Blue Monday

 

 

I see where you're coming from, but for me Drenthe is a bit of a sword without a hilt. Can be lethal for or against us. Makes it hard to play him 90 minutes when you just know he's going to do something stupid and only might do something brilliant. I like the idea of having him come off the bench and change things and would love for him to develop his game from tricks to football.

 

As to composure, I'd say that's one of his biggest weaknesses, can't make up his mind so ends up running at players until something happens, good or bad. Players with composure know what they want to do and execute it.

I agree with this, it is a significant problem, but if Drenthe did have a better footballing brain he could be an unbelievable player. I suppose this failing is why he is at Everton rather than still at Madrid. There is so much potential there though, and I would love for him to sign on permanently.

Stracqualursi was an absolute monster tonight, I think he set the tone for the whole team performance with his sheer effort. I thought Heitinga and Hibbert were fantastic, and Fellaini had another good game as well, but Dennis deserves the MOM.

Genuinely can't understand this move, what is Redknapp thinking? Would be surprised to see Pienaar coming back, but I wouldn't have believed Saha to Spurs either!

Went with Fellaini as well, thought he bossed the midfield - have to say Fulham were atrocious tonight though!

 

 

I don't know the ins and outs about his time in Spain so I won't argue with you but he played 32 games for Athletico (scoring 3 goals) so he can't of been that bad if he's played nearly every game. I do think that he would prefer to play his trade at Everton than Mallorca though so for the time being I'm not worried, if it comes to it I guess that Moyes will give him higher wages to make him stay..

I'm doubting myself now! I'm sure there are people who watch much more La Liga than me - maybe this was something I read on a forum and has somehow become a 'fact' in my mind. Having said that though, they spent £9m on him in summer 2008 and sold him for £6m a year later, so maybe there is some truth in there somewhere!

Heitinga had a nightmare in Spain, I can't see him wanting to go back there if there were possibilities in Germany or Italy. Also we can't afford to let him go - this window at least.

Maybe Moyes thinks the physios need more practice?

Given our finacial situation you could be forgiven for Moyes settling for a soild 6-10 position there are teams with more cash than us and can buy into the top six, but the way he persists in totally defensive and negative tactics it's slowly dragging us down to a relegation battle. We r playing really shit football and we all know we can do better.

We're only a point off 10th - I think a top half finish is more realistic than going down, even allowing for how poorly we have been playing. If we are able to actually spend a bit of cash for once to bring in a striker capable of scoring goals, I don't think moving ahead of Stoke (we would need to pull back 4 points in 16 games) is an impossibility, given our tendency to improve a bit in the second half of the season. That would leave us in 8th, which would be a creditable performance overall considering the financial restraints on the club in comparison to a lot of the clubs in the league. Obviously this is a bit optimistic, but in fairness we have done a similar thing in the last two seasons!! I think 6th is a bit of an unrealistic expectation - if the RS finish there for example, Dogleash has spent a similar amount on Carroll and Downing to the cost of our entire playing squad!*

*Disclaimer - based on figures from the papers and allowing for my shite maths, but hopefully close enough to illustrate my point assuming Bily has gone

Apologies if said above and I missed it, but has any of Barkley's absence been a result of injuries? I say this because looking through the reserve fixtures I noticed Barkley has missed a few this season... I hadn't been aware of any injury but I imagine he would make the ressies line up!

Welcome mate, i agree, in principle with what you mean but not with some of your points... But everyone knows as football fans, its a fickle sport, one week someone can be loved the next they can be hated in regards to our "better" players being totally out of form at the minute...

 

By the way, the quote up the top there i was confused with... I could just be being really dumb here, (lack of sleep etc etc) but who is GN?

I thought that as well - maybe he got the Neville brothers mixed up

Edit as I didn't see above!

You'll get moaned at for dissing the board as well, I wouldn't go there. We should all sit and sing come by fucking yah, because what will be will be. Discussion is not permitted.

 

Personally, I'd say it's a collective thing why we are where we are - the board, the manager and the players. The board haven't provided the manager with the funds, but the manager could and should be doing much better with what he has at his disposal. FFS, he's had much worse squads than what he has now and HAS done better. And the players are partly to blame too, they aren't performing to the standards we know they can reach.

With regard to the board, it's obviously difficult to speculate as to the exact reason for selling so many players recently. I can accept that they (comparatively) don't have any money, and I can accept that we might need to reduce the overdraft, but by this much? If the situation is as we have been told over the last few years, then we must be trying to reduce the debt in anticipation of a sale. If we are in worse financial trouble than was communicated then you have to question the initial business plan which in hindsight would seem flawed. If they know what they are doing and this is being done to encourage a sale and subsequent investment, then that should be communicated. If they have hamstrung us with too many expensive contracts etc. then it is right to question whether the prior strategy was flawed. That's the way I see it anyway.

But we don't actually miss Arteta imo, let's face it he spent most of his time on the side lines and when he did play he often played crab football, the real miss has been Pienaar, not because he was creative or scored a shitload, but because he layed the ball off for Baines so much, Baines has never looked quite the same since, and he is probably our most consistent creative player, he is missing Pienaars lay offs you can see it, he was never going to get the same service from Bily was he

I agree with that to a point as Baines and Pienaar obviously played well together, but I think Baines is still doing pretty well, just that most of the time we don't have enough up front to make it count. Baines has put in 178 crosses so far this season, second to Nani in the league (according to http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/2935/Stages/5476/PlayerStatistics/England-Premier-League-2011-2012), so I think he is still getting into dangerous areas, but we are playing too deep to get anyone on the end of them I think.

I apologise profusely.

 

I was wrong to be slightly annoyed that Cahill has been crap for the past 18 months at least.

Bit harsh - Cahill scored 9 in his first 20 games last season. Crap for a year I can agree with though

I agree that you are right to be worried, but what is to blame? Obviously the manager has to take responsibility, but the main cause of our decline seems to me to be the lack of money, and the responsibility for that has to lie with the board. In my opinion at least.

Good post Hafnia, but regarding Moyes, how much better should we be expecting from the team considering the lack of players we have? We went into the season with the smallest squad in the league, with 18 senior players (I think), so having sold most of our creativity in Pienaar and Arteta. I would agree that we have been poor in a lot of our games this season, but our side is much worse now than it was a couple of years ago. I wonder about the subs Moyes makes, and I wish we would attack more in games, but if we had the players to do it, then we wouldn't have needed to rely on Saha (who doesn't look remotely like scoring at all) all season.

As for the lack of reinvestment, I absolutely agree, and I can't imagine many people would be comfortable with what seems to have been a fire sale over the last year or so. I can only imagine that the plan is to pay down a lot of our debt to make the club easier to sell? If not, and we are being forced to sell just to survive, then all we have been told over the last few years about living within our means and being prudent with our spending has been shown up as a lie. In either scenario, we need new owners and fast, as it's the only way I can see for us to compete even for a place in the top half of the table, let alone challenge for trophies, which is what we all want.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying as well Shukes, certainly about Moyes, who I think deserves loyalty and patience from the fans. I think we need to rebuild a lot, as we have a core of older players whose replacements we will need in the next couple of years. It might be a bit of transitional period over the next year or so, but I think Moyes can build another good team in time.

I also agree about the stick some of the players have been getting, to me it is just a symptom of the lack of depth in our squad - Cahill has needed a spell out of the side to recharge his batteries but have had to keep playing as we haven't had the quality to bring into the team. I disagree about Saha by the way, I think he just looks completely devoid of confidence and his legs are starting to go as well. If we get another player in this window, please let it be a striker who looks like he at least might score a goal!

Hi all, I've just been reading a couple of the threads, and it's like an oasis of reason and logic compared to the mass hysteria I've been trawling through for the last few years on a certain fish related Everton forum. I was also delighted to read the terms of use , as it always takes me longer to translate text speak.

My name is Dave, and I've been a blue for close to 30 years now. Not many of us down south, so I like to read what other Toffees think. Let's hoping we get a striker in and end the season better than we started it! COYB