Possession heavy football will never work at Everton

[Carlito]

Any style will work if you have the players to execute it. Everton's problem has long been a reactive approach to transfers that is basically devoid of a discernible strategy, which is why we so often see players arrive who don't have an obvious role to fit into. You'll get away with it at the back, and to an extent in centre midfield, where it's easier to compensate for natural cohesion by being well-drilled or flooding the area with numbers, but it doesn't work like that in the final third.

Kean is a perfect example of how the current policy of simply seeing who is available at big clubs can be flawed. It made a lot of sense in terms of his potential upside/resale value, but was there any thought given to the fact that he'd be partnering Sigurdsson every week, and whether or not the two of them would complement each other?

 

[BernieH]

It's not so much the possession as what we do with it, we pas sideways and back a lot, we don't have a Silva or De Bruyne who can keep the ball AND find that killer pass on more occasions than not. We just pass it until we lose it most of the time with very little attacking threat.

 

[Thomasc]

Or their players are just loads better than ours?

Yet funnily enough we’ve been saying for two years that “their midfield isn’t that great” etc

Yes of course, they have some top quality players. But they have been turned into top quality players by their manager getting the best out of them and playing a system they all understand.

 

[Lanolin]

Yet funnily enough we’ve been saying for two years that “their midfield isn’t that great” etc

Yes of course, they have some top quality players. But they have been turned into top quality players by their manager getting the best out of them and playing a system they all understand.

I haven't. Their midfield is very good at doing what it's set up to do. It's not the most creative, but they don't need it to be. Keita and Fabinho cost them £100m, it's not like he's turned a couple of journeymen into CL winners.

 

[chrismpw]

Agree mate. We are just so predictable tactically it's ridiculous.

Variety is basic coaching as far as my experience has been. I play walking football and theres one player who's technically very good, he runs (in walking football ffs), dribbles and finishes well. He pathalogically cannot find it within himself to pass the fecking ball. To complete the characature, obviously he's a rs.

It's so predictable. When I'm on his side and have no other option I'll pass to him and go back to the inevitable defence that will result. He gets a lot of goals but when I'm playing against him he gets nothing - simply because I know exactly what he's going to do - get a shot in. Its easy to defend against people who do not or can not vary their game.

 

[havrey0123]

We're not Man City, Barcelona, Ajax, PSG or whatever top domestic club you want to name. And because of that we will never succeed playing possession heavy football. We will never have the best players, nor the depth needed to succeed in playing that way.

We can however succeed playing progressive pressing and counter attacking football. Such as the Red Bull teams do. We could also do well playing in the style of the Klopp's teams, which is why is killed me when the other lot signed him.

Thoughts? I know this has been mentioned on other threads, but I'd like to make this one solely about the style of football we need to play to succeed.

We have been a defensive outfit for decades, to make the transition into an attacking team was never going to happen overnight.

I think he saw that Barca documentary and tried to copy it.

 

[AUXLEN]

Everton must stop set-piece goals to challenge champions https://www.premierleague.com/news/1357698

Possession and victory stats at the bottom.

 

[davek]

Yeah agreed, it's a legacy of that. We were taught to be 'plucky little Everton' by Moyes, tempering expectations to save his own neck, and that legacy continues.

It's precisely why I was disgusted by Moyes late into his tenure here, because it was clear as day what he was doing and the harm it was doing. When we went ahead against City and he immediately battened down the hatches to try and survive, because we'd stuck our heads above the parapets - just one example.

Threads like this are the legacy. It's basically saying "Everton should stop trying - we'll never win anything again so stop trying to be a top team."

Early Moyes period I could accept that mentality (I, like everyone else, just wanted stability and to stop losing so much!). However, he had 11 years here and really should have developed a different style of play to the one he started out with.

 

[davek]

The Moyes side of Arteta, Peinaar, Baines, Lescott, Jags, Cahill, Osman, Donovan, Yakubu etc so so far removed from “hoofball” as you put it, you couldn’t be wider off the mark.

The sentiment of “being happy to be there” and playing the plucky underdog I can’t disagree with.

But let’s not make out all Moyes teams played one way.

It could play when let off the leash, but that's just it: they weren't let off the leash too often. They showed sparks of being able to do more with the ball at their feet than Moyes allowed them to.

Martinez recognised that and got a tune out of players who were allowed to express themselves more.

 

[BillBrasky]

It could play when let off the leash, but that's just it: they weren't let off the leash too often. They showed sparks of being able to do more with the ball at their feet than Moyes allowed them to.

Martinez recognised that and got a tune out of players who were allowed to express themselves more.

For about six months, then he failed miserably for the next 24.

But keep dreaming that we can be Barcelona, and we'll keep losing. Pragmatism gentlemen. Pragmatism.

 

[blue61]

Possession football for possessions sake is one of the many reasons I hate the modern game.

 

[havrey0123]

Any style will work if you have the players to execute it. Everton's problem has long been a reactive approach to transfers that is basically devoid of a discernible strategy, which is why we so often see players arrive who don't have an obvious role to fit into. You'll get away with it at the back, and to an extent in centre midfield, where it's easier to compensate for natural cohesion by being well-drilled or flooding the area with numbers, but it doesn't work like that in the final third.

Kean is a perfect example of how the current policy of simply seeing who is available at big clubs can be flawed. It made a lot of sense in terms of his potential upside/resale value, but was there any thought given to the fact that he'd be partnering Sigurdsson every week, and whether or not the two of them would complement each other?

Sounds like Corbyn wrote it

 

[Carlito]

Sounds like Corbyn wrote it

You've got me imagining Brands walking around in one of Corbyn's little A Level Politics outfits now.

 

[davek]

For about six months, then he failed miserably for the next 24.

But keep dreaming that we can be Barcelona, and we'll keep losing. Pragmatism gentlemen. Pragmatism.

18 months expansive football played the Everton Way; followed by 18 months of spluttering form as the players he inherited hit their natural limit for their abilities and they folded like a pack of cards under crowd pressure.

 

[Osamabindiesel]

You succeed in the league by battering the lesser teams first. We don’t do that. All of the performances against the top six are fine and dandy, but the majority of the points come from the bottom half.

Possession football works if you have players that can hold on to the ball. Even then, you still have to know when to be direct We have players on the front line that are very direct that have no time for possession football. That is the issue.