Everton Verdict Thread

[Tony Towner]

Everyone knows how I feel about us being in the Europa League, but here are some facts, I'll leave it up to you as to how much of this you attribute to it:

We have been inferior to the opposition in the league in the first half in 4 games out of 4 being behind at half time in 3

If we'd lost all 3 of those we couldn't have complained

From the comparative 4 fixtures last year we had 6 points more

Today without Europe Moutinho, Jonny and Jota start. We are a better side with all of them in the team

Team selections last week and this favoured the EL game

Boly and Dendoncker looked physically leggy

More subjective points:

We can't defend the high or diagonal ball. I think these errors come from mental rather than physical fatigue and lack of preparation. There have been too many to not look for why this is happening

You can't start Vinagre and Troare together against teams looking to attack as neither can defend. Traore is neutral today, created and cost us a goal

Lacked leadership on the pitch. When Sigurdson is running the show in the first half someone should have the presence of mind to pick him up off the ball, when nobody does someone should direct them to. If Jonny is playing my bet is he does that

For the first Rui should come, but once he doesn't Coady has to deal with it.

Cutrone should be the Raul replacement not the Jota one. I thought he had a reasonable game, but was on his heals a couple of times when the ball was played through when Jota would have been on his toes. Not a criticism as such, but for me is Raul/Cutrone with Jota/Neto

Conceding twice within 5 minutes of equalising is mentally weak

 

[malta mick]

sounds about right there. the fact he's kept the 'main' 11 on permanent duty, seemed strange to drop Jota, Jonny and Mou when the international break is next. possibly one of the poorest performances since back in the PL (although i missed both Huddersfield matches).
We know we can do better, but we desperately need that first win now.

 

[Alan]

We learned last year that we can't compete at this level with only two in central midfield, and today that is effectively what we played with.

 

[Jack Regan]

One simple fact is (Europa League aside) we cannot keep giving up the first goal in games. We've done it 3 league games in a row now and we're never going to win games if we keep doing so.

 

[Deano]

We learned last year that we can't compete at this level with only two in central midfield, and today that is effectively what we played with.

No complaints with criticism of Neves today he was rubbish again. I'd only use Vinagre in Europa games for a while now, it's clear we need the defensive stability Jonny gives us. The goals today though we're just generally shite goals to concede. I do worry about us at the moment as I've not come out of any league games thinking wve played particularly well.

 

[prawnking]

So the worries some of us had over the summer that our strongest first XI is the same as finished last season don't look too unreasonable after a few games unfortunately

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Win the Europa League then

 

[Jack Regan]

So the worries some of us had over the summer that our strongest first XI is the same as finished last season don't look too unreasonable after a few games unfortunately

I thought Cutrone did well today, Diogo offered nothing when he came on as his replacement.

Our lack of strengthening the central midfield however is an issue with the extra games.

 

[Boozad]

We learned last year that we can't compete at this level with only two in central midfield, and today that is effectively what we played with.

Give the fact that having Traore and Vinagre offered no defensive cover and the defence themselves were actually worse than the midfield (who were all poor), don’t let that get in the way of your agenda.

 

[playtheace]

Really don't know how Vinagre stopped on so long to be honest and the Jota sub had zero effect,might as well just put Neto on..who would at least be fresher.

And I know we scored off one but not sure I wanna keep seeing the Bennett long throws everytime,seems a bit....smalltime.

 

[Nando]

We learned last year that we can't compete at this level with only two in central midfield, and today that is effectively what we played with.

Bore off. Your Neves agenda is spectacularly dull.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Bore off. Your Neves agenda is spectacularly dull.

He's not far wrong though, Neves was invisible or shit. As he has been most games this season. He's certainly not producing the performances he should be. But, he's not the only one. Too many players playing poorly in all 4 PL games so far this season.

We'll sort it out soon enough hopefully. If this type of performance continues for 10 games then we should start to worry.

 

[Aikiwolf]

Dendoncker was far worse than Neves, the game totally passed him by.

I actually thought Neves did well and was surprised he was subbed off tbh.

 

[Nando]

He's not far wrong though, Neves was invisible or shit. As he has been most games this season. He's certainly not producing the performances he should be. But, he's not the only one. Too many players playing poorly in all 4 PL games so far this season.

We'll sort it out soon enough hopefully. If this type of performance continues for 10 games then we should start to worry.

Dendoncker was seriously, seriously poor today yet there's no mention of that from Alan at all. Not that that's surprising in the slightest.

 

[The Bion]

Just been looking at the fixtures

Chelsea (H)
Braga (H) - Europa
Palace (A)
Reading (H) - Carabao
Watford (H)
Besiktas (A) - Europa
Man City (A)
Southampton (H)
Bratislava (A) - Europa
Newcastle (A)

That takes us up to the end of October. I'd only say City of those is a writeoff at this point, and we'll go there and try regardless. But if we can up our performances there's winnable games there for sure.

 

[Boozad]

Dendoncker was far worse than Neves, the game totally passed him by.

I actually thought Neves did well and was surprised he was subbed off tbh.

Same. The best of the three midfielders today although that was not a high bar. Dendoncker was unrecognisable and was the proverbial headless chicken who gave the ball away plenty of times. Still, doesn’t fit the agenda that.

As for the game, you probably won’t see Everton play much better than that all season while we won’t play much worse and we still could have taken something. After four games with an international break to give us a rest I’ll take it easy over our first defeat of the season.

 

[Tredman]

From Tim III, make of it what you will:

Clarification on Matt Doherty.

Nuno: “No, he is going to stay. He has to have a small surgery on something that is bothering him.”

Surgery thought to be non-football related and not something that will keep him out long term. #wwfc

 

[Dire Wolf]

To be honest, none of the midfield played well. Too far away from each other all game and frequently giving the ball away. Neves doesn't have the excuse of playing on Thursday however. But we look lightweight and weak in the midfield in all honesty.

 

[Tredman]

Moutinho is simply our best player, without him or when he is not on form we look poor.

 

[Tony Towner]

Neves was better this week than the last two. His raking passes were decent today, but some of the simple stuff particularly the set piece delivery was poor