Southampton (Away) 1st October

[Bailey]

They are playing through us a bit too easily since the changes.

Gueye sleeping on that chance. Not really with it today. 

[Bailey]

What a save from Pickford. Too easy again. 

[Bailey]

Asleep again. Who is organising these lot! 

[Matt Tiger]

Taken our foot off the gas here. Consistently losing the midfield battle.

[Palfy]

Great save 

[Bailey]

I think both players off are the right ones. Gordon's pace will be an asset on the counter. Onana wasnt really in the game though not sure Davies is the one. Would have rather had the legs of Doucoure.

[Palfy]

1 minute ago, Bailey said:

I think both players off are the right ones. Gordon's pace will be an asset on the counter. Onana wasnt really in the game though not sure Davies is the one. Would have rather had the legs of Doucoure.

Think we need the steadiness Davies offers in MF than the Doucoure erratics 

[Btay]

That’s the same tackle that has been given red in the spurs and Fulham game.

[RuffRob]

Like Maupay, is looking tired now though.

[Btay]

3 points. Not pretty at times but a good response to going behind. Onwards and upwards lads.

[Bailey]

We made it! A really important 3 points on the road.

The performance still has a long way to go but who cares, we need as many points as we can get before the World Cup break. 

[Aidan]

The referee was fucking abysmal today what a shameful display. That being said 3 points on the road is a rarity for us so I'm happy overall, despite not a very good performance.

[Palfy]

3 more points in the bag, 2 wins in a row, what’s not to like  

[Matt]

8 mins of injury time and the feed cut out at 89 mins. A bit more nervy of a finish but a competent game overall. 

[Hafnia]

3 minutes ago, Aidan said:

The referee was fucking abysmal today what a shameful display. That being said 3 points on the road is a rarity for us so I'm happy overall, despite not a very good performance.

Ref was piss poor

[badaids]

Only saw the last 30 minutes which were horrible, niggly, and we looked like we had taken our foot right of the gas. No idea how we managed to get the points from that snapshot, but what a result.

[Wiggytop]

Listen to the game on the club feed, bloody hell, Darren and Diamond really make me nervous listening to their commentary, they made it sound like we were going to concede for the last 25 mins.

Clearly not a great game, but an important 3 points and another game unbeaten.

[RPG]

Neither team played particularly well and we will need a marked improvement if we are going to get anything from the next 2 games. That said, it's 3 points, we are mid table, we have won the last 2 games and are unbeaten in 6 so definite signs of progress.

[Gwlad all over]

Missed this as had covid booster appointment. Happy for 3 points and an away win even if it was unattractive.

[Matt]

20 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

Ref was piss poor

Which was actually a positive improvement on Mariners usual shite

[Matt]

15 minutes ago, RPG said:

Neither team played particularly well and we will need a marked improvement if we are going to get anything from the next 2 games. That said, it's 3 points, we are mid table, we have won the last 2 games and are unbeaten in 6 so definite signs of progress.

I disagree. I think defence was very good, Pickford did what he needed and actually distributed well today and the midfield was solid in our half. As soon as we went across into that final 3rd though, we were clueless.

I know I expertly tricked McNeil into scoring, but he was rubbish goal aside. DG too was rubbish, but he was at least trying and making somethings happen. Maupay was hung out to dry by us and the Ref, but was a constant pain in the ass. I do like him. 

[chicagoblue]

Important win, but not convincing at all from us after our second goal. Would like to be a bit more comfortable protecting a lead. 

[RPG]

10 hours ago, Matt said:

I disagree. I think defence was very good, Pickford did what he needed and actually distributed well today and the midfield was solid in our half. As soon as we went across into that final 3rd though, we were clueless.

I know I expertly tricked McNeil into scoring, but he was rubbish goal aside. DG too was rubbish, but he was at least trying and making somethings happen. Maupay was hung out to dry by us and the Ref, but was a constant pain in the ass. I do like him. 

I think the defence, particularly Tarkowski, was guilty of losing possession when under little or no threat. They were ok (no more, imho) at defending corners but then either gave the ball way or played it to a team mate under pressure who gave it away. Poor marking in injury time nearly gifted Soton an equaliser too. Free kick came in from the Soton right and they had an unmarked player in our 6 yard box. Thankfully, he blasted over the bar.

We didn't have quite the same spark in midfield and I agree entirely with your comments re final third.

[Matt]

 

 

[Matt]

 

 

[Matt]

Took me a minute to work out why the Hunmel logo was in red... was going to go on a rant

 

[Boston Toffee]

Huge effort from Seamus today. The captain gutted it out. Never stopped working. Can't help but love the guy

[Gwlad all over]

Good to hear.Won't vote for MOM as I didn't see the game.

[Romey 1878]

I thought for most of the game we showed a lot of positivity in possession. Some of our football really was lovely to watch - our midfield is functioning so much better with the ball now. Our problem was that we massively let ourselves down in the final third - we looked a bit lost in that regard. We have to be better and more confident when we get near goal, but I saw enough there to know we're working on our attacking play and we will get better in that regard.

It was really pleasing to see how well we responded to going behind in comparison to last season at St Mary's. Like today, we dominated the play and then when we found ourselves a goal down we collapsed. Today was different - we were the better side, conceded (a very poor goal as well by the way - sloppy from Gueye and then we stood off their players and let them do what they wanted) but didn't let ours heads drop and instantly equalised and then quickly got ourselves in front in the game. We're made of stronger stuff this season.

Where we did let ourselves down was that upon finding ourselves in the lead we went to bits and lost all control in the game and it was very nervous from that point on.

It's three points though, and three points away from home which we've found hard to come by in recent seasons.

[RuffRob]

Places like Southampton are where maybe we think we should be able to go to and really realistically try and nick a point of three.

We bossed the  first half without really creating a great deal, then responded brilliantly to going a goal down. Once we got our noses ahead we then defended the lead away from home and got the result.  This is so so different to us last season

Plenty to be positive about. 

 

 

[Spoon]

Great win, but it is obvious that there is still a long way to go to get to where we want to be. We lost the ball cheaply alot and the last 20mins was so nerve wracking (this is the everton way though) Still 3 points is what matters and we are undefeated in 6 games which is way better than last year.

[Btay]

12 minutes ago, Spoon said:

Great win, but it is obvious that there is still a long way to go to get to where we want to be. We lost the ball cheaply alot and the last 20mins was so nerve wracking (this is the everton way though) Still 3 points is what matters and we are undefeated in 6 games which is way better than last year.

We’ve got the second best defence in the league. Our leading striker is due back in the next weeks. Combinations are going to get better all over the park. Not the best performance over 90 mins today but we are a hard team to beat now. Good couple of tests coming up in the next few games and hopefully we can rise to the challenge.

[Palfy]

It wasn’t long ago we were going to places like Southampton after win’s against Utd, Chelsea, or Arsenal and getting our arses handed back to us. So no criticism on our win from me, away from home come back from 1-0 down to win, great progress has been made today after only 8 games from a season were we nearly got relegated. 

[Romey 1878]

Just watch Pickford .

 

 

[Matt]

 

 

[Matt]

 

 

[Wiggytop]

Thanks Matt, I’ve enjoyed watching those clips, I’m away and missed MOTD, Pickford really made sure we got the three points with two outstanding saves.

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Wiggytop said:

Thanks Matt, I’ve enjoyed watching those clips, I’m away and missed MOTD, Pickford really made sure we got the three points with two outstanding saves.

extended out now too 

 

[MikeO]

Full ninety minutes here (members only)..

https://www.evertonfc.com/video/2835266/the-full-90-southampton-1-2-everton?utm_source=postmatch&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=southampton_away_2223

[Bailey]

We have certainly become a lot more resilient.

There were times last season where moments like Tarkowski giving away the ball will have a led to a goal but he bailed himself out, along with a couple of blocks from Mykolenko too. I feel like we are in 50/50 games at the moment, a bit like we were under Benitez early last season too. I feel like we have more resilience about us now though and I don't see us slipping up and going on a massive slide like we did and if anything, I feel like we could ride a few more of these type of games out.

Pickford didn't have a lot to do. Arguably could have got more of a hand to their goal but that's being very picky. Quality save later in the game.

Mykolenko is one I still don't really understand. Weak, slow, gives the ball away under no pressure too often, gets caught out defensively too often (when you consider he barely gets forward) but he does still pop up and make blocks. I think he probably is a centre half but in a lanky 15 year olds body.

Tarkowski had another mixed bag. Some moments of good play, some really bad ones too. The mistakes he is making will cost him sooner or later.

Coady is making me eat my words. He still has his issues when he gets exposed, but he has been very good moving into a 4. His issues come from what his body is capable of doing, whereas his mind is sharp and playing well above his actual level of ability. His passing is underrated too. Not the fancy hollywood balls the media love, but the weight and pace of the balls. He would put some of our midfielders to shame on that score. A MOTM contender.

Coleman was steady enough. Probably as good as we could have expected.

Gueye was poor on the whole. He had his moments of really good play but it was his sloppy ball that led to the goal, he was consistently wrong side of his runners and that paid at the end where he was giving away really cheap freekicks.

Onana doesn't really get too involved in games at the moment. He was pretty anonymous. He does break forward but he doesn't look natural in front of goal. It's not the worst thing for a young lad new to the league to be just quietly going about his business. He doesn't need to be doing anything flashy but I think he does need to be a little more dominant and engaged in the game.

Iwobi was class again. Another player putting me right. I wasn't sure that he would look as good when the rest of midfield got up to speed, but he looks even better. If he wasn't MOTM he was bloody close.

Gray played his usual game. Moments being near unplayable capped by moments where he fucks it up. He is the type of player that frustrates the hell out of me.

McNeil was probably a bit better than he has been. That isn't the hardest thing in the world and he took his goal really well. I saw more moments in this game where I thought he was starting to fit in but he was still encased in some dreadful moments too.

Maupay was fantastic again. He was given such poor quality balls and he made so much out of them. Don't expect Dom to come in and do that well. Our poor attacking play wasn't down to him, it was down to those behind him. I really like the lad and I hope he gets some more chances on goal. He is my other MOTM contender.

The subs offered nothing to the game. Gordon was particularly poor, giving the ball away deep in our half on one occasion.

 

[Matt]

 

 

[Wiggytop]

They are getting better each game, from those clips they look very assertive in winning the ball, and actually clearing the danger.