Match Thread Everton v West Ham United (Sunday 16th Sept 4.00)

[BlueToff]

We have only played 5 games and two of them were with ten men. Half the squad is either unfit or injured, we will be fine with players like Richarlison, Bernard, Gomes, Mina coming in.

It goes deeper than personnel.

It doesn't matter who we play or who we have as a manager, over the past five years we haven't ever looked solid. Not once. We defend in a panic, every time. It's a huge worry.

Throw in the fact that we don't sustain attacks - and we really don't at all - then we've got issues.

Everything relies on moments of individual class or a decent cross and finish (Digne and Kenny did this well). Yes, we missed sitters today, but we didn't deserve anything. And it's a worry.

 

[Deulofeumygod]

Richarlison for Cenk and Bernard in on the left next week. Mina for holgate and Gomes for snides eventually.

If we play like that with that team then I’ll start to question silva but not yet.

Niasse is not good enough, dcl not a winger but did ok today. Holgate and Kenny were out of their depth.

Things didn’t run today. On a different day, they get a red, Cenk scores his header and pick doesn’t give the ball away like that.

I’m gutted but it’s not the end of the world. Only 6 games in.

 

[BlueToff]

We just aren't good enough to play this style.

We need a striker to finish the chances we create, a proper CDM to provide cover in the acres of midfield space we leave open and a proper #1 CB. Zouma is fine as a #2 at this point. Mina is most likely not a proper #1 defensively.

Let's wait and see

 

[eame71]

To be fair to him, not many defenders can cope with Arnoutovic as he's so strong and skillful with it. Does have to improve though

agree hes hard work but holgate couldnt mark himself... hes [Poor language removed]

 

[onlyme]

Shocking performance, no defensive organisation or attacking continuity.

 

[Zezti]

Defending like that against Arsenal next week is going to ruin my month.

 

[Brett Angell Delight]

Brace yourselves for some optimism, boys:

Mina and Zouma/Keane (he had a decent opening couple of games) should be a settled CB combo and one that fills me with more confidence than today’s pair.

Gomes HAS to be better than that SoS we have in CM at the moment. Hopefully, Gana will go back to his old game and Gomes will link with him and Siggy, meaning we’re not pulled out of position as much.

Richarlison is back next game!

Bernard looked decent today Walcott was in decent nick before his injury. With Lookman and Dowell as raw, unproven backups that’s a nice enough prospect.

DCL deserves a go up front, IMO. I want to root for Tosun but he’s depressing me at the moment. Maybe benching him would have the Yak effect...

Pickford will hopefully overcome the Tim Howard post-WC funk he’s currently in, and then we’ll be sound!

Plus, for those that want to know (none, at last count) - The dinner I cooked after swerving the match was boss

 

[Toffee in Jandals]

It's really simple

We have half our squad either injured, unfit or not had any pre season games. Any team in the league would struggle and to make things worse, in five games we have had two red cards. What do people expect.

I agree, but West Ham could equally argue the point that they had several players out today. Irrespective of our injuries / Richarlison’s suspension, we’ve had a really disappointing result today. Hardly surprising that people are venting.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Awful that

Still early days though, and that wasn't our first XI

Still though, we need to sort the defence out

Those were three incredibly sloppy goals to concede

 

[chaotic8512]

At least you let have a turnover backpack

Yeah... the season’s bad enough. Don’t remind of that horror.

 

[toffee-L]

Put Mina in that side with those tactics and he had better be fantastic because he would be exposed all the time - Zouma and Holgate were bad today but they had no cover and only rarely were Kenny and Digne even in a position to help them out. Better teams than West Ham would have given us an absolute shoeing.

Gomes on the other hand is the key and has to be given time because we have noone in midfield that deserves to keep their place at the moment, however we are set up.

Personally I'd have three at the back (Zouma / Mina / Holgate), the two full backs (Digne and Coleman), Schneiderlin and Gomes in the middle and a front three of Richarlison, Tosun and Walcott.

Agree with this. It was a difficult game to assess because we spent the vast majority of it chasing the game but vacating your entire midfield to go try and get back in it was bizarre. We made it very easy for them today, and that's before you factor in all the defensive mistakes we made.

A big problem for us remains our ball retention. We are useless at playing out from the back, neither Schneiderlin or Gana are good enough at getting the ball off the back 4 four and driving us up the pitch.

As you say, fingers crossed Gomes can boss this, we've got a big problem if he's not up to it.

 

[Saaby]

We need to replace Gana asap. If we want to have any ambitions of exceeding we cannot have a DM who was relegated.

 

[Abraders]

Kenny and Sigurddsson can get in the bin. Dreadful players

 

[Big Fat Sam]

The positive I can take from that game is Silva will now know for certain who is not good enough at this level the negative is who else have we got if we have other injuries. The only players that can come out of that game with a little credit is Walcott (though he faded badly), Digne (but awol for 1st goal) and Bernard. Gana has good spells then really bad spells. When DCL gets the ball I don't even get excited because I usually know he will mess it up. Tosun has lost it totally, Niasse not good enough. Kenny and Holgate had mares because once the going got tough they were found wanting. Still think we are only a few crucial players away from being a decent team though but saying that the squad is still weak

Problem is mate our centre back options are currently two of Jagielka, Holgate, Zouma.

In Silva's system, our centre midfield options are currently two out of Schneiderlin, Davies, Gueye.

Our out and out striker options are one out of Tosun, DCL, Niasse (for me the worst bunch of strikers in a squad in the entire division).

Basically the whole spine of the team is a complete and utter shambles, and the manager can do nothing whatsoever about it at present as the new signings were made far too late which was not his fault at all.

Our full back options aren't the worst, and our wide midfield options are superb, but down the middle and even in goal seeing Pickford far, far too comfortable out there knowing he doesn't need to excel as he has no backup pushing him to constantly improve to stay in the side.

It's an awful situation at the minute and the players that are getting selected are performing horribly.

 

[tsubaki]

It goes deeper than personnel.

It doesn't matter who we play or who we have as a manager, over the past five years we haven't ever looked solid. Not once. We defend in a panic, every time. It's a huge worry.

Throw in the fact that we don't sustain attacks - and we really don't at all - then we've got issues.

Everything relies on moments of individual class or a decent cross and finish (Digne and Kenny did this well). Yes, we missed sitters today, but we didn't deserve anything. And it's a worry.

Go back over those past five years and look at how we play - four at the back, two DMs, some attackers and one up front by himself, each season, each game. It is idiocy to keep doing it.