Transfer needs became clearer for melast night. If pocchetino wants to play a high pressing game, the front 3 behind lambert will be knackered after an hour or so, as last night. I know we have lallana to return, but de ridder, Davis and an out of position Rodriguez just don't cut it off the bench. It was notable that Mirallas and anichebe had far more impact for everton. So, attacking wide players need to be high on the list or we'll be defending our position at the end of every game.
Also Rickie looked dead on his feet the last 20mins. Difficult one because he's a goal threat on the end of set pieces but really slowed down the attack on a few breaks towards the end.
Totally agree, the big difference last night was the pressing in the Everton third of the pitch which forced Everton to rush there passing. I thought the work rate first half was brilliant. Second half Everton came back into it and played much better. This came through a mixture of tiredness of the front 4 and Fellaini dropping deeper to dictate the play. What a player he is by the way.
Personally I would put Lee in front of De Ridder everytime but clearly he just hasn't been cutting it in training.
This style of football is tiring, which is why Nigel used Lambert as an impact sub on occasion. But we mustn't underestimate the tiring effect of tension...we need every point, they'd just lost a manager and coaches, and they had to impress a new manager and some unhappy fans. Hence, Puncheon's unscheduled visit to the little player's room. Hopefully, we will see a couple of new players in this window.
Agreed about the front players. I also think when Rickie is tired we need the wide players to make runs behind the opposition. New players are probably need but hopefully once Mayuka gets back from Africa he can improve to a point where we can use him more. His energy and pace should be great assets in the last 20 minutes or so when the opposition are tired.
You would never change your back 5 during a game unless of injury or a sending off. Even so our bench yesterday of 1 keeper, 2 FBs 2 midfielders 1 wideman and 1 striker shows how thin the squad is. None of the bench I would class as game changers
It's difficult, because good players aren't going to sign for the club just to be used as impact subs. Also I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with Lee and Mayuka.
Which is why a signing for a particular position needs to be better than we already have, demoting the current starter to the bench.
We need at least one truly creative midfielder on to be effective in my opinion, and in my eyes we only have Lallana and Ramirez with possibly Guly and Puncheon at a push. This is why I think we ran out of ideas when Guly and Ramirez went off with cramp or whatever. It's not that we need to improve our starting 11 that much, just need a few more options. This is where someone like Verdu would be good to add competition and provide another creative brain.
Chaplows energy would have worked last night, I rate him about the same as Davis yet he pushes forward. Chaplow could have been put on to annoy Fellani when he started contolling the game after 60 minutes
We've known this for a while. When bringing people in, it's wise to bring them in gradually, especially if the incumbent of that position isn't doing anything wrong. If Lallana were fit, any of him, Gaston or Puncheon would feel aggrieved at being immediately replaced by a new signing. Attacking players get substituted a lot a nd it's fair that they work for their place.
We lack options out wide, no Lalana leaves us short of creativeness so that when Puncheon runs out of steam like last night, we have absolutely no options We need a wide midfielder urgently!
