Man of the Match v Wolves

[MikeO]

Current Player of the Season standings....
Alex Iwobi...154
Jordan Pickford...45
James Tarkowski...29
Nathan Patterson...24
Conor Coady...23
Amadou Onana...19
Vitaliy Mykolenko...17
Anthony Gordon...16
Demarai Gray...12
Neal Maupay...7
Idrissa Gana Gueye...5
James Garner...5
Tom Cannon...4
Dominic Calvert-Lewin...4
Seamus Coleman...4
Mason Holgate...1
Asmir Begović...1
Rúben Vinagre...1

Previous MOTM winners...
Bournemouth (A)...Tom Cannon
Bournemouth (A-EFL Cup)...James Garner
Leicester (H)...Alex Iwobi
Fulham (A)...Jordan Pickford
Crystal Palace (H)...Alex Iwobi
Newcastle (A)...James Tarkowski
Tottenham (A)...James Tarkowski
Manchester United (H)...Alex Iwobi
Southampton (A)...Conor Coady
West Ham (H)...Alex Iwobi
Liverpool (H)...Jordan Pickford
Leeds (A)...Nathan Patterson
Brentford (A)...Anthony Gordon
Fleetwood Town (A-EFL Cup)...Alex Iwobi
Nottingham Forest (H)...Alex Iwobi
Aston Villa (A)...Alex Iwobi
Chelsea (H)...Alex Iwobi

[Bailey]

Mina for me. Even without the goal.

[Wiggytop]

Iwobi, not his best game but he did keep trying to do something.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

Gana Gueye for me, although not much competition in a thoroughly depressing team performance

[Romey 1878]

Gana. Ridiculous decision to take our one man midfield off.

The rest are shite.

[London Blue]

3 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

Gana. Ridiculous decision to take our one man midfield off.

The rest are shite.

I was at the game and Gana's passing was awful. He played us into danger too many times. Onana and Iwobi were much better.

[Romey 1878]

6 minutes ago, London Blue said:

I was at the game and Gana's passing was awful. He played us into danger too many times. Onana and Iwobi were much better.

So was I.

[Billwelshblue]

Losing to a last minute winner to the bottom club on boxing day. Peak Everton

[London Blue]

10 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

So was I.

Different perspectives I guess.

[c1982]

Mina is a liability fitness wise but, on the rare occasions he’s on the pitch, he’s consistently one of our best. Did a job on Costa - both seemed to enjoy the battle. Gana was the only other worth a mention in my opinion - I agree, Onana should have come off ahead of him and we’d probably have one point extra today.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

18 hours ago, London Blue said:

I was at the game and Gana's passing was awful. He played us into danger too many times. Onana and Iwobi were much better.

There was a collective groan of despair where I was sat in the Gwlady when he took Gana off because we all knew Gana was by far our best midfielder on the day

[London Blue]

52 minutes ago, duncanmckenzieismagic said:

There was a collective groan of despair where I was sat in the Gwlady when he took Gana off because we all knew Gana was by far our best midfielder on the day

I was in the lower Gwladis and the guys next to me and my father in law were all saying how bad his passing was, playing passes into danger. I was a Gana fan but while his energy is still good other aspects have deteriorated. Having said that played a peach of a pass to set up a couple an attack.

[dunlopp9987]

28 minutes ago, London Blue said:

I was in the lower Gwladis and the guys next to me and my father in law were all saying how bad his passing was, playing passes into danger. I was a Gana fan but while his energy is still good other aspects have deteriorated. Having said that played a peach of a pass to set up a couple an attack.

He won the tackle and then played in a lovely ball to Gordon that should have been slotted home and put us up 2-1. 

I thought overall he played well

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

2 hours ago, London Blue said:

I was in the lower Gwladis and the guys next to me and my father in law were all saying how bad his passing was, playing passes into danger. I was a Gana fan but while his energy is still good other aspects have deteriorated. Having said that played a peach of a pass to set up a couple an attack.

We will have to agree to disagree 

[Palfy]

4 hours ago, duncanmckenzieismagic said:

There was a collective groan of despair where I was sat in the Gwlady when he took Gana off because we all knew Gana was by far our best midfielder on the day

Just proves how poor we have become when Gana is perceived as our best midfielder

[Bailey]

4 hours ago, dunlopp9987 said:

He won the tackle and then played in a lovely ball to Gordon that should have been slotted home and put us up 2-1. 

I thought overall he played well

That was really good but other than that he was bang average for me. 

I think he was the best of the three because when the ball was in front of him he at least did things with a bit of energy. 

[Bailey]

5 hours ago, duncanmckenzieismagic said:

There was a collective groan of despair where I was sat in the Gwlady when he took Gana off because we all knew Gana was by far our best midfielder on the day

I imagine Lampard took him off because Onana is more of a goal threat. He can just be more of a nuisance in the opposition box, especially against that tiny Wolves side.

Its the only explanation I could come up with.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

1 hour ago, Bailey said:

I imagine Lampard took him off because Onana is more of a goal threat. He can just be more of a nuisance in the opposition box, especially against that tiny Wolves side.

Its the only explanation I could come up with.

If that is the case then we’re in more trouble than I thought, I’m more of a goal threat than Onana and I sit about 100 yards the wrong side of it

[Billwelshblue]

Six weeks to work on attacking patterns and that's what they come up with? I know we need forwards but that's awful we are in deep trouble

[FairWooney]

I missed half of the first half but thought that half looked very open, we had a few squandered chances with Gordon and Maupay not making the most of good opportunities.  Both teams were full of errors, especially Wolves giving the ball away in dangerous areas with sloppy touches but we never capitalised.

Second half we seemed to have control for most of the half without really creating much.  We had 59% possession but they were generally well organised and we just lack ideas.

Actually though the levels of the 2 teams doesn't compare, the England v France game looked very similar at times.  The centre backs in that game spent too much time sideways passing as France held a good solid set up while the French looked dangerous on the counter.

It is very hard to break through a team that has 2 good lines set up but our lack of any movement or midfield showing for the ball really shows up when a team is well set up like this.  Onana and Gueye need to be finding space and looking to take the ball on, sometimes it will need to return again but that gets things moving around more than just going side to side.  The wingers need to be either looking to make a run or dropping back to show for the ball and the full backs need to offer more (admittedly Patterson at the end was absent because of a forward run but there was plenty behind him to cover).

I'm really disappointed that it's not working for Lampard and his team at the moment, it seemed like he had a good team of coaches around him who could all offer help in different areas but certainly, in attack we're not seeing any improvement.  The players might be not be the best but with good coaching they should definitely look like they have more idea than they have done.  Whenever you see training videos they always seem to be working on tight space quick movement passing yet when confronted by it in a game the players are all stood still.  That's a level of intensity they're missing when stood at Goodison in front of 40,000 that they seem to have when out on a pitch with the coaches around them.

 

[Shukes]

Gana for me. 
Our most creative player and broke up 90% of their play.

Our problem is, how are we going to replace him for next year? 

[FairWooney]

just listened to the interview with Tarkowski.

Slight complaint from him at the fans calling for them to get the ball forward and saying we want to play the ball out from the back and that's how we're going to keep playing.

That'd be fine if the players in front of him actually gave him good movement.

Just rewatched the goal also and disappointed by Patterson's running back, perhaps he was blowing after his run into attack at the end of a game but given that he was alongide the goalscorer  25 yards out from their goal and was left for dead he'll be very disappointed in himself. 

Watched the replay a few times and appalled at the effort to get back from some of the players, Iwobi was in a fairly good position to get back and assist and is apparently our fasted player but put in a lazy jog on the way back getting overtaken by Mykolenko who started 10 metres behind him!  Likewise Onana  could have got himself back quicker.

It's a criticism of one important moment in the match and I can understand a little bit of tiredness in a first game back at the end but having played it round so slowly for large parts they should have been able to produce some desperate running when required at the end.

 

[Shukes]

Exactly mate. 
I see it to many times. We go clear through and you have players sprinting to get back and hold us up.

Someone goes through against us and they are able to check their step and line it up. 
 

We need a proper give it everything player in the middle. 

[c1982]

1 hour ago, FairWooney said:

Just rewatched the goal also and disappointed by Patterson's running back, perhaps he was blowing after his run into attack at the end of a game but given that he was alongide the goalscorer  25 yards out from their goal and was left for dead he'll be very disappointed in himself. 

I think Patterson was to blame for the 1st goal too… I really like him as a player but think he’s very naive in some aspects of his play. Great potential but a lot to work on.

[FairWooney]

he was, stepped away from goal line but didn't watch the runner to his side.  Was left neither covering the goal line or the running player when he came in.

[Bailey]

4 hours ago, FairWooney said:

just listened to the interview with Tarkowski.

Slight complaint from him at the fans calling for them to get the ball forward and saying we want to play the ball out from the back and that's how we're going to keep playing.

That'd be fine if the players in front of him actually gave him good movement.

 

I watched the knocking it around at the back again and Tarkowski in particular had a lot of opportunity to play a ball to someone in a better position. It was the case all game tbh.

Onana was free on a couple of occasions. At one stage there was a sharp ball onto Gray who was on the touchline in space. 

When those options went, instead of moving the ball to Godfrey or Iwobi quickly who were in similar positions, he took another few touches. 

By the end of it, he was looking for that long hollywood ball rather than looking at the simple options he did have.

Ill also add that when Gray did get the ball, he too had a chance to play a quick ball into Onana and move but he took his usual 12 touches too. 

Far too slow all game.

3 hours ago, c1982 said:

I think Patterson was to blame for the 1st goal too… I really like him as a player but think he’s very naive in some aspects of his play. Great potential but a lot to work on.

He made so many really naive errors (both goals) and other moments that led to dangerous opportunities too. He is young and is probably a bit overwhelmed so he gets time on that score.

My bigger surprise is that going forward he is still really poor. He had one really easy ball yesterday that he made a right meal of and his passing is sloppy. He has no connection with Gordon either (not just his fault). 

I would be starting Seamus against City. We won't be getting out of our half so lets hope he can help keep the goal difference down.

 

[Wiggytop]

Doucoure needs to take some flak for the second goal, he failed to put a tackle in, allowing Wolves to make the break, and made little attempt to get back and make amends.

[Gwlad]

I voted for Nathan, felt he was playing for the shirt and trying. Ok a lot didn't come off but the endeavour was there.

[FairWooney]

@Bailey In Fairness to Tarkowski he is pretty good at the Hollywood ball.  With 97 completed at a completion rate of 61.4% it is a good 10% better than our average!

That said 61% is pretty poor in terms of pass completion so while is getting us into a more attacking position 4 times out of 10, we are losing the ball the other 6 times!  Coady has almost identical stats.

Him playing the odd long ball isn't a problem but as you say the time spent dawdling on the ball without really having an eye for who's around him is more of a problem.  The problem is two fold in that players aren't moving enough and showing that eagerness to get the ball and the player on the ball isn't sharp enough to spot and make a pass and thus ends up doing a turn on the half way line and going back to their other centre half.

You can get players that are better more intelligent players who would improve the team but ultimately any reasonable Premiership player of which the players in our team are should be capable of these basics.

[Bailey]

On 29/12/2022 at 15:06, FairWooney said:

@Bailey In Fairness to Tarkowski he is pretty good at the Hollywood ball.  With 97 completed at a completion rate of 61.4% it is a good 10% better than our average!

That said 61% is pretty poor in terms of pass completion so while is getting us into a more attacking position 4 times out of 10, we are losing the ball the other 6 times!  Coady has almost identical stats.

Him playing the odd long ball isn't a problem but as you say the time spent dawdling on the ball without really having an eye for who's around him is more of a problem.  The problem is two fold in that players aren't moving enough and showing that eagerness to get the ball and the player on the ball isn't sharp enough to spot and make a pass and thus ends up doing a turn on the half way line and going back to their other centre half.

You can get players that are better more intelligent players who would improve the team but ultimately any reasonable Premiership player of which the players in our team are should be capable of these basics.

That's a statistic that only tells half the truth. 

If Tarkowski finds a blue toe, hair or anything else it counts as a completion. If that ball inevitably leads to a turnover then its not a good ball. 

No doubt the pissing around with it was the biggest problem, but he has played a coin flip pass. Patterson was never going to be able to have good possession from that pass so there was a big chance it would turnover. His (and the others) pissing around meant that both full backs had advanced and we had limited cover. He just needed to play the much lower risk simple passes, much quicker and he could have let one of them fuck it up so that we can concede on the counter

Having watched it all and thought about it a bit more, its all about confidence. A couple of wins under our belts, those balls get played quicker, the press is more instinctive instead of staggered, the players take one less touch and the movement is that little bit sharper etc. The players dont have enough confidence in themselves, their teammates or the tactics they are meant to be playing to at the moment.