Last night turned out to be a decent night for Everton fans at Goodison Park as goals from Gylfi Sigurdsson and a Dominic Calvert-Lewin brace gave us a 3-1 victory over Rotherham United to book our place in the third round of the EFL Cup.
Ahead of the game, it was a different story as a number of fans lost their marbles slightly over the decision to include Sandro Ramirez in the starting lineup given the speculation that he would complete a move away from the club ahead of the transfer window completely closing, as covered previously.
Another topic for debate was what prompted manager Marco Silva to hand 20-year-old Tom Davies the captain’s armband for the evening given his recent performances for the side.
Davies should not be the captain, that is another ridiculous decision by Silva. He's only 20, played only 70 top flight games and was easily the worst player on the pitch last weekend. Not against him playing tonight but as skipper, with so many other better options? Poor. #EFC
— Paul McAllister (@p_mcallister123) August 29, 2018
How's about you just support the manager instead of pretending you know what you're on about?
— Crypto (@CryptoOnToast) August 29, 2018
Can’t see anyone else on that pitch that would be a better captain and you don’t know what type of character he is off the pitch
— Samuel (@samuelpeart) August 29, 2018
Coleman was the worst player on the pitch last week.
— Craig Tyrer (@CraigTyrer) August 29, 2018
I am ????♂️
— owen (@owenshaw1878) August 29, 2018
Is this a joke? He shouldn't even be in the squad.
— Mr Dominic (@DominicXIV) August 29, 2018
Time for Davies to step up and show us he can play, captains arm-band, lesser opposition there’s no excuses for him tonight. #efc
— Dave Pallett (@pally111) August 29, 2018
With plenty of fans unconvinced by Davies despite his early promise it would’ve been a huge honour for him so I can only assume that Silva was looking to give him a boost to try and push him on further and improve his own displays this year.
Admittedly the above reactions are from the news being announced, and Davies did improve in the second period – he was alone amongst the youngsters – but whether that was enough to change anyone’s minds is not for me to say but he did have his supporters.
I think I’m still in the camp where a break and a loan spell might do him the world of good and give him some breathing room, but it seems Silva certainly rates his potential and plenty are fine with that.