Finishing 7th

[Groucho]

7th would be ok considering it's a season of change however on the whole we should be aiming higher if we want to add to our honours list.

 

[Cadbury13]

I can see Spurs going all out for the EL now and will steadily drop off the pace in the league. Their fixtures in March are horrific and fingers crossed they progress on Thursday.

That leaves us and United. Assuming we win our game in hand we have a 3 point lead with 11 to go. I think they'll pick up more points than us from here purely due to their front 4.

We'll get 6th imo, which will be a good season.

 

[dannyboy]

7th would be a decent finish, the challenge for Martinez is to improve upon that in the coming years. For me, I think he's got his work cut out. Even to maintain this level would represent a good job in my eyes.

Target both of the cups and win us a trophy, that's his best bet.

 

[davek]

As said given the start very disappointing my worry is the 1st half was a fluke and now is the reality, poor player trying to play fancy football, proof in the pudding being the massive lack of chances created, been harping on about this for a while now, but our 'worldie' goals to regular goals ratio will be phenomenal, for this season. A team can't get by on that, looking back at our last away win Swansea, Coleman and Barkley with the goals, Followed by Coleman V Southmpton, followed by Barry and Mirrallas V Norwich and a again Mirallas V Villa. Thats our last 4 wins listed stretching all the way back to the 22nd december, its so so poor. Time will tell, lets see if we can win these next 3 home league games possibly 4 if Palace is re-scheduled. But for me we are all fir coat with no knickers and aging squad, players on loan and a board notorious with not having any sort of Net spend Facts are Facts.

But hey we did have 53% possession away at Chelsea.

Worth noting that in certain aspects non of this is new, we played decent football at times last season, think of the Chances we created V Fulham and other teams that we just didn't put away, the other similarity to last season is our poor away form after Xmas last season we won at Newcastle on Around the 3rd of Jan then we didn't win away again until the start of this season.

How is it poor? Including that Swansea away win until the present we've played in the league 10 games:
Won 4
Drawn 2
Lost 4

...add in the three cup wins and it's

Won 7
Drawn 2
Lost 4

Dont let the fantastic run up to the Sunderland game blur your judgement on a very respectabe set of results. Not dazzling, but not poor either.

And what does the constant comments about possession stats mean? Would you rather we had less of the ball and lose/draw? We play football now. Even if it sometimes isn't converted into points it's a much better situation.

 

[Allezfan]

The thing about posession is we've dominated it in pretty much every game we've played in the last 4 years.

We're actually doing far better at using the ball when we have it this year than previous.

This weird myth that we were some crushingly effective counter attacking liverpool like team is just odd. We spend a lot of time passing the ball around in little circles in midfield and not going anywhere in the later moyes seasons, tbh.

 

[paulbefc]

I'd say it's average. 6th and above would be sound.

Whilst on the one hand you can argue that we had a great opportunity this year with the decline at United, the poor form of Spurs and the fact this has been the best squad - by some margin - we've had since the 80s, you could also argue that Liverpool's huge improvement and our injury list has made it a lot more difficult. I wouldn't play down the loss of Gibson and Kone this year, for instance, despite the fact they never get mentioned. I think having them would have meant a lot less of Osman and Jelavic in the side, for example, which would have helped.

I am disappointed at how we've fallen down the league over the last couple of months, but that's to be expected with the injuries we've had and the fixtures we've faced. I'm sure we'll feel a lot better when we've played our 4 winnable home games in the league coming up (including the Palace game).

I'm pleased with a lot of intangibles, regarding Roberto. He's made me feel a little prouder and happier as a fan, so far. Mainly due to the change in style of play. It's been refreshing. However, I rank these kind of benefits way below premier league points and trophies, so they can't count for much.

If we finish 7th, Roberto has a lot of work to do. He promised progress and eventual CL football. He knew we don't spend money here. He's not soft. I'm not having that he came here expecting to be able to spend money and has since been disappointed. He obviously believed he could get us competing at the top of the league, so I want to see him back that up next season.

7th is the minimum I wanted this year. He will satisfy that. I want more next year as we all know it's possible and he has promised it.

 

[dannyboy]

I'd say it's average. 6th and above would be sound.

Whilst on the one hand you can argue that we had a great opportunity this year with the decline at United, the poor form of Spurs and the fact this has been the best squad - by some margin - we've had since the 80s, you could also argue that Liverpool's huge improvement and our injury list has made it a lot more difficult. I wouldn't play down the loss of Gibson and Kone this year, for instance, despite the fact they never get mentioned. I think having them would have meant a lot less of Osman and Jelavic in the side, for example, which would have helped.

I am disappointed at how we've fallen down the league over the last couple of months, but that's to be expected with the injuries we've had and the fixtures we've faced. I'm sure we'll feel a lot better when we've played our 4 winnable home games in the league coming up (including the Palace game).

I'm pleased with a lot of intangibles, regarding Roberto. He's made me feel a little prouder and happier as a fan, so far. Mainly due to the change in style of play. It's been refreshing. However, I rank these kind of benefits way below premier league points and trophies, so they can't count for much.

If we finish 7th, Roberto has a lot of work to do. He promised progress and eventual CL football. He knew we don't spend money here. He's not soft. I'm not having that he came here expecting to be able to spend money and has since been disappointed. He obviously believed he could get us competing at the top of the league, so I want to see him back that up next season.

7th is the minimum I wanted this year. He will satisfy that. I want more next year as we all know it's possible and he has promised it.

Going to be difficult though isn't it? Can't see United repeating their failures this year and Liverpool will doubtlessly get stronger. Spurs are probably the only team I can see us overtaking, that's why I was dismayed our January transfer window. Think we've missed a golden opportunity.

 

[ianefc]

How is it poor? Including that Swansea away win until the present we've played in the league 10 games:
Won 4
Drawn 2
Lost 4

...add in the three cup wins and it's

Won 7
Drawn 2
Lost 4

Dont let the fantastic run up to the Sunderland game blur your judgement on a very respectabe set of results. Not dazzling, but not poor either.

And what does the constant comments about possession stats mean? Would you rather we had less of the ball and lose/draw? We play football now. Even if it sometimes isn't converted into points it's a much better situation.

Not sure its the be all and end all thats all, last season Bayern beat Barca in Munich with 35% possession, so if we keep losing/dropping points and people are happy with us maintaining possession then when is it ok to say this isn't good enough.

 

[paulbefc]

Going to be difficult though isn't it? Can't see United repeating their failures this year and Liverpool will doubtlessly get stronger. Spurs are probably the only team I can see us overtaking, that's why I was dismayed our January transfer window. Think we've missed a golden opportunity.

It was always going to be difficult. I think this year we showed some signs of being able to mix it with the top 4. What we needed this year was cutting edge. If we can add that and keep standards up in the rest of the side whilst improving our squad options slightly and getting just a little bit of luck with injuries, we can challenge more seriously.

United, Liverpool and Spurs will spend again this summer. Two of them will spend enormous amounts, I reckon. None of this is a surprise though. Roberto clearly believed he could get us up there and I've seen enough to have faith for the time being, personally.

 

[Whitebootman]

Disappointing, but I really should not be disappointed. Martinez has done very well for us in his first season and certainly raised my expectations. The first half of the season was excellent. We have lost some form recently and dropped down the table but I still think we will finish better than 7th. A cup win is also still possible and again something I would not have expected at the start of the season. The striker situation needs sorting, we've not done ourselves any favours and watching big Vic scoring I'm thinking 'if only'.

I wasn't going to comment on Martinez until the end of the season but as far as I'm concerned he's the man for us. The team is looking refreshed and competitive and playing attractive football. I hope Bill is able to spend good money in the summer, if he does our future looks bright.

Finishing 7th will be disappointing, but I am far from disappointed with out team and manager.

Come on you blues!

 

[BoysInBlue]

It's not disappointing because 7th is logically where we should finish.
We don't have the finances behind us to finish in the top 6.
Nothing will change with the current board in place.
No matter where we were in January, seasons don't end in January. It's irrelevant. We didn't have the money to have a big enough squad to finish higher up the table at the END OF THE SEASON.

Anyone who is disappointed is disappointed that our excellent form combined with mega rich rivals above us being inconsistent/poor didn't continue for the full season.

 

[Allezfan]

It's not disappointing because 7th is logically where we should finish.
We don't have the finances behind us to finish in the top 6.
Nothing will change with the current board in place.
No matter where we were in January, seasons don't end in January. It's irrelevant. We didn't have the money to have a big enough squad to finish higher up the table at the END OF THE SEASON.

Anyone who is disappointed is disappointed that our excellent form combined with mega rich rivals above us being inconsistent/poor didn't continue for the full season.

Yeah, no.

Bollocks to that phil neville stuff of '7th is a big achievment for a club like everton'. We finished 6th just last year, ffs.

And we'll finish higher than 7th again this year, too.

 

[Moomin]

At the start of the season, I would have been happy with a top 10 finish. Roberto has done a cracking job so far, and its my own fault for building up expectations for this season around the xmas period.

Its going to be a big summer, he will have money to spend, but with the way we finance our transfers this could be the last window we have cash to burn until we sell Barkley.

 

[meagher94]

The thing about posession is we've dominated it in pretty much every game we've played in the last 4 years.

We're actually doing far better at using the ball when we have it this year than previous.

This weird myth that we were some crushingly effective counter attacking liverpool like team is just odd. We spend a lot of time passing the ball around in little circles in midfield and not going anywhere in the later moyes seasons, tbh.

Jesus. Who's said this?

 

[GwladysPugh]

4th isn't gone yet. until its mathematically impossible i'll keep believing.