Have We Improved? - Redux

Since seeing my first Everton game nearly 40 years ago I have spent 72% of that time being completely pissed off.

Of the remaining 28% of the time period I have been:

Despairing - 10%

Incredulous - 6%

Highly anxious - 4% (those relegation threatened years)

8% Very happy - mid eighties.

Scientists have also concluded that by playing two holding midfielders you are reducing your likelihood to create chances by 67.3%.

Yes, we have improved since Moyes for sure; the quality of play is much better but the same problem lingers "goal scorers" — if we had a credible one, we could well be in the very position Arsenal are now in bar the Champions League. The draws should have been wins and the loses could have been draws and we would be top 4 and on route to Wembley or even Carling Cup winners!

We have some good players but having watched quite a few games this season the same thing keeps cropping up "shot shy" simple as that. Let’s see the season out and concentrate on getting a decent bloody striker, Please!

Everything to play for.

Really?

I am 100% certain of getting my end away tonight*

*if the maiden flight of my time-machine is a success and gets me back to 1979...on a Saturday night...just before Three Times A Lady is played at the Grafton.

I like the stat about two holding midfielders (thanks Dan #959). Barry and McCarthy are a luxury we can't afford because one player should be good enough to do that job.

Michael #954, my stats aren't much better after 48 years watching the blues, but as an optimist I am sure they will improve before I die - so we are in for one hell of a ride.

There is one thing that is consistent though with supporting Everton. The big players don't turn up when it really matters. Martinez said in the build up that we had to be perfect in order to beat Arsenal. We were far from it. Mirallas, Pienaar, McCarthy just didn't play well. Ross tried to break the back of the net when he could have side footed it in. Lukaku and Mirallas both blew promising positions. Games turn on small incidents and great teams capitalise on chances. Pienaar is the player that frustrates me more than any other. The boy can certainly play but too often he slows play up in promising positions and he is always reluctant to shoot.

McGeady seems to me to me the next James McFadden. I like the exuberance of Deulofeu but he can either a) go on a magical run and beat four players or b) fall over the ball or pass it into touch.

We need to cross Martinez' playing style with Joe Royle's Dogs of War mentality. Wigan showed yesterday that you can beat the big boys. We need to lose the inferiority complex. I thought that would change under Martinez but again we bottled it.

Unfortunately, with the size of what I used to pull in the gravvy, I'm guessing space will be at a premium.

(and I'll be having the time-machine's suspension checked before the off)

Did you ever go The She Club? Might be worth a trip for the old time machine

Have we improved? It's a No from me.

We keep the ball better, that is a given. But can you honestly tell me that watching us pass from side to side without any clue of what to do when it comes to the final third is an improvement??

Our football can be mind-numbingly boring to watch. It baffles me how the media portray us a a good footballing side and pleasing on the eye? We are exactly what Liverpool were last season. Plenty of possession, but so toothless with it. You have to give Rodgers credit, he has gone to that club and tried giving the passing philosophy a go, realised that it didn't work, and has now built a side based on pace... going against his initial ideology and built something better and far more pleasing on the eye.

I'm going to go as far as saying that the football we played last season was some of the best we have played for years. The goals scored at the same part of the season is testament to that. We play much better apparently, but don't score as many goals...how does that work??

Against Arsenal in the cup, we looked better when we broke quickly and not surprisingly, that is where the goal came from. One of the lads on twitter who supports another club summed us up perfectly when he said.

"Whenever I watch Everton, they look good in brief spells, but very ordinary for most of the games."

I'm not silly enough to get on Martinez's back after barely one season, so i'm willing to give him time... but my early impressions are that he has only done okay and that's about it. I hope in time he takes the club where he wants to take us.

Here's an article which uses some of the stats I use in my post above and interprets them as showing that we not improved at all. The fact that this is our second highest haul after 27 games in the last 11 years (best being 50 points in 2008), despite totally changing our style of play and selling over our best player doesn't really factor into this assessment.

For the curious here's how we stood after 27 games since 2003 (apologies in advance for any screwed up formatting) :

Season Rank P W D L F A Pts Final Rank
2014 7th 27 13 9 5 38 27 48 ???
2013 6th 27 10 12 5 41 34 42 6th
2012 9th 27 10 7 10 28 28 37 7th
2011 11th 27 7 12 8 35 36 33 7th
2010 10th 27 10 8 9 39 39 38 8th
2009 6th 27 12 8 7 36 28 44 5th
2008 4th 27 15 5 7 43 23 50 5th
2007 8th 27 10 9 8 33 25 39 6th
2006 12th 27 11 3 13 19 34 36 11th
2005 4th 27 14 6 7 31 28 48 4th
2004 14th 27 7 8 12 33 38 29 17th
2003 5th 27 13 6 8 35 32 45 7th

@ Peter Murray – Exactly !! 33 points to still play for without any distractions. Can't believe people here are reacting like the season is over.

@ Craig Walker – Thanks for a most thoughtful post. I'm sick of us choking when it counts too. Martinez, will need to buy a leader at some point. None of our current crop impress me as being true leaders.

@ Liam Appleby – Some interesting points. Perhaps having Fellaini and Cahill deployed as strikers makes for better viewing for you? Maybe letting the opposition having the ball while we defend for our dear lives is less boring to see?

Good players in all positions on the pitch with players who are good enough to replace them on the bench will have a better chance of winning by scoring more goals than their opponents – oh have I mentioned that already?

Football used to be the working man's ballet and opera now its a game for accountants and statisticians who apparently we now need in order to make sense of what we can see with our own eyes.

I'm looking forward to the 6-6 match, it will probably be at OT

As the great Sherlock Holmes once said "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"......

Dont you mean Thursday night? That afterall was Grab a Granny night.