Everton (H) | Post Match Thread

[sir baconface]

I’d still like to see Alvarez getting more starts.

I think he can be a big goal threat, and in turn I think that’ll help Haaland even more too. The more goal threats we have, the more their defences have to worry about. Now they just know the goals are mostly Haaland and others chipping in with the odd goal. I think Alvarez could be a 15+ league goals a season player with enough game time.

He looks like a player that defenders could start to worry about playing against.

I like Mahrez and Grealish, I think they get too much stick at times, but at the same time I don’t think defenders are overly worried about coming up against them.

Although I’ve advocated playing Foden and Alvarez up front with Haaland, they won’t necessarily be instant silver bullets. Alvarez in particular has yet to find his niche with us and is relatively raw. Foden’s already there, if a little erratic in recent games. Not surprising since he’s always been the easiest one to drop and it must affect his confidence.

Nevertheless they’d be a much more vigorous option than the Grealish/Mahrez pairing, whose goals and assists this season have been pretty dismal. They aren’t EARNING first choice status.

That said, I’d still have some rotation with Mahrez and Grealish but not both at the same time. Too slow and predictable. I’ve not given up hope of Grealish coming good, nor forgotten what Mahrez can do on his day. I just wouldn’t indulge them as much as they are at present.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Well said Jim...
I didn't post after the game as I was pissed off at dropping two points...but it's bollocks to think we can't go on a run and claw back 7 points especially as we have to play the Arse twice...it might not happen but then again we might do it.
Yesterday was an awful game to watch with Maddley and Everton doing their best to stop a football game breaking out.
So much play acting and time wasting was embarrassing..
Definitely looked a penalty on Mahrez from the top of South Stand and having seen a pic of it since it was 100% nailed on..but with that fat fucking tosser Mason on Var no way we're we going to get it.
We need Kyle and Cancello Laporte and Ruben back asap..
Hopefully Pep will start Phil and Alvarez instead of Mahrez and Grealish as we need more pace upfront to help Haaland.
Happy New Year blues..keep the faith..

If we played our full strength team more often you’d fancy us to go on a decent run of wins.

If he continues to pick the team that he picked yesterday most of the time, then we’ll finish a distant second or third.

 

[jimharri]

Wait, Jim you are the moderator? I'm not even joking. I did not know that. Where have I been? I need a break...

Only for the last 4 or 5 years!

;-)

 

[GaudinoMotors]

I do honestly see your point of view and, contrary to how it probably comes across, I'm not looking for arguments. I'm too old to be rowing (not the sort you do on water!) with faceless people online. I just find it sad that people will criticise (and, as I've intimated, the criticism was justified yesterday), but seem reluctant to praise us. You probably are on to something with your "human nature" observation as well. If we won, say, 4-1 yesterday, the post match thread wouldn't be half the size it is. And re the moderation on here, we try to avoid the RAWK method, where just about anything overly critical of the club is deleted. Ric's wish is for posters to "self moderate" where possible, and for the mods to only get involved as a last resort.

It's all opinions of course, obviously we're all different. The match day thread gets a regular slagging off for negatively and moaning but personally I prefer it to all the pre-match over confidence about how many we're going to "dick em by" etc.
All depends whether your naturally optimistic or pessimistic I suppose.
Anyway - thanks for being reasonable, as ever.

 

[blue by birth]

If we played our full strength team more often you’d fancy us to go on a decent run of wins.

If he continues to pick the team that he picked yesterday most of the time, then we’ll finish a distant second or third.

Definitely need to play our strongest team more often than not..
We look better when we have more pace..
Use the experiments for the domestic cups and go full strength in the league and champions league

 

[TheThirdDeano]

Few thoughts on yesterday :

- The atmosphere at the stadium was truly awful. Literally silence for the whole game. Potentially the worst I’ve seen it since the Pearce era that. If the fans don’t turn up, don’t expect the players to either.

- Pep stubbornness when it comes to making substitutions is infuriating. Bringing players on to change the game at 86 mins is insulting. It was clear things weren’t working and changes were needed and this was also the case against Brentford.

- Probably unpopular but Rico Lewis isn’t as great as we’d like to believe. He’s a tidy player who’ll have a good career but what does he actually excel at ?

- Grealish playing left wing has to stop. Again this is entirely on Pep.

In summary, it was a terrible game, terrible atmosphere and Pep has to take full responsibility for more dropped points due to his refusal to make subs.

This is a very bad post.

Congrats!

 

[Agueroooo9320]

At times yesterday, Jack received the ball and was promptly confronted by 2 or 3 opponents, the chances of dribbling past them is very low, so he passes the ball to retain possession. Should we take more risks? Maybe, but will it provide great success overall, I'm not convinced it will.

this is something everyone turns an blind eye to on here

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

If we won, say, 4-1 yesterday, the post match thread wouldn't be half the size it is. And re the moderation on here, we try to avoid the RAWK method, where just about anything overly critical of the club is deleted.

There's nothing to say about a happy family. Tolstoy got it in one ("All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”).
I very much like the light-handed way this place is modded. The line should be drawn at personal insults of players, the club, the owners, the manager, and other posters. (Mods are fair game…)
One other point. I don't know who these posters are who only emerge when things are going badly. I genuinely don't. I'll take your and the other mods' word for it, since I don't have my finger on the pulse. There's a bloke sits behind me, he's only happy when he's effing and blinding about how shit this or that player is. When we actually score, he never says a thing. I think he may actually be disgruntled. I'm sad for him, and the kind of inner life he must have.
But when people object to people on a post-match thread along the lines of “You spoilt fucker, don't you realise that we've won six titles in ten years, didn't you see us win a treble in 2019? weren't you at Edgeley Park to see us beaten by Stockport bleeding County? etc. etc.,” all of that is strictly irrelevant. A post-match thread discusses the issue in hand, for better or worse, i.e. the match that's just been witnessed.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Im still pissed off. Dropping points to Brentford & Everton at home is poor.

I still don’t get how we dropped points in these games. I think tactics in both didn’t help.

We were shit in the first half against Palace, we were outplayed by Brighton, we were rubbish against Fulham, we were even poor in the second half against United… we won all four of those games but that’s 10 halves of football out of of our 16 home halves of football we’ve not played well in this season.

Include the Newcastle, Villa, Liverpool Wolves and Leicester away performances (again, despite some being wins) and you realise that we’ve not got going at all this season.

 

[Vic]

In a general sense (and setting aside yesterday's match) I heartily approve of that. VAR should be there to help the ref — not to replace them.
I don't think the ref is told to look at the screen, by the way. I should hope not. They may be advised that they might want to take a second look. The remit of VAR should not go beyond that.

Told to look, suggest another look...

Same end result.