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4 points off 4th

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West Brom, Nowrich, Wigan, Stoke and Fulham have all picked up points at White Hart Lane this season, let's not make out we're going to some kind of fortress here. Also Spurs are bigger bottlers than us.
 
EFC Si said:
I think there's been a change in the mentality of the players since the wigan game; they look like they really want it. It's not the same as a one off big occasion either
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We won against City at home last season as well. You can't judge a change of attitude based on two home games in the league.
 
Azzurri said:
We won against City at home last season as well. You can't judge a change of attitude based on two home games in the league.
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The win against them last season was arguably the turning point of our season and I think it gave us the belief to push on and move up the table.

This seasons win was under similar circumstances (we had been playing poorly in the run up to the game and City were favourites to win). Maybe that win a few weeks ago could have had a similar effect? We will find out in the up coming weeks.
 
Was watching Spurs against Swansea and Dawson had a shocker. Couldn't time his run all game and Swansea had a lot of headers on goal because Dawson was a yard behind his man. Their full-backs tend to stand off and allow crosses. They're not infallible Spurs.
 

Artetafan said:
What's this change of atttitude stuff, though?

It's only been two games.
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True. But two important games. One against the champions after all the crap associated with the Wigan game and then against that horrible shower from Stoke.

A lot of my work contacts are from London and cover the spread of Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal. Not one is giving us serious hope - and just focused on each other. The Evening Standard had a piece on the race between the three late last week. We weren't mentioned.

It's written in the stars.
 
Just did a quick look at our corresponding fixtures from last season (swapping the promoted clubs for each other), doesn't make great viewing. We were actually 2 points better off last season from the same fixtures as we've had this year so far. And we only picked up 4 points from the 8 games we have left. Suppose you could look at that in a positive way and say we're bound to do better this year or you could say that using stats from last year is a load of rubbish but i thought it was worth posting. Don't think I've worded that too well but take from it what you will!
 
Brownie said:
It's not mentality or belief that makes you achieve what you want to achieve, it's knowledge and ability. I still thinks that's what lets us down more often that not. People talk about creating a winning mentality, but that comes from knowing what to do and why you do it, how it will help you win. Naturally an easy way to get this is by winning a trophy, then you know that what you've been doing works and can simply keep doing it. As a general rule though you're far more likely to get somewhere by coaching methods and systems that have fundamental principles, then the players have something to fall back on that tells them what to do. There are certain things that Everton always do under Moyes that achieve small advantages, but when it comes to basic principles that make you win the game, I don't think we have any.
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If we were soundly outplayed by all the richer clubs and largely beat who we supposedly should be beating, then you might be right. But we regularly struggle against the lower teams and play well when we have underdog mentality against the big teams.

So what does that tell you? That we lack knowledge and ability against smaller teams? Or that the weight of expectation of winning a match has a negative effect on our performance?
 

Dell Boy said:
True. But two important games. One against the champions after all the crap associated with the Wigan game and then against that horrible shower from Stoke.

A lot of my work contacts are from London and cover the spread of Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal. Not one is giving us serious hope - and just focused on each other. The Evening Standard had a piece on the race between the three late last week. We weren't mentioned.

It's written in the stars.
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The longer we're not considered as in the race the more good it'll do us. Imagine if it was Liverpool on the amount of points we are....they'd probably be favourites to win the CL next year
 
evilwebby said:
If we were soundly outplayed by all the richer clubs and largely beat who we supposedly should be beating, then you might be right. But we regularly struggle against the lower teams and play well when we have underdog mentality against the big teams.

So what does that tell you? That we lack knowledge and ability against smaller teams? Or that the weight of expectation of winning a match has a negative effect on our performance?
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That we lack knowledge and ability against smaller teams. I can't see our players waiting in the tunnel anxious about playing inferior opposition because they know should win and might not. The key thing is translating superior skill into scoring goals and winning the game. The fact that we sometimes beat big teams at home but very rarely away, I would say points to the effect of home advantage rather than an underdog mentality i.e. they're not that much better than us. It's not like we're relegation strugglers who turn up and expect to lose but miraculously win 4-3.

I just don't think we have any set way of utilising our players' strengths against the weaknesses of the opposition. As a general rule we try to keep possession and slowly push up the pitch until eventually something happens that hopefully causes a goal. If you saw an Everton fixture at home against a poor team, do you think you could predict how we would win the game?
 

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