But we have DCL, Rooney, Niasse and Sandro who are actual strikers. Don't let the fact that they're not good enough blind you to the fact they exist. We are not playing without a striker, and even if we'd gone out and paid £50m for someone to play that role, we could be in the exact same predicament had they got injured or done the same as virtually all our other signings this summer and played like they'd never even seen a football before.
The striker thing is being used as a smokescreen/comfort blanket, just like we used to hear under Martinez how once we got McCarthy fit/dropped Howard/brought in a defender on the coaching staff/insert other ridiculous excuse here, everything would be great. Didn't work like that though did it? There are fundamental flaws in our approach this season that wouldn't be miraculously fixed if we stuck Raul Jiminez up front instead of DCL like he wanted to. That wouldn't make Ashley Williams be able to move his feet, or make our central midfield more creative, or offer cover and support to the full back on the left hand side, or improve Martina's memory so that he could recall which position he's supposed to be taking up on the pitch.
There are many issues for Koeman to sort out, and on sunday he looked no closer to finding an answer than he did when I watched them in pre-season 3 months and 18 games ago.
I was actually replying to someone else's post who said Moyes came 5th without a striker. I even stated in my post that I believe DCL should be playing as the main striker, as out of all those ones you mentioned, he's the only one who has the physical and technical abilities to hold the ball up.
I see your point with the smokescreen but I don't agree it's the same thing as we saw under Martinez. With RM in charge you could see that every time we went forward we committed too many people and if the ball broke to one of the opposition we were very vulnerable. I remember we beat Sunderland 6-2 and Big Sam came out after and said it was never a 6-2 game, if they'd have taken chances at a key moment they'd likely have won, and he wasn't wrong, we were gifting sides loads of chances every game cos the side was so open, I felt nervous if we won a corner! We didn't actually create loads of chances either, cos we'd get to the corner flag and then play it backwards. There were massive fundamental flaws with RM's system and it was obvious he needed to go as soon as the Christmas of his second season.
I just don't see that with Koeman's side. He's built a side that is fairly difficult to break down. He realises we can't compete with the top sides by trying to out-football them, so he tried to build a side to out-work them, while at the same time having enough quality to beat the lesser sides. It's not that bad a plan as a starting point (obviously over time you’d hope to improve on it). I seem to remember Walsh talking about potential tfr targets at Leicester and saying it’s about what players do off the ball, so I guess he’s onboard as well, if not even driving it in terms of recruitment. They're hoping for a solid back 4, a player who can sit in front, break up the play and receive the ball from the defence and start attacks, a central midfielder who can act as a press and press the opposition whenever they have it, and a no. 10 who can provide service for a target man. Then you’ve got a pacey wide man as an outlet and to force sides back, and a wide player who can cut inside and provide quality as well as being good at set pieces etc. The full backs are meant to provide the width. It’s not how I’d set my side up, but I can see there is a plan there at least. It’s not dissimilar to Moyes’ Everton set up in fairness. Again I’d personally prefer more pace and athleticism throughout the side. You could see Spurs last night, they competed with Madrid cos they’ve got a hard working side who can go for 90 minutes and cover the ground so quickly and have a physical strength, all of which made up for a mis-match in the quality of the two sides. This is where Everton have gone wrong for so many years, I’m sick of seeing a team of average athletes trying to compete with better footballers and athletes.
The problem arises when certain areas let you down. Ashley Williams is either carrying a knock (I notice he tends to have heavy strapping on his back quite a lot) or is finished. He’s been awful, and can’t move his legs quick enough. Coleman was the attacking full back and he’s been injured. Martina who was brought in as cover is awful, for whatever reason he doesn’t seem to quite trust Kenny yet. Schneiderlin has been poor as well, making basic errors that have led to goals, McCarthy is never fit as I believe he is meant to play the role Gueye has been playing, as when he did for a brief moment last season he did it very effectively. Bolasie the pacey outlet is injured, and we have no apparent striker who can act as a target man. He’s playing Rooney all the time, as I think he also over-played Barry, because IMO he wants an experienced player on his side in the dressing room (a throwback to his Valencia days). Rooney is way too ill-disciplined to play as the centre forward. Then you’ve got players who are struggling to settle like Sigurdsson/Sandro etc. and it’s producing some proper dire football. Add to that a very difficult fixture list at the start of the season, trying to play twice a week as well as facing last year’s top 6, and it’s a perfect storm.
Having said that I think we start games decently in the main, but once we don’t score when we’re on top you can see the nervousness run right throughout the side and we fall apart. This IMO is cos we have to work too hard to score a goal, it was the same issue Moyes had which was why he brought in Mirallas as the outlet. If it’s so difficult to score goals, then players know they can’t really afford to make mistakes because it’s unlikely we’ll score once the opposition go in front, let alone score twice. We really need to score the first goal in a game at the minute. Give the lads something to hold on to and build upon. For a side which now contains ‘so called leaders’ (Captain of Wales, Iceland, Ex-England, Everton) we’re amazingly weak mentally.
I said it before but Koeman needed that striker and left sided defender. He demanded them and that’s what has caused the problems. For me he’s a more emotional manager than he appears, that’s why he goes on weird runs of negative form and then Championship winning form. Football is all about momentum. If we had have brought quality in those two positions then I think we’d be looking a whole lot better. A first XI in the style I mentioned earlier of Pickford, Coleman, Keane, LCB, Baines, Schneiderlin, McCarthy/Gueye, Rooney, Sigurdsson, Bolasie and a Striker is a very decent side, if you have that quality in the important positions.
Now I guess you can counter that and say we didn’t get them and he should get the best out of what he has, and I agree with that. But I honestly don’t see it as his fault we didn’t get them, and I think it’d be foolish to get rid of him now, as I believe he still has the dressing room (cos we’re starting games well) and we’re not that far away from being a very decent outfit. Last season was like a breath of fresh air going the game, especially compared to the two previous seasons. I don’t think we should throw that away because of reasons which aren’t entirely down to the manager.
