The Four Months Though Lads - Worse than Mike Walker

[Rita_Poon]

He just needs a few more games, form is temporary, class is permanent.

 

[Carlito]

He would never have survived a run like that under the early years of Moshiri when we were a lot more trigger happy with managers.

I was just about to reply that he wouldn't have got the job in the first place, but then I remembered Allardyce.

'Nothing will ever be the same again.'

 

[Nymzee]

And what's the point of this thread? You can sugar-coat it all you want we were absolutely awful. You can't try and justify not winning a game in over 100 days.

 

[knowing your history]

Bournemouth are 10th. Go through their team and see how many of their players would get into our team.

It is a myth that we haven't got the players to be in this league. The bottom 10 (except Brighton) are awful and we are easily at the top end in terms of starting 11 quality.

I'd take Solanke (simply had a far better season than DCL and younger and less injury prone), Semenyo (exactly what is missing out wide), Kluivert on the left and as much as I love Myko you have Kerkez who is far more of a more LB able to get forward into central midfield and link play.

So that's four for a start. In central midfield I wouldn't say Cook or Christie are better than what is here but they've adapted very well to Iraola's style, same for the CBs.

Anyone judging Bournemouth on the atrocity of the performance they put in at Goodison is a bit silly as their form has been comfortably top 6 ever since that game.

Actually looking through their squad and you've given me a good idea for the transfers....

 

[Rita_Poon]

And what's the point of this thread? You can sugar-coat it all you want we were absolutely awful. You can't try and justify not winning a game in over 100 days.

Mid May to end of August?

 

[MACCA75]

We didn’t win in 14 league games!? Wasn’t great was it. Bizarre thread.

 

[Groucho]

If you applied the same filter to every game we'd never win a match

'Tricky away tie', 'Top half team', 'never going to get a result'

Behave - We were crap and the manager got stick for it

Fair play to him he managed to turn it around just in time

This.

A run of poor form.

Sometimes I have bad times, dunno about everyone else.

 

[nsno-chris]

L
O
L

 

[trueblue84]

I'd take Solanke (simply had a far better season than DCL and younger and less injury prone), Semenyo (exactly what is missing out wide), Kluivert on the left and as much as I love Myko you have Kerkez who is far more of a more LB able to get forward into central midfield and link play.

So that's four for a start. In central midfield I wouldn't say Cook or Christie are better than what is here but they've adapted very well to Iraola's style, same for the CBs.

Anyone judging Bournemouth on the atrocity of the performance they put in at Goodison is a bit silly as their form has been comfortably top 6 ever since that game.

Actually looking through their squad and you've given me a good idea for the transfers....

I disagree over mykolenko. He has been very good at left back. I think dyche's style of play doesn't allow him to get forward as much, but defensively, he is one of the better left backs in the league.

I'd only say kluivert, semenyo and solanke would walk into our team. The rest are debatable. Cook has a lot of potential but is still young.

The point is, we don't have a terrible squad. It is the just maybe just not the right combination of players and not having the right players for dyche's style of play. Let's see what this transfer window brings.

 

[Pootsy]

I can take that point. And confidence was clearly being hit by the end of the period. I think that fact that we conceded in the 90+ mins against West Ham, Bournemouth and Brighton in quick succession

Exactly, and we did so because we continuously invited pressure onto oursleves. Always thought having 2 players further forward offers an out ball but Dyche likes to know theres 21 players in the box so theres no room for a clean shot.

 

[Saint Domingo]

"The four months, where we didn't win a game and Dyche Walker was lucky not to be sacked":

Background, December 2023, On the back of beating Forest Away, Newcastle and Chelsea Home and Burnley Away between 2 and 16 December, we had a League Cup Quarter final on the 19th December with Fulham who were in good form at the time. The tie went to extra time and we lost on penalties.

That's a period of five games in 17 days, unbeaten except for penalties. This then starts the “four-month winless run.” (Hint: Wasn't winless, and wasn't 4 months)
I think we should look at the fixtures with the power of hindsight, each game insolation for the season, and see what games were bad results:

23 Dec
Tottenham 2 -1 Everton. Away at top six side

27 Dec
Everton 1 - 3 Man City. Best team in the world

30 Dec
Wolves 3 - 0 Everton. A tired performance. Bad result, but we have small squad that had just played their 8th game in a month. Wolves top half side

4th Jan FA Cup 3rd Round
Palace 0 - 0 Everton. A tricky away tie against premier league opponents above us in table. DCL sent off and decent result, if unneeded replay


14 Jan
Everton 0 - 0 Villa. Decent result against high flying 4th place Villa

17 Jan 3rd Round Replay
Everton 1 - 0 Palace. An Everton win, in period where we apparently never won in 4 months.

27 Jan FA Cup 4th Round
Everton 1 - 2 Luton. Cant argue that this is a bad result. The only defeat in January.

30 Jan
Fulham 0 - 0 Everton - tricky away tie against a mid table side, above us in the table.

3 Feb
Everton 2 - 2 Tottenham - a good comeback against a good Spurs side

10 Feb
Man City 2 - 0 Everton - Never going to grab a result here.

19 Feb
Everton 1 - 1 Palace - A game we hope to get more from but in isolation not a bad result for where we are this season

24 Feb
Brighton 1 - 1 Everton - On paper a good draw, would have accepted that at the start of the game. Letting them equalise in 90+5 mins was a disappointing.

* Key Stat - only lost once in the league to Man City over the first 2 months of 2024. Won one (in period we never won one) and lost one in the cup.

2 Mar
Everton 1 - 3 West Ham - West Ham are decent outfit (currently 8th), although we would have hoped for a better result at home to them. Again, two injury times goals changed the game with West Ham scoring 90+1 and 90+5 to win the game

9 Mar
Man U 2 - 0 Everton - Undone by two penalties. You wouldn't expect a result at this game at the start of the season.

30 Mar
Bournmouth 2 - 1 Everton - tricky away tie, lost in the 90+1 min by a Coleman OG

2 April
Newcastle 1 - 1 Everton - Another tricky away tie. Scraped a draw.

So, in conclusion:

Premier League 4 months (Dec 3 to Aprl 2):

Played 17, Won 4, Drew 6, Lost 8, Pts 18

We achieved over a point per game, which would likely have kept us up in a normal season. The Four Months is a myth. We won games in December and beat Palace in the cup in January, too.

There are also only a couple of games we should have expected a better result, given the league position of the opposition.

You would have been a fool to sack Dyche in the period. A period against difficult opposition, where we still maintained over a point per game, and undone by bunch of injury time goals.

It’s not a problem when 2 wins in 15 happens to other managers but it’s unacceptable when Dyche does it.

Is he a completely different manager if Dunk heads over the bar in the 95th minute and we beat Brighton away? Of course he isn’t.

Just the usual hysterical overreaction to anything deemed ‘embarrassing’ by some on the forum.

I almost want Luton to go down just so we don’t have to put up with people shrieking every single time we drop points to them. De Zerbi’s Brighton got beaten 4-0 by them, Iraola threw away a lead to lose to them, Klopp dropped points there, so did Howe, but no it’s only Everton and Dyche that apparently disgraced ourselves and embarrassed the fans by losing to Luton.

Thats why it’s better to look at a body of work over 38 games. In previous eras they’d be giving managers a few seasons before reaching conclusions. Now one bad result that means a bit of ribbing on the internet, or a stat that people don’t like on sky sports, and it’s a never ending deluge of cry arseing,

Anywhere between 44 - 53 points this season after two seasons of 39 and 36, yet people are still banging on about Luton, Chelsea, and 13 games without a league win.

 

[OnlyTheBestIsGoodEnough]

It’s not a problem when 2 wins in 15 happens to other managers but it’s unacceptable when Dyche does it.

Is he a completely different manager if Dunk heads over the bar in the 95th minute and we beat Brighton away? Of course he isn’t.

Just the usual hysterical overreaction to anything deemed ‘embarrassing’ by some on the forum.

I almost want Luton to go down just so we don’t have to put up with people shrieking every single time we drop points to them. De Zerbi’s Brighton got beaten 4-0 by them, Iraola threw away a lead to lose to them, Klopp dropped points there, so did Howe, but no it’s only Everton and Dyche that apparently disgraced ourselves and embarrassed the fans by losing to Luton.

Thats why it’s better to look at a body of work over 38 games. In previous eras they’d be giving managers a few seasons before reaching conclusions. Now one bad result that means a bit of ribbing on the internet, or a stat that people don’t like on sky sports, and it’s a never ending deluge of cry arseing,

Anywhere between 44 - 53 points this season after two seasons of 39 and 36, yet people are still banging on about Luton, Chelsea, and 13 games without a league win.

I remember David Moyes finishing 17th in his first full season, if we sacked him then where would we be now

 

[Alanbileysfeathercut]

Walkers body language was laughable at times iirc.
Dyche kept his nut down, so to speak.
He won't need a skip company in later life,unless it's for his new kitchen he promised his missus...

 

[trueblue84]

It’s not a problem when 2 wins in 15 happens to other managers but it’s unacceptable when Dyche does it.

Is he a completely different manager if Dunk heads over the bar in the 95th minute and we beat Brighton away? Of course he isn’t.

Just the usual hysterical overreaction to anything deemed ‘embarrassing’ by some on the forum.

I almost want Luton to go down just so we don’t have to put up with people shrieking every single time we drop points to them. De Zerbi’s Brighton got beaten 4-0 by them, Iraola threw away a lead to lose to them, Klopp dropped points there, so did Howe, but no it’s only Everton and Dyche that apparently disgraced ourselves and embarrassed the fans by losing to Luton.

Thats why it’s better to look at a body of work over 38 games. In previous eras they’d be giving managers a few seasons before reaching conclusions. Now one bad result that means a bit of ribbing on the internet, or a stat that people don’t like on sky sports, and it’s a never ending deluge of cry arseing,

Anywhere between 44 - 53 points this season after two seasons of 39 and 36, yet people are still banging on about Luton, Chelsea, and 13 games without a league win.

Most fans would be at least a little irked by only 2 wins in 15. Let's not pretend it's just Everton fans being negative.

As others have said, it wasn't just the defeats that got people's backs up. We abandoned our tactics. We stopped scoring and started conceding a couple of goals per game. Even dyche himself acknowledged that we underperformed.

The fact he resorted to wearing a trackie, shows he was running out of ideas. But fair play to him, he got the reaction he needed.

He doesn't deserve to be sacked, but I'm not going to be praising him as the Messiah just yet. This is the worst league there's ever been. I am sure all 3 relegated teams will finish on less than 30 points. That is the first time that's ever happened.

 

[Rita_Poon]

That warm weather training in Portugal eventually paid off. Remember when everyone was having a go about that.

Some people don't deserve nice things.