Everton 3-1 Burnley - Monday 13th September, 2021

[Dan+]

Gray again. Sighs.

[Lucas]

I'm a bit surprised. I thought under Rafa Everton would be much like how Ancelotti had them, defensive and 'safe' but it's not looking like that. They were more attacking at our place than I expected and I saw more positive signs of that tonight.

One thing I would say, from what I saw of Everton last season, if they went 1-0 down to Burnley, they wouldn't have turned that into a 3-1 win. Bare in mind they did that first game home to Southampton as well. I don't know if thats having the fans back or if there is more belief in the system they are playing but this seems a different Everton.

In a weird way, it feels like Ancelotti has done them a favour by leaving. Maybe he struggled to cope tactically with a 'smaller' club and less star players to rely on than what he's used to with the bigger clubs? 

Either way, Benitez has surprised me. Early days, only four games in but there is reason for optimism and at the very least, better football.

P.S Sorry, I got to mention it. On a side note, Brownhill made the exact same challenge on Richarlison 2mins into the game tonight that Struijk made on Elliott yesterday. The exact replica. No dramas at all, not even a booking.

Tarkowski's was even worse because its one of them you go in with such force that there is intent to leave something on the opponent. Again, that's deemed fine.

Mind boggling the can of worms that's been opened up as a result of yesterday now but there you go, knew that would happen so soon.

[RandoEFC+]

5 minutes ago, Lucas said:

I'm a bit surprised. I thought under Rafa Everton would be much like how Ancelotti had them, defensive and 'safe' but it's not looking like that. They were more attacking at our place than I expected and I saw more positive signs of that tonight.

One thing I would say, from what I saw of Everton last season, if they went 1-0 down to Burnley, they wouldn't have turned that into a 3-1 win. Bare in mind they did that first game home to Southampton as well. I don't know if thats having the fans back or if there is more belief in the system they are playing but this seems a different Everton.

In a weird way, it feels like Ancelotti has done them a favour by leaving. Maybe he struggled to cope tactically with a 'smaller' club and less star players to rely on than what he's used to with the bigger clubs? 

Either way, Benitez has surprised me. Early days, only four games in but there is reason for optimism and at the very least, better football.

P.S Sorry, I got to mention it. On a side note, Brownhill made the exact same challenge on Richarlison 2mins into the game tonight that Struijk made on Elliott yesterday. The exact replica. No dramas at all, not even a booking.

Tarkowski's was even worse because its one of them you go in with such force that there is intent to leave something on the opponent. Again, that's deemed fine.

Mind boggling the can of worms that's been opened up as a result of yesterday now but there you go, knew that would happen so soon.

I didn't even notice the first challenge you mention which probably underlines your point. Thought Tarkowski's challenge on Richarlison shortly before the first goal was bang out of order though. Laughable that Townsend got booked moments later for a nothing foul on halfway after that went unpunished.

[Whiskey]

Lost my voice, what a night.

Demarai fucking Gray.

[Lucas]

10 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

I didn't even notice the first challenge you mention which probably underlines your point. Thought Tarkowski's challenge on Richarlison shortly before the first goal was bang out of order though. Laughable that Townsend got booked moments later for a nothing foul on halfway after that went unpunished.

As you said, pretty innocuous because you expect that as part of the game.

They might have to start clamping down on the one's with the follow through's though. That's going to go horribly wrong for someone if they let them ride. I'm certain Tarkowski had the intent to leave something on Richarlison. Not to injure him like, but hit him hard.

[RandoEFC+]

Yeah and not a yellow for this one.

Nutty that.

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 hour ago, Lucas said:

I'm a bit surprised. I thought under Rafa Everton would be much like how Ancelotti had them, defensive and 'safe' but it's not looking like that. They were more attacking at our place than I expected and I saw more positive signs of that tonight.

One thing I would say, from what I saw of Everton last season, if they went 1-0 down to Burnley, they wouldn't have turned that into a 3-1 win. Bare in mind they did that first game home to Southampton as well. I don't know if thats having the fans back or if there is more belief in the system they are playing but this seems a different Everton.

In a weird way, it feels like Ancelotti has done them a favour by leaving. Maybe he struggled to cope tactically with a 'smaller' club and less star players to rely on than what he's used to with the bigger clubs? 

Either way, Benitez has surprised me. Early days, only four games in but there is reason for optimism and at the very least, better football.

P.S Sorry, I got to mention it. On a side note, Brownhill made the exact same challenge on Richarlison 2mins into the game tonight that Struijk made on Elliott yesterday. The exact replica. No dramas at all, not even a booking.

Tarkowski's was even worse because its one of them you go in with such force that there is intent to leave something on the opponent. Again, that's deemed fine.

Mind boggling the can of worms that's been opened up as a result of yesterday now but there you go, knew that would happen so soon.

I think Rafa's a better manager than Ancelott tbh. I know not many managers in the world have the pedigree of Carlo Ancelotti and he's rightfully considered a modern football legend by a lot of people, imo. But I think Rafa's flown under a lot of peoples radars with shit like being Mourinho's replacement at Madrid (I think Rafa's probably never going to be the best fit for Madrid, but coming in after Jose... who was pretty outstanding for them tbh... bit of a poisoned chalice), then his time at Newcastle (not the most ambitious club to be the manager of) and going to China.

And yeah with the Struijk thing... we all know the reason he was sent off was because it was a freak accident that led turned that challenge into a red cardable offense. And I think @RandoEFC's said better than I ever could as to why giving him the red card was probably the right decision in the heat of the moment. I think 1/1000 times a challenge like that ends up the way it did yesterday, and the other 999 times it'd be something nobody would ever mention.

5 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Yeah and not a yellow for this one.

Nutty that.

I'd have been surprised... but that's Martin Twatkinson, he's one of the worst refs in the league.

That's crazy that's not even a free kick or a booking though.

[Dan+]

I still don't think it will take much for the fans to turn, but Benitez is a quality manager and when we sacked Puel, it was between him and Rodgers and I'd have been really happy with either. He gets some unfair labels for me.

[Honey Honey]

Still early days but for us Rafa was excellent against those in the bottom half and that's who Everton's start has been against. His organisational ability and game management just does the job there. 

[LFCMike]

8 hours ago, Lucas said:

As you said, pretty innocuous because you expect that as part of the game.

They might have to start clamping down on the one's with the follow through's though. That's going to go horribly wrong for someone if they let them ride. I'm certain Tarkowski had the intent to leave something on Richarlison. Not to injure him like, but hit him hard.

That's just not the same at all though! The reason Elliott ends up so badly injured is because the Leeds player ends up jumping into the challenge with the 'wrong' foot and Elliott's leg gets caught under his trailing left leg. If your player had gone into the challenge with his left then Elliott doesn't end up injured.

[Stan]

7 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

Yeah and not a yellow for this one.

Nutty that.

Just me that thinks this is a quality tackle and is the kind of tackle being ushered out of the game? 

[RandoEFC+]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

Just me that thinks this is a quality tackle and is the kind of tackle being ushered out of the game? 

Yeah, just you . I get what you're saying in that he did get a piece of the ball first but there was no need for him to go in that hard and we've seen pretty bad injuries come out of that. 

[DeadLinesman]

2 hours ago, Stan said:

Just me that thinks this is a quality tackle and is the kind of tackle being ushered out of the game? 

That for me is worse than the tackle in the Leeds game. And that’s the problem when it comes to tackling in the game. We all have different views on what is acceptable and what isn’t. 

[Stan]

Fair enough. I'm not going to argue about it because like @DeadLinesman says, there's always different views.

For me it's about judging the tackle for what it is - and not always the potential outcome that could have happened. With any tackle, a player could get an injury - severe or not - and it could be accidental. 

[Reluctant Striker]

The ones from behind, or near enough behind, are perhaps worst, because the player in possession doesn't get chance to dodge the tackle. Plus the player making the tackle from that position is often doing so because they're beaten for pace.. yet momentum takes them through. And even they may not expect that.

The front lunges... well, they can intimidate the opponent. I'm certain Tarkowski intends that. The attacking player may dodge those. But sometimes it does break legs.

I'm not convinced that shoulder barging isn't just as effective as lunging at the ball/legs. And preferential. Lots of that is let pass by ref's as tussling for the ball. Most often by attacking players.

[Inverted]

I think as well the overall type of tackle there are also lots of other relevant things - distance, execution, timing, speed etc.

I think that slides from behind can be ok, but that Struijk's specifically is a red. He's too far away to begin with, so he has to launch himself over too long a distance with too much force. And the result is he is off the ground and his trailing leg lands on Elliot's standing ankle.

It's not even the tackling foot which does the damage. And on top of that I think it's not even the ball-playing foot which gets injured. 

You can't make a perfect tackle with one leg while the other one is just flying around any old place ready to land with your full body weight behind it. It's a full package - you're either in control of the whole thing or you're not in control at all.

Tarkowski's on Richarlison, at least his trailing leg is off to the side and he's mostly on the floor. It then all comes down to the tackling leg and whether he times it right or not. If he mistimes it, it could be red. 

[RandoEFC+]

On Benitez, I'll very much judge him on his merits. Actually the ill feeling towards him largely evaporated when those idiots put that "we know where you live" banner up near his house.

There are plenty of positives so far. 10 points from 4 games and progress in the League Cup is an impressive start. Home wins against Southampton and Burnley are to be expected and a point at Leeds is decent. The win at Brighton and the manner of it is the standout result so far. If he can continue to make those expected home wins our bread and butter (which to be honest they haven't been actually because we did go behind in both of those games) whilst continuing to pick up a decent amount of points away against teams like Brighton, then we'll have a very decent season and potentially challenge for a European spot. The difference will probably be how we can fare against the teams that you'd expect to finish above us. There's no way we'll go to Liverpool, Arsenal, Leicester and Spurs and win all of those games like last season but if we lose 10-12 points there compared to last season and gain 18-20 points from winning the home games against teams like Burnley, Crystal Palace, Newcastle and the newly-promoted sides that we couldn't do for toffee last season, then we'll get a net gain.

Gray and Townsend have brought a lovely balance and some much-needed pace to the team. There seemed to be an expectation from fans of other clubs that we'd turn our noses up at those signings but I never got that impression from our fans. Then you've got squad players like Gomes and Iwobi who looked unbelievably average compared to their price-tag and ability last season who are now coming on and changing games. You can tell they're getting better guidance from the manager and there's more thought going into how more value can be drawn out of them considering the other pieces of the jigsaw. The one thing that we have got over the teams around us after our years of investment is an increased supply of those £20m-£30m players on our bench who have shown their quality in the past but not quite delivered for Everton recently. It also now looks as if James Rodriguez will be staying at the club and the process of reintegrating him into the squad will be underway soon. This can only be a good thing for us as long as Benitez doesn't do that thing managers do where they seem to try to establish their authority by being really stubborn about a big name player not being in their plans. Fair enough if he doesn't fancy him as a starting player but if he thinks he can get some utility out of players like Jonjoe Kenny and Salomon Rondon then it should go without saying that he can find a way to make use of a player of Rodriguez' talents somehow as well. For all of the talk surrounding his transfer saga and Benitez not fancying his work ethic on the pitch, he hasn't done anything unprofessional as far as I'm aware, always put a shift in last season to the best of his ability and is a player of immense technical quality.

Overall, it's very much so far, so good, but I remain wary of two things. a) how will we perform against stronger opposition and b) when (not if) we have a difficult patch, will he be able to turn it back around in the face of probably a more volatile fan reaction than you'd usually get in those circumstances.

[Dr. Gonzo]

Atkinson said to Townsend last night that he booked him because it was his 4th foul of the game.

Everton made 3 fouls as a team.

Truly Mike Riley’s protege.

[RandoEFC+]

How good is this?