RuffRob

Your are just making stuff up, and continuing to do so. My posts did not say we don't need Digne anywhere, my post said we will benefit from variation. No point in debating with you if you you don't really take the effort to read other peoples post properly.

Did you even read my post, who said we should now ignore Digne creating? You are just making stuff up now and making out things are black and white again. Too much laughing gas? I have said we need to be balanced and not prodominately any one biased route. ALL players need to take responsibility on getting balance in the team this season and how we play, as opposed to being one dimentional and trying to playing to any one single players preference game after game. Show me one post where anybody says Digne should be ignored offensively?

such a black and white comment - nobody is suggesting Digne is 'switched off' as an offensive option. Just that we develop and mix it up more than stick it out left for Digne to put a cross in. Its been our default attacking outlet for a couple of years, and its been getting less potent as team kind of know what we are going to try and do. Do you not think we should have alternatives and more varied options to attacking than Digne getting crosses in? No harm in some attacks coming via Digne, but lets try and develop away from simply being a one trick pony. Don't get bogged down by one players stats.

No shit. but Grey and Doucoure have been doing well this season so far - my guess is that Digne is having to take a little bit of an offensive back sit to accommodate these being further up the pitch. Look at Digne stats of the years he has been here - a steady decline year on year (not just this seasons). Opposition teams know what we are going to to do. We definitely need more of an offensive arsenal than give it to Digne in the final third.

we have been playing to the strengths of one of the most successful attacking full backs in Europe (with little else on offer) for 3 years now maybe time to build a more balanced offensive approach as it might be more sustainable in the long term.

nobody is 100% sure what is happening - that why I said 'seems to' rather than 'has'. But player have to give a new manager a chance as much as fans, even if it means a bit of self sacrifice or playing out of position and taking one for the team as they say. World Cup at the end of this season so a lot of players will also have half an eye on that.

I would quite like us to go back in for Maitland Niles - Can immediately play RB, but also has the potential to develop in to a cracking midfielder as well. He has pace and high energy. I think he would do well when playing regular. Would defiantly improve our squad and allow other players so be shifted. Ideally Arteta obviously does not want him to go, but player seems to definitely want to move on and would hope we are in a good position given we showed interest in him during the summer. will be plenty of opportunities for him on our right side of the pitch.

took the words right out of my mouth.

sounds like he is coming - I am a bit sceptical we are paying the money quoted though. Sounds very much like Digne will move on - I have mixed feelings, he has been a great player, but I think his numbers have been so good because the team has played very much to his strengths in the past - because we have been poor elsewhere offensively. This year his numbers have not been so great but we have to remember Grey has been take on a much more of the offensive burden on the left, and Doucoure has had a bit more freedom to get forward rather than cover for attaching full backs. Grey and Doucoure have been stand out performers this season. We do have to consider this. It's easy to jump on the headline that Digne is offensively less effective so far this season, but this has to a degree been balanced by good performances by others. Now this is by no mean perfect, but as a LB Digne must realise we need as a teams to develop from more than just a offensive LB being our default attacking outlet. I am a little disappointed that he seems to have thrown his toys out of the pram because our default offensive approach is not currently focused on him. I am sure if he bided his time and the squad improves to where we could retain the ball better in possession (which is key)- Digne would them be encouraged again to get forward a little more. I do think it would take a period of time for this young lad to bed in in a new country, club and league. So Digne out and this lad in as an immediate swap is far from ideal. I expect to see Godfrey out left for much of this season if this was happening.

maybe they did, but we don't really know yet after only a few months and a terrible injury crisis over the past two months. Maybe the one after Benitez might not work either. Maybe Ancelotti might have done better this season if he hadn't run for the hills. Maybe if we change the manager every 6 months one might work. Benitez got it spot on in his last press conference - you can't sort out 5years of mismanagement in 5 months. Neither him nor anybody else. This team needs unpicking and essentially rebuilding. I know some demand and want to instant improvement, but that has been our owners problem over the past 5 years - no patients. Any sort of change takes time and the road is going to be rough not smooth. We are not one of the big clubs that has strength in depth of playing talent that a new manager can just come in and juggle about with a system, approach and mentality and get them all playing as a unit. pulling in another £20M player here and there. We are a light on numbers and quality rag tag squad of second and third tier players put together by ten or so different people pulling in different directions. So much needs sorting with the team, and not silly money to do it - which actually might be a blessing., as so many have come here simply for big paydays in the recent past.

I don't disagree that it is likley to be an unhappy ending, but just as likey this will to be down to unaccepting fans as anything else. But that does not change the fact that at this momnet in time we are not an attractive club right now to managers. If you are a manager and doing well somewhere are you going to jack in your job to come here at this moment in time? Shamble of a board, trigger happy owner, and peanuts of a transfer kitty? Don't do yourself down, we fans are bright enough to come up with a few names of candidates that we think would be better than Benitez at this very moment? But given we are pretty skint I am at a loss of who we would realisitically attract and would be less risky than Benitez.

A lot has changed at the club since then, so you seem to keep ducking the queation? - if you dumped Benitez now, which you seem to champion - who would want to come to manage us? StevO admits he has no idea who would be better at this moment in time and lives in hope that some of the 'staff' behind the scenes at the club might now somehow have the answer. Its piss easy to rip holes in this that and the other, but not so easy come up come up with realistic solutions.

Every single one of us wrote them off before a ball was kicked against the European Champions. The sort of result that can start to turn a season around. Coming back from a goal behind. Benitez has nowhere near lost this dressing room. Cracking performance. If the likes of Digne or other are not up for getting on board with those in the team who will knuckle down then they can jog on.

will carry a bit of confidence in to the second half. We go down the tunnel the happier of the two teams. Need to keep good confidence especially for the first 10mins of the second half and frustrate the hell out of them.

https://www.grandoldteam.com/2021/12/16/dynamo-kyiv-manager-vitaliy-mykolenko-is-going-to-everton/

need to weather the initial storm and then just frustrate the hell out of them.

I hope this is genuine and not him just trying to be clever after being dropped. Especially us being down to bear bones.

Well what a line up to face the current Champions of Europe at home - damage limitation and we do anything better than 3-0 will be an achievement. Possibly either Godrey or Holgate as a defensive midfield to me.

Of all your attempts to justify Benitez out, this the real crux of it - you didn't want him from the start. So current run of form caused mainly with a load injured players and a generally week squad if players is conveniently used to try and justify the argument he should never have been here. I didn't want him here because he would simply never be accepted by a significant proportion, and your are kind of proving this case. But now he is here I am going to support him and give him at least a fair crack at turning this team around. The alternative is back to the drawing board - as nobody has come up with a answer of who comes instead of him and make us instantly good..

Pickford Holgate Keane Branthwaite Godfrey Delph Gomes Iwobi Gbamin/Onyango Grey Rondon In arses against the wall games, last year we seemed to do OK with four CB as the back like. This really is a park the bus type of game. At the back with Coleman and Digne not starting perfect chance to get Branthwaite involved. Doucoure can be rested and give either Gbamin or the youngster Onyango a crack slightly higher up the pitch.

http://www.thehardtackle.com/news/2021/12/16/transfer-news-everton-eyeing-january-move-for-fabien-centonze/

nobody is saying regardless. First 5 games - near full squad - decent points return (I know it wasn't against top teams - but points are points. last 9 games - injury ridden squad - very poor return. (but I am not sure which miracle worker gets gets good performances or many point in this situation - this is the Premier league so no easy games). next 10 games - injury hit squad or not (we don't yet know), points return - (we don't yet know), impact or quality of new signings - (we don't yet know) So conclusion - jury still out, but its not panic stations just yet. If we had not have had a injury crisis I would be more concern. but this prolonged poor run has coincided exactly with an injury crisis to what is a relatively small squad - this is an undeniable fact. I want to see what he can do when he has most of the players back. So yes, happy to see him hear if we are in bottom 3 and we still have lots of crocked players over the coming weeks. What is your answer to my question? Who is this replacement we could attract to get a injury hit team to perform?

Martinez - on the back of solid team and best squad we have had in years, then downhill Koeman - money, money, money and still costing us dearly now and then downhill Silva - again spent plenty and squad and debt legacy still with us and then downhill If you think panicking and swapping out Benitez for another Koeman or Silva is the way forward then we are doomed. And even if you did, not sure how you get them here with no compensation money or transfer kitty to entice them. At this moment in time - What do you offer a manager to come here?

The crux of the problem is that playing staff is just not good enough to be anything better than mid table. Neither Ancelotti or Benitez are able to get that much out of this band of players. We managed to get a few surprise results last year against some big teams in empty stadia, but those results where all rather fortuitous and very much against the run of play lets not kid ourselves the football and most of the results was not awful for the most part of last year. We did have injuries, but not to the extent we have had over the past couple of months. I am not sure which manager people think would just come in am wave a magic wand and make things all better and turn this team in one than can go out an dominate games on the front foot or even go out and pick up loads of points. The passing and movement capabilities of this squad of players is pretty poor. Swapping our managers every 6months or so is not going to make this problem go away, that's just wishful thinking and simply muddies this squad even more. Who is this person so much better than the current incumbent that we would be able to attract to manage this club who have a shambles of a board, a ordinary playing squad and a bag of beans in the transfer kitty. We don't have an open cheque book to pay massive wages or compensation to another team for the manager and even less when we pay off the current manager. We don't have the luxury of money being no object anymore - quit the opposite. The only managers who would realistically come here are ones none of us would really want - The 'Steve Bruce's of this world. I see no more risk in sticking with and getting behind the one we currently have.

Before you blow a gasket, nobody is saying we are improving yet. All a lot of people want to see is the current manager (benitez or not) give a fair period of time. What is a fair period of time for a any manager to turn a club around? Do you think we should be changing managers every 4 month then? After an initial honeymoon period, plenty of teams go backwards when a new regime comes in before they stabilise and bring in their own players etc and begin to build. We are still in a decembling phase on a good part of this squad, never mind building. So a simple question - personal biases aside - how long should any new manager be given?