Alan Shearer says Everton are favourites for 4th

[tsdoddy]

Lost three games in twenty nine matches. That really is f***ing brilliant form.

This is all!

 

[gheesom]

Lost three games in twenty nine matches. That really is f***ing brilliant form.

Didn't realise we'd been that good.

 

[Hellerad]

If we can keep Phil Neville fit for the full season we will finish 3rd or 4th!

Yes, but hopefully only because you can't get hurt on the bench.

 

[TomDixie]

We have no European games and we went out of the League Cup early doors, so I think we have the squad depth to get us through to January. Hopefully we get 1/2 more in then.

Even if not, it would take a decent FA Cup run to get us into the mid 40s in terms of number of competitive matches.

The only worry is if we get a few concurrent injuries to key players for a sustained period of time - but that's the luck of the draw.

 

[Joao Moutinho]

Can't believe that stat about Dzeko and City, without his goals they'd be 9th

 

[chrissyjack]

Lost three games in twenty nine matches. That really is f***ing brilliant form.

And STILL the meltfest in the match thread when we go a goal behind

 

[TomDixie]

And STILL the meltfest in the match thread when we go a goal behind

I think that's more to do with having gone behind in the previous 5 matches too and thus having dropped a fair few points.

 

[Brennan]

We really need a clean sheet against Reading.

 

[chrissyjack]

I think that's more to do with having gone behind in the previous 5 matches too and thus having dropped a fair few points.

Well that does grate with most of us tbh.

 

[TomDixie]

We really need a clean sheet against Reading.

Aye, a clean sheet and you'd be thinking it's a win giving how well we're doing going forward.

 

[Brennan]

Aye, a clean sheet and you'd be thinking it's a win giving how well we're doing going forward.

I'd rather win 2-0 than 4-1 tbh.

 

[Jags..class]

Lost three games in twenty nine matches. That really is f***ing brilliant form.

If only we could grind out more wins

 

[TraffordBlue]

Not sure if this has been mentioned already but comparing our start this season to the season we came 4th we have 20/33 instead of 23/33. In 2004/05 we lost our next match making it 23 from 36 so if we beat Reading on Saturday we will have matched that season, which is an excellent start. Really need a win on Saturday and not another draw.

The trouble with our side these days compared to that one in 04/05 is that we can't grind out the wins as easily. We tend to draw a lot of games whereas we managed to grind out 1-0 wins in that season. We went on a run before Christmas of winning 5 and drawing 2. This season it would more likely be 2 wins and 5 draws.

However, we only got something like 21 points in the second half of the season in that year and with our form in the second half of the season in the past few years, hopefully we can end up with a 60+ points tally. Not sure we have a big enough squad to cope over the whole season and finish 4th though.

The crazy thing is, our team and squad these days is ****ing miles better than the one in 04/05!

 

[markmarkmark]

There's no pleasing evertonians, well me anyway, I'm not too into the whole favourites for fourth thing thanks to the fact there's a part of me that thinks it will all just blow up in our faces come february.

Anyone else feel like this?

 

[BoysInBlue]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20310110

That journo says "The places are decided between February and April, not August to December".

Wish is probably true, except when we last finished 4th, it was our form from August to December that won it. The second half to that season we were quite poor and our form dipped.