Our gutless, ineffective midfield

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Last nights shape across the middle was one of the most non effective everton midfield in a while.
No danger from anywhere.
The best thing to come out of it is the realisation that its got to be broken up. Ship them out.
 
Gomes is the only one that gets a pass from me. We've seen him at his best - he's fantastic.

Happy to bin the rest and start afresh.

More likely is that the squad next season will contain Davies, Iwobi, Walcott and Gomes at the very least.
 
I made this very point at the start of the season.

 

Gomes is the only one that gets a pass from me. We've seen him at his best - he's fantastic.

Happy to bin the rest and start afresh.

More likely is that the squad next season will contain Davies, Iwobi, Walcott and Gomes at the very least.

I'm conflicted on him.

Doesn't do enough anything off the ball, so when on it he has to be more of a threat - he looks tidy on the ball/can be an engine but 1 goal and 1 assist since joining the club suggests he's part of the problem.
 
I'm conflicted on him.

Doesn't do enough anything off the ball, so when on it he has to be more of a threat - he looks tidy on the ball/can be an engine but 1 goal and 1 assist since joining the club suggests he's part of the problem.
Yeah can't disagree with that based on his output. I just think back to the game vs Liverpool away (and I concede he needs to show far more examples) last season. Driving through midfield, getting in the box.

For him to do that he needs:

A Gana-type next to him making up for his poor quality defensively
Time to genuinely get over this injury. He's clearly devoid of confidence and avoids anything resembling a 50/50
Time with the manager who will help him mitigate the effects his weaknesses have on the team

His best form in his career, arguably, was at Valencia and he was far higher up the pitch than he has played for us.

But again as you say, 1 goal and 1 assist isn't good enough.
 

Prophetic
 
Just spotted an interesting thread on Twitter.

I've been lazy and not fact checked it, but the summary of which is below;

André Gomes - 42 games - 1 goal - 1 assist.
Tom Davies - 100 games - 5 goals - 4 assists.
Bernard - 57 games - 4 goals - 5 assists.
Sigurdsson - 95 games - 19 goals
Delph - 16 Games - 0 Goals - 0 assists
Iwobi - 22 games - 1 goal - 0 assists
Walcott - 72 games - 9 goals - 5 assists

That is our midfield week in week out here are the stats combined.

Appearances - 404
Goals - 39
Assists - 26

I also see stuff like this and start to think it's not just my eyes deceiving me about how weak in the tackle this midfield is;



Stats aside, football teams with midfielders who don't score, or assist - aren't going to be good football teams.

In conclusion then - every pound we have to spend in the next window needs to be on midfielders. They'll all useless. Offer nothing off, or on the ball.

Gary Neville on the commentary last night (yes i know) was left stunned by Sigurdsson after he pulled out of a tackle in the first half. He kept talking about it well into the second half. It made me wonder though: a player pulling out of tackles near the end of the season? maybe he's expecting a move away.
 
Gary Neville on the commentary last night (yes i know) was left stunned by Sigurdsson after he pulled out of a tackle in the first half. He kept talking about it well into the second half. It made me wonder though: a player pulling out of tackles near the end of the season? maybe he's expecting a move away.

Gary Neville hates him, it's seems almost personal. He never made one run one game and it's all he banged on about as well. Sigurdsson must have looked at him funny once or something.

Not a peep from Neville on Iwobi bottling a challenge in the same game, again.
 

This is the bottom of the league team's midfield this season.
Vrancic - 1 goal.
Buendia - 7 assists.
McClean 1 goal 1 assist.
Hernandez 1 goal 1 assist.
Tettey - 1 goal 1 assist.
Cantwell - 6 goals 2 assists.
It's like night and day compared to our midfield, A humongous problem which I'm not quite sure how you solve really, Getting 2 CM's is a start then we need a RM and left is tbd depending how Gordon does.
Never ending cycle of pain this club.
 
Gary Neville hates him, it's seems almost personal. He never made one run one game and it's all he banged on about as well. Sigurdsson must have looked at him funny once or something.

Not a peep from Neville on Iwobi bottling a challenge in the same game, again.

Yeah, tbh a lot of what Neville said last night was true, and the truth hurts.

But it did seem a strangely intense and personal attack
 
I think it's very important to consider each players role too.

Andre Gomes is playing so deep, almost like a defensive midfielder which is a position he's never played in before. He was at his best for us when dictating play, spraying balls and driving forward with it at his feet. I don't know if it's a tactical decision from Ancelotti to have him here or if his legs have gone.

Sigurdsson, again, isn't a CM or a LM. He's a number 10 and we got the best out of him when playing there last season when he was arguably one of our better players. He's never played in a two in the middle of the pitch - I know this doesn't excuse his heartless performances, but still.

It seems like there's a bit of an identity crisis at the moment, I recognise that DCL plays better in 4-4-2 with support but that really doesn't suit the team elsewhere going forward. There's no creativity and we don't have the wide players (aside from maybe Walcott) who can run at a defender and get a ball into the cross. Even Digne has struggled getting forward with the 442.

Damage limitation until the Summer, finish as high as possible and build a proper formation/team. We need 2x CM and a Winger or two in my opinion and they should be priority above every other position.
 

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