybe for the best of everyone. I'm not talking about leaving the club and knocking them back, but maybe for the best of everyone trying to find them. That move like John Joe Kenny, where you can go away and cement some kind of position, play for a year. Get a bit of form. Don't forget he's had a good run this season. He played for the under 21s a couple of times for England. But man of the match coming to the evidence team and had a decent run of form and we were really short on players and people were going, this is Tom Davis. And then we had a lot of games at once over Christmas. He went back in and out the side and then suddenly when he started coming on the pitch he was snatching at things and he wasn't getting into games. I think that's Tom's biggest problem that when he comes off the bench he doesn't get into games. I think he's really come on in at the right position now either. When he comes off the bench he's shewned into going straight. The likes of Newcastle played off the left against Manchester City away and it's not his position. But I see Tom as a long term squad player that's part of the Everton squad. He's not someone I'd be looking to sell. I think he's got something most definitely good enough to be an Everton player, but there's no consistency with him. And I think the problem is when you're a player with no consistency, it's how you get in the team. So you look at the Everton squad and say well, obviously now you couldn't because we're late, but in the summer just say for argument and say go Mesa's fit and Cabaman's fit. And they go on by another midfielder and Delft's there. All of a sudden he's number five. And you know what else he needs? He needs that little bit of magic that all players get when they're not playing. Little bit of. Little bit of. I mean, I made it recently about more message. We need to get more message back. It's that little bit of the playing wealth. The playing for someone else and the playing well in everyone's life. But I think the thing with him is he's not, for me, just my opinion. I don't think he's going to develop just training every day and then playing one game every five. I really don't. I think he's always going to be what he is. And so I'm talking about his whole development for Everton football. But not for to sell them. So I wouldn't move on. I'd like him to go to, I don't know, Shelcha maybe, if Kenny stays or something. And Wagner goes, yeah, I'll have him thanks for a year on loan. And go and play in front of 60,000 people every week and go up and down the Bundesliga and get used to playing and staying in the team. Someone else. Because I think Wagner is very good at younger players. So I think if Everton could somehow get a deal for him to go to Shelcha on loan, I think it'd be brilliant for Andy Flainbley. It'd be brilliant for him. And then Everton can assess him properly then. And then he comes back. Say he has a good season at Shelcha. He comes back to Everton with some gravitas. I've just been excellent for Shelcha all season. I'd like to get in there. It's like you've just bought me from a European club and I want to compete now. And that level of form might mean he fits into an evidence that A is calmer than when he left it because it's under the stewardship of Antelotti. And B, there might be a role for him then when he comes in. Because I just think if he keeps going the way it is, I don't know how he's going to force his way into the team. I can't really. Because he never quite grabs all the opportunities. I actually said when we got all the injuries, like October time or November time, I actually remember saying when Gomez got injured. I actually said, well now I said Holgate, Dominic Arrellun and Tom Davis. If they can't get in this team now, they will never get in this team. Tom and Holgate have got in it and stayed in it. Tom hasn't. And he doesn't have the trust of the fans and our fans. There'll always be that section of the park and that. No, there'll always be a section of fans that will always say is not good enough. And the problem is that the longer that goes on, there's going to be more truth to it because he isn't developing. So I really hope that the club do start looking now and saying, right, this is for you. This is for you. That's what I'm saying. You've come into football earlier. You've sort of, it's a brick wall, but we just want, we think it might be in your... And do you know what? It wouldn't surprise me if it was somewhere like James, Tom would probably grab all that with two hands and go, I'll have a bit of that. Go round taking pictures of the Berlin Wall and stuff while he's there. Do you know what I mean? He's like, you grab all that with two hands and go, you know what? This is a new experience. This is something different. I've got no problem. And I think the fact that Jon Jo's had such a good sign there as well. Now Kenny, we don't know whether he'll come back and be Everton's right back. But he's given himself an opportunity. And it'll help Everton because if we do sell him, we'll get decent money for him. But he's had a great experience. Now we might look and go, I just want to stay at Selchert because it's great. And playing team every big great crowd. It's great. And we've just seen Auntie Evans leave the under 23 years. Is he older than Tom Davis? So we've just seen Auntie Evans leave. He's gone to part of Bond. Okay, he was on the bench for the first game, but he'll play games. He'll play games. And so for someone like Tom, I know Jamie is the big thing at the moment and they do seem to like the idea of bringing in young English players. But I think something like that would work. I think it would suit everybody. And for Tom just to get a year under this belt of football and just get back to enjoying football and getting back to just improving, just getting better. I think that's what's happened. He's hit a wall. If you're playing every week, your decision making becomes quicker. And that's the one thing you've got to do in the Premier League. You see him in the Premier League. He goes past someone like they're not there. And then he hesitates and then he ends up trying to go past the second fella and ends up falling over. Or getting the ball taken off and where he needs to lay to go by the first fella, pop it off, maybe get it. Cos when he's playing his first time, that's when he's at his very best. And we noticed that when he come into the team, haven't played well for England, the West Ham game at home, remember? He was outstanding and everything was forward and he was good. And for a few weeks he was on that upward trajectory cos the team was doing OK, a little bit of an uplift. And then once we hit a brick wall, he got sloppy at Leicester and ended up conceding the two goals. I always think with Tom as well, it's always who he's playing next to as well. Like when he's playing on the front foot, I think there's a massive difference. But suddenly when you put him next to someone who also plays it, I mean, when we played Leicester, the midfielders. Suddenly you're asking him to be the defender. See him with Ghana, would have been Sam cos Ghana wouldn't have been able to go forward. In with someone like Gomez, was Sam against West Ham cos Gomez protected the ball. In with someone like aigabaman, I can't say gabaman because we've not seen enough of him. But someone of that mould who's pacey and can get around a pitch. Davis would be fine with putting him next to Snidel and Sigurdson and Delth maybe. It's just not going to work for him because he isn't quick enough. So what he has to do is get his game up a level where he's popping it off quicker. Do you pass the ball quicker, then? If you haven't got the pace to go beyond players, speed the game up. And I think he can play that way, but it's a confidence thing. What he finds is the less confidence he has, the longer he takes to make a decision. Hence why he loses the ball and he's breaking on us so. I think it'd be a perfect thing. I mean, that's a big thing for three lads who've come. I know we both, Mason Holgate, we both called it loon. But they were in our academy during that 23s rather. For three players to come out of the 23s and be in this squad now. And John Jo, of course. The other two have really grabbed their opportunity and Tom's been letting them. Well, I hope that drives him on. I hope that drives him on to want it because he's a great lad. He's a brilliant lad, brilliant Evertonian and we want him to do well. And with Anthony Gordon there as well, pushing. You know, pushing. Talking to the German teams, wanting players. He might be on that benefit from a year as well. Cos he's so young. I don't know, I think for us as a fans, we'll want to see. Well, he's in. We'll just finish now. But Anthony Gordon's interesting because he's in with the first team every day. He feels like he's part of that. And now he wasn't on the 18 at the weekend, but he feels like he's there. So they will have a decision to make in the summer. Putting him back in the 23s next year. It's a waste of time. Absolutely waste of time. So we had the ghost to somebody like Germany. We want to take him on loan or each part of Everton. We need to buy shares in a team in Germany. We need to buy. I know we can't 50% no lie. We need to get a relationship with someone in Germany and start sending these players over. Or Hall and play a lot of young players, but I think that obviously the Bundesliga is much tougher. Cos you're playing better opposition aren't you? One week you're playing someone, but the next week you're playing a Dortmund. You're playing in Munich. It will be interesting Saturday, because it will be wonderful. So I wonder if Everton will come up against. The Scouts, James and David. The Scouts, David. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Let us know if there's anyone else you think has improved massively this year. I mean, yet he means improved because he's actually playing football. So let us know your thoughts in the comments. Give us a comment. Give this video a like. Subscribe if you haven't already. And if you want more great videos, join us over on Patreon. The links in the description. See you later.