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2019/20 Gylfi Sigurdsson

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Neiler said:
I think you cant be to dogmatic around a system mate, we will have to vary it and have players who can vary it at certain point. 4-4-2 is the accepted popular narrative but if you actually look at it Carlo vaires it during a game at times. In the modern PL you cant just go with one system, its cottoned onto fairly quick after initial success and teams set up accordingly, having a plan B and C is important and Gylfi enables a different dimension being able to playing behind a striker.
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my main worry is, even before ancelotti, he didn't exactly thrive. He was good last season and i've said all along, he was the player we always needed when lukaku was here, and now it's vice versa. As good as calvert-lewin has been, a lukaku and siggurdsson combination would have been pretty lethal. But it goes back to my point in that, are his wages too high to be used as a plan b, plan c option? My biggest concern is how he's nowhere near as effective as he was when i've seen him at swansea, with worse players.
 
toffeejack said:
my main worry is, even before ancelotti, he didn't exactly thrive. He was good last season and i've said all along, he was the player we always needed when lukaku was here, and now it's vice versa. As good as calvert-lewin has been, a lukaku and siggurdsson combination would have been pretty lethal. But it goes back to my point in that, are his wages too high to be used as a plan b, plan c option? My biggest concern is how he's nowhere near as effective as he was when i've seen him at swansea, with worse players.
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I think if you have ambitions you have to accommodate players like Gylfi and Bernard. City have Silva and Mahrez, you will come up against a stubborn defense and you need someone who will create a rate of chances, vary options or pull something out of the back from 40 yards. Whether its Gylf and or another you need those type of players in a squad, if you were loosing Gylfi you would be looking at players like Madisson, Willian or Grealish to come in. So is it cheaper to honor the contract and pay him or to splurge a big transfer fee and same wage, probably the former and try and coach value out of him.

Id like to see what he could do in a team with where the midfield is plugged and he has Carlo all season and there is consistency behind the scenes. We haven't gotten the best out of him, i also saw what he could do at Swansea - he was a one man force of nature and kept them up two seasons. Is that his fault or ours? Personally the club has been a basket case for three years - 7 managers, in 2 and half seasons, huge player turnover, key injuries to the players around him and i think all of that has a direct impact, we know hes a good player, we know he can do it in the PL and the international stage, the problem may not be him it may be us and the environment we have brought him into - it hasnt been great.

He has another two years on his contract, id personally give him next year and then we are at a tipping point. Its probably going to be a difficult market this sell this summer to or to realise a return on an asset.
 
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I wasn’t the only one that said we should have walked away when it was clear that Swansea were rinsing us. Nobody else even wanted him! But we were so scared of not making an ‘impact signing’ that they knew we wouldn’t walk away.

I think we may (not definitely) have walked away from our desire to sign Zaha last summer, as the price was too high. The problem was that it left us scrambling around for no-marks on deadline day, and we ended up getting rinsed paying 25 million for Iwobi anyway, which was half the value that we were purportedly willing to pay for Zaha.

Both are unbelievably crap signings. Iwobi is slightly worse at the moment because Gylfi has actually made an impact at times, but he cost twice as much, so they are equally as bad.
 
Neiler said:
Its a funny one, i think he certainly earned his corn last year and made a massive contribution - full tilt that is the player i would keep and be looking to enable that form. When i look at Gyfli i see a quality player capable of returns. I look at the squad and i see Sandro, Tosun, Martina, Niasse, Bolaise, lads who will never meet the quality threshold, i dont think that is true of Gylfi, i think in the right environment and context he is an asset to us.

So why hasnt it been like that- is the obvious question. Year 1, i think the environment was very unstable we had three managers in a year, all playing different systems with different objectives with as many no 10's. Year 2 he was fine and one of our best and most effective players, Year 3, as above i think we missed Gueye, we have a ramshackle midfield ravaged by injury and a big gaping hole through the central Chanel, there have been many different midfield combinations and no consistency there. He was asked to fill in deeper and that doesn't enable the key skills sets of his game. While playing at 10. i think he dropped deeper to compensate our poor combinations in central midfield, while we were also in poor form from an attacking point of view, we also had three different managers in a season. Hes had 7 managers in 2 and half seasons, here, the environment has been unstable and lacked any continuity and consistency.

I do sometimes wonder is Gylfi one of those players you have to make the focal point of your team to see his best, like at Swansea, but at his best with us with a consistent manger he made a key contribution in a collective team effort, so he can do it.

I think he has a role to play here, at his very best he has made a key - contribution - that was under 1 manager all year, in his other two years he has another six managers and the context in terms of bad injuries around him and consistently in management has been really bad. I think in a stable environment and the gaps plugged aorund him, i think he has a role to play and i would be keen not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Actually the more i think of it the more unlucky i think he has been.
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He's a player bought for Koemans's initial plan...he wanted him on the left as he did for Swansea the previous year. Didn't work.

Silva played with him as number 10 and tweaked the system, got a tune out of him for 1 season.

Carlo...plays 4.4.2.

He's not a bad player, but he is a luxury one, an expensive one at that. He's also not good enough to build a team around which seems to be how you get the best out of him.
 
Will never fit in with a 442. You need a harrying defensive machine and a box to box midfielder who can play a bit. He can’t even nearly do any of that
 

If you play 4-4-2 all season lads, you are goosed you have to be able to vary it and or hybrid it during games - we do at the moment.

We dont even know if that will be a/the dominant system going on. Lets be honest Carlo came in had to do something with the players available and picked that system to get results, going on from what Duncan did, he chose to follow on and continue to go direct with what he had available. He may sign others, try different systems etc. I wouldn't get to focused on 4-4-2 as a panacea - it has a timeline, Chelsea tore us to shreds in our last game and 4-4-2 clearly wasn't the right system, teams learn and adjust therefore you have to vary and you need a squad of players who can offer a different dimension and enable a different system for that to happen.
 
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Hell of a player on his day...when's the last time you saw anyone in an Everton top pull off something like he did at Leicester?

Sadly, it's just not quite often enough...not 100% convinced it's his fault, though.
 
kenada_blue said:
He's a player bought for Koemans's initial plan...he wanted him on the left as he did for Swansea the previous year. Didn't work.

Silva played with him as number 10 and tweaked the system, got a tune out of him for 1 season.

Carlo...plays 4.4.2.

He's not a bad player, but he is a luxury one, an expensive one at that. He's also not good enough to build a team around which seems to be how you get the best out of him.
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He didn't touch the ball for 17minutes whilst wearing the captain armband against Liverpool. I mean, maybe he's not a bad player but he certainly isn't a good one.
 

Yeah no doubt his form has fallen off a cliff this season.

Can't see him finding a spot in this side going forward. Shame for me as he was top balls last season.

Good luck to him.
 

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