Everton v West Ham, 12:30pm Saturday 19th October 2019
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Comments
Man City (H) L 0-5 L 0-4 - the same
Brighton (A) D 1-1 L 0-1 - better
Watford (A) W 3-1 W 4-1 - the same
Man U (H) W 2-0 W 3-1 - the same
Bournemouth (A) D 2-2 L 2-0 better
Palace (H) L 1-2 W 3-2 - worse
Everton (A) L 0-2 W 3-1 - worse
Obviously we didn't play Norwich and Villa last season but if we compare our results against the teams that were promoted last season as champions, Wolves, and through the play offs, Fulham, then...
Norwich (H) W 2-0 Wolves (H) L 0-1 - better
Villa (A) D 0-0 Fulham (A) W 2-0 - worse
I'm not prepared to write Pellegrini off after one season and nine games, I think its too early to say whether he's going to be any good for us.
Well our manager’s last assignment was in China.
I’m sorry, but any player or manager who has previously competed at the highest level goes there for one reason and one reason alone - and it isn’t the appetite for the game IMO
So it doesn’t surprise me therefore that we now see a lack of intensity in many of our games.
Don’t get me wrong his ability to instil a good way of playing in his sides is there to see - notably the passing is very easy on the eye. But arguably do we create lots of chances as a result of it? Not so IMO
it’s not enough to just have core ethos and way of playing which involves good passing and decent movement
Contrast that to Rodgers - many do like to mock him (myself included), but every time he speaks he exudes passion and intensity about the football he is presiding over.
I’m not calling for a change but I do think that this season and next will see us meandering around the middle of the league, and discovering new ways of being humiliated in the cups.
Everton could have won 4-0 and it wouldn't have flattered them.
I think Fornals should’ve come off but maybe he was worried about shattering his confidence. I though Anderson was almost as bad. Though he was getting into positions, he was losing the ball every time.
I thought Diop was really good. Haller did fine with whatever sniff he had. Rice looked ill, frankly. The rest were rubbish.
I think we’re going to have to somehow keep the ball away from Roberto’s goal because I don’t really trust him at all.
I'm a qualified coach. When I have taken sessions in the past, I've always tried to focus on the awareness/time saving and mental side of things (on the premise that all kids can practice their skills/control at any time).
Part of that is awareness of team mates (prior to the ball potentially coming), not being flat footed plus having at least an idea of options in advance when receiving the ball.
I realize that in modern high press days players have less time to think/act. However, with their supposed skill set, bearing those simple things in mind wouldve perhaps stopped so many stray passes and turnovers.
Maybe some players are in a comfort zone (highly paid, privileged etc.) but, for me, surely that Prem/1st team status can easily slip away. One of the reasons for that shouldnt be a lack of effort. They're all so fit and aware of how many people support their every pass and shot. We can all have an off day, but as has already been mentioned here, how many times have we heard the same excuses and promises to make up for it in the next game. You shouldnt need periodic reminders that poor effort/performance will be made up for. As soon as you're out on that pitch you try your damnedest to be first to the ball etc etc.
The least any teams supporters should expect is for their players to leave it all out on the pitch whether they win or lose. I personally dont have the mentality to accept a lack of effort/smarts that lead to sloppy play and pressure on the team when we cant retain and threaten
1. Lanzini is not a winger; 2. Fornals needs to go out on loan, he's no use to us this season; 3. Roberto does not inspire confidence in the defence; 4. The most under-used player this season has been Snodgrass, who CAN play on the wing or add bite in the centre; 5. Lanzini and Wilshere should never be on the pitch at the same time; 6. the team can and has played some lovely football this year, but some games you need to put fight first - it's no use floating like a butterfly if you sting like a butterfly, you gotta sting like a bee. :scarf:
The thing that gets me, lots of people forgive Pelle because he has got us to play some nice attractive football, something we have been craving for years.....Not sure I agree, I feel lots of people forget Slav's 1st season where we played top teams and beat them playing some lovely/better football ,IMO our performances that season have outweighed anything that Pelle has achieved, & he's worked with a bigger budget & so called better players. I think we can all agree from my memory that if VAR had been around that season with Slav, the top 4 would have been achieved.
I and others just crave for consistency, and yet again so far this season we are failing in that category with ease. Pelle IMO gets away with loads of slack that he should get, not sure why TBH, he gets paid more than any of his predecessors and has had a much bigger budget to achieve better things with, so far his grade for 1st season & 1/4 of this is a C, and that for me is unnaceptable, even if we put in 3 or 4 good performances out of 10, then his grade would actually be a D,
For me he does not manage to inspire & get the most out of players abilities, all IMO of course......Rant over for now!
Rice, Noble, Snodgrass; Yarmo & one of Lanzini/Anderson supporting Haller.
We don’t have enough in that midfield area with all those luxury players offering nothing except Yarmo.
At the moment Anderson & Lanzini are not justifying being in the side.
6 points from the next two will make things look a lot better. But we need to up our game significantly as we won’t beat Sheffield & Newcastle with a performance like that.
BT showed an interview with Noble before the game and he said that training under Pellegrini is the most intense he's ever experienced. If that's true, why aren't we pressing hard and playing with pace and urgency? Either training is like that but come match day the players have a collective mind fart and forget all of it, or he's not being entirely honest.
I personally pay little heed to interviews such as this because come match day (which is what ultimately matters) there have been numerous occasions in recent seasons where there team look like they barely know each other let alone have “trained intensively”
Which means (as Luke) has said, we have essentially signed one player for this season (and let go of all our other forwards to boot) plus Obiang
Other than that, we have gone to Poundland to find our back up keepers upon Adrian’s departure.
I would like to see Holland start
Neither Fornals or Lanzini are wingers, and Anderson is in awful form, so why not give him a chance
Also we are paying for not bringing in midfield reinforcements
1. Our full backs pushing forwards are key. We didn't seem to do this against Everton. All of our player (yes ALL of them... Haller, Fornals, Lanzini, Anderson, Rice, Noble) would rather play the balls as opposed to make the runs behind. The problem is if your whole team want to play in front of the opposition and play in the balls behind then there is literally NO ONE who's actually going to make these runs in behind. This results in us pointlessly passing the ball as there's no one offering a threatening option in behind.
We know we lack pace in our side, and more so a player who dribbled at the opposition. This is something Masuaku and Fredericks can do. Our wingers need to draw their player in, wait, and then feed in our full backs as they overlap. When we don't do this, we simply don't look like we know how to attack. This is why our passes became sloppy as we either try unnecessary flicks or a hopefull sloppy Hollywood pass. Earlier in the season, our full backs were overlapping and we looked a completely different side. It creates a new dimension to our attack.
However, utilising our full backs requires on the likes of Rice being 100% fit (which he didn't seem to be against Everton). We rely on Rice to 'sit in' and cover the full backs in case of an opposition counter. If he's not fully at it, we'll get torn apart on the break and look 'toothless' in midfield. Noble is our only other deeper playing midfielder and he doesn't have the legs to do this job (although does bring in other qualities).
2. I think we need to utilise Snodgrass. He's got the work rate and tenacity that we're lacking in the middle. In addition, he's comfortable out wide and is more dangerous from set pieces than Lanzini or Anderson. Haller will thrive off Snodgrass a lot more than the uninventful lack of creativity from our so called 'attacking midfielders' in Lanzini, Fornals & Anderson.
Yes of course we can ask Lanzini, Fornals and Anderson to do more defensive work but we also need to play to their strengths. We wouldn't ask Rice to do more attacking work so why ask our attackers to do more defensive work?
I think at the moment we have too many players playing in the same role (attacking midfielder). We wouldn't play 3 defensive midfielders so why play 3 attacking ones?
I think instead, we need a change to our formation. Play 2 of these attacking midfielders. Ie drop one of them. My pick would be Lanzini to be dropped and bring in Snodgrass.
3. I think Fornals needs to have a more defined playing position. Although he's not set the world on fire yet, I don't think he's done any worse than Lanzini or Anderson. And even though nothing's come off for Fornals, at least he's running around and working hard.
However I think rather than him charging round, we should be a bit clever how we use him. He seems a team player and thrives playing close to others with a focus on his passing. He seems a million miles from our team mates which understandably makes him look a bit clueless in possession.
Imo he needs to play either almost as a second striker directly off of Haller, or in a deeper role sitting in closer to Rice/Noble. I'd aim for the former though (closer to Haller) as otherwise we still have the same issue of our team sitting in trying to play these passes and no one making the runs behind.
Out of our 3 attacking midfielders, he seems the most comfortable making runs over the top and from what I saw from him in the Spainish youth games, he's got a decent shot on him too. I think he'd be versatile enough to get behind Haller as well as playing him in. They could make quite a nice duo (Haller is also comfortable being the unselfish provider as well as the finisher).
At one point in this game, Noble floated a long ball over the top of the Everton defence which Fornals managed to just about run onto and get a (weak) header at Pickford. This is the sort of thing I think he could do more of.
4. I think we should seriously consider recalling Diangana back from his loan. He offers a different dynamic to our current attacking players. Something only Antonio can do. I'd also think Diangana would come back improved from his short loan spell away.
5. People have mentioned for a while now that we need a big, strong, athletic midfielder who would offer some steal in our defence. Whilst I do agree to an extent with this, I think it's more about the effect the player has on the whole dynamic of the team. For example, Noble can have an effect on the whole team that spurs them on, makes us battle a lot more and push ourselves over the line for that win. I was watching the Aston Villa game and Grealish does the exact same thing. He's not this big, strong defensive midfielder that a lot of us would like however he was strong in the tackle, didn't let anything past him, brought some bite to their midfield, and drove forward in a manner that spurred the rest of their team on.
When did he last do that? Nobes plays well when the team are playing well but has little or no influence on the game, like yesterday, when the team aren't playing well.
He plays well when the rest of the team is playing well BECAUSE he helps facilitate the rest of the team to play well.
This stat is about the players who are involved in passages of play that lead to a chance (it’s supposed to be an alternative to looking at assists.) Anderson is not only our most involved player but one of the top in the league this season.
'defensive' minded midfielder. Any team will struggle not to be overran in that situation but even more so when that player is Noble. He does bring a lot to the table but we all know he's not the quickest or biggest... which is why we really need Rice to help out.
But to answer your question in short, Noble had a poor game yesterday as did most of our team. He wasn't his usual self giving out orders and pushing our team on. As I say, the last few games he and the rest of our team hasn't looked great but on the whole he does seem to inspire and motivate our team for a better overall performance/result.
:bubbles: