What's the plan?

[Slippin Jimmy]

If we need pace, Vlasic and Lookman definitely have that.

Lookman's a headless chicken who will not pass the ball

 

[Prevenger17]

My general argument here is that there doesn't seem to be much joined up thinking at the moment, no identifiable style of play, nor the recruitment to actualise it.

Historically, buying a whole new team never works instantly and I imagine it will be a while before we see the fruits of our outlay. That being said, I have been massively disappointed with Koeman's approach this season so far. I think we just need to set up exactly how Koeman envisions us setting up in future and do it now, stop fannying around with 5 at the back and defensive formations our centre halves are clearly uncomfortable in.

I wasn't that put out by the loss to Chelsea, but going a goal and a man up at City and playing like we were the ones with 10 men for the rest of the game was awful. Our best chance of putting 3 points on the board in our current run of fixtures went by without a fight and I suppose the main thing I would like to see is our mentality change over the course of this season.

 

[orly]

So basically you're saying we beat the teams we should be beating and got a point against 2 teams that should not be beating. I'm glad you can see the positives.

Well, I can see the reality - that despite a huge turnover of playing staff this summer we are CURRENTLY no closer in terms of quality with the best sides in the division.

Can't beat the best sides in the division = can't win the league, which should be the ultimate goal

 

[Prevenger17]

Oh, and I think we should give Lookman a consistent run of games and not drop him after his first bad day.

 

[neil999]

Well, I can see the reality - that despite a huge turnover of playing staff this summer we are CURRENTLY no closer in terms of quality with the best sides in the division.

Can't beat the best sides in the division = can't win the league, which should be the ultimate goal

my main optimism is that we havent been able to field out best fully fit side yet and our 3 main attacking signings(klassen, sandro and siggurdsson) havent had a proper go yet

we will see

 

[orly]

Oh, and I think we should give Lookman a consistent run of games and not drop him after his first bad day.

The problem with Lookman currently is that it's a bit difficult to see what role he wants to play in the team.

It was noticeable when Lennon came on in Split that he spent the first spinning the left back to run behind - whereas Lookman had taken the ball in front of their defence every time, then turned. One thing about Calvert -lewin is that he is on the shoulder , which for some reason Lookman doesn't favour.

He's obviously not going to play behind the strikers for us, or as a striker.

You'd think he was a winger only, but he looks like he always wants to dribble past rather than turn and burn them off for pace.

 

[Jeff Jones]

Its amazing, when people use stats to show Everton or one of its players in a positve light everyone jumps on it and praises it.

When a stat is shown to show Everton or a player in a bad light its utter pony apparently.

Consistency people.

I haven't noticed that first bit. Miserable lot, us.

 

[Slippin Jimmy]

Good post mert.

Plus points of the current side:
- We're solid defensively
- Er...
- ....erm
- ....um.

Here's a fun article showing how by just about every single metric, we're big outliers as one of the worst attacking teams in the league, and our actual goals scored (which is still pretty crap) has been overperforming:

http://www.justashittyfootballclub....king-efficiency-the-perfect-attacking-metric/

Here's the TL;DR graph at the end of it (all the metrics are explained in the article):

Note how well grouped the rest of the top 7 (apart from Chelsea) are, and also note just how HUGE outliers we are in terms of numbers rather than just position on the table. We are total turd right now to the point where if this doesn't change, Koeman will be gone before the end of the season. It might change, of course (it bloody better) - Sigurddsson, Vlasic, Sandro, Klaassen, Lookman could all start flying, and 3 games is a small sample size - but that's where we are right now. We're not doing 'okay' - we're DREADFUL.

Weeeeeeee

Edit: here's another simpler look at it:



In this case, 'good' chances means chances with a historical 8% or higher conversion rate

There has been no sign or indication that our players can string two passes together no matter what dreadful team we are playing against, got no chance of this team clicking

 

[royalblue66]

Lookman's a headless chicken who will not pass the ball

Well he had a short Everton career.

 

[BlueToff]

The problem with Lookman currently is that it's a bit difficult to see what role he wants to play in the team.

It was noticeable when Lennon came on in Split that he spent the first spinning the left back to run behind - whereas Lookman had taken the ball in front of their defence every time, then turned. One thing about Calvert -lewin is that he is on the shoulder , which for some reason Lookman doesn't favour.

He's obviously not going to play behind the strikers for us, or as a striker.

You'd think he was a winger only, but he looks like he always wants to dribble past rather than turn and burn them off for pace.

When he came on vs Sevilla he played pretty much as an inside forward and was able to just run at their defence, through the middle.

For me, he's a no.10.

All of his best moments come from playing that role.

However, I do doubt that he's ready physically to play that position in the league.

But I'd like to see it tried out at some point.

He isn't a winger. He has pace but isn't lightning quick. So IMO with his quick feet and turn of pace he should be operating behind the striker.

A perfect example of this is the goal he set up for DCL the other day for England.

Powered forward at pace, pushing the defence back, and slipped a tidy ball through.

Hopefully Koeman sees it, or he risks being wasted out wide.

 

[orly]

When he came on vs Sevilla he played pretty much as an inside forward and was able to just run at their defence, through the middle.

For me, he's a no.10.

All of his best moments come from playing that role.

However, I do doubt that he's ready physically to play that position in the league.

But I'd like to see it tried out at some point.

He isn't a winger. He has pace but isn't lightning quick. So IMO with his quick feet and turn of pace he should be operating behind the striker.

A perfect example of this is the goal he set up for DCL the other day for England.

Powered forward at pace, pushing the defence back, and slipped a tidy ball through.

Hopefully Koeman sees it, or he risks being wasted out wide.

To be honest, I meant he can't play 10 for us because we've got three players for that already at the cost of £70m!!!!

 

[Cork Evertonian]

The plan will become apparent in May.When Koeman will be our first manager to win a trophy since Joe Royle.

 

[ad4amt]

Negative tactics against the big teams, batter crap teams at home, win a couple of away games, lose the rest

 

[Slippin Jimmy]

When he came in he said we lacked pace and power in the attacking third.

He already had Lukaku and Barkley and added Bolasie.

Well we've lost all 3 of those players for various reasons, none have been replaced and instead he has spent really heavily on 3 players that don't naturally fit into his previously stated preferred formation.

I've said for ages our recruitment is illogical and will cost the manager his job. Where the blame lies is something we don't know but we do know the signings of Klaassen and Rooney were completed ages before Sigurdsson signed. They should either have got Sig first and not signed the other two or spent the time/money on players we needed rather than getting Sig.

Spot on but i do think Sigurdsson is the better player by far

 

[Khalekan]

The plan will become apparent in May.When Koeman will be our first manager to win a trophy since Joe Royle.

Don't fancy us to win the Carabou Cup, then