The Mail Bag
Large or small slices
Comments (12)
I do not believe all at the club is right and that all can do better, more investment, better players, more committment, and though as our Manager I want to support him, I read on here constant critisism of him and the tacticts along with transfer dealings.
Generally, I think we need to understand that supporting the club and those involved whilst not merely accepting the OS propaganda, is a good thing and more so simply critisising the Club and those running it for the sake of it is none productive.
All this leads me to the point of the post. Critising a player after a couple of games is no help at all, (a foreigner, non-English speaking, aged 20), rather than encouraging a young prospect for our future.
It is easy to critisise, have knee jerk reactions to early poor performance, but the hard thing to do is get behind the team and individual players and maybe we will progress to higher levels.
Our goal scorer tonight, how big is your slice?
Ian Smitham, Posted 29/10/2008 at 23:04:05
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People were way too quick to criticise Fellaini. I can understand it tho, he didn’t look like the £15M saviour we were waiting to sign and he arrived on the back of the most disappointing 3 months endured by Evertonians in the 25 or so years I’ve been a fan.
I do find it incredible the way that people change their tunes on the back of 2 games tho. Suddenly Fellaini is flavour of the month and I hope that turns into flavour of the year. Suddenly on the back of a very good 45 minutes and what appears to be a barely deserved win, it’s all optimistic......
I’m happy with the 4 points, when I thought 3 would be the best we could possibly get and 2 were probably more likely. But again, some perspective is needed..... a win against Fulham and a point at West Ham would signal the start of a turnaround for me. Plus a couple of performances.....
We can probably start to judge on the back of the Spurs game where our season is likely to take us. I’m expecting mid-table, hope I’m wrong.
I do find it incredible the way that people change their tunes on the back of 2 games tho. Suddenly Fellaini is flavour of the month and I hope that turns into flavour of the year. Suddenly on the back of a very good 45 minutes and what appears to be a barely deserved win, it’s all optimistic......
I’m happy with the 4 points, when I thought 3 would be the best we could possibly get and 2 were probably more likely. But again, some perspective is needed..... a win against Fulham and a point at West Ham would signal the start of a turnaround for me. Plus a couple of performances.....
We can probably start to judge on the back of the Spurs game where our season is likely to take us. I’m expecting mid-table, hope I’m wrong.
Michael - Ian is spot on with his comments about Fellaini. As ususal you show a certain arrogance about your "knowledge" of football.
Under the terrible weather conditions ast night, there was never going to be a fantastic show of football but I was pleased with our lads and thought they played better passing football. But why the hell is Fellaini get booked for celebrating - it's not as if he went over the top and now he misses the Fulham game when we could have done with him. Let's hope Andy Pandy doesn?t score as he did last night and has now probably got a bit of confidence in himself.
Personally I dont think Fellaini looks like a 15M player, I think we paid over the odds for him. However, he didn’t put that price tag on his head, and he puts just as much of a shift in as any of the other players out there. I can’t remember the last time one of his passes went astray and he’s very useful in the air as well as providing a real physical presence in midfield. The only thing I think you could level at him, is that he gives away too many unnecessary freekicks by awkwardly trying to clamber around people....but that will probably improve with coaching.
In a few years he may well turn into the box to box midfield powerhouse we’ve been craving, or maybe not. The goals he’s got these last few games all of a sudden doesn’t make him worth the money, but what he does have is a lot of potential.
Personally I’d like to see all fans get behind the players, unless its obvious they are not giving 100%. This is especially true of young players. Coming to a new country, where you can’t speak the language, going into a league which is completely different from anything you’ve played in before and joining a team which has no confidence doesn’t make it easy to settle in. We should bear all of that in mind before we start to judge.
In a few years he may well turn into the box to box midfield powerhouse we’ve been craving, or maybe not. The goals he’s got these last few games all of a sudden doesn’t make him worth the money, but what he does have is a lot of potential.
Personally I’d like to see all fans get behind the players, unless its obvious they are not giving 100%. This is especially true of young players. Coming to a new country, where you can’t speak the language, going into a league which is completely different from anything you’ve played in before and joining a team which has no confidence doesn’t make it easy to settle in. We should bear all of that in mind before we start to judge.
Fellaini now looks like he?s worth about £8 million.
Still a hell of a long way to go.
Still a hell of a long way to go.
Michael I think Fellaini has better things to do with his time then reading Everton?s fans criticisms of him after translating them into Flemish. Your scenario ISN?T just as likely at all. Its much more likely he?s settling in to our style of play, what is expected of him, what the players around him can do, the pace of the league etc etc. Also for the record criticising a foreign player for not running a game after being in the country for 5 minutes is short sighted, pretty ignorant and definately a knee jerk reaction! Have you ever moved to a foreign country where you dont speak the language? There will always be a period of adjustment and we?ve seen it MANY MANY times with players in our league that have then gone on to do great things... For god?s sake Dennis Bergkamp didn?t score in something like his first 9 games for Arsenal and looked like a right waste of money... turned out to be one of the best players ever to grace our league once he settled in. I think you're probably trying to play devils advocate with your comments but I think you're way way off the mark.
Unbelieveable arrogance! A player is heavily and very prematurely criticised, he goes some way (not totally) to proving that criticism wrong, and the reason for that is the criticism itself! Can I ask if that is case for such things in life, is it ever possible to prove criticism to wrong in your opinion?
Translating into Flemish wouldn’t have done an awful lot of good - he speaks French.
I think there are three different languages spoken in the various regions of Belgium.
Anyway, that’s not my point. My point is that Michael is wrong... slating your own players is disgraceful. How embarraced do the ’boo boys’ feel when the scapegoats produce something great for Everton (eg McFadden’s goal v Charlton, Leon’s wonder strike in Europe last year, Neville’s performance against the Mancs, Fellaini’s recent important goals... etc) - Are they embarraced? They should be.
I think there are three different languages spoken in the various regions of Belgium.
Anyway, that’s not my point. My point is that Michael is wrong... slating your own players is disgraceful. How embarraced do the ’boo boys’ feel when the scapegoats produce something great for Everton (eg McFadden’s goal v Charlton, Leon’s wonder strike in Europe last year, Neville’s performance against the Mancs, Fellaini’s recent important goals... etc) - Are they embarraced? They should be.
Well said Mr Kenrick...
The far-too-soon criticism showed, if anything, those people have little knowledge of football.
I was slating him for his first half performance against Utd but since half time in that game he’s been much better - he reminds me in some respects of Patrick Viera when he was good.
James "He reminds me in some respects of Patrick Viera when he was good." It?s funny that James, when I played, people said I reminded them of Pele, when he was good.
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I think my scenario is equally as likely as yours... in fact more so. And it preserves the well-honed right of Evertonians for a many a year to call a spade a spade (so to speak).
It's all too easy to accuse Evertonians of knee-jerk reactions and to put them on this "holier than thou" guilt-trip crap for supposedly not getting behind the team or individual players... have even the first idea how much these guys are PAID!?!