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Match Thread Everton 0-3 Brighton - Sat 17 Aug 2024 - Kick Off: 15:00
- Thread starter GrandOldTeam
- Start date
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cjuk87
Player Valuation: £10m
It's a large group of cowards and losers mainly. It's been the same ones under numerous managers.
The sooner we bed in the new players, the better. I'm weirdly optimistic for the season. Replace Young, Keane and Doucoure and I think we see a completely different team. I'm just hoping Ndiaye can support with the goals, as once again, that's what let us down. Our lack of firepower.
its honestly so demoralizing supporting this club
even when we win it tends to be hanging onto 1 goal leads and hoping we can keep a clean sheet
we should be able to at least comfortably win some home games by more than 1 goal against lesser sides but we rarely do
even when we win it tends to be hanging onto 1 goal leads and hoping we can keep a clean sheet
we should be able to at least comfortably win some home games by more than 1 goal against lesser sides but we rarely do
peteblue
Welcome back Wayne
The trick is finding ‘lesser sides’ to play against……
we couldn't even beat luton in 3 attempts, 2 of which were at home and they lost 4-1 away to burnley
I hate pens like that being given because it's a cheaters charter but Gordon always does it and Kane's made a career of it. Vardy as well.
JohnJq
Player Valuation: £2.5m
Michael Ball with great insights.
www.liverpoolecho.co.uk
I left Everton game early - what Dyche said to official proved he'd had enough
Part 1 of Michael Ball's column focuses on a disastrous start to the season for Everton at Goodison Park
Michael Ball with great insights.
I left Everton game early - what Dyche said to official proved he'd had enough
Part 1 of Michael Ball's column focuses on a disastrous start to the season for Everton at Goodison Park
Can't be arsed navigating the nightmare of the Echo mate - what did he say to the official?
It’s the old adage of “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” I think that’s what really grinds for Evertonians. Sean Dyche needs to understand the fans. It’s the final season at Goodison Park and overall, his home record is so poor.
We can’t do Plan A all the time, it’s too predictable, it’s too slow. It can be a threat and an option for us but it can’t be our only option. It was disappointing that we didn’t see the new faces. You’ve got to give them an opportunity as they’re hungry to impress.
There are players here who have been told they can go for the last couple of years but they’re still being given the reward of putting that royal blue jersey on. These fresh faces will bring an element of the unknown to the opposition. They won’t know what they can do and what their strengths are.
Surely that’s a benefit to us? Everybody knows what Michael Keane can do, everyone knows what Ashley Young can do and if he plays right-back then he’s going to get targeted like he did last season. Why are we leaving the door open to the opposition to implement that? It was a copy and paste job from the poor performances of last season.
It looked like we hadn’t done any tactical work throughout pre-season besides the diagonal to Jack Harrison. I didn’t see anything into feet, no one-twos in midfield, no turning balls around the corner to the front man, no interplay whatsoever. It was slow, passive, backwards, sideways, back to Tarkowski or Pickford and then a diagonal to Harrison.
The team started brightly, which I wanted to see from a Dyche side at Goodison Park, as they failed to do so on plenty of previous occasions. Once more we’ve failed to show that composure and quality in the final third which has cost us time and time again.
Our decision-making, our timing of passes and runs is just way off. Brighton did what so many visitors to Goodison do in that they tried to ride the storm early on and then believe in their style of play. Brain dead decision-making from players lets us down time and time again. You’ve got to give Dyche credit because he has got so much loyalty to so many of these players but that loyalty is not being given back from them because they keep repeating the same mistakes.
We started with a front four that couldn’t score last season – we had the second worst goal return in the league – but we’re expecting different results. I can’t see anything different, nothing seems to have changed.
It’s one-dimensional and predictable and if you’re not doing it correctly then something has got to change. Dyche’s job is to win football games and if he can’t do that then he’s got to entertain the crowd and give us something to shout and scream about. The same players are being passive again and not having pride in possession as they turn the ball over far too easily. There were times that Brighton just stood and stopped the ball yet 10 blue shirts just stood and watched.
We need to press the ball to force errors and when it works the crowd gets up, we get something and momentum comes. Everything that I was very frustrated about last season, I saw all over again. We’re slow at taking throw-ins and end up going backwards to Jordan Pickford or the centre-halves but we need to keep the tempo up and put them under pressure. We need to keep popping the question.
We’re so predictable and the opposition know what we’re doing and if they can stop the long ball to Dominic Calvert-Lewin or the diagonal pass to Jack Harrison, what else have we got?
I didn’t think he’d get sent off but Ashley Young getting booked against Kaoru Mitoma looked like bet of the day. He battled well but good teams tire you out and gaps open up around the hour mark and they can punish you. Dyche talks about Premier League experience but Ashley Young had the most on the pitch and made a daft decision, trying to chest the ball in that area. James Tarkowski tried to do a Cruyff turn in front of the Gwladys Street.
Gueye playing in that deep position always gives teams a sniff and gets caught season after season. He works hard and tries to put fires out, but he can’t build up play, if he’s trying to be our playmaker then we’re going to have a very difficult season.
Goodison Park was deflated, people left early – I left early – we knew they weren’t going to score three goals. Sean Dyche himself was even calling for the fourth official not to put nine minutes additional time on – he’d had enough.
He can’t be talking about the same stuff as last year though like xG and moments. It’s your job to make the moments better and to put the fine margins in our favour, not the opposition, but it’s the same sob story.
Brighton didn’t play well, if they’d have played a team of top quality I think the game would have been gone with the amount of risk they took and the moments they gave us but we haven’t got that off the cuff fluency in the final third. We don’t know who to pass to, there’s no rhythm and it’s just huff and puff.
More attacking variety needed
Everton only have one option and a lot of the time we don’t get that right. Jack Harrison works his socks off but I think that hides a lot of things because he needs to show end product.
He came inside, had a great shot – his only one on target – in the first few minutes but the game lasts 90. Last season he was learning how Everton play, Dyche is a fan of him, but you’ve got to show end product, you can’t have six or seven touches before you decide what to do with it.
He works so hard to get himself space but then drives into crowded areas when there’s a bit of grass in front of him or either side. The first goal came from his poor decision that opened the whole team up.
He received the ball out wide with Ashley Young bombing forward to help him but he decided to go inside to a crowded area and loses the ball. Dominic Calvert-Lewin is waiting for a James Rodriguez who would cross the ball and he’d know what he was doing. I don’t think Everton’s centre-forward knows what Harrison is going to do with the ball and I don’t think Jack does at times. His decision-making is far too slow.
If I’m a left-back against Harrison, he’s helping me by crowding the area. Keep it wide and concentrate on your cross whether it’s left foot or right foot.
Some brilliant balls came over to him but he needs to attack the byline and stretch the opposition. He kept on coming inside and lets players come back as he came inside and the goalscorer tackled him.
Harrison is out of the game, so is Young, it’s a counter attack and we get punished by their winger having three touches. Control the ball, down the line, cross the ball and goal. It’s hard to defend. The more touches you take, the easier it becomes for defenders.
If the ball goes into the area and Calvert-Lewin or Abdoulaye Doucoure isn’t there or any other midfield runners, that’s their fault. Harrison doesn’t go hiding and he tries – which fans will appreciate – but his job is to create opportunities.
The same goes for Dwight McNeil on the other wing. He had blades of grass in front of him to drive at the full-back but he’d take the easy option and come inside which also makes life easier for the opposition.
I thought the recruitment was pretty good this summer and was glad to see them get players in early but what’s the point of bringing in personnel if you can’t get into this poor 11. The match-winners for Brighton didn’t have Premier League experience and Tim Iroegbunam, our best player on the pitch lacks Premier League experience.
I think he shocked a few of his team-mates because he was brave and his first thought was to pass forward, to try and break the lines and drive into space. You’ve got to give these kind of players an opportunity, it gets the fans up.
McNeil and Harrison’s starting positions are a minimum of 15 yards too deep. We all know Lewis Dunk is going to get the ball and pass it to the left-back but Harrison won’t press the left-back until the pass has been made which gives his opponent time to control the ball, look up and pick whatever pass he wants.
Harrison has got the stats in for his sprint but when I played in Dutch football for PSV they’d say ‘why are you making it hard for yourself?’
If you stand there, that player is not an option and they look somewhere else but if you stand off, you’re making the game hard for yourself by giving him that option, then going to close. When the goalkeeper had the ball in the Netherlands, the centre-back would go into midfield and mark the midfielder and the other midfielder would mark the other centre-back.
The wingers would mark the full-backs and the goalkeeper would have nobody to pass to. It’s simple, the only thing the goalie can do is take a risk by passing to someone who is marked or kicking long and then you might win the one-on-one battle and we’ve got defenders who should win the first ball and Jordan Pickford as a sweeper.
Instead, we’re letting them dictate the game and they’re going to tire you out physically and mentally and then you’re going to make mistakes like Young. Stand on the full-backs. If Calvert-Lewin and Doucoure stand on the centre-halves, they’ve got nobody to pass to.
If a midfielder goes in then that’s up to Gueye to sort out. It’s not rocket science, it’s simple things and that’s what is concerning me that Dyche and his coaching staff either aren’t seeing that or he doesn’t trust his team to play that way.
Harrison might have ran for 100 miles but how many completed passes did he have? How many crosses did he put into dangerous areas? How many shots did he have?
McNeil on the other wing, what’s with these floaty crosses? Get out at Finch Farm and start whipping balls in.
Then you can blame the striker or the midfielder for not getting on the end of it. Tell them: ‘I put that in the perfect area and you weren’t there – not my problem.’ Imagine Duncan Ferguson playing in the same side as McNeil and Harrison? It would only take him about 30 seconds to say to them: ‘What are you doing? Put it in, I’m going to beat these in the air.’
More VAR confusion
Even the Everton penalty incident baffles me. It was a poor ball from Jack, it should have been behind the defenders so Calvert-Lewin could just have a one-touch finish like they did but he’s put it the wrong side of our striker who has had to turn his back to touch the ball.
Whether you think it’s a penalty or not – it looked soft from where I was in the Park End – the referee is 10 yards away and has given it and we’re supposed to be going with the referee’s call now unless it’s a clear and obvious error, so much for the higher threshold for overturning decisions – that didn’t last long! It would be interesting to hear the recordings of the conversation that took place between him and his colleagues at Stockley Park.
When things go against us, we don’t roll our sleeves up. We feel sorry for ourselves, pass the buck and cop out of situations.
There was a bit of that with the penalty. Have a bit of pride over your own performance, sort your feet out, get the ball out and get a shot out.
ds3000
Player Valuation: £950k
Nice post
Oh it wasn't written by me mate haha, was a post by Bally for the Echo but I do agree with a lot of what he said.
Was just pasting the text for Danny because he's old and can't work the Echo out.
I left Everton game early - what Dyche said to official proved he'd had enough
Part 1 of Michael Ball's column focuses on a disastrous start to the season for Everton at Goodison Park
Just had a flashback to watching Micah Richards and Tony Bellend having a peno comp at HT versus The Yak and now im fuming again.
Paul Rideout
Player Valuation: £40m
referring to refereeing:
"then you wonder why people have had enough... ESPECIALLY EVERTON"
"yeah they've had enough"
sums it up when Spurs know we've had too much from the rough end of the stick.
T LEAFE
Player Valuation: £40m
I'm no fan of Michael Ball but he talks sense here
www.liverpoolecho.co.uk
I left Everton game early - what Dyche said to official proved he'd had enough
Part 1 of Michael Ball's column focuses on a disastrous start to the season for Everton at Goodison Park