Everton's footballing identity: what should it be?

[blue61]

A club that develops it's young players with a planned pathway into the first team, with a mix of senior, experienced professionals. Playing a style of football that is entertaining and productive, playing wherever possible on the front foot. Having a manager who can implement this style of play throughout the club, and have a capable DOF who will work to his blueprint and work in unison with the manager.
Not much to ask really.

 

[deipnosophist]

Hope for the best...but the hope will kill you

Everton that

 

[Timak]

You've got two schools of football, pragmatic and progressive.

Jose Mourinho is a pragmatic manager, David Moyes was a pragmatic manager. They see their job as maximising the points given the options they have available and spend a lot of time thinking about the opposition.

Pep Guardiola is a progressive manager, Roberto Martinez was a progressive manager. They play the same way whoever they are up against.

A good pragmatist will beat an average progressive manager. As we saw in Roberto's second and third seasons teams knew how we'd play and realised if they stayed deep at Goodison we couldn't break them down.

However a good progressive manager with financial backing and a long term plan is the only way we'll make this club into one that wins trophies.

We need a plan from top to bottom. Some sort of mission statement along these lines:

Everton are the school of science. We are looking to continually improve every aspect of our club, by recruiting the best and developing our own staff. Intellectual laziness has no place at Everton - we think things through, decisions are made with the best available evidence and we back our decisions with all the resources they require. On the pitch we play aggressive, attacking football, we aim to win games and believe in the style of football we play. This will be the best football club to work for in the world, and the best to support.

 

[Davideeyore]

Brought up on the mid-80's we should have that dynamism and endeavour that went through the team. Easier said than done.
We're too slow too too weak to impose a style of play. Players are often half hearted on the pitch that's got to be sorted. That needs a real clever manager to shake up this squad.

 

[Bluebonic]

A phased evolution is required...

Phase one: identity should stop being ‘lets make our supporters feel ashamed to be associated with us’.

Phase two: buy the players we need at the moment, disregarding age, number of caps, league thye are currently playing in, sell on value, FM stats or any other such piffle = identity still unclear but holding our own and no longer being the laughing stock of the prem

Phase three: identity confirmed as a club who are run on business lines, with a team who plays with heart and flair, and a fanbase who appreciate and support the lads through thick and thin, who can enjoy any success without becoming entitled and delusional when its good, or bitter and twisted when it isnt.

That’ll do for starters i reckon.

 

[Milkman]

We need a manager that actually understands how pressing works. The fans love seeing players working hard off the ball, trying to win the ball back with aggression. It's practically the only thing that gets Goodison going at times. Find a manager that gets the team to work like that and we'll be fine.