Match Thread Everton v West Brom. 13th Feb at 1500.

[Simon baker]

think its time for gareth barry to be dropped when we play at home, no need for 2 defensive midfielders against teams like west brom. he slows the play down to much when we badly need to play with pace and urgency. something needs to change.

Couldn't agree more it has to be him or McCarthy whilst he offers so much more on the ball he can't cover the ground in a high enough intensity to play as a sole defensively minded midfielder therefore whilst McCarthy is extremely limited on the ball his top would be to cover, plug gaps & pass the ball 3 yards to his partner Ross.

 

[Old Blue 2]

Completely scabby goal from a corner. Not sure we could have done that much about it.

How about a defender on each post for corners. Had we done so, the defender on the back post would have cleared the ball easily. Ergo, no goal conceded. Martinez (and some other Managers) is f*ckin' thick in that respect... You see that kind of goal conceded from a corner almost every week on MOTD. Basic defneding ignored...

 

[Billefc]

It worked against WBA last time like...

Fantastic, so we will keep putting him on and hope and pray that one day it will happen again, great ! By the way is that you Roberto????

 

[Billefc]

You can't get behind them when 9 men stay in their defensive third all game.

Pulis Evil won over Martinez Good today, it sometimes happens.

I'm amazed why WBA aren't running away with the league then, because they play the same every game !

 

[The Mighty Quint]

I'm amazed why WBA aren't running away with the league then, because they play the same every game !

They cause other top teams problems, Pulis has been doing it all his career with his anti football methods.

They had a lot of luck today aswell, we had none.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I'm amazed why WBA aren't running away with the league then, because they play the same every game !

Leicester might though.

They are in the bottom 3 for possession %, in the league.

 

[LAToffee]

West Brom though. As terrible as it is supporting Everton, having to cheer that kind of football must really test your will to live.

 

[Stan Lee Park]

They cause other top teams problems, Pulis has been doing it all his career with his anti football methods.

They had a lot of luck today aswell, we had none.

Yes, they cause so many problems that they are (were) in danger of being relegated before we came along.

And if you think luck was why we lost today, then I suggest that you should watch the game again and again and see how inept we were in the face of an organised defence and how clueless our manager was in trying to do anything about it.

 

[AJC5]

How about a defender on each post for corners. Had we done so, the defender on the back post would have cleared the ball easily. Ergo, no goal conceded. Martinez (and some other Managers) is f*ckin' thick in that respect... You see that kind of goal conceded from a corner almost every week on MOTD. Basic defneding ignored...

It isn't basic. It's a tactical decision probably based on stats. some teams think fewer goals are concedes with a man on each post, some think it's better to have more players competing for the ball. I don't know which is better statistically. The fact a man on the post would have saved today's goal is neither here nor there. It was a freak goal. Olson is just trying to flick it on and it somehow lobs Robles perfectly and goes in the net. These goals only seem to happen to us e.g. Van Wolfswinkel or whatever his name was.

 

[Stan Lee Park]

West Brom though. As terrible as it is supporting Everton, having to cheer that kind of football must really test your will to live.

Agreed. That makes it even worse that we didn't have a clue how to beat them.
Hardly a surprise that a Pulis team play that way, so how come our talented young manager didn't know about it?

 

[Old Blue 2]

It isn't basic. It's a tactical decision probably based on stats. some teams think fewer goals are concedes with a man on each post, some think it's better to have more players competing for the ball. I don't know which is better statistically. The fact a man on the post would have saved today's goal is neither here nor there. It was a freak goal. Olson is just trying to flick it on and it somehow lobs Robles perfectly and goes in the net. These goals only seem to happen to us e.g. Van Wolfswinkel or whatever his name was.

Don't agree. It's not a freak goal. And it is far MORE than 'neither here nor there'. Just look again at today's result...!!! It's a regular occurrence throughout the season. Not just against us, but against alot of other teams also.

I say it is a flawed tactical decision, which costs goals, which cost points, which costs matches...

 

[LAToffee]

Agreed. That makes it even worse that we didn't have a clue how to beat them.
Hardly a surprise that a Pulis team play that way, so how come our talented young manager didn't know about it?

Soft goal aside, how do you equalize and beat them when you go down? Felt like we tried any number of tactics: long corners, short corners, through the middle, in from the side; seeking penalties, shots inside and outside the box. How many shots on target did we have? How many times did we hit the woodwork? How many shots did we have cleared off the line or from yards out?

 

[Dutch Toffee]

They cause other top teams problems, Pulis has been doing it all his career with his anti football methods.

They had a lot of luck today aswell, we had none.

I have a lot of respect for Pulis and his teams are usually extremely hard to break down. If it had only be West Brom this season, I could accept that. We screwed up a few too many times this season however. Tactics and subs were our downfall today (just like the others before). Surely our manager is the one who has to answer to that?

 

[LAToffee]

I have a lot of respect for Pulis and his teams are usually extremely hard to break down. If it had only be West Brom this season, I could accept that. We screwed up a few too many times this season however. Tactics and subs were our downfall today (just like the others before). Surely our manager is the one who has to answer to that?

Genuine question: what tactics are you thinking about. On the subs, I think they didn't work out, but they didn't seem totally crazy in the context of the latter half of the second half and our available options off the bench.

 

[Stan Lee Park]

Soft goal aside, how do you equalize and beat them when you go down? Felt like we tried any number of tactics: long corners, short corners, through the middle, in from the side; seeking penalties, shots inside and outside the box. How many shots on target did we have? How many times did we hit the woodwork? How many shots did we have cleared off the line or from yards out?

Foster didn't have a proper save to make. Lukaku didn't have a shot on target. That's how bad we were today.