Old, Older, But NOT oldest!

[Goat]

But you do realise I wasnt being 100% serious in my "ratings", right?

 

[DualityNSNO]

Appreciate that there are a couple of guys on here who outrank me in terms of years. But for the sake of sanity I have to say this: we are where we are because we are not remotely good enough to be better paced.

Happy to go through a position by position comparison. Equally happy to defend my view that it is a result of a succession of rubbish boards.

But for the love of God stop saying that X is the best in the P L / Europe / Milky Way.
These players are Goddamed ordinary.

Beg to differ. We're using them wrongly, and they're not the best in the world, but they're very good. The whole position by position thing is very unnecessary for me, and I also get annoyed at "X is best in the league/Europe/etc" - we're just not using them as we should. Plenty of examples this season alone - why is Besic being paired with another defensive midfielder (and why do we even play with 2 unless we're going for a bus-parking play anyway?), why is Barkley on the wing, why is Lukaku asked to drop deep and run the channels so often, why did we not get another CB this summer, why do we keep playing Naismith in a playmaker role, why are Baines and Coleman now holding back so much, etc., etc.

All the above mentioned have certain strengths that they are probably a lot better than a majority of other players from the Prem, but we're using them in the exact opposite way we should be. Basically the fluidity and logic of last season is replaced by an idea-lacking, lethargic, illogical play for absolutely no reason at all, and that's not down to the players themselves, as those are things they're obviously asked to do.

I can expand on why I dislike Martinez's style this season and have a lot to write about our tactics being very off, but there's no point for me personally at this point. I like the man a lot, but I've grown to dislike his style, and for someone who's, in his own words, "addicted to football" and "watching it all day long" to the extent of the L-shaped couch and all that crap - he's very, VERY bad at learning from his own and other manager's mistakes.

And with that I'll probably not post anything serious in the Everton forum for a while now.

 

[summerisle]

Born in 1952 and Blue since 1963 so seen a lot of highs and lows, from Catterick to Catalan. Despite the season he had, I think Mike Walker was a better bet than Martinez. Remember, he built a very good side at Norwich and took them to Munich and beat Bayern.

I didn't become bitter until the European ban that robbed the best side in Europe of at least one European Cup (THE European Cup, when, ironically, it was only contested by champions) and utterly destroyed our potential rise to continued greatness and dominance.

We have been great, and will be again, but to be an Evertonian is to suffer in-between. It makes us what we are - masochists!

I agree, except I receive no gratification whatsoever in seeing us, yet again, bottle it when it really matters.

 

[TyphooToffee]

I agree, except I receive no gratification whatsoever in seeing us, yet again, bottle it when it really matters.

I didn't say I was grateful. Perhaps 'masochists' was a bad choice of words, even if it was tongue-in-cheek.