Sam Allardyce

[BlueToff]

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

Well by that logic Sam is perfectly within his right to talk about relegation

BTW, all he's actually said is that our current form is relegation form.

I'm not a fan, but he'd be getting pelters - and rightly so - if he was saying we were playing well.

 

[BernieWright13]

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??!!

I'd be looking uncomfortable too tbf, if I was wearing someone else's suit week in week out

 

[bluestevon]

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.

Whose job is it to get a sides players functioning mate?

Would have thought thats the managers main job like.

So if as he plainly cant do it, why are we paying him 6m quid a year?

 

[billyblue80]

He's so negative he choked off the momentum we had when he joined he didn't create it.

 

[BlueToff]

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 not achieved.

Well, in fairness, their goal and chances came from the fact we aren't executing point 1 of that game plan at all.

And no, I think Sam's point about being 'more boring' means that, in training, him/his coaches have stopped literally walking players through what was needed. He said as much in his post-match stuff on Saturday.

He's basically saying that they're going to need to start doing that again because clearly that's what these players need. They need walking through bit by bit exactly what they should be doing.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

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.

You've picked out that phrase and dwelling on it. It is ultimately down to your definition. Clearly you have a different definition to me of a "top international player".

By 'top international players' the point was in response to being considered prime relegation candidates/fodder - the point was there is quality and experience throughout the side. I remember being pleased with how many "leaders" we brought in (Rooney Man Utd/England captain, Williams, Wales captain, Sigurdsson, Klaassen, Ajax Captain) to join the likes of Coleman ROI Captain etc. I'm not saying they're world class, I'm saying this Everton team should be closer to Europa league football than relegation.

The point was, we've only lost Lukaku/Barkley vs last season when we finished on 61 points, 15 points clear of 8th and 8 from Man Utd in 6th.

Our director of football was smug the other week saying take away Lukakus goals and we still finish 7th last season.

So - we've took him away, spent a fortune and there has been some improvements on last season - Pickford to replace Robles, the depth of the squad and what should be competition - despite loads flattering to deceive, the talent is there - Tom Davies being one.

The problem for me is;

1. Lack of outlet/recognised striker.
2. Knock on effect of confidence throughout the team.
3. Setup - Managerial.

Too many football fans nowadays are knee-jerk, they react to the last few weeks - never more than a few weeks from a crisis.

This "crisis" is being overplayed - I think it'll only be a crisis if this board appointed Allardyce with next season in mind. I dont think they did.

So, let's see the season out, finish as strong as we can - appoint a new manager immediately after the season and get building with what is a very decent platform.

A platform that isn't relegation fodder, no matter how much is suits Allardyce to say so.

 

[Jebus_lives]

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.

What top international players do other teams around us have? Burnley, Leicester dont. In fact you could look at teams like Tottenham and say that they don't (save maybe Kane). I'm not saying they don't have good players but 'top international players' aren't really there outside of the top 6.

 

[BlueToff]

He's so negative he choked off the momentum we had when he joined he didn't create it.

Mate, let's not re-write history.

We had zero 'momentum'. In the two games proceeding Sam's appointment, we'd conceded 9 and scored 2.

We played well against a crap West Ham side in Unsy's last game, but in all truth relied on a moment of magic from Rooney to kill the game after they had battered us for 20 minutes of the second half and Pickford had stopped them getting back into the game.

Sam built on that by simplifying things and we played well against H'field, got a result at Anfield and then played confidently against N'Castle and Swansea. We did what we needed to against Chelsea.

West Brom and B'mouth away were crap performances and against United we were outclassed. Unlucky at Anfield because we did actually 'go for it' - at least more than we have done at any point there in recent years. Against Spurs we were woeful in the second half and Saturday was gash.

It's a combination of things. Sam isn't at fault for a lot of it but at the moment is offering no solution to the problems.

 

[bluestevon]

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?

Still love Kenwright mate?

 

[Berenger]

He's so negative he choked off the momentum we had when he joined he didn't create it.

Sorry but that's nonsense. The reason we picked up points was because we finally started keeping clean sheets.

 

[BlueToff]

You've picked out that phrase and dwelling on it. It is ultimately down to your definition. Clearly you have a different definition to me of a "top international player".

By 'top international players' the point was in response to being considered prime relegation candidates/fodder - the point was there is quality and experience throughout the side. I remember being pleased with how many "leaders" we brought in (Rooney Man Utd/England captain, Williams, Wales captain, Sigurdsson, Klaassen, Ajax Captain) to join the likes of Coleman ROI Captain etc. I'm not saying they're world class, I'm saying this Everton team should be closer to Europa league football than relegation.

The point was, we've only lost Lukaku/Barkley vs last season when we finished on 61 points, 15 points clear of 8th and 8 from Man Utd in 6th.

Our director of football was smug the other week saying take away Lukakus goals and we still finish 7th last season.

So - we've took him away, spent a fortune and there has been some improvements on last season - Pickford to replace Robles, the depth of the squad and what should be competition - despite loads flattering to deceive, the talent is there - Tom Davies being one.

The problem for me is;

1. Lack of outlet/recognised striker.
2. Knock on effect of confidence throughout the team.
3. Setup - Managerial.

Too many football fans nowadays are knee-jerk, they react to the last few weeks - never more than a few weeks from a crisis.

This "crisis" is being overplayed - I think it'll only be a crisis if this board appointed Allardyce with next season in mind. I dont think they did.

So, let's see the season out, finish as strong as we can - appoint a new manager immediately after the season and get building with what is a very decent platform.

A platform that isn't relegation fodder, no matter how much is suits Allardyce to say so.

What he actually said that is that our current form is relegation form mate, which it is. We've taken 3 points from the last 18 on offer.

 

[Toffeelover]

Say one thing for for Sam, after the games does not waffle the way Koeman and Martinez did but gives it straight out.

 

[COYBL25]

Say one thing for for Sam, after the games does not waffle the way Koeman and Martinez did but gives it straight out.

He’s no different than Koeman though, as blames everyone but himself for the crap that we’re seeing week in week out

 

[billyblue80]

Sorry but that's nonsense. The reason we picked up points was because we finally started keeping clean sheets.

He tightened us up I give him credit for that initially but I believe Unsworth actually had finally found a formation and a team that worked against West Ham(by far the best we've played this season) and he just went with it, adapting it to be more defensive away from home. The issue has come as he tried to change the team and actually attack teams then his negative statements, coaching, tactics and mentality are brutally exposed. Setting up negatively against Bournemouth away and WBA at home, removing things that have worked such as Williams/Holgate, bringing back Morgan who should have been sold like Mirallas, benching Lookman after he'd helped set up a goal at Anfield. He maintained some momentum intially but he's quickly choked it off with his negativity, the players confidence has gone again after a good run. His new stuff about a relagation scrap is either designed to keep expectations low and make him look good if we stay up or to the board to make them aware he needs more in the market, I see the same with his constant references to a lack of pace. But none of that negative mindset helps us win matches of football.

 

[Sir Alan]

The moment we stop playing with 10 men before the games kicks off the day we will improve results so that we don’t go down.