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ForeverBlue92
Player Valuation: £80m
What I would say mate is to counter that they won a PL title and got to a Champions League Semi Final playing effective counter attack.
There is no one way of playing otherwise every top side would play a certain way yet City, Liverpool and Chelsea all play completely different styles.
MACCA75
Player Valuation: £70m
It’s more sustainable when you build a football club on playing possession football.
Plus, our counter attack is actually fairly rubbish. Even when DCL and Richarlison are fit, they never have linked up particularly well. Many of our goals last season were more based on set pieces - these have been awful all season.
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
Here's what we actually know about this manager so far, rather than assessing him on the moving around of the deckchairs on the Titanic, which is essentially the basis for your evaluation:
When he's had a full or near full compliment of first team players to choose from, he's got us wins; when that availability flies out the window, he can't get them.
Therefore, anyone sensible (not simply bloody-mindedly against Benitez) would draw the fair conclusion that he needs players back from injury AND the chance to add to the sqaud in order to be judged.
kenada_blue
Welcome to Barcelonaton FC
As @Tubey as already mentioned, we don't have the squad to cover a significant injury and completely missing how it changes our set up.
The RS never change their set up and have players that come in to continue it. You're also comparing the RS squad with ours which is silly.
I know they had injuries but their key long term one was VVD as it took them out of the title defence, not turning them a bad side.
From their CB issues, they had players back throughout the side to fill in the void to the system. Had enough in midfield to dominate games that having Rhys Williams and Nat Philips at CB could go to Old Trafford and win 4.2 for example.
Wijnaldum, Henderson, Keita, Fabinho, Milner all did the same job. Doucoure, Allan, Davies, Gomes, Delph, Gbamin are all completely different for us so when one of them gets injured, our system has to change to work.
If you're point is "Klopp gets more out of the players he has" the counter point is...Rafael is. They're just not good enough to replace injuries. Your "we have 3 strikers on the bench" arent on Doms level, Richy isn't Dom either so it changes the system. Davies isn't Doucoure.
Although given that most of our players are incapable of retaining the ball we’d need a considerable overhaul to play a possession based game.
kenada_blue
Welcome to Barcelonaton FC
It's like talking to crazy people.
People won't accept injuries effecting performances and want the manager out because he's not using our Under 23 squad as if that's the answer.
ForeverBlue92
Player Valuation: £80m
But as Martinez and Silva shown mate unless you have top players playing possession football isn't a guarantee of success.
You try out play Man City with Tom Davies and Allan trying to zip it around and see how far that gets us!
Personally I would cash in on Richarlison next summer when PSG lose Mbappe - get £80+ million and reinvest it in 3-4 good players who suit a counter attack system.
A Gana/Ndidi type ball winning CM alongside Doucoure
Solid RB
Commanding CB to partner Mina
Top quality player to replace Richy someone like Luis Diaz.
What we also know is that when he's lost his key midfielder who makes his preferred system work, he didn't change his preferred system even though there is no other player like that in the squad.
Since that point, we've played Watford (H), Wolves (A), Spurs (H) and City (A). We've got 1 point from 12, conceded 10 goals and scored 3.
It's just agenda driven nonsense. Quite clearly so.
And the sad thing is the one who I was replying to there is usually sensible, but he's coming out with that, purely because he's predefined a position.
As davek just said:
I don't know how anyone can disagree with this, but I'll add one more thing - it's been 12 league games. Twelve! And we're 11th! I'd understand this reaction a bit more if Benitez had been in place even a year and we were in the doldrums, I'd at least understand the frustration. But now?
Bloody hell.
FFS man nobody is asking for that
If you play like we did v Man City the other day then you need two things - an outlet (that was Gray at the start) and composure on the ball.
One was taken away by injury, the other we just don't have even if all of our players are fit, none of them are what I'd call composed in any sense, especially as Benitez wants the ball transitioned quickly.
As soon as Gray went off he had to change something. But he didn't. He tried the same system with a completely different player in Iwobi and we had nothing. Richarlison became useless as all we did was lump the odd ball up to him or we'd give it straight back to City. We had nobody to act as the outlet.
His options were limited but they weren't non-existent. He could have seen that, he should have planned for it - that's what you're meant to do. In fact, one of the only selling points for Benitez is supposedly he's a pragmatic manager. Well atm he's showing no pragmatism and just total stubbornness, mate.
Rondon would have been a better sub than Iwobi, because if he was insistent on putting Townsend central (I have no idea why because he's just not suited to it at all) then at least you can just lump aimless balls up to that waste of space, and instead have Richarlison on the left where he can maybe find some pockets of space?
He's supposed to spend day in, day out thinking about this, to come up with plans. Yet he hasn't. He hasn't even had the gumption to realise you can't replace Doucoure like for like.
It's dismal, absolutely dismal.
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
They're not crazy. They know what they're demanding is impossible to achieve with what we have.
They're single-minded and driven. It wont stop until Benitez is out the door.
This is a takedown. It's not about analysing what's gone wrong and what we need to do to fix it; it's about presenting everything as a crisis. Upcoming derby - a crisis; next run of games up to Christmas - a crisis if they keep Benitez; keep Benitez into the new year - the crisis of a relegation fight.
This isn't about football, it's about about what a handful of people demand to be the club's identity, because 'they feel it more than the rest of us'. In other words it's elitist and purist and their self-importance is nauseating to the vast majority of Evertonians.
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
You're not even listening are you?
Why not have played a midfield three of Allan, Davies and Delph/Gbamin at Wolves? When we'd just conceded 5 at home to Watford and he goes and starts a two in midfield with one of them being a lad who's not started a PL game in 2 years? You'd think the sensible, 'pragmatic' approach would be to sure things up, would you not? It's not even like he played Gordon to compensate for that midfield two, he played friggin Iwobi.
It's not hard is it, to try things at least? The bloke has been dealt a bad hand, I get it. It's not all his fault, and nothing at the club above him is. But 1 win in 9 is on him, he's the manager. He has to make the decisions, he has to come up with a plan. We knew Doucoure was out the day after West Ham, and he had a week to work on a plan and served up that s*** v Wolves.
He managed to patch it up to play Spurs but that was just two terribly out of form teams going up against each other. We nearly lost too. It wasn't a good performance at all, it was just slightly less crap than the one before it.
City - yeah, they were always going to beat us probably. But we played the same way v City as we did v West Ham and Wolves in the first half. Sat off in a shape, didn't pressurise the ball or have any idea what to do with it in attack when we had it, and for some reason he thinks that Richarlison is like DCL and is going to win loads of aereals.
I don't understand why it's one extreme to the other here? Not everything is on him but a fair bit is too.
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