Sam Allardyce

[granter79]

Classic Sam talking about relegation now so when we finish 15th he can say he kept us up after a shaky few games.

Worrying I don't see where the next point is coming from never mind the next 12 or 13

 

[MikeH72]

Nonsense.

The point is there is quality and experience throughout the side.

The point is, if you look at Everton's squad objectively - there's no chance you can consider it;



That is why despite being grim, we're 2 wins from our "magnificent 7th".

How? Name a top international player we have? Don't even bother saying Sigurdsson.

Oh great. We play Leicester and Arsenal next. All it takes is the 4 teams below us winning probably one game each in the next 3 weeks, for us to slip down to 13th. That's sound though.

 

[MikeH72]

Classic Sam talking about relegation now so when we finish 15th he can say he kept us up after a shaky few games.

Worrying I don't see where the next point is coming from never mind the next 12 or 13

Those two sentences contradict each other a bit.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

How? Name a top international player we have? Don't even bother saying Sigurdsson.

Oh great. We play Leicester and Arsenal next. All it takes is the 4 teams below us winning probably one game each in the next 3 weeks, for us to slip down to 13th. That's sound though.

We have a squad that's better than relegation to be fair

It's only 10th-7th calibre like, but that's better than the bottom three

If we start playing an actual left back and the other players start playing to their level, then relegation shouldn't be an issue

The problem is that they aren't doing that, hence why we're in the mess we're in

 

[evertonarntwe]

he knows what he's doing. he knows the fans are turning on him ( not that anyone with sense wanted him anyway ) so if he says were in a relegation fight and keeps us up he'll think he's done a boss job

 

[MikeH72]

We have a squad that's better than relegation to be fair

It's only 10th-7th calibre like, but that's better than the bottom three

If we start playing an actual left back and the other players start playing to their level, then relegation shouldn't be an issue

The problem is that they aren't doing that, hence why we're in the mess we're in

Well we're not as bad on paper as the promoted sides or Swansea, but as an actual functioning team, I'd argue we're no better than any of them at all. And this has actually been the case ALL season, despite what people want you to think.

 

[Kenshin]

To quote edin hazard todat

"Football is simple - keep the ball on the ground

So perhaps after signing so many players who play best with the ball on the ground perhaps recruiting one of the only managers who hoof it all game was a tad bit silly in hindsight?

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Well we're not as bad on paper as the promoted sides or Swansea, but as an actual functioning team, I'd argue we're no better than any of them at all. And this has actually been the case ALL season, despite what people want you to think.

Agreed, we've been crap since the City away game

 

[Kenshin]

he knows what he's doing. he knows the fans are turning on him ( not that anyone with sense wanted him anyway ) so if he says were in a relegation fight and keeps us up he'll think he's done a boss job

The thing is if we are back in a relegation fight it's because the team tactics are causing it. 4 points dropped to west Brom who have won one game in 22 now. Lack of attacking intent and then almost clueless attacking when we do means we are struggling to even score at the minute.

Funny thing is Sam keeps mentioning about working on all of this, where is it? Where's the evidence of it?

 

[chippy1722]

He took over in 12th position so anything below he needs to admit failure. He’s probably spent more in the past 3 weeks than he’s ever spent in a window at any club.

 

[smileychap]

We have to be a wee bit careful. This squad is in major transition, even as fans I think some of us (me, certainly) under-estimated that.

Jags, Baines, Rooney, perhaps even Sigs/Williams will not be here or offer a threat in this league within a season or two. That leaves our squad looking very thin, apart from some promising, if not deadly, youth players. 150m has gone, along with Romelu and Barkley. Coleman may not be immense for a while and now JM too.

I think a lot of manager transition will not help that. It was poor under Koeman, Unsy got us a few points (inc West Ham), but against Saints we did look like bottom 6 material. Sam's football is poor, I also think he doesn't have personnel to do it. I wasn't heart-broken to see him in as I thought he'll fix the defence, and Wayne, Oumar, Lookman, Sigs, Theo and Tosun will score us enough to stay up.

Three things have materialized, which make me agree that Sam might not be that man beyond the summer:

1. Never slam your players publicly.

He's started to alluding to his good start and the players not playing... that's a bad sign.

2. He looks uncomfortable

A few shots on telly grimacing and looking not 100%. Is he ill? Can he do the job with the right energy and commitment on the training ground. If we're to grind out clean sheets and 1-0's to season end this detail matters.

3. Confidence
We beat lower sides well enough during Nov/Dec. We've basically had a bad run against better sides. Without doing a 'mosh', only the Brom draws have been 'bad' results, as such - leaving aside style of play, effort, intent to attack etc, which as Everton we expect. I think not pressing in these games has set the team back, the FA cup was the only game we had a real go, for me.

We have Leicester and Arsenal who are both decent, we then have 4-5 very winnable games. 9 points from that lot and we can begin to look to the summer. We have some quality, we have youth - we should then be a very attractive proposition to an aspiring manager. And Sam may leave.

If we're well under that tally then I think it's back to the walls and would be wary about who could give us a lift in 8-9 games or whatever's left. Silva??!!

 

[bluestevon]

How? Name a top international player we have? Don't even bother saying Sigurdsson.

Oh great. We play Leicester and Arsenal next. All it takes is the 4 teams below us winning probably one game each in the next 3 weeks, for us to slip down to 13th. That's sound though.

Turkeys starting striker
Wales captain
Iceland captain (same Iceland who knocked out England in the euros and qualified for the world cup)
England cb
Rep of Ireland captain and best player
Dutch cm
Englands possible number 1 keeper for the world cup
Starting Argentinian cb

so you think it is fine for an Everton manager with his team sat in 9th, closer to the European spots to the relegation ones, to publicly state the team has no confidence and he is worried we are going to slip into a relegation fight?

and to publicly state he cannot play the teams record ever signing and the teams highest ever earner in the same side becuase they are both too slow and cant cover ground?

 

[Ihaters]

We have to be a wee bit careful. This squad is in major transition, even as fans I think some of us (me, certainly) under-estimated that.

Jags, Baines, Rooney, perhaps even Sigs/Williams will not be here or offer a threat in this league within a season or two.

I think your a season or too late on that analysis mate.

 

[Steve Wigan]

We did not strengthen at all. We added players which is a bit different. Replacing Lukaku with...well, nobody, is not strengthening. Nor is replacing a useful player in Barkley with 3 players who perform the same role and to a lesser degree.

We have too many similar players and no out ball. Lukaku and Barkley gave us that to an extent. Also we miss Coleman massively, they were probably our 3 best players and we have had none of them.

Realistically we have upgraded the goalkeeper. Everything else has got worse due to poor squad balance.

I think with Bolassie back and available, and with the key signing of WAlcott and possibly Cenk, and with Coleman on the mend, we have numerous 'out' balls. The tide will turn over the next month. I despair of our so called supporters sometimes, don't you?

 

[COYBL25]

Yeah I think, as some of you have pointed out, at this point it simply must be down to the coaching.

The managerial revolving door clearly hasn't helped matters and professional footballers should be capable of passing a ball forward to a teammate regardless, but it's clear that between the utter mess that was the summer and the frequency of the games eliciting constant rotation has meant that, even at this late stage, the players just simply aren't on the same page. They don't know what they should be doing from week to week.

It's not going to improve much at all between now and May and we simply need to accept that, as depressing as it is.

Sam Allardyce, to his credit, at least got us defending when he first came in and he credited that specifically to drilling the defence in training. That right there is a good indication of how important coaching & drilling players into a routine helps when it comes to working together to perform their tasks. The trouble is, we have a large group of different types of players and Allardyce's coaching methods weren't going to translate well to all of them, hence why our front players are still struggling to form any sort of cohesion between them. He's admitted that he briefly relinquished the defensive drills to concentrate more on our attacking play.. but he's practically admitted now that he's failed based on this recent run of poor form.

What we need in the summer is a top coach with his own backroom staff that are capable of coaching all areas well and that every player gets on board with it. There needs to be a clear way of playing that the manager wants to adopt and it needs to be drilled relentlessly into every player from the very start of the summer and beyond. This also means that transfer business needs to be done as early as possible - ship out everyone who doesn't have a future at the club, trim the first team squad down to 22-24 players, and address the areas we need to significantly strengthen in asap - that's the group of players who'll be carrying us for the rest of the season, so drill them as a team.

We've seen a few players, particularly Sigurdsson, struggle badly because they were late to the party and thrown in at the deep end - this needs to stop.

Spot on this.

His game plan appears to consist of nothing more than :

1: Defend with every man bar the striker behind the ball.

2: Hoofball.

Which is fine, if you play like Leicester and break with proper pace, which we just haven’t got.

So these tactics are never ever going to work with these players.

It also isolates every single player with the tiniest bit of flair, hence why some of them appear to to not know what they’re being doing / not arsed.

They must dread going into training.

The man has the thickest skin in the world, the stick he’s taking will just roll off him. He’s had it before at Newcastle and West Ham, he’s just not arsed.

He’s not going to change anything at all, as he’s setting the team up every week to play for a draw, irrelevant of how that’s achieved.