brisbaneblue

yep clean sheets

I realised yesterday that all of our new signings over the summer came from the Premier League and that with the exception of Mason Holgate, all members of our squad played at least 1 minute of PL football last season. I had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon so I imported statistical data from the PL website and crunched some numbers on our current squad based on last season's stats. I tend to think that season totals (e.g. total tackles, total passes, etc.) or stats per game (e.g. goals per game, shots per game) skew towards players who start matches. I find that stats per 90 minutes of football (e.g. assists per 90 minutes, blocks per 90 minutes) are much more accurate when comparing players. Below is the overview of the numbers I analysed: Key: M = Minutes YC = Yellow Cards RC = Red Cards FO = Fouls SA = Saves PU = Punches GC = Goals Conceded GC/SA% = Goals Conceded-to-Saves Percentage TA = Tackles BL = Blocks CL = Clearances HC = Headed Clearances PA = Passes TB = Through Balls CR = Crosses GO = Goals AS = Assists SH = Shots SO = Shots On Target WO = Woodwork OF = Offsides GO/SH% = Goals-to-Shots Percentage SO/SH% = On Target Shooting Percentage

It's easy for us to say now that adding in that clause was a big mistake, but at the time we were just coming off a very very good season and Martinez was looking like a gem.

Also, I'm thinking our depth now looks like something like this: GK: Stekelenburg, Robles RB/RWB: Coleman, Holgate, Browning, McCarthy, Connolly CB: Williams, Jagielka, Funes Mori, Holgate, Pennington, Browning, Connolly LB/LWB: Baines, Oviedo, Funes Mori, Connolly DM: Gueye, Barry, McCarthy, Besic, Cleverley, Davies, Gibson ACM: Barkley, Miralas, Cleverley, Dowell, Davies RW/RM: Miralas, Bolasie, Deulofeu, Lennon, Valencia, Kone, Cleverley, Dowell LW/LM: Bolasie, Miralas, Deulofeu, Lennon, Valencia, Barkley, Oviedo, Cleverley, Dowell ST: Lukaku, Kone, Valencia, Deulofeu I'd say depth at ACM, ST and GK are most concerning. Without the Valencia deal we'd be in an even worse position.

Hey so we did end up signing a new starting CB, a new starting DM, a GK to challenge Robles and bolasie came in as a starting winger so I wasn't too far off.. just need that backup ACM.

I'm a little concerned we only have two senior goalkeepers with Stekelenburg not having an injury-free season for over five years. What goalkeepers are available on a free?

He's already one of the best players at the club. But I think we will really struggle if he's ever out with suspension or injury - we don't have any other solid ball winning midfielders who can stay further down the pitch to break up counter attacks.

16 PL clubs left (West Brom, Watford, Middlesbrough and Burnley knocked out in the second round). A minimum of 4 more knocked out in the third round (Southampton or Crystal Palace, Swansea or Man City, Stoke or Hull, Leicester or Chelsea). Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool all playing away in the third round. A kind draw so far. If we navigate our way past Norwich then we'll have around a 1/3 chance of playing a non-PL team in the fourth round.

"The highly-regarded 20-year-old left-back arrives from Everton until the end of the 2016/17 campaign, on a deal which does not include a recall clause." I honestly think it's a great move. We have a fit Baines and Oviedo as first and second choice left backs, and Funes Mori and Connolly who can come in as cover if needed - his development is better served getting 20+ games this season at West Brom under Pulis who will educate the kid on defensive structure.

Koeman's comments at the press conference sound as though Niasse is resisting a move away. Looks like any deal with Galatasaray has fallen through. Hopefully Hull can fork out a £1-2 million loan fee

Koeman needs to work on his discipline to get the most out of him. It's obvious where the comparisons to Kante start, and where they end: Tackles: Kante 175 (1st), Gueye 144 (2nd) Interceptions: Kante 156 (1st), Gueye 141 (2nd) Fouls: Kante 43 (25th), Gueye 68 (1st) Yellow Cards: Kante 3 (133rd), Gueye 10 (2nd)

The captain needs to be one of the first picked in a starting XI every week. If we bring in another central midfielder (or maybe even just with Gueye coming in), Barry will be in the side just as much as Jags is, if not less - he's hardly an upgrade. IMO, these are the boxes that a captain must tick: 1. loves the club - Jagielka, Baines, Coleman, Barkley, Barry, McCarthy, Lukaku, Cleverley, Stones, Besic 2. will be at the club beyond this season - Jagielka, Baines, Coleman, Barkley, Barry, McCarthy, Cleverley, Besic 3. will always be in the starting XI - Jagielka, Baines, Coleman, Barkley, McCarthy?, Cleverley, Besic 4. have the appropriate experience and leadership qualities - Baines, Coleman, Barkley, McCarthy I don't think Barry is any improvement over Jags as captain. Baines and Coleman are more suitable long-term options.

Sold: McGeady, Stones, Garbutt, McAleny Loaned Out: Niasse, Galloway, Rodríguez Deadwood: Kone, Barry? - Niasse and McGeady already confirmed as gone. - Stones was dreadful against Man U. That £40m offer is looking more and more enticing. - Garbutt not given a squad number. At 23, I see little point in him going out on loan again. We have enough cover at LB with Baines, Oviedo, Galloway and Connolly. I could see him being sold to a championship or league 1 side for something around £500,000 - Same as above goes for McAleny. - Rodríguez not given a squad number either. Should be sent on a season-long loan somewhere else in England. - Based on his pre-season form, Holgate has moved above Galloway in the peking order for CB. And with Baines and Oviedo both fully fit (for now), Galloway is third choice at LB. I think his development is best served being loaned out to a championship side for the season. Callum Connolly is capable of taking over third choice LB and RB duties. - Kone is shite.. - Gueye signing makes the DM position overcrowded. There's also the very real possibility that we'll bring in another central midfielder. Gibson has just signed a new 2 year deal and his value in the transfer market would be almost nothing - the club wouldn't have offered him that contract only to get rid of him a few months later. Cleverley's versatility covering as a winger makes him a useful player in the squad. Besic has probably shown enough to be retained for another season. Tom Davies is looking very promising and doesn't look like he'll get loaned out. McCarthy was instrumental in our 'successful' 2013-14 season but has also been instrumental in our 'disastrous' 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. Barry was one of the best in a poor side last season, but his legs are well gone. You can't fit 7 (possibly 8) players into two positions - either McCarthy or Barry has to go. However, Kone and Barry are probably too old and too overpayed on their current contracts to leave the club, so I reckon they will both just be content with being squad players.

Jags might find it tough to get a place in the starting XI during the upcoming season even when fully fit, and ideally you want a club captain who is starting week in, week out. Crystal Palace have removed Jedinak, and appointed Scott Dann in a similar circumstance. Is it time for Koeman to appoint a new captain? If not, then who is our next captain when Jags steps down?

While AVB has signed some big flops, he's also signed some serious talent in his time: At Porto: James Rodríguez from Banfield - £4m João Moutinho from Sporting - £8m Nicolás Otamendi from Vélez Sársfield - £3m At Chelsea: Romelu Lukaku from Anderlecht - £10m Thibaut Courtois from Genk - £7m Gary Cahill from Bolton - £7m Kevin De Bruyne from Genk - £6.7m Patrick Bamford from Nottingham Forest - £1m At Tottenham: Jan Vertonghen from Ajax - £9.5m Christian Eriksen from Ajax - £11.5m Nacer Chadli from Twente - £7m But if we sign AVB I don't think it'll do much to keep Lukaku here, but that might already be a lost cause.

I'm going to say something unpopular but I think Andre Villas-Boas would be a great appointment. In the last two seasons at Zenit Saint Petersburg he's repaired a lot of his reputation by winning the Russian Premier League and then leading them to the Champions League Round of 16. His spells at Chelsea and Tottenham were not as chaotic as memory dictates. At Chelsea there were some bad losses, but he was sacked in his first season when they were sitting at 5th - keep in mind Mourinho didn't get the sack until they hit 16th this season. Chelsea were also at the Round of 16 in the Champions League when he got sacked and they went on to win it that season. At Tottenham he finished 5th in his first season missing Champions League qualification by 1 point which is commendable. In his second season Tottenham won all six of thier europa league games. He was sacked in December of that season when they slipped down to 7th in the league. His sacking was mostly on the basis that he didn't spend the Gareth Bale money efficiently when Paulinho, Soldado, and co. turned out to be flops - but accountability for that has to be split evenly with the Tottenham board and higher-ups at the time including Franco Baldini. Overall he's got a good pedigree, do not forget that he led Porto to an undefated season and a Europa League title in 2010-11. He has a list of commendable achievements in the champions league and europa league. He's got experience in the premier league - two PL manger of the month awards at Tottenham. And you'd expect he's learnt from his mistakes. He's off contact in a few months and is available. I'd be very happy if he was signed as manager.

Howard - Gone. Hibbert - Contract expires June 30. Signed to coaching role if willing. Osman - Contract expires June 30. Signed to coaching role if willing. Gibson - Contract expires June 30. Released Pienaar - Contract expires June 30. Released Kone - Sold for at least £1m. You would think there would be suitors in the middle east or China. McGeady - Sold for at least £1m. Stones - Sold for at least £45m. Barry - Sold on a free. Miralas - Sold for at least £10m. Oviedo - Sold for at least £4m. Lukaku - If it is inevitable that he leaves, then you would hope that we don't get anything less than £50m. I haven't seen a whole heap of speculation that Barkey wants to go so I fully expect him to stay. If Lukaku and Stones go then I would say we will probably have £100m to £115m + the new Moshiri investment money in the bank to the spend, which is a significant amount of money. I'd purchase the new players a few weeks before officially selling those two - so that the clubs we buy from aren't asking for an inflated price tag..

I think Funes Mori is one of the biggest problems in our team and I don't accept that he makes 'the odd mistake', I think he makes rather large mistakes. consistently. For example against Liverpool: 1. If you watch the second goal again. Funes Mori peeled off Sakho early to challenge Origi and left Baines, the smallest player in the team bar Lennon, to challenge Sakho. This is extremely poor positioning and poor decision making from Funes Mori because: a ) Origi was already marked by Barry and Barry was in front of him. b ) Funes Mori was a metre behind Origi when the ball was whipped in. Even if the ball went to Origi, Funes Mori isn't in a good enough position to challenge Origi. Funes Mori symbolically jumping behind Origi when he's already marked by Barry achieves nothing in this scenario. Meanwhile Sakho gets a semi-free header. I don't understand what Funes Mori was doing here, this is defending 101. 2. Funes Mori was only on the field for about 50 minutes and I can count at least 3 occasions where he's gone to pass the ball out to the flanks and missed the target completely, turning over possession. 3. His clearances were rushed and from that he gave away possession to the Liverpool midfield time and time again. Although all of the back 4 were guilty of this. 4. His red card was an ugly challenge. But apart from this game, his discipline this season has been pretty decent (4 yellow cards in a season for a CB is pretty good) so I don't know if I can say that this really adds much to the point I am trying to make - the first three points are far more important in my mind. The simple point I was trying to make above was that Funes Mori is not delivering anywhere near what you would expect of a CB costing £9.5m. And you can ignore the point I made about Deulofeu then.. I'll make a similar comparison: for the price of Funes Mori, you could buy three Robert Huths or two Eric Diers Sweeping generalisations such as "he's a first choice centre half for Argentina, that tells you something" adds very little because, well for one, he only has 5 caps and for another, being chosen for Argentina is good achievement but his performances for Everton are far more telling of his ability.

So it seems what's happened here is: - In January we were languishing in middle of the table, so Martinez decided he needed reinforcements - Niasse was having a blinder of a season in Russia and was leading top goalscorer in the league - There was more than 1 club chasing his signature so if Martinez really wanted him then he had to get him in January and had to fork out the £13.5m fee - Because of the long Russian winter break, he didn't have match fitness straight away - Because of Lukaku's form, there have been some but very few opportunities for him to get decent minutes With the benefit of hindsight, I think Niasse is an opportunity that Martinez could have let slip. I think it was obvious by the end of January/beginning of February that we weren't going to challenge for the top 4 and winter window signings are always 30%-50% inflated because everyone needs a star player and no body wants to lose one mid-season. £13.5m is a lot to pay for someone who won't do anything of significance until next season, by which time we will have Tarashaj and could have bought a player of a similar skill level to Niasse for a cheaper price.

I'm looking at the players currently signed on to next season. I am sure people will have their corrections but I think our squad depth isn't too far off this: GK: Robles + NEW PLAYER + NEW PLAYER/Stanek RB: Coleman, Stones, Oviedo, Browning, Holgate, Connolly + NEW PLAYER? CB: Jagielka, Stones, Funes Mori, Holgate, Galloway, Pennington, Browning, Foulds + NEW PLAYER? LB: Baines, Oviedo, Galloway, Funes Mori, Connolly DM: McCarthy, Barry, Besic, Cleverley, Ledson, Davies, Connolly + NEW PLAYER ACM/CM: Barkley, Cleverley, Barry + NEW PLAYER RW/RM: Lennon, Deulofeu, Miralas, Kone, Cleverley, McGeady + NEW PLAYER LW/LM: Miralas, Lennon, Cleverley, Oviedo, Tarashaj, Kone, Barkley, Deulofeu, McGeady ST: Lukaku, Niasse, Tarashaj, Kone, Rodriguez, McAleny It's up to personal opinion to say who those new players will be, where they will fit in the line, and who will be sold. Consensus seems to be that McGeady will go. IMO we should sign a new starting CB, a new starting DM, a GK to challenge Robles, a backup ACM and a backup RW.

- Hibbert and Osman should be moved to coaching roles if they are willing. - I think there is little case to keep Pienaar and Gibson. - I don't have enough knowledge to comment on Grant. I've heard he has a little bit of potential so perhaps a one-year extension is on the cards? - Stanek could stay as number 3 GK since we will obviously sign an replacement for Howard. I think that leaves us with space to fill for a new GK, DM, ACM and possible winger.

I think he gets more praise then he deserves because he's pitched in a few goals as a CB. But he plays too high up the field, has poor positioning in set pieces and is wasteful with possession going forward when he takes long shots from distance instead of building up play. £9.5m was a high price to pay for a CB when you compare that to Deulofeu who cost less than half of that and is younger and a winger. This season showed us that we don't have a problem scoring goals, the problems in defence are much more obvious and immediate. Our transfer activity in the off-season is too unpredictable to speculate at this stage; with new investment coming in and no one being sure whether we can hold on to Lukaku, Stones and even Barkley. But one of the priorities will be to shore up at least one new CB. If we want to challenge for champions league football next season, then I don't think Funes Mori has the required skill level to be a starting CB, I am not sure whether old man Jagielka will have the legs to play out the season, and who knows what will happen with Stones... I'd be very disappointed if Martinez does little to improve the central defence pairing in the off-season.

Updated for the upcoming transfer window: GK: Howard, Robles, Stanek RB: Coleman, Stones, Hibbert, Browning, Holgate CB: Jagielka, Stones, Funes Mori, Galloway, Browning, Pennington, Holgate LB: Baines, Galloway, Oviedo, Funes Mori DM: McCarthy, Barry, Besic, Cleverley, Gibson, Osman RW/RM: Deulofeu, Lennon, Mirallas, Barkley, Kone, Cleverley, Pienaar, McGeady, Naismith ACM/CM: Barkley, Cleverley, Osman, Naismith, Pienaar, Barry LW/LM: Mirallas, Kone, Barkley, Deulofeu, Cleverley, Oviedo, Lennon, McGeady, Osman ST: Lukaku, Naismith, Kone, Rodriguez, McAleny Debatably Miralas & Kone could be swapped, as could Howard & Robles. Honestly said, our squad depth is quite good but the bigger questions are about first XI choice.

David Moyes

Everton 2 - 1 Leicester Deulofeu