January Plans

[nogs]

39 minutes ago, Matt said:

I’m not debating that we need to cut the wages down, was just pointing out that they’re handled differently and that reducing wages doesn’t necessarily free up transfer funds.  It frees up wages for any new signings for sure though 

This. Whatever we cut in wages will be used to pay the wages of new players. Where the funds to buy those players comes from is a different issue. 

[Romey 1878]

If we don't bring a goal scoring striker in then I will be writing this season off as soon as the window shuts.

[Aidan]

18 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

If we don't bring a goal scoring striker in then I will be writing this season off as soon as the window shuts.

Best we can achieve with a striker brought in will be 7th id imagine, a very possible outcome if we don't buy a striker too. 

What's the point? Season is wrote off already. Wait until til the summer for a proper target!

[Romey 1878]

13 minutes ago, Aidan said:

Best we can achieve with a striker brought in will be 7th id imagine, a very possible outcome if we don't buy a striker too. 

What's the point? Season is wrote off already. Wait until til the summer for a proper target!

We'll get nowhere near 7th if we keep things as they are. More like 12th.

It doesn't have to be a permanent signing or someone long-term. Just get someone who's whole purpose is to stick the ball in the back of the net.

[Aidan]

26 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

We'll get nowhere near 7th if we keep things as they are. More like 12th.

It doesn't have to be a permanent signing or someone long-term. Just get someone who's whole purpose is to stick the ball in the back of the net.

We're 3 points off 7th, if we would have won yesterday we would have been 7th then all of Everton wouldn't be losing their heads. The teams around fighting for 7th are all about the same ability. Player for player we probably have the best squad on paper still, so 7th is without a doubt still achievable.

Even if we finish 8-10, I'd still rather that than sign a striker this window.

[London Blue]

11 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

We'll get nowhere near 7th if we keep things as they are. More like 12th.

It doesn't have to be a permanent signing or someone long-term. Just get someone who's whole purpose is to stick the ball in the back of the net.

Someone who can hold the ball up and bring, our wingers and midfielders.

Half of our problem is that we play quick football but when we win the ball and play it forward and bring other players into the attack, we lose possession time and time again. This is a problem we have had since Lukaku left, one we have not addressed and we have been paying for it ever since.

I think DCL with time could be the solution, this season is a right off, its a transition season, and as you rarely get a good deal in the January window I would give youth a chance.

Play DCL, Lookman, and Kenny let them develop and prove themselves.  I would also play Davies in midfield or loan him out.

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Romey 1878 said:

If we don't bring a goal scoring striker in then I will be writing this season off as soon as the window shuts.

Careful mate, you get told off for writing the season off

[Romey 1878]

1 hour ago, Aidan said:

We're 3 points off 7th, if we would have won yesterday we would have been 7th then all of Everton wouldn't be losing their heads. The teams around fighting for 7th are all about the same ability. Player for player we probably have the best squad on paper still, so 7th is without a doubt still achievable.

Even if we finish 8-10, I'd still rather that than sign a striker this window.

If this is the team we have until the end of the season we will finish nowhere near 7th. We will not even finish top half imo. 

1 hour ago, London Blue said:

Someone who can hold the ball up and bring, our wingers and midfielders.

Half of our problem is that we play quick football but when we win the ball and play it forward and bring other players into the attack, we lose possession time and time again. This is a problem we have had since Lukaku left, one we have not addressed and we have been paying for it ever since.

I think DCL with time could be the solution, this season is a right off, its a transition season, and as you rarely get a good deal in the January window I would give youth a chance.

Play DCL, Lookman, and Kenny let them develop and prove themselves.  I would also play Davies in midfield or loan him out.

Mate, Lukaku was shite and added nothing to us  

I’ve got no problem with DCL getting more game time (same for Lookman and Kenny), I like him, but to rely on him solely is not the way. It’s not even fair to put that sort of pressure on him. With all due respect, it’s easier for you to say this season is already a write off so let’s just leave it, but I’m paying to go and watch them so I will be royally pissed off to just keep going while we plod along. 

1 hour ago, Matt said:

Careful mate, you get told off for writing the season off

It’s not what I want to do, or something I think is right, but if we do fuck all this window that’s exactly what I’ll do because we will do nothing. Make the right tweaks though and you can go on a run and catapult yourself further up the table. We need to win multiple games in a row, we need to score goals. 

[Newty82]

Not sure where to put this but my big frustration is that we yet again find ourselves without a striker who can fit into the team. For the 2nd season running.

I'm not sure it's a good idea to get one in January. Unless we can get an absolute pearler.

Richarlison was not brought in as a striker but finds himself there and clearly isn'tt what we need. Tosun I thought would do the job but seems like he can't. Possibly more to do with how a new manager plays rather than purely his own talent level.

It's piss poor to not have a striker to do the job 2 seasons in a row. And it tells with the chances we miss it can't create in the final 3rd.

Got to be top priority this pre season.

 

[Finn balor]

Reading another website and the Ed on there reckons we should have definitely been in for Sala that went to Cardiff. We need a striker that can create a bit of magic himself and make goals out of nothing. Obviously they cost big money. There isn’t an obvious candidate for me but that’s what marcel is there for. I’d be all  for selling McCarthy, Morgan etc to create funds 

[London Blue]

1 hour ago, Romey 1878 said:

 

Mate, Lukaku was shite and added nothing to us  

I’ve got no problem with DCL getting more game time (same for Lookman and Kenny), I like him, but to rely on him solely is not the way. It’s not even fair to put that sort of pressure on him. With all due respect, it’s easier for you to say this season is already a write off so let’s just leave it, but I’m paying to go and watch them so I will be royally pissed off to just keep going while we plod along. 

It’s not what I want to do, or something I think is right, but if we do fuck all this window that’s exactly what I’ll do because we will do nothing. Make the right tweaks though and you can go on a run and catapult yourself further up the table. We need to win multiple games in a row, we need to score goals. 

I think if we can get through this rough patch then we will finish top 8, the only teams to challenge us are Wolves, Watford and West Ham. I don't think Silva, Brands or Moshiri will allow us to plod along. We are having a tough time of it, but we will get through it. 

A little patience and trust in Silva and what he is trying to do, I know its not easy to watch, especially for those paying for the privilege. I bumped into 6 of them as we were all on the train back from Southampton together, and speaking to them they were just as fucked off. But it takes time to build a team and get them to adopt a managers tactics and approach. 

I hope that buy the end of the season we will be seeing the team play the football we all want to see and getting the results to go with it.

[Finn balor]

Wolves and Watford are playing as a team and will finish higher than us unless we sort it out. Leicester have three tough teams coming up so I expect a new manager there which will inevitably give them a boost 

[Romey 1878]

41 minutes ago, London Blue said:

I think if we can get through this rough patch then we will finish top 8, the only teams to challenge us are Wolves, Watford and West Ham. I don't think Silva, Brands or Moshiri will allow us to plod along. We are having a tough time of it, but we will get through it. 

A little patience and trust in Silva and what he is trying to do, I know its not easy to watch, especially for those paying for the privilege. I bumped into 6 of them as we were all on the train back from Southampton together, and speaking to them they were just as fucked off. But it takes time to build a team and get them to adopt a managers tactics and approach. 

I hope that buy the end of the season we will be seeing the team play the football we all want to see and getting the results to go with it.

LB, I’m not one of the ones questioning Silva or anything like that. But I’m not prepared to just let this season drift, no one should be ok with that. We should be doing everything we can to finish as high up the league as possible, not just shrug our shoulders “oh well, this seasons gone so let’s just forget it before January has ended”. That sort of defeatist, accepting attitude is why we’ve done fuck all for so long. 

[Bailey]

I dont think our problems just lie with a striker either. Its safe to say that our current striking options leave a lot to be desired but there are 10 other players on the pitch. For the majority of our recent games they arent doing their job just as much as the striker. A better striker wont suddenly make us a decent side without further changes and any impact they do make will just be a case of masking the problem.

[Shukes]

No it won’t turn us around, but it will improve us. You have to improve your team one step at a time and our most needed position right now is a striker. 

We could change our whole midfield, but if we haven’t got anyone to pop it into the net, it’s all for nothing. 

A decent striker will be the best addition at the moment. Yes if we can get four new players in great, but I don’t think that’s the case. 

Look at yesterday for example. The ball was in their penalty area so many times, not just their last third but the penalty area....and we still passed it as we don’t have a player that will just hit the ball. We create enough in the last third to score goals.... we just don’t shoot enough.

I would give DCL that chance for the rest of the season, if not, then we need to buy. 

[Bailey]

57 minutes ago, Shukes said:

No it won’t turn us around, but it will improve us. You have to improve your team one step at a time and our most needed position right now is a striker. 

We could change our whole midfield, but if we haven’t got anyone to pop it into the net, it’s all for nothing. 

A decent striker will be the best addition at the moment. Yes if we can get four new players in great, but I don’t think that’s the case. 

Look at yesterday for example. The ball was in their penalty area so many times, not just their last third but the penalty area....and we still passed it as we don’t have a player that will just hit the ball. We create enough in the last third to score goals.... we just don’t shoot enough.

I would give DCL that chance for the rest of the season, if not, then we need to buy. 

The 3 strikers that played yesterday had a colossal 5 touches in the opposition box of which only one of them was a pass and one was a shot. I accept a better striker may have better movement and therefore garner more shots in the box, but the bare facts suggest it is a leap to say the problem with our strikers is that they cant put the ball in the back of the net. 

As a comparison Lookman had 5 touches, Bernard 3, Siggy 3, Walcott 1. It probably wouldn't surprise you to know that most of those touches were on the edge of the box and in what you would describe as non-threatening positions from a shooting perspective.

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Shukes said:

No it won’t turn us around, but it will improve us. You have to improve your team one step at a time and our most needed position right now is a striker. 

We could change our whole midfield, but if we haven’t got anyone to pop it into the net, it’s all for nothing. 

A decent striker will be the best addition at the moment. Yes if we can get four new players in great, but I don’t think that’s the case. 

Look at yesterday for example. The ball was in their penalty area so many times, not just their last third but the penalty area....and we still passed it as we don’t have a player that will just hit the ball. We create enough in the last third to score goals.... we just don’t shoot enough.

I would give DCL that chance for the rest of the season, if not, then we need to buy. 

I think I was watching a different game, because we barely got into their half until DCL came on, and even then mostly around the centre circle. There was 2-3 sustained 5 minute spells all game 

[Palfy]

1 hour ago, Shukes said:

No it won’t turn us around, but it will improve us. You have to improve your team one step at a time and our most needed position right now is a striker. 

We could change our whole midfield, but if we haven’t got anyone to pop it into the net, it’s all for nothing. 

A decent striker will be the best addition at the moment. Yes if we can get four new players in great, but I don’t think that’s the case. 

Look at yesterday for example. The ball was in their penalty area so many times, not just their last third but the penalty area....and we still passed it as we don’t have a player that will just hit the ball. We create enough in the last third to score goals.... we just don’t shoot enough.

I would give DCL that chance for the rest of the season, if not, then we need to buy. 

When you build a team you start from the back and you work your way up, which is what in most he has been doing, we still need a RB and we have made some strides with the wide men, but the midfield needs seriously looking at that I believe it is the weakest part of our team there's no understanding or team work in our midfield what's so ever.

If Gomes doesn't come good we can't sign him and I'll be honest I thought he was going to be our midfield General, we need to get rid of Schniederlin and Gana neither are capable of forming partnerships, Gylfi isn'tt doing enough he needs to show more Davies is going to struggle to get past being on the bench but you need a sub like him because you no he will work his nuts off given the chance he's one of us, so I think we definitely need another 2 mids possible 3 before we put all our efforts into getting a striker but that's not to say if the right one comes along we ignore him but let's overall the midfield first cause it needs it.

[Shukes]

58 minutes ago, Bailey said:

The 3 strikers that played yesterday had a colossal 5 touches in the opposition box of which only one of them was a pass and one was a shot. I accept a better striker may have better movement and therefore garner more shots in the box, but the bare facts suggest it is a leap to say the problem with our strikers is that they cant put the ball in the back of the net. 

As a comparison Lookman had 5 touches, Bernard 3, Siggy 3, Walcott 1. It probably wouldn't surprise you to know that most of those touches were on the edge of the box and in what you would describe as non-threatening positions from a shooting perspective.

I wouldn’t say they were non threatening at all. I though some of Bernard’s play was very clever and should have resulted in much better efforts.

Take Gylfis for example. Great ply and an extremely tame shot. There were also a few one twos that Bernard played, but we weren’t sharp, or direct enough. Coleman’s cross... no one anywhere near it. 

Now stat wise, these don’t exist as no one was there, but any cross into the box is dangerous for me. But you need a striker looking to get on the end of them.

I get you think we need midfielders before a striker and I would be happy with that... only if DCL was given a proper run in the team. If not then I would say we need a goal scorer up there and not Richarlison.

[Shukes]

3 minutes ago, Palfy said:

When you build a team you start from the back and you work your way up, which is what in most he has been doing, we still need a RB and we have made some strides with the wide men, but the midfield needs seriously looking at that I believe it is the weakest part of our team there's no understanding or team work in our midfield what's so ever.

If Gomes doesn't come good we can't sign him and I'll be honest I thought he was going to be our midfield General, we need to get rid of Schniederlin and Gana neither are capable of forming partnerships, Gylfi isn'ttt doing enough he needs to show more Davies is going to struggle to get past being on the bench but you need a sub like him because you no he will work his nuts off given the chance he's one of us, so I think we definitely need another 2 mids possible 3 before we put all our efforts into getting a striker but that's not to say if the right one comes along we ignore him but let's overall the midfield first cause it needs it.

No to get rid of Gomes, Gana and Morgan would be absurd. That would leave us with Davies, McCarthy and Benni. Joke of a midfield and I can guarantee it won’t happen.

Palfy you can buy a new team like that, you need to replace positions one at a time.

[Palfy]

8 minutes ago, Shukes said:

No to get rid of Gomes, Gana and Morgan would be absurd. That would leave us with Davies, McCarthy and Benni. Joke of a midfield and I can guarantee it won’t happen.

Palfy you can buy a new team like that, you need to replace positions one at a time.

You buy as well I did say we need 2-3 and I did say Gomes and Gylfi need to improve and if they can't then they go.

Seriously are you happy with our midfield not so much the individuals in it but the sum of its parts?

[Aidan]

6 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

If this is the team we have until the end of the season we will finish nowhere near 7th. We will not even finish top half imo. 

Why not? We're 3 points off it now. 

[London Blue]

4 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

LB, I’m not one of the ones questioning Silva or anything like that. But I’m not prepared to just let this season drift, no one should be ok with that. We should be doing everything we can to finish as high up the league as possible, not just shrug our shoulders “oh well, this seasons gone so let’s just forget it before January has ended”. That sort of defeatist, accepting attitude is why we’ve done fuck all for so long. 

I agree mate, I don't think Silva will want the season to drift, given what happened in the second half of his Watford season, neither will Brands or Moshiri. I just think that we should use the rest of this season to blood the youngsters, who lets face it are based on current form better than Coleman, Walcott and Cenk. 

I know this is a transition season but I still demand improvement, and ambition and that's what I expect.

[Romey 1878]

1 hour ago, Aidan said:

Why not? We're 3 points off it now. 

Because we won’t pick up enough points. It’s not complicated to work out why I don’t think we will, Aidan. 

13 minutes ago, London Blue said:

I agree mate, I j don't think Silva will want the season to drift, given what happened in the second half of his Watford season, neither will Brands or Moshiri. I just think that we should use the rest of this season to blood the youngsters, who lets face it are abased on current form better than Coleman, Walcott and Cenk. 

I know this is a transition season but I still demand improvement, and ambition and that's what I expect.

Mate, I’m more than happy for Kenny and Lookman to fully replace Coleman and Walcott as starters. But putting that sort of pressure on DCL would be detrimental to him and to the team imo. I didn’t like how much we were forced to rely on him last season, it took a huge toll on him, and I wouldn’t be happy with doing it again this season. It’s criminal how we’ve let ourselves be in this situation once again. 

Im not saying bring someone in to take DCL’s spot. Far from it. Just bring someone in, preferably experienced, short-term that could take the load off. I’m all for him being ahead of Tosun because he just doesn’t look good enough. And I’m definitely fully behind him playing up front ahead of Richarlison, who’s idea of hold-up play is to hold his arms up in the air and have a whinge. 

[London Blue]

23 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

Because we won’t pick up enough points. It’s not complicated to work out why I don’t think we will, Aidan. 

Mate, I’m more than happy for Kenny and Lookman to fully replace Coleman and Walcott as starters. But putting that sort of pressure on DCL would be detrimental to him and to the team imo. I didn’t like how much we were forced to rely on him last season, it took a huge toll on him, and I wouldn’t be happy with doing it again this season. It’s criminal how we’ve let ourselves be in this situation once again. 

Im not saying bring someone in to take DCL’s spot. Far from it. Just bring someone in, preferably experienced, short-term that could take the load off. I’m all for him being ahead of Tosun because he just doesn’t look good enough. And I’m definitely fully behind him playing up front ahead of Richarlison, who’s idea of hold-up play is to hold his arms up in the air and have a whinge. 

Bringing someone in on loan, to back up DCL I agree with, although unless we get rid of Cenk I would use him.

DCL needs to start matches and be rested when he needs it.

[Aidan]

30 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

Because we won’t pick up enough points. It’s not complicated to work out why I don’t think we will, Aidan. 

I know that romey don't get all defensive. I'm asking you why you think we won't pick up enough points , especially seeing as our fixture list is kinder this second half of the season - I don't see your logic. Don't get all petulant.

[Romey 1878]

20 minutes ago, Aidan said:

I know that romey don't get all defensive. I'm asking you why you think we won't pick up enough points , especially seeing as our fixture list is kinder this second half of the season - I don't see your logic. Don't get all petulant.

Our away form is shite. Our home form isn’t too hot either. We’re struggling against the dregs of the league. We don’t have a striker. We’re struggling to put consecutive wins together. We’ve got to play City, Chelsea, the shite, Arsenal and United at home who will all tear us apart if we play like we are, further denting our home record. There’s your logic. 

Petulant and defensive in one post. Who said men can’t multi-task?

[Aidan]

4 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

Our away form is shite. Our home form isn’t too hot either. We’re struggling against the dregs of the league. We don’t have a striker. We’re struggling to put consecutive wins together. We’ve got to play City, Chelsea, the shite, Arsenal and United at home who will all tear us apart if we play like we are, further denting our home record. There’s your logic. 

Petulant and defensive in one post. Who said men can’t multi-task?

No idea why you're attacking me here Romey.

[Romey 1878]

10 minutes ago, Aidan said:

No idea why you're attacking me here Romey.

You said you couldn’t see where my logic was. I gave it to you. There’s no attack. 

[Aidan]

28 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

You said you couldn’t see where my logic was. I gave it to you. There’s no attack. 

Pathetic