barryj

20 minutes ago, RPG said:

Maybe, but if the 'plan' is not to play him, why buy him in the first place?

Bought to use but subsequently found out he isn’t what we need or the right fit. I can’t see any other explanation. 

I assume we don’t want to play him as we don’t want to activate the number of games clause. 

7 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

I am so fucking drained after that. I honestly feel like I could sleep for a week now I'm back home after the game. But, I'm glad I can actually be at the games and feel like I can have some sort of impact on the result. I have no idea how you lot that can't actually be there cope!

We really played as a team today and I'm proud of them. It would have been easy to be completely flat after that Burnley game and then to be playing United next, who may be hit and miss but they still have quality players that can hurt you. They weren't flat though, and while there wasn't a lot of quality on show there was a hell of a lot of grit and heart. We fought for that and earned those three points by giving everything to the cause.

Pickford made some quality saves and commanded his area well for the most part.

I know Keane's getting some stick for his performance at the beginning of the game but I thought he and Godfrey provided a good bedrock for the side. They won a lot of aerial balls between them and we needed them to.

Mykolenko is growing by the game and that's another one where he's been more than solid, and I love his whole attitude when he plays. Under pressure he doesn't go to bits or hide, he just gets on with it.

Coleman was targeted by United all game, they concentrated on our right side but he stood up to it very well.

Gordon was fucked by about the 32nd minute. I'm convinced he was hurt but didn't want to come off. That Dogs of War attitude is exactly what we need.

Iwobi was fucking immense. I cannot tell you just how impressed I was with him. As an attacking player you do not expect the sort of defensive quality he showed today. I was a bit blown away if I'm honest.

Delph... what can I say. He came back in and he provided that bit of calmness in the middle of the park and more often than not chose the right option when he had a hold of the ball.

Allan was like a little terrier, as you expect him to be. Lacked composure at times but he was still a big reason why we've come away with the three points. He won the ball back plenty for us.

Richarlison was out on his feet by the end of the game, he never stopped. I don't know where he was finding the energy from towards the end of the second half.

While I'm not convinced DCL is anywhere near fit I also don't think he did enough in the game. It's not that I don't think he's trying to battle or not putting the effort in, but so many times he was jumping too early and giving himself no chance of winning the header. He needs to get his head in the game.

Fantastic post and almost word for word how I feel. I’d probably say it was Mykos best Everton performance to date and he has a real motor. I’d also probably be slightly harsher on DCL who I thought was poor. Other than that I’d completely agree with the other comments. I felt today it took the players to lift the crowd and once they did that it was responded to. 

It was definitely draining

Worth the long drive today. Boy we needed that. More relief than anything else today. There were some really good individual performances in there. 

The management of the club is the issue. I feel for Lampard but said at the time I thought it a right manger at the wrong time for his appointment. It needed experience but I think some of the fan base pushing for Lampard didn’t help and the board are so weak they pandered to the graffiti on the stadium after the horrendous Rafa appointment when they didn’t listen to the fans general consensus. I think Lampard could have made different decisions in a number of matches but it’s stupid individual errors are what’s killing us. We can’t keep a managerial merry go round imo. Stick to a style and philosophy and build on that through thick and thin. 

1 hour ago, RuffRob said:

We have leapfrogged Burnley with the bookies and are now 3rd fav to go down. After last night and the confidence boost that win has given Burnley today I really think the club need to start making plans for the now likelihood of Championship football next season. 

for a long term rebuild I think Lampard and the coaching team assembled is a good choice. However, to scraps for every point in a Premiership relegation fight the gamble of his appointment just has not paid off, this has not been helped by losing some many defensive players since he has arrived. Losing Patterson, De Beek and Keane this week just pretty much sums our luck or lack off it up this season. Somehow, I think we are just destine to go down. 

In how many games this season have we been able to field an unchanged side?, most games it seem to be two or three forced changes.

The only one positive of going down is that this squad will get dismantled even more so than it would if we stayed up and a team could be built around the likes of Gordon, Patterson, Mykolenko, Godfrey, Branthwaite and other top talent in our U23 - the Championship might be a better level of division for this kind of rebuild with talented youngsters. Clutching at straws, but have a horrible feeling this is now going to be the reality of next season. 

Could a season (I pray it would only be one) in the Championship give Lampard et al the breathing space to get a 'team' and playing philosophy together?

Relegation will be a disaster and recovery likely a long process. 

10 hours ago, Hafnia said:

The fans basically. We will make it a bear pit. 

I think it might be a different atmosphere on Saturday. You can’t keep going to the same well before it runs dry.

6 hours ago, Cornish Steve said:

Can someone explain to me why El Ghazi was brought in? I genuinely feel sorry for the guy, because it's obvious he has no place here.

Who?

Ridiculous transfer, but then again we all know why it happened. 

I think we need the next game! 

I agree a I said that in one of my above comments. There were definitely better options. Richie on the half turn would have been miles better had he seen him (I assume he didn’t). He won’t be around for Burnley so we’ll have to see how we do there without him. I actually think he’d be our best CB for that match as he’s aerially better than Holgate or Godfrey.

2 hours ago, Palfy said:

You can over analyse everything that happens in a football game, but keeping your shape is so important especially so in defence, a midfielder loses the ball in the opposition’s half that shouldn’t automatically lead to a goal, a lot more mistakes came into play before the ball hit the back of the net.  This goal isn’t  solely one person’s fault. 

If he was tackled we would have been fine. It was just that the miss control compounded the problem as it acted as perfect pass to the midfielder who could put Antonio through with one touch. You can’t set up a defence on anticipation that your own player can’t control a simple ball. The fact one pass led to the striker having a shot on goal means it would automatically lead to a good chance. We were lucky it wasn’t one of the fastest strikers so the chance wasn’t even as good as it could have been. If it were say a Vardy he’d of used his pace to make it a better chance and would score that almost every time. 

21 minutes ago, Bailey said:

 

If anyone wants the lowlights they are here.

This agenda against Keane is absolutely pathetic. In fact its madness and I question the sanity of some of you. If you want to moan about Keane all you need to do is look at the two fouls he gave away. That is his bread and butter and he fucks both challenges up royally. That is the stick you beat Keane with.

To try and say he should have passed to Richarlison (on his own) or he should have passed to Doucoure (very risky), or he shouldn't have dribbled 5 yards into space taking two players out of the game etc really is pathetic. He plays a perfectly good ball to Iwobi, who has not only space, but he is in a position where he has immediate support from Kenny, who in turn has Gray ahead of him to play an easy pass to. Whilst I would expect the cover to come over, the ball from Keane actually gives us a 3 v 2 in that right hand side if we can attack the space. Whether he sees that or whether it is blind luck is open to debate.

Either way there is absolutely nothing wrong with the dribble or ball from Keane and I can't believe it is even a talking point.

Keane might have not seen Richie as at one point Godfrey coming back could have obscured his view in that split second. 

He wasn’t under anywhere near the pressure some are alluding. It’s easy to put a still up that tries to prove the point but that there is the reality of when he received it. Keane did a lot wrong but that being called out as a terrible decision is clutching at straws.

5 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

Apparently Iwobi gestures to Keane that he wants the pass, but I don't know if that's true as I can't bring myself to watch any of yesterday back again.

I can’t recall but he had the time and space so makes sense. He’s certainly controlled and played the ball in much tighter situations many more times in that game. It was complacency and lack of concentration. Individual errors are seriously costing us.

11 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

Iwobi should have controlled the ball absolutely no doubt - ultimately its his fault.  I think fans like myself are eager to defend him because he should plenty of heart in that game and cruel things like that can happen to pros - see gerrard vs chelsea.

This is the beauty of "putting in a shift" - fans will forgive mistakes or moments of lack of quality.  Too many of our players don't seem to feel this and instead they hide cos they dont wanna be the person who messes up..... multiply that by 5 or 6 and you are looking at a relegated side.  Iwobi got my man of the match because his attitude was an example.

On to Keane - he's thick.    Look at what he actually did - he did a needless mini dribble as last man (why?) and mykolenko likely stayed deep to cover and played them onside.  Then he suddenly got a nose bleed and panicked, had absolutely no awareness to see Richarlison in acres and just "hot potatoed" it to Iwobi who rightly or wrongly would not have been expecting that ball.  Anyone who has played the game has had them passed at them and its a "yeah thanks mate".

 

I agree there were better options prior both Richie and Gray but ultimately he was in more than enough space to control the ball and it’s that lapse in concentration I see from him regularly that costs the team and him personally. Had he have controlled it no one would be talking about the options as I’m sure if we go through the match minute by minute there would be loads of examples from all our players of not taking the ‘best’ option. On a positive note he has been much better of late in his effort and output and it was him who put Richie through on both occasions in the first half. He would have been my MOTM if it wasn’t for that mistake that ultimately cost us a point. 

Im not even going to start on Keane as I’ve not enough time! 

Can’t give a MOTM to a player that ultimately cost us a point being ridiculous by being lackadaisical. Problem is there weren’t many other stand out performers. 

Iwobi had a good game up to that absolute clanger! To try and really blame anyone else for their second goal is ludicrous. He’s a professional footballer who could control a slow 6 years pass to his feet. For me this is why I’ve never warmed to him he always has a shocker in his locker that overshadows all the good things he does. Yesterday it cost us badly. We had just got back into the game and we’re in the ascendancy.

2 minutes ago, Palfy said:

It is tough and a big ask especially when you live so far away, and midweek games are very restrictive for a lot of people. My original comment was said in jest mate just in case I gave you the impression that I was outing you in some way. 

Not at all I’ve been around enough years to have feel for your responses! ………If it was was twitter it would be another story and I’d be crucified especially at the moment. 

On the game I’ve literally no idea how I would or Frank will set up the defence. I personally would like to see a consistent team selection and setup to and get us through this. It’s been poor all round from top down but the constant changes to personnel and systems really imo don’t help. 

42 minutes ago, Palfy said:

Go mate your team needs you. 

I probably will but with an early meeting in London Friday morning and not getting back until around 2am it’s tough (especially if we get beat!). I’m just fed up of these rearranged fixtures being put on midweek which were no fault of our own. 

To go or not to go? That’s the question. Not missed a home game so far this season but with around 8hrs round trip on another week night is a push. Also the damn petrol price increase is killing me! 

13 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

I'm not even angry after that game, I'm just defeated and utterly deflated. I don't think it was a set of players that weren't trying and didn't care about what was happening, it was a set of players that were utterly terrified. They did not want to try anything - absolutely no movement off the ball so when we did manage to actually get hold of the ball we did nothing with it because there were very few options for the man with the ball.

We actually started the game really well and positively and created a few chances that if we'd put them away the game would have been a lot different. As it was, Wolves grew into the game in terms of getting hold of the ball and we retreated into our shells. The game had 0-0 written all over it, neither team looked like scoring but then they did and that was that. We just got more and more fearful. Then Kenny has a brainfart and the game was well and truly gone then.

Again, I think Lampard played a part in that today. As soon as that line-up was released I was extremely worried. I don't think he got that right at all.

I think that sums it up very well. I felt exactly the same and I was still confident pre match we’d be ok but now there is a very real likelihood we’ll go down. You just need to see where we are (rock bottom) in a table from October.  Gray looked bright but quickly went off the boil. I just don’t see us creating enough chances and we’re conceding regularly at the other end. It’s a recipe for disaster. I’ve not missed a game all season but I’m seriously considering not making the 8 hour round trip Thursday. 

Leaving in 30 mins. Let’s hope they can make the trip back happier than most this season! 

9 hours ago, StevO said:

Baz doing a better job of keeping us up to date than the club. I’m sure the original peoples project website isn’t online anymore and the app hasn’t changed for a long time. The webcam never happened either. 

I’m sure I read/heard they were going to add the webcam when the structure started to up (which is now). I’d of liked to have seen this. It’s bad when other people have done a better job on YouTube with Timelapse drone footage. 

……..but will he be any good at football for us?