Without spirit.....

Status
Not open for further replies.

Bilko

Player Valuation: £35m
Still reeling on yesterday's result, like you all, very little surprises me with our team , missing opportunities to progress on a regular basis has become the norm from week to week.

The summary from the manager is intriguing and ,I would imagine impossible to correct. Playing without spirit has to be the absolute base a team can go to. We've seen our captain come out after a game on numerous occasions after abject performances stating the effort wasn't there. So I would have thought if it just happened once there would be an absolute dressing down from management and never would it be seen again,no ?.

I played at a real low level of football, ( left back,as I was the worse of three left footed players ). Playing for 15 years I can honestly say ,me, or none of my team mates ever once didn't play without spirit, christ , we never trained on wet cold nights after work without spirit !.

How can anyone, no matter what level, play without spirit ?. Does it mean , you can't be arsed to compete, is it to not try ?. To not care about the result ?. given the fan base , how do you " not care " . The minimum Evertonians expect is this. How could any player not have the respect to play for the fans ,for their coaches, manager, doorman, canteen staff, for themselves for goodness sake.

Not being good enough is another matter, and I'm ok with that.
Brett Angel wasn't good enough, for those who watched him though, I don't think you could of accused him of not playing without spirit.
Certainly I watched him for a couple of seasons at non league level, couldn't level that at him.


So what does a manager do when he comes across this ?. The easy answer is to send them packing, but realistic, you can't sell all the players , replace them with spirited players minus the talent, Everton would soon be in trouble, paying of huge contracts and a relegation battle would more than likely ensue.

So I trust Ancelotti to get it right over the next couple of years and move on these players who play without spirit.I think he is turning us around ,I like he's signings this season, Godfrey plays with passion, and signings like him will get us back to players who want to play for our club.

So, getting rid of two this season, would send out the message , which two though ?. For me Sigurdsson, and any captain that can't inspire his team on a regular basis has to go, as much as I've been a fan of Seamus, time is up.

Needed this therapy to move on from losing at home yesterday.
 
We do seem to be lacking a figure who can galvanise the team. Someone to instil and demand a certain level of commitment when things aren’t going well. I like Seamus but i I don’t think he is good enough now to command the respect of these players. Delph has the attitude but again he just not good enough. Holgate seems to have the attitude but he’s not first choice so he’s not going to be able to influence the first team.
It’s a difficult void to fill, enough quality so the likes of James etc can’t just roll their eyes when they’re being told about themselves, enough spirit / snide / bite to inspire the others when it’s required and the experience / level headedness to be able to gauge what is needed at any given time...... (hopefully that’s something / someone other than Khedira on loan for 6 months!)
 

We do seem to be lacking a figure who can galvanise the team. Someone to instil and demand a certain level of commitment when things aren’t going well. I like Seamus but i I don’t think he is good enough now to command the respect of these players. Delph has the attitude but again he just not good enough. Holgate seems to have the attitude but he’s not first choice so he’s not going to be able to influence the first team.
It’s a difficult void to fill, enough quality so the likes of James etc can’t just roll their eyes when they’re being told about themselves, enough spirit / snide / bite to inspire the others when it’s required and the experience / level headedness to be able to gauge what is needed at any given time...... (hopefully that’s something / someone other than Khedira on loan for 6 months!)
Think Allen is that player tbh, need more of them though
 
Think Allen is that player tbh, need more of them though
Good point, I was thinking more captain material, but you are absolutely right there needs to be a core of likeminded people. I don’t like harping back to Moyes area as it wasn’t anything to be aspirational about really (albeit consistently better than anything since) but those team had the likes of Stubbs, Carlsely, Cahill, Neville, Arteta etc..... think the qty of managers and churn of players has eroded that kind of common mind set.
 
Good point, I was thinking more captain material, but you are absolutely right there needs to be a core of likeminded people. I don’t like harping back to Moyes area as it wasn’t anything to be aspirational about really (albeit consistently better than anything since) but those team had the likes of Stubbs, Carlsely, Cahill, Neville, Arteta etc..... think the qty of managers and churn of players has eroded that kind of common mind set.
We need players being tough dh with attitude and aggression. It was far too easy yesterday. When they kicked our players around we didn’t react.
 
I do think one of the managers responsibilities is to instill that spirit. Particularly for the lesser games shall we call them. I remember Joe Royle saying about Big Dunc, against the RS or Man U he was like a caged lion waiting to get on the pitch but sometimes in the smaller games he struggled to motivate himself. Klipperty seems to be able to get them up for most games.
 

He picked the wrong team, ironically the sort of team lots wanted to see. But you cant have attacking full backs, Sigurdsson, James, Iwobi and DCL & Richarlison and expect to be hard to play against. We arent that good and we need to play a sensible style with a balance between defence and attack.

But you knew how this game would go after 15 mins. After an initial bright 5 or 10 minutes we get penned back, we couldn't get near Wilson and we lost every tackle or loose ball. Senior players were getting bullied all over the pitch. Coleman and Digne were both utterly dreadful and gave away a corner or cross every time Newcastle came forward.

It was a pathetic, abject performance and heads should roll. But we know they won't. That sort of dross is acceptable at this club and you can earn 6 figures a week for it.
 
It’s little surprise you look back on yesterday’s result and you see it was the same old faces who didn’t turn up for us yet again. Sigurdsson, Coleman, Iwobi, Gomes even Richarlison is getting to that point. Digne was dragged left, right centre, his head was never going to be in it with his wife not long giving birth, poor decision for Ancelotti to select him.
 
Simply put I think teams have sussed out how to beat us. Just press us into submission. We don’t have the players to handle that style of football. A midfield full of slugs who don’t know how to move the ball around quickly or can turn defending into attack when needed. Only player is James and if he’s getting doubled up on or having the crap kicked out of him by the opposition like yesterday it’s GAME OVER.
 

Status
Not open for further replies.
Top