Match Thread Everton v Aston Villa - Preview, Match Report and MotM Poll

[KaiserEFC]

I don’t like that despite Ancelotti being our manager, having players like James and Allan etc. teams like Villa, Leicester, West Ham are absolutely light years ahead of us in play style and effort and all a team needs to do to give us major issues is press a little.

I’m actually fairly worried where we may end up in the next few years because our football is archaic

 

[charlie atkins]

Shambles is putting it lightly

 

[riddick]

Didn't watch. Don't care anymore with these lot.

It has to be said that every single time they have a chance to go up they bottle it. Every. Single. Time.

 

[billyblue80]

Awful, gutless, lack of drive, passion quality. These players don't deserve Europe.

 

[Roachey11]

We genuinely cannot pick out a pass when trying to counter. I witness better passing going forward in Sunday league and that isn't a joke.

 

[BlueToff]

We genuinely cannot pick out a pass when trying to counter. I witness better passing going forward in Sunday league and that isn't a joke.

Not far off.

But... surely, this can't all be on the players? How is our passing so bad? Why is our pressing non-existent? Why are we so open if we attempt to attack. Why can't we move the ball quickly?

17 months...

 

[Curtis]

What is up with our fitness levels too? We seem to get fatigued very quickly and I noticed we'd try to full press than eventually retreat further back.

 

[Dublin blue 75]

Couldn’t watch the game today. Someone give me a 7-word summary. Please and thank you.

Holgate, iwobi, Gomes, richarlison, sigurdson, all turd.

 

[Bkk Andy]

So Sir Alex, Keegan, Klopp, Pep never show passion!!

Behave lad

*Sigh*

Sir Alex, Klopp and Pep have a lot more than just passion. Keegan won what exactly?

 

[UltraVires]

As big of a fan of Carlo as I am, I will admin that I am becoming concerned that his style is going the way of Mourinho where the methods he used 10 years ago are simply not up to it today.

However, as much as I am sick of lethargic performances like today and players like Gomes and Iwobi, I think we need to give him 3-5 years to re-write the errors of previous managers.

 

[Khalekan]

Photo finish between Pickford and the woodwork.

With Pickford getting the nod.

It is a sad state of affairs that we lose a home game against a team below us in the league yet our goalkeeper is the actual MOTM.

But it sums up the way things have gone for us since Christmas to a T.

 

[Obes]

Absolutely shight again.

 

[MACCA75]

We were marginally better than Spurs and Palace teams that absolutely didn’t want to be there. Other than that, we’ve been second best in games for months.

 

[Steve EFC]

Yeh, and Solksjaer's been playing with players most of whom he inherited. Management is not just about buying the best. It's also to do with making the best of what you've got. Ancelotti may be great at the former but what has he shown regards the latter?

There’s a fair bit of difference between the players Ole inherited at United and the players Carlo inherited to be fair

 

[NewRadical]

I didn't think Villa were great tonight.

For the first 15 minutes of the second half they gave our midfield the ball countless times but we lacked both the individual quality and creative nous as a team to punish them.

I knew they would outwork us and have more energy but the opportunity was there for us to win.