Everton (H) - Sunday 9th May, 16.30pm

MrsGrey

thornburyiron said:

I’ll be gutted if all of Liverpool, Everton and Spurs finish above us.

Each to their own.

Cuz1

I’d be happy with 8th to be honest, always have £50 with a mate that we finish top 10, be nice to win for a change lol 😂

OldCastleSwift

BubblesNeverDies said:

I've never liked Troy Deeney, always thought he was a nasty piece of work, but I thought his comments and analysis after the game were spot on. Almost found myself warming to him.

I'd recommend the Louis Theroux 'Grounded' podcast interview with Troy Deeney if you can find it. I never liked Deeney but hearing that interview made me soften to him somewhat. He had a hell of a lot to deal with as a young man.

whupathman

Last time we threatened the top 4 we had a chance in January to strengthen and did not. We fell away badly towards the end and only the memorable last game at UP removed the disappointment. I fear this year is the same a great season of over achieving only to be let down by the lack of quality and depth in the squad, we have needed a second striker for a while, back to back 0-1 home games only reinforced that omission

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Can't strengthen when we have no money or the players we wanted weren't available

IronHerb

All well and good saying back to back 0-1's but one of those was against a team who in recent weeks have beaten City twice and overcome Real Madrid. Unless, of course, you expected to spend £100m in January.

Fortuneseeker

WHU, which players did we want who weren't available?

claretandbluesky

We were just blunt up front today. Was not so much hinging on it, which makes the actual result overhshadow the performance, we would probably have said a draw was a fair result and deserved one. Everton were very good in my view, especially in defence, they contained Antonio and Lingard today.

I thought the teams were almost carbon copies of each other, and one mistake made a difference, Dawson was always going to get skinned for the goal and had no chance in that race, the finish was a good one.

In summary we have fallen short to an injury to Rice who was described as indispensable to England after the last round of international matches, If he is indispensable to England with those quality players around him how Indispensable must he be to West Ham with Dawson and Diop around him.

I think its a what could have been season, but one which marks a change of direction in our fortunes, which may in turn serve as a platform to attract or keep better players for next season and have a real crack again next term. I think we will qualify for the Europa league and although I am disappointed tonight that would have been unthinkable after our first match of this season against Newcastle.

I am gutted as I thought it was on before kick off today but trying to see the glass half full.

whupathman

Win the next three and finish above arsenal and spuds will do hope for 6th

puddleglumhammers

With our current squad Champions League would be nigh on impossible to cope with, so maybe Europa League will suit us more and give us something to build on. We just have to find the best possible striker for the money available. On the commentary I heard 8th might still get in to Europa League. Is this correct?

thornburyiron

We’ve had a record 21 shots hit the woodwork this season so far. Not sure if that’s bad luck or bad finishing.

IronHerb

Same number as Villa. Must be a claret and blue thing.

Kuchinghammer

Two injuries meant they couldn't build up pressure when it was needed. With a patched together squad
there was a rw and a rb on the left, a forward playing MF, and Fredericks moved every ten minutes. I think they did brilliantly to push Everton as hard as they did.

OldCastleSwift

puddleglumhammers said:

With our current squad Champions League would be nigh on impossible to cope with, so maybe Europa League will suit us more and give us something to build on. We just have to find the best possible striker for the money available. On the commentary I heard 8th might still get in to Europa League. Is this correct?

I think 7th is the lowest European qualifying position, and that will get you into the new Europa Conference. We want 5th or 6th to get Europa League.

thornburyiron

Our game at WBA will be their last home game and they will have fans there. Bet Sam would love to beat us.

MrsGrey

He said as much. But not because it's us, because it's the only game the fans will see.

"I want to win all three games but if I could choose just one, it would be West Ham because the fans will be there," said Allardyce.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/57052270

alderz

MrsGrey said:

He said as much. But not because it's us, because it's the only game the fans will see.

"I want to win all three games but if I could choose just one, it would be West Ham because the fans will be there," said Allardyce.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/57052270

The problem for Sam is that he, presumably, wanted to win the last 23 matches too but was only able to manage it 4 times.

chicagohammer

It has been quite a season, generally speaking, the history books will generally show us surviving comfortably, in truth however there are few seasons where we do not at least flirt with relegation.

This year it has been different, we have pressed, created and have looked comfortable on the ball, most importantly, we have genuinely flirted with qualification to the CL and have spent the majority of the season looking up and not over our shoulder.

COYI