Steve Walsh - no longer our Director of Football

[Brendan Janus]

Little hitch?

- Out of the cup at home to lower league opposition at first stage
- Lost an easily winnable away game against a poo side
- Drawn and were arguably lucky to take a point at home against a side who will finish bottom half

I'd say it's been an absolutely diabolical week. When we have no European competition to focus on, you'd think the manager would go all out for the domestic cups, so going out against Norwich was an absolute sickener.

We have tough games coming up and if we can't take maximum points from games vs Bournemouth and Palace, God help us when we actually play teams that have more than 2 decent players in their starting XI.

Bang on there mate, I couldn't agree more !!

 

[Lanolin]

Yep - and for the stick he gets Bolasie has created at least one clear-cut (as in, sitter) chance per-game. Other players certainly not stepping up to the mark in recent weeks.

I agree about the others but I still think Bolasie needs to do a bit more. Just creating one chance isn't enough to be able to walk off saying 'well I did my bit'.

For where we want to be, I think the 2 wide players need to be scoring 7+ goals a season each, as well as regularly creating for others. Players will always miss chances, but by the same token you will end up getting assists for mis-hit and overcooked crosses or for putting in a bog standard ball into the mix which someone scores a worldy from. The amount of assists you get will invariably correlate to your overall effectiveness in that position.

I hope Walsh is able to get his hands on a player who's able to do things out of the ordinary, rather than relying on just pace and power as we do at the moment. Sounds like he may have hoped Ghezzal was that player so will be interesting to see how it pans out.

 

[BlueToff]

I agree about the others but I still think Bolasie needs to do a bit more. Just creating one chance isn't enough to be able to walk off saying 'well I did my bit'.

For where we want to be, I think the 2 wide players need to be scoring 7+ goals a season each, as well as regularly creating for others. Players will always miss chances, but by the same token you will end up getting assists for mis-hit and overcooked crosses or for putting in a bog standard ball into the mix which someone scores a worldy from. The amount of assists you get will invariably correlate to your overall effectiveness in that position.

I hope Walsh is able to get his hands on a player who's able to do things out of the ordinary, rather than relying on just pace and power as we do at the moment. Sounds like he may have hoped Ghezzal was that player so will be interesting to see how it pans out.

I'm not saying that at all - they all need improve.

But, he's the only one who - whether playing well or not - is still capable of creating a gilt-edged chance at the moment, or so it seems.

Del, Kev and Ross all seem to be have to be on top form to be effective.

All the players we have are capable of doing something extraordinary mate. It's just that none of them are very good at 'unlocking' a tightly-packed defence - and in all fairness those players aren't easy to come by.

 

[Lanolin]

I'm not saying that at all - they all need improve.

But, he's the only one who - whether playing well or not - is still capable of creating a gilt-edged chance at the moment, or so it seems.

Del, Kev and Ross all seem to be have to be on top form to be effective.

All the players we have are capable of doing something extraordinary mate. It's just that none of them are very good at 'unlocking' a tightly-packed defence - and in all fairness those players aren't easy to come by.

Not saying what? I wasn't disagreeing with you, just pointing out that we need more from Bolasie, just as we do from the others. Ross hasn't been playing well but he played a nice through ball for Lukaku on Friday, as well as skinning his man and getting away a couple of times, and he put in a good ball leading to a great save against Bournemouth. As I say though, proof is in the pudding - if we were creating enough good chances we'd be scoring enough goals. We're not doing either.

 

[brieverton]

I'm not saying that at all - they all need improve.

But, he's the only one who - whether playing well or not - is still capable of creating a gilt-edged chance at the moment, or so it seems.

Del, Kev and Ross all seem to be have to be on top form to be effective.

All the players we have are capable of doing something extraordinary mate. It's just that none of them are very good at 'unlocking' a tightly-packed defence - and in all fairness those players aren't easy to come by.

I agree, and I think this is symptomatic of our wider problems that will take the next 2-4 windows to address. We have a core of "decent enough" players who are all quite notoriously inconsistent.

I still hope that Koeman can improve Ross and that he can overcome this plateau he seems to have reached but as for Del/Kevin, I think I have seen enough over several seasons to suggest they are what they are.

 

[BlueToff]

Not saying what? I wasn't disagreeing with you, just pointing out that we need more from Bolasie, just as we do from the others. Ross hasn't been playing well but he played a nice through ball for Lukaku on Friday, as well as skinning his man and getting away a couple of times, and he put in a good ball leading to a great save against Bournemouth. As I say though, proof is in the pudding - if we were creating enough good chances we'd be scoring enough goals. We're not doing either.

I'm not saying that Bolasie is offering the complete package mate - like you I agree he - along with the others - needs to do more.

Hmm - on your last point though, we have created plenty. Even in the last few games we created a lot, but our finishing from everybody bar Rom has been poor.

 

[Lanolin]

I'm not saying that Bolasie is offering the complete package mate - like you I agree he - along with the others - needs to do more.

Hmm - on your last point though, we have created plenty. Even in the last few games we created a lot, but our finishing from everybody bar Rom has been poor.

No I know you weren't saying that, I was just saying that he also needs to step up to the plate - just being better than the others is not good enough, we need him to be a matchwinner.

Totally disagree on creating chances though, I think we've struggled to create enough all season and don't think it's any coincidence that of the 11 goals we've scored, there's been 2 direct free kicks, a (missed)penalty, and 2 goals from corners. So basically half of our goals have come from set pieces. Yes of course we've missed a few chances, but nothing out of the ordinary as far as I'm concerned. There were games last year where we seemed to spurn seven or eight proper chances (Norwich away and the semi final spring immediately to mind) and I don't think there's been anything remotely like that this season. I think Spurs and Palace would count themselves unfortunate not to go away from Goodison with a win, and I've not met a single person, blue or not, who thought we deserved anything at Bournemouth. We simply don't look very dangerous in my opinion, and we haven't since pre-season. Thankfully we've been relatively tight at the back, and hopefully we'll be able to put the two together a bit more soon.

To keep this on topic, the point was that I believe it's very important Walsh is able to identify a player who can do things 'out of the ordinary'. Not 'extraordinary', like an extraordinary burst of pace or a blammer from 30 yards like the players we have can do, but somebody who sees things that others haven't seen and is intelligent in their passing and movement. This is why we're struggling to open teams up in my opinion.

 

[tlefc]

I think that it's time for him to go based on Bolasie.

 

[ToffeeTim]

If he picked out bolasie he needs a p45

 

[kithnou]

I think that it's time for him to go based on Bolasie.

If he picked out bolasie he needs a p45

Did he score after you both wrote this?

 

[toffeejack]

I think that it's time for him to go based on Bolasie.

you're not fooling anybody. this is wumming at an absolutely amateur level, you must be a liverpool fan you're that bad at it.

 

[ham2]

I think that it's time for him to go based on Bolasie.

I think it's time for you to go.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Hope he has a plan up his sleeve.

 

[Caolam]

The January transfer window will give us an indication of how things are going to work at Everton over the next few years. I say indication as the January window is notoriously difficult for buying teams. Teams don't want to sell good players mid season as they can't usually replace them.
I would like to see us doing business swiftly and decisively. Identify realistic targets, get them in early and playing.

 

[rochdaleblue]

The January transfer window will give us an indication of how things are going to work at Everton over the next few years. I say indication as the January window is notoriously difficult for buying teams. Teams don't want to sell good players mid season as they can't usually replace them.
I would like to see us doing business swiftly and decisively. Identify realistic targets, get them in early and playing.

Not just our squad at present, but when you consider who will be away at the ACON it is imperative we get our business done early.