Best game of the premier league so far - My thoughts on the Everton game!

please log in to view this image

 

.

 

Brilliant!

 

BTW who was the wannabe Tiote who came off the bench for you guys late on?

 

Gael Bigirimana - or 'Bigi'. Only 18, but he'll be class.

 

To be fair lads, i don't think it was a 433 in the second half. Seemed an orthodox 442 diamond. With Perch sitting and Cabs in front. Much like Villa vs us. Either way brought the best out of Cabaye!

 

This!

 

I think it was 4-2-2-2 actually, but it indeed gave Cabaye more freedom.

----Ba----Cisse---

-Ben Arfa--Cabaye--

----Perch-Jonas----

Santon-Saylor-Willo-Anita

----------Harper---------

At the end of the day, it was a formation that gave us freedom, and to be honest it was rotated.

At times it looked like a 4-4-2, 4-2-2-2 and 4-3-3 when Ben Arfa was up the pitch.

A 4-3-3 is the way forward.

 

Glad someone pointed out that Evertons "goal" came from a free kick they shouldnt have had so justice done really. I also have yet to be convinced that the ball completely crossed the line as Willo cleared it before it hit the ground which makes it very hard to see daylight between ball and line and if we cant tell with slow mo how can a linesman who if not certain cant give a goal. The "offside" goal was very close but probably was onside, nevertheless very pleased to get that touch of luck on this occaision. You win some and lose some like that all season at both ends and following the over the line incident we were denied a clear goalscoring chance by appalling refereeing.
Our second half performance was very good especially going forward and we really should have scored more. Good team talk and tactical changes by pardew at half time and good substitution putting on Shola when he did. Hard to leave out quality players but are we better when Shola partners Ba or Cisse?
Deserved our hard earned point.

 

To be fair you didnt, but a lot of you lot (i.e) Sunderland fans, who constantly bleat on about us being lucky, when in reality all decisions tend to even themselves out throughout the season, but the whole "lucky" thing is another straw clutching exercise by a lot of your lot who can't cope with the fact we have a good team and a better team than yours to boot.

Also that free kick that lead to the incident wasn't a free kick, and had the right decision been given then perhaps that incident wouldn't have occured. As I said, things tend to even themselves out.

 

To tell you the truth, I did bash Shola last season and I still stand by it. No, I won't f*** myself in the f***ing arse. Last year you could go and look at the matches all you want that he started up there, he looked SLOW, OFFTHEPACE and can't ATTACK the balls.
This season he's obviously worked on his fitness and looked really good. Credit to him for working on where he was poor. We always knew how technically good Shola was, it was just his problem staying match-fit then.



Next, about the game.
Firstly, I agree it's the best game of premier league by far! But it was ATROCIOUS refereeing by the ref and linesman the whole game I'll post a separate thread if I can later.
Also, we did not play well in the first half, our players were totally lost...
Harper did not do well. Those goals were a bit soft to concede, I am sure Krul would have saved 1 if not both of those goals. That said, Howard let in 2 goals that were even worse than what Harps let in.
The goals:
1st goal by Baines : From that kind of angle, the size of the goal covered by Harper should have been narrowed, and the ball was struck with less pace than Anichebe's. That said, he was just outside the six yard box and we won't see many left backs shooting that near an opposing goal. For the goal, the blame is largely on Marveaux. Marveaux's defensive tracking was very bad.
2nd goal by Anichebe : Firstly, Saylor was at fault for being far behind the entire defensive line, playing Anichebe onside. After that, Harper got caught in no-man's land right next to his goalpost, he couldn't save a shot that went in through the centre of the goalframe.

Overall I'm pleased with the second half performance, prior to the goal Saylor was a rock, Perch was awesome throughout, Ba great, Shola great sub on.

 

We were awful in that first half. As bad a 45 mins as I can remember for years. As good as Everton were, we made them looks 20 times better - no shape, no outlet up front, no passing, no urgency to win loose balls. Startlingly bad.

So credit must go to Pardew for changing things up. We were the better team in the 2nd half, even though we were far too open at the back.

The game could easily have ended 5-5 or something ridiculous.


Both disallowed Everton goals should have stood, however, you can't say that they really should have won 4-2, because as their 2nd legitimate goal proved, we were capable of upping the ante and scoring at the other end.


Why do we only get going after half time? Something which Pardew needs to get to the bottom of.

 

Half time last night was when the season starts.

It was one of those moments when the wheels fall off, or they don't. Understrength, a goal down, being humiliatingly played off the park. Time when you throw in the towel or show some grit. The lads did the latter, and we produced the first decent football of the season.

Ba found his shooting boots, Cabaye remembered how to play football, HBA and Cisse revved it up to about 75% of normal, everyone dug deep. Sunday Tiote will be back, Colo and Krul a bit after. We have Norwich at home. 3 points there and we are 8 points from 5 games, solidly in the top half and beginning to find our form.

None to soon

 

Pardew just seemed to make a few errors before the game. It was weird - he understood the threat, but didn't make the selection to counter it. For instance, he knew Pienaar/Baines would be their outlet. He also knew Fellaini would be dangerous. But rather than putting mobile defenders on the right side, he put Perch and Marveaux? And rather than putting a strong, tall DM on the field vs Fellaini, he had Anita doing it with Jonas?? Still, all credit to him for making the changes.

In terms of right formation, it doesn't really matter. People are trying to stick numbers on something, when - as Barca have proved - it doesn't really make sense to do so, as each game can change a lot. Having 2 x DM's seems favoured by people on here, but it's arguably the reason for Man City's stuttering start (relatively speaking...). 4-4-2 allegedly doesn't work, yet it was the nearest thing we had yesterday. It was slightly lopsided, in that Santon pushed on, Benny pushed in from the left, but there you go. So it is what it is. The key is getting the players in their best positions and playing as well as they can. Not sure these days you can just pick a tactic and say "that's the one".