Brighton (Home) Saturday January 11th

[Bailey]

I think that's a fair decision annoyingly.

[markjazzbassist]

Var wow

[Bailey]

Just now, Sibdane said:

Kind of surprised the ref gave DCL a yellow there. 

Me too. It's not like he has moved his arm towards it. Yes it's handball but a booking? Very harsh.

[Finn balor]

Their goalie is really underrated. My stream went off but looked a quality save from the initial header 

[Bailey]

Holgate fast asleep. Very good save Pickford.

[chicagoblue]

Need to dig in now. Let ten won’t be pretty

[Bailey]

Mina for Digne.

Even with Baines on the bench?

[MikeO]

1 minute ago, Bailey said:

Mina for Digne.

Even with Baines on the bench?

Strange one that.

[Hoof_It_Nev]

Gonna throw it away aren't we. Should be 1-1

[chicagoblue]

Sidibe is a terrible right winger. Doesn’t push up, doesn’t help back, no idea where he’s supposed to be it who he’s supposed to track

[Bailey]

So lucky again.

Mina coming out of the line and Holgate not able to get across and cover quick enough. 

[Aidan]

The referee tried his best to ruin the game for us today but we came out on top. We'll played.

[badaids]

A tight but important win. Plus, Davies has shaved at long fucking last.

[Finn balor]

Only saw half an hour but we should have been out of sight. Strange subs but proof is in the pudding. A striker is a must for all the chances we are creating 

[markjazzbassist]

we were excellent for 60 minutes, and average for the rest.  but we won and got 3 points and a turn around after the shite show.  well done and up the toffees

[Hafnia]

What Is going on with officials and us???  Bad enough the Walcott pen.... the added time was a joke. 

[Bailey]

We got there in the end. What was a promising display for 60 ish minutes was a little bit soured at the end by a few mistakes which we were fortunate not to get punished for, largely due to some very strange substitutions. 

Only two in it for motm for me between Richarlison and Bernard. As the former saw out the game and ran himself into the ground yet again I will side with him. 

The biggest disappointment was probably Sidibe who despite moments of good play, is finding a habit of losing his man and allowing chances. 

[Newty82]

A wins a win after that last game.

I thought we were well on top. Then we subbed our way backwards. Can't get me head around those subs? I thought we needed some fresh legs up top to keep the pressure on. Hmmmm.

3 points though. Could have been 1. Could have been a convincing run away win.

[memmaclub2]

Please for ancelotti at small passages in the game I saw from gylfi what I hoped for from him in a two mad midfield sit back spray the ball around not too much running with the ball and keep posession being recycled. let tom davies and the wingers do more of the running. Its really what I expect from gomes when fit. but then he starts trying to do too much and then doing fuck all. he is a good passer so anceloti just needs to focus him on that. I do like a 442 fo us with the current stikers we have. I think having 2 up top helps DCL and interesting that the manager has told him to get in the box and stop doing all the running. both our first choice strikers have 10 goals plus at this point in the season. I am hoping both can get 20 across the season.

[markjazzbassist]

clean sheet too. very happy.  11th and 3 points off 7th place with a favorable run of games.  COYB

[EFC-Paul]

1 hour ago, chicagoblue said:

It was between Theo and Sidibe, they both left him. Davies was trying to cover their error

He didn't close him down re watch it if you like 

Obviously errors led upto it as they always do but the one letting him get the shot of was Davies

[Zoo 2.0]

Boss game that, hung on for the last 10 minutes which was frustrating but other than that it was A*. Ball retention was fantastic, some great moves up and down the wing too which was always going to be the case with them playing a 4-3-3. Bernard completely ran the show and it speaks volumes that when he went off our creativity dipped, although admittedly that's when we changed focus and sat deeper. 

I must admit that I'm confused by some of the posts on here and social media regarding the substitutions. We were starting to look tired and Brighton were starting to throw everything at it so perfectly sensible to take off the tired attackers, save legs and sit deep for the 1-0. Moving Davies out wide and putting some fresh legs in the middle where they had an extra player and adding Coleman to tighten up the defence (mixed with Sidibe to play as a defensive winger) made perfect sense. Holgate out wide was the only one that could raise questions but with the height that Brighton have why would you bring on a small player (Baines) rather than the man mountain that is Mina? I'll admit it's a touch risky shutting up shop at 1-0 but IMO it was the correct call. 

Notable shouts for MOTM alongside Bernie is Richarlison for his goal and general graft alongside Holgate who was so calm and collected. No surprise that Micheal Keane had one of his better games alongside what is a confident Mason.

[Newty82]

8 minutes ago, Zoo 2.0 said:

Boss game that, hung on for the last 10 minutes which was frustrating but other than that it was A*. Ball retention was fantastic, some great moves up and down the wing too which was always going to be the case with them playing a 4-3-3. Bernard completely ran the show and it speaks volumes that when he went off our creativity dipped, although admittedly that's when we changed focus and sat deeper. 

I must admit that I'm confused by some of the posts on here and social media regarding the substitutions. We were starting to look tired and Brighton were starting to throw everything at it so perfectly sensible to take off the tired attackers, save legs and sit deep for the 1-0. Moving Davies out wide and putting some fresh legs in the middle where they had an extra player and adding Coleman to tighten up the defence (mixed with Sidibe to play as a defensive winger) made perfect sense. Holgate out wide was the only one that could raise questions but with the height that Brighton have why would you bring on a small player (Baines) rather than the man mountain that is Mina? I'll admit it's a touch risky shutting up shop at 1-0 but IMO it was the correct call. 

I don't think it's confusing. You've actually answered why it caused a bit of concern in your previous paragraph:

".....he went off our creativity dipped, although admittedly that's when we changed focus and sat deeper."

We lost our edge with those subs. We went from being in full control to looking like we were struggling...at just 1 nil. Now you know we are Everton as much as anyone on here...defending a 1 nil lead gives us panic attacks - we ain't comfortable with that just now! The arse twitches too much! At 2 nil, and struggling, fair enough.

We see the games differently though. Bit risky in my eyes but there could be many reasons why those choices were made.

[Finn balor]

That left back for them looked decent 

[Bailey]

3 hours ago, Newty82 said:

I don't think it's confusing. You've actually answered why it caused a bit of concern in your previous paragraph:

".....he went off our creativity dipped, although admittedly that's when we changed focus and sat deeper."

We lost our edge with those subs. We went from being in full control to looking like we were struggling...at just 1 nil. Now you know we are Everton as much as anyone on here...defending a 1 nil lead gives us panic attacks - we ain't comfortable with that just now! The arse twitches too much! At 2 nil, and struggling, fair enough.

We see the games differently though. Bit risky in my eyes but there could be many reasons why those choices were made.

Before the first sub was made we looked more like getting a second, albeit energy levels were dropping. 

After the subs we conceded 3 or maybe 4 good chances and created maybe 1 of our own? 

I can see why he did it but it just handed the impetus to Brighton and they very nearly took it especially as you wouldn't expect Murray to miss 2 chances like that. 

[DavisJD]

Anyone else notice how slow we are to shut down players in our defensive 3rd when the ball is out wide. Sidibe and Walcott particularly guilty of this.

Players seem to jog to close the space and hold there position too safely back, giving them way to much respect, and enabling them to get time to pick there crosses.

[markjazzbassist]

6 hours ago, Newty82 said:

I don't think it's confusing. You've actually answered why it caused a bit of concern in your previous paragraph:

".....he went off our creativity dipped, although admittedly that's when we changed focus and sat deeper."

We lost our edge with those subs. We went from being in full control to looking like we were struggling...at just 1 nil. Now you know we are Everton as much as anyone on here...defending a 1 nil lead gives us panic attacks - we ain't comfortable with that just now! The arse twitches too much! At 2 nil, and struggling, fair enough.

We see the games differently though. Bit risky in my eyes but there could be many reasons why those choices were made.

how dare you question carlo!!! the man is 3 wins 1 loss in 4 matches in the league with a shite team and a pile of injuries.  we won and got a clean sheet.  just celebrate you grumpy bastard  

[Palfy]

I didn’t get to see the game in full flying back home, saw the highlights. 
Again we make it difficult for ourselves by not turning our possession into goals we need a decent striker, this could have easily turned out to be 0-0 if not for a brilliant piece of  individual skill from Richarlison. 

[Romey 1878]

I wasn't as impressed with the first 60 minutes as some others. I thought despite being in control and comfortable (Brighton just kept giving us the ball, which was nice of them) we made it very hard work. Hard because we played so slowly unless we got Bernard on the ball - he was the only one that wanted to go forward with any sort of speed. The defenders passed the ball around among themselves too much because the midfield in front of them were so unwilling to show for the ball. When we did burst into playing quicker football we looked good and should have been more than 1 up by the time the subs came that invited pressure.

After last weekend it's just the three points that are important. We had to get them no matter what and I'm sure better football will come.

On another note I can see why we decided to let Duffy go - he's a Championship yard dog. That Webster next to him is even worse as well.

[Shukes]

21 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

I wasn't as impressed with the first 60 minutes as some others. I thought despite being in control and comfortable (Brighton just kept giving us the ball, which was nice of them) we made it very hard work. Hard because we played so slowly unless we got Bernard on the ball - he was the only one that wanted to go forward with any sort of speed. The defenders passed the ball around among themselves too much because the midfield in front of them were so unwilling to show for the ball. When we did burst into playing quicker football we looked good and should have been more than 1 up by the time the subs came that invited pressure.

After last weekend it's just the three points that are important. We had to get them no matter what and I'm sure better football will come.

On another note I can see why we decided to let Duffy go - he's a Championship yard dog. That Webster next to him is even worse as well.

Your not alone.

Even though we had a lot of possession, I never thought we were in control. I was in the upper bullens and Sigurdsson got loads of stick for turning away from the defenders anytime they were put under pressure. He literally turned his back to them.

Davies lost the ball on the edge of penalty area so many times, but at least he tried to look for it. But I just can’t see where he is going to improve.

Sidibe should come with a obstructed view warning on the website as he makes the opposition walk around him on the pitch all the time. Watch his reaction when they hit the bar. He gets turned, and stands still, STILL! Not even a complementary jog like Morgan.

But once the ball hit Bernard, was things happened.the front three worked hard all game and dragged us through. But we do need someone more energetic in the middle to help these guys out.