Rob Vera

But, you know, the set piece thing, that comes back to James Garner, who, you know, yes, he won Player of the Season last year.

I think I mentioned this on the podcast I did with Rob Vera over the break, is that I'm just not seeing enough of him playing.

from an attacking standpoint, and that means that when, and I know how this is going to go, when Norgard is fit, it's going to be Norgard and Garner, and you're going to have two central midfielders there, neither one of whom, and you can also add Harrison Armstrong, who has been great at the energy he provides, he breaks up play, he likes to drive forward, but he's not a creative central midfielder either.

he may eventually become one perhaps with more experience but he's not going to score goals or create goals so you've got three of them there who are you know energetic and they're good at breaking up play but when it comes to the final third of the pitch all three of those players are found wanting because it's just not enough from James Garner and it's really been my criticism of him ever since he joined really is that We thought we were getting this, I don't know who to compare him to, really.

Thank you, RJ.

Rob Vera says, a couple of scattered preseason thoughts.

Hi, folks.

Halfway done with the preseason, and I thought I'd share a few thoughts on what's transpired so far.

Remarkably, but there's still a lot of disgruntlement, unhappiness, a lot of mixed feelings around today.

I'd like to say joining me to pick through what was a weird game are Les and Rob.

Les, I just said to you guys before we hit record, we'll go live there even, that I simultaneously want to throttle all of them today and also give them a big hug for doing quite well and being fifth in the league after what was a bit of a mess of a summer.

That sort of game where...

I think we said on previous pods, it's our best start since Ancelotti's first season, which I don't think any of us would reasonably have been expecting in the summer, given the way that went.

So I'm very frustrated about today and I'm sure we'll pick up on this soon.

But me and Rob were just talking off air before we started about the way playing Brantwaite at left-back kind of knocked everything out of place.

It was a very, very needless change.

Hello Blues, welcome back to the one-on-one series of the Evertonia podcast where I, Lyndon Lloyd, invite on another member of the Toffee community to discuss any and all things Everton.

It's been quite a while since I've done one of these, but I'm delighted to be joined today on the line from Oklahoma by Rob Vera.

I imagine that on the Venn diagrams of Everton.

A, people who listen to the Evertonia podcast and frequent social media, or B, listen to this podcast and also enjoy the Blue Room.

What could go wrong? I

know.

But let's start with the Rob Vera Everton story.

I know when you started following Everton, which is what, 2006, right? Oh, four.