2017/18 Idrissa Gueye

[Barnfred 55]

Put him as the screener in front of the defence and there's only one player better than him in the league at that job.

He's superb at it. But he isn't a box-to-box player and he shouldn't be tasked with that role.

Him, Davies and Rooney provide the ideal balance in midfield against teams at home or teams that we should be on the front foot against. Keep it that way.

We've won every game in which those three have played together in that system.

On ocassion dare I say, you can swap Beni for Gana, Klaassen for Davies and Siggy for Rooney.

Only against the top teams, and arguably only away from home, should we be playing 2 DMs. And then I'd pair Beni with Gana.

 

[Blueeyedboy]

Deserves his share of the criticism from today’s debacle, yet strangely never gets the criticism. Absolutely knowhere for any of the goals once again. He’s as much as a problem as Schneiderlin.

A big job in the summer to rebuild that midfield...

 

[GwladysBlue]

Unpopular opinion: he isn’t very good and we massively overrated him.

 

[CRIMHEAD]

You guys are insane. He's our best midfielder and most important player by a mile. The problem is Schneiderlin, not Gana. Ask Gana to play the 6 and he's about as good a DM as there is. It's not his fault he was being asked to be a box to box guy today. That's Sam's fault.

Notice how when we played Gana, Davies, and Rooney in the midfield we were terrific just on Wednesday?

 

[bluestevon]

On ocassion dare I say, you can swap Beni for Gana, Klaassen for Davies and Siggy for Rooney.

Only against the top teams, and arguably only away from home, should we be playing 2 DMs. And then I'd pair Beni with Gana.

Mate, every single time we play two def mids away from home against a top team we get royally reamed. Biggest myth going that it provides us with protection when we look more solid when we go with Davies and Gueye and try pressing

 

[bullybeef]

Still no new contract.

Probably wants out like everyone else.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Mate, every single time we play two def mids away from home against a top team we get royally reamed. Biggest myth going that it provides us with protection when we look more solid when we go with Davies and Gueye and try pressing

After yesterday wbo am I to argue. But then again, that was 2DMs in front of a back 5.

Mind you if one of thr buggers could just pass the ball it would help. I come back to Bemi.

 

[bluestevon]

After yesterday wbo am I to argue. But then again, that was 2DMs in front of a back 5.

Mind you if one of thr buggers could just pass the ball it would help. I come back to Bemi.

Just go off the evidence of your own eyes mate.

Gueye consistently plays much poorer alongside another defensive mid, Schneiderlin is a defensive mid who in my mind doesn't actually do anything defensively in games.

Best pairing in the centre for now anyway is Gueye and Davies and for them to set the tempo by pressing - Davies higher up ofc, playing Gueye/Morgan, i honestly think offers nothing protection wise besides on paper 'looking' like it should protect the back 4/5.

As a team we have never played well bar an aberration whilst playing two entirely defensive players.

In my mind anyway, Allardyce sacrificed that result last night with the team selection for the prior and last nights game showing it.

No Coleman, no Rooney or Sigurdsson, thats basically the best player, the clubs record signing and the clubs highest earner all dropped for the game, throw in the fact he went with Williams against Arse and Jags against Leicester (when he clearly rates Jags higher than Williams) and you have a manager putting an Everton team out with the intention of keeping the score to a lowish amount and focusing on the '6' pointers prior and after that game.

Picking a team and showing them a video to get them comfortable playing that change in formation, throwing in a new cb into that formation, playing Bolasie basically to get him minutes in a game that the manager is writing off in his mind already.

Worse than anything Moyes ever did in reality (the derby team selection aside)

 

[Saint Domingo]

Why is this guy like Teflon. Part of an awful villa team and part of several poor Everton sides. Absolute dross.

 

[Kev50]

Still no new contract.

Probably wants out like everyone else.

Let him go. I certainly wouldn’t be putting him on a five year deal at £125g a week

 

[DRAGONZ_RULE]

Deserves his share of the criticism from today’s debacle, yet strangely never gets the criticism. Absolutely knowhere for any of the goals once again. He’s as much as a problem as Schneiderlin.

A big job in the summer to rebuild that midfield...

Let's look at each goal and see how this stacks up...

1st goal:
Neither Gana nor Schneiderlin does anything wrong. Gana holds his space on the left edge of the box, Schneiderlin tracks Mkhitaryan's run to the point that it should have become Williams' or Martina's responsibility, and then tries to pull back into position.
Williams literally stands in no man's land, and Martina doesn't push across to the free Mkhitaryan, who then gets the ball. Mangala makes a crazy move away from his man Ramsey towards the near post already being guarded by Williams, and he then proceeds to fluff a fairly routine clearance. The fault lies with Mangala, Williams and Martina.

2nd goal:
Corner. Gana asked to stand on the intersection of the 18 yard box and by-line in case the cross is low. Nothing to do with him. Not going to bother analysing the car crash defending in the 6 yard box, but fault lies with all centre backs.

3rd goal:
Schneiderlin holds his position and keeps Iwobi in front of him. Gana tracks his man, the most advanced Arsenal central midfielder Xhaka, into the box. Ramsey makes a late run from the centre circle, Bolasie is stood 5m to Ramsey's right and just jogging back to the side instead of identifying the danger and busting a gut to get to Ramsey. Again not Gana or Schneiderlin's fault.

4th goal:
Gana holds his position and keeps Iwobi in front of him. Schneiderlin completely loses concentration and let's Mkhitaryan get goal side of him, you can see he realises too late and tries to make a late move but the cause is well and truly lost by then. Aubameyang is then offside so goal shouldn't have stood anyway, but blame lies with Schneiderlin entirely.

5th goal:
Gana does not close the gap to Ramsey so blame can be laid at his feet here, however at the same time DCL makes a crazy sliding effort to stop the ball going out 10m from the by-line which nobody in the entire stadium expected. From that point the ball was literally in the back of the net 3 seconds later.

So of the 5 goals, Gana can fairly accept some blame for the last goal, but no issues whatsoever with his defending for any of the others.

I encourage you to watch a replay of the goals again to see if my analysis above is fair or otherwise.


Anyway, I find it interesting that the gist of comments after the last game was "When this guy doesn't play with Sigurdsson he is excellent, and the team is better, but when they play together they both suck, as does the whole team." Then that very thing unfolded a couple of days later and it seems to have once again surprised some.

Just play Gana - Davies - Rooney in the middle and be done with it. Everton have not dropped a single point when those 3 have made up the central midfield.

 

[Nymzee]

Let him go. I certainly wouldn’t be putting him on a five year deal at £125g a week

Almost like it financially impacts you.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

Pickford

Coleman - Holgate - Williams - Martina

Walcott - Gueye - Rooney - Davies - Sigurdsson

Niasse​

Not quite a rigid 4-5-1 but more of a 4-1-4-1 with Gueye the deepest of the midfielders and Walcott & Sigurdsson effectively forming a 'front 3' with Niasse when we're attacking. For me this is the role that suits him best. I hope that this is the lineup for Palace, or at least very similar.

 

[Cels]

Unpopular opinion: he isn’t very good and we massively overrated him.

Joey Barton seems to love him:

“Idrissa Gueye. Remember when kids were on the playground and they all chase after the ball, and then somebody runs off because a crisp packet blows across the playground and he’s brain-dead? That’s Gueye. I think Schneiderlin is terrible, but it doesn’t help having him alongside him because the amount of times he vacates the middle of the park,” Barton raged.

 

[MartSlinger]

Unpopular opinion: he isn’t very good and we massively overrated him.

I think he's a good player, however, we tend to love players who just run around loads, which Gana does.