Centre Midfield

[degsy]

I have to disagree on that one

Silva has seemed far more likely to make the players fit the system rather than vice versa since he got here

He is not especially flexible when it comes to tactics. He has his way he wants us to play and he's going to make the team play it

Early day yet but...
Silva has some perfect system in his head and has bought many players to play it....it should work.

But if it doesn't, and he won't change it from Should work to Does work, then all we have to show for ourselves since Moyes 2013 and before is yet another, 'my way or the highway...it must be right because its my system...and being perfect lets face it, would I pick a bad one?'

This is just Martinez and his untouchable Philosophy 'Marc'(o) 2 - if so, then he's a taxi ride waiting to happen.

Adapt or die.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Early day yet but...
Silva has some perfect system in his head and has bought many players to play it....it should work.

But if it doesn't, and he won't change it from Should work to Does work, then all we have to show for ourselves since Moyes 2013 and before is yet another, 'my way or the highway...it must be right because its my system...and being perfect lets face it, would I pick a bad one?'

This is just Martinez and his untouchable Philosophy 'Marc'(o) 2 - if so, then he's a taxi ride waiting to happen.

Adapt or die.

Ideally you'd get a middle ground of a manager with a plan who can also mix it up should the need arise

 

[degsy]

Ideally you'd get a middle ground of a manager with a plan who can also mix it up should the need arise

At the moment these are thin on the ground...we haven't seen one this century.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Midfield is a major problem, it needed a major overhaul in the summer and didn’t get one. If Silva wants to play 433 then Brands simply didn’t deliver the players to do that in central midfield.

I don't know what you mean by major overhaul. We lost Gueye which is a big blow, and not much could be done about that once he confirmed he wanted to leave. But we brought in 3 quality players including Gomes from last season. Gbamin needs a bit of time to settle in but he is a different type of player to what we had available before and Delph's left foot will give us another variety. We've also brought in an option for Siggy with Iwobi, who I wouldn't be surprised to see operating in a midfield 3 when we play the top teams.

Losing Gana means we'll have to play a different way to last season, but we have a lot more choices now. Given McCarthy and Besic had hardly any minutes last season, we've ended up losing Gana and adding Delph, Gbamin and Iwobi to our midfield options. That's more of an overhaul than any other team in the premier apart from possibly Villa.

Can I ask what were you expecting us to do this window?

 

[BlueToff]

For anyone who has an Athletic subscription, one of the Everton writers has done a fine job of summing up our problems. Well worth a read.

 

[Disgruntledgoat]

I'm always the first to yell "Walk away from the ref you idiot" when I see it

It's just not worth it. You will get booked and that hurts the team

If we get a reputation as a team who keeps chewing out refs then it's not going to make the refs magically start listening. If anything it'll lead to the exact opposite and they'll start clamping down. It's why Coleman talking to the ref all the time is pointless at this current stage. People need to realise that the only way we can get into a situation where referees will give any of our players the time of day is if we become a big enough and successful club that they'll feel it valid. Until we reach that stage, talking to refs achieves nothing more than a booking and is a complete and utter waste of energy

Just keep your mouth shut and get on with it

Again, Schneiderlin has been playing this game for nearly 25 years now if you include his youth career, he knows better

This.

Have you ever seen a referee say "Actually, young man, that's an excellent point. And since you made it so politely, I'm going to change my mind. Your ball"?

No. Of course you haven't. So button your lip and get on with your job.

 

[BlueToff]

I would argue that getting a stupid booking for dissent is 100% an attitude problem yes

It doesn't matter if you think the ref is wrong, you pull socks up, shut your gob and get on with it

Yelling at the ref like a petulant 6 year old is not going to help you, and when you've played the game as long as Schneiderlin has you should know that

Gomes got two bookings for dissent last season. Does he have an attitude problem?

I agree with you, but players do it all the time.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Silva doesnt want to play 433.

I think he'll play 433 is certain games when he doesn't expect us to dominate possession, and who's to say we don't have the players to do that. It's ridiculous judging Gbamin on 45 minutes of football when he's had about 2 training sessions in pre season. Delph wasn't in the squad and Gomes was running the show before getting injured. Iwobi will bring us options at the head of a 433 when we are looking to play n the break.

I agree that the majority of time we will play 4231 with Siggy in the 10 role. But at least we have Iwobi to replace him if he's having an off day.

I actually think this thread is a total joke tbh. Midfield is not a major problem at all and I'm confident you'll see us have much better ball retention than last year as we have more players who are comfortable in possession. Hopefully they'll also be able to pick out the runs of kean, Richy and Co too. I'm quitely optimistic.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Gomes got two bookings for dissent last season. Does he have an attitude problem?

I agree with you, but players do it all the time.

If he keeps getting booked for dissent then, yes, he has a problem

Schneiderlin has also displayed issues in the past, such as storming out of training with Mirallas

He's hardly a boy scout who got booked once randomly. The guy has previous for being a git

 

[Barnfred 55]

Siggurdson basically hides from the ball up front. He’s a major problem in terms of having a balanced midfield.

yet we had 65% possession over the match, nearly 70% during the first half when we had 11 men and Gomes on the pitch.

Donlt get me wrong, there will be games when that situation will see us badly exposed and it would be wrong to play that formation, but Palace wasn't one of them.

 

[degsy]

For anyone who has an Athletic subscription, one of the Everton writers has done a fine job of summing up our problems. Well worth a read.

...'Something big will have to change.'
Yep
If it can't be made to work then 4-2-3-1for a start.

 

[Groucho]

He didn't paint himself well, but he did also state in an interview that he wasn't ready at all. More on silva that one.

I’d say more on Schneiderlin

 

[BlueToff]

If he keeps getting booked for dissent then, yes, he has a problem

Schneiderlin has also displayed issues in the past, such as storming out of training with Mirallas

He's hardly a boy scout who got booked once randomly. The guy has previous for being a git

He does. I'm not arguing with that. He was wrong to show dissent and it's cost him.

But I don't think that particular incident reeks of an attitude problem. He didn't want to get sent off, he made a mistake for the second yellow. It happens.

 

[BlueToff]

It means he doesn’t get into positions to receive the ball. Does it all the time.

No he doesn't.

He drifts wide to try and create space for himself to receive a pass or for someone to drive into that space. That's what his role is when we have the ball. It isn't to run back 20 yards and spread a diagonal.

When Gomes went off we had no midfielder who could

a) find a pass into him
b) drive into the space created

That will need to change because we can't rely on Gomes being fit all year

 

[BlueToff]

...'Something big will have to change.'
Yep
If it can't be made to work then 4-2-3-1for a start.

We really play more of a 4-4-2, as Paddy kind of points out in the article.

It seems to work at home, maybe because as a team we naturally push higher, but as soon as Gomes went on Saturday we had no midfielder plugging the space and nobody controlling our play so we could progress forward as a team.

Iwobi playing centrally could help us play a proper 4-2-3-1, with three ball carriers behind the striker, but then you lose Gylfi's pressing and goal threat.]

A 4-3-3 then leaves us with five midfielders to choose from but three of those aren't really creative, so a lot of the work would have to be on Delph/Gomes if fit.