Chelsea (Home) Saturday December 23rd

[nogs]

1 hour ago, Romey 1878 said:

You might be right and they do have an axe to grind, but it doesn’t mean they should be told they should be supporting another club. Everyone has their own way and their own opinion. 

I didn’t want Allardyce, I still don’t, and I’m not particularly enjoying the football. I’m enjoying winning (or not losing) but I can see exactly why people are having a moan about what the football is like, and I don’t see why that is a reason to suggest they should go and support another club. Saying it makes you sound a bit of a dick. 

Saying you stopped watching after 10 mins makes you sound like a dick too - not you obviously, but the guy Paul was replying too.

[Romey 1878]

46 minutes ago, nogs said:

Saying you stopped watching after 10 mins makes you sound like a dick too - not you obviously, but the guy Paul was replying too.

Of course it does, I don’t disagree, but I don’t think it’s right to say they should support another club. They stopped watching due to not being happy with the shit on show. 

I personally wouldn’t do it, but I don’t think they’re less of a blue than me.

[Elston Gunnn]

7 hours ago, Matt said:

Just go to the local transport depot and find a parked bus to look at for 90 mins if you want to recreate the experience

This is a funny line, but I’m curious as to whether Matt (and others) literally experienced yesterday’s match this way.  I didn’t.

Precisely because our attack was so anemic and our “passing” too often giveaways, and because Chelsea seemed likely to score at any and almost every moment, my experience was tense for 90+ minutes.  I was desperately hoping we’d miraculously get a point, and deflated at the 2 or 3 failed opportunities to super-miraculously snatch 3 points, especially DCL’s poor decision and Keane’s poor free header.  Of course, had Chelsea scored - and thus likely to score a couple more - I’d have started complaining about this player and that.  (And I did complain about repeated giveaways.  As I say, tense.)

But they didn’t.  They kept not scoring.  By 60 minutes or so, the thought grew, “Hmmm, maybe they won’t score.”  Not as crazy a thought at 60 or 70 or 80 minutes as it had been at 30 minutes.

And I thought I heard the Goodison crowd grow almost boisterous in the second half, as they realized we just might get a point, and so were willing to cheer every defensive effort, every tackle, every disruption of the Chelsea juggernaut.  I thought Everton fans grew hopeful that we might even get just one or two opportunities on the counter, and willingly, almost cheerfully, accepted this as simply the intriguing reality of the day.

Surely a few of you were there, and so could correct my impression.  Maybe the Everton fans were sullen, and the noise I heard came solely from visiting fans.

[Matt]

Completely agree, they should’ve scored a hat full but they didn’t and that was largely down to luck. But, there was also some very resiliant defending too. My comment was more because we had 10 at the back for 90% of the game  

[Bailey]

14 minutes ago, Matt said:

Completely agree, they should’ve scored a hat full but they didn’t and that was largely down to luck. But, there was also some very resiliant defending too. My comment was more because we had 10 at the back for 90% of the game  

At Liverpool they had 3 good chances but largely snuffed out for the rest of the game. From a defensive point of view, against a team scoring plenty, that's a good result.

Chelsea had around 6 good chances (and probably double that for half chances) and that's far too many for a team that is set up not to concede. I'm all for digging in and being hard to beat but that shows a lack of quality finishing as opposed to stoic defending.

[Bailey]

Just to give people some perspective, they created 13 chances against us when we played them at home. Yesterday they created 14. 

We actually created 2 more chances as well back in August.

[Shukes]

TallPaul.

I don’t think you will find any fans on this site that will be rubbing their hands if results go downhill.

First and foremost, we all want to see Everton be successful. 

People have valid conecerns that the football is boring to watch. It doesn’t mean they would rather us lose. It means they want to win, but they want to be entertained at the same time. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Im not a fan of Sam, but I appreciate what he is doing here for us at the moment. Im also willing to give him time and see what he can do with that time.  

 

[MikeO]

2 hours ago, Bailey said:

Just to give people some perspective, they created 13 chances against us when we played them at home. Yesterday they created 14. 

We actually created 2 more chances as well back in August.

In other perspective we had three touches in their box before the 85th minute in the away match - in the final five minutes (and injury time) we had another four (thanks BBC). We also had zero shots on target, same as yesterday.

Most important stat is that screw how many chances they created, they scored none because we were solid. We had one slice of luck in an attempt on goal by one of our own but the score was the result of good defending, and defending is equally as important as attacking; so we weren't "lucky" (I know you didn't use the word Bailey but others have).

We could/should've nicked it at the end, I watched until the 94th min and enjoyed it. I don't agree with people suggesting "go support someone else" if you don't like it but the fact is we're Everton and this is where we are; turning off after ten minutes or having a day out at the bus station might be an option for some but it'll never be for me.

I'd support us in the Conference (or whatever it's now called).

[Matt]

Agree with most of that, Mike. But, enjoyed is a stretch

[MikeO]

1 minute ago, Matt said:

Agree with most of that, Mike. But, enjoyed is a stretch

I should've put enjoyed in "xxxx". Meant  I was at no time hiding under the table or watching with one eye closed, which is a big step forward.

[Bailey]

1 hour ago, MikeO said:

In other perspective we had three touches in their box before the 85th minute in the away match - in the final five minutes (and injury time) we had another four (thanks BBC). We also had zero shots on target, same as yesterday.

Most important stat is that screw how many chances they created, they scored none because we were solid. We had one slice of luck in an attempt on goal by one of our own but the score was the result of good defending, and defending is equally as important as attacking; so we weren't "lucky" (I know you didn't use the word Bailey but others have).

We could/should've nicked it at the end, I watched until the 94th min and enjoyed it. I don't agree with people suggesting "go support someone else" if you don't like it but the fact is we're Everton and this is where we are; turning off after ten minutes or having a day out at the bus station might be an option for some but it'll never be for me.

I'd support us in the Conference (or whatever it's now called).

I am a believer that if you do things right, then results will come (which is largely what Allardyce has done) so if you ship that many decent chances in a game, you are more often than not going to get beaten. Sometimes things go your way (as it did with Man City and yesterday) and you hold on but over the course of time, if you continue to concede more chances than the opposition you will lose, especially when they are good chances. I cant remember how many good chances we conceded at Stamford Bridge, but we conceded too many yesterday (I counted 6).

Yesterday we did get away with it, not exactly luck, but they should have beaten us and I expect that if we played that game 10 times then they would do it 8 or 9 times.

I don't have a problem with how he set up the team, as I said its only early days and I expect us to improve in the way we attack the big sides but I am just calling it how I see it and the stats I pulled up suggest that overall there wasn't that much difference to the away game apart from the scoreline.

I don't know if your last paragraphs were aimed at me as well, but for what its worth I agree. It felt like I was watching us play conference football earlier in the season!

 

[nogs]

5 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

Of course it does, I don’t disagree, but I don’t think it’s right to say they should support another club. They stopped watching due to not being happy with the shit on show. 

I personally wouldn’t do it, but I don’t think they’re less of a blue than me.

No you're right there. I do wonder what some of our fans expect though. Two months ago we were an absolute shambles. Holding the reigning champions to a draw is a creditable result. I just cannot understand how anyone can be that pissed off we're not playing expansive, flowing football all of a sudden - this is the same group of players that was playing like a team staring at relegation. Football is always a trade off between results and performances, only the very best teams deliver both. We're not one of those teams at the moment. We haven't been for a very long time if we're honest. 

[MikeO]

8 minutes ago, Bailey said:

I don't know if your last paragraphs were aimed at me as well, but for what its worth I agree. It felt like I was watching us play conference football earlier in the season!

Last para was aimed at nobody.

[Bailey]

6 minutes ago, nogs said:

No you're right there. I do wonder what some of our fans expect though. Two months ago we were an absolute shambles. Holding the reigning champions to a draw is a creditable result. I just cannot understand how anyone can be that pissed off we're not playing expansive, flowing football all of a sudden - this is the same group of players that was playing like a team staring at relegation. Football is always a trade off between results and performances, only the very best teams deliver both. We're not one of those teams at the moment. We haven't been for a very long time if we're honest. 

Exactly, its going to take time to put it all together, especially against the top 6 sides.

We play City and Liverpool in back to back weeks at home in March/April. That will be the real litmus test for me. Will we be able to keep it tight and truly threaten on the counter attack or will we be doing the same thing we are doing now.

[MikeO]

6 minutes ago, Bailey said:

We play City and Liverpool in back to back weeks at home in March/April

Consecutive.

We are not American, it's even easier to type.

[Romey 1878]

1 hour ago, nogs said:

No you're right there. I do wonder what some of our fans expect though. Two months ago we were an absolute shambles. Holding the reigning champions to a draw is a creditable result. I just cannot understand how anyone can be that pissed off we're not playing expansive, flowing football all of a sudden - this is the same group of players that was playing like a team staring at relegation. Football is always a trade off between results and performances, only the very best teams deliver both. We're not one of those teams at the moment. We haven't been for a very long time if we're honest. 

I suspect they expect more than no shots on target at home, and for us to be able to pass to a team mate with more consistency. I don’t think anyone is expecting expansive, flowing football. Just because someone isn’t happy with the football we’re producing doesn’t mean they’re at the complete other end of the scale whereby they think we can be like Man City. 

[Palfy]

For all the chances Chelsea had they had no more than 2 clear cut chances, our solid defending resulted in most of there attempts being half chances at best, yes they dominated possession but they were allowed to but what they weren't allowed to do was score at will, that's the first step in creating a winning team keep a clean sheet, I was more than happy with what I witnessed under the circumstances of what we have seen this season until Allardyce arrived, will he get us playing decent football who knows he may surprise a lot of people he's never managed anyone with money before we may see the manager he couldn't be at his other clubs.

[pete0]

Five at the back was hard to watch. Made it very difficult to transition into attack as the 3 cb's and Schneiderlin stayed back and we didn't keep the ball long enough for the wing backs to get forward. 

[Bailey]

2 hours ago, MikeO said:

Consecutive.

We are not American, it's even easier to type.

😂

Sorry Mike, watching the football doesn’t help... sorry American Football 😈

[Zoo 2.0]

Towards the end of Koeman's reign we were relegation fodder, losing every week and shipping three and four goals in the process. I'd quite frankly have Charles Manson in charge if it kept us away from relegation so whilst I'm not ecstatic with Allardyce at the helm I can accept it and get behind him. Whether you like him or not, during his tenure so far we've looked a lot better at the back and have shot up the league grinding out results at Anfield (where we usually get battered) and against Chelsea who took the piss out of us last season. It wasn't exactly a fun game to watch but I'd rather have a dull 0-0 than an ''exciting'' 3-0 defeat. 

On 23/12/2017 at 14:05, TallPaul1878 said:

Sandro offers nothing. We should get rid in January. He's just costing money on wages.

He'll go. He went straight down the tunnel at full-time with his head down and looks to be suffering from an incredible lack of confidence. Sam has confirmed that he won't leave next month but I do believe that he will return to La Liga to find some form in the 2018/19 season. He's one of those players that just isn'ttt cut out for the toughness of the Premier League but is suited perfectly to Spain, that chance at the end that he fluffed was painful to watch and it just confirmed my fears that he's not going to make it. 

On 23/12/2017 at 14:28, TallPaul1878 said:

Feel free to come back when the sun is shining a bit more. You'll enjoy watching Manchester City for the time being.

Ha, well said .

Consecutive.

We are not American, it's even easier to type.

Thought you would be a bit happier considering the 0-0 shutout against Chelsea .

[MikeO]

55 minutes ago, Zoo 2.0 said:

Thought you would be a bit happier considering the 0-0 shutout against Chelsea .

Shut it.