Where's the root of Everton's problems?

[moylee]

Complacency

 

[JLW]

...ah ok.

I suppose some might argue that we’ve improved. More points already than last season, decent run in the cup, won at Anfield, won at Arsenal, Leicester & West Ham etc.

I actually think our problems are lots down to tactics & recruitment. Ancelotti has found a way to win with this group of players. We set our stall out not to concede and bank on us nicking a goal to win 1-0. Trouble is, the margins are so fine we can end up drawing 0-0 or losing 1-0.

At home, we play the same way. We are incapable of taking the game to teams. There is no sustained pressure, we rarely camp out around the opposition area, we rarely get behind the opposition full backs and we rarely have players getting beyond our strikers. Tactics & recruitment, although in this case tactics might be dependent on recruitment as we appear to have only one way of playing, no plan B, no players to introduce who can change things & have a positive impact.

One final point, I do find it alarming & strategically daft when we go into games with two keepers on the bench. Utterly pointless, it might be a real sign of improvement when this stops.

Agree with this.

Its alarming that we cant or don't have the ability to take the game to certain teams.
I mean we make awful players and awful teams look like 1970s Brazil at times.

 

[Eggs]

I think a lot of it stems from a lack of discipline from top to bottom. We spend loads on players who don't care about the club. I don't know how this can be changed but from what another poster just typed... Gerrard demanded the best from his team mates, as did Terry and Lampard at Chelsea.. It seems to have become ingrained there now. We don't have winners in the dressing room, we have friendly, funny guys who (as every new player tells us) make it comfortable and easy to settle here. Perhaps we need a real captain, a captain who the players look up to because they have won things and demand the very best. I always presumed it was the managers role but since we've had 4 new ones now and none have been able to change it...god I dunno... Let's only hope Carlo understands the need for discipline and not making players happy. Christ if the wages alone can't make em happy... Pick another job.

...we really don’t know this unless you are part of the set-up. Coleman & Sigurdsson captain at international level, they clearly have the respect of colleagues & staff. Allen seems a terrier type, Mina a leader on the pitch (I won’t mention Delph).

Too much is made of this. I prefer to look at individuals and their self-motivation. I have long posted that we should recruit footballers who ‘play like the game matters’. Not wanting to single out individuals, but Iwobi for example doesn’t seem overly bothered about football.

It has to be part of the acquisition criteria, but even then having the ‘will to win’ doesn’t matter if we have too many players in key positions who can’t run. We need the physicality and quality that frightens opponents, that hurts opponents.

 

[hallamblue]

Agree with this.

Its alarming that we cant or don't have the ability to take the game to certain teams.
I mean we make awful players and awful teams look like 1970s Brazil at times.

It was embarrassing watching veteran David McGoldrick dribble past four of our players last night.

 

[daza_1973]

The club motto. It’s too much pressure on the players, when they’re clearly nowhere near good enough.

Most of our players struggle with English so other than Carlo I doubt they would lose and sleep over a Latin motto.

 

[lancs blue]

Captaincy is just an armband these days. Need someone to kick backsides on the pitch

 

[JLW]

It was embarrassing watching veteran David McGoldrick dribble past four of our players last night.

If you didn't know who he was and it was the first time you've seen him play you'd be like "What a player he is"

 

[Del-boy]

We’re just not very good

 

[allen]

We’re still paying (literally) for the errors of the Koeman-Walsh era, backed by Moshiri’s desire to shortcut us to success.

The mess we got ourselves in was so deep that it was always going to take years to sort out.

We’re getting there, though. I actually don’t think we’re as far away as most seem to this morning.

If we can bring players of the James / Allan / Doucoure / Godfrey level in this summer, but in the areas where we need improving, then I think that will have an enormous impact on this squad.

A bit more pace, a bit more desire to get forward, will make a huge difference. As will getting rid of the players who don’t want to contribute, though that may be a more difficult task.

 

[JLW]

Complacency

Could well be i bet DCL and Richarlison were thinking before they stepped onto the pitch how many am i going to score last night? completely forgetting to put the hard yards in and doing the basics.

 

[Eggs]

Captaincy is just an armband these days. Need someone to kick backsides on the pitch

....that won’t make somebody run fast who is incapable of running fast, that won’t make somebody go past the opposition and deliver a telling cross or pass if they are incapable of doing that.

Attitude might be an issue with some but it’s not the major problem with our home form.

 

[barneygumble]

If anyone says anything other than the years of atrocious signings and subsequently the mentality of the players, then I’m sorry, in my opinion, you’re wrong.

 

[royalbalou]

I think a lot of it stems from a lack of discipline from top to bottom. We spend loads on players who don't care about the club. I don't know how this can be changed but from what another poster just typed... Gerrard demanded the best from his team mates, as did Terry and Lampard at Chelsea.. It seems to have become ingrained there now. We don't have winners in the dressing room, we have friendly, funny guys who (as every new player tells us) make it comfortable and easy to settle here. Perhaps we need a real captain, a captain who the players look up to because they have won things and demand the very best. I always presumed it was the managers role but since we've had 4 new ones now and none have been able to change it...god I dunno... Let's only hope Carlo understands the need for discipline and not making players happy. Christ if the wages alone can't make em happy... Pick another job.

We haven't had a winners attitude at this club for donkeys.
You can spend as much as you like on players but if they settle into this 'comfortable Everton lifestyle' then they become part of the problem.
There is no consequence for failure, they just shrug and go home. Can you imagine Peter Reid allowing that? Southall?
We need to change the whole attitude of the club. Not an easy thing to do...but that is something Ancelotti needs to address by buying players with winning mentality who will call out the drifters no matter how big their egos.
Time to start making players earn the right to play for this club...over to you Carlo

 

[Saint Domingo]

Koeman did a wrecking ball job on the club that is still being felt now. To add to this we seem to have injury problems every single season. The main point is the players though. We never seem to have a squad of 22 top 6 standard players. We’re always carrying a number of players that I don’t think would get in any other premier league team, we’ve done this since the Moyes period, tried to get by with about 6 decent players when our competitors have 22 of them.

You can then add to all of this that we’re also probably the most unlucky team in the history of sport.

 

[MerseysideBlue]

The quality of our players is the biggest problem IMO. Up front we rely on DCL to the extent we dont even bother with an alternative. DCL is an ok striker for a mid-lower table PL side, but he wouldnt play at any of the top sides. Mid table players gets you mid table results.

Same goes for our central defence. None of them are top quality. Holgate not even PM standard IMO. Compared to the Moyes with Jags/Distin/Lescott we are so far off.

We also have a manager who seems obsessed with stacking as many defensive players as possible into our starting 11. Yesterday at home to Shef Utd we started 5 defenders and two midfielders with primarily defensive fibers. That leaves three spots for creative offensive outfield players. No wonder we struggle offensively.