Everton 0-2 Fulham - Sunday 14th February, 2021

[RandoEFC+]

We needed to win that. We will lose to Man City on Wednesday and giving us a 10% chance of coming away from Anfield with even a draw would be generous. Back in a conversation about 6th/7th by then. You are a headache, Everton.

[Stan]

Did the keeper get kicked in the head as he landed?

[RandoEFC+]

All credit to Fulham, I hope they stay up because Scott Parker looks capable of building a really decent footballing side. A far cry from the Fulham who got relegated two seasons ago and it's mad that this is only their 3rd win of the season the way they've played whenever I've watched them.

That's absolutely appalling from us though. Genuinely can't think of a single positive from any individual or the team. Think Ancelotti got the selection wrong as well. Absolute rubbish but I can't really be arsed getting fucked off about it because this season has just been random and bonkers. It just beggars belief that we've served up that exact performance for the 3rd-4th time this season after the combination of backbone and quality that has got us so many wins in tougher circumstances. Both teams got what they deserved tonight.

[RandoEFC+]

[Lucas]

I know Everton will be disappointed to miss going in the Top 4 tonight considering where they are, and they should be. To lose at home to ourselves, West Ham, Newcastle and Fulham, I get it, on paper they should be wins. No goals scored past either of us too is pretty alarming for them.

That said, I think they have fluked a few points away from home and it's kinda balanced itself out, this is Everton. They lack consistency.

Being totally honest, I think their higher in the league because of the inadequacies of others. I guess you can say the table never lies but are they the 7th best team in the league? I wouldn't personally say so.

When we played them the other week, I thought they were pretty fortunate to win and they somehow nabbed the equaliser at Old Trafford last week too when I saw them again.

They just can't seem to capitalise when they get good fortune. It's really odd behaviour.

Also, is there a case to say that James can be a bit of a luxury player? Sure, a good player when he fancies it but for someone that didnt play a single minute in the week, you'd think he'd be the one who would grab the game and really make an impression. He looked a passenger to me. 

[RandoEFC+]

2 hours ago, Lucas said:

That said, I think they have fluked a few points away from home and it's kinda balanced itself out, this is Everton. They lack consistency.

Fluked is unfair. We've seen out a number of narrow victories on the road in close games. It isn't a fluke, we've taken our chances when we've been on top in those games and then haven't cracked under the pressure where other teams in the same situation have. That's a credit to the character and game management of the team and the manager. I know this because this has been so sorely lacking from basically any Everton team I've seen in my lifetime. You've given examples of Leeds and Man Utd away. People have had this misconception for years where apparently having less possession makes you a worse team or less deserving of victory. Producing more moments of quality than your opposition with less of the ball and also doing a better job in your own box of preventing goalscoring opportunities are also important in football and we've done that on a number of occasions where our opponents have failed to break us down. Both teams in the examples you've mentioned conceded sloppy goals in those games and we didn't. That's not luck or fluke, it's better defending and organisation.

2 hours ago, Lucas said:

Being totally honest, I think their higher in the league because of the inadequacies of others. I guess you can say the table never lies but are they the 7th best team in the league? I wouldn't personally say so.

This is a silly argument really that could be applied to almost any team. I also think it's just incorrect. If we'd have won tonight we'd have gone up to 5th place and if you'd said we're not the 5th best team in the league I wouldn't argue with it, but go down to 7th and I think that's our ball park. Liverpool, the Manchester clubs and Leicester are clearly better than us. Chelsea and Spurs should be ahead of us, but again, you're talking about Everton being fortunate that other teams have been more bad than them and made more mistakes than them when this is literally how the league table works. I accept the argument that in a normal season, this Everton side would probably be further down, or perhaps we'd be around 7th place but there would be a bigger points gap to the top four by now, but this is how football works, the goalposts move every season. I've seen Everton sides who have played better on average than we have this season, not massively put a foot wrong but still finish 7th or 8th because other teams with better players have also pretty much reached their potential.

I think there's a philosophical issue with how each of us view what makes a good team. I'd cautiously suggest that your view of this Everton side is probably more negative than it would be because the way we've got results this season is very different to the way your own team, and your manager who's probably a club legend after winning promotion, go about things. There are two sides to the game which you have to be good at, one is being proactive, asserting your authority over games, demonstrating your strengths and going out and "taking" wins. The other is being reactive, minimising your vulnerabilities, avoiding mistakes, making sure you're still in games late on, etc. This current Everton side are better at the second than the first, it might be less inspiring but it doesn't make it any less valid. Leeds are the perfect example of the other extreme. For both teams, the end product is that they're having a season where they're winning enough games to meet or probably slightly exceed expectations, both sides have benefitted from the mistakes of teams that have ended up below them in the table, and that's fine.

2 hours ago, Lucas said:

Also, is there a case to say that James can be a bit of a luxury player? Sure, a good player when he fancies it but for someone that didnt play a single minute in the week, you'd think he'd be the one who would grab the game and really make an impression. He looked a passenger to me. 

James Rodriguez is what he is, you're never going to get the defensive work out of him which is why you won't see him playing for Man City or Liverpool. He's amongst the best in the league at opening up defences but playing him relies upon your other 9 outfield players being able to exert enough control over the game to afford the lack of defensive work. I actually think his attitude is sound but he doesn't have the attributes to get up and down the pitch or make loads of ball recoveries. He's had some games like tonight, not too many, where the rest of the team haven't given him what he's needed to do his job. I've never really understood the phrase 'luxury player' - I think it leans on an assumption that players who you might describe as "all action" are some kind of default. Every player has strengths and weaknesses, you play one over the other, regardless of who they are, your team will be better at some things and worse at others. It's the manager's job to keep things in balance. Rodriguez was wasted in today's game, he didn't get a chance to make his positive contributions to make up for his defensive deficiencies so there was basically no point in him being on the pitch. It's not necessarily Ancelotti's fault, if we'd have seen the Doucoure and Davies that turned up against Spurs midweek in this game then it might have been a different story. But yes, we have a serious problem here in that if we're getting run ragged in midfield, Rodriguez is a non-entity. But then so are Gomes and Sigurdsson a lot of the time as well. I just don't think you should rely too heavily on your front three to control possession and dominate the game. If they play a part in that, then great, but it's primarily the job of the midfield to get the ball forward to them. Allan and Doucoure are the type of midfielders you need in the team regularly to get the best from Rodriguez. Gomes, Sigurdsson and Davies have a role to play but playing all three of them with Rodriguez and a knackered Doucoure with Richarlison, who's our best attacker at offering defensive support to the midfield, isolated up front, the balance was completely wrong.