Halfway point of the season

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Our 'winnable games':

Sunderland H 6-2
West Ham A 1-1
Aston Villa H 4-0
Bournemouth A 3-3 (lost to last-minute goal)
Crystal P H 1-1 (hit woodwork three times)
Norwich A 1-1 (one-sided first half, hit bar)
Leicester H 2-3 (gave away two penalties)
Newcastle A 1-0 (scored last-minute goal)
Stoke H 3-4 (lost to dubious last-minute penalty)

Unfortunately, I think that was the season (and at least some of our young stars) gone right there. Because now we need to start winning the hard games just to stay where we are.
 

atrottel said:
Our 'winnable games':

Sunderland H 6-2
West Ham A 1-1
Aston Villa H 4-0
Bournemouth A 3-3 (lost to last-minute goal)
Crystal P H 1-1 (hit woodwork three times)
Norwich A 1-1 (one-sided first half, hit bar)
Leicester H 2-3 (gave away two penalties)
Newcastle A 1-0 (scored last-minute goal)
Stoke H 3-4 (lost to dubious last-minute penalty)

Unfortunately, I think that was the season (and at least some of our young stars) gone right there. Because now we need to start winning the hard games just to stay where we are.
Click to expand...

Spurs, City (3 times) and Chelsea up next.

Whoop.
 
atrottel said:
Our 'winnable games':

Sunderland H 6-2
West Ham A 1-1
Aston Villa H 4-0
Bournemouth A 3-3 (lost to last-minute goal)
Crystal P H 1-1 (hit woodwork three times)
Norwich A 1-1 (one-sided first half, hit bar)
Leicester H 2-3 (gave away two penalties)
Newcastle A 1-0 (scored last-minute goal)
Stoke H 3-4 (lost to dubious last-minute penalty)

Unfortunately, I think that was the season (and at least some of our young stars) gone right there. Because now we need to start winning the hard games just to stay where we are.
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But hold on, these young players are also to blame. What makes you think they say to themselves: "I've screwed up here. I better leave and go somewhere else" ?

They know they're developing.
 
davek said:
...let's not go down that speculative route again. They were all set to leave last summer....and here they are plus some others.
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Rom wasn't in the form of his life and didn't have a new agent who wants him out the club.

Mirallas should've went as things have gone.

Stones handed a transfer request in.

No one interested in Barkley.

It's cutthroat. The side achieves nothing again this season behind Palace etc we'll be cherry picked.
 

I'm trying not to crack because I love the football. The defence is just a shambles though.

I didn't know what to expect after last season so I suppose where we are is no surprise, the obvious difference is not wanting to hang myself every saturday because the football is so bad.

Even though it's an average start over the last decade, it just isn't good enough with this squad. It has the divisions top scorer, how long since we have had that, pit it's counter balanced by the local nutty unit at the back.

I'm hanging onto my sanity because, I can see an exciting times ahead, If and it's a big IF, we can keep these lads together and going as we are I'm not sure that's realistic.
 
roydo said:
And if he doesnt?
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...he cant avoid it. He knows a new GK is essential.

It's all good besides that. It's a midtable season or just above for us. We all need to settle down to that and concentrate on the cups and ironing out any team weaknesses.
 
davek said:
But hold on, these young players are also to blame. What makes you think they say to themselves: "I've screwed up here. I better leave and go somewhere else" ?
Click to expand...
The fact that one of them has already requested a transfer in the past and the agent of the other (who bears no blame for our current position, is on a record-breaking run and is being eyed up by clubs all over Europe) is touting him around.

Added: Even Roberto has made comments to the effect that we made an effort to keep people here for this season because this was when we would see what we could do.
 
davek said:
We're obviously playing great attacking football and Keystone Cops defensive football.
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In a nutshell, that's where we are. If we, well Martinez and the players really, can sort the latter out, then we're well on the way to pushing on to being regularly in contention for top 4.

If he ( he being Martinez ) can't fix that, then we won't progress very much beyond aspirations of finishing at or around sixth. Given our current financial situation, that's probably realistically the best we can expect so you kind of have to take the rough with the smooth. If our financial situation changes down to new ownership without progress being made on our defensive frailities, then all bets are off.
 
davek said:
Maybe this thread could be used for any thoughts people have on performance and expectations (what's gone on/how we've performed in the first half of the season and how it matches/surpasses/falls short of their expectations) and what can be expected in the second half of the season?

I'll kick it off in terms of a look at where we've been before at previous season halfway points (last decade) and where we eventually ended up.

Halfway position and points (and in brackets end of season position and points):

2015/16 10th 26pts (................)
2014/15 12th 21pts (11th 47pts)
2013/14 4th 37pts (5th 72pts) EL Qualification
2012/13 6th 33pts (6th 63pts)
2011/12 11th 24pts (7th 56pts)
2010/11 11th 22pts (7th 54pts)
2009/10 11th 22pts (8th 61pts)
2008/09 6th 29pts (5th 63pts) EL Qualification
2007/08 6th 33pts (5th 65pts) EL Qualification
2006/07 8th 27pts (6th 58pts) EL Qualification

graphwrite.aspx



This season so far fits in pretty much with the average of the decade at halfway mark in terms of position and points at the turn.

We're obviously playing great attacking football and Keystone Cops defensive football. It'd be nice to think January would bring movement. We need a decent second striker to slot in when the inevitable Lukaku injury comes along and a GK of any note to take over from Howard - although the latter looks unrealistic.

I'm standing by my 60+ point finish and good cup runs as the benchmark of a good season. We'll get them and it'll be a very decent marker down by a developing young team.
Click to expand...

Ah right, so -

  • he's responsible for the worst and and fourth (seeing 22 points as joint second worst) performances at a halfway stage in the last ten years
  • Two consecutive years of conceding 25 goals plus in the first 19 games
  • And all this with a centreforward who has scored 15 goals in 19 games (and 31 in his last 45 Everton games)

This tells us -
  • He's a huge fraud
  • He's learned no lessons from last season
  • He spent / wasted £9.5m on 'strengthening' the defence, and failed to do so
57 games, 18 wins in the last season and a half. 95 games, 39 wins total. He's managed this with a team full of internationals and by not only breaking the transfer record at the club - but by nearly doubling it.

We're 5 points better off than last season, when we had the much-trumpeted excuse of Europa League football. We've had four extra games this season - one at home to Norwich and three to lower league opposition. We drew two of these in the standard 90 minutes.

As you can see from the charts - we're not projected to finish any higher than 8th on current form judged against the last ten years. So why not twist rather than stick?
 

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