Great point based on actual facts here as opposed to agenda-driven conjecture.
It's just what I saw...one glaring fact is Rom had
5 times more goals than anyone else in the squad and we still managed to get Europe. Why anyone would be content with not wanting to see what we could achieve if he had some legitimate help up top, astounds me.
The guy's not perfect (nah, really?). I'm continually amazed at how shoddy he is with headers (to the point I wonder if his depth perception is whacked out) and his first touch takes two, or none at all, because it pings off him. Wayne's been the only young player with us, that I've seen in my time, that I thought was complete pretty much straight out of the box but he was a generational anomaly. Personally, I think Rom went through most of his early career being able to just smash through or around anyone that he was up against and it was just too easy to hold off defenders half his size and with little experience to do something about it so he never really had to try and seriously develop that part of his game until about 5 years ago. Whether that's true or not I don't know but it's not hard to imagine and the only way I can make sense of why he's lagging in certain areas. He also played just about every minute of every match, so I can understand why Koeman didn't get on him harder for not harassing defenders more (he mentioned it a few times but didn't labour on it...quite a few times he just alluded to it) because of the simple fact we needed him to last the whole season if we were going to have a shot at a European place. Guys his size aren't typically known for their boundless energy and, no matter how fit you are, being up top on your own and trying to get something out of essentially doing the headless chicken routine because two or three defenders are taking the piss out of you because you're outnumbered, is energy sapping and demoralizing.
For me, the thing of it all is that he's the first striker we've had, in my 20+ years of enduring Everton, that I legitimately feel is going to score every time he's anywhere in the box and has any sort of time to shoot. That's a huge psychological advantage for him and us as a team. The problem is you can do a pretty decent job of nullifying that at the top level of football when you've got the full focus of their biggest defender and another covering, if he manages to get loose. Even then he can hurt you, as seen at Leicester away, but that can take just as much luck as skill to get something out of it when you're being marked like that.
We can all sit here and focus on what he needs to improve or we can take him for the type of player he is and make something out of it and, considering what could come out of it, I'm far from excited about him possibly not being here next season. There's a reason we won't accept pocket change if someone comes knocking, no matter what shortcomings he has. Why he has to say the *^$* he does when he's away is another matter. All he has to do is produce on the pitch. That'll get him what he wants in the end provided what he wants, wants him enough. We obviously do, as evidenced by the fee it'll take to get him...and for good reason.
Anyhow, this is pure TL;DR because it's 2:20 in the morning and I made the mistake of drinking a large iced Annihilator from Dutch Bros...up the Blues, damnit.
