Match Thread Everton v Leicester City - Preview, Match Report and MotM Poll

[Zezti]

I am a Fox and I was really disappointed with Everton's boring negativity. A wonder goal from nothing gave you a chance of a win. We well deserved a stroke of luck with Pickford's error. Surely you guys want to see more exciting football?

Didn't have our two most important midfielders and had to adapt so count yourselves lucky you haven't played us at full strength this season and got a point.

 

[peteblue]

I am a Fox and I was really disappointed with Everton's boring negativity. A wonder goal from nothing gave you a chance of a win. We well deserved a stroke of luck with Pickford's error. Surely you guys want to see more exciting football?

You deserved nothing. James with a curling left foot shot, Richarlison with a header and DCL with a header should have buried you. You had the ball and did nothing with it but got lucky with our short armed keeper......

 

[Sheedy's right knee.]

It really is decent overall - if we're patient and think about the big picture it's only been just over a year, and quite a dramatic improvement!

Well said. I hope with a full team closer to being a reality we will have a more attacking threat but not at the expense of a solid defence. Some tweaking required but these are fine lines. Getting the correct balance.

 

[Jebus_lives]

I am a Fox and I was really disappointed with Everton's boring negativity. A wonder goal from nothing gave you a chance of a win. We well deserved a stroke of luck with Pickford's error. Surely you guys want to see more exciting football?

Generally, we do see more exciting football. More importantly we want to see our team winning. We weren't at our best by any stretch last night and yet we limited your 'exciting' brand of football to a draw from a blunder by our keeper.

 

[FOXINPEACE]

Nice to see Ben Godfrey doing well. I live in Norfolk so I've kept an eye on Norwich over the past few years and Godfrey seemed a bit of enigma with the Norwich fans. Many of them believed that he was playing out of position for them and that he was more of a defensive mid. Most of them also seemed OK about him leaving and were more worried about losing the likes of Max Aarons and Cantwell etc

His pace and athleticism look a real asset to you amd hopefully he kicks on whatever position he ends up playing

Edit: meant to post this in the Ben Godfrey thread

 

[marekb]

I am a Fox and I was really disappointed with Everton's boring negativity. A wonder goal from nothing gave you a chance of a win. We well deserved a stroke of luck with Pickford's error. Surely you guys want to see more exciting football?

So was I, but Carlo went with the best options he had available at the time to try and get a result. Davies and Gomez are never in million years going to control and win a midfield battle, they'll lose the ball and leave big gaps for the opposition to wreak havoc in.

Last night was just horses for courses. It's a building process at the moment for sure and the manager is tactically astute enough to be able to change the styles and formations around depending on what he's got available and who the opposition is, for now getting the points on the board while slowly rebuilding is the way to go.

And 4 points against Leicester this season aint a bad return.

 

[FOXINPEACE]

So was I, but Carlo went with the best options he had available at the time to try and get a result. Davies and Gomez are never in million years going to control and win a midfield battle, they'll lose the ball and leave big gaps for the opposition to wreak havoc in.

Last night was just horses for courses. It's a building process at the moment for sure and the manager is tactically astute enough to be able to change the styles and formations around depending on what he's got available and who the opposition is, for now getting the points on the board while slowly rebuilding is the way to go.

It's better to have a manager that adapts his playing style to the opposition rather than a one trick pony like Bielsa. I reckon Everton are on the right track with Ancelotti and with a couple more positive transfer windows he'll be able to be a bit more adventurous and trusting in his players.

 

[Barnfred 55]

I am a Fox and I was really disappointed with Everton's boring negativity. A wonder goal from nothing gave you a chance of a win. We well deserved a stroke of luck with Pickford's error. Surely you guys want to see more exciting football?

You have a very good team mate, in my opinion quite possibly the third best in the league behind City and the RS. But you also have a very short memory because it was only 3/4 seasons ago that you won the league playing a system similar to the one we employed last night.

We have a manager who is pragmatic and plays a style to suit the opponents with the players we have available. Last night, due to injury and suspension, we had to use our 4th and 6th choice central midfield pairing against arguably the best midfield trio in the league. We had to make allowances for that defensively otherwise you would likely have walked through us. It nearly worked. It took a goalkeeping calamity and a couple of missed chances at the end, chances both players would normally have put away, that prevented those tactics taking 6 points from you in quick succession.

So yes, we would all love to see us playing the type of football we were showing at the start of the season when we had our best players fit and available. But, like our manager, most of our fans are pragmatic enough to understand and appreciate that it is more important to continue accruing points and keeping alive hopes of European football next season.

When both teams have a full squad available I think you'd see a different game between us. At the moment, you have the edge with your first choice back up players, especially offensively, but watch out because a couple of transfer windows can soon sort that out.

 

[toffeejohn29]

I think there is a bit of having cake and eating it on here, early season we where playing great football, plenty of goals but where conceding 2 a game which will not get results forever. Then with injuries, suspensions we had a bad November, Carlo not scared tried a few formations with varied results, Fulham away 3 at the back looked great 1st half but still prone to conceding chances. Delph get injured against Burnley and Godfrey slots in at left back and back 4 returns and we dominate that game. We then played with a little more control than we did last night against a weaker Leicester team, Chelsea Arsenal then Sheffield United without pulling up any trees but winning on the back of solid defending. We lost against West Ham through a fluke and I admittedly did not see that game. We then beat Wolves away effectively cut them off 2nd half and scored the winner with our most depleted team very impressive. I’ll stick my neck out here,
Leicester had 18 shots of which 10 where blocked. No accident well drilled defending. We had 5 shot in the box they had 6 and we had Gomes not get a shot off from 3 yards but they battered us?. I would also like to say Gomes and Davies weren’t poor last night some of Gomes passing out of midfield was very good, Leicester exposed their shortcomings but I’ve seen them play much worse. They did ok. We have achieved all this without our most influential midfielder Allan. Ancelloti and all the players deserve a lot praise over the last 2 months. Some of the negative posters have been over the top last night. With our full team we can refine our attacking but also keep it tight. With Allan and Doucoure and Cameos from Tom Siggy and Gomes to keep things fresh teams will not relish facing us. COYB’S.

A really good post and analysis of the season. We cannot get carried away when we win nor get too depressed when we lose. We are vastly improved from last year and I for one have really high hopes of a very high finish. Aim for the stars and stay positive. We have never had a player like James in my lifetime; the nearest was Kevin's left foot.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Before the game most on here would have taken a point. We all knew that Davies and Gomes in midfield was going to be a weak area, and that Leicester were coming into this game as probably the second best in form team in the country after City. It was always going to be a very hard fixture.

Fast forward 2 hours and everybody was complaining about dropped points, slagging off Davies and Gomes and, in some cases, even the manager, and bemoaning the negative tactics.

At the start of the season Davies and Gomes were probably our 5th and 6th choices to play defensive midfield. As good as an in form Gomes may be in possession, we all know that defensively he's a liability. Davies, due to decent form under Carlo, has probably now leapfrogged to 4th best defensive mid, and these days I'm reasonably OK to see him playing there alongside one of Doucoure or Allan. But alongside Gomes, against arguably one of the best 2 midfields in the league, never. But Carlo had no choice really, other than to throw a central defender in there.

So really he had to play a negative formation in order to protect that middle two. You would normally rely heavily on your front 3 being on their game, and sadly neither Dom or Richy were. So it was great credit really that we nearly pulled it off. It was a good, hard earned point.

 

[Barnfred 55]

I don't think Davies and Gomes were that bad last night. Obvs not MOM material but still they played ok.

Gomes was exposed without the ball but we knew that going into the game. Davies did some great things without the ball, but wasn't so great with it. We have 6 central midfielders in the club and this is the last pairing you would have put together against the quality within the Leicester midfield. But we had no choice really other than throw a central defender in the mix.

There's absolutely no point cryarsing over it.

 

[toffeejohn29]

4 points off you in 6 weeks.

Are you new to supporing Leicester ?? As you win the league playing the same way!!

Don't Leicester ( the new media darlings ) just play on the break. Nothing too exciting there.

 

[tommytowne]

First opportunity to say anything about last night.
Up there with the Leeds and West Ham games with regard to my absolute frustration.
All the other results went our way and we couldn't capitalise, again. I had more confidence about last night knowing we needed a win because we know what's happening Saturday lunchtime.

 

[everton1953]

I am probably repeating myself either here or on another thread. None of us are paying to go to the match anymore. We are all forced to be TV followers. The varied opinions on the match all come from that standpoint. Had 38,000 travelled to attend and witnessed that match in the pouring rain etc etc, apart from the bad reaction and booing in the stadium, these threads would have been "flooded" with angry fans who had witnessed Leicester, who are not a million miles of higher ranking than us, wipe the floor with us football wise. All the flair and nearly all the attacking came from them. That is how low our current squad has come to in terms of entertainment value. What a strange effect this lockdown or lockout has had on fans. All we need to do is switch off as I did in two recent games.

 

[Andy_Oz]

Honestly think that's a bit of a poor assumption.

He has a split second to think about it, and gets his positioning wrong. It's probably as simple as that, but it's a poor mistake.

You’re right, I know, in that situation he only has a split second to react. Was more trying to make the point that some of his reactions are likely caused by what seems to be an underlying “need” to do something flashy rather than something simple.