Intimidation - The Missing Ingredient at Everton

[Bungle]

You'd have thought other clubs would be terrified of us given the size of the Weapons we have in the boardroom

 

[Essex Blue]

I was at the '95 final & sat at Goodison through the 80's mate, so I don't need a refresher.

Without quality on the pitch the rest of it means fook all. You can be as intimidating as you want, but if you haven't got quality in your feet, it's merely wind & piss.

Winning is a habit, sucessful sides gain a belief that they'll win irrespective of how the game goes. That only comes over time & only ever happens when you've got top quality across the team.

I wasn't attempting to 'educate' anyone on our history, so I apologise if that's how it came across. I was just making the point that the last couple of Everton sides to actually win something haven't suffered from intimidation, mainly because they were the instigators of intimidation themselves.

Of Course you need quality to win, but we are talking about psychological as well as physical strength here, and I think the better sides tend to be perpetrators of intimidation rather than the victims. If you are intimidated then it would be no surprise to see your quality decrease, and I think that has happened with Moyes' Everton on a number of occasions.

 

[toffeejack]

great write up tubes. A lot of teams know they are going to get a tough game at goodison, but there's definitely not that awe that they're definitely going to lose when they're 1-0 down. To be fair, i don't remember us throwing a 2 goal advantage away at goodison for a good while so it's not as if teams come here and go 2-0 down and think yeah we're still in this - something they wouldn't do at old trafford. I think a lot of teams fear coming here for a night game, but there's not quite that same intimidation for 3 o'clock KO's. You say about the livepool away dressing room and it is probably something we could look at (not copy) - because our club is littered with history and yet most players coming probably think of our relegation stragglers from the 90's. Overall though, we have been the better team in every single home game this season and have just failed to kill games off rather than the opposition being not intimidated - we really should have had a 100% record, but football doesn't work like that.

With regards to intimidation though, arsenal are a team with a great recent history, but i don't think that was in the swansea players' minds last wed - they were thinking about the team in 8th and hadn't won a trophy in 6/7 years. some things just need a steady period of rising or decline to sort themselves. A lot more teams will go to klanfield in the next couple of years with very little to fear.

overall, i'd be surprised to see us lose any more than 2 or 3 home games this season, we just need to make sure we kill teams off and then we can watch our reputation grow

 

[kenada_blue]

I blame Moyes and his 'Rainbow FC' and class and dignity' nonsense for this, as well Moyes constantly labeling us as the underdog, and referring to relegation battles that took place over 10 years ago.

Joe Royle didn't have the same problem, but Joe installed a 'Dogs of War' mentality into his squad, and not a 'class, dignity, handshakes, bottling and losing' mantra, like Moyes does.

This.

Stoke have more of a fear factor at the Brittania than we have at GP for example.

 

[Brownie]

Stop talking about being underdogs all the time; stop perpetuating the "little old Everton" myth when we can field a side of full internationals and have players worth £10-30m scattered across the entire team.

I'm not being deluded and saying we should be smashing sides apart - I was delighted with the draw at City, for example - but if we're playing well and we have a talented side then we shouldn't be afraid to shout it from the rooftops. Instead, we tend to curb expectations and, whilst this isn't a Moyes thread, it does start with him.

It starts with the fans as well. When Fellaini comes out and says he expects to play for a top four club and expects Everton to achieve it or he's leaving, we should be completely agreeing with him, not immediately panicking and pretty much packing his bags for him through negativity.

We can call Liverpool fans deluded all we want, but there's nothing wrong with demanding a certain standard. The difference is, you need to understand what is achievable and what isn't.

I don't think Everton will win the league, but on the flip side I don't think there's any side in this league that come to Goodison who should be considered favourites before the kick off this season - and I include Chelsea, City, Arsenal and United in that. But does the club feel the same way?

I'm not sure anyone from the club talks about being underdogs all the time. But ok, so you'd like the manager and people representing the club to talk us up more in public. The difficult thing about that is you have to get the balance right and be able to back up what you say with your actions elsewhere, by getting tangible results. It's all very well telling other teams that they're going to have nightmares about facing your boys, in their own back yard, in front of a vicious crowd, but if they then turn up and find it's not so bad and come away with a draw, then you can't really expect the same trick to work next week. By the same token if you come out and say that you're really going to try to compete in the transfer market, looking at some top players, only to discover that you can't afford them, what can you say then?

With the fans, I still think we have a feeling amongst us that we should be beating anyone at home. It's hard to gauge that, but I don't think anyone really looks at fixtures at Goodison and thinks we can't beat them, whoever it is.

In general in football there tend to be two ways to get respect, you can earn it or you can buy it. It's not the kind of thing you can bluff.

 

[blue61]

What kinds of things can we do then to get this intimidation factor?

Get a born leader into the team as captain who accepts nothing less than victory from his team mates and drives them on, a Peter Reid type figure if you like, god knows who mind. We have no leaders on the pitch when captain pointy is out.

 

[Chang Elephant]

What kinds of things can we do then to get this intimidation factor?

Behead Kenwright on the pitch before the next game, letting others know we're not going to stand for it anymore and once we've cleaned out the enemy within, they'll be next.

 

[chicoazul]

I get the mentality thing mate but I think Goodison is one of the more intimidating places to come. We don't give many teams easy games.

Well put together article though. Except for bigging them up, no one's arsed about Anfield any more and with good reason.

 

[bluebottle]

Get a born leader into the team as captain who accepts nothing less than victory from his team mates and drives them on, a Peter Reid type figure if you like, god knows who mind. We have no leaders on the pitch when captain pointy is out.

I think this would be a good thing. For all of Phil Neville's faults, he does bring this. Fellaini seems to be leading by example and dragging the team along at the moment, but a big, vocal CB would do us good.

Behead Kenwright on the pitch before the next game, letting others know we're not going to stand for it anymore and once we've cleaned out the enemy within, they'll be next.

Behead our chairman? Surely an AGM would suff....oh.

 

[Samps]

I get the mentality thing mate but I think Goodison is one of the more intimidating places to come. We don't give many teams easy games.
Well put together article though. Except for bigging them up, no one's arsed about Anfield any more and with good reason.

This all day.

Every visiting manager states as much when they hold their pre and post-match press conferences for Goodison fixtures. Their opinions are far more valid than any SSN pundits, whether they're in line with the fashionable/clichéd view or not.

 

[paulbefc]

A lot of the teams that have taken points from Goodison have been buzzing their tits off about it, like. People don't like playing there.

 

[chicoazul]

Corpy Road posse in da house!

 

[bluebottle]

Corpy Road posse in da house!

You should stop advertising your ma without permission.

 

[chicoazul]

You should stop advertising your ma without permission.

Rock Ferry baghead in da house!

 

[bluebottle]

Rock Ferry baghead in da house!

Whom do you refer to? I know you are as you have discussed that you are.