Nothing much to write about. The team looked a bit off the pace last night but likely due to recovering from the weekends high pressure game. We got the job done and another 3 points on the board. A bit disappointed we couldn't score more, but 1 goal is enough as proven by all the teams winning 1-0 yesterday/ Ratings - Pope - 7 - Mostly solid. A couple of shakey moments on the ball. Trippier - 8 Schar - 8 - Solid Botman - 8 - Good reading of the game Burn - 7 - Still don't see why he's playing LB, but he did Mostly good. Joelinton - 7 - Carrying a knock, but defensive work was good. Bruno - 8 - Great defensive work and good assist. Almiron - 8.5 - MOTM Great game, could have had more than one, great work rate and energy as usual. Wilson - 6 -Decent shift, not much service. Murphy - 6 - Good first half, tailed off towards the end. Anderson - 7 - Good display. Some decent dribbling on the ball, won us quite a few corners and freekicks. Wood - 3 - Would consider selling soon and getting a better 3rd option in. Can't impact games. A few decent aerial battles won but that's it/ Willock 7 - Good impact off the bench, came close to scoring and got into some good positions.
I'd mostly agree, but I would amend the following: Joelinton down from 7 to a 6. Thought he was off the pace and therefore clumsy at times. Arguably lucky not to get red card. Bruno down from 8 to 7. Another one off the usual pace and got caught in possession a couple of times and passing was wayward. Still a good overall game, but not one of his best (by his usual high standards). If one of his 1st half efforts had gone in, it might be different. Wilson I'd put up from 6 to 7. I thought he really put in a shift and made their defence work hard. Won some important free kicks to help take pressure off the team. Although he didn't get too many chaces himself, his link up play was good. Would add in Willock as a 7 coming off the bench. He looked more lively than Big Joe and made things happen going forward. Could have bagged a goal himself.
And a 6 for Murphy is generous. His early effort almost had me cheering for him. But therest if his game was poor. How many times did he try to take on someone only to lose the ball? It's like he doesn't even know how they got it off of him, he just looked bemused.
Thought Burn was a 6 Anderson had no impact and therefore a 6 Trippier’s crossing and set balls were awful. He was a 6/7 Wilson led the line well therefore a 7 Giving Wood a 3 is **** in itself. He has 5 minutes play. A 5 for him
Anderson had no impact? He won us freekicks and corners, he did ok and helped see the game out. I thought he'd simply give the ball away but it was a good effort by him. Trippier was an 8 largely because of his defensive display and calmness on the ball. Set pieces were a bit hit and miss but he was defensively great and still threatened with good runs off the ball. His positioning is fantastic probably to make up for his lack of pace.
You missed out Willock, he did well when he came on, added some energy. Ratings are pretty high, generally it was a 6/q0 performance and we should have scored more but we didn't go for it enough. Miggy, Bruno and Tripps stood out but that was about it. Botman pretty much shut up every attack they made, their only shot was a header DCL ballooned over the bar. So yeah, slightly tired, but got the result. Need to be better against Spurs, as they'll definitely punish us more.
Fraser didn't do anything I can remember to justify giving him a ratings, apart from impressively winning some headers despite being 4ft tall.
And just been on an Everton forum, and it's refreshing that they're all furious with Gordon and think he's a pathetic diving little ****. Onana also a cheating prick. Everton are a complete one trick pony at the end of the day, all their play comes through Alex Iwobi, and when a team properly polices him - like we did last night - then they have no creativity and don't make any decent chances. DCL had pretty much no service and was just running around like a headless chicken.
And another thought, is Botman making Schar significantly better? When Schar had a clown like Clark next to him, he had to work overtime, but now Botman is there Schar looks more assured, and can even focus on attacking/breaks more.
Yeah I was thinking this too. Having Tripps one side if him and Botman the other seems to have raised Schar's game and confidence massively (along with the Eddie factor, no doubt).
That one did look pretty bad. There were a few nasty ones last night. Thought Gordon was lucky not to get a red card too.
