JLW
Player Valuation: £60m
I like most of his interviews, it would be nice if he could just give us a performance and result.
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Good post, well put together argument.
But, the original point comes back to these players simply not been up to task.
These are players that Martinez brought in, Moyes brought in and, also - to a much lesser extent (simply as they haven't been here as long) - two of the Koeman additions (Stek and probs Valencia).
They're a bunch of bottlers. It doesn't get away from the fact Koeman's made mistake but the squad is saturated with crap to average players who all seem to play the same position.
Give him time to get his own players in. He maybe isn't making the very best out of this squad, though actually on paper I'd say we're the 7th-10th best place in this league. It isn't good enough and needs improving/
Total over-reaction though. You can't spout NSNO, but in the same breath want a manager who has been here 15 games sacked because he "can't motivate" a bunch of players that three successive managers have struggled to get a winning tune out of, and in total a club that hasn't won a thing in 21 years.
After three years of Martinez telling the world this squad is title material, the realism of somebody saying we aren't is now hurting people? If the players are so mentally fragile that they're effected by it, then it just goes back to prove my point as well...
Watford was the first time I was baffled by his selection.
But he talks sense. Which is a nice break from the nonsense.
He isn't getting the sack because we're in ninth. Anybody who thinks otherwise is deluded (and I know me and @Tree13 joked about it) but yeh, bloody entitled as well.
If we're in a stick later in the season and he's brought players in, maybe he would go.
But for the time being get behind the new manager and just look at the bigger picture (not directed at you this btw, but in general).
On average we play 5 Moyes signings, 2 Martinez signings and 4 Koeman signings in games, the fact that the last manager bought so badly that we are using players that a manager currently on his 3rd club after leaving us speaks volumes.
I only wish it was after 15games that people demanded he be sacked, the majority of the bed wetters wanted him sacked after 7 games.
Every football fan in the country is entitled. And that's because every fan feels their team is the most important. What we have here is impatience and cynicism. Promised massive improvement and given regression and what appears now to be terminal decline.
It's pathetic Goat.
Nobody is happy with how we've been playing. We all know that.
But they're angst isn't having any effect on the people that matter.
He'll get given the time in the January window, and the backing. If he doesn't get the backing, we could be in trouble, because this team died a long time ago.
Ronald Koeman’s frustrations with Everton’s dismal run of form have been laid bare, with the manager admitting his squad is unbalanced and needs to improve physically and mentally.
Everton host Arsenal in the Premier League on Tuesday having won one of their past 11 games in all competitions. Koeman conceded that sequence means he and his players are underperforming, with the 3-2 defeat at Watford last Saturday their fifth loss in six away games and increasing criticism of the manager lured from Southampton in the summer on a contract of £6m per annum. “I know most of the opinions,” he said. “If I am an Evertonian, and I am, I am also disappointed. We won’t win every game but one in 10 is underperforming by everybody, including me.”
Koeman was in feisty and confrontational form at his pre-match press conference on Monday, when he insisted Everton’s problems require an immediate solution and could not wait for the January transfer window. His frustration was apparent as he diagnosed the weaknesses in the Everton squad.
“The problem is now, we have to solve the problem now and we will see if we will fix it,” he said. “We need more balance in the team between individual qualities, football qualities and also physically and mentally. That is what we need to fix but that is not done in one day.
“What does it help if I talk about January or I talk about the summer? What helps the problem right now? That is trying to get the balance of the 11 that start. That is what I need to fix. If I don’t fix it, then you can criticise. No problem.”
Despite calling for more productivity from his forwards repeatedly this season, telling Ross Barkley he needs to improve “in all aspects” and questioning Romelu Lukaku’s adaptation to a pressing game, Koeman claimed: “I don’t criticise my team. I protect my players. We need all the players. What you think? That I am criticising all my players? I criticise them now when they need to start tomorrow?”
Koeman was asked whether he had inherited a mediocre squad from Roberto Martínez, one that finished 11th for the past two seasons, or was failing to get the most out of his players? “I don’t talk about the past. I don’t talk about the past. We need to deal with what the situation is now,” he replied.
Was his message not getting across in that case? “You don’t resolve a problem in two weeks,” he said. “You think they don’t listen to the manager?”
But it is one win in 10 Premier League games? “OK, I understand, but I don’t understand you,” Koeman added.
The Everton manager described in detail his team’s failings at Watford, where he believes a lack of physicality contributed to conceding two set-piece goals and another worrying defeat. “First of all, you must understand that, in the Premier League, physicality is an important factor,” he said.
“It doesn’t start with quality on the ball and these kind of teams are different to ours. Or course we can do more, we need to do more, we need more aggression, I agree, but we have different players to Watford or Burnley or others.
“Every team who doesn’t have that physicality will struggle. The best example I can give you is Manchester City. I don’t compare Everton to Manchester City but Everton is selected on the qualities of the players and not about the physicality of the players. That’s the way of football, that’s why we struggle against these kind of teams. It’s because if we have set plays we have [Ramiro] Funes Mori, we have [Ashley] Williams – two defensive headers. We had [Gareth] Barry and [Séamus] Coleman against two strong headers of our opponent [at Watford], so always we will have difficulties defending set plays.
“They got three goals and if you analyse them it’s not about football. The first is a long ball from the centre-back, a fight, a header, second ball, cross and goal. That’s difficult for us, that type of football. I understood the coach of Watford thought his team played like Barcelona on Saturday but I totally disagree. If you analyse the game, in my opinion, that’s why we struggle.
“Of course on the ball we need to be more comfortable, but that’s confidence. I have a Dutch goalkeeper [Maarten Stekelenburg] who has played virtually all his life in Holland and is used to playing it short but now he kicks every one away because maybe he is nervous. And there was a lot of space – that’s the difficulty at the moment. I agree we can do more as a team, more to win second balls, but that is not done in one week. We can talk about January and the summer but the problem is now and we need to solve it.”
Okay then, that's a better way of phrasing it Tim. Agree there.
I get the cynicism - totally. It's hard not to be cynical with Everton.
The impatience, I don't get.
Take a bow my son.
Post of the year
Rant of the century
Not sure of the century but we should have an award for rant of the week and that definitely gets this weeks!
Although like any manager he bought some duds I think Martinez first 3 loan to buy signings (Lukaku, Deulofeu and Barry) were excellent
JLW
Player Valuation: £60m
I think he sees what we all see, but seems to do nothing about it on it matchdays. I think that's were my weekly optimism comes from (his interviews) its time to get some fans back on side and put in a performance.
I hope he starts with Valencia and Lukaku tonight.
Steve Walsh signed them mate.
They were. I though RM's transfer policy (for what he wanted) was good.
But that's the point Koeman makes, and it's what me and Goat and others have been saying.
Martinez left a squad that was highly saturated in certain areas, very weak in others, but not based around any physicality. It was all little players really - because that's how Bobby wanted to play.
Compare the size of our team to Spurs, as an example. Okay, now compare it to Liverpool - those players play with pace and energy, something that ours lack after three years of 'water-carrying'.
But ok, Koeman tried to address that by bringing in energy (Gueye), pace/power for the front (Bolasie) and strength at the back (Williams). He wanted to add more 'legs' up top - so we went for Gabbiadini, who does actually do that very well. He also went for Sissoko (after Witsel pied us) - to add some power to a midfield that relies on Cleverley as back-up.
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