What Did We Expect?

[Khalekan]

There is a lot of specious reasoning in saying that managers who specialise in relegation fights exist.

Do we think of Pochettino as a relegation fighter? No, because when he came in at Southampton he won enough games that we forgot they were in trouble.

Was Moyes a relegation fighter in 2002? No, he was a young manager from the lower leagues.

To use the doctor analogy I see Allardyce as a doctor good at keeping patients alive in intensive care, but I see other doctors who would have their patient walking by now by fixing the underlying problem rather than keeping them in an induced coma.

Great post.

 

[TraffordBlue]

Over egging the pudding in terms of how badly off we were when Allardyce took over. We were not his usual "patient", not by a long chalk. We had many paths to recovery.

Allardyce usually comes into clubs with a group of players incapable of finding feet and is able to justify the brand of football he insists on playing. Cynically he's arrived here and suggested that our players (who have proven they can play possession based football in the past) are the ones to blame for now being poor in possession when he knows it's his tactics that leads us to losing the ball.

Now the clash of culture between him and the players is the greatest threat to our season.

Wrong manager, wrong time, wrong club.

Not at all.

Any footballer who can't keep possession only has themselves to blame. It's a basic requirement of being a professional footballer, and if these players of ours can be genuinely negatively influenced by a manager in their ability to be able to find their teammates with straight forward passes then I think it says a lot about them as footballers.

Can just imagine the likes of Alexis Sanchez or Eden Hazard complaining about how they've lost their passing ability because of a manager and how it's not their fault lol.

 

[Neiler]

Before Allardyce came in we were arguably one of the worst teams in the division. We had the worst front line and probably the worst defence too with a huge injury crisis. We said then that it would be a battle to keep this team up. Allardyce’s early form perhaps left fans wanting more but the underlying problems are still there: we are still missing 3/4 of our first choice back 4 through injury, the front line has only just been bolstered in the last 2 weeks with Tosun and Walcott, the attitude and confidence of the squad is still rock bottom.

We shouldn’t be surprised. In Martinez’s second season we were in a battle even when we had one of the league’s best strikers plus Barkley and Stones. It took the likes of Osman and the signing of Lennon to get to safety. We hit horrible form under Koeman too in the middle of his first season before a lack of pressure and the emergence of Davies allowed for good form in the summer.

The root cause of the whole thing is a lack of investment in the squad and poor recruitment. As soon as Moyes left we went from having a stable squad of top 6 players full of internationals in a prime age range to Martinez’s version of dads and lads. Then Koeman botched it even further by selling the good lads, keeping the even older dads and buying more rubbish to go with them.

Everywhere you look across the squad there’s either a kid, an old man, or a player who doesn’t want to be here. Allardyce has looked to remedy this with Tosun and Walcott but until we have that calibration of player in every position we won’t trouble the top 6 again.

Jags Williams Baines too old and slow for prem football. Martina not good enough. Kenny too young. That leaves Coleman (not fit) Keane (injured out of form) and Holgate (prob too young too) as your only decent defensive options in the whole squad.

Before Tosun and Walcott came in DCL and Niasse were our front line. That’s the worst in the league!

Sam is dealing with successive managers failures and one of the poorest squads on the league regardless of the money spent on it. He needs a break to be allowed to save this season then start to rebalance the squad. Perhaps why he was given an 18 month contract.

Great post.

 

[Lanolin]

I just can't agree with the basic premise of your post to be honest.

There's absolutely no reason why a team which has been in poor form for a while can't suddenly pick up and improve. The idea that because you haven't got a lot of points from a run of games, you're guaranteed not to get many for the remainder of the season is fundamentally flawed, as is the - outdated, and frankly preposterous - idea that you need a certain type of manager (a rubbish one, in essence) to improve a side which is struggling.

When we played Leicester at the end of October they were in the same position as us. Terrible start to the season, just sacked their manager, looked like they were in for a real struggle. They appointed a manager who they believed was the best man for the job, and have pulled well away from the mire, we appointed a 'specialist' and haven't. I've said numerous times, going back to basics and trying to battle your way to safety is one way of doing things, but in my opinion a much better plan is to bring in a manager who coaches players and comes up with impressive tactical ideas to beat the opposition, rather than someone who gets 10 men behind the ball and hopes to nick a goal from a set piece.

How many times under Moyes did we have a poor start only to finish like a train and start thinking we might sneak into the top 4/5? Even last season we had an absolute shocker of an autumn but by March people were wondering if the top 4 was a possibility. In my opinion - which I put forward the time - bringing in someone like Allardyce makes the situation worse, because the players a) start to think that expectations are low and we're not expecting to get better b) Believe the manager is a short term fix who won't decide their futures c) aren't suited to the style of play being implemented.

The appointment, like much of our recent player recruitment, was a lazy one. We need to start thinking outside the box if we're going to make strides as a club, not follow the same outdated path that struggling teams have been doing for decades.

 

[sageyefc]

He's made us worse

 

[NCLBlue]

The club needs s clearout from top to bottom
Kenwright , Elstone FSA need to go
A new top notch CEO with experience of getting a big project completed needs to be brought in
A new commercial director needs to be brought in and kitbag and other sponsors shifted
A new DOF with the experience and more importantly the power to make the changes needed brought in.
The DOF should be told the style of play Moshiri wants and to get a manager and players to suit the system
That’s why if Brands is a target he needs to be brought in 1st Feb so he has 4 months to analyse the squad and see who needs to go and who stays.
Give Walsh a New defined role as head scout , he worked well at Leicester in that role and there’s no reason it can’t work for us
A new manager needs to be brought in and given time and money to change things around.

Great post mate, there may be a role for you with the Mosh

 

[Jamiednm]

Good article.

I don't like GOT's unnecessary blue gradient treatment over every image though. It's an example of the toxicity running through everything 'Everton' at the moment.

 

[davek]

Not at all.

Any footballer who can't keep possession only has themselves to blame. It's a basic requirement of being a professional footballer, and if these players of ours can be genuinely negatively influenced by a manager in their ability to be able to find their teammates with straight forward passes then I think it says a lot about them as footballers.

Can just imagine the likes of Alexis Sanchez or Eden Hazard complaining about how they've lost their passing ability because of a manager and how it's not their fault lol.

If a footballer is told "dont lose the ball in your own half" over and over again - which is what Allardyce's instructions are - do you risk a short pass in your own half or 'dont lose it' by pumping it long?

It's his tactics.

 

[Carl O'Ancelotti]

I expected exactly what we have got - him to get us to relative safety fairly quickly and then the terrible quality of football to bore everyone to death.

 

[Lanolin]

If a footballer is told "dont lose the ball in your own half" over and over again - which is what Allardyce's instructions are - do you risk a short pass in your own half or 'dont lose it' by pumping it long?

It's his tactics.

Who would have thought that picking two right footed players on the left, and two defensive midfielders - one with absolutely no passing ability - would limit a player's options in possession and lead to them giving the ball away?

 

[degsy]

Jim Keoghan submitted an update to GrandOldTeam's homepage

What Did We Expect?

This is what a relegation threatened season looks like. That’s what I told my son when he recently quizzed me about why Everton were so [beep] (I’m paraphrasing here).

When the drop zone exerts its gravitational pull, achieving escape velocity is always difficult. Back in November, prior to the West Ham victory, a time when Everton looked to be truly in the mire, a friend of mine (a Red) pointed out that ‘you only need a few wins and you’ll be clear’. To which I replied ‘True, but sides who are in the bottom eight, don’t just keep winning.’ And that’s just what’s happened. After our Allardyce honeymoon period (three words that should never go together), the club, quite expectedly, has hit a bump in the road.



When you’re down near the bottom, you’re down there for a reason; usually a toxic mix of poor management, poor players and low confidence. A change to one of these elements can bring around an improvement in fortunes. But that side, the one that struggled and seemed unable to get a win, defend competently or forge a coherent attack is still there, lurking. It does not completely go away but merely lies dormant. And it doesn’t take much for it to wake up. A few defeats, a poor run, a slight slide down the table and it emerges once again.

Escaping relegation, and that is exactly what Everton’s season has become about, will likely characterise the remainder of this campaign. At the moment, it might remain only a distant one, but dropping is still a possibility. There are 36 points left on the board at the time of writing and Everton need 12 to be comfortably safe.



While that might sound easily achievable, bear in mind that even good clubs drop points. And Everton are not a good club. Over the remaining months, the Blues will lose games and draws will occur. So we can expect that from those 36 points left, a good chunk will be lost. How many will dictate how uncomfortable the closing weeks of the season will be.

For those confident that safety should be a doddle, Everton have past form when it comes to late season collapses. Take a look back at the 90s, the era that for many fans is most strongly associated with the spectre of relegation, and you can find four examples of the club absolutely ballsing up the final months of the season. In 93/94, 96/97, 97/98, 99/00, Everton’s points haul from the final twelve games, if mirrored this season would be enough to ensure that the club would enter the final week of the campaign in a very precarious position. Death spirals might not be common, but they do happen.

I’d bet good money, that whoever pushed for Allardyce to be appointed (over a manager like Silva) is somebody who has lived through relegation threatened campaigns before. Somebody who recognises that more than anything, such seasons are a grind, where a manager will be constantly trying to stop that dormant, under-performing side from waking up. And that tends to take a manager of a certain ilk, a manager who understands the battle that will be constantly taking place, who appreciates that until you hit that magic forty point mark, you’ll never be free from its threat.



Nobody watching Everton at the moment could be happy with what they see. In terms of the football being played, this is arguably one of the least attractive Everton sides to watch in a generation. Stodgy, uncreative, tentative, conservative and clearly lacking in confidence, the side is currently as far away from the ‘School of Science’ as it’s possible to be.

But should we have expected anything different? When we hired Allardyce, we hired a specialist, a man with a stellar reputation for suppressing those dormant sides that threaten to reawaken when form dips. At Blackburn, Sunderland and Palace, he successfully (if not always attractively) ground out results and made sure that the side that had got those clubs into trouble rarely appeared (even when, inevitably, results did not go their way.)

With half the season remaining when he was appointed, a blip was inevitable. And at the moment Everton are certainly not in a good place. But there are few managers better or more experienced than Allardyce at negotiating such blips and ensuring that the Everton of the late Koeman-era does not return and stay.

Having been hired to save the club, Allardyce will do whatever it takes to do just that, however ugly. We as fans might not like it but it can’t come as any surprise. Our desire to see something more exciting, to see exhilarating football, to watch Everton attack with verve, will be of no concern to a manager whose primary remit is to keep this club in the top flight.

We might not like it but I suspect that with an unbalanced squad, a group of players that possess fragile confidence and a rapidly improving chasing pack beneath us, exhilarating football will be off the menu for some time to come.

Back in November, Everton could have gambled and gone for a manager with a more cavalier approach to the game. But the club didn’t. It played it safe and went with a manager who excels at playing it safe. And as soon as the club did that, it was clear what kind of football we were going to get.

The real problem for Everton will be what happens next season. To use a medical analogy, right now, the club is in intensive care, with Allardyce probably the ideal man to provide treatment. But do you entrust someone skilled at triage to manage your rehabilitation in the longer term? If Everton survive, which most think likely, the club will face a big decision in the summer. Does it initiate yet another regime change, which could yield success or possibly prove destabilising, or hope that Allardyce can change what he has become.

The club and the fans are in for an interesting summer.

What you see to be advocating is the Watford model of short term managers to provide solutions to short term problems...
Relegated? Get the guy in to win promotion
Promoted? Get the guy in to Not send you straight back down.
17th to 12th
12th to 7th
7th to 5th
5th to 3rd / 4th
The leaps get smaller and harder - the money and or time reqd bigger / longer

Have the days of having 'a man for all seasons' - at our level at least - gone?

 

[trueblue10]

Before Allardyce came in we were arguably one of the worst teams in the division. We had the worst front line and probably the worst defence too with a huge injury crisis. We said then that it would be a battle to keep this team up. Allardyce’s early form perhaps left fans wanting more but the underlying problems are still there: we are still missing 3/4 of our first choice back 4 through injury, the front line has only just been bolstered in the last 2 weeks with Tosun and Walcott, the attitude and confidence of the squad is still rock bottom.

We shouldn’t be surprised. In Martinez’s second season we were in a battle even when we had one of the league’s best strikers plus Barkley and Stones. It took the likes of Osman and the signing of Lennon to get to safety. We hit horrible form under Koeman too in the middle of his first season before a lack of pressure and the emergence of Davies allowed for good form in the summer.

The root cause of the whole thing is a lack of investment in the squad and poor recruitment. As soon as Moyes left we went from having a stable squad of top 6 players full of internationals in a prime age range to Martinez’s version of dads and lads. Then Koeman botched it even further by selling the good lads, keeping the even older dads and buying more rubbish to go with them.

Everywhere you look across the squad there’s either a kid, an old man, or a player who doesn’t want to be here. Allardyce has looked to remedy this with Tosun and Walcott but until we have that calibration of player in every position we won’t trouble the top 6 again.

Jags Williams Baines too old and slow for prem football. Martina not good enough. Kenny too young. That leaves Coleman (not fit) Keane (injured out of form) and Holgate (prob too young too) as your only decent defensive options in the whole squad.

Before Tosun and Walcott came in DCL and Niasse were our front line. That’s the worst in the league!

Sam is dealing with successive managers failures and one of the poorest squads on the league regardless of the money spent on it. He needs a break to be allowed to save this season then start to rebalance the squad. Perhaps why he was given an 18 month contract.

Great post, excellent points made.

 

[deipnosophist]

Over egging the pudding in terms of how badly off we were when Allardyce took over. We were not his usual "patient", not by a long chalk. We had many paths to recovery.

Allardyce usually comes into clubs with a group of players incapable of finding feet and is able to justify the brand of football he insists on playing. Cynically he's arrived here and suggested that our players (who have proven they can play possession based football in the past) are the ones to blame for now being poor in possession when he knows it's his tactics that leads us to losing the ball.

Now the clash of culture between him and the players is the greatest threat to our season.

Wrong manager, wrong time, wrong club.

Dave, you are by ilk, a disputatious/polarising character, but I can only nod in wholehearted acknowledgement of your summary of EFC's situation here.
We are presently caught up in a balls-up of monumental proportion .

I harbour genuine fear regarding our future.

That fear is pooh-poohed as 'alarmist talk' by the blue-tinted-spectacled on here: but make no mistake, Everton is presently walking a tight-rope.

The mismanagement of our club is inexcusably egregious.

 

[davek]

Dave, you are by ilk, a disputatious/polarising character, but I can only nod in wholehearted acknowledgement of your summary of EFC's situation here.
We are presently caught up in a balls-up of monumental proportion .

I harbour genuine fear regarding our future.

That fear is pooh-poohed as 'alarmist talk' by the blue-tinted-spectacled on here: but make no mistake, Everton is presently walking a tight-rope.

The mismanagement of our club is inexcusably egregious.

Allardyce sat in the stands watching that West Ham game when he first arrived and the look on his face said "'kin ell. This lot have footballers here who can play. WTF have they got me here for?".

He shat a brick that night knowing that even in our state then we were easily a top half side and that expectations would still be to push for top 8.

I dont blame him for him in any way really. I blame the clueless oaf owner who pissed his pants when he couldn't land Silva and panicked at a run of poor form to arrive at Allardyce as the solution.

 

[TraffordBlue]

If a footballer is told "dont lose the ball in your own half" over and over again - which is what Allardyce's instructions are - do you risk a short pass in your own half or 'dont lose it' by pumping it long?

It's his tactics.

What are the players excuses before he came in then? Williams gifting the ball to the Limassol (think it was them) player for their first goal at Goodison, or Keane putting Lukaku clean through at Old Trafford being 2 examples off the top of my head where we couldn't keep possession. Both under Koeman with the imbalanced team he created. They weren't Koeman's fault either to be honest, a professional footballer should be able to play 10 yard passes to a teammate.

if you're talking about 'hoofing' or playing it down the line then I can agree with you, but it would be ridiculous to try and make out that us losing possession like that is only a symptom of Allardyce's management when our players have been terrible at taking control of games all season and have been poor in possession for large parts of it.