AlbanyNYToffee

Im grasping at straws now just looking for any glimmer of hope but I genuinely believe 4-4-2 suits our squad best. Our fullbacks are limited going forward. Our centerbacks can't play in space. Gueye is past it so he can sit deeper and disrupt. Onana wants to do more but often lacked space in the middle 3. Iwobi is versatile. Maupay is only successful when he has support. DCL could use some too since he hasn't been a threat in a year now. 

Pickford
Coleman Pick 2 CBs Mykolenko
Gray Onana Gana Iwobi
Maupay DCL

I would prefer Maupay never play again but at the very least this is giving him a chance to show what he can do despite all the obvious limitations in his game. 

20 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

Anyone else getting deja vu? It’s been a while but that old chestnut of us not doing business in January means we can do more in the summer is back. It never worked out that way but that’s beside the point I suppose  

The good old days, ladies and gentlemen .

We have no control over the owner, board, DoF or manager. All we can do is look at what lies in front of us and want better. We all want better. January deadwood doesn't make us better. Everyone keeps pointing to all these teams that signed players but I'm not in any way convinced they've all improved. 

Bournemouth signed a bunch of fliers who have absolutely no experience in this league.
Villa signed a LB from Spain to cover for Digne, that's it.
Palace signed a midfielder who wasn't playing for Arsenal, wouldn't say they've strengthened in a big way.
Fulham signed one guy from Italy and Arsenal's backup RB. 
Forest signed 7 more players I certainly wouldn't want in our starting XI.
Southampton have certainly gone for it, credit to them but again right now we don't know that they've gotten better.
West Ham signed Ings. Does that really scare anyone?
Wolves, Leicester and Leeds have all done well, credit to them. 

I've always been fascinated by the idea that an active transfer window means you've strengthened. We've been active for 4 years and continually get worse. Perhaps we did ourselves a favor. 

2 hours ago, badaids said:

I think that whether we go down, or stay up, this will prove to have been a successful window, with no expensive future deadwood.

In any case, us staying up depends on Dyche organising the squad we already have.

Agree. Call me crazy but I'm actually encouraged by the window with one major caveat. Simply, our chances at relegation haven't changed all that much, nor would they have with a signing or two but we've managed to create much needed flexibility in the summer. Thelwell will either be buying 3-4 prem players or turning over the roster in the championship but either way we'll have the resources to accomplish our goal. 

All that said we're still completely unable to change the perspective around our club. Encouraged by how many targets Thelwell had and their profile for the most part. No more Tosun's, Walcott's, Niasse's for christ's sake. What he couldn't overcome (even without the board meddling in his business) was the fact it's incredibly clear players are put off by our current situation. Without changing that Thelwell is f***ed. 

Our options for this season were/are: Stay up and have an active window, stay up with what we've got, relegated and have an active window or relegated with what we've got. Option 3 would obviously be worst case. Option 4 is next then Option 1 then Option 2. We've (unintentionally mind you) gone for the best option. 

Know absolutely nothing about this lad, is he the 2nd striker or left midfielder in 4-4-2?

Maybe we stand pat and let Dyche do his thing with what we've got. Our January record is abysmal.

2017 - Lookman and Schneiderlin for 27.5 total
2018 - Tosun and Walcott for 47.5 total. Jesus f***ing christ. also Mangala on loan
2019 - None
2020 - Branthwaite
2021 - Josh King
2022 - Mykolenko, Patterson and Dele for 29 total assuming we never pay for spurs for dele. El Ghazi and Donny van de Beek on loan. 

No one worth buying will be sold this late in the window because the selling club doesn’t have time to find a replacement. Also no good player in their right mind would risk signing for us in our position. idk the loan rules but here are some players we should chase…players at big clubs not playing:

cole Palmer, Lucas moura, djed spence, Loftus-Cheek, ziyech, Mariano Díaz, Thomas lemar, Lozano, brozovic, Andrea bellotti

1 hour ago, Matt said:

Definitely not up to Moshiri, remember?

1 hour ago, Aidan said:

No, no. The majority shareholder? Obviously not.

1 hour ago, Aidan said:

I'm more curious about who makes the next manager appointment.

Thewell? Bill? Moshiri? Jim White?

TBF we'd be losing our goddamn minds if Moshiri or Bill were still making football decisions. We're in this mess because they meddled for far too long. The only reasonable and acceptable outcome is to allow your DoF to make the appointment. The owner cuts the checks based on the boards asks. The boards asks come from the DoF on the footballing side and CEO on the business side. We've managed to make a pretty simple process very f***ing complicated. Also TBF plenty of other examples out there of bad ownership and leadership in sports. 

Genuinely like frank as most seem to as well. Yesterday was the end for me. The back 5 recently is absolutely criminal. Our cbs prefer a back 4 and our wing backs are horrible going forward. We should be asking our defenders to sit deep and throw an extra man in midfield to help Gana who is clearly not the same player and can’t cover the ground. Hope he does well wherever he lands next but he’s lost here and I don’t see how he comes back from it.

West Ham 0 - 0 Everton

None

Well here we go again. Very few of us have any faith or hope left. 
 

West ham away 1

arsenal home 1 

Shite away 0

leeds home 1 

Villa home 3 

Forest away 1

brentford home 0 

chelsea away 0 

Spurs home 0

utd away 1 

fulham home 3

Palace away 1 

Newcastle home 0 

leicester away 1

Brighton away 0 

city home 0 

wolves away 1 

bournemouth home 3

arsenal away TBC 0 

25 points from 19 matches. Unlikely. Found 17 points and even that seems generous. 

Onana first half was stuff of legends. Should have sold Gordon then, do it now. Coleman is finished. Gray unbelievably wasteful. Not franks fault but he has to go. We’re going down. 

Everton 1 - 0 Southampton

DCL

Bobby Brown Shoes off to Portugal so we need not worry about that. 

14 hours ago, plaidharper said:

Well I didn’t think it could be any worse than my last visit to Goodison. A 3-1 defeat to Wolves. Well I was wrong…

Did enjoy a pint at the Winslow before the game and a recovery pint post the match at the Ship and Mitre. 

Sorry plaid. Abysmal performance only the pints to save you. Appreciate the heads up on the Ship and Mitre. Will hit that next time. Safe travels!

Everton 2 - 0 Brighton

DCL

2 hours ago, Palfy said:

Good point the last thing we need to do is improve the teams around us. 

1 hour ago, Bailey said:

Id have thought that would be the reason to sell Holgate to them! 

Exactly. What have we seen from Holgate to think we’re improving a team close to us. I’d love to see us play Holgate in a starting XI, as long as we’re playing against them. 

Just curious can anyone remember the last time we recalled a loan player? Seems exceedingly rare. 

We’ve had some dreadful players recently. This fella right up there. Almost unwatchable. Horrific touch. Terribly slow. Tactically unaware. Hope he’s one season and done here. 

8 hours ago, plaidharper said:

Will be driving down from Edinburgh which is where I am for New Years / Hogmanay. Staying just the one night in Liverpool. Going to grab some Indian and some pints before the match. Hopefully we can take the positive result against City forward to the Brighton game! 

Enjoy! We hit the Brick and of course the Winslow. Both great spots, but something special about the Winslow.  If you find any others please share. COYB. 

Now is the time to find out if he can stay fit (ever) again. If he gets hurt we open the checkbook. If he doesn't we might just win a few games...and we hopefully still open the checkbook  

Would be so Everton to protect him in January, not sign cover and he gets hurt in early February. His career and our season are at risk of going off the rails, time to see what he and we are made of. 

14 hours ago, Formby said:

Albany's looks a bit of a joke an outlier, I must say.

Haha I never pick them to lose so if you see me pick a draw it means i'm expecting them to lose. In this case, big. Perhaps that's why I never do well in this pool. 

On 20/12/2022 at 09:12, plaidharper said:

Ended up renting a car.  Thanks for the insight!

What's your plan @plaidharper? Living vicariously through you on this one. 

We need a striker and winger. Gonna have to survive with the rest. Want both of them to be young and hungry to prove themselves on the biggest stage. Elanga on loan makes sense and if we could somehow sell the project to Jonathan David that would be great. Some bias here but considering the fees the clubs would be seeking Yunus Musah (CM) and Tim Weah (W) are great value. Same argument for David - we'd have to sell the project. 

Would love this signing - for the long-term. If we're expecting him to solve our goal scoring issues immediately this is destined to fail. It's going to take him 12-18 months to settle coming from MLS. Numerous examples out there - Almiron, Aaronson (Salzburg), Harrison, Pepi, Reynolds, Buchanan etc. Alphonso Davies was the exception to the rule at Bayern.