JoeQuince

We’ve just gone to the side 19th in the league, a team that hasn’t won since August, and not even tried to win the game... I’m embarrassed. It feels like an awful point. 

They. Haven’t. Done. Fuck. All. 
Also, I’d say they played better football than we did. Sam never had us set up to win this. 
Please stop making excuses for this dross. 

They. Haven’t. Done. Fuck. All. 
Also, I’d say they played better football than we did. Sam never had us set up to win this. 
Please stop making excuses for this dross. 

Both teams deserved to lose that

Sure. That would make sense, if that’s what actually happened here. But, they haven’t had to do dick. 

Hey guys, maybe we’ll get a lucky penalty and win this 0-1. Then, we can continue to pretend it doesn’t matter that we don’t actually play football anymore. 

Hey guys, maybe we’ll get a lucky penalty and win this 0-1. Then, we can continue to pretend it doesn’t matter that we don’t actually play football anymore. 

Now, I know these are both professional football clubs, technically speaking, but I don’t know that either one actually wants to play football. 

I’m glad to know that we are getting points lately. But, I take no joy from how we are doing it. This is such shit to watch, and I just can’t wait for this period in our history to be over with. 

We’ve scored five in the last four. We’ve had a lot of luck, too, thanks to Pickford’s posts. And two of our recent goals were relatively dubious penalties. Our offensive play has been mostly uninspiring. I’m glad to get results. Lord knows we need them. And, I’m more than happy to see us play a game like we did today against the likes of Chelsea, knowing they are capable of tearing us apart. But, we seem to be only playing one note. I’m glad we have stopped leaking goals. But, we don’t look to be serious about winning. 
Anyhow, I’m not trying to be all doom and gloom. Frankly, I’m just ambivalent about all of this (the good results but the frustrating style of play). Ideally, I’d like to see us get results by taking it to the teams that we can dominate and frustrating those who can dominate us. I know everything is a process. I just hope that we are going to evolve and not stagnate. 

We’ve scored five in the last four. We’ve had a lot of luck, too, thanks to Pickford’s posts. And two of our recent goals were relatively dubious penalties. Our offensive play has been mostly uninspiring. I’m glad to get results. Lord knows we need them. And, I’m more than happy to see us play a game like we did today against the likes of Chelsea, knowing they are capable of tearing us apart. But, we seem to be only playing one note. I’m glad we have stopped leaking goals. But, we don’t look to be serious about winning. 
Anyhow, I’m not trying to be all doom and gloom. Frankly, I’m just ambivalent about all of this (the good results but the frustrating style of play). Ideally, I’d like to see us get results by taking it to the teams that we can dominate and frustrating those who can dominate us. I know everything is a process. I just hope that we are going to evolve and not stagnate. 

What a 'meh' game really. Sam doesn't dare, though it's great to see some more confidence in the defensive play. But really, when was it ever good enough to get one point on Goodison, eh?

We’ve scored five in the last four. We’ve had a lot of luck, too, thanks to Pickford’s posts. And two of our recent goals were relatively dubious penalties. Our offensive play has been mostly uninspiring. I’m glad to get results. Lord knows we need them. And, I’m more than happy to see us play a game like we did today against the likes of Chelsea, knowing they are capable of tearing us apart. But, we seem to be only playing one note. I’m glad we have stopped leaking goals. But, we don’t look to be serious about winning. 
Anyhow, I’m not trying to be all doom and gloom. Frankly, I’m just ambivalent about all of this (the good results but the frustrating style of play). Ideally, I’d like to see us get results by taking it to the teams that we can dominate and frustrating those who can dominate us. I know everything is a process. I just hope that we are going to evolve and not stagnate. 

I agree with that last comment, but honestly think it was tactics rather than the midfield today, simply because we didn’t have one as everyone was in defence barring DCL

This. 100%. 
Also, Paul, you can put whatever striker you want at the top of this team. They’re still going to be isolated, frustrated, and (barring miraculous individual efforts) relatively unproductive. The quality of striker we have at the moment isn’t great, it’s true. But, our tactics are a much bigger problem. 

It's not strikers only mate. We were playing super defensively with Calvert and Sandro upfront. The whole mid was in our penalty area. We need strong Strikers like Lukaku and Benteke to win the ball and hold it long enough for overlapping wingers and central midfielders, but we're slow as heck and our strikers were isolated all the time. Not much they can do against strong defense. 

I was against him because I knew exactly what we'd get; a solid defence and boring, mindnumbing, anti-football. Which is exactly what we're getting. Of course I'm happier that we're not getting thrashed every week, but it's still fucking horrible to watch. Then again, I'm not one of the "win no matter what" crowd

Defensively impressive I guess, even if we played 10-0-0-1, with a lot of luck too. 
Clean sheet and a point. That's about all I can say about it really.

Anyone would look good coming in for Gana tbf. Nice to see a midfielder not scared of the ball,  looking for passes instead of just playing it safe or getting rid. 

I thought he played better than Gana in the first half.

Video evidence! I can’t take the stress of penalties  
 
 

Video evidence! I can’t take the stress of penalties  
 
 

On a positive note, sitting at Mr. Dennehy's in NYC with JoeQuince watching the match.

You’re probably right. Personally, I just hope that Allardyce can display enough flexibility to manage this group of players to their strengths and pull their best football out of them. If what we’ve seen the past two matches are a sign of things to come, I’ll be getting worried. We won’t get lucky penalties every week and our opponents’ shots won’t always swerve to the wrong side of the posts. Getting four points out of the past two matches is great. But, if people think these results were down to the brilliance of our play (beyond our sudden ability to deal with crosses!), they’re sadly mistaken.
There are bright spots, of course. I’m excited to see us get the ball into wide areas and make some dangerous crosses. That’s one of the reasons I’m so angry about seeing Schneiderlin ghosting around in the center of the park while Sigurdsson is out wide and a quick, direct winger sits on the bench. Our best play in the past few weeks has come with quick interchanges around the edges of the box that create room for crosses. More of that, please. Much more. 

God help us if this is the crap we're going to be served up for the rest of the season: park the bus, hoof the ball up the field, and hope for the opponents to make a mistake. Rely on the goalposts, too.