The Four Months Though Lads - Worse than Mike Walker

[pfim]

Bournemouth are 10th. Go through their team and see how many of their players would get into our team.

It is a myth that we haven't got the players to be in this league. The bottom 10 (except Brighton) are awful and we are easily at the top end in terms of starting 11 quality.

Without looking at their roster, one very important one: Solanke. No way we're on 37 goals or whatever if he's in this squad.

 

[nsno-chris]

Without looking at their roster, one very important one: Solanke. No way we're on 37 goals or whatever if he's in this squad.

their what????

 

[pfim]

It was a bad run of results and form. The manager has admitted such.

Earlier in the season we were creating chances and not converting. Through this run we were doing neither.

You can blame the manager, the players, or both. It's probably both.

Teams smartened up and started letting us have the ball, which is a death knell for us.

 

[pfim]

their what????

Definition of ROSTER

a roll or list of personnel; such a list giving the order in which a duty is to be performed; the persons listed on a roster… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

 

[nsno-chris]

Eagle

Definition of ROSTER

a roll or list of personnel; such a list giving the order in which a duty is to be performed; the persons listed on a roster… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

Can you look up one for “squad” please??

 

[Lee Smith]

For some reason, the OP gave some real Life of Brian vibes….

“Yeah but apart from that…..”

 

[Neiler]

I think the 13 game has been over done - i mean we got points from almost half the fixtures.

I do think, it was/is a learning opportunity, if we kept on winning like in Dec, it would have wallpapered over the cracks of the limits of the squad.

Take homes for me, were the squad was paper thin - once wed gone through the XMAS block, we were jaded. Once AFOCN happened and we picked up a few injuries, we were in trouble. Additionally i felt teams changed games like the draws we got in that time, by calling on five options they could bring on to change a game, while we didn't.

It was around this time, teams cottoned on that we didnt have creative players, sit back absorb and counter was the way to beat us. We dont have creative players with pace, or who can unlock a defence and impact. So we struggled to vary it and became telegraphed.

Instead of looking at it now as a negative we have to embrace it and take the learnings from it and improve.

All that i write above now needs to be looked at changes.

 

[Delargeinho]

Bournemouth are 10th. Go through their team and see how many of their players would get into our team.

It is a myth that we haven't got the players to be in this league. The bottom 10 (except Brighton) are awful and we are easily at the top end in terms of starting 11 quality.

Get that and we are in the group of that. It's realistic and can be expected to be around 11-15. We probably have the best GK-CB pairing of them, combined with the worst wingers, as each of the teams has its strengths and flaws.

Don't forget they finished above us last season as well, but they play another good season this year after very difficult start. I would say the attacking line of Bournemouth.

Solanke a top 5 ST this season, but his first high-scoring, but would play Kluivert, Outarra and Semenyo over Harrison, McNeil and Doucoure any day. The rest??? In the squad T. Adams, Senesi and Scott and Milos.

 

[Daytripper]

it’s not acceptable in my opinion. If anything it should be used as an example to avoid going through it ever again and I’m not disregarding the circumstances either.

I’m not enamoured with the manager and I didn’t believe in sacking him because we haven’t been in a position to do so. The club needs to change first before any future manager changes. A change into a club that has high standards

 

[Titus Bramble]

I think the 13 game has been over done - i mean we got points from almost half the fixtures.

I do think, it was/is a learning opportunity, if we kept on winning like in Dec, it would have wallpapered over the cracks of the limits of the squad.

Take homes for me, were the squad was paper thin - once wed gone through the XMAS block, we were jaded. Once AFOCN happened and we picked up a few injuries, we were in trouble. Additionally i felt teams changed games like the draws we got in that time, by calling on five options they could bring on to change a game, while we didn't.

It was around this time, teams cottoned on that we didnt have creative players, sit back absorb and counter was the way to beat us. We dont have creative players with pace, or who can unlock a defence and impact. So we struggled to vary it and became telegraphed.

Instead of looking at it now as a negative we have to embrace it and take the learnings from it and improve.

All that i write above now needs to be looked at changes.

I can't imagine it took until after Christmas for anyone to realise this.

 

[nsno-chris]

6 points from 42 is acceptable??

Ok

 

[blueboy72]

I’m

"The four months, where we didn't win a game and Dyche Walker was lucky not to be sacked":

Background, December 2023, On the back of beating Forest Away, Newcastle and Chelsea Home and Burnley Away between 2 and 16 December, we had a League Cup Quarter final on the 19th December with Fulham who were in good form at the time. The tie went to extra time and we lost on penalties.

That's a period of five games in 17 days, unbeaten except for penalties. This then starts the “four-month winless run.” (Hint: Wasn't winless, and wasn't 4 months)
I think we should look at the fixtures with the power of hindsight, each game insolation for the season, and see what games were bad results:

23 Dec
Tottenham 2 -1 Everton. Away at top six side

27 Dec
Everton 1 - 3 Man City. Best team in the world

30 Dec
Wolves 3 - 0 Everton. A tired performance. Bad result, but we have small squad that had just played their 8th game in a month. Wolves top half side

4th Jan FA Cup 3rd Round
Palace 0 - 0 Everton. A tricky away tie against premier league opponents above us in table. DCL sent off and decent result, if unneeded replay


14 Jan
Everton 0 - 0 Villa. Decent result against high flying 4th place Villa

17 Jan 3rd Round Replay
Everton 1 - 0 Palace. An Everton win, in period where we apparently never won in 4 months.

27 Jan FA Cup 4th Round
Everton 1 - 2 Luton. Cant argue that this is a bad result. The only defeat in January.

30 Jan
Fulham 0 - 0 Everton - tricky away tie against a mid table side, above us in the table.

3 Feb
Everton 2 - 2 Tottenham - a good comeback against a good Spurs side

10 Feb
Man City 2 - 0 Everton - Never going to grab a result here.

19 Feb
Everton 1 - 1 Palace - A game we hope to get more from but in isolation not a bad result for where we are this season

24 Feb
Brighton 1 - 1 Everton - On paper a good draw, would have accepted that at the start of the game. Letting them equalise in 90+5 mins was a disappointing.

* Key Stat - only lost once in the league to Man City over the first 2 months of 2024. Won one (in period we never won one) and lost one in the cup.

2 Mar
Everton 1 - 3 West Ham - West Ham are decent outfit (currently 8th), although we would have hoped for a better result at home to them. Again, two injury times goals changed the game with West Ham scoring 90+1 and 90+5 to win the game

9 Mar
Man U 2 - 0 Everton - Undone by two penalties. You wouldn't expect a result at this game at the start of the season.

30 Mar
Bournmouth 2 - 1 Everton - tricky away tie, lost in the 90+1 min by a Coleman OG

2 April
Newcastle 1 - 1 Everton - Another tricky away tie. Scraped a draw.

So, in conclusion:

Premier League 4 months (Dec 3 to Aprl 2):

Played 17, Won 4, Drew 6, Lost 8, Pts 18

We achieved over a point per game, which would likely have kept us up in a normal season. The Four Months is a myth. We won games in December and beat Palace in the cup in January, too.

There are also only a couple of games we should have expected a better result, given the league position of the opposition.

You would have been a fool to sack Dyche in the period. A period against difficult opposition, where we still maintained over a point per game, and undone by bunch of injury time goals.

once you say the palace result is not a bad result, makes your post null and void.
Palace were In disarray,
Wanted to sack their manager who then has a heat attack. Without their 4 best players and 2 wins in 16. We hadn’t won in 2 months and 3 wins at home, that was a game dyche should have gone after them and got the fans on board, but he set up negatively with 8 defenders and we need a late goal to get point, shocking, embarrassing management

 

[The Binman]

Arguably you have to see that this squad is waaaaaay worse than what walker had available to him.

 

[twoblue]

Bournemouth are 10th. Go through their team and see how many of their players would get into our team.

It is a myth that we haven't got the players to be in this league. The bottom 10 (except Brighton) are awful and we are easily at the top end in terms of starting 11 quality.

we have one of the most unbalanced sides.
A lot of the bottom ten have a lot more quality than us. Just a case they aren’t household names

I think the 13 game has been over done - i mean we got points from almost half the fixtures.

I do think, it was/is a learning opportunity, if we kept on winning like in Dec, it would have wallpapered over the cracks of the limits of the squad.

Take homes for me, were the squad was paper thin - once wed gone through the XMAS block, we were jaded. Once AFOCN happened and we picked up a few injuries, we were in trouble. Additionally i felt teams changed games like the draws we got in that time, by calling on five options they could bring on to change a game, while we didn't.

It was around this time, teams cottoned on that we didnt have creative players, sit back absorb and counter was the way to beat us. We dont have creative players with pace, or who can unlock a defence and impact. So we struggled to vary it and became telegraphed.

Instead of looking at it now as a negative we have to embrace it and take the learnings from it and improve.

All that i write above now needs to be looked at changes.

This is really the point I’m making. It was a bad run but over played by some on here, there were some decent results (although not wins) in that.
If you were making the results in those fixtures out at the start of the season, chances are you giving us many more points.

 

[twoblue]

6 points from 42 is acceptable??

Ok

Where were the games we should have won. The games where neutrals are putting us down on their accumulater. This was a tough run of games…