Deacs

Villa 1 - 2 Everton Richarlison

I don’t think it would be forthcoming, winning the cup wouldn’t change Steve’s argument. Which personally I don’t agree with. I acknowledge you are probably aware of this and are just poking fun but ....

Great analogy. To much analytical thinking now a days. Where’s the emotion? Watching a match on TV can be like watching a game of FIFA. Even in the middle of winter the pitches are bright green and perfect. Great for the players but I miss the chaos a winter pitch used to cause. The games so different now and not all for the better.

I like it, but we’d need to make sure the back line was water tight first though.

Everton 2 - 1 Watford DCL

Only works if he’s not starting though. Which he might well be.

Absolutely he may the nicest guy in the world off the pitch. I just don’t know how he’d fit at Everton.

Backfired when we tried that with Eto though. I’m not sure Costa is the right personality for that role either.

The last bit says it all could have been a legend if half interested. What a waste. Just get him off the wages.

Lol and not spilt a drop of your pint while doing it either

Totally agree about needing to offload some players and I’d like to see a striker come in as well. Leicester winning the league was just a freak though, we still need more depth at centre half.

Let’s hope this is the start of it and any other deals we have in the pipe line follow soon.

I get what you’re saying but I think you’re being harsh on a few others Osman and Hibbert are two that I can think of.

Good. I liked him as a player, but he just doesn’t play enough.

Fair play. So ideally we sign Zouma, he and Keane continue where they left off at the end of the season. Mina hopefully stays fit and pushes them both on next season. Competition for a place in the side has to be a good thing.

Agreed but would you pick Mina ahead of Keane?

Certainly not the sort of player we should be considering if we want to beak into the top six.

Ok the points return from that run of games was poor. If you remember some of the defeats we were extremely unlucky and had draws against city and utd as well in that run. Our league position never dropped below 9th though because we did have such a good start and that needs to be considered. All told I don’t believe we ever looked like being in the same trouble we appeared to be in this season. Even though I was worried I never called for Silva to be sacked and I have certainly never said he’s our savior. Just that I’m optimistic for the future. I can see your take on it though.

You’ve hit the nail on the head.

I concede that the results after the first 5 games were not as good as they should have been, but at the halfway stage of the season we were in the same position we were in at the end. We never looked like getting relegated that season. Where as in February this year I had serious concerns we might. I also concede that next season could go either way. I’m still optimistic though.

Just checked and in Koeman’s first season we were never lower than 9th in the table. We finished 7th which is where we were after 18 games. (And never moved from 7th after the 18th game). I’ll give you we had run after the great start (4 wins out of 5) where we lost some games against teams we would want to beat, but we were still winning games and against some good sides too. If you compare that against season two where it was all downhill.

Thats not how I remember it at all. He started ok until the rot set in and then it was down hill all the way.

That’s the difference from Koeman and Martinez who were unable to turn things around. Makes me optimistic.

Really highlights how good City were in the second half of the season . We weren’t that far off third though which shows what can be achieved.

I hope so Matt. A big win here would be great for confidence and momentum going into next season.