Match Thread Southampton v Everton (Sunday 25 October 14:00)

[Gwladys St. Glory]

Just had the misfortune of reading this Kopite infested rant by the Guardian Fiver's Scott Murray:

On Sunday, leaders Everton had their charcoal and seafoam shorts handed to them by Southampton at St Mary’s. To be fair, they’d been stitched up good and proper by that piece of work Virgil van Dijk, who as Carlo Ancelotti explained the other day, stuck one on their star man James Rodríguez in the first minute of the recent Merseyside derby, limiting him to just 179 of 179 minutes of football since. Not only that, by sneakily enticing Jordan Pickford into that crotch-first challenge, the wily Van Dijk has cleverly established a virulent anti-Everton agenda within the refereeing community, clearly evidenced by the red card awarded to Lucas Digne for taking a wild swipe at Kyle Walker-Peters, missing, then clumsily standing on his ankle and bending his leg to an alarming degree. Virgil, you rotter!

“Maybe all the rumours all week against Pickford affected the decision,” insisted Ancelotti, his studied super-cool slipping a little after the match. “The red card was a joke.” While the Fiver certainly agrees that Digne didn’t mean to land on Walker-Peters’s leg, he was however out of control to an extent that his opponent was in danger. It’s also the third time in two games that an Everton player has, intentionally or not, made such a challenge, the Digne recklessness coming hot on the heels (no pun intended) of Richarlison vs Thiago Alcântara and the Battle of Jordan’s Junk.

Asked whether Everton are developing a little problem here, Ancelotti bristled. “It’s not right. It’s not fair. It was not the right decision. We will appeal for sure.” Many more of these careless challenges, though, and they’ll soon be getting themselves a reputation. They’ll not be getting the Leftfield Title Contenders or Hipsters’ Choice tags off Bielsa any time soon … though perhaps there’s another descriptor they could take from the men from Elland Road? Five letters; answers on a postcard."


Every time I read this kind of Kopite-arse licking stuff I take another hearty laugh at Van Dijk's leg hanging off.

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The nature equivalent...

 

[davek]

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The nature equivalent...

The "hilarious" Guardian Fiver with their "irreverence" for all things football...until Torypool are on the receiving end of it from Everton and then their piss starts boiling.

This bit is hilarious: "Many more of these careless challenges, though, and they’ll soon be getting themselves a reputation."

Yeah, a glorious 142 year old football institution will need to watch themselves getting a reputation from some gutless semi-literate hack who works for the Guardian and his fellow hack chimps.

 

[Neiler]

The "hilarious" Guardian Fiver with their "irreverence" for all things football...until Torypool are on the receiving end of it from Everton and then their piss starts boiling.

This bit is hilarious: "Many more of these careless challenges, though, and they’ll soon be getting themselves a reputation."

Yeah, a glorious 142 year old football institution will need to watch themselves getting a reputation from some gutless semi-literate hack who works for the Guardian and his fellow hack chimps.

Its badly deep and institutional.

Hope we rouge it out.

 

[Gwladys St. Glory]

The "hilarious" Guardian Fiver with their "irreverence" for all things football...until Torypool are on the receiving end of it from Everton and then their piss starts boiling.

This bit is hilarious: "Many more of these careless challenges, though, and they’ll soon be getting themselves a reputation."

Yeah, a glorious 142 year old football institution will need to watch themselves getting a reputation from some gutless semi-literate hack who works for the Guardian and his fellow hack chimps.

You can't take any of it seriously when they gleefully employed a footballer who bit people, among others things....and they want to talk about "reputations".

They all need to sit down and STFU.

 

[Pab Laa]

I think some need to give their head a wobble... It was a bad day at the office, not one single player stood out, in fact I had to give my MOTM to effing Delph, of all people, as at least he made an impact on the game... Let's see what happens v the magpies... As some have said, first loss!

 

[smileychap]

Yeah, Covid's gonna chuck up some weird results. We're still top!

I missed the game courtesy of being at Thomas World, in Tamworth. I was gutted the day before but not by final whistle, but worried when I saw Absurdsson and Rodriguez in midfield. Need more of a foothold in the game than Gylfi has ever been able to provide. Saints are 'at it' and organised under this fella at the moment, and confident after their long-ish recovery from relegation fodder pre - Covid.

Missed game on MOTM cos car broke down on the way home. Quality! Were we as bad as it read on BBC text? I sort of think that Van Dyke thing has given the team the jitters and wonder if Jp's due a rest?

MOTM - Thomas World is quality if you've got a relentlessly energetic 5 yr old though!

 

[Sverre Takleifbotten]

At the first goal we first have an advantage of 4 vs. 1 in the zone where JWP receives the ball. One of the four must be able to mark out JWP - it is scandalously bad defensive play. When JWP centers the ball on 1 touch into a new zone, we are suddenly 3 vs.3, but Digne is unfortunately a little behind. In addition, and this is crucial, Keane's erroneous body position is putting us off balance. This ultimately leads to the goal.


At the second goal, it is first a 3 vs. 1 situation to our advantage on the side. Mina has good control of Ings, until Godfrey takes over the marking. Here I think Godfrey should instead take out depth, and become a second defender. When Godfrey takes over the marking, Mina should also take out more depth. He's too close to Godfrey. Within the box, we are basically in good balance, 4 vs. 3 in our favor. The problem is that Keane and Allan only have the ball as a reference point, and end up in the same zone as Digne and the player he marks. This leads to Southampton suddenly having a 2 vs. 1 situation on the back post. Unfortunately, Gylfi makes the same mistake, and only looks at the ball.

This is mistakes we can not continue to make if we are to be a top 6 team. When we do not succeed offensively - which is the most difficult thing in football - then we have to do the basics defensively right.

 

[Toffeelover]

The "hilarious" Guardian Fiver with their "irreverence" for all things football...until Torypool are on the receiving end of it from Everton and then their piss starts boiling.

This bit is hilarious: "Many more of these careless challenges, though, and they’ll soon be getting themselves a reputation."

Yeah, a glorious 142 year old football institution will need to watch themselves getting a reputation from some gutless semi-literate hack who works for the Guardian and his fellow hack chimps.

Boy, Dave they are really stoking the flames to burn us at the stake.

 

[the sniderman]

I don’t want to be in the shiote myself.

But these shouts can get indie bin

View attachment 106093
View attachment 106094

buddy this is why our constitution contains anonymous neg rep and dreadful accounts pretending to be fake superheroes so that together as one we can CRUSH those who seek to harm us.

 

[Brisan123]

Bad day at the office
Godfrey was lost at FB
His ball retention and distribution was poor but he did show some remarkable recovery pace , he will do well at CB
Coleman was badly missed
Iwobi was dreadful
Offers nothing and this start was hopefully his last
Siggy showed signs but Gomes needs to be brought back
James was quiet , probably still feeling the injury
No service whatsoever to DCL
Jjk and Gordon need to start the next game
We can’t afford to lose momentum by losing 2 in a row

 

[Yarrgh]

Bad day at the office
Godfrey was lost at FB
His ball retention and distribution was poor but he did show some remarkable recovery pace , he will do well at CB
Coleman was badly missed
Iwobi was dreadful
Offers nothing and this start was hopefully his last
Siggy showed signs but Gomes needs to be brought back
James was quiet , probably still feeling the injury
No service whatsoever to DCL
Jjk and Gordon need to start the next game
We can’t afford to lose momentum by losing 2 in a row

Hard to argue with any of that.

I still have hope for Iwobi, but can see myself get lonelier in those hopes. He needs to start doing something otherwise he'll be in the bin.

Siggurdson is obviously a decent footballer, but he's just slow and a bit lightweight in terms of aggression and energy. You might as well not have him as have him for all the disadvantages those 2 things bring to the table.

Gomes - no idea about him at the moment. Neat but not exceptional. If someone wanted to take him off our hands, then I'd let him go.

JJK - is he fit? 2 proper full backs even limited in terms of experience is key so him and Nkonkou to start for me next match so I'd make sure that the midfield was soaking up whatever Newcastle try to do. I know we are top of the table, but it feels like we are just floundering after the first matches of the season.

 

[APN_EFC]

Bad day at the office
Godfrey was lost at FB
His ball retention and distribution was poor but he did show some remarkable recovery pace , he will do well at CB
Coleman was badly missed
Iwobi was dreadful
Offers nothing and this start was hopefully his last
Siggy showed signs but Gomes needs to be brought back
James was quiet , probably still feeling the injury
No service whatsoever to DCL
Jjk and Gordon need to start the next game
We can’t afford to lose momentum by losing 2 in a row

its such bad luck to have both RB out and Holgate who can play really well there - also out!
It is just a bad day at the office, and I hope we learn from the last week a few things - using your list

- bad days MUST be followed by a quick recovery if we're going to be a good strong team
- Godfrey was exposed, and maybe on the RW a midfielder who does track back would have been better on this occasion - Gordon or Bernard?
- Yes Godfrey is good still, bad luck aboutJJK and Colema
- So annoying about Siggy and Iwobi that they play well and suddenly look like they've switched on their talent, then do this. it goes back to the 2 - 3 years of Koeman to Allardyce to Silva. even without proper coaching, tactics and leadership, senior players have to just have that within them to take on the responsibility. I thought Siggy is a captain?
- James yeah also can't play 38 good games
- Who else can be a provider, apart from James - usually it's Richy + James, and then we need 2 more, probably Gordon and Bernard for me are excellent reserves for 10-12 games in the season?
- Here's the real test, how do we recover from a draw and defeat. All the games are winnable , including Man City, so we have to make sure we win against the teams usually outside top 6

 

[evertondotcom]

If we play like that again, we won’t finish anywhere near the top 6.

 

[Lao]

We were never going the full season unbeaten obviously, so although it was a really disappointing performance I think it is well timed - the ridiculous media agenda against us needs to cool down, so if we drop off the top we will stay under their radar for a while.
We know the basic reasons for the way we played, squad depth needs to be addressed in January. Top six still the priority, but early signs of a possible push for top four. No need for bed wetting yet!

 

[AndyC]

If you haven't cast your vote for Man of the Match, you still have till 3.57pm tomorrow, Thursday... don't delay, vote today