Cornish Steve

Ridiculous graphic in a BBC piece on AP McCoy...

 

 

He's been at the top in the UK as opposed to the world, there's no comparison.

Never heard of him. Is he for real?

 

Last two times we were in it there were qualifying, groups and two-legged knock-out games, not so different from today's format. We beat Zenit in the groups the year they won it, though that season there were just four group games in a league of five; you didn't play home and away, just one game against each other, two home and two away. We won the group.

Then I'm plain too old. I'm remembering the UEFA Cup from the days I lived in Britain.

I agree it has an effect injuries small squads etc but the whole tired players malarkey is a drum beaten to often for me they are athletes with possibly the best nutritional fitness and aftercare around its an easy excuse for both players and especially managers to throw out there

I've had the good fortune or misfortune, whichever you prefer, of having traveled the world extensively. (I'm a 4 million miler on Delta and have flown over 6 million miles in total.) You'd think that the 10- or 12-hour time differences would get you the most, but that's not the case. For me, the 2- or 3-hour differences are the worst. Your body seems to hold on to the old time zone, and you feel constantly tired and lethargic. As a rule of thumb, they say it takes one day to recover for each hour's difference in time zone, but those 2- and 3-hour differences always seemed worse to me. So, it's not just the travel: It's adjusting to two time zone changes in quick succession.

 

But there's no difference at all in playing Wed/Sat to playing Thurs/Sun. Tues/Sat maybe helpful for the league but then you've got twenty-fours hours less to prepare for the Euro game. Swings and roundabouts.

 

The stats may say it's bad but as far as I recall we thrived on it in our last two UEFA runs, didn't affect our league form at all.

But Mike, I seem to remember that the UEFA was a straight knockout tournament. Now there are qualifying rounds, then group tables, and then two-leg knockout. The number of games in the Europa exceed the number played in the UEFA cup.

Strange logic?

 

Both competitions would have the same drain and effect on any side that's not numerically cut out for them the only difference is that generally the sides that qualify for the Europa have smaller and weaker squads than those who regularly make it into the CL

 

It's definitely had an effect but isn't the sole purpose we had a piss poor pre season and it went on from there it's no excuse to play how badly we have for the most part the season

The strain on the team is greater in the Europa, especially with the qualifying rounds, and the financial rewards are simply not there.

 

Personally I don't buy this theory that the Europa League has effected our League form. We are where we are because of poor tactics and because weve been shite nothing more nothing less

 

Ok so weve played a few extra games in Europe, but weve also had no domestic cup games so the players should have been able to cope easily enough

That's not what statistics reveal of the impact of the Europa League. I read something the other day that shows just how much league form is affecting all clubs in that tournament.

At the start of the season, I thought it was a good thing to be playing in Europe. After this year, I've changed my mind. While playing in the Champions league is good, playing in the Europa league is a negative.

No tomatoes Steve but that surprises me a bit, thought we'd moved on from that. My first full time job at seventeen I was taken to the pub at 1.00 and we were all still there two hours later which surprised me a lot. On the odd days I came back early the directors looked at me as if to say, "What are you doing here?".

Now, almost 30 years have passed since I worked in central London, so maybe my comments are no longer typical.

Because for the most part British people are miserable, whiney, boring bastards who need alcohol to make themselves feel good. And that is sad.

Not at all! The British sense of humour is legendary, and we're one of the few cultures willing to laugh at ourselves. I'm not sure what fuels the pressure to drink.

Interesting article this about alcoholism; good to see somewhere giving it the attention it deserves. No matter where you sit on the illness or self-inflicted debate there's no doubt it costs the NHS billions so a relatively small government investment would be money well spent. But it's not "populist" so the politicians won't do it and leave the majority of it to the private and voluntary sectors, who are too expensive or inaccessible for the majority.

 

Shame about the first picture though . Hope the lad gets back on his feet.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32418122

Let me say upfront that my thoughts on this will sound very controversial, but...I really think the drinking problem is made worse by, and in some respects a reflection of, British culture. When I worked in central London, everyone went out to the pub at Friday lunchtime, and few got anything done for the rest of the day. That's a productivity hit right there of ten percent. There was a certain pride and expectation about getting drunk (which I admit I have never been), so the social pressure was there. Now living in the US, I can pretty much guarantee the first few words most visiting British businessmen will say when they show up at a meeting: "So how's the beer?" During meeting breaks, conversation will again revolve around beer. The evenings will be spent searching for beer. At the start of the next day's meetings, we'll all hear about who drank the most and who was the most stupidly drunk. Honestly, to an independent observer, it borders on obsession. Why? Because of British culture. That's not to say that other nations aren't heavy drinkers - I've attended far too many meetings in Russia to think otherwise - but I don't see how the problem can be fixed in general while an entire culture is so obsessed with the expectation that men must be heavy drinkers.

Waiting for quite a few tomatoes.

made up for the cherries. gonna be a great lot coming up next season, just need ipswich or derby to make it now

It'll have to be Ipswich, because I have a feeling that Derby will fail to be a qualifier. Brentford might be the fourth team in the mix.

Liverpool 7th, struggling through the qualifying rounds of Europa.

Everton 8th, ready and waiting to move up the table.

It would be nice to have finished above them, but the burden of Europa qualifying, and subsequent impact on their league performance, would be some compensation, for sure.

Given the form of the two teams right now, the answer could well be "one place below Liverpool." Now, it would be better to be one place above Liverpool, but that's still an achievement few would have thought a month or two ago.

It's been working a treat recently, so I agree we're getting spanked

Don't you know that two wrongs make a right? We need an odd number: We're getting spanked!

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/573300/James-McCarthy-Everton-football

"We have been working in training on a different style of play"

Villa 7 Everton 13. My, this single malt is good - sorry, what was the question again.......

Is that corners or goals?

Well done, Milesey, for predicting the correct score. No one predicted any of the three scorers, which, I believe, is a first. My 10-pointer last weekend means I managed to win for the month of April, despite scoring a goose egg on this game. Interestingly, the Forum Average has taken the lead for points this season and points per prediction. Also of note, TonkaRoost has overtaken Romey for points per prediction.

Thank you, Haf, for joining the prediction game - even though it meant I had to make a lot of manual changes to the spreadsheet. If you fail to make any more predictions after all that work, be prepared for some snarky comments!

I thought he would get us relegated I fully admit it, I was wrong and I'm absolutely thrilled well more relieved I suppose that I was wrong.

 

I'm still not sold on him I think we'll be in for another season of mediocrity and disappointment next season I'm convinced he is wrong for us.

 

That being said I hope I'm wrong on that as well and he smashes top 4 next season I really do.

 

I just don't get all this ego shit about not wanting to be wrong it's pathetic. I say it how I see it if it ultimately turns out wrong big deal.

 

It must be exhausting for all these people who think they're right all the time.

 

Oh to be perfect eh

We learn far more from being wrong than from being right - which makes me a real expert!

 

I'd rather Stoke won which would put (assuming we win) both of them within three points of us

Disagree on this. A draw is preferable, but, if it must be a victory, go for Swansea. Their remaining games are much tougher than Stoke's.

...but had beaten liverpool and spurs before that.

Big whoop!

Reminds me of Rio Ferdinand circa 2002, bit more filling out and he will be a complete defender.

 

Got the lot:-

 

pace

good in the air

good feet

can tackle

can pass

prone to the odd poor decision but that is getting better

 

I wouldn't accept £40m as I honestly think he is potentially the best defender in the world. Big shout.

Now we can add "scores goals".

I apologise for yesterday. Maybe the shitness of this season has worn me down because the general consensus is that we were excellent against United.

 

I didn't mean my comment to Steve the way Haf took it, but I do apologise for my snappish manner to Steve.

Hey, no problem here. It has been a disappointing season. On the other hand, it's certainly nice to see Everton give United the biggest hiding at our hands in 20 years - especially when everyone claimed they were the team in form.

 

Change first scorer to be Barkley.

Well, that cost me a point.

Have been driving from south Pennsylvania to New York today, so apologies for not yet posting results. I should be able to get to it later this evening.

2 in 2... keep it going Kev!

Been something of a super-sub.

Arsenal v Chelsea first game on MOTD2 .

Are they wanting to send everyone to sleep? It's quite amusing to read of Mourinho and Wenger traded blows about whose team is the most boring.

Just thinking back through the season and the four points dropped in the first two matches still hurt. Then the disappointing results with Hull. I don't know if we were unlucky this year, but I truly believe this recent run of form is the true Everton. I just wish it wouldn't have taken this long to find it. Like I mentioned earlier, our goal differential is 8th. Spurs have given up more goals than anyone except the teams in the relegation zone.

 

No excuses I guess. You gotta beat the teams in front of you, but I think the evidence suggests this is simply an unlucky season for Everton.

Personally, I think the one that hurt the most was against Chelsea - conceding those two goals so quickly. The way we played the rest of that game (minus Besic's screw-up) was pretty good, and we matched them.