Our main weakness...

[TheNinja]

Agree with a lot of the thread, including speed of play and movement off the ball.

My other issue is that a lot of our players have a limited skillset. Only Baines out of the back four has any ability to offer anything other than pure defending. Only Fellaini in the Midfield really offers more than tackling and laying the easy ball off. His passing and vision is a lot better than he gets credit for. Other examples. Osman is good with the ball and has good vision, but is small and often gets bullied out of games. Cahill only really adds (or added it seems) the heading ability in the box. Drenthe's ability is get the ball and try to outtrick or run directly with the ball, but seemingly isn't match fit and appears to be pretty selfish at times. I could go on....Neville/Limited, Heitinga/Limited.

Now look at Spurs. Yes they have more money available but.... Pretty much every player in that team has pace, energy, tackling, positional sense, creativity, goal scoring ability, movement. Money buys a lot of it, but they have Kyle Walker at Right Back, bought from a Championship club for roughly 3-4.5m and we've had Hibbert for 10 years....

 

[ToffeeMark]

our build up is slow and pedestrian, fellani is obsessed with passing the ball backwards, Our forward line holds up play when we do break so that the midfield can all pile in the box while the wait for baines to deliver another **** cross.

I've gotta be honest, Hibberts crosses seem to have been better than Baines crosses this year, Baines is a great LB but our tactics are so one dimensional, to defend against everton, all you have to do is retreat into your own box and then wait for baines to swing one in. Defend that and no probs.

We need a creative, dynamic midfielder who will drive from the MIDDLE at defenders and commit them, they will have to close him down allowing him to thread balls through to forwards.

Short term look at moving Donovan or Drenthe into the middle and reduce the dependence on wing play, it's too predictable.

Long term Barkley?...

 

[Toffe3m4n]

We've been "slow" for years, unfortunately. Even my Dad picked up on it a long time ago and he's nowhere near as big a follower as me.

 

[ODM]

Difference between the way we played and the way spurs played was confidence. They have it so play with freedom we dont so are alot more cautious. Even then we created enough decent chances to score

This, from yesterday. When there was 5-8 mins left we should have had a dead-certain penalty. And the goal attempts were at something like 13-10, corners 2-5 in favor of us. Saha's volleyed projectile would easily have gone in if it had been during the Blackpool game of last year. Now though, no confidence, no end product.

Bily, Drenthe and Donovan all could have took shots from right outside the area but we have no confidence. And seem ordered to walk the ball as far as possible before surrendering it and letting the opposing team catch us on the break. Even when we only push 4 people forward.

Yesterday looked a lot better than the second half against Bolton though.

 

[AusTekkaz]

Yesterday looked a lot better than the second half against Bolton though.

Nothing could have looked worse than the Bolton second half

 

[Dushku]

We have a number of weaknesses, most highlighted by our lack of movement and positional play- How many times have you seen Saha drift out to the wings and wonder "What are ya doing there,lad ? get in the middle!!" or when we break and Donovanpicks up the ball and runs with it only to see no-one busting a gut to join him.

But one of our major flaws, is clearing the ball. This horrendous habit of clearing a ball blindly up the field, totally oblivious to if any one is up field or not and not even noticing any alternative options around you. I lose count of the times our back four and Neville / Heitingar will hammer a ball away, when Osman, Felli or Donovan are yards away in space, ready to mount a counter attack - which then sadly leads to my previous point. But at least it's not giving the ball directly back to the opposition.

Our movement is slow, predictable and labouring.. it feeds the opponents willingness to win and desire to attack knowing that if it breaks down, they can mount another one immediately,thaks to our lack lustre and single minded defence.

 

[paulbefc]

Agree with this, pretty much. It's all about that final third. If we had the money to get a new striker and possibly a new winger/ attacking midfielder we'd be ok. Unfortunately we have no good strikers and drenthe and donovan can't, for various reason, get in the same team together. I think if we seem them on opposite flanks against Villa from the start, we'll see an improvement.

 

[Mvflusk]

Our main weakness is financial.

Financial reasons meant we lost Pienaar and Arteta. So I agree.

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

Nothing at all in the final 1/3.

Saha had the ball played to him on the edge of the box last night, he could've turned and was free but he didn't even look, he played it back and then the whole defence got back and it came to nothing.

 

[Alio]

Signing players

 

[nsno-chris]

No movement.

That's easily our biggest problem. And as movement doesn't cost anything, it's also our most frustrating.

Nail on the head.

I've never seen a team that is so static as Everton. Its gone past stupid, the team does not move in general, simple little things like the forward dropping off and a midfielder busting a gut to go into the space doesn't happen.

Its tactics, plain and simple; the players are being told to do something and they are, the buck stops with the manager

 

[McBain]

I get annoyed when I see Saha and Cheebs wandering around. Close zem down FFS

 

[McBain]

Agree with a lot of the thread, including speed of play and movement off the ball.

My other issue is that a lot of our players have a limited skillset. Only Baines out of the back four has any ability to offer anything other than pure defending. Only Fellaini in the Midfield really offers more than tackling and laying the easy ball off. His passing and vision is a lot better than he gets credit for. Other examples. Osman is good with the ball and has good vision, but is small and often gets bullied out of games. Cahill only really adds (or added it seems) the heading ability in the box. Drenthe's ability is get the ball and try to outtrick or run directly with the ball, but seemingly isn't match fit and appears to be pretty selfish at times. I could go on....Neville/Limited, Heitinga/Limited.

Now look at Spurs. Yes they have more money available but.... Pretty much every player in that team has pace, energy, tackling, positional sense, creativity, goal scoring ability, movement. Money buys a lot of it, but they have Kyle Walker at Right Back, bought from a Championship club for roughly 3-4.5m and we've had Hibbert for 10 years....

BEST POST EVER

 

[ODM]

BEST POST EVER

Did he forget we were in for Kyle Naughton, which Spurs swooped in to get in the last second, and as an aside picked up Kyle Walker in the same deal? I have no qualms whatsoever saying I'm fairly certain no one at Spurs had targetted either of the two Kyles if our interest in Naughton hadn't been made public.

 

[McBain]

The main point though, aint who didn't sign, it's who weve kept hold of for too long.