2018/19 Marco Silva - New Poll Added

[Blue_in_london]

I didn't quote you, because I wasn't just talking about you. So while you might not have been generally talking about inconsistency, plenty of people are. 18 of the 20 teams in the league are inconsistent at the moment, it's not exclusive to us. Obviously we all want to win every game, but that's not going to happen any time soon. You can't finish outside the top 6 and not be inconsistent, nobody expected us to finish in the top 6 and yet everybody (i'm talking about pundits etc as well as fans) seems to be moaning we're not being consistent. It's weird.

There's inconsistent and then there is Everton inconsistent! From utterly appalling to awesome with an appalling blip in the middle (Fulham). That's what is weird in people's minds. It's the contrast in performances.

I think it is just a lot of hard work coming together at last, but, as I mentioned, still coming up a little short on ideas against certain set ups.

Give me a few blips over the dross served up for most of the season though!

 

[mill]

I think we smashed Burnley badly somewhere in there too. 5-1 wasn’t it.

Boxing Day.

 

[banno]

Silva has had an expected rocky road this season. He has learned from his mistakes or maybe worked harder on our problems until it clicked with the players. The easiest thing Silva could have done was to throw away his style and go for the quick fix of tightening up and basically do an Allardyce which would not have benefitted a building job. Thank God he stuck to his principles and style and didn't go for the short term fix because this team is starting to grasp his methods. It was a building season and it seems some of the foundations have been laid. If we went the Allardyce way then we would not be any better off and maybe not even worse off but still no plan and still on rocky foundations.
Apart from Spurs at home (probably Citeh also) we have faired well against the top 6 and it has been refreshing to see us scare them and almost match them in the away games. Our problem is the lesser teams and our inability to break them down........nevertheless he will be working on this this summer and if we can see off the lesser teams then our position and building progress will go up a notch. Lets not be suckered in to quick fixes by altering our style and stay on the path we are on then we will be better positioned next season to see if this project is working and moving forward.

 

[Lanolin]

There's inconsistent and then there is Everton inconsistent! From utterly appalling to awesome with an appalling blip in the middle (Fulham). That's what is weird in people's minds. It's the contrast in performances.

I think it is just a lot of hard work coming together at last, but, as I mentioned, still coming up a little short on ideas against certain set ups.

Give me a few blips over the dross served up for most of the season though!

Honestly that's what most teams are like though. Spurs played four games in a 10 days over Christmas, won the first two 5-0 and 6-2 and the fourth 3-0 but in between lost 3-1 at home to Wolves. Chelsea have played City three times this season, won one, drew one and lost the other 6-0. United's form has gone from midtable, to title winning, to relegation standard.

We play a counter attacking style and we struggle to break teams down when we have the majority of the ball because we don't have a huge amount of creativity in the side. We also lack a consistent finisher, which Silva has bemoaned repeatedly even when we've won games, pointing out that we should have won more comfortably.

Personally I think we've actually been fairly consistent this year in terms of performances. Most of our games have been close, and could have gone either way. The likes of Brighton, Liverpool, and Watford away and Leicester at home are games where we got nothing we could easily have taken all 3 points, while Watford and Palace at home, Huddersfield away etc are games where we could easily have got less than we did. I think it's just as simple as us being a generally good side who aren't quite good enough to get away with not being at our best.

 

[Neiler]

There were threads on expectations at the start of the year and the popular narrative of a good year, would be to improve our style of play, get the best out of misfiring players, develop players, bed in the new signings and be competitive for Europe.

Im not sure at what point that changed.

 

[Gilbert..]

A big thing for me is the fact he has sorted the defence out and we have stopped the sill goals from free kicks, they cost us bad this season, Silva has rectified it and also turned around the slump.

I'm a bit more optimistic now and due to the fact I can actually see he has worked on things that were costing us, I've flip flopped back to give him next season.

All I want from anyone is to learn from mistakes and show improvement. There is no doubt that on our day we play some cracking stuff, we haven't had that for a while, maybe patience(more than I showed) is surely needed.

Spot on. The whole world and his dog could see the way we were defending was the issue. Not been embarrassed as much by Everton than that millwall game. Thought we were a laughing stock with all the goals in that game but the last one esp. 4 millwall players lining up in front of pickford with not a Everton defender in sight. I was genuinely embarrassed at how comical we looked. It had been going on all season and i flipped that day myself that he was making us look like clowns.
Took long enough but at least that looks dead now.

 

[Lob]

You're ludicrous. "17 consecutive games" that started off with a game against Liverpool that every neutral felt we did enough to at least earn a point from, and ending with another draw against Liverpool and an away win against Cardiff 3-0....(a game anyone with any sense has identified as THE point the rot was stopped in the TWO MONTH long slump). The slump lasted from the City game on 15th December to the Watford game on 9th February. Roughly 7 weeks.

If you wish to go on calling it "half a season", be my guest.

Nothing ludicrous about it at all. It is a fact no matter how much you dont want it to be. Yes we played well in the RS Derby and didn't deserve to lose it. There were also games where we didn't deserve to win and games that we should have won and were easily beaten. It is a pointless argument and nothing to do with what i am saying. We are talking about points won over a 17 consecutive (i.e following each other continuously) premier league games period and It is 100% factual that starting from that game onwards, we got 15 points out of the next 51 points available i.e 17 consecutive premier league games. 17 games is 2 off half a season so saying almost half a season is factual too.

There is nothing to even debate about it. It is exactly what happened. Go and have a look yourself and do the math. It is a fact. Did i say it was a fact?

We have been much better the last 3 out of 4 games and long may that continue.

 

[Toffeelover]

There were threads on expectations at the start of the year and the popular narrative of a good year, would be to improve our style of play, get the best out of misfiring players, develop players, bed in the new signings and be competitive for Europe.

Im not sure at what point that changed.

On the face of the recent results it could be said to have changed, for me win our remaining games will merit that there has been a change.

 

[Lelouch]

What I would say is we have the youngest squad around the top 7 area (Maybe Leicester are younger) which is a decent advantage to have to keep trying to hit the consistent 7th and if we didn't have that dreadful Christmas period we would have been about 15 points ahead of 8th so it's just one of them hopefully we can nail down 7th as our own.

 

[Neiler]

Honestly that's what most teams are like though. Spurs played four games in a 10 days over Christmas, won the first two 5-0 and 6-2 and the fourth 3-0 but in between lost 3-1 at home to Wolves. Chelsea have played City three times this season, won one, drew one and lost the other 6-0. United's form has gone from midtable, to title winning, to relegation standard.

We play a counter attacking style and we struggle to break teams down when we have the majority of the ball because we don't have a huge amount of creativity in the side. We also lack a consistent finisher, which Silva has bemoaned repeatedly even when we've won games, pointing out that we should have won more comfortably.

Personally I think we've actually been fairly consistent this year in terms of performances. Most of our games have been close, and could have gone either way. The likes of Brighton, Liverpool, and Watford away and Leicester at home are games where we got nothing we could easily have taken all 3 points, while Watford and Palace at home, Huddersfield away etc are games where we could easily have got less than we did. I think it's just as simple as us being a generally good side who aren't quite good enough to get away with not being at our best.

Excellent post and analysis, that is pretty much it.

There are clear limits in the team in certain games, opposition and situations. Namely blanket defenses, spoiling tactics and big physically dominant teams. Fire power, creativity, physicality and battling qualities are the key skills in recruitment we need this summer to progress. Its not all or nothing as in a straight shoot out against the bigger teams we can more then hold our own in an open game. Its managing games in the other spoiling context or games against physically dominant teams we need other options and depth.

Its why games against Watford, Fulham, West Ham, Huddersfield, Newcastle, etc have been problematic, but progressing through that is the next phase of our development in my opinion.

 

[Neiler]

On the face of the recent results it could be said to have changed, for me win our remaining games will merit that there has been a change.

I wouldn't be surprised if we are beaten or draw in our next two and win Vs Spurs, for the reasons i mention above. we are for more able for teams who are open against us and come out, rather then teams who try to contain us or bully us.

 

[Toffeelover]

I wouldn't be surprised if we are beaten or draw in our next two and win Vs Spurs, for the reasons i mention above. we are for more able for teams who are open against us and come out, rather then teams who try to contain us or bully us.

They are the ones that we need to put to the sword and thats were the right players and tactics come into it.

 

[Neiler]

They are the ones that we need to put to the sword and thats were the right players and tactics come into it.

I think we lack the players in all honesty, DCL helps as he softens up the opposition, but we lack a bit in physicality and battling in my opinion, also we lack clinical firepower. In these games if you get 2-3 opportunities you have to take them. Spurs Vs Brighton last night is the perfect example, Eriksen was the difference, we would be drawing that game at our stage of development.

These teams are going to dog, kick and grock you, make it uncomfortable and wont let you trigger your quality. They will be tight and try and contain you with 10 men behind the ball and you might only get 2-3 chances. Battling, winning that battle and triggering your quality and taking one of your 2-3 chances is a must, not sure they are our key attributes, counter attacking yes, but not the former.

These teams only route to success is making it difficult for better teams and containing them, we haven't developed through that yet.

 

[Osamabindiesel]

Nothing ludicrous about it at all. It is a fact no matter how much you dont want it to be. Yes we played well in the RS Derby and didn't deserve to lose it. There were also games where we didn't deserve to win and games that we should have won and were easily beaten. It is a pointless argument and nothing to do with what i am saying. We are talking about points won over a 17 consecutive (i.e following each other continuously) premier league games period and It is 100% factual that starting from that game onwards, we got 15 points out of the next 51 points available i.e 17 consecutive premier league games. 17 games is 2 off half a season so saying almost half a season is factual too.

There is nothing to even debate about it. It is exactly what happened. Go and have a look yourself and do the math. It is a fact. Did i say it was a fact?

We have been much better the last 3 out of 4 games and long may that continue.

There is a huge difference between a 3 game slide and a 17 game lull. We have to stop falling into these long damaging stretches that knock us out of contention for anything. If we want to advance as a club, we must figure out a way.

I don’t know if Silva needs to hire a hype man or we need to dope up our players on HGH, but get it done Everton.

 

[Nymzee]

I need to see less performances like Fulham before I turn into a believer.