Finishing 7th

[GrandOldTeam]

Following on from What is 'success' for Everton, a simple poll...

With 12 games remaining, we're currently in 7th position.

Would you consider finishing 7th a good, average or disappointing season?

 

[ijjysmith]

I went 'Average'.

At the start of the season I'd defo have taken 7th, however we've been generally quite good so could feasibly finish higher.

 

[Moomin]

Disappointing considering our position in January.

 

[snipellis11]

I think we deserve to finish higher than 7th, i think we have played some really good football and have been very unlucky in games, but it is martinez's first season in charge i think for his first season 7th would be good and then we can keep building and pushing on.

 

[Fuleco]

Cheese on toast.

 

[Big Fat Sam]

Disappointing considering our position in January.

Incredible let down after a great first half to the season.

Who is to blame though?

Kenwright for not giving the manager money in the summer?

Martinez for not making use of available money in January?

The players for not taking their chances in the final third?

Injuries?

God?

 

[ijjysmith]

I think we deserve to finish higher than 7th, i think we have played some really good football and have been very unlucky in games, but it is martinez's first season in charge i think for his first season 7th would be good and then we can keep building and pushing on.

Thing is though, if we haven't scored the goals and won the games to get higher than 7th, then why do we 'deserve' to be higher?

 

[caught]

Average in the sense that the six clubs above us each have bigger squads and superior resources. Disappointing considering the optimism everyone had as little as six weeks ago. Good #ATLEASTWERENOTVILLA

 

[PaddyG]

Think it depends on the FA cup really.

Win that and nobody will even remember where we finished in the league

 

[BlueLlama]

Most were preapred for a transition period but we didnt really need one did we? Squad couldnt cope with injuries but we should never be satified with 7th.

The last month has been very disappointing. Snatching 4th is no longer realistic. Lukaku back still gives us a sniff of 5th.

 

[toffeeblue9]

I would have happily settled for 7th before the season started as I felt we might have a transitional season.

The way the season has progressed though is going to make 7th feel quite disappointing.

The media said we would struggle because of a lack of squad depth - I actually think that's pretty lazy. We had 14 outfield players out at one point of the season, any team in the country would struggle with an injury list like that. The injuries we picked up in December and January have really hurt us and we're still dealing with the fallout now.

I'd also say that before the Jan transfer window, Martinez said we would need to bring in cover for Gibson and Kone. We didn't do that. We swapped a centre back for a winger (a move I think I'm pretty happy with) and we swapped one striker for an injured one (a move I'm less happy with). Think January didn't work out as planned, but it perhaps wouldn't have been a huge issue if we weren't dealing with the huge injury issues we've had.

7th is probably as good as it's going to get as I imagine United will find a bit of form, Spurs are a difficult one to predict but the top four are miles away now. 6th at absolute best, 7th most likely.

If we manage to get past Arsenal in the FA Cup though, I think we'd probably all have taken being 7th and in the semi finals in March if we had been offered it before a ball was kicked.

 

[snipellis11]

Thing is though, if we haven't scored the goals and won the games to get higher than 7th, then why do we 'deserve' to be higher?

I think we have played good football in some of the games we have played and not won, tottenham and chelsea spring to mind, yeah we didn't have many chances but we still had chances and all it needed is a good quality striker upfront to put one of these chances away and them games could have been different, all we were missing in these games was a striker who could put chances away we played good football in both games and i think we matched both teams and deserved more than getting beat.

 

[ijjysmith]

I think we have played good football in some of the games we have played and not won, tottenham and chelsea spring to mind, yeah we didn't have many chances but we still had chances and all it needed is a good quality striker upfront to put one of these chances away and them games could have been different, all we were missing in these games was a striker who could put chances away we played good football in both games and i think we matched both teams and deserved more than getting beat.

I agree we've played pretty well in some games.

The Spurs one is a good example. All over them for large parts of the first half.

But if you don't score, you are always in danger of not winning. Therefore you don't deserve to win.

 

[By god I'm blue]

From the position we were in, I went for disappointing.

We have been unlucky with having 3 long-term injuries in Gibson, Kone and Oviedo, but the general feeling will be that we did not strengthen in January again and it has cost us, again!

 

[technojoe]

It boils down to luck with us. If we don't get enough we drop an drop!

Unfortunately the more you spend the likely you'll consolidate positions around this point of season. We never ever spend anywhere near enough to do anything serious.