Roberto Martinez discussion

[Khalekan]

Of course, Chelsea and Arsenal (2 of the best teams in the league) have had problems beating teams who park the bus. All teams struggle to break teams down who do that, it's not unique to us.

So lets not act as though all out problems last season came simply from being unable to break down stubborn well organised defenses. There were numerous other reasons why we were often poor, a lot of them from our own making rather than the oppositions.

Better players will help, thats undisputed. But it's no good signing better players to break down stubborn parked buses if your new players stand and watch as the defense pass it about among themselves or get instructed to pass backwards every time they come up against an opposition player.

Hello?

That is rather a long winded way of agreeing with what I say about our travails agsinst the Stokes, Leicesters, Hulls or Baggies last season.

No matter about any other team, Everton, the under discussion, have struggled against teams which defend in numbers.

It may be a statement of the obvious but it is one you obviously agree with given your rant about the manager's tactic of having the defence pass "among themselves" or "pass backwards".

 

[Seamus Colemole]

Hello?

That is rather a long winded way of agreeing with what I say about our travails agsinst the Stokes, Leicesters, Hulls or Baggies last season.

No matter about any other team, Everton, the under discussion, have struggled against teams which defend in numbers.

It may be a statement of the obvious but it is one you obviously agree with given your rant about the manager's tactic of having the defence pass "among themselves" or "pass backwards".

Well i'm not disagreeing that we've often struggled against team who park the bus obviously. I'm just saying that it's not simply becasue of their tactics, often more so to do with our tactics.

Would we do better by having better players? Sure. But even teams with better players than us sometimes struggle to break down teams who park the bus.

Therefor we need to be smarter in how we play against those teams. Sometimes no matter what you do it just doesn't come off, thats football. But you stand a hell of a lot less chance of breaking down teams who park the bus if you don't use the right tactics.

You do realise that amounts to about 30 less passes dont you?

Lol.

So yeah, we played less passes in the game we won than we did in the game we lost.

Thanks. Amazing how often that happens.

 

[Tubey]

Well i'm not disagreeing that we've often struggled against team who park the bus obviously. I'm just saying that it's not simply becasue of their tactics, often more so to do with our tactics.

Would we do better by having better players? Sure. But even teams with better players than us sometimes struggle to break down teams who park the bus.

Therefor we need to be smarter in how we play against those teams. Sometimes no matter what you do it just doesn't come off, thats football. But you stand a hell of a lot less chance of breaking down teams who park the bus if you don't use the right tactics.

I think it's a lazy excuse to say we can't beat sides who sit back because we don't have the personnel to do so.

What we lack is the nous to move teams around. We just let them sit in shape and pass sideways slowly, so they defend with ridiculous ease.

It's all about tempo and confidence, and not thinking possession is king no matter what.

 

[Seamus Colemole]

I think it's a lazy excuse to say we can't beat sides who sit back because we don't have the personnel to do so.

What we lack is the nous to move teams around. We just let them sit in shape and pass sideways slowly, so they defend with ridiculous ease.

It's all about tempo and confidence, and not thinking possession is king no matter what.

I think it's a bit of both.

But yeah, i made an issue of it in the first place because i thought someone was trying to say all our problems last season came from teams parking the bus, which is just a lazy excuse.

It's just part of the problem (and not unique to just last season either, we've struggled for years, as do most teams).

 

[Lukaku'sLeftTesticle]

Teams play against us: we have a great chance. Teams choose to park the bus: we'll struggle without signings that can take care of that problem.

Simple.

No its not as simple as that. It plays a large part sure but the change in shape today allowed a couple of very significant things to happen.

1) Lukaku could peel off defenders and play on shoulders because Kone was doing his usual job of receiving it in to feet
2) Midfield runners bursting beyond both Kone and Rom! Even Mcarthy was making runs beyond stretching the defence after knocking it in to Kone or whoever. This is the difference between defences being able to comfortably sit watching us play it ponderously side to side and constantly guessing if they need to be closing space or going with the forward runners

 

[The Esk]

What was evident today is that players on the ball had options ahead of them. Makes the game much simpler when this happens.

 

[nsno-chris]

It's amazing how different the game looks when you have movement in front you, people running into space to pull defenders out of position then other players trying to run into that space.

As I've said numerous times, the possession football is best saved for when we are 2 up. We can the wizz the ball about and create more chances as the opposition are chasing the game

 

[davek]

It's amazing how different the game looks when you have movement in front you, people running into space to pull defenders out of position then other players trying to run into that space.

As I've said numerous times, the possession football is best saved for when we are 2 up. We can the wizz the ball about and create more chances as the opposition are chasing the game

It's amazing what happens when you have a defence that keeps awake and alive to danger for once.

We were under the cosh a bit before we scored. We needed to see off that spell and it's telling that we scored from THEIR corner after competing for it well.

 

[Aar_the_Toffees]

Well he certainly got it right today with selection and tactics.

Best performance since beating Arsenal 3-0 at Goodison in April 2014?

I'd say it's on par with Wolfsburg away.

Perfect away performances. Granted we rode our luck early on against Wolfsburg.

United at home was pretty good.

 

[Spadge Vernacular]

Brilliant when we're away from home mate, a lot of teams will sit back against us at Goodison though.

We should just sit back against them too and have a massive sit off.

 

[Aar_the_Toffees]

What was evident today is that players on the ball had options ahead of them. Makes the game much simpler when this happens.

And credit to our players we took more risks (Ross's pass on the second goal). Something we lacked last season.

 

[nsno-chris]

It's amazing what happens when you have a defence that keeps awake and alive to danger for once.

We were under the cosh a bit before we scored. We needed to see off that spell and it's telling that we scored from THEIR corner after competing for it well.

I know we did; take it you didn't read the part about movement then. It's how we managed to score, with a lot of off the ball running

 

[Woolly Blue]

Great result today, but he still has a lot to prove.

If he could just admit that defensive organisation isn't his thing, acknowledge it's important and delegate that to someone who knows what they're doing in that area, then we could really get the best out of this squad.

 

[davek]

Great result today, but he still has a lot to prove.

If he could just admit that defensive organisation isn't his thing, acknowledge it's important and delegate that to someone who knows what they're doing in that area, then we could really get the best out of this squad.

What does he have to "prove"?

He's not an ale house team manager.

 

[mkrudden]

Teams play against us: we have a great chance. Teams choose to park the bus: we'll struggle without signings that can take care of that problem.

Simple.

This, 100%.