We were two down before I even managed to get a stream - first half was a shocker. Attitude was better in the second half, and performance improved, but not enough up front (despite Dolly doing the thread). I thought Gakpo looked better wide left, but other than that...
As so many of us have been saying for most of this season can we just drop 4-3-3 at least until we have the players to actually play it effectively again .
it's entirely predictable now and easy to set up against. half the sides playing 433 are falling apart. the thing is. arsenal. genuine 4231 yeah? lots of running in the 4 up and two sitters in the 2. City. have changed totally now in formation. 3241 or some such formation. almost 1950s WM. Brighton thumped us. another genuine 4231 with lallaana up and caicedo and macallister behind. Two genuine wide.men and 1 big lump. dunno what we'd call what newcastle are doing. almost 4 cbs. the only way to eliminate gaps is to pull narrow but it's not klopps game.
Well, I'll have one last rant then off to the gym, and it's this - if Dyche has done one major thing for Everton it is to have shaken them up and stopped them thinking they're City or something: they played blood and guts, 4-5-1, die for every ball. We are ****ing deluded, especially with Thiago and Keita, and we think we're going to dazzle our way out of this ****e. We're mid-table and in danger of being sucked into the relegation mire, and we need to throw off the pretence of what we now are. It's not ****ing temporary - the pace and energy to play the way we did have gone. We need to go 4-4-2 or even 4-5-1, and play like we did against City at Anfield - defensive and arsey. And no, even with VVD back (have we forgotten how bang average he's been this season?) and even Diaz in the team, that midfield can not play as it did 3 years ago. Now I'm going for a cry on the treadmill and pretending it's sweat.
we can stand and head way with vvd. do go 442. no problem but make the clearances. scrap and fight for everything and earn the right to play.
It's utterly baffling. We do have Diaz and Jota to come back and Bobby can help lift Salah's performance. At this point, I would give Doak and Gordan a chance. Interesting piece from Melissa Reddy saying the fallout behind the scenes is about the fitness coach Kornmayer. Not sure exactly about the specifics but something about him being very hard to work with and it's causing all kinds of friction.
I have suspected something was wrong with the training, so many soft tissue injuries, blowing out our arses in games, getting run through with ease, something is very wrong
100% against our too. Didn't want is too give it Mane either but I'd have 100% given it him ahead of Salah, least Mane still tried when playing poorly.
Phillips would be a good call if we changed formation and stopped playing with a high defensive line. We need to shake ourselves and admit we're not the team of 2020 going through a bad patch - we're the team of 2023 that can't play like that.
i was against it to as it is bound to lead to wage inflation and our wage bill is already very high .
I was for Salah's pay rise - as a reward for services rendered. Interestingly I read a sports psychology article recently which said that studies have shown that giving your best player a pay rise improves their performance. Not giving a pay rise results in a poorer performance. I guess Salah has proved to be the outlier.
Salah's done IMO. If he wants to go in the summer, let him. Hand shake, leaving speech, gold clock, so long and thanks for all the fish
at the time of the new contract he was no longer our best player ( if we even had one) and a near doubling his wages is a bit different to a rise .
