royvernon39
Player Valuation: £10m
Put 10 quid on EFC for the League and another 10 quid for the Cup.
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oliverwri
Player Valuation: £1m
Already been noted I'm sure but Chelsea have one of the weakest attacks I've seen from them in ages (on paper), as does United. The other 4 look to be streets ahead, but with the aforementioned two in shaky positions I think this looks like an ideal opportunity to break through into that 5th or 6th spot. It's very achievable I think, but it will all depend on Kean getting firing quickly, and us signing one more good CB+winger (Zaha?).
carolinablue232
Player Valuation: £70m
On the basis that they’ll probably score goals for fun and win most games 5-4.
Seathestars
Player Valuation: £60m
Long old season but I reckon we'll finish in the top one
Toffee in Jandals
Player Valuation: £35m
.... Think we'll start off reasonably slow, and might be on around 28-29 points at the halfway point of the season, then we'll kick on after the new year and finish on around 68 points. Which hopefully will be enough for sixth place, maybe even fifth if the bottom half of the table is more competitive than last year, and they take more points off the likes of Chelsea / Arsenal and Man U.
Verbal Kint
Player Valuation: £35m
City, Spurs and Liverpool are all better than us. Chelsea should be better as for the rest I'm not sure.
Good preview here
Blue Roo
Player Valuation: £15m
A proper season preview.
Good preview here
Interesting how the defense seems to have got sorted by the last 7 games.
Riley points to a more consistent threat and purpose up front converting into better defensive stats - in addition to the 'work ethic' of Sig, Bernard and Rico which 'clearly gone a long way to helping keep xG against down'.
You'd have to add the Gana factor into this too.
The way I saw it up until then was Silva playing his overly pressing, attacking football at the expense of any logical defensive set up.
Its not that the side couldn't defend. They played a superb defensive game in the first Chelsea match and again in both derbies.
But in general the defence was sacrificed for his preferred approach and in doing so was unable to marry the two.
The first match against Arsenal rang the biggest alarm bells. A lot were saying it was great to see us playing attacking football and going for it against the top six teams, Silva just needed time. To me it was just fantasy stuff, you could go back and play that match again, the same way 10 times, and never win.
To me it doesn't make sense not to build from the back. But maybe building from the front is the way its going.
While I'm not convinced, if you had Zaha, Kean and Richo it'd def help. (Bernard for Zaha should be good enough for the moment)
Certainly a threatening forward line, not only forcing the opposition to become more defensive and therefore reduce their own ability to attack, but also in the way your midfielders are given more time and space to organise both in attack and defence has to be the objective. Obviously, it just makes it a lot more easier, your able to exert more pressure than they are, making less mistakes while forcing more from them.
But you have to get the midfield right. With Gana now out of the equation Silva needs a new approach.
Been thinking a lot about this and would have to disagree with Riley's analysis - 'every time I watch, however, I can’t help but think the sum of this team’s parts would be higher without Sigurdsson'.
For a start, Gana complicated the other midfielders roles - that's over.
Riley - 'I’d like to see a ‘link’ player, or Everton setting up with a more orthodox central midfield three that can work physically closer together on the pitch'.
Absoultely! But surely Sig fits into that.
If you go back through all the highlights of last seasons matches, Sig is the boss.
Just by those highlights you'd have to say, just give the ball to Sig in space, let him do his thing, the passes, the goals, the intelligence, the vision, its just beautiful.
A front three that he can feed, a front three that creates space for him, its a no brainer.
But just as important is the amount of work he does. He's got a diesel engine with pace. And the effective pressing that Riley points out surely translates just as well into midfield defensive graft. The criticisms during the season that he doesn't do enough should have been more directed to uncertainty of his a the teams defensive roles.
All Silva needs to do is have a look at the role of the box to box Cahill. A ghosting Sig is a match winner.
AmericasToffee
Player Valuation: £40m
I predict we won't have a good idea until Thursday evening
8th with Leicester claiming the 7th place trophy with a game to go.
everton1953
Player Valuation: £40m
8th or 4th will do me.
Legend Barry Horne
Player Valuation: £6m
7th should be the minimum - higher may be achievable depending on signings made in the next couple of days - Zouma or another center back is absolutely key. I'll be feeling confident if Zaha and Sidibe come in...
Rooney_Tunes
Player Valuation: £40m
Fourth...
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