Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £80m
Making the break through. For as long as I can remember every single time we have come close to achieving anything of note we find a way to not do it. We crawl back into the comfortable shell of mediocrity. Whether it's small things like holding on for a win against a top aide when playing badly rather than the inevitable draw, larger things like winning a derby, winning away at a top 6 side, or even larger moments like winning cup semi finals and finals. For the past 20 years Everton have found a way to trip up at the last moment. How many gut wrenching last minute equalisers against us, how many derbies Liverpool have squirmed out of, how many semi finals we've played well enough to win.
A case in point was the fixtures last weekend. With Deulofeu bearing down on goal for 2 -0 v Spurs I don't think anyone seriously thought we were going to do it. The resulting 1-1 just seemed so inevitable. After giving a pen away at Arsenal though, Liverpool fans I was watching the game with (torturously) were confident Mignolet would save it, even at 1 down they were sure of a win, and then at 4-3 there was no doubt in their mind they'd hold on. Just like it seemed inevitable that City and Chelsea would get the late goal to get the wins they needed. You never ever get that feeling with Everton. It's the opposite, like being two goals up at Bournemouth or Chelsea and knowing in your gut you still won't win. Poorer sides than us can go to big teams away from home and get one off incredible results. We never ever do this.
Koeman just needs to get one under his belt, just one. Break the mental barrier whatever way possible. A scrappy 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge, a home derby win, holding on for that unlikely away win you don't really deserve but are the sort top sides get. Then these things eventually accumulate in the right mindset so that when you get to a semi final the players and fans are going in thinking 'maybe this is the one to go for us' rather than 'oh god not again, how will we manage to snatch defeat here'.
Koeman needs to turn us from heroic failures to uninspiring patchy winners then build from there.
A case in point was the fixtures last weekend. With Deulofeu bearing down on goal for 2 -0 v Spurs I don't think anyone seriously thought we were going to do it. The resulting 1-1 just seemed so inevitable. After giving a pen away at Arsenal though, Liverpool fans I was watching the game with (torturously) were confident Mignolet would save it, even at 1 down they were sure of a win, and then at 4-3 there was no doubt in their mind they'd hold on. Just like it seemed inevitable that City and Chelsea would get the late goal to get the wins they needed. You never ever get that feeling with Everton. It's the opposite, like being two goals up at Bournemouth or Chelsea and knowing in your gut you still won't win. Poorer sides than us can go to big teams away from home and get one off incredible results. We never ever do this.
Koeman just needs to get one under his belt, just one. Break the mental barrier whatever way possible. A scrappy 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge, a home derby win, holding on for that unlikely away win you don't really deserve but are the sort top sides get. Then these things eventually accumulate in the right mindset so that when you get to a semi final the players and fans are going in thinking 'maybe this is the one to go for us' rather than 'oh god not again, how will we manage to snatch defeat here'.
Koeman needs to turn us from heroic failures to uninspiring patchy winners then build from there.
