Cornish Steve

19 minutes ago, Palfy said:

our society has been broken up into 3 classes working class, middle class and upper class

Years ago, when I worked in central London, you'd sometimes see researchers on the street seeking short interviews with certain types of people. These researchers were always looking at the ground. Why? I learned that shoes are the single best indicator of a person's class. (Incidentally, back then at least, there were five: upper, upper middle, middle, lower middle, and working class. For the record, I fit best the definition of lower middle class.) Someone who's upper class tends to wear expensive and well-polished shoes, whereas someone who's working class takes very little care of their shoes. Wealth can be deceptive - you can be poor and upper class, and you can be rich and working class - but shoes less so.

I never forgot that and, when meeting new people for the first time, sometimes take a quick glance at their shoes.

We're much more of a team, as well. Someone mentioned in the Mykolenko thread that Gray would never pass the ball to him. Put it another way: Gray is a selfish player. Better to have a solid team than a collection of prima donna individuals. The story about Onana being punished for being late is part of the same narrative: the actions of an individual must not be allowed to hurt the team. They're all in it together. Players appear to be talking to one another more, and they're not afraid to challenge their teammates. This is good to see.

By the way, there was a lot of concern after the transfer window that we'd spent too little and sold key players without replacements. Looking back, it was a superb window for us and just goes to prove that good recruitment is more about strategy than money. Let's hope we pursue the same approach in January.

2 hours ago, Matt said:

https://theanalyst.com/2023/10/data-says-everton-could-be-above-liverpool-but-dyche-needs-points/#:~:text=It is telling that Everton,metres from their own goal.

 

"When compared to forwards in Europe’s top five leagues over the past 15 years, Calvert-Lewin ranks in the 93rd percentile for goals, 91st for shots, 94th for touches in the opponent’s penalty area and 98th for aerials won."

Those are remarkable numbers.

Everton 2-1 United
McNeil

It's a measure of our optimism that most of us predicted an Everton win against Palace. The winner for the week is Finn balor for predicting the win and identifying Doucoure as one of our goalscorers. Bill forgot to predict, but Boston Toffee failed to win any points, so there's no change at the top for the season.

For round 11, three of us predicted a 1-1 tie. Congrats to Matt for predicting Mykolenko as our scorer. For the season, Bill is beginning to catch Boston Toffee.

2 hours ago, Gwlad said:

And he is putting club over country, top man.

Did Mali actually qualify?

6 hours ago, Matt said:

Even if they took 12 points off, we'd be on 2 points and 7 from safety with 2 thirds of the season to go, a season where we've won 60% of the last 10 and only lost twice. 

This is exactly how I view the table right now. Hope for the best; plan for the worst.

On 08/11/2023 at 16:35, StevO said:

The best part about that clip for me is Dele watching how we play and it sounds like he’s looking to see where he can make a difference. I love Doucoure’s work ethic, but Dele is the only player who can challenge him for that position. 
The dream if he could get back to his best, as a counter attacking player he could be lethal for us. 
 

Wouldn't it be nice to have Dele ready to make the first team before the Africa Cup of Nations.

On 06/11/2023 at 19:46, Btay said:

I don't think many expected Eddie Howe to do such a good job with Newcastle but he has.

You mean the guy whose team just lost to Bournemouth?

6 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

I thought he was very poor today.

Maybe still feeling the effects of whatever the knock was that he had?

He was made to look poor by Eze, who's a fantastic player. I thought Branthwaite improved in the second half.

For me, it was Mykolenko. He's improving with each game.

Watching today's match, I thought the teams were well-matched, and we did well to win. Eze is a brilliant player and dominated Branthwaite in the first half. Indeed, the latter was the weak point in our defence, with Tarkowski making some fine moves to save us in the first half. Both Mykolenko and Young did well, I thought. In the second half, Branthwaite improved, maybe learning from incidents in the first half.

Harrison and McNeil aren't yet realizing their potential, although McNeil is partnering well with Mykolenko and Doucoure. You could tell Onana wasn't at full strength, so it was wise to replace him at half-time. Garner was workmanlike, but this wasn't his best game. DC-L was well silenced by the Palace defence; Beto was a live wire, and it might have been good to see him come on at half-time as well.

Despite grumbling from some, I thought the referee had an excellent game.

Starting the same players each week is beginning to pay off. Some of the build-up play in the first half, in particular, was excellent to watch. There's increasing confidence, and our balls into the box are really causing opponents trouble. Give it another month, and we could really be scoring more goals on a consistent basis. I can't wait for the holiday period; we could really move on up the table.

What a pity we didn't strengthen our offense until after the Fulham and Wolves games, which we could and should have won. With those additional six points, we'd be tied with Newcastle for seventh spot.

I’ve been traveling all week and today am driving from New York to Atlanta. Apologies for not having updated the spreadsheet but I shall do so tomorrow. 
 

palace 0-2 Everton. 
DCL

Just now, Hafnia said:

I think we all know I have a higher bar than most when it comes to work rate.  Fortunately I can spot the difference between a player going through the motions and a player who has nothing left in his legs. 
 

That right side was an issue for the latter part of second half and de zerbi targeted it. Patterson should have been on. 

Patterson played well last week after some initial hesitant moments: he takes time to warm up. Hesitant moments would be a risk when looking to defend a lead in the second half. If he was to play, he should have started.

Just now, Matt said:

I'll keep the bet regardless. 

Name your charity. Mine is 'old farts of Atlanta'.

2 minutes ago, Matt said:

Oh ffs Steve, not this again. We're in a quarter final because of this consistent approach. When was the last time we could say that? Winning breeds confidence. Fuck it, this year we'll finish around 10-14th and win the League Cup. £50 to charity when I'm proven wrong. 

You're on. My concern is points being docked. Points in the league must be the priority until that issue is resolved.

2 hours ago, MikeO said:

Good age 63

Been there, done that.

Glad we got a point, but I can only repeat what I said several days ago. We will struggle playing three games in a week, so we must prioritize: League Cup or league? Rest players midweek and we win this game. As it is, we fielded a strong team midweek, and they ran out of steam today. I just hope we don't rue this decision late in the season. Of course we all want to win every game, and of course fans want silverware, but this is a season to play smart and prioritize. Being in a cup quarter-final just cost us two points in the league.

On 31/10/2023 at 15:48, Finn balor said:

Do you get nothing for just predicting a win but not the score? 
 

Everton 3 - brighton 1 

DCl 

You get a point for predicting the right outcome (so yes, a point for correctly predicting a win). You also get a point for predicting the correct number of goals by Everton, a point for predicting the correct number of goals by our opponents, and a point for predicting the correct goal difference. You get a point if your prediction is closer to the actual result than most other people predicted.

17 minutes ago, duncanmckenzieismagic said:

Just got the apology letter

I wanted to write to you to apologise for any inconvenience and discomfort you may have encountered upon entering the stadium yesterday.

For a very short period time - less than five minutes in total - there were a number of turnstiles around the stadium that were not accepting tickets; printed or digital. While this issue was quickly rectified, it did lead to affected supporters being redirected by stewards to the Goodison Road Box Office.

The combination of supporters naturally arriving for the game, alongside those supporters who were earlier impacted and returning to their turnstiles to gain entry, led to larger queues than normal in the build-up to kick-off. This mainly impacted supporters in the Main Stand, Howard Kendall Lower Gwladys Street, the Paddock and Lower and Upper Bullens.

While stewards were on-hand to help direct supporters into other turnstiles that were functioning correctly, with smaller or no queues to increase the flow rate of entry, we are aware that in some areas of the stadium queuing would have been uncomfortable, especially for young fans.

Our Stadium Team, Safety Stewards and Police were monitoring the situation and every effort was made to reduce the risks.

For home cup matches, the flow rate of entry to the stadium is always slower compared to Premier League games. This is mainly due to cup matches having a larger number of supporters with a greater variety of ticket entry methods (season/digital card, paper, print-at-home, contactless or barcode) compared to Season Ticket Members using their season/digital cards. Regardless of this, and taking into account the number of supporters arriving to the game nearer to kick-off due to this being an evening fixture, this is not the matchday experience the Club is seeking to provide.

Our Stadium Operations team are conducting a full investigation into what happened with the turnstiles, as well as reviewing the information provided to supporters on their tickets in relation to which turnstiles can be used.

By 7pm last night (45 minutes before kick-off), prior to any turnstile issues, only 12% of the expected attendance was in the stadium. This meant that even at an ambitious flow rate it would have been difficult for every supporter to get into the stadium prior to kick-off.

We will continue to advise fans to arrive in good time and are not anticipating any such problems for this weekend’s Premier League fixture with Brighton & Hove Albion. We will also provide further updates and information to supporters ahead of our home Carabao Cup quarter-final with Fulham in December, to ensure that you do not encounter similar issues to last night.

Thank you for your continued support.

Dave Lewis
Head of Security and Stadium Safety Office

As I read this, it comes across as lame excuses in a non-apology apology. All they need to say is "we screwed up, we apologize, it won't happen next time". Done. Move on.

Brighton are an excellent team (and I was very impressed with Adingra when Brighton played pre-season in Atlanta), but they appear to be going through something of a lack of form right now. Their eyes might also be on an upcoming European tie. They're fully rested, though, whereas this will be our third game in six days with essentially the same players. Let's hope we can continue our upturn. I'd like to see the same team as beat West Ham.

1 hour ago, duncanmckenzieismagic said:

This argument comes up every season and so I get that you are not interested in winning trophies and are happy for us to just exist as a meaningless club. 

That is why I am coming from the angle of building momentum and confidence so that we can take that into the league games

Winning breads both

Resting one or two who have niggles I can understand but if he rests the entire spine of the side ( he won’t) then he should be sacked tonight

 

What matters is momentum in the league, and we're building that. It would be foolish to tire our players ahead of a game for which the Brighton team is fully rested. I'd hate to see us be relegated at the end of the year because we dropped points against Brighton. We should plan as if we need 52 points to be safe this year. Everything else is secondary.