Steve Walsh - no longer our Director of Football

[orly]

We've picked up 14 points out of 21 on offer - four points behind City and we're a point above United, whose squad is worth £900million.

Honestly, anybody unhappy with this start needs to give their head a wobble.

What do people expect!?

I think they are expecting you to keep repeating the same tosh over and over having been put right on several occasions and ignored it.

Happily, you are still delivering on our expectations.

 

[Nil Satis Niasse Optimum]

We've dropped 7 points and are out of the cup at the first opportunity already, and our hardest game, looking at the fixtures before the season started, was Spurs at home. I'm pretty underwhelmed.

The RS have played (and remained unbeaten against) Arsenal, Leicester, Chelsea and Spurs, plus taken maximum points in the other 'easier' games too, Swansea away and Hull home. Their only blip was away to Burnley. They sit two points above us.

Now imagine how far away from us they'll be when we actually play some decent teams ... we'll get nowhere losing against Bournemouth and not beating teams like Palace at home. Looks like another mid-table finish is on the cards.

 

[applecrumble]

What is frustrating is we could easily be top and still in the cup, if we had a decent summer window. We needed to bring in a quality playmaker and another decent striker. Bolasie is a decent enough buy possibly overpriced, but he does improve us. I am pleasantly suprised how well the keeper has done, I would have liked us to try and sign someone top class in that area. 4 players at around 80-100 mill should have been purchased, especially after selling stones. I can see us losing Rom next summer as we probably won't get CL. He will be next to impossible to replace in terms of goal return.

Hopefully Steve Walsh can identify some quality players we will have to wait until Jan I guess.

 

[BlueToff]

I think they are expecting you to keep repeating the same tosh over and over having been put right on several occasions and ignored it.

Happily, you are still delivering on our expectations.

I think your post is summed up by who has liked it, mate... Ironic much?

 

[orly]

I think your post is summed up by who has liked it, mate... Ironic much?

An extremely knowledgeable Evertonian who single-handedly tied the forum in knots last season while secretly laughing himself silly?

You're wrong, and you keep repeating inaccuracies.

 

[BlueToff]

An extremely knowledgeable Evertonian who single-handedly tied the forum in knots last season while secretly laughing himself silly?

You're wrong, and you keep repeating inaccuracies.

What inaccuracies?

We're above United, and four points behind City. Those are facts.

We've won four out of seven league games, losing one and drawing twice. Also fact.

We are defensively better off than we were last season, and there has been clear signs of improvement across the board compared to the last few months of last term.

Yet people can't help but whinge and have a moan.

 

[orly]

What inaccuracies?

We're above United, and four points behind City. Those are facts.

We've won four out of seven league games, losing one and drawing twice. Also fact.

We are defensively better off than we were last season, and there has been clear signs of improvement across the board compared to the last few months of last term.

Yet people can't help but whinge and have a moan.

Again, you are deliberately ignoring the proper context for those 'facts'.

But ok, you've got it wrong again, and this is genuinely fine.

I think unfortunately most of this whinging and moaning is make-believe stuff in your mind, but that's fine too. Everyone needs a bit of company.

 

[BlueToff]

Again, you are deliberately ignoring the proper context for those 'facts'.

But ok, you've got it wrong again, and this is genuinely fine.

I think unfortunately most of this whinging and moaning is make-believe stuff in your mind, but that's fine too. Everyone needs a bit of company.

Yeh pal, me and Clevz have got this.

I don't think I am deliberately ignoring anything.

I think people look at everything on paper when deciding whether we should win a game or not, when in practice that isn't the case.

For example, on paper we should beat Palace at home. However, that doesn't factor in the fact that Palace had won three on the bounce, had a striker in great form and us ourselves were coming off the back of two poor displays.

Overall based on the displays on Friday, a draw was fair. Neither deserved to lose but I don't think either side did enough to win it.

Yet because we didn't win, and how it followed up the poor display against Bournemouth, it's hysteria.

If it isn't Cleverley's fault, it's Bolasie's, or Koeman's and the football has suddenly been tosh all season and we're starting to resemble Stoke under Pulis etc etc.

And oh the squad is a shambles and Europe's already gone etc, despite the fact that by the end of September we're above two teams that will supposedly be challenging for the title.

It's annoying as hell and makes this place a miserable place to be.

I originally joined up in early 2011, under a different user name I think, and that was a much less positive time to be an Evertonian.

But there was no hysteria, no constant whinging. Just realistic, reasoned and sensible debates.

I have conceded that the last few games have been frustrating, but it's been the best start to a season in decades - and you can only beat what's in front of you.

 

[orly]

Yeh pal, me and Clevz have got this.

I don't think I am deliberately ignoring anything.

I think people look at everything on paper when deciding whether we should win a game or not, when in practice that isn't the case.

For example, on paper we should beat Palace at home. However, that doesn't factor in the fact that Palace had won three on the bounce, had a striker in great form and us ourselves were coming off the back of two poor displays.

Overall based on the displays on Friday, a draw was fair. Neither deserved to lose but I don't think either side did enough to win it.

Yet because we didn't win, and how it followed up the poor display against Bournemouth, it's hysteria.

If it isn't Cleverley's fault, it's Bolasie's, or Koeman's and the football has suddenly been tosh all season and we're starting to resemble Stoke under Pulis etc etc.

And oh the squad is a shambles and Europe's already gone etc, despite the fact that by the end of September we're above two teams that will supposedly be challenging for the title.

It's annoying as hell and makes this place a miserable place to be.

I originally joined up in early 2011, under a different user name I think, and that was a much less positive time to be an Evertonian.

But there was no hysteria, no constant whinging. Just realistic, reasoned and sensible debates.

I have conceded that the last few games have been frustrating, but it's been the best start to a season in decades - and you can only beat what's in front of you.

I originally joined up in early 2011, under a different user name I think, and that was a much less positive time to be an Evertonian.

So you're a confirmed multi?

 

[BlueToff]

So you're a confirmed multi?

Yeh

 

[orly]

Yeh

Incredible.

I'll bring this back on topic by saying Steve Walsh has a big January ahead, but I'll send out a distress signal to @the sniderman

 

[applecrumble]

 

[BlueToff]

Incredible.

I'll bring this back on topic by saying Steve Walsh has a big January ahead, but I'll send out a distress signal to @the sniderman

I lost the sign-in details to my original account on a deadline day (January 2013 I think). The server crashed and I didn't know my sign-in, so just had to create a new one.

But yeh, big January ahead for the club, though Walsh's role isn't just transfers (albeit, he will have a key role).

 

[Moomin]

I lost the sign-in details to my original account on a deadline day (January 2013 I think). The server crashed and I didn't know my sign-in, so just had to create a new one.

But yeh, big January ahead for the club, though Walsh's role isn't just transfers (albeit, he will have a key role).

Hmmm January in 2013 you lost your details but didn't create a new profile till May 2013.

What did you get banned for?

 

[Lanolin]

No, Bournemouth made us look like how we played for the last 6 months of RM's tenure.

The football has been just fine when we've clicked. The issue is that we're still switching to a new style. Defensively we've looked loads better, but Koeman is building from ground zero in terms of a) fitness for a pressing game (we're just about there now), b) players adjusting to that (Barkley, as much as I'm a fan, has been so poor in this regard recently) and c) players simply haven't been taking very good chances.

We're 5th - and yet the football hasn't been the best or up to the standard that the fans and, much much more importantly, the manager expects. That bodes well.

I can't help thinking that you're taking the exact same stance you did with Martinez. You seem to continually say 'nothing to worry about, why are you all moaning?' rather than accepting that there are some valid criticisms which need to be addressed.

You still talk about the Martinez reign as if everything was fine until January and then suddenly all went wrong, when the reality is not a lot changed and you were just really, really, quite bafflingly late getting onto the direction we were going in. Thing is, your willingness to cling onto that completely undermines your argument about the current situation. If things with Martinez were fine until January, how on earth can Koeman be 'starting from ground zero' with fitness? Surely you're not saying that fitness deteriorated so much in 4 months that it can't be rectified in another 4 months? To be honest, I reckon I could probably start from my current state of being an out of shape bloke in my 30s who likes a drink and still be fit enough (although sadly not good enough) to last 90 minutes in a professional game if I trained every day for 4 months.

You can't keep saying everything would be OK if we just stopped missing chances. It happens, it's part of the game. Other than Norwich I don't think we've even had a load of chances in the games we haven't won. In contrast, Palace had a goal debatably ruled out, Stoke hit the bar, as did Bournemouth and Spurs. Defoe missed an absolute sitter at 0-0 in Sunderland. If they'd all gone in then this could look like a terrible start, so it's probably best just to concentrate on what has actually happened rather than deciding on our own alternative reality. This was also something you did a lot about Martinez.

This hasn't been a bad start to the season by a long shot, but it's hardly been impressive either. We started off not playing great but getting results, but now we're not playing well and not getting results. It's disappointing. I think I've seen enough to suggest that we're going the right way, but I would say Walsh is going to have to earn his salary in January if we're going to do any better than 8th.