Well it's purely semantics then.
To me, a counter is when you quickly win the ball back and break. Whether that be from deep or from high up. I'm not into all the technical terms of vertical passing, turnovers etc. It's a counter, in my eyes.
For the first goal, I'm not blaming any of our players. My point was Arsenal got lucky with a bounce/failed clearance and Lacazette had the quality to punish us. In an ideal world, Kenny would have shown Lacazette the left side but he would have then been into the box and there's a chance of a pen/goal anyway.
Three v Kenny has nothing to do with tactics. It has to do with Zouma making a bad mistake and then diving in. Arsenal break, Keane steps up to play an offside and Kenny doesn't (as he has a habit of doing at the moment).
Arsenal then get lucky with a blatant offside, but it came from a mistake. That's not tactics.
Stop looking to blame Silva for that. Mistakes happen and bad bounces happen. The issue is that we didn't finish the chances when we had them. The tactics (which you describe very adequately at the start of your post) were key in us creating those chances, because we applied pressure to the Arsenal line and had the pace to capitalise.
You can criticise fairly, like why did he not change it up when we went 1-0 down or just before, when we were on top but it was clear DCL was flagging. Or why did it take 20 minutes for us to reorganise?
So the tactics worked. The goals we conceded were down to individual mistakes or errors in judgement from players at that point, plus a quality finish and a stunningly bad piece of officiating.
If you want describe 4 to 5 players commiting to a press in the oppositipn build up phase while leaving huge spaces in between them and the backs - as counter attacking tactics, so be it.
A proper counter attack approach against Arsenal was the right play and we probably would have won doing so.
But they didn't. They either didn't hold their nerve or Silva had other instructions.
The way to beat Everton at the moment is to draw the two CMs into the play around the half way. If youve got decent players who can hold the ball and work combinations then you can be sure at the moment we'll fall for it. Davies is almost becomimg a parody, like a shuffling deer in the headlights one minute, chargong in too late the next.
Falling for it, bc the team either doesn't compress the space based on what Gana and Davies are doing or cant because the movements of Gana are everywhere and Davies' ineffective. So this type of play makes is make the defending part more disorganised, more difficult to pull off as a team.
To play thos way in attack your going to need to have players who can keep possesion. You can't always take the option you call a counter because it's just increasing the defensive vulnerabilities.
So the opposition tactics are easy - play to get in behind the CMs and which ever of our wing backs is highest. At times like against West Ham the red carpet was pretty much rolled out for them
We just keep getting sucked in. We don't have the quality to hold possession at the moment but Silva persists anyway.
If Arsenal got it together in the first half they would of scored against us. It should have been 2-1 either way at half time.
But the way we're set up we wouldnt been able to hold on to a lead against in the 2nd half.
Emry sized up Silvas tactics and Arsenal came out after half time and did the job.
Have a look at how Xhaka, the new fella and Ramsey played. I actually felt sorry for Gana in the end. Without him it would have been 3 or 4.
The concern is Silva doesn't have the ability to build the foundations.
The concern is that after 2 to 3 yrs of Silva we are going to be no closer to getting these foundations.
What we'll see is some decent players in Rico, Bernard, Gomes Mina come in and play to mid table overall, and with a better striker, possibly skirting the edges of a top 6. But we will be no closer to establishing a foothold in it.
After waiting years, (post the conservative Moyes/Kenwright era) to have Martinez piss it away, and have Koeman, Unsworth, BFS unable to build a proper foundation, you just have to excuse some of us for not living on false hope.
The frustration, resignation and outrage is justified.
Many of the criticisms and concerns of Silva are valid.
As a foreigner I say this as somewhat of an outsider - the club, the people of Everton, the mighty Goodison, deserves better - than what the latest incarnation is serving up.
