Man City vs Blues - Match Report and Man of the Match Poll...

Man of the Match

  • Maarten Stekelenburg

    Votes: 403 93.1%

  • Bryan Oviedo

    Votes: 3 0.7%

  • Ashley Williams

    Votes: 13 3.0%

  • Phil Jagielka

    Votes: 2 0.5%

  • Seamus Coleman

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Gareth Barry

    Votes: 2 0.5%

  • Idrissa Gana Gueye

    Votes: 2 0.5%

  • Tom Cleverley

    Votes: 5 1.2%

  • Yannick Bolasie

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Romelu Lukaku

    Votes: 3 0.7%

  • Gerard Deulofeu

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    433
Status
Not open for further replies.

Barnfred 55 said:
Yesterdays game was defined by the large numbers we got behind the ball Dave, not the season as a whole. We are more defensively minded I agree and are doing more pressing all over the pitch. But we've hardly been packing the defence like we did yesterday.

I agree with your point re Rom's goal though. We'd already substituted Macca for Del by that stage and I've already said we should have brought Ross on for Del. A defensive 8 was OTT even for yesterday's game.

Think you're giving the players mentioned an easy ride though mate. Despite not fitting all of Koeman's preferred skill sets (which I concur with by the way) when they get the ball they're more than good enough to show more quality than they have been over the last few weeks. All four players usually thrive in counter attacking football but showed absolutely no composure yesterday (apart from ross of course as he didn't get the opportunity sadly).
Click to expand...
Exactly and agreed 100%- I don't know where this idea that we've been playing 10 behind the ball all season is coming from. Look at the highlights of the Boro, Sunderland, even Bournemouth games and you never see that. Heck i don't think I've seen some of our forward players like Del, Ross or Bolasie put a shift in defensively all season.

The offensive issues realy have nothing to do with a defensive focus or too many men behind the ball, it really can be boiled down to lack of anyone leading the transition out of our own half. Ross when he's on his day can be world class at that but we know how that story has gone most of this season. Del was supposed to be that guy on Saturday but save for a few moments he might as well been off the pitch completely.

Also I still don't think the fitness is where it needs to be- Koeman wants more pressure but most of our boys just don't seem to have the gas for it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Welcome

Join Grand Old Team to get involved in the Everton discussion. Signing up is quick, easy, and completely free.

Register

Shop

Back
Top