rubecula Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 I know there is a thread for Martinez and others for various things BUT why are we going downhill faster than a dog after a pork sausage? Is it the manager? Is it the players? Is it being in Europe? Is it the board? Is Marco putting something in the pies? Your opinions folks as I am seriously at a loss here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC11 Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Combination of everything. We're all over the place. The moral of the players looks to be at an all time low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toffee_in_LA Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Our defending has been absolutely shocking since day one. Martinez role as a manager has been questionable at best this season. There has been a lack of a plan b as we have talked about on numerous occasions Injuries and Europa have had a big toll on us And as MC said, morale is poor this year. In a hypothetical world where I am the captain of Everton FC, I would be fuming at the players and trying everything possible to light a fire under their asses. We are better than how we are playing at the moment. I think this is the order I'd place on the "blame" scale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mogsy Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Is it European competition im wondering? Look at the teams outside the 'money' teams (both Manchester, arsenal, Chelsea,Liverpool and possibly spurs). Have any of them done well in the league the same time as they were in Europe. The swans were bad last season, and much improved this season without Europe, Newcastle were shit in the league when they were in Europe, you do need a big quality squad to do Europe and still compete in the league, we don't have that yet, we are still 5-6 players short of having a decent back up team. Sideliner 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC11 Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 We need a new signing to lift the players... It has to be an Arteta type player who will drag us out of this rut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mogsy Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Also souness said something that I agree with, we used to get into people's faces under Moyes, now we stand off, at let teams run at us and get in our faces, we need to toughen up Matt, Romey 1878 and Sideliner 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC11 Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 (edited) Also souness said something that I agree with, we used to get into people's faces under Moyes, now we stand off, at let teams run at us and get in our faces, we need to toughen up Never thought I'd say it but I agreed with the majority of what souness said. Moyes intensity and work ethic made us the side we were. Edited December 28, 2014 by MC11 Matt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddock Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 The players are pissed off with being played out of position, being made to play when they're quite clearly weeks away from being fit, being asked to play like they're Barcelona, are bored shitless with the mind numbingly boring football he has them playing and are seriously embarrased whith him constantly saying we were phenominal and there wasn't anything between the sides when we've just been twatted 3-0 and made a show of. In short, he's lost the dressing room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC11 Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Pienaar has been a huge miss for me. We're never likely to see the best of him again... If at all anything. But the guy really did make us tick. Sideliner 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c1982 Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Main 3 areas for me... Balance - far too many players have been played out of position all season so we've not had the balance to play 4-2-3-1 which Roberto has persisted with. We've got too many 'Number 10s' and not enough wingers in the squad. Most of us commented that we needed another winger or Pienaar type wide man - I think Cleverly was that player Roberto had ear marked but that didn't happen for whatever reason and has left us short. Centre backs - we've actually been very unfortunate with injuries in this area and haven't had a settled pairing BUT we can't keep playing out through players who aren't comfortable on the ball. Roberto either needs to invest in another ball playing centre back or stop playing out through them. Teams are wise to this and are pressing us - we've made 10 unforced errors which have led directly to goals, more than any other and more than we did in the whole of last season! Chelsea are the model to follow - Terry and Cahill defend properly and play long when they need to - you don't see Terry, Cahill and Courtious dicking about with the ball putting each other under pressure. Bottle/Leadership - it's not obvious to me at the mo and I include Martinez in this. We're just far too nice. Eto'o summed this up perfectly today - we've got the ball in their box and he kicks it out and ends our attack - Tiote had only had a ball in the midrift - that was at 0-1. Chach and Romey 1878 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hafnia Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 If I knew I wouldn't be paying a mortgage. Let's be honest, RM has got a bit Football manager 2009 second season. All weird and shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newty82 Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 I echo your sentiment there Haf. Since reading this topic I've been thinking but I can't put a finger on anything particular. It's all just gone wrong. Simple as that. All over the pitch...injuries, individual errors, shit decisions, tactics, fitness, under performing 'stars',...you could go on. It's a muddy puddle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hafnia Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 There's a mixture of institutionalised players, a smart arse manager, big egos and lack of variety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjazzbassist Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 - Honestly I don't know of a squad hit harder by injuries than us. We had the best and biggest squad ever before all that. But our key players have all gone injured and some keep getting injured. - Aging players with some left in the tank have been found to be empty in the tank. Pienaar, Osman, Howard, distin, Barry, Eto'o, all have slowed down immensely to the point where next season for them might mean retirement. For the big 4 this wouldn't matter, for us it's half the squad. - goalkeeping used to be decent. Howard was protected by solid defending that made him look better than he is. Now that he doesn't have that the true Howard has been revealed. Either that or he's old, peaked at the WC, and is past it. Robles doesn't offer any competiton to keep him on his toes and offers little when playing himself. - Europe has strained is no doubt, but in years past where it was all resources and man power to premier league finish and fuck off the cups, we have a manager that cares deeply about doing well abroad and winning a trophy. Naturally with all the above issues there will be some let down elsewhere, which is the league form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddock Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 Wish people would stop blaming Europe. He said we had the squad to cope and other teams are coping just fine. All this blaming snd cputching at Europa is bollocks. Soon as we play a decent team we'll go out then nobody will have anything to "cling" to. We will not win it get it out your heads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newty82 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 I agree, we can't blame Europa. I also disagree that we haven't yet played a decent team. We have. Toffee_in_LA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romey 1878 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 Wish people would stop blaming Europe. He said we had the squad to cope and other teams are coping just fine. All this blaming snd cputching at Europa is bollocks. Soon as we play a decent team we'll go out then nobody will have anything to "cling" to. We will not win it get it out your heads I'm not having the Europa being a major factor either; we were playing dog shit before we'd even played a game in Europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueherts Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 The dressing room is quite clearly lost. There is no coming back from that and the board will have to address it sooner rather than later or face the inevitable exodus that will follow. If you think our play is scary now.....Imagine it without mirallas/coleman/stones in the squad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wirral Wizard Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 The lack of tempo to our game is incredibly frustrating. We have become laboured and predictable and easy to defend against. No-one seems to want to take a risk and instead goes for the easy option of keeping possession and slowing down the pace of our attacks. It is more difficult to understand what is going on at the other end of the pitch given no real changes in defensively focused personnel. I think a big factor is the lack of leadership on the pitch. I know he's past his best but statistically Leon Osman has been our most influential player in the last four seasons. Prior to this season we won 54% of PL matches he started and won only 22% of matches when he didn't start. Even this season the difference is noticeable. Won 3, drawn 1, lost 1 when he's started. Won 2, drawn 5 and lost 7 without him. He gets slagged off a lot on here but he clearly adds something to the team when he's on the pitch. It was the same story with Phil Neville. They are players that add leadership. Whilst I'm on stats and back to my first point about players not taking risks. Last season we won 7 out of 9 when Deulofeu started - he was statistically our most influential player. I know stats don't tell the whole story but to my mind we need stronger leadership on the park and players encouraged to take risks in the final third. Our whole strategy seems to involve taking more risks in the defensive third! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncanmckenzieismagic Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 We haven't played a meaningful game in Europe since November 27 and we have been absolutely clueless and dire for weeks now so its nothing to do with the Europa League Blue 250, Matt and Toffee_in_LA 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett Angel Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 we have players in a team that are not technically gifted in the head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueBlood81 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 It started going wrong with the shambles of pre-season & has basically been on the slide ever since. Our team spirit & togetherness has been our biggest strength for as long as I can remember & it's gone to shit. Roberts needs to develop a mean streak & fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoroBlue Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 The biggest thing that is going wrong for me is the lack of consistency of team selection and the insistence on playing players out of position. A team is made up of partnerships which get better with experience of playing together and knowledge of each others game as well as their own, yet players are being asked to play in unfamiliar positions surrounded by others who are out of position or who they are not used to playing with. Use Leighton Baines as an example as he seems to have come in for some stick recently. How many different players have played in the left midfield role in front of him so far this season (Pienaar, Barkley, Mirallas, Osman, McGeady, Atsu, Eto-o, Lukaku, Naismith, McAlaney, Kone, Oviedo). Use Ross Barkley as another example as he is another one getting stick at the moment. How many different positions has he played so far this season (defensive mid, attacking mid, left wing, right wing). Compare this with the current league leaders Chelsea, who have played the same amount of games as us. I know we have been hit with injuries this season but it doesn't account for the difference in consistency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue 250 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 The dressing room is quite clearly lost. There is no coming back from that and the board will have to address it sooner rather than later or face the inevitable exodus that will follow. If you think our play is scary now.....Imagine it without mirallas/coleman/stones in the squad. Can you explain what shows the dressing room is lost........don't bother to list bad results, poor tactics etc, they can be present even with a great dressing room. Managers and players could be fine with each other, but just not getting it together on the pitch. Losing and playing poorly to me doesn't indicate a dressing room lost. Maybe I've missed something obvious, I'm almost afraid to ask......because I'll be extra sick if he has lost it. Just hit me with it.......you say it's quite clear ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC11 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 I will bum you all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newty82 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 I'm also curious about losing the dressing room. A few have said that. What's the clues to this? I can't say I've noticed anything yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncanmckenzieismagic Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2889316/Everton-need-David-Moyes-basics-says-Graeme-Souness.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490 "Speaking to reporters, he said: 'As a team we need to stick with our principles, the doubts that people try to bring in makes you a stronger team. We showed last season what we could do, we haven't lost that talent, if anything we've increased it." The above quote is exactly what has gone wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncanmckenzieismagic Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 http://www.thehardtackle.com/2014/everton-fc-crisis-looms-for-hapless-and-stubborn-martinez/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC11 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 http://www.thehardtackle.com/2014/everton-fc-crisis-looms-for-hapless-and-stubborn-martinez/ Besic has only just started playing yet the writer seems to be blaming Besic for leaving holes and ultimately for the form of Coleman and Baines. He also says Barry goes forward and McCarthy sits.... If anything McCarthy goes on the odd run not Barry. What a shite article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jofanon Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 All I want for Christmas is Besic and Barkley in the middle Naismith and Lukaku up front Jags and Stones at the back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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