FA Cup 2018/19 - Fourth Round Match Chat - 25-28th January, 2019

[Stan]

Comeback on? Perez finishes after a bit of a goalmouth scramble. 3-1.

[Guest]

If I was a west ham or Everton fan I would be really pissed of. Your not gonna go down. Your not gonna get in the champions league. Give the fa cup a go. Put out your best team

[Stan]

4 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

If I was a west ham or Everton fan I would be really pissed of. Your not gonna go down. Your not gonna get in the champions league. Give the fa cup a go. Put out your best team

They have put out strong teams. Everton had players like Richarlison, Sigurdsson, Coleman, Mina, Pickford, Gomes on the field. Majority of West Ham's team play week in, week out in the league, too - Hernandez, Antonio, Noble, Obiang, Ogbonna, Anderson, Snodgrass.

They've given it a go today in terms of team selection but they've not been good enough on the day. Sometimes the lower league clubs seem to 'want' it more and that can prevail.  

[Stan]

Another goal for West Ham...Anderson scores from a free-kick. 3-2.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Stan said:

They have put out strong teams. Everton had players like Richarlison, Sigurdsson, Coleman, Mina, Pickford, Gomes on the field. Majority of West Ham's team play week in, week out in the league, too - Hernandez, Antonio, Noble, Obiang, Ogbonna, Anderson, Snodgrass.

They've given it a go today in terms of team selection but they've not been good enough on the day. Sometimes the lower league clubs seem to 'want' it more and that can prevail.  

Never let the truth get in the way of a moan

[Guest]

John Hartson is  a Michael Owen bad pundit

[Stan]

Masuaku booked for diving. Not even close to being a foul.

[Stan]

4-2! That's game over surely.

West Ham seemed to just give up there?!

[Guest]

Get in there 

[RandoEFC+]

38 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

Some of your lot seem to now be saying he wasn't qualified to have been appointed in the first place. I don't seem to remember seeing any of that in the summer. From what I remember most were happy because of the perception that he played good football.

There were a fair few who had their doubts, I was one of them earlier last season to be honest, but as with most football fans when it became clear he was going to be appointed, everyone pretty much accepted it and looked for the positives early on, he sold himself well, said the right things, brought in exciting, Brazilian signings etc. so the fans were won over soon enough.

23 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

If I was a west ham or Everton fan I would be really pissed of. Your not gonna go down. Your not gonna get in the champions league. Give the fa cup a go. Put out your best team

That was our best team more or less. Worst thing about it.

Marco Silva still has plenty of time in my book anyway. What we need is stability, that's even more important for us than winning the FA Cup this season or getting closer to the top six. Recent results are frustrating and it hurts seeing this 3-4 year slump continue but the bloke has been employed for 3-5 years to achieve things, so we can't judge him after half a season.

[Lucas]

3 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

He won't be sacked, because changing manager again just sets us back another season. Under serious pressure now though. A lot of our fans think the FA Cup was all that was left for us this season.

I still maintain that the manager isn't the problem. Spineless players are the problem as evidenced by conceding equalisers immediately twice tonight.

Didn't even see the last half hour bar the replays of their second goal in a bar. Can't say I'm sorry. We are absolutely desperately mediocre.

I completely agree.

The players don't look strong mentally. There is not enough character in your team. Very easy for some to go missing when you need them most. They all just look at eachother and shrug.

Everton are too much of a soft touch. I dont think anyone was shocked to see them bullied out of the cup and that is the sad fact, that not many will be shocked. Says it all.

I feel like Everton need to build a spine, a real backbone of the team and slot the fancy dans and creative players around that.

And they need to give Silva time to do that. He can't be expected to rebuild such a shambles just like that. It will take time.

 

[Lucas]

Also, crying at West Ham. 

10th in the League. Not breaking Top 6, not going down either. Nothing else but the FA Cup to really play for and they don't start Arnautovic, Nasri, Anderson, Rice, Fabianski, Cresswell etc.

This should have been their biggest game to date. Got what you deserved. Goodbye.

[Guest Cannabis]

Hahahaha, I just fully give up. Another season of doing the square root of fuck all, the last 2-3 seasons have literally been one big sigh.

Can't be arsed sacking Silva for the same reasons Rando pointed out but the fact that we have the same problems week after week exposed is the sign of a shit manager.

[Smiley Culture]

1 hour ago, Gunnersauraus said:

If I was a west ham or Everton fan I would be really pissed of. Your not gonna go down. Your not gonna get in the champions league. Give the fa cup a go. Put out your best team

Read an article from Girona’s manager saying that though his side were in the QF’s of the Copa Del Rey, it was still all eyes on the league despite being in 12th. 

Finishing 7th in the Premier League will net you approximately £27m, according to Google, whereas 12th place in the Premier League earns you approximately £17m. There’s a £10m difference there and currently the gap between 7th and 12th is three points, so you could almost forgive either for making nine changes and going out this evening. They didn’t. Both sides were pretty strong, which for me, makes them more bonafide shocks than a Premier League team who’ve made numerous changes. 

It’s a money game now and not a trophy based game, no matter what fans may want. Heard this week a Chelsea ‘fan’ say he didn’t want to be Tottenham this week because “it was only the League Cup”. Maybe the landscape of fans is changing too but for someone, even if they’re a minority, not want to reach or get excited about reaching a Final is just as sad as clubs who settle for 10th year in, year out. 

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

Read an article from Girona’s manager saying that though his side were in the QF’s of the Copa Del Rey, it was still all eyes on the league despite being in 12th. 

Finishing 7th in the Premier League will net you approximately £27m, according to Google, whereas 12th place in the Premier League earns you approximately £17m. There’s a £10m difference there and currently the gap between 7th and 12th is three points, so you could almost forgive either for making nine changes and going out this evening. They didn’t. Both sides were pretty strong, which for me, makes them more bonafide shocks than a Premier League team who’ve made numerous changes. 

It’s a money game now and not a trophy based game, no matter what fans may want. Heard this week a Chelsea ‘fan’ say he didn’t want to be Tottenham this week because “it was only the League Cup”. Maybe the landscape of fans is changing too but for someone, even if they’re a minority, not want to reach or get excited about reaching a Final is just as sad as clubs who settle for 10th year in, year out. 

I suppose manager's are under pressure from owner's. If you asked a fan would they rather finish 12th and win the fa cup or even the league cup they would probably choose the latter however owner's want the money. At the same time 10 million isn't a lot in football terms. The global premiere league really has killed the fa cup. There is so much demand for the premier league that is just not there for the cup. I think someone's said you get only get 5 million for winning it. And the gap will only get bigger. Interesting that you said about not being exited for a final. A lot of fans slate the league cup but I was exited for the final last year. Its still a final

[Dan+]

Everton and West Ham firmly in the "deserve to be absolutely blasted from all angles" camp along with us then. Some absolutely shameful efforts from middling PL clubs this year.

[UNORTHODOX]

Marco silva continues to be the biggest fraud in english football. Really dont see anything in him that makes him one of the most sought after candidates when ever a job becomes available. He had a few good months at Hull and he's still living off that now.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

There were a fair few who had their doubts, I was one of them earlier last season to be honest, but as with most football fans when it became clear he was going to be appointed, everyone pretty much accepted it and looked for the positives early on, he sold himself well, said the right things, brought in exciting, Brazilian signings etc. so the fans were won over soon enough.

That was our best team more or less. Worst thing about it.

Marco Silva still has plenty of time in my book anyway. What we need is stability, that's even more important for us than winning the FA Cup this season or getting closer to the top six. Recent results are frustrating and it hurts seeing this 3-4 year slump continue but the bloke has been employed for 3-5 years to achieve things, so we can't judge him after half a season.

Its good that you are thinking long term. I'm all for managers being given time to build a team. At the same time I don't really think he is the man for the job. I think at the end of next season you will be no better of and probably worse of. Don't mean it in a disrespectful way I like Everton but I think they could have done better

[Guest]

1 hour ago, UNORTHODOX said:

Marco silva continues to be the biggest fraud in english football. Really dont see anything in him that makes him one of the most sought after candidates when ever a job becomes available. He had a few good months at Hull and he's still living off that now.

He remindse a bit of Martinez who didn't get results but kept getting good jobs because he plays good football. I does annoy me a bit when someone like puel who I think is actually quite decent gets slated all the time because fans don't like his football. Saying that though Everton are only a point behind Leicester but puel receives much more critism

[Dan+]

Fans shouldn't be standing for that bollocks. Accepting it and playing along with the "focus on the league, we need 10th rather than 13th" mentality because it pockets a couple more million (which will often be blown in a lot of clubs cases) is just a terrible attitude for the fans to have. Everton and West Ham fans, along with ours in the last round should all be absolutely lambasting the players and manager for those results.

[Guest]

44 minutes ago, Dan said:

Fans shouldn't be standing for that bollocks. Accepting it and playing along with the "focus on the league, we need 10th rather than 13th" mentality because it pockets a couple more million (which will often be blown in a lot of clubs cases) is just a terrible attitude for the fans to have. Everton and West Ham fans, along with ours in the last round should all be absolutely lambasting the players and manager for those results.

I'm sure the players and the manager care about the fa cup. However the manager will be under pressure to get higher up the league and this will affect team selection. To be fair to west ham and Everton they did pick strong teams they just both had bad games

[RandoEFC+]

How Marco Silva can be the biggest fraud in the league when the likes of Pardew and Hughes get job after job following repeated failures is beyond me. His time at Hull was a mixed bag, same at Watford, same at Everton so far.

I'm not going to scrap much to stick up for him because I'm still pissed off but there's clearly at least potential in what he's trying to do as we were 6th at the end of November.

The problem is the players, it just is. Any squad worth their salt, regardless of the manager or tactics, would have responded to the last gasp farcical loss at Anfield by mullering Newcastle and Watford at home, rather than scraping draws in both games. A squad worth their salt regardless of zonal or man marking wouldn't lose their shit and keep giving away silly free kicks to Millwall and fail to get a head on the first or second ball three times in one game.

I would continue but I can't be arsed. Bottom line is that it takes more than 6 months to turn a team comprised of Koeman and Walsh's shithouses and mercenaries into a functioning and progressive side, especially when our hands are tied in the transfer market thanks to those two wankers handing out 5 year 100k a week contracts to every Bolasie, Williams, Schneiderlin and Mirallas in town.

Not denying that Silva has to make big improvements soon. This job is a make or break for his career in England. 

[Dan+]

I'll never get how Walsh allowed for that kind of reckless spending. I've got it on good authority here that he did have Slimani as a target here for us but wouldn't sanction a move over £10million. Two months after he goes we panic buy him on deadline day for just under £30million.

It's just weird how he can be strict with us in that sense yet at Everton some of the spending has been even more reckless than ours. Is it people above him or what?

[Smiley Culture]

4 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

How Marco Silva can be the biggest fraud in the league when the likes of Pardew and Hughes get job after job following repeated failures is beyond me. His time at Hull was a mixed bag, same at Watford, same at Everton so far.

I'm not going to scrap much to stick up for him because I'm still pissed off but there's clearly at least potential in what he's trying to do as we were 6th at the end of November.

The problem is the players, it just is. Any squad worth their salt, regardless of the manager or tactics, would have responded to the last gasp farcical loss at Anfield by mullering Newcastle and Watford at home, rather than scraping draws in both games. A squad worth their salt regardless of zonal or man marking wouldn't lose their shit and keep giving away silly free kicks to Millwall and fail to get a head on the first or second ball three times in one game.

I would continue but I can't be arsed. Bottom line is that it takes more than 6 months to turn a team comprised of Koeman and Walsh's shithouses and mercenaries into a functioning and progressive side, especially when our hands are tied in the transfer market thanks to those two wankers handing out 5 year 100k a week contracts to every Bolasie, Williams, Schneiderlin and Mirallas in town.

Not denying that Silva has to make big improvements soon. This job is a make or break for his career in England. 

Personal opinion, I think he’s been given jobs and time based upon sympathy and blame. People, rightly, sympathised with what he had to deal with at Hull City and he did an average job there, IMO, and then Everton have been given the blame for the wheels coming off during his spell at Watford, something I don’t necessarily agree with. 

A bit more factual now, his side’s leak goals. Not really having much of a focus on defence may be fine at Sporting Lisbon and Olympiakos but it’s really not good enough to seemingly not have the ability to organise a defence at Hull, Watford and now Everton. 

At Hull, his side kept four clean sheets in twenty-two games and leaked two or more goals in ten of those games. Yeah, Hull City. I get it. They were awful and it was a shock they were even in the Premier League that year. 

He moves then to Watford, he improves on Hull by managing to get his side to keep five clean sheets in around the same number of games but his side conceded two or more in twelve games (including 9 to City and 4 to Huddersfield). 

Everton now, he’s managed to get his sides keeping five clean sheets in the Premier League thus far to Fulham, Cardiff, Bournemouth, Chelsea and Palace (four of the five 12th or below) and has seen his side concede two or more nine times in twenty three. 

Away from home, Everton currently have two wins from eleven games, his Watford side managed four away wins in twelve Premier League games but his Hull side didn’t manage to register an away win under his stewardship in nine games. 

Everything that’s happening at Everton under Silva seems to be similar to what’s happened to Watford and to a lesser degree, Hull, under him as well. 

As I said elsewhere on this thread, it’s not just Silva’s fault here, it’s a much deeper issue. 

[RandoEFC+]

Aye, I'm just sick of our fans blaming zonal marking and any other things they can think of that they think only Silva does.

Disorganised defences concede goals all the time, and I'm not saying our defence is well organised, but it's only a part of the problem. Spineless defences concede goals at high pressure moments such as straight after taking the lead and injury time at the end of the game.

If we had one legitimate leader on that pitch, regardless of whether they were told to make zonally or man to man, they'd be getting their bastard head on the ball from the set pieces they were throwing into the box and making sure it wasn't landing in the mixer and bouncing around our six yard box.

Losing both first and second balls on all of their goals just stinks of our players not having the mentality to fight. Tactics can only take you so far. We were far from good quality last night but we did manage to put ourselves in a winning position twice.

The difference between us winning, even if it was ugly which is perfectly acceptable when you go away to Millwall in the pissing rain, and getting knocked out wasn't zonal marking, wasn't the manager or his tactics, it was a lack of mental strength and game management at key points in the match. Part of that is down to the manager to instil that in the team but given how much of a habit it has been for these players to keep passing on responsibility time and time again until it lands on yet another manager and costs them their job, I can't imagine it's possible for Silva to change that in half a season. Our dressing room is poisoned by a lack of character and a long term acceptance of mediocrity.