Other Matches - 21-22nd September, 2019

[Fairy In Boots]

2 minutes ago, Dan said:

Watford baffle me. They aren't even that bad but they are pathetic at times. 8-0 is unforgivable.

Problems behind the scenes I reckon, they’ve carried on from that awful performance in the FA cup final

[Smiley Culture]

Everton are the very definition of a mid-table nothing club. They have been for a long time, though they’ve spent more than enough money to have ought to have pushed on and got themselves consistently into European competitions each year, much like Tottenham during that period where they seemed to get in the Europa League every year. 

Their recruitment and retention of playing staff and coaching staff hasn’t been good for a while and they have found themselves in a vicious cycle of throwing more money at it each year. 

[LFCMike]

In all seriousness, I watched the last half an hour or so of the Everton game and Silva's changes didn't help. Just throwing on as many attackers on to try and get a goal didn't work. It was so disjointed from Everton, especially after those changes.

[Dan+]

6 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

Problems behind the scenes I reckon, they’ve carried on from that awful performance in the FA cup final

Have they though? They were excellent last week. They're nearly Bournemouth bad in terms of completely collapsing away from home.

[RandoEFC+]

4 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

In all seriousness, I watched the last half an hour or so of the Everton game and Silva's changes didn't help. Just throwing on as many attackers on to try and get a goal didn't work. It was so disjointed from Everton, especially after those changes.

The Walcott third sub is becoming the rubber stamp of a piss takingly bad performance from us.

I'm a long way from being Silva out but his substitutions leave a lot to be desired. He either makes a like for like change or just throws on another attacker for a midfielder. Looked like Walcott was playing right back at the end.

My other big issue is why Davies doesn't get a game over Schneiderlin. If you can't risk a more expansive midfielder instead of a second deeper midfielder against a newly promoted side at home then why the fuck isn't the lad out on loan getting a game. He captained the under 21s the other week and got really good reviews. Schneiderlin is just a safe ish pair of hands who will win a few challenges and play the ball sideways for 90 minutes.

[Dan+]

Schneiderlin's a slightly more seasoned Nampalys Mendy. Bang average.

Walcott absolutely isn't good enough for you either. Very limited player. He's about a Brighton level player.

[Rick]

Watford fuck me off. They have good players, shipping 8 goals is digusting. Last week they were good against arsenal and then they serve up that. Should fuck off back down. 

[SirBalon]

This was definitely not “Stoke on a rainy Monday night” or whatever was the turdish cliché.

When good is good and above the rest, this occurs.

[Lucas]

Lot's of Everton talk, to be expected. But let's forget Everton a minute, historically they have an unhealthy habit of letting poor sides mug them on their own patch. Nothing new here.

Good on the Blades. Said they would surprise a few people and that's a massive three points. I think they needed that after losing a winnable home game to Saints last week.

They will battle, fight and also offer a threat, as Chelsea have already found out, and they shouldn't be underestimated. 

Six games, two wins, two draws and two losses. Think they can be relatively pleased with that start. And their fans are behind them all the way, great to see.

I think they'll definitely make it hard for Liverpool next week. They will follow them all over the pitch.

[LFCMike]

12 minutes ago, Lucas said:

Lot's of Everton talk, to be expected. But let's forget Everton a minute, historically they have an unhealthy habit of letting poor sides mug them on their own patch. Nothing new here.

To be fair, in recent years they've tended to do well against the bottom half sides at home. It's about the only thing they've had going for them

[RandoEFC+]

Just now, LFCMike said:

To be fair, in recent years they've tended to do well against the bottom half sides at home. It's about the only thing they've had going for them

He's not wrong though. It was very un-Evertonly to go the last 7 months unbeaten at home. Before that run last season Huddersfield, Newcastle, Watford and Wolves are among the sides that came away from Goodison with at least a point.

[UNORTHODOX]

Iv got Bernardo Silva, Periera and otamendi in my fantasy team so a fantastic day for my team. 

[LFCMike]

10 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

He's not wrong though. It was very un-Evertonly to go the last 7 months unbeaten at home. Before that run last season Huddersfield, Newcastle, Watford and Wolves are among the sides that came away from Goodison with at least a point.

Yeah there's a few sides who have come away with a draw. Wolves won there but I don't think you can put them in with the others you mention

[Lucas]

From an Everton perspective, you have to be wanting more out of a player like Sigurdsson. Especially as he is an established, experienced PL player of seniority. He doesn't seem to have got going at all this season yet.

It is also poor to play two defensive midfielders at home in an extremely winnable game obviously. Waste of an extra attacking threat.

I'm wondering whether the time has come for Everton and Silva to maybe look at changing the formation to allow two up front.

Seems to be acceptable these days to have the one forward up top, which Everton often do with 3 supporting. That's ok if you have a striker who is banging them in. But Kean is young and learning. Maybe playing him in a two would help him, especially if it was say Richarlison pushed up top.

Managers don't often like to change the system too much because it goes against their beliefs buy perhaps Silva needs to concede it's not quite working.

At least when against sides of this ilk, really try and take the game to them. Get two up front. Or play a 3-5-2 possibly? 

Silva isn't a bad manager. And he deserves to January at least. But the ominous signs of rinse and repeat are there for Everton...again.

 

[Stan]

40 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

To be fair, in recent years they've tended to do well against the bottom half sides at home. It's about the only thing they've had going for them

The club needs to be shut down do today's result. 

[RandoEFC+]

24 minutes ago, Lucas said:

From an Everton perspective, you have to be wanting more out of a player like Sigurdsson. Especially as he is an established, experienced PL player of seniority. He doesn't seem to have got going at all this season yet.

It is also poor to play two defensive midfielders at home in an extremely winnable game obviously. Waste of an extra attacking threat.

I'm wondering whether the time has come for Everton and Silva to maybe look at changing the formation to allow two up front.

Seems to be acceptable these days to have the one forward up top, which Everton often do with 3 supporting. That's ok if you have a striker who is banging them in. But Kean is young and learning. Maybe playing him in a two would help him, especially if it was say Richarlison pushed up top.

Managers don't often like to change the system too much because it goes against their beliefs buy perhaps Silva needs to concede it's not quite working.

At least when against sides of this ilk, really try and take the game to them. Get two up front. Or play a 3-5-2 possibly? 

Silva isn't a bad manager. And he deserves to January at least. But the ominous signs of rinse and repeat are there for Everton...again.

 

Silva should definitely get this season at least unless there's a genuine risk of us going down.

In attack we have too many players who have quality but "might" do something. Richarlison might score a brace, Sigurdsson might score from distance, Iwobi might find a through ball to the striker, Calvert-Lewin might get on the end of a cross. And to be fair it's usually enough because we have quite a few options up there but when none of them work, we have no attacking structure to fall back on when we can't break teams down.

I don't think the solution is to put two up front because we dont even have one reliable goalscorer to stick up there. It's about time we saw the 4-3-3 that's supposed to be Silva's favoured formation. Last season we were forced into playing two deep and one advanced because Gueye and Sigurdsson were amongst the first names on the team sheet. Now we should look to move towards the Liverpoolish way where you have three midfielders who do a bit of everything with one deeper of the three. Delph, Gomes and Davies are all of those types of players who aren't exceptional enough at one thing to be a 6, 8 or 10, but are good enough at most things to be part of a more fluid midfield. Gbamin will probably play a deeper role when fit, I see no reason why Sigurdsson couldn't play as one of the three either as long as it wasn't the deeper one. Just needs to be something different.

[Lucas]

1 hour ago, RandoEFC said:

Silva should definitely get this season at least unless there's a genuine risk of us going down.

In attack we have too many players who have quality but "might" do something. Richarlison might score a brace, Sigurdsson might score from distance, Iwobi might find a through ball to the striker, Calvert-Lewin might get on the end of a cross. And to be fair it's usually enough because we have quite a few options up there but when none of them work, we have no attacking structure to fall back on when we can't break teams down.

I don't think the solution is to put two up front because we dont even have one reliable goalscorer to stick up there. It's about time we saw the 4-3-3 that's supposed to be Silva's favoured formation. Last season we were forced into playing two deep and one advanced because Gueye and Sigurdsson were amongst the first names on the team sheet. Now we should look to move towards the Liverpoolish way where you have three midfielders who do a bit of everything with one deeper of the three. Delph, Gomes and Davies are all of those types of players who aren't exceptional enough at one thing to be a 6, 8 or 10, but are good enough at most things to be part of a more fluid midfield. Gbamin will probably play a deeper role when fit, I see no reason why Sigurdsson couldn't play as one of the three either as long as it wasn't the deeper one. Just needs to be something different.

Yep, it definitely needs something different. As you say, even if you went 4-3-3 and tried to copy Liverpool, albeit with less quality, it could still offer a different threat. It's almost like you have become too predictable for the opposition.

City next week is literally a throw away game. No doubt you will line up pretty much as you have done today. But that formation change would be a perfect time to try and exploit a City side that look vulnerable defensively. Nothing to lose.

 

[RandoEFC+]

The only thing I have to add about the other results is what an utter disgrace that is from Watford. None of this "it's what happens when you have a manager like Pep". Fuck off. City lost to Norwich last week and the only time I can remember them winning by such a ridiculous scoreline is against League One Burton Albion or other matches against Watford. Shameful. I'd be disgusted if we lost by half of that score no matter how much better they are than the bottom 18 teams in this league.

[Dr. Gonzo]

 

always rated Sheffield United

[Fairy In Boots]

21 hours ago, Dan said:

Have they though? They were excellent last week. They're nearly Bournemouth bad in terms of completely collapsing away from home.

New manager bounce, they’ve looked poor since word go, I see the bottom sides as Newcastle, Watford, Brighton, Villa (need a striker) Norwich, palace, Southampton, Sheffield United. These will make up the bottom 7 

[tlr]

25 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

New manager bounce, they’ve looked poor since word go, I see the bottom sides as Newcastle, Watford, Brighton, Villa (need a striker) Norwich, palace, Southampton, Sheffield United. These will make up the bottom 7 

How do you think Villa's new tranche of players are doing? Obviously a lot of comparisons to Fulham's doomed attempts last year and though it's nowhere near as bad yet, Villa have hardly hit the round running.

[6666]

David Luiz & Sokratis still starting together even though they don't seem to work well together... 

[Fairy In Boots]

1 hour ago, tlr said:

How do you think Villa's new tranche of players are doing? Obviously a lot of comparisons to Fulham's doomed attempts last year and though it's nowhere near as bad yet, Villa have hardly hit the round running.

Not too bad we’ve been competitive but still gelling. 

Weve has some shit luck as well, that was a goal vs Palace we were robbed there. 

Need a pacey striker though because Grealish doesn’t have options in the final third, they’re very static in front of him. That will be our problem going into January a lack of goals. Think we’ll dip in again with maybe a striker and winger the rest looks decent buys at 21-26 will only improve 

[Chaaay AFC]

Just started playing well and Villa score, great cross and finish by McGinn though, poor from Guendouzi to let him go. 

[Chaaay AFC]

How is that a second yellow this fat cunt of a ref is a joke.