grandjoeblue
Player Valuation: £35m
Brilliant, when we finish about 10th again we can talk about our much improved squad compared to the squad that finished 8th.
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A far better 11, but not a whole lot of depth there. Squad depth is killing us this year.
The problem is the lack of legs in the squad. He hasn't signed pace or athleticism and that's not the way the premier league is going. We can't afford to sign even one more slow or pedestrian player. We also have Allan, Doucoure, James, Sigurddson etc so the signings need to be in the u27 bracket moving forward. We went for instant improvement this year and I get that, but it isn't working so we need to be more pragmatic.
There are some clear improvements there, definitely. It's not all totally clear cut though. I'd probably take Lookman over Bernard, Vlasic over Gomes, Gana over Gbamin and there's virtually no difference between Iwobi and Walcott, Delph and McCarthy, King and Tosun etc. He's done some good stuff, it would be daft not to acknowledge that, but i'm not sure it's been quite the improvement that some people paint it as if i'm honest.
Gilbert..
Player Valuation: £50m
Should collect his P45 for iwobi alone.
That should still set alarm bells ringing for every Evertonian that he thought that was a good deal. Ok you can make mistakes we all do. But that one. THAT one. I can still remember the hours leading up to that transfer, sitting there thinking WTF are you doing.
Well the squad isn't at a similar level, is it?
It's marginally better in practice - Lanolin sums it up for me pretty much above.
Strangely, although largely poor players, the loss of Walcott, Lennon and Lookman means we're far slower in attack and that lack of pace alone hurts us more than the benefits the quality increase has brought us.
But you said on paper we have a 'vastly superior team' now. Which one is it? Similar level or vastly superior?
It's vastly superior on paper, marginally better in practice.
It just means less work needs doing now than did in 17/18 to get us to an acceptable level. We need to add 4/5 players instead of 7/8.
So Brands has made progress, just not as much as you'd hope.
grandjoeblue
Player Valuation: £35m
On paper doesn't mean a thing without the results?
That’s not true at all, because even with those 3 playing games, we never hit anyone with pace.
Walcott and lookman may have been rapid but there was no end ball, so it becomes pointless.
I agree (hence 'largely poor players') but it had teams have to at least worry about being stretched by pace. They don't anymore, so teams like Fulham and West Ham can press us with impunity.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
I think what is odd about it though, was that Unsworth was promoted to that title, at around the same time Brands was supposedly getting involved in the academy. I mean it may all be a coincidence. It seems unusual to me though. My feeling, with various wider noises at the club though, is there isn't complete unity at the top.
But you never said the squad is playing at a similar level to 2017/18 you said the squad is at a similar level to 2017/18 which it really, really isn't.
Teams were wary of pressing high against us when Walcott played. He was very good at penning teams back, unfortunately his finishing and final ball were terrible. I do think he would have helped in certain games this season though, because we need to be able to sustain attacks better.
I remember a lot of teams coming to Goodison and pressing us and beating us, including Bournemouth last year.
Having a speed merchant on the wing is not the problem here; it lies right across the middle of the park when the 3 midfielders decide that they can’t be arsed pressuring.
Bar Man City, all those defeats have been down to the opposition having the freedom of the middle of the park, and passing through us like a hot knife through butter
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