2023/24 Dwight McNeil

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Overall I'd give him a 6/10 season. Too few goals for somebody that can strike a ball like he can, and no link up play whatsoever with anybody who played left back, although I'd lay the blame more on the defender than him, whether that was Mykolenko, Godfrey or Young.

His corners have been superbly reliable though and that's created plenty of goals for us so well done for that.

You can't train him to be fast, so hoping he can somehow be more effective on the wing next season and add more goals to his game. The hard work is already there, so let's add a bit of quality and finesse please Dwight.

6/10 is fair and I agree. Same as Garner.

With McNeil if some more of his chances had been scored we'd probably give him a 7 though and its no fault of his own its 6.


Those 17 as big chances I believe are classed as it being likely the player receiving the ball from him will score.

He ended up with 5 league assists and I think he's a player that should be at 10+ assists a season. Think how many times he crossed or passed and our players missed.

If we had Lukaku rather than DCL id expect he would have far more assists.

Perhaps time to use him at 10 more.

I watched one of those 'masterclass' videos on Youtube with Moyes and he was discussing Osman and Pienaar. Basically said neither were wingers, but were very effective at tucking inside and creating space for the full back to bomb on into (Pienaar and Baines were immense at this). I think there's a few similarities between McNeil, Osman and Pienaar... technically gifted players who work hard but lack a yard of pace.

I think McNeil would be effective at picking up pockets of space in between the centre half and full back and causing some damage, but without an overlapping fullback to help create the space/passing options it really hampers him.

The next best thing would be behind the forward... but I'm not sure he's mobile enough to help pick up second balls from DCL knockdowns when we're out of possession.
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I think he also does well with Mykolenko defensively

Personally id sell Doucoure, move McNeil into the 10 position and bring in Iling Junior on the left for £12.5mil. Hes rapid, has experience of both left back and left wing, can score/assist with high levels of technique.

We'd be much more dangerous as for all the benefits Doucoure brings. Our attack mostly stops with him.
 

It seems a lot, but when you consider how many Haaland missed.

Screenshot_20240529_203659_Chrome.webp
 
Probably a stat that’s helped by him being a corner taker but impressive nonetheless. Shows how assists viewed in isolation can be misleading if you have donkeys who can’t put the ball in the net.
Always thought that in regards to Leighton Baines,the number of clear cut opportunities he created in at times a poorish Everton side was incredible.
 

Stats are a bit of a nonsense tbh. My eyes told me he had a pretty average season and wasn’t nearly as good as Gordon or Gibbs White, never mind the likes of Odegaard or Palmer.
Same happened with Baines though. Look at how many assist he could have had if he wasn’t pinging in crosses to average strikers for the first 5 to 6 years of his Everton career. Can’t blame McNeil for having Maupay (for a few games), Beto, Danjuma, Harrison, half fit DCL, Doucoure and a 19 yr old Chermitti to aim for.

This is why Robertson and Alexander-Arnold have climbed the assists table so fast, look at the players they’ve had to finish off their attacks.

I much prefer ‘chances created’ compared to ‘assists’ when contemplating attacking stats.
 
Same happened with Baines though. Look at how many assist he could have had if he wasn’t pinging in crosses to average strikers for the first 5 to 6 years of his Everton career. Can’t blame McNeil for having Maupay (for a few games), Beto, Danjuma, Harrison, half fit DCL, Doucoure and a 19 yr old Chermitti to aim for.

This is why Robertson and Alexander-Arnold have climbed the assists table so fast, look at the players they’ve had to finish off their attacks.

I much prefer ‘chances created’ compared to ‘assists’ when contemplating attacking stats.

Baines was a top quality player, never needed a table of stats to tell me that tbh.

I get the point but quality will show itself on the pitch.
 
6/10 is fair and I agree. Same as Garner.

With McNeil if some more of his chances had been scored we'd probably give him a 7 though and its no fault of his own its 6.



Those 17 as big chances I believe are classed as it being likely the player receiving the ball from him will score.

He ended up with 5 league assists and I think he's a player that should be at 10+ assists a season. Think how many times he crossed or passed and our players missed.

If we had Lukaku rather than DCL id expect he would have far more assists.

Perhaps time to use him at 10 more.


]
I think he also does well with Mykolenko defensively

Personally id sell Doucoure, move McNeil into the 10 position and bring in Iling Junior on the left for £12.5mil. Hes rapid, has experience of both left back and left wing, can score/assist with high levels of technique.

We'd be much more dangerous as for all the benefits Doucoure brings. Our attack mostly stops with him.
How many assists come from open play?? Not many id guess. And find it mad people going on about McNeil in the 10 role, yes he can run with the ball, and has a decent left foot, he doesn’t score a lot from distance and being so one footed means, he will go left when running and every pass will go right, you’re basically losing half the pitch before you kick off, he also doesn’t have good touch around the box, not good enough to be a 10 imo
 

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