Match Thread Everton 2-4 Brentford. Sun Jan 4th. 3pm

[GoldenToffee]

Pickford - 6 - Not at fault for any goal but perhaps could have potentially made it more difficult for a few of their goals.

O'Brien - 4 - Awful in his as usual wrong position. At home against a team below us in the league, we should never be putting a centre half at full back for his height. Hung Dibling out to dry on the right.
Tarkowski - 3 - One of his worst. No leadership, attempting to pick fights for some reason, bullied by Thiago, directly cost us a goal, cannot play alongside Keane.
Keane - 3 - Woeful and no idea why he was brought in after a flawless defence against Forest last time out.
Mykolenko - 4 - Not directly responsible for any goals but simply nowhere near good enough in general, kills any potential attacks in an instant.

Iroegbunam - 4 - A terrible night for him, reminiscent of his effort against Newcastle.
Garner - 5 - His worst game of the season. Him and Tim not helped at all by the awful McNeil ahead of them who predictably looked knackered after 5 minutes.

Dibling - 4 - Looked like a £400,000 player, never mind a £40 million one. Terrible body language, but given no support at all from O'Brien and was often doubled up on — almost impossible for him to make an impact given the circumstances.
McNeil - 3 - Woeful and offered nothing. Alcaraz isn't much better, but at least he can run. That one moment in the first half when he lost a 5 metre leg race despite having a 3 metre head start, kin embarrassing.
Grealish - 8 - Two assists which can't be sniffed at, wish he'd swing the ball in more often like for the Beto goal. Hard for him to do much else when the rest of the team performs the way they did, he couldn't have done much more.

Barry - 5 - Crap, regardless of his goal which ultimately meant nothing. We surely all know by now he's not up to the job.

--

Beto - 7 - Put himself about and gave a lot more effort than Barry did. Very nice header and today didn't miss any open goals like he usually does. Imagine he'll start against Wolves.
Röhl - 4 - Why was he put on at right wing?! It's like playing Mykolenko as a number 10. I can't really criticise him when he's played so massively out of his supposed best position.
Armstrong - 7 - Neat and tidy without doing anything spectacular, but the game was lost already. Still miles better than McNeil, so it'll be frustrating if he's not selected over him from the next fixture.

 

[RomanReigns]

Brentford’s passing was very quick today they moved the ball very well and opened us up

We on the other hand were very sluggish and slow

Very little movement, too much time on the ball and not pressing hard enough to win the ball back when out of possession

 

[Igrok]

What a twist…two Everton strikers are on the scoresheet…forever damned

 

[Seathestars]

Personally I'm writing this one off as one of those games all teams seem to have occasionally.
They bossed us all over the park and it was more like a good Everton away performance from Brentford, fair play to them.
That Thiago up front for them was very good and it just shows what you can get for 30 million.

I don't often criticise Moyes but having Beto and Barry on the pitch at the same time left more gaps in the 2nd half than the first and the first was poor.
A terrible decision I thought, even though they both scored it cost us elsewhere.
Grealish needs a rest and he needs to be told to let the ball go earlier. I can see why Pep let him go and Tuchel won't have him for England, he's becoming frustrating and the opposition area is packed by the time he decides to cross it.

 

[Mr PEN86]

Here's one to think about...Grealish playing on the right. That way there's no need for all the twist and turn business. Just straight to the byline and cross like he did for Barry's goal.

 

[Toffeepot]

Personally I'm writing this one off as one of those games all teams seem to have occasionally.
They bossed us all over the park and it was more like a good Everton away performance from Brentford, fair play to them.
That Thiago up front for them was very good and it just shows what you can get for 30 million.

I don't often criticise Moyes but having Beto and Barry on the pitch at the same time left more gaps in the 2nd half than the first and the first was poor.
A terrible decision I thought, even though they both scored it cost us elsewhere.
Grealish needs a rest and he needs to be told to let the ball go earlier. I can see why Pep let him go and Tuchel won't have him for England, he's becoming frustrating and the opposition area is packed by the time he decides to cross it.

Grealish got two assists in this disaster of a game, he's not a problem.
Thiago spent over a year out and would've got pelters on here for being injured

 

[CielosGrises]

I am not questioning your thinking, but how did you measure "a lot of us"?

Sophisticated statistics.

Based on a few posts here bemoaning our erratic form.

 

[Vaughan]

Personally I'm writing this one off as one of those games all teams seem to have occasionally.
They bossed us all over the park and it was more like a good Everton away performance from Brentford, fair play to them.
That Thiago up front for them was very good and it just shows what you can get for 30 million.

I don't often criticise Moyes but having Beto and Barry on the pitch at the same time left more gaps in the 2nd half than the first and the first was poor.
A terrible decision I thought, even though they both scored it cost us elsewhere.
Grealish needs a rest and he needs to be told to let the ball go earlier. I can see why Pep let him go and Tuchel won't have him for England, he's becoming frustrating and the opposition area is packed by the time he decides to cross it.

except we’ve had 3 of them at home this season all to sides who were below us in the league, two of which have terrible away records

 

[Eggs]

….like a bespoke suit, we were made to measure for Brentford yesterday. Outnumbered in midfield, bright and pacy runners exposed the weakness in our defence.

I thought the selection was understandable and ok but Moyes failed to address the situation during the game. I can only think he didn’t switch to 3 at the back because he doubted Grealish and Dibling operating as wing backs but we failed because we couldn’t adapt to their system.

 

[Bluelenny1984]

except we’ve had 3 of them at home this season all to sides who were below us in the league, two of which have terrible away records

And yet we are still making progress on last year, as of yesterday we where 11 points better off than the previous year.

This isn’t aimed at you but people on here require a huge inquest when games are lost, we are going to lose games in a whole manner of ways it’s the way the sport works.

The only question this year is have we left the problems of the past behind, and the answer is somewhat, we have still work to be done.

Actually for what we needed following them dismal last few years this is good progress, it’s not perfect but going in the right direction.

 

[davids]

There was an old football adage,you never change a winning team.

 

[welshtoffee]

Never turned on here last night after arriving back from the match as I knew how toxic it would be. We were hideously bad , defence, midfield were just completely overrun. You could say a bad day at the office but with squad depth and Moyes strange tactics of changing a winning team things could get a hell of a lot worst before they get better. Dreading Wolves and Sunderland as if we play like that again we will get beat !!

 

[Rita_Poon]

….like a bespoke suit, we were made to measure for Brentford yesterday. Outnumbered in midfield, bright and pacy runners exposed the weakness in our defence.

I thought the selection was understandable and ok but Moyes failed to address the situation during the game. I can only think he didn’t switch to 3 at the back because he doubted Grealish and Dibling operating as wing backs but we failed because we couldn’t adapt to their system.

McNeil isn't an AM. He didn't occupy them one bit yesterday. Not mobile or fast enough and to one footed. Other limited players can make up for the shortfall in ability with physicality (Doucoure).
Playing a man down the rest of midfield were swamped and put brentford on the front foot constantly, they always had a man over and the passing range to find him.
We've been done front post from a corner again. This is now an epidemic. Someone has to wake up to it. Put J O'B front post and make the job difficult. This has to change 'cos we're giving goals away for free.
Thought Grealish was a bit unlucky, another day he gets 4 or 5 assists. Give their GK his due, he made some good saves and when he was beat was lucky with position to still make a block.

What we are seeing with KDH out is the reason Moyes has had him playing numerous positions at the same time. His confidence, passing, vision and mobility are essential in CM, but his quality over everyone else sees him pushed up to AM to join up the midfield with the wide players and attack. We need another KDH.

Not happy about yesterday, but will accept it if we can learn from it. Really basic errors and some woeful set up need for the bin. Can't let opposition sides so easily outnumber us. If they'd have had a Modric or Riquelme it'd have been a bloodbath. There are sides in this league that'd have put a record score on yesterday. For the fourth or fifth time saying, Thiago really should have scored more yesterday.

On reflection maybe a midfield 3 of Armstrong Garner Tim Iroegbunam would have been a more solid unit. But hindsight is easy.

No more McNeil in AM.

 

[Drico]

There was an old football adage,you never change a winning team.

Especially against a side who had lost seven of their previous eight away matches.

 

[Eggs]

McNeil isn't an AM. He didn't occupy them one bit yesterday. Not mobile or fast enough and to one footed. Other limited players can make up for the shortfall in ability with physicality (Doucoure).
Playing a man down the rest of midfield were swamped and put brentford on the front foot constantly, they always had a man over and the passing range to find him.
We've been done front post from a corner again. This is now an epidemic. Someone has to wake up to it. Put J O'B front post and make the job difficult. This has to change 'cos we're giving goals away for free.
Thought Grealish was a bit unlucky, another day he gets 4 or 5 assists. Give their GK his due, he made some good saves and when he was beat was lucky with position to still make a block.

What we are seeing with KDH out is the reason Moyes has had him playing numerous positions at the same time. His confidence, passing, vision and mobility are essential in CM, but his quality over everyone else sees him pushed up to AM to join up the midfield with the wide players and attack. We need another KDH.

Not happy about yesterday, but will accept it if we can learn from it. Really basic errors and some woeful set up need for the bin. Can't let opposition sides so easily outnumber us. If they'd have had a Modric or Riquelme it'd have been a bloodbath. There are sides in this league that'd have put a record score on yesterday. For the fourth or fifth time saying, Thiago really should have scored more yesterday.

On reflection maybe a midfield 3 of Armstrong Garner Tim Iroegbunam would have been a more solid unit. But hindsight is easy.

No more McNeil in AM.

….fair point, possibly flattered by that cameo v Forest he certainly couldn’t cope with players flooding past him.