Are we stronger than last season?

[Lord Buckethead]

Possibly. I think somebody may have posted something similar in one of the other threads.

I'm glad somebody else has noticed it too. I was beginning to think it was just me.

 

[Steve0]

Below is a example of how we have not improved. The bookies know their stuff and thats how they make their money. They are putting spurs at pretty much evens to win at goodison park.
For those not to familiar with odds that means they have spurs as strong favourites to win away to Everton. Spurs are also ranked by the bookies at being the 5th best team and very similar to arsenal and worse than the other 4 teams above. We are a country mile away from the top 6. The bookies clearly think we are no threat whatsoever to the top 6 as the weakest of those teams are near evens to win at our ground.
I can assure you that had we signed a striker such as giroud or a player of similar stature we would be looking at very different odds for this game. This is what annoys me. It's been a horrific end to the window and we are not a strong team now at all. In fact if you go back to last season we were judged closer to spurs than this by the bookies and they had a great season.View attachment 40303

Bookies had Leicester at 5000/1.

Given our home form and Spurs' away form I'd recommend everyone having a flutter on the mighty blues this weekend.

 

[Steve0]

I think a lot of people are being a little hasty in saying the defence is so much better than last year.

We've effectively just replaced funes Mori with Keane, while Williams, baines and jagielka are all a year nearer the scrap heap. It's probably slightly better, but not a lot.

Holgate and Kenny are a year older as well. Plus we've replaced Robles with Pickford!

 

[evertonarntwe]

Saw/heard the same doom & gloom in August 1986 when Lineker left. We had to rely on the likes of Paul Power (came to us as cover and played most of the season due to injuries), Langley, Pointon & Adams.

Lukaku goes, and all I see here in the main are headless chicken posts...

Because we got the good buys done very early in the window, most people think our dealings were a shambles.

What WAS a shambles was the way the transfer market was stupidly inflated by PSG in one stroke... After that, I don't blame the club not shelling out for decidedly average players for whom astronomical money was being asked. Just look at what the RS want for Coutinho - utter, utter, joke...[/QUOTE]

whilst I obviously agree the market atm is a joke, I don't think it really matters does it? we needed a striker ( and a left sided centre back to some extent ) urgently and we never got it, whether we had to overpay or not we still needed them and we didn't deliver, is sandro doesn't start scoring or gets injured, we are then relying on rooney who is no striker anymore and calvert-lewin who was 1 goal in the premiership against a relegated team

 

[bol-uk]

We're stronger, but it's going to take about half a season to see the evidence

By which time it will be tranny window again....

 

[SteRobbo84]

GK - yes, Pickford looks the business
Defence - yes, Keane has started very well and Martina has provided some solid if unspectacular cover
Midfield - yes, Sigurdsson and Klaassen added to the already impressive Schneiderlin, Gana and Davies
Attack - jury is out; Lukaku is an obvious loss but if Sandro, Rooney, DCL, Vlasic and Lookman can share the burden, we could be ok.

On the whole I'd say we've improved enough to avoid dropping down the league but unless Arsenal or Spurs have a terrible season we won't finish higher than 7th again.

 

[Lanolin]

Holgate and Kenny are a year older as well. Plus we've replaced Robles with Pickford!

I was more commenting on people saying 'we've improved the keeper and the defence' so I wasn't including Pickford in the comparison. Holgate may have improved but I don't really see how we can include Kenny seeing as he's not played a single minute of competitive football this year and appears to be 4th choice at right back, possibly even 5th with Davies having played there too.

What I was getting at really was we're effectively one injury away from having Jagielka and Williams playing centre half together, and we literally have no specialist cover for Baines. Expecting a 33 year old to play 50-60 games a season is...ambitious. The defence has theoretically improved with the introduction of Keane, but I don't think it's quite the gimme that some people are painting it as.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

In the striker positions? No
Everywhere else? Yes
Squad as a whole? Yes

 

[Gwladys Nights]

GK - yes, Pickford looks the business
Defence - yes, Keane has started very well and Martina has provided some solid if unspectacular cover
Midfield - yes, Sigurdsson and Klaassen added to the already impressive Schneiderlin, Gana and Davies
Attack - jury is out; Lukaku is an obvious loss but if Sandro, Rooney, DCL, Vlasic and Lookman can share the burden, we could be ok.

Why have Koeman and some Evertonians forgotten that wings exist!?

 

[Joey66]

A simple NO

 

[SteRobbo84]

Why have Koeman and some Evertonians forgotten that wings exist!?

I've not forgotten mate, Lookman and Vlasic are wingers aren't they?

 

[BlueToff]

That being said, Koeman probably has to be a bit less rigid and more adventurous with his tactics.

It's understandable given our current fixtures not to want to push the players too much, but we need to play a system that gets the best out of the players we have.

Oh, and DCL to start up top as well, at least in the league games, until Sandro is fully settled.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

I've not forgotten mate, Lookman and Vlasic are wingers aren't they?

As is Bolasie.

 

[bicycleheader]

Given the unhappiness with the last two transfer windows and the total money spent on players, I would have expected to be going in to the Spurs game stating that we have without doubt gotten stronger.

However losing a top scorer and failing to replace them makes that difficult. On top of that you go through the signings, they all have their caveats and adding in the uncertainty in regards to tactics then I generally feel unsure of what the hell kind of Everton is going to show up this season.

So my answer would be a possibly yes, possibly no....when given our ambition it should be a definite yes IMO.

 

[chippy1722]

Time will tell, we have signed a few more players but if they don't work out it means nothing.
We won't truly know until we get these top teams out the way, we have had no time to bed the new players into a system, as much as I'm not hopeful over Sandro and Klaasen, you can't judge them so early.

My biggest worry is how we are going to play so many similiar players, who play in similiar positions and createt a winning formula. Bolasie will make a big difference when he's back, he is one player who can stretch a defence.