nogs

I didn't think Silva did too bad at all in his first season - we had an awful run of form then turned it round and finished strongly. There were reasons to be optimistic in May. I then thought we had a poor transfer window, the punt on Kean might end up being justified long term but this season it left us starting out with a glaring lack of proven goalscoring options, and I thought the failed Zouma pursuit which left us with three senior CBs was verging on criminal. Then we/Silva got very unlucky with the Gbamin/Gomes injuries. We still don't know if we've replaced Gana and have had our best midfielder taken away for the season. 

That said, we were all entitled to see progress under Silva this season and instead we saw the opposite. It was like groundhog day - back to the worst football we played last season, back to the horror show of Koeman's last couple of months. The team looked slow, lightweight, devoid of ideas, easily rolled over. It wasn't good enough and a club as big as ours can't afford to slip into the relegation zone at Christmas and hope things will turn around. It was the right decision to sack Silva, who it turns out had been appointed above his capabilities and you get the feeling the players knew that. Now we have a manager who no one can say that about, and we can move forward accordingly with optimism for a new decade ahead. 

1 hour ago, Bailey said:

Whilst Ancelotti should get credit for the changes, was it not the wrong side to start with? Not the easiest time of the year, which I get, but Richarlison wasn't involved until the sub, Sidibe was beaten time and time again at right back and neither Holgate or Keane were dealing with their centre forwards. Davies in central midfield was also a passenger for most of the game and it wasn't until he moved to the inside left position that he found any influence. 

The changes that were made were perfect, but for them to have such an impact it shows that there were problems to start with. 

Every team has to make changes at this time of year or you risk injuring key players. From what I heard we were all over them for 30 mins with 70% possession but then they came back. We held out for a while, they equalised, then Carlo made changes and we won. So no, he got it bang on

Couldn't watch it but fantastic result. Can we all accept we have a number 9 worth sticking with now? 

I understand the need to rotate at this time of year but Keane frightens me every time he's named in the starting XI, especially if we try to play out from the back. Also thought he'd stick with Bernard who only played an hour and was pretty effective in that role

30 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

It didn’t even sound like we’d look for a new forward in the summer. Obviously that would change if we sold any of them though.

Hopefully we go all out for some creativity in the summer. It’s doable. Look at Leicester getting Tielemans. 

Linked with Insigne this morning but could just be lazy journalism

Has to be a CB top of the list. No way Keane can be trusted playing out from the back the way we were doing v Burnley. It was always madness going into the season with just 3 anyway, we've been lucky Holgate has progressed the way he has. 

My missus heard something on radio about Ancellotti saying a forward wouldn't be a priority and he was happy with what he had for now. I imagine a CM would just be a stop gap loan deal with Gomes and Gbamin to come back. January isn't the time for major surgery I wouldn't be surprised if we only make one or two signings 

2 hours ago, Bailey said:

 

I'm not sure if he would play Richarlison the same way. Richarlison is a direct player,  running with the ball and taking shots as opposed to Bernard who is more creative and links the defence or midfield to the attack. I would expect to see Richarlison more suited to a role where he has more opportunity to finish than create. Same with Walcott (whereas Iwobi is more in the Bernard mould). 

What you'd get with Richarlison playing the LM role is a different kind of threat - cutting inside on his right to shoot, or arriving at the back post to head in crosses which I reckon he does better from a wide position than when he plays centrally. It's also an option if Ancellotti can either get Kean going or buys an out and out goalscorer. 

What I'm thinking writing this is that suddey we do seem to have options, a month ago I had no idea what system suited our squad! 

2 hours ago, StevO said:

Not sure if you saw this article Nogs, but it pretty much played out just as it describes. Bernard playing that left side position and pulling inside leaving space for the full back. 
 

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ancelotti-everton-tactics-new-manager-17407007

 

He certainly stuck with what he knows yesterday then! Be interesting to see if he fancies Richarlison in the LM role like the article suggests and gives Kean a go up top with DCL - like I said, thought it suited Bernard really well. We must be prioritising a CB in January, I wonder if he'll see Holgate as an option at RB if he gets one? Think he'd be better suited to switching back into CB than Coleman. 

Thought Bernard had his best half for us but faded. Sidibe just gets the nod over him for me, tireless workrate and alwatmys provided an outlet. I thought the way the wide mids played made up for the fact Delph and Sigurdsson weren't very good in the centre. 

Well deserved win. Looked like it could have been a frustrating afternoon, Ancellotti will know 100% now we lack quality in the final third and it almost meant we failed to break Burnley down despite being much the better team. But we got the goal so happy days. 

Interesting that Ancellotti kept Dunc's 4-4-2 but got us playing a much more possession based game. Thought it worked well over all. 

3 hours ago, TallPaul1878 said:

The players are good enough to be seeing off the minnows of the division, it's a travesty that we find ourselves in the situation we are in. Carlo's short term target this year will be to hopefully deliver the FA Cup, break the hoodoo we have against Liverpool and finish in a more respectable top half position.

Next season, with some appropriate additions to the squad we should be able to launch a real challenge to the top 4 of the table. All of the traditional big clubs are in a transition and the opportunity is there for a club to establish itself as the new order. At the moment though, that club looks like Leicester.

Problem is we have been saying we should be breaking into the top 4 every season since we finished 5th under Martinez. I still reckon that was our big opportunity, fucked up by Martinez's criminal lack of tactical awareness defensively. Since then, under Moshiri's watch we have seen a catalogue of rank bad recruitment turn our squad into a bit of a laughing squad and absolutely nowhere near challenging at the top of the league. I don't think it's realistic to expect that to be turned around in two transfer windows. My concern is that there will be big pressure on Ancellotti to achieve fast results, well throw a load more money around without a proper long term strategy and in 12 months we'll all be scratching our heads wondering what went wrong. 

Ancellotti has signed for four full seasons. I reckon it could realistically take until the final 2 of those before we're genuine contenders again. He needs to be given time and patience. 

Hard to process what this means for EFC. Another season sliding into mediocrity or worse and then all of a sudden we have one of the biggest names in the game appointed manager! 

Still, his first job is making sure we get well clear of relegation trouble and starts clearing some of the shit out because no matter what his CV says, no one is winning trophies with this bunch of players. Keane, Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson, Tosun, Niasse, Martina all have to go as well as the Bolasie's and Sandro's out on loan. I'm also yet to be in any way convinced by Bernard, Iwobi and Walcott. There's no quick fixes for me. 

5 hours ago, Bailey said:

Apart from a slight lack of pace Siggurdson has every other characteristic to play in a top 4 team. He is probably our most talented and hard working footballer, which I know a lot of people won't necessarily agree with, put the problem for us is that he has constantly been a square peg in a round hole.

The argument about him never playing for a top 4 side is BS when you look at the number of players that are shite who have played for top 4 clubs (Djemba Djemba, Aliadiere, Mikel etc etc). 

 

But he never has and unless he sorts his form out for us never will. I honestly don't get why people still defend him. Square peg in a round hole? Well I just don't know what hole he belongs in, utterly underwhelming everywhere he plays. I hope one of Ancellotti's first decisions is to make it clear we can't afford to carry a £45m passenger and moves him on. 

13 minutes ago, nogs said:

No joke. He never made it at Spurs and went back to Swansea. When were they a top 4 team? 

Just checked it. The two seasons Sigurdsson was at Spurs they finished 5th and 6th. So he has never played for a team that has finished in the Top 4 of the PL. 

39 minutes ago, StevO said:

So each team has 20 or so lads in the under 23s team, one player making it into the first team from that is a tiny minority. If we didn’t have so many injured midfielders we wouldn’t even have Davies playing. 
How many prospects have we had that have made it in the last 20 years? Rooney, Rodwell, Barkley and Davies? If one player makes it that’s great but it’s not the norm. 
 

If Chelsea didn’t have a transfer ban these kids don’t get in their team. United have Rashford, but would the others get in if they weren’t so all over the place? Liverpool are the best team in the league and they have one, just one. Spurs bucked the trend due to the great work Poch did. 
City have Foden, that kid is an exceptional talent and hopefully he makes it, but they don’t have more of them lined up. 
Kids don’t come through in the premier league at any decent rate. 

What you're right about Steve is that academy graduates haven't had a great record of breaking through into PL teams. But why is that? Lack of ability? I see it as partly due to fashion. Before Wenger put together that great Arsenal team of the late 90s, where did most top flight clubs focus on for recruitment? The lower leagues and their own youth systems. Then everyone wanted to be like Arsenal, the PL was flush with Sky money and for 20 years it has been really hard for young players to break through. 

But isn't it funny how, with Brexit looming and a few clubs having to be a bit careful with FFP, there are suddenly a load more young kids playing top flight football again? 

(and by the way, you're way off just singling out Rashford at Man Utd. McTominay? Lingard? Greenwood?) 

2 hours ago, markjazzbassist said:

not sure if this is a joke, he was a spurs and played for them.  plenty good enough.

No joke. He never made it at Spurs and went back to Swansea. When were they a top 4 team? 

59 minutes ago, StevO said:

 

59 minutes ago, StevO said:

I love the positivity you have around the young players Mark, maybe that’s due to the massive influence of the drafts in the US showing prospects make it, but in the premier league it just doesn’t happen. The fact we have Tom Davies in our first team bucks the trend. Most of them (95% the last time I saw a stat) don’t make it at top level. Even DCL, we bought him, players rarely come through and make it in the PL.
If a player gets to 21, like Beni, and isn’t pushing for a first team place chances are it’s too late. 

Apart from all the academy graduates playing for Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd right now. Even Spurs have two in Kane and Winks, Liverpool one in Alexander-Arnold. So not sure how Davies 'bucks the trend'. 

On 18/12/2019 at 17:42, Bailey said:

The way I look at this is if we are trying to get into the top 4, which is good enough week in week out to play at that level. We aren't bringing in Ancellotti to keep us below that level. 

1.Siggy is but he is at the wrong end of his career 

2. Gomes is on the cusp but he has too many bad games to be properly at that level and who knows how he will come back.

3. Schneiderlin isn't. 

4. Davies isn't. 

5. Gbamin is an unknown.

6. Delph isn't. 

7. Beni isn't.  

8. Besic isn't. 

9. No-one else is.

I would like to think we will go out and recruit and start moving on those who don't have a chance, with the exception of Davies who is a handy player to have around.

 

 

At what point in his career has Sigurdsson ever been good enough for Top 4?? 

16 hours ago, AlbanyNYToffee said:

You mean with the exception of leaving Maddison absolutely wide open to score the first?

Mina and Keane were both stood on Vardy on the edge of the 6 yard box. A CM would expect the space Maddison wandered into to be occupied by one of his centre backs

15 hours ago, Johnsy said:

He must have a foot like a traction engine!!

Haha glad someone got it!! 

"Baines was in decline a decade ago nearly". "I'd rather have Unsworth over him". You're on fire this morning Pete!! 

5 hours ago, pete0 said:

Didn't both quoting the Lukaku bit. Every other post you've made is about him. It's embarrassing and boring. 

Gana didn't have the desire. Look at McCarthy winning the ball compared to him. Gana was a yappy dog with no bite. Left huge gaps that gave away clear chances game after game and offered fuck all going forward if anything was a hinderance both defensively (left gaps) and attacking-wise (slowed the play, couldn't see a pass nevermind weigh it). 

Absolutely bored of morons going on about the useless leech. We've conceded far less chances through the middle with out and far more solid and creative through the middle. Imagine him playing today instead of Davies who, it'd been an absolute shambles. Only thing he had over Davies is speed. 

Every other post is about... Oh hang on

4 hours ago, pete0 said:

I appreciate Holgate is playing out of position but he'll be buying Tom Davies a drink tonight. Very mature performance from Davies, Gareth Barry-esque, always showing for the ball and giving players that little extra time when he did pass it. Few stray balls but I'd blame the players around him more than himself. Keane and Iwobi especially weren't giving options and Holgate was really struggling against a more intelligent midfield than United's. 

Didn't see that at all Pete. Thought Davies had a decent game, worked hard as ever and took his goal well. But I thought Holgate had the better game of the two and was my MOTM. Problem with playing 4-4-2 against a midfield three, especially when your wide mids are as awful as Iwobi and Bernard were last night (and Rich was pretty anonymous 2nd half too) is that you are always going to leave gaps. I thought Holgate did very, very well covering back to fill those gaps when it looked like Leicester might get away, and also used the ball very well in possession, better than Davies last night. I wouldn't really fault them as a midfield pair at all last two games, think they've done an admirable job. 

57 minutes ago, markjazzbassist said:

and yet man city in the bottom half of ground covered during a match.  no one in the top 7 in the first 4 teams.  City don't "run through walls" to win the game, in fact they do the opposite.  

 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league-running-stats-reveal-14184242

You don't have to run as far when you never let the opposition have the ball! And that is as much about winning it back as quickly as you lose it as it is about neat technical passing.