Would we have gone down without Allardyce

[Timak]

I said relegation was a real possibility with the squad he inherited and that any manager would struggle to get them to win enough games. Plus Europe + cup games was impossible with the squad we had.

I also said if the problems were fixed (e.g. someone who can score, someone who can dribble) we'd improve.

He spent £50m in January plus got Coleman, Baines and Bolasie back and had no cup games.

Even with this his points per game is less than Unsworth who was supposedly completely out of his depth.

 

[davek]

Merson's a media whore. I remember him waxing lyrical about Martinez's team, then he went on a crusade to vilify RM when the results went against us; did the same with Koeman. You can bet your bottom dollar that if Allardyce stayed on then next season Merson's mood swing and thirst for publicity will have him asking WTF Everton were playing at by retaining him.

A potato-nosed belter.

 

[Brisan123]

Does anyone actually pay attention to Merson

Bookies and publicans mainly

 

[4737carlin]

Possibly not but thing is at the time he came we really were that bad, lets not forget that, easy pickings for anyone. In hindsight, Unsworth might of kept us safe but back then we really didnt know and couldnt risk it.

 

[Lanolin]

When he took over we were averaging over 1 point per game for the season. Even if we ignore the West Ham game which makes absolutely no sense at all but helps push a certain agenda, Unsworth had 4 from 4. Carry on at a point a game and we'd be 6 clear of relegation now, add in £50m of signings in January and the returns of Coleman and Bolasie and I find it very very difficult to see any realistic set of circumstances which could possibly have seen us relegated. I said it at the time and I stand by it now, we're bad but not that bad.

 

[TraffordBlue]

When he took over we were averaging over 1 point per game for the season. Even if we ignore the West Ham game which makes absolutely no sense at all but helps push a certain agenda

Not saying we would have gone down but we were in a complete mess.

As for the agenda line, that is true but has been used by both sides. Both sides will manipulate things to suit their argument, and in some cases on the Allardyce hating side, it's been outright lies. E.g he hasn't improved us defensively when he absolutely has.

 

[TraffordBlue]

Points away from 18th:

When Moshiri decided to appoint Allardyce: 2
When Allardyce took over: 5
Now: 13

 

[Saint Domingo]

A team of Pickford, Coleman, Holgate, Keane, Baines Gueye Davies Siggurdson, Lookman, Tosun, Walcott. Would not go down.

We had enough quality in the squad to stay up no problem, the issue was we had an injury crisis then successive managers who couldn’t find a system to unlock the talent in the squad.

 

[trueblue84]

It's easy to look back now and see how gash the league has been. At the time, it looked like we were on shaky ground. The manager was brought in to steady the ship. He did it. He can now do one.

 

[Lanolin]

Not saying we would have gone down but we were in a complete mess.

As for the agenda line, that is true but has been used by both sides. Both sides will manipulate things to suit their argument, and in some cases on the Allardyce hating side, it's been outright lies. E.g he hasn't improved us defensively when he absolutely has.

The question i'm responding to is literally 'would we have gone down without Allardyce?'. Whether we were in a mess or not is neither here nor there really when i'm answering the actual question.

I think 'outright lies' is a bit harsh. I've said before, we might have only conceded 2 at Burnley and 1 at Swansea for example, but in my opinion anyone who tells me we defended better in those games than we were in equivalent games earlier in the season is simply using the amount of goals conceded as 'evidence' of something they don't understand. If we'd conceded 4 or 5 at Burnley no neutral would have batted an eyelid, they absolutely massacred us.

 

[Marius57]

We would have probably stayed up with koeman. Koeman had 7 points from a possible 9 against teams not in the top 7. Yes he only had 1 from 18 against the top 7, but Allardyce only has 3 from 24 against the top 7 (1 from 18 of you compare to the teams Koeman played).

We weren’t going down.

 

[Wat Tyler]

With Unsworth in charge, we would have.

 

[Brisan123]

No
However we can tell FSA we would have gone down without you
So here’s a cheque for 6 m and our eternal gratitude. Now koff , and on your way out will you ask Marcel and Paulo to come in now

 

[Eggsyblueskin]

Who knows

Is the correct answer.
If you look at Carvalhal as a comparison, it is in inarguable that he may well have saved Swansea , they were in the relegation zone with , I believe a far worse squad.
Although it is hard to believe ,we possess a better squad than most of those currently mired at the bottom.
It has been hard to discern any incontrovertible improvement in play generally other than getting 10 men behind the ball which is ,let's face it ,a pretty simplistic way of grinding out results and is Allardyce's modus operandi.

 

[Khalekan]

It is a NO from me.