I have always been a bit of a Fox-outer (as DHCanary kindly confirmed for me on twitter), so that should probably be taken into account
I wasn't talking about Fox. I liked him a lot. My issue with Fox is that we (or at least I) have no idea what the impact his illness had. He certainly didn't move mountains on loan
And to be fair to Fox, he's not the type of player to shine. He's not like a striker who gets plaudits for banging them in, nor a tricky winger creating chances and giving his full back hell. The only way to really see how influential he's been would be to compare results with him in and out of the side. Like Howson when played deeper, unless you really watch for what Fox is doing, you can watch a game and not notice him do anything. There's a quote I like about Busquets that seems apt: "You watch a game, you don't see Busquets. You watch Busquets, and you see the whole game". Now that's both flattering and an exaggeration in the case of Fox, but it's that kind of thing. Personally, I'd have played Fox today - alongside Fer and Johnson. He's not a well-rounded player so doesn't suit 4-4-2, but with two players to do the physical work, he'd have at least tracked midfield runners to try and intercept passes (and he reads the game well enough to do that). When we're likely to be on the back foot a lot, as we were, he'd have been helpful in keeping possession and building from our own half. The more possession we have, the less Everton can attack. From an offensive perspective, having Redmond wide would mean the Everton defence dropping deeper to cover the run in behind (which Fox can provide the ball for) and that creates space in the middle of the park for Fox to work in. Against Fulham he found RvW a couple of times, so I'd have liked to see him given the chance to do so today. As to whether Fox and Hoolahan stay or go, I agree that if they aren't going to be used we may as well sell so long as we can bring players in who Hughton will use. At the stage of their careers they're at, they need regular football, so we should do right by them and get them it, so long as it doesn't adversely effect us. If it's like the Moro-Becchio and the new players are unused then it's pointless to mix up the dressing room for no benefit though.
Perhaps (I say perhaps but I'm just being polite) if they played we woudn't need so many players to try and win it back. In fact I'm of the opinion that since they have been ousted we we are worse at GETTING the ball back, we certainly don't go out of our way to win it back. It is a common feature of our play.
I thought this as soon as the teams were announced at 2 p.m. We were rabbits in the headlights every time Everton built up a head of steam. Ending in a speculative pass or a 'hoof'. At least Fox (or Wes) would initially look for a forward pass, whereby the rest of them today passed mainly sideways - or back to the halfway line. Good to see RvW and Hooper on together but all too familiar to not see any meaningful service to either.
If there is an argument as to whether technical skilful players (like Barcelona's midfield) are better than big players (like the way in which many see Stoke City's team) can't we all agree that players who have pace, power, size AND technical skill are the best (Like many of Bayern Munich's players, Stoke's Marko Arnautovic and hopefully Leroy Fer)? We don't have the likes of Thomas Muller unfortunately so our midfield should at least have a mix of big players and technically gifted players. That's why I think we shouldn't play Fox and Hoolahan at the same time as they are both small, but we should at least play one of those players in midfield along with Fer. To be honest I'm not sure what category Alex Tettey, Bradley Johnson and Jonny Howson fall into having said that.
Sorry Russ, but get a grip. We are 2 points off the relegation zone, we have invested a lot of cash and we are crap. Just watched the interview after the game and CH standing there praising the opposition and the quality that they have and saying he thinks we deserved a consolation goal for the last 10 minutes play! We are a ****ing joke.
Our major problem is we don't have any decent backup in the team when key players get injured, today that really showed.
Some of us on here are saying we have but it just isn't used very wisely (and often not used at all).
I disagree, what we have is a manager who doesnt favour certain players so automatically rules them out, the flavour of the month gets his spot regardless of his current form, its almost as if the manager makes changes to please the fans but by then its usually way to late .......
Yes, he does seem to choose strange moments to try things out. He goes 4-4-2 away to a top team and then back to 4-5-1 at home to a fellow struggler. Having said that, I welcomed the 4-4-2 yesterday because I really think we need to see if RvW and Hooper can work together and give them time to build up an understanding.
Half the teams in the league; everyone up to and possibly including Hull are in danger of relegation. If you say we are 'crap' there must be 9 other crap teams in this league. Everton ARE quality, perhaps your deluded hatred of CH stopped you from seeing that but they are contesting the top 4 and have only been beaten once at home this season for a reason. Many teams have invested a lot of cash (although I'm sure we all expected more from Van Wolfswinkel in particular so that is the one point I agree with you on). I'm sure CH was clutching straws a bit although I thought we should have got one goal, although Everton should have had 4 or 5. We are not in the relegation zone, and unless we are in there I don't see a huge problem and no, I don't think we're heading that way. We are NOT one of the worst three teams in the league.
I imagine he went 442 using Garrido and Olsson on left handside to constrain the threat from Everton that side and to force the play over the right side where normally sondgrass can perform a decent defensive role. but not yesterday,
