Homepage Article Everton's Attitude Problem

[D410]

How I feel about our club - I'll summarise it with these comments I made previously this weekend

Everton FC will NEVER win anything until it develops a ruthless streak - one that cancels contracts on the likes of Besic, Garbutt, Connolly, Bolasie, Gbamin - legally of course - by selling them or moving them on or paying someone to take them away. Too many players know Everton are a soft touch - perhaps they have a direct line to Andy Van der Meyde's mobile ("Andy, how did you manage to pick up four years wages, never score a goal or even finish a game and get paid?")

Perhaps they know that the managers live on a knife edge and the players can get them sacked with a few lousy performances after a good year (Lee, Bingham, Martinez, Silva, Koeman).... and keep the wheel of failure going whilst picking up the spondoolees. Maybe we, players, fans, club need to give a bit more - forgive a bit more.. maybe then we'll fluke our way to trophies, last minute winners, comeback wins against Messi... but in the meantime we'll always have goalless Tony, Pointing Pip, Shagged out Marouane, Managers who don't sign new contracts.. players who we think are "one of us" doing the dirty and sodding off to Spurs (oh, hang on, no, sitting on his backside for 4 months and going to Chelsea instead).

It would also help if we had a board with a spine - not one concentrating on winning Hospitality of the Year Awards for the Premier League - one that appointed KNOWN WINNERS as managers because, let's be honest, prior to Carlo, EVERY SINGLE APPOINTMENT HAS BEEN A GAMBLE (of which you could only argue Kendall (once), Catterick and maybe Moyes, to a degree, worked). Ian Buchan anyone?

It's so much fun supporting the least successful side in the Football Pyramid - the one side that hasn't won a single title, promotion, play-off final, cup or anything in the past 26 years. No matter how high the Premier League seems from the outfields of Rochdale and Swindon there's always Everton to laugh about - the team with no midfield general capable of coming close to Alan Ball, the team unable to dominate relegated teams, self-inflicting wound after wound, unable to beat a good side away from home*, incapable of avoiding a cup embarrassment at home to Tranmere or York or Bristol Rovers.

And only capable of midtable mediocrity and the odd fleeting glance at the top four or the bottom three..

And unable to keep possession, or pass it forward or even care too much.

Two and a half hours in the life of an Everton fan - from 1 Alisson to 14 Asshats in Blue.

And, what is Carlo doing about it? Well winning a 2nd half at Goodison would be a good start - 2 goals in the last 15 games in the 2nd half, both of those cancelled out (Spurs, Palace) suggests he can't get a tune out of these layabouts. And we haven't won a match in the 2nd half at home since his first match (vs Burnley, December 2019)

* unless they are at rock-bottom (Man U 2013, Liverpool, Arsenal 2021)

Great Post

 

[Lanolin]

There's definitely a bit of when we play away we go for a bespoke strategy and playing at home he tries to operate with more freedom and it just falls down. That is on the manager too, and he should have operated wth the away approach in all games this season.

One thing I will say though, is that I do think there's a fair bit of luck invovled in our away results. We have played well at Leeds for a half, and United for a half. I thought we managed the derby game very well and were value for a win. But there's not too many outstanding performances. At times we just happened to get the 1st goal and defend well. At home we have not got the 1st goal and have looked similarly clueless.

Essentially, if we get the 1st goal we are ok, but if we don't we are finished. Through coincidence we have got the 1st goal quite often away and not at home. I'm not sure this is so much a home V away thing, but more of this is actually quite a poor team who have got a bit lucky thing.

Oh that's definitely the case, no doubt about it. I used to say this when people used to go on about mentality - again - under Silva because they never came from behind to win. It's very simply because they don't score enough goals. People acted like the only reason we couldn't come from behind to win was because we had a poor attitude or didn't have a winning mentality, and just ignored the thing that was staring them in the face - the more goals we needed to score to win the game, the less likely we were to do it. It didn't matter if we conceded first or not, our chances of winning diminished massively when we conceded a goal because we found it very difficult to score. The same applies now, people saying they knew we wouldn't come back on sunday because of attitude, as if the fact we've only scored more than one goal once in our last thirteen games isn't the more pertinent point. The gymnastics people will do to put everything down to attitude and mentality never ceases to amaze me.

 

[catcherintherye]

Oh that's definitely the case, no doubt about it. I used to say this when people used to go on about mentality - again - under Silva because they never came from behind to win. It's very simply because they don't score enough goals. People acted like the only reason we couldn't come from behind to win was because we had a poor attitude or didn't have a winning mentality, and just ignored the thing that was staring them in the face - the more goals we needed to score to win the game, the less likely we were to do it. It didn't matter if we conceded first or not, our chances of winning diminished massively when we conceded a goal because we found it very difficult to score. The same applies now, people saying they knew we wouldn't come back on sunday because of attitude, as if the fact we've only scored more than one goal once in our last thirteen games isn't the more pertinent point. The gymnastics people will do to put everything down to attitude and mentality never ceases to amaze me.

Yes I think thats a decent point. In general it's a bit of an Evertonian thing I think as well. A mixture of golden age thinking (when we were successful) tied in to the dogs of war memories where we outfought teams probably leads us to view things purely through the vantage point that it's about attitude. For the most part it's about ability.

On Sunday I looked at a team with a midfield containing 3 lads who are over 30 across it's 4 positions. It also had a right back who is 33 playing in that role before that. We just can't sustain pressureand when we try too we look really ragged, with far too big a gap between the defence, midfield and attack. It's amplified by Michael Keane, who is not comfortable pushing the defensive line forward. So we can't up the tempo at all. I've said this a few times about Sigurdsson, it's not that he won't do certain things, it's that he can't. When he was in his mid 20's he wasn't a particularly effective mover, now he's 31 you're just not going to get that from him.

The counter to all that, is with the experience they have had when leading in games they actually take up pretty smart defensive positions and the shape is often very good. Ancelotti's defensive shape work in away games is actually quite complex and does seem to bamboozle teams.

The other thing that gets thrown is a lack of creativity. The midfield had Sigurdsson and James in it. You had DCL and Richarlison up front. In theory it should have enough creativity, but of late DCL and Richarlison have not been good enough.

 

[Terrarian]

Sports psychology is an actual thing, attitude or lack of it is an actual thing, motivation heart and desire are an actual thing mentality and how you prepare and focus on a game is a real thing.

Bit weird to think these things don't have any effect on a game really. Sports psychologists are more prevalent than ever. Our own Captain, manager and GK have mentioned attitude and mentality.

 

[Lanolin]

Sports psychology is an actual thing, attitude or lack of it is an actual thing, motivation heart and desire are an actual thing mentality and how you prepare and focus on a game is a real thing.

Bit weird to think these things don't have any effect on a game really. Sports psychologists are more prevalent than ever. Our own Captain, manager and GK have mentioned attitude and mentality.

Oh of course they're real things, but not usually in the sense that fans talk about it (he didn't cover every blade of grass and make bone crunching tackles THE MASSIVE FRAUD) and they're rarely the main differentiator in results.

 

[Terrarian]

Oh of course they're real things, but not usually in the sense that fans talk about it (he didn't cover every blade of grass and make bone crunching tackles THE MASSIVE FRAUD) and they're rarely the main differentiator in results.

Oh yeah hyperbolic shouts will always overcloud a posters judgement in the heat of defeat lol

 

[RomanReigns]

you can pick 5 games or so in the past few years where we have played unbelievably well because our attitude was positive from the outset and I include the anfield win amongst them but why do they only turn up once every 15-20 games. They don’t have the mentality of winners.

 

[diggerdestroyer]

you can pick 5 games or so in the past few years where we have played unbelievably well because our attitude was positive from the outset and I include the anfield win amongst them but why do they only turn up once every 15-20 games. They don’t have the mentality of winners.

The whistle blew and seamus colman went flying around like a mad man. Not possible or sensible to do it every match but it's set a marker mentally.

Sports psychology is a huge part if sport. All different aspects if it. Some of it simple some much more complex.

From the outside we do not seem to be able to use it to an advantage for last 5 years.

 

[americanblue94]

All down to Social Media. The great parasite in football. These players care more about how they look for their followers on instagram than how they perform at their job which made them millions.

 

[PaddyJames]

Huge window coming up. Massive.

 

[brieverton]

The whistle blew and seamus colman went flying around like a mad man. Not possible or sensible to do it every match but it's set a marker mentally.

Sports psychology is a huge part if sport. All different aspects if it. Some of it simple some much more complex.

From the outside we do not seem to be able to use it to an advantage for last 5 years.

I assume we have a sports psychologist either full-time or on a retainer.

Moyes used to have one, he was another Scot if I recall correctly.

I fully agree with the idea that your mentality is shaped by the perception of your own ability and that of your ability vs. your opponent (true for the whole team as for individuals) but allowing for that, there still seems to be something fundamentally wrong.

It's like for several years running, we have conspired to have an unfortunate mix of the most brittle individuals who are at the same token (for many of them) unsuited to the roles they are being asked to perform, be in positionally, tactically, or in terms of physical attributes like strength and pace. What a mess.

If we have a psychologist, whatever they're doing isn't half effective enough.

I don't think difficult conversations are being had, for fear of splits developing and making a bad situation worse.

 

[ToffeeDan]

Everton to play Lewis' Counter Assistants in pre-season friendly in revival of famous Monty Python Sketch.

Both sets of players to stand around half-assed - Everton pass it amongst themselves whilst the ladies with the overalls on chew gum, talk amongst themselves and file their nails whilst admiring the physique of Dominic Calvert Lewin..

 

[diggerdestroyer]

I assume we have a sports psychologist either full-time or on a retainer.

Moyes used to have one, he was another Scot if I recall correctly.

I fully agree with the idea that your mentality is shaped by the perception of your own ability and that of your ability vs. your opponent (true for the whole team as for individuals) but allowing for that, there still seems to be something fundamentally wrong.

It's like for several years running, we have conspired to have an unfortunate mix of the most brittle individuals who are at the same token (for many of them) unsuited to the roles they are being asked to perform, be in positionally, tactically, or in terms of physical attributes like strength and pace. What a mess.

If we have a psychologist, whatever they're doing isn't half effective enough.

I don't think difficult conversations are being had, for fear of splits developing and making a bad situation worse.

You would be hoping with professional expertise they know what they are doing. But I would reckon you are correct. These conversations are not happening.

Didnt carlo find out from iwobis twitter he doesn't like playing out wide. Couldn't make it up.

 

[davek]

 

[granter79]

You are not wrong Dave. Had have shown up in 2 more games we would be sitting pretty with a free hit sunday . All a little too late for me.