Everton (H) | Post Match Thread

[wolfie1988]

Isn’t this what squad rotation is for? We could easily have played Foden, Cancelo and Walker today without any detriment to the shape. Could have added Palmer too along with Bernado who was the only change. 5 lots of fresh legs.

Absolutely. Made the selection all the more baffling. And the lack of subs......

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

Not sure if I'm being bias but I feel like teams dont sit back as much to others as they do against us. It feels like EVERY team outisde top 6ish just come to defend for 90 mins, we need at least one tricky winger, grealish and mahrez cannot beat a man.

They can both skin people. The issue is they are told not to

 

[bluemoon32]

They can both skin people. The issue is they are told not to

So, Pep isnt the genius people think he is, surely he cant be wrong that often

 

[stan bowles]

As an entertainment spectacle that game was dreadful. Crowd was flat from the first whistle and never once got going. What little football there was was stifled by more injury stoppages and delays than you could count and that 8 minute delay for the replacement of the ref assistant's communication system just about took the biscuit.
City never looked up for it or ever got up to speed. Pedestrian passing between the defenders and a continual stream of misplaced passes by De Bruyne, Rodri and Stones kept Everton in the contest. Did Haaland touch the ball more than once in the second half ? He was a bystander and we offered him no service after he scored. Bernardo Silva totally anonymous - yet again. Needs benching.
I'm done with Grealish. Might be a lovely guy with a heart of gold but he offers us fuck all and seems to spend most of the game on his arse - might be worthwhile telling him that whilst he is picking himself up off the grass yet again that he is totally out of the game for that passage of play. They all need to take less touches and move the ball a lot quicker.
As for the Everton goal, Rodri passes it straight to them (pink shirts hard to see in the Manchester gloom apparently) and then 3 defenders contrive to give Gray the freedom of the penalty area and he sticks it away with a nice finish.
Game was crying out for subs but Pep decides on no changes until very, very late. Normally I always think we have it in us to pull out a late winner but today never seemed like we would.
All in all, as poor as game as we've had to endure for a long time.

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

So, Pep isnt the genius people think he is, surely he cant be wrong that often

Having inverted wingers is not working is it? Get forward, take someone on, stop, come back onto their best foot, repeatedly

 

[Paul1970]

Haalands goals have covered massive cracks in our team and system this season . Ederson at the back is a great at distribution but there is a reason why Allison is way above him on the international circuit because apart from his passing He is an average shot stopper . Cancelo is way out of form so pep doesn’t trust him above a makeshift left back . We are rotating our defenders way too much that no One knows who’s in or out . Arkanji after a great first few games is now flaky as hell as his gomez who will never be good enough for us . Rodri needs a rest but having a back up in Phillips is a waste if tine as he has been a disaster of a signing . Playing both grealish and Mahrez will not work as it slows us down but pep will carry on regardless . Tbh I can’t see us beating arsenal to the title infact they will probably run away with it if we carry on like this .

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Just got back.

First off, not sure why we aren’t starting games with our best full backs on the pitch?

The team performance had a very dull, blunt vibe to it. Like they we all waiting for someone else to “do something”. Worst I’ve seen us play for a very long time.

To make matters worse, KDB was unbelievably poor. Daft pass after daft pass from the word go. More often than not he’s our go-to-guy but today he was just nowhere near it.

A very silly time to drop such a shit performance and drop points.

There are some very tricky games v higher end opposition coming imminently. The reality is, if we don’t pull our fingers out in those games, we can wave goodbye to the title.

Yep. You can usually tell how we are going to play after the first 15 mins.

When you don’t play well, then grind out a result. Other sides are starting to do that now when not playing particularly well but we ship so many easy goals, we can’t seem to do it.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Not sure if I'm being bias but I feel like teams dont sit back as much to others as they do against us. It feels like EVERY team outisde top 6ish just come to defend for 90 mins, we need at least one tricky winger, grealish and mahrez cannot beat a man.

They don’t, but that’s because other sides haven't been Champion's 4 seasons out of the last 5. We only really play one way too so easier to defend against when we have an off day. Other sides use the ball over the top more and rely on pace from time to time when other stuff isn’t working. We probably need some quicker players to complement Haaland.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Yep. You can usually tell how we are going to play after the first 15 mins.

When you don’t play well, then grind out a result. Other sides are starting to do that now when not playing particularly well but we ship so many easy goals, we can’t seem to do it.

I could tell within 15 seconds mate.

I said to the geezer who sits next to me “they’re not feeling it today mate”.

 

[flook]

I could tell within 15 seconds mate.

I said to the geezer who sits next to me “they’re not feeling it today mate”.

We start quick we play well and usually win, we start slow and we end up like today. It's nailed on that the first shot by the opposition will be an unstoppable worldie that ends up nestled in the corner.

 

[Bluesince1979]

the mind set is Champions League, all our eggs are in that basket ? why else are the likes of walker foden cancelo not playing, OK for me, It's still very early season, we are not even halfway through, so a good run of wins from here like 10 to 15 wins we will be there or thereabout, so no need to panic

Yeah im not panicking. But no point pretending its been great, when it hasnt

 

[simmo]

Game of the day on sky - the others must have been bad !

If that had been the World Cup, there would have been about 30 added minutes.

The linesman stoppage was just amateur.

It was similar to Brentford game, not quick enough or direct in moving the ball. Foden was more involved in his time on the pitch than most others. Madley was in the way at times and did a good marking job on Kev on more than one occasion.

 

[malg]

Total shite today. It was fucking awful. KdB and Grealish done nothing. FFS was FFS.

Everton fans should be ashamed of the antics of their team. They were an embarrassment.

 

[ancoats]

Just got back in and haven't read all the thread.
Poor team selection from Pep - surely rotation demanded that Walker, Cancelo, Foden should have started, also Laporte?
Again subs made far too late.
Rely too much on KDB and when he has a poor game it shows.
Grealish ineffective, particularly second half.
Didn't get Haaland into the game enough ( particularly second half).
Mahrez was poor, always cutting back in as is his wont when we needed him to go wide and stretch the Everton defence ( tbf to Mahrez he did lay on the first and cross for Rodri (?) who could have nicked it at the end. Having Bernie a left footer on that side didn't help.
Not seen a replay of the Haaland tackle - quite a few were expecting a red.
Shit day all rounded with the Arse now seven ahead we have a mountain to climb given our tough run of fixtures coming up ( although ironically playing better sides who are more open could suit us).

Forget arsenal being 7 points ahead or the mountain you say we will have to climb, first thing first.
let's start getting our best 11 on the pitch, we must start with our best 11 then change with the 5 subs you can now use, getting the game won first instead of chasing a result.

back to basic for me 4.3.3 get both full backs on, so we can split the 2 centre backs with Rodri sitting back so Cancelo and Walker can bomb forward, this maybe the wake-up call for pep and the squad, we need to kick on from here, we are a team that can win 10 or so games on the trout so no need to panic.

would love a new left back, even if somebody has to leave to balance the squad, I think it would be the missing key down the left and also open up everything going forward

 

[OB1]

Another who has just got home and not surprised to see so many pages: always the same if we don't win.

Dreadful result. Hate it when spoilers like Everton try to live off scraps and manage it. It's an excellent strike from Gray, who had been well marshalled and then our players dropped a little too dep but the main problem was giving the ball away in the wrong place. Fact is, apart from that they created fuck all and offered no threat.

City's crossing just was not good enough today but with so many men to try and play through it's bloody difficult, so you have to make sure you do not concede.

I'm a bit surprised Pep did not freshen the side up and I would have liked to have seen the subs come on sooner. However, there is absolutely no guarantee it would have improved things, although across a full game, I'd like to think Foden would have got to the by-line more than we did: managed four crosses when he came on but none of them found a man, so no one knows if he would have produced.

 

[OB1]

Honestly, I've only seen a few comments and it's already time to go do something else.

 

[Blue_Lightsaber]

Forget arsenal being 7 points ahead or the mountain you say we will have to climb, first thing first.
let's start getting our best 11 on the pitch, we must start with our best 11 then change with the 5 subs you can now use, getting the game won first instead of chasing a result.

back to basic for me

Forget about everything except having a solid defense! That's the bare minimum needed to mount a title challenge.

If we can at a minimum do that for the rest of the season.. we might do well.

But if we keep shooting ourselves in the foot, the title is a pipe dream!

No names, no plasticy bullshit, no pep out overraction .. just simple truth of what we need to fix!

 

[Jazzyblue]

The subbing has to come earlier. None of us are infallible.

 

[Craig]

Total shite today. It was fucking awful. KdB and Grealish done nothing. FFS was FFS.

Everton fans should be ashamed of the antics of their team. They were an embarrassment.

Ffs made 3 really good opportunities. I’ll take that from a winger with little support

 

[Craig]

The subbing has to come earlier. None of us are infallible.

With the bench we had the time it took to make any subs was indefensible