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Elston Gunnn

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Everything posted by Elston Gunnn

  1. Drury: ".... the nothingness, the void that seems to surround this club right now."
  2. Peter Drury on Leicester and Sunderland celebrations: "Poor old Everton have been the stooges at both."
  3. Cleverely is one of Martinez's "essentials." He and McCarthy are behind only Barry as "essentials," in Barry's case because of his vision, defensive control, passing. I guess in the case of Cleverley and McCarthy it's their work rate, or what Martinez sees as their work rate. Effective movement -- doesn't generally seem so. I assume Mirallas will at times be on the left. Cleverley -- no telling where he'll be. No telling, either, which Lukaku and which Barkley will show up. I expect to be complaining about Bsrkley's over-dribbling and inattentive defense, so I will hope my expectations are not met.
  4. For those in US, NBCSN will televise Sunderland-Everton rather than previously announced Liverpool-Chelsea.
  5. I will watch today's match, not with excitement but still with grim interest, and even a naive hope for a good performance. I fear embarrassment more than expect spirited play. Another car wreck today, and Sunday at Goodison might be beyond ugly. No idea who will start at RB, but I don't see how Martinez can in anything approaching good conscience put Oviedo back there again. Didn't he try Besic back there once, with bad results? Any chance for Connolly? Even Stones at RB, maybe pairing Pennington with Funes Mori at CB? Doesn't Mirallas's goal against Leicester get him a start at LW? If Barry's not really fit, I prefer Gibson. Cleverley seems one of RM's essentials, so I assume he'll start somewhere. Lennon's not looked sharp last several matches. Lukaku and Barkley, I don't know whether they've lost the plot, or are faithfully following Martinez's plotless tactics. Help. About anything, but particularly who will probably start today. Mirallas, surely. Help.
  6. Martinez appears to be a warm, sweet, humane fellow, who found in Everton a special club, and in Kenwright an owner who totally bought into his project, vision, and emerging football brilliance. As did I. I thought Martinez was a brilliant new mind, and that he and Everton made a highly promising pairing. His first season seemed to point in the direction of success -- European football and challenging for top 4 in the league. Until the second half of this season, my main concern was whether injuries and inconsistent play would derail his project, because several emerging young stars would be tempted to go to a big club, and because Martinez would be unable to persuade them to have faith in his vision. Until the second half of this season, his public analyses of the team's performances were puzzling, irritating, but not a deal-breaker. But in the last several months, I have reluctantly come to the view that Roberto's sweet personality has diverted (my) attention from the probability that, as a football mind, he is an utter fanatic, literally obsessed with his theories of how to play attractive football. Usually, or so I had thought, obsessed fanatics have a bit of the glint in the eye, a hardness, a sort of off-center look or personality. Roberto's smile is trustworthy, not off-center. His words, though, gradually struck me as something more than an odd take on the reality of the team's play and results. His explanations became not quaint but bizarre. Then inaccurate. Then delusional. Then lies. He now strikes me as an odd combination of a calm, warm, genuinely good human being, but a mad-scientist of a manager, obsessed with perfectionist theories detached from footballing reality. It appears he has yet to concede that his theories are not applicable to every assembled squad, including one that he continues to assemble. He will hope to persuade the owners to stick with his vision. Whether they will think his vision genius or madness, I'm not sure, though he's clearly lost the fans, and many of the players. His promising project almost worked, maybe, but it's past the point of no return. I suspect the owners will by now have been unsettled by Martinez's repeated public self-humiliations. I do wonder whether they will be thinking of the best way to save Roberto from himself. Undoubtedly Roberto doesn't think he needs saving. He's wrong.
  7. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/07/manuel-pellegrini-manchester-city-job-offer-england He wants to "continue in England with a team that has a project that is competitive." I guess we have a team project that could again become competitive.
  8. I couldn't watch consistently, our play too awful. When I was watching, he gave the ball away a couple of times, passes didn't click. If he did much of any good, maybe someone else can comment. Have to wait until next season, I suppose.
  9. Maybe today was Roberto's first honest post-match comments. Said the only player who could hold his head high today was Pennington, for "a performance full of meaning and desire." I was so disgusted that I didn't notice Pennington standing out in a positive way, and I thought Baines played ok. Why no compliment for Mirallas's fine goal? Never mind, the answer is obvious. Anyhow, Roberto was very gloomy. No good news. He must know they won't play for him. The owners must know, too. They must.
  10. Leicester's 2-man break against our 5 defenders. Their 2 were easily superior.
  11. Graeme Le Saux just observed that Everton look like 10 players running around with no plan whatsoever. He doesn't know whether to pity them or scorn their effort and their manager.
  12. I could criticize 4-5 players on that second goal. But Barkley.... He literally stopped several yards outside the box, as Leicester players were flowing into the box. Barkley literally stopped, and watched. He had a darn good view of the goal. He did his part in giving Leicester a good chance at it. Way to go, Ross.
  13. Oviedo at RB. Cleverley is one of Roberto's "essentials." If Lukaku leaves and Martinez stays, maybe Cleverley will become first-choice striker, or false 9.... Mirallas in 89th minute, unless he strangles Roberto in the tunnel at halftime.
  14. I want Leicester to win the league, but I prefer Spurs to win tomorrow. My reasoning has to do with neither Leicester nor Spurs but with a very basic Everton team, manager, and player issue. Some weeks back I and others commented briefly on how much energy Leicester players have shown contrasted with what sometimes seems to be a lack of energy from too many of our lads. The difference seemed stark, embarrassing. It might be that even if Leicester clinch tomorrow, the atmosphere there next Saturday would be so celebratory that they'd want to,give their home fans the perfect gift by showing them one final time how exciting they've played. But if they need points, they're even more certain, with Vardy's return but missing Drinkwater, to be aggressive. So I want to compare their energy to ours. Maybe this won't be the perfect test case of energy, conditioning, aggressiveness, spirit, but as far as I am concerned, it will do as a decent test. Mostly a test of Everton, players and manager. Leicester's story is inspiring. Ours is troubling. I hope this match will be a moment of historic significance for them, and a test of elementary commitment for us.
  15. A very good, and very important, question. Or irritated exclamation. My answer is that it was a perfect, but very atypical, pass from Barkley because it was one-touch football. Rather than his too-frequent over-dribbling, he simply and immediately pushed the ball out into space for Lennon. My (perhaps over-) criticism of Barkley is that he sometimes seems obsessed -- one manifestation of his bad football brain -- with proving he can close-dribble through 3-4 opponents before taking a blast. Or he prefers an impressive, difficult pass to a basic, straightforward, but effective pass. Yesterday his brain worked right and told his foot to just lay it on to the moving Lennon.
  16. I didn't think of them as stat shots, but you're probably right that it was just me feeling the pressure of throwing away another 2 points.
  17. Hibbert, because he made smart stops, got a couple of steals from behind because he hustled, excellent-experienced positioning. I think only once was he too easily bypassed by opponent. Knew where he was supposed to be, knew what to do, knew when teammafes needed support or rescuing, did it. Solid, solid, better than solid.
  18. You might be responding to my post that Bournemouth might have scored in final 20 minutes. I thought I remembered 3, and checking the play-by-play, it lists Ritchie just missing to the right in 89th, Afobe's header just high in 78th, and Stanislas miss to the right in 77th. There were also 2 or 3 around 70 minutes that were blocked in the box. Maybe none of these was "on target," but at least 2 were just wide or high, and definitely were concerning shots.
  19. Score probably fair. Bournemouth's goal should never have happened, as it was a clear foul, blatant shove in Pennington's back, we deserved a free kick there. But they probably should have scored in last 20 minutes on one of their shots after mediocre defending by Everton. Cleverley not good last 30 minutes. Barkley nice lead pass to Lennon befor Baines's goal, but Barkley still dribbles far, far too much. He seems more interested in clever dribbling than powerful shots. His and Lukakau's combined football brains are, um, insufficiently advanced. I do assume Barkley will develop better senses here. Lukaku, I won't care about his brain, or energy, or offsides, if he leaves. Hope he stays, but doubtful. Niasse shows some energy, link-up play, promising. Baines got forward a good bit today, some good passes. Hibbert saved at least 3 chances in second half. Really impressive, numerous smart, smart plays, inspiring even. Stones solid, though was that his man who cut in front of him and almost scored the late header to tie it? Stones at DCM in the future, for me. Preferably for Everton. I'd keep Gibson. He's almost interchangeable with Barry, so Gibson could at least start every third or fourth match.
  20. Agree. We pass a lot, but rarely actually attack. As you say, disorganization, look confused. Players first half -- Lennon active, but he's given the ball away a lot today and last weekend. Gibson very solid, I hope somehow he stays, alternates some with Barry next season. Niasse more energetic than Lukaku has been for last many matches. Maybe good touch. Stones, I still think he might be a DCM. Barkley still loves to dribble. Besic still struggling at RB. McCarthy, I'm beginning to wonder. Mirallas 89th minute.
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