Draws

[billycopper]

Norwich 2-2 We had 67% possession and 7 shots on target to their 2.
West Brom 0-0 We had 8 shots on target and 62.3% possession.
Cardiff 0-0 We had 63% possession but only 3 shots on target to their 1.
Spurs 0-0 We edged the possession (52%) but they had 6 shots on target to our 1.
Palace 0-0 We had a 72.8% share of the ball but each team only had 2 shots on target.
Liverpool 3-3 We had slightly more possession (50.7%) but 12 shots on target versus 5 for them.
Arsenal 1-1 We had 55.9% of the ball but they had 5 shots on target compared to our 4.
Stoke 1-1 We had 60.5% of possession. Shots on target was 4 each.
West Brom 1-1 They had 50.1% of the ball and 6 shots on target to our 4.

We did enough to beat Norwich but they were fortunate with ricochets and a misdirected cross.
We had enough opportunities to beat West Brom too.
Surprisingly Cardiff parked the bus at their place and we couldn't create much.
Spurs were excellent in the first half and possibly deserved a win.
Two shots on target at Selhurst Park tells it's own story.
We should have held on against Liverpool.
Arsenal was probably a fair result.
We were unlucky to hit the woodwork twice at the Britannia but ultimately fortunate to rescue the game.
According to the stats we didn't deserve a win at the Hawthorns.

Looking at it there's only really the Arsenal and Stoke games where we've salvaged a point and we didn't deserve to be in a losing position in either of those matches. On the one hand it's positive that we haven't given much of a headstart to other teams but then on the other hand we're not using our possession well enough to control the game and we're not creating enough chances to finish teams off.

Hopefully, McGeady will help and both Barkley and Deulofeu will grow more into their roles when they return. If Baines does sign a new contract and the uncertainty about his future is removed, fingers crossed his form will show an improvement.

As we get to the business end of the season and teams with something to play for realise that a draw is no longer good enough, we should see more open matches too.

Drawing too many games was always a problem under Moyes. It was usually because we lacked ambition or ideas. We have been much more positive this year but maybe our young and precocious forward line has been a bit impetuous and has taken on shots when a pass was the better option? It looks like we're heading in the right direction anyway.

 

[BlueLlama]

It happens. The main thing is we arent shipping stupid late goals to gash teams because we spent the last hour playing deep to hold onto a 1 - 0 lead

 

[WA Toffee]

Early on in the season we were having a huge percentage of possession as teams sat deep and we passed it around at the back for long periods before looking for that probing pass. Being a new system, we weren't really good at deciding which pass to make in the final third, hence lots of games with either no or only one goal. When we got to grips with it, we started banging in a few more goals.

Teams now seem to be defending further up the park against us though, disrupting our passing game and meaning our possession stats are a bit lower. This is giving us less time and opportunity to play that killer ball, although this has encouraged us to shoot from distance with quite often spectacular results.

When we get to grips with other teams pressing us, and learn how to counter that, it will be back to winning ways

 

[jrj]

We always seem to have problems with draws over the years, just need that bit more quality/luck to turn them into wins imo.

 

[deipnosophist]

This is an interesting thread. Everton currently are second (on 9) behind WBA (on 10) in draws. Last season we had the most, equal with Stoke (!!!) on 15. If we maintain our draws we will end up 6th or 7th. Draws are an indifferent result...and indifference is the greatest enemy of all.

We would be better off if, rather than drawing 9, we lost 5 and won 4!!!. Our 'LOST' column (only 2 at the moment) is hiding ALOT.

 

[GwladysBlue]

We're a very hard team to beat but we don't have that stand out player who can win us a game out of nothing. A Suarez, Van Persie, Aguero etc

 

[USABlue]

Yes draws are achilles heel i think. Like someone mentioned about while we only have 2 losses compared to City's 2 for example, we have 7 more draws.

 

[Christiffa25]

We're a very hard team to beat but we don't have that stand out player who can win us a game out of nothing. A Suarez, Van Persie, Aguero etc

This is nailed on.

We have Barkley who I've no doubt is one of those players. However he is in his first season, and can't be expected to be doing it regulary yet. First few games excluded before Barry McCarthy and lukaku, I don't think it's any coincedence that we struggle the most when Ross is missing.

Put Rooney in our side from the start of this season and I have no doubt we'd be up there with arse, Chelsea and city.

 

[lmurkder]

Norwich 2-2 We had 67% possession and 7 shots on target to their 2.
West Brom 0-0 We had 8 shots on target and 62.3% possession.
Cardiff 0-0 We had 63% possession but only 3 shots on target to their 1.
Spurs 0-0 We edged the possession (52%) but they had 6 shots on target to our 1.
Palace 0-0 We had a 72.8% share of the ball but each team only had 2 shots on target.
Liverpool 3-3 We had slightly more possession (50.7%) but 12 shots on target versus 5 for them.
Arsenal 1-1 We had 55.9% of the ball but they had 5 shots on target compared to our 4.
Stoke 1-1 We had 60.5% of possession. Shots on target was 4 each.
West Brom 1-1 They had 50.1% of the ball and 6 shots on target to our 4.

We did enough to beat Norwich but they were fortunate with ricochets and a misdirected cross.
We had enough opportunities to beat West Brom too.
Surprisingly Cardiff parked the bus at their place and we couldn't create much.
Spurs were excellent in the first half and possibly deserved a win.
Two shots on target at Selhurst Park tells it's own story.
We should have held on against Liverpool.
Arsenal was probably a fair result.
We were unlucky to hit the woodwork twice at the Britannia but ultimately fortunate to rescue the game.
According to the stats we didn't deserve a win at the Hawthorns.

Looking at it there's only really the Arsenal and Stoke games where we've salvaged a point and we didn't deserve to be in a losing position in either of those matches. On the one hand it's positive that we haven't given much of a headstart to other teams but then on the other hand we're not using our possession well enough to control the game and we're not creating enough chances to finish teams off.

Hopefully, McGeady will help and both Barkley and Deulofeu will grow more into their roles when they return. If Baines does sign a new contract and the uncertainty about his future is removed, fingers crossed his form will show an improvement.

As we get to the business end of the season and teams with something to play for realise that a draw is no longer good enough, we should see more open matches too.

Drawing too many games was always a problem under Moyes. It was usually because we lacked ambition or ideas. We have been much more positive this year but maybe our young and precocious forward line has been a bit impetuous and has taken on shots when a pass was the better option? It looks like we're heading in the right direction anyway.

Good analysis and opinions.

 

[Netromelo]

Only drawing Norwich, West Brom (home), Cardiff, Palace, and Stoke, as well as losing to Sunderland is the reason we won't finish in the top 4 this season. These were all games where we were the better team and should have won, but couldn't do it. 11 points dropped. I know there will always be games like those over the course of a season, but it has happened to often this season compared to the teams in the top 3.

 

[bicycleheader]

Only drawing Norwich, West Brom (home), Cardiff, Palace, and Stoke, as well as losing to Sunderland is the reason we won't finish in the top 4 this season. These were all games where we were the better team and should have won, but couldn't do it. 11 points dropped. I know there will always be games like those over the course of a season, but it has happened to often this season compared to the teams in the top 3.

We aren't really aiming for the top 3 though, and we are within a point of two of our rivals for 4th place whilst holding a nice cushion over Man U. So we are doing as well as them, and have much more to be positive about.

The flipside is we picked up 7pts against Che, Ars and Man U when we normally wouldn't have.

Plus by the end of the window we will be another step closer to being the squad Bobby wants and will be getting some injured players back.

Good thread!

 

[N.S.N.O.]

the 3-3 with liverpool is the one that annoys me the most...we dominated possesion, but gifted them easy goals....i know we won at Old Trafford (who hasn't this season), but i'm still concerned about our ability to handle pressure....we should have seen that game out...

we got into the top 4 at Christmas....then lost at home to Sunderland.....
On Monday we knew that a win would put us in the top 4 again, and we bottled it...

its something i've seen other clubs do when the pressure of a top 4 spot finally starts to build up....Spurs have collapsed a few times, newcastle faded away 2 seasons ago.....we've seen ourselves how we handled the pressure against liverpool at wembley a couple of years ago (Moyes negativity didn't help)....


hopefully we can handle the pressure next tuesday night, because pressure doesn't come much bigger....

 

[N.S.N.O.]

Only drawing Norwich, West Brom (home), Cardiff, Palace, and Stoke, as well as losing to Sunderland is the reason we won't finish in the top 4 this season. These were all games where we were the better team and should have won, but couldn't do it. 11 points dropped. I know there will always be games like those over the course of a season, but it has happened to often this season compared to the teams in the top 3.

yeah frustrating......you can add West Brom away to that list too, they were terrible, can't believe we were so poor second half and let them back into the game....

like you say, everyone drops unexpected points.....but had we even won 2 of those games, we could be in a great spot, particularily if we then win at anfield next week....

 

[pablo315]

I think we are still in a great position despite dropping to 6th. The worry though is that the injury list will result in losses in upcoming games at analfield and spurs at which point we will look back on draws against poor teams and see that as more costly than losing the big games with a depleted squad. In particular the 7 points dropped against Sunderland, Stoke and west brom could have given us the buffer needed to sustain a few losses and still be involved. As it is we now need 4 points from spurs and and the RS just to stay in the race for 4th, with key players missing.

 

[efcfanwirral]

This is exactly what Liverpool were like 2-3 years ago- lots of draws, but once he'd had the chance to really build a team (and obviously Suarez) they're now putting some of the smaller teams to the sword. I see a similar situation here - once he has chance to build his team properly, and not have to play people like osman when we get one injury, perhaps a bit of luck in finding a match winning shrewd signing then I think we'll be fine

The great things is, in his first season we are sometimes playing badly but still rarely losing - we could have easily lost Monday night and against stoke. While draws may cost us, we could sneak Europe by 1-2 points, in which case those games we may have lost under moyes but kept plugging away and earning a point this year could make a positive difference.