Match Thread Arsenal @ home 12:45 Sat.

[beautifulthing]

To state the bleeding obvious, you can win a cup or two with ordinary players but the league finds you out. And, for my money, we have one or two more ordinary players than many of us care to admit. Add in to that the wild card of R M and his toe curling tactics / talking & we're seeing the result week by week.

 

[Clem Fandango]

Our midfield was atrocious. Besic looked injured, but I can at least give him the excuse of having not played recently. McCarthy was awful. Giving the ball to players in tighter positions than himself, taking no responsibility and no idea what to do with the ball to effect the game in a positive way. Barkley was anonymous, and he really does nothing when we don't have the ball. Baines and Coleman did well, Jags was ok but other than that we were terrible.

Arsenal looked good - and they want rid of Wenger.

 

[Anna]

Chin up boys and girls, it could be worse, we could be Villa supporters.

I'm not even remotely arsed about it today, and i'm not sure how to feel about that. I've almost become immune to tripe home performances and regular defeats. I've also not even bothered to read/listen to Martinez's post match comments as they have become almost comical.

One decent performance against Chelsea in the cup does not cover over the massive problems we appear to have.

 

[JelavicBrate2]

Since you were at the match could you clarify something that's bugging me because I couldn't figure it out from the tv audio. Were the fans singing "F off Martinez, Get out of our club" OR were they singing "Roberto Martinez, get out of our club"? You'd be amazed the things that will stick in my mind until I figure them out

It was Arsenal fans singing about Stan Kroenke mate, I thought they were singing about Wenger at first but it was all aimed at their board. Martinez was getting a lot of abuse in the street end but no chants though.

 

[Blues Harp]

Been away for a week so asked son to record the game which I've just gone through the agony of watching...cant disagree with most comments here although in my 50 years of watching Everton I have seen worse....the players for the most part just seemed to be strolling around and arsenal never needed to get above 2nd gear to outplay us. I'd be inclined to get rid of RM now. Very very disappointing and for me unacceptable

 

[BlueToff]

Been away for a week so asked son to record the game which I've just gone through the agony of watching...cant disagree with most comments here although in my 50 years of watching Everton I have seen worse....the players for the most part just seemed to be strolling around and arsenal never needed to get above 2nd gear to outplay us. I'd be inclined to get rid of RM now. Very very disappointing and for me unacceptable

getting rid now would achieve nothing.

Summer is still the time to reassess, either way

 

[Armchair Dave]

I cant understand how our defence still doesn't pick up or mark players....its a recurring feature of our play and surely to Christ someone at Finch Farm has clocked this ? Its totally indisciplined to allow so many opposition players to not only have all the space they need, but also to waltz through with free reign scarcely unchallenged ? Watch how many of our midfield don't go for the ball....McCarthy in particular was guilty today...ball watching then looking - as the ball passed from Arsenal merely feet away but just glanced at it - as though waiting for someone else to go for it. Its a massive error if its being coached into them...or on a match basis ? God knows, it fluctuates. Martinez needs to stop putting square pegs in the wrong holes. If it works one week then, when the structure/game plan changes it doesn't, then surely theres a marker somewhere ? Ive said many times of here how its appalling that we go from an attacking position one minute then lose the ball cheaply/give it away and immediately fall to bits resulting in a goal against within seconds. Surely they see this, yet it recurs with a frequency that's not good for this ole heart of mine...Im sure my pacemaker even hissed "oh FFS " today.

And this is the disturbing thing with Efc at present. Nobody seems to be catching on, be it the coaches, the manager or even the players. Even the media is pointing it out! It's like a wilful blindness is infecting the club. Even after West Ham they insisted we don't gave a problem....and despite us lot disagreeing on a lot we all can see the problem.

There isn't a different approach with us at present. The "philosophy" is the be all and end all of the managers style and it stinks of misplaced arrogance and unwillingness to accept you may be wrong.

 

[Norwegian Cow]

If you can't see that we have been dominating almost all games this season, then you can't have watched many games this season.
This is not where our problem lies. The Problem has been poor defending.

Dominating games counts for nothing if you dont win them. If you cant see that maybe try something like FIFA 2008?

are u fing stupid? I havent said its great that we dominate and lose......

 

[Alanbileysfeathercut]

Don't know if it's been said but Coleman was brilliant today , and after the goalie was poleaxed first corner someone in a blue shirt should've clattered him!

 

[royalblue66]

getting rid now would achieve nothing.

Summer is still the time to reassess, either way

It would make me feel good,if he was sacked.

 

[BlueToff]

It would make me feel good,if he was sacked.

would do no good.

Might as well see this season through if only for the cup

 

[royalblue66]

would do no good.

Might as well see this season through if only for the cup

It would give the team a lift,heard there is a lot of unrest with the players,but I can just about stand ,seeing out the rest of the Season,just hope he's gone in the Summer.

 

[billycopper]

Teams come to Goodison and defend the width of the penalty area. Our forwards tend to be too far apart and we're not cute enough to play through them. For all Lukaku's physicality, playing with his back to goal, he's not going to win many knock downs either. They're happy to send us out wide because they can concentrate on cutting out the ball across the box because we have nobody arriving late for the pull back. If Barkley sprayed the ball out wide and then made his way to the penalty spot he would get so many easy finishes.

We send both fullbacks high and wide. Not only do the defensive midfielders like to join the attack but our centrebacks want to run into midfield too.

It drives me mad that we can commit 8 men forward and still only have Lukaku in the box.

If I was the manager I'd probably want three players back at most times. If both fullbacks were going to get forward Barry could sit in between the centrebacks or one fullback could stay back and the other fullback and both defensive midfielders could push on. We leave ourselves too exposed though.

Arsenal are a smart team. We couldn't create anything, they kept the ball well and they probably should have had another goal or two. What's the difference? They were patient and their defensive shape was solid. The chances were that we'd make a mistake at some point and that would be enough.

We probably have a bit of youthful exuberance. Stones came on to shore up the defence and went wandering forward, thinking that there was enough cover behind him. I would rather have seen him stay in position and seen Coleman given license to stay further forward.

Coleman has become predictable too. He ran the ball into the corner almost every time and his opposite number can just stay with him to cut off the cross. I'd like to see him play it into the channel for the winger to run on to or put a first time diagonal ball into the box occasionally.

We've nailed it away from home but our tactics at Goodison just aren't working. If Lukaku had a partner he could isolate one centreback rather than having to battle two defenders. Maybe something like:

Lukaku Niasse/Kone/Mirallas
Barkley
Cleverley Barry Lennon
Baines Funes Mori Jagielka Coleman
Joel
​

I quite fancied us today but I'm not really that disappointed. We're only playing for pride in the league really. If we learn something from these remaining games that makes us more formidable next season I'll be happy.

 

[riddick]

are u fing stupid? I havent said its great that we dominate and lose......

Just to touch on your original post in that quote, its not JUST poor defending. Its just about everything. We don't defend well (obviously), but we are just...so so awful off the ball with our movement, we don't press teams or close down until they are near our 18 yard box and even then thats comical, we have fitness levels of a preseason team, we don't have any idea what to do with set pieces or corners on both sides. Hell, even our throw ins almost constantly go to opposition. I wish someone could just say what it is that we do in training, because we really aren't good at anything.

 

[Eggs]

Teams come to Goodison and defend the width of the penalty area. Our forwards tend to be too far apart and we're not cute enough to play through them. For all Lukaku's physicality, playing with his back to goal, he's not going to win many knock downs either. They're happy to send us out wide because they can concentrate on cutting out the ball across the box because we have nobody arriving late for the pull back. If Barkley sprayed the ball out wide and then made his way to the penalty spot he would get so many easy finishes.

We send both fullbacks high and wide. Not only do the defensive midfielders like to join the attack but our centrebacks want to run into midfield too.

It drives me mad that we can commit 8 men forward and still only have Lukaku in the box.

If I was the manager I'd probably want three players back at most times. If both fullbacks were going to get forward Barry could sit in between the centrebacks or one fullback could stay back and the other fullback and both defensive midfielders could push on. We leave ourselves too exposed though.

Arsenal are a smart team. We couldn't create anything, they kept the ball well and they probably should have had another goal or two. What's the difference? They were patient and their defensive shape was solid. The chances were that we'd make a mistake at some point and that would be enough.

We probably have a bit of youthful exuberance. Stones came on to shore up the defence and went wandering forward, thinking that there was enough cover behind him. I would rather have seen him stay in position and seen Coleman given license to stay further forward.

Coleman has become predictable too. He ran the ball into the corner almost every time and his opposite number can just stay with him to cut off the cross. I'd like to see him play it into the channel for the winger to run on to or put a first time diagonal ball into the box occasionally.

We've nailed it away from home but our tactics at Goodison just aren't working. If Lukaku had a partner he could isolate one centreback rather than having to battle two defenders. Maybe something like:

Lukaku Niasse/Kone/Mirallas
Barkley
Cleverley Barry Lennon
Baines Funes Mori Jagielka Coleman
Joel
​

I quite fancied us today but I'm not really that disappointed. We're only playing for pride in the league really. If we learn something from these remaining games that makes us more formidable next season I'll be happy.

..a massive point is that we don't seem to have learned anything all season, same scenarios time after time. There is a lot to play for this season, for a manager under scrutiny and players wanting a start at Wembley.