Koeman plays up another clean sheet

Today's game was everything I expected, we came up against a defensively good team, a shame we didn't try to push more men forward though and we need to be more clinical, especially away from home, where generally chances are fewer.

I'll take the 7th this season now and build in the summer, still think there's more fine tuning to do before we get to where we want to be.

I think it tells us once more that we are not quite top 6 material yet but I believe we will be at the start of next season. We are still short of a couple of real world class players that will make all the difference between draws such as today's and wins.

I don't see it that way. I see it as a day when we continued an unbeaten run despite the weather and despite the anti-football of Boro. You pays your money and makes your choice, I guess.

As much as I'd love to beat the RS (or others) to a top 6 position, we have to remember its Koeman's first season and he has already got rid of some of the deadwood. After the previous seasons, a 7th place finish (as a minimum mind you!) would be a good starting point for next season.

It would be nice to run away with 7th so that, if any of the top 6 do drop away, we will be well placed to take it. I reckon this season is all about consolidating and getting a good basis for next season.

Will Bolasie be the answer next season and move us up the pitch faster? Will the relatively new midfield need time to gel before these games turn to wins? Will we need more signings? Is this our best formation?

Whatever the answer, we need to find it and turn up at the likes of Boro', Stoke, Sunderland, Swansea and Burnley etc and take 3 points next season.

I know we aren't going to win them all but we have to find a way to win most of the winnable away games. To clarify, I am happy enough with the point; I just mean if we want to win things or reach the Champions League, we need to go one further.

After the Koeman brothers talked up Rom's 'better than Van Basten' and 'World Class' finishing prowess this week, I thought it nailed on arm would be firing blanks today..

Massive thanks to Joel Robles for the superb save to preserve the clean sheet. Here's hoping the boys can take out their frustrations today on Moyes's Sunderland.

Yet, a player Everton were interested buying from Napoli in the summer is scoring goals for fun for Southampton for just £13 million. In contrast, Everton had a quiet winter transfer window.

Fool that I am, I have rekindled my hope. I've even persuaded myself that 2nd/3rd isn't out of reach. Blind and ridiculous faith – that's what we need.

Today for me is on Koeman. Errant in his formation, exposing our centre-backs and clogging the midfield. We at several points were 4-5-1 without the ball.

Rom, starved of a partner, became starved of the ball. Can't blame him there, I think it showed when clean through, thought he snatched at it.

We are harder to beat, true enough but that's come mostly through a 3-5-2. Baines especially was so worried by the erratic Funes Mori, he barely ventured forward.

Maybe Koeman wants to experiment, which to me sends the wrong signal that perhaps we are stuck at 7th.

I looked at the clock with 10 mins left and said to myself, I'd rather lose going for it. But it just peetered out. There was no control in the game, unlike at Palace when you just knew we would score.

Let's hope that he reinstates Holgate and the balance that comes with it and we should see a repeat of the 7-1 v Sunderland from November 2007!

The performance actually felt very Martinez-esque. Every time a midfielder received a ball to feet, it was bunted back to where it came from. Possession seemed more important than actually doing anything with it. I lost count of the ponderous passages of play eventually ending with Williams or Joel hoofing upfield.

The bench looked very light, which was a bit of a concern. I suppose Mirallas, Bolasie and Henen could all have offered something if not for injury.

Our defence were well organised and deserved their clean sheet. I'm struggling to see the positives elsewhere.

The top 6 are not in reach anymore and this season will have to just be about consolidating 7th which I guess is just about good enough.

My thoughts exactly Phil (#14) too much passing around in our own half and not moving the ball forward. I also thought Boro showed more attacking intent.

OFM will probably be full of praise for Koeman this week and claim credit for teaching the team how to play that way.

THAT SAVE by Joel towards the end was worth watching the whole game for. Good lad, as Koeman said "A clean sheet guarantees a point", Joel delivered his point to the cause.

Had Lookman's luck been in, then he could have had two. But his best days are certainly all to come.

Disappointed? Yes, but not with our performance, just the result.

London – the NW of England – the REST with us currently being the 'best of the rest'.

And yes I know some pedants will say we are in the NW too but our steadily increasing points gap to those above us leaves us out of the real picture.

We have progressed this season and I think we will progress more before the end of it. If it's obvious to us then it will be obvious to Koeman that a goal creator of some description is needed in the summer. I won't panic too much on this front yet.

This was progress for me. I think the run has left some of us expecting easy wins every week. Boro's goals against at home is very good. They have narrowly lost a lot of games this season.

We created chances in difficult conditions and didn't take them. Their keeper was MotM in many papers. We would lose games like this in the last 2 years.

We're 7th with a huge gap to 9th. That's massive progress in a short time.

This season, we visited 'Boro and I expected a point as the bare, scant minimum return. Before, I would have feared an embarrassing defeat or anticipated a draw scraped from a tedious "last airing on MotD" encounter but all the while crossing my fingers for three solid points well deserved.

We really didn't look like losing. We DID fully deserve our point, it wasn't a collector's item performance. We could quite easily have stolen all three. Awkward though it is to accept, these are the tender green shoots of progress.

Obviously it's impossible to predict the future, but IF the recent form trend continued, with us making steady progression and Liverpool and Man Utd stalling a bit, then soon we would be above Liverpool and perhaps Man Utd. But it's all ifs. All we can do is take each game as it comes and try to win it regardless of the opposition.

If only... still we dust down and get set for the phase of games. Spurs looked like the season has caught up with them?

Needless to say, let's hope we can start getting some more wins on the board and we'll see what happens on the road v Spurs, Man Utd, Arsenal and the RS.

I hope this winter break ensures the players are back fresh and on form. Everton old Boys next up!

This led to a lack of supply to the front three, and also to our back four being exposed. Perhaps it's because they haven't played too much together. Perhaps it's because Boro are more tenacious and more capable than I gave them credit for.

Personally I felt like the game needed Gareth Barry in there from the start. His passing from deep is superior to any of our other central midfielders, plus he has the experience to 'take charge' in a makeshift formation. I would have brought him on for Gana, rather than throwing on Valencia who wasn't up to much.

That was the year they had Damian Duff and David Dunn, before Duff joined Chelsea. I cried when the final results filtered through on my monitor. And hey, even 7th might be enough for a Europa League spot.

If we look at the bigger picture and stop analysing on a match to match basis we will see that going Undefeated 16 games like Man United have just achieved and gone now two points behind second place. We are currently on the 5th best undefeated run in Europe's top 5 leagues with 8 games undefeated, so I'm thinking if we can continue to win or draw for 8 more games, we two could be two or three points behind second place with 5 games to go.

Also, Middlesbrough have only conceded 27 goals all season – the same as us. COYBs we can gate crash the party. If we relax and get behind the new Everton.

I sort of understand what you mean, but it's surely pertinent to analyse each match as it unfolds and then come to a conclusion when that particular match has ended. Obviously every game has to be put into context, level of opponents, conditions, player availability etc. If we can only draw those conclusions by waiting for a certain period of time has elapsed or until the end of the season, discussion on ToffeeWeb would be pretty pointless wouldn't it?

Last week many of us were waxing lyrical about the team's performance and of course the result; this week... not so much. Next time out... who knows?

Whatever people think about Everton this week, good or bad, the ground will still be full to the rafters for our next game and all Blues will be fully behind the team – that's football.

A point is not what we wanted but it keeps the momentum going and there are plenty of games left yet to try and catch the others. The away games against RS and MU are real six pointers and if we win then who knows where we will end up.

Like Jim above I think it will likely be 7th which would be a realistic and decent improvement on last season and hopefully will provide the launchpad for a real assault on the Top 4 next season.

Obviously the ground was only slippy, the wind only blew and the sleet only sleeted where the 'All Blacks' played. Valdes, Traore and a few others had a nice early spring day in the sun to stroll about in.

It's probably all the hair that gives me the rash.

No wonder the negatives are so swiftly brushed under the carpet. The sight of our manager time-wasting against a team batting relegation was the most negative thing I've seen this season.

Lukaku is not consistent enough. He has absolutely no competition for places. Valencia is not even competition. Everton are based in the Northwest - not Southern England, so are used to playing in colder climates/ sleet (Even been playing in sorts of weather since the 1835 (St Domingo days), or 1879 (Everton become a football club). The truth is the likes of 'boro. ought to be their (Everton's) bread and butter type games.

Niasse cannot do anything else on the ball (so it would seem) except score. The salient point is that he can score in the Premier League against Man Utd's best, Liverpool's best, which makes Hull City a threat but much more of a threat because Marco Silvo invested in some extremely talented players.

We need someone who can score goals – ie where the goal keeper finds it virtually impossible to reach. In the tone of the Kaiser Chiefs, 'I predict a riot' when Everton display another average performance and probably will struggle to finish in the top half of the league this season. Stop all this diluted thinking; unless the evidence is prima facie, which it is to some of us more than most (it seems), why is it that most of you cannot see the wood for the trees.

That truth is that we (Everton) are massively lacking in consistent strikers required for the 'bread and butter' games – notwithstanding the necessary prerequisites premium skills and abilities for what should be the extremely challenging games: the top 4, Man City, Liverpool et al. If we can't beat 'Boro-esque teams then how do we progress up the league, it's a mathematical certainty that we will go lower down the league if we can't win the rest of these up-coming low tier games.

I fully get your point about discussion on ToffeeWeb. I was just trying to show the benefits of a long unbeaten run. I just think if we can become unbeatable for rest of season, obviously with the wins doubling the draws, we could be in Dreamland for this season considering how we all felt after Watford. COYBs

Circumstantially, we are where we are in the Premier League – not through our own brilliant team performances.

Performances at 'Boro-esque clubs have to improve if we're to make any worthwhile progress. This was my point, so if you could stick to the point, this would be rather helpful than just cherry-picking from my representations.

It's almost like Everton go to these clubs with the psyche: "It's okay, this is a club that we're expected to struggle against, so 0-0, 1-1 etc is acceptable, as it's a point, right?" We simply need to win these type of games and keep clean sheets. Bournemouth result is deceptive as we nearly lost as even when we were, I think 3-2 up Bournemouth were clearly still a challenge.

Lukaku and Everton as a whole are clearly confidence players as Lukaku and Co can put in masterclass performances when we're winning. The sober point is that Bournemouth scored 3 goals against us, the other three more we scored is not really important.

When a team breaks down, the superior team is expected to do the masterclass thing. Everton were no exception. I still think it was a superficial performance as the game could easily have ended in our defeat – it certainly was going that way. This is clearly our weakness – we give up too easily but the likes of Bournemouth do not etc.

As for your reply, well it sounds more of a rant than anything else and to be honest I shouldn't bite as quite a lot of your posts seem to go into a rant mode. It's a good job that all the other teams have provided Everton with such weak opposition else we would be on minus points according to your world view.

I'm not arguing that Everton have been brilliant and I'm a firm believer that any team finishes in the league position that it deserves, we are currently seventh if the recent form continues that's probably the best we can expect, if Everton's form nosedives we could finish 11th or lower, we'll have to wait and see if those inferior teams from 8th to 20th start giving Everton a proper match.

This is an ideal time to be bedding in some youth and giving them experience.

If Koeman was handed 7th spot now, I'd say he'd take it and hopefully Europe. He'll then use the summer to refactor his squad and its depth.

Sure, the fact we outscored Bournemouth was of no real importance. Not like it had any bearing whatsoever on the final result and the team actually securing three points.

"This is clearly our weakness – we give up too easily but the likes of Bournemouth do not etc."

Maybe you can explain why we have scored 13 goals in the final ten minutes of the games we've played, and conceded 3, only Arsenal come close with a 13/4 ratio. Give up too easily? My arse!

ps: Bournemouth have a 7/10 ratio...

If Lookman had scored with the attempts he had, he would have been hailed as the new Lukaku!

"I still think it was a superficial performance as the game could easily have ended in our defeat – it certainly was going that way."

"Superficial performance"?!? Unbelievable! Certainly going the way of a defeat... at 3-2 and leaking goals like a sieve... except that we then went on to score three goals to win the game in rather impressive fashion.

Oh, but the point that we scored three more goals is not really that important... I despair.

We should've won yesterday, and could easily have lost, so I am grateful for the point on the day.

This is one of the most bewildering postings on TW or indeed anywhere.

The league position of every single club whose results are below 100 percent are circumstantial.

I'm utterly dumbfounded that anyone could fail to grasp this most basic fact – even a carrier bagger visiting the "Anfield experience and purchaseable memorabilia emporium" for their one and only trip of a lifetime must surely grasp this fact ?

We didn't win a game we hoped we would. We scored six last week and couldn't score this week.

Why didn't Chelsea beat Burnley today? Why didn't Spurs beat the Shite yesterday, after all they'd only won one in ten before yesterday!

Jesus, it's a "game" involving humans who err and fail on occasion. Far too much wailing and gnashing of teeth going on, as there are ridiculous theories.

We had a bit of an off day, Boro fought for survival. Amen.

Are you really expecting a balanced view from our resident keyboard warriors?

Not a hope in hell.

Goals for fun? I'd hardly call 3 in 2 games goals for fun. Yes, he's made a decent start. But let's see if he continues to do it until the end of the season My guess is he won't. There must have been a reason why Koeman didn't pursue him given that we were linked.

Once Lookman has got his feet under the table, he'll get his fair share... of that I've no doubt. That kid is going to be a big player for us in the next couple of seasons and that
^#;10 mill or whatever will look like a steal!

I'm sure our manager sets us up to win each game, and takes it from there as the game progresses. Draws happen, just ask Chelsea.

I thought the weather was a factor; Lookman is a star, Joel always had it in him; Baines was excellant (probably irreplacable) and they are a physical solid defensive outfit, teetering on the edge of the relegation zone fighting for their lives.

Good point for me.

Our team is progressing well and Koeman is slowly building for the future. We must be patient – as I've said in previous posts, there will be bumps in the road.

How long did Alex Ferguson take to get it right at Man Utd? Keep the faith.

And it is no wonder why Lukaku fails to score goals against the bigger teams away. Everton really need to have another striker who can share the goal scoring burden if Everton are to progress further.

There's quite a few comments from him and Steve Walsh around ensuring Everton buy players with the right character, I'm sure we will recruit forward and defensive players in the next transfer window.

Can't we look at this as a positive? Is it not saves like this that Joel should be making, to prove that he has silenced his doubters, of which there were many... None moreso than myself!

The Boro games was a crap game against a struggling team in horrible conditions. The overall significance? Sod all.

It would be more interesting to see how we do from a position of 2 or more goals down, surely? Like at Stamford Bridge when we got stuffed.

Incidentally, do you have a breakdown on which games comprised the ones which we were already winning? And it would help if we knew the score when we DID score late, scoring a goal when we were comfortably ahead.

I don't have a dog in this fight but you might also question why we have to come back all the time?

A resilient nature is an extremely positive trait; flip that coin and find going behind so often is also a questionable one.

It takes a lot of energy to get back into a game where we lose the first goal – often, perhaps why in recent seasons we draw so many instead of losing? Just a thought.

However, should United or Spurs go on to win the Europa League and finish outside the top 4, then there will be 5 teams in the Champions League and only 2 in Europa League. In that case, only 5th & 6th in the Premier League would qualify for the Europa League.

So don't be supporting Southampton on Sunday week!

Only twice.

At home to City, 3-0 when we scored in extra time

At home to Bournemouth 5-3 when we scored in extra time.

Only happened against Chelsea that we have been 2 goals down in an EPL game.

I only wonder as so many on here believe he is a fraud. I would assume that points on the board will be an early indicator one way or the other. Anyway, I think he will beat our last two seasons of 47 and 47.

Allegedly we are in the best league in the world where anyone can beat anyone so, for me, an away point is a positive – especially when the performance wasn't brilliant.

If we can keep this unbeaten run going, who knows where we can finish? I believe the most important thing now is the next game.

You're right – no gimmes in this league; looking at the results of last couple of weeks shows that. Conte pleased with a point at Burnley yesterday against a battling side in tough conditions shows the difficulty.

Actually John, I don't have a dog either and I hope I'm not in a fight, I'm just pointing out a glaring inaccuracy i.e: That we don't have the resilience to come back from behind.

Of course, you're right; it'd be better if we didn't go behind in the first place... but, that aside, at least we can take comfort that we have garnered the most points from losing positions in the Premier League (I think) – something that wouldn't have happened the last couple of seasons.

Eric#72,73,74.

Thanks, Eric.

Unbelievable... but thankfully, if I am correct, this is a minority position.

Quick question for you, Steavey. Gabbiadini (did you like the boss goal with the hand?) or Lookman/Schneiderlin?

'Quiet' January window? My arse.

Maybe I should have also mentioned being 2 goals behind to Watford, where we battled back courageously to only lose by 1 goal, by way of balance? :P

I wouldn't expect any team to throw in the towel due to a one goal deficit. So as interesting as your examples are, I don't see what relevance they have, to either my point, or your original claim regarding the number of goals we've scored in the last 10 minutes of games.

Oh, and 'a rejuvenated Hull City', hahaha. Nice one. :)

What is the significance of bleating on about how many times we haven't battled back from 2 goals down? The fact that we have only gone behind by 2 goals twice in the league is testament to our ability to stay in a game even during the matches that we haven't played particularly well.

We clearly come on strong in the second half, so I can't see what point you're trying to make. I have no doubt that if we are 2 goals behind at any time throughout the remaining games, that we will battle on and try and find answers.

We are 2nd in the table for points won from losing positions. Only Tottenham have done better.

Honourable mentions to Watford. 1-1 at half time, finished 3-2 to them (!) Southampton. 1-0 to them at half time. Finished 1-0 to them and Spurs. 1-0 up at half time and it finished 1-1.

What a second-half team.

Re your Chelsea example: fair enough, point taken, tongue in cheek.

Hull City, rejuvenated or not have been playing well recently, beating Liverpool, , drawing against Man Utd and putting up a great performance against Arsenal last weekend.

The real point is that we have the capability to come back from behind and salvage points or win games. That fact is irrefutable. Spurs 1-1 was the first game of the season, we are a better side now, and fitter, too.

As a team, we are going in the right direction, as opposed to the last two seasons when we had no idea where we were heading apart from the Championship.

It's not that we're happy with it, it's just that some of us can put it into perspective and realize it's not the end of the world!

Yep. We've shown that we can come from behind against Hull and Swansea. That's nice. The latter had lost 7 of the previous 8 games when they nearly beat us at Goodison. But they're doing alright now so that's another positive, right?

We're 19 points off the top compared to 18 points at this stage last season. We're 8 points off 5th compared to 6 points at this stage the previous season. Yet we're 'going in the right direction'? Admittedly, we're 1 place higher than last season (after 25 games) but as Leicester had 53 points at the corresponding stage last season and only 21 points this time around it's no great surprise that we've managed to fight our way past them with this new found 'point-salvaging' ability. :P

That probably won't be enough to gain Europe without the help from one or two of the top six sides winning the cups – but it's a damn sight better than this time last year.

Phil Walling elsewhere mentioned that Koeman would probably restore the team to David Moyes's level and that is good enough for me at this moment in time.

We can argue until the cows come home as to whether the 'style' is good, bad or indifferent and whether Koeman has what it takes to move the team to a higher level, I suspect that he won't be around long enough for us to find out, but at least he'll have addressed the Martinez legacy and hopefully the man in charge after Ronald – if he doesn't stay for his full term – will make a better fist of it than Roberto did.

As an Evertonian I am not satisfied with seventh, I never was and never will be. However, when the club was sinking like a stone and the players had forgotten why they loved playing for the club, it needed a steady and firm hand to stop the rot and put us back on an even keel, Koeman has managed to do that and his input should be acknowledged and applauded.

That doesn't mean that he gets a free pass for the rest of the season and he certainly has to produce the goods for the club from now until he leaves and who knows he might just take us to where we all want to go.

As for teams losing the lead, well that's just football and there are certain games on Merseyside which are legendary because the local teams came back to win them, I would prefer Everton to batter every team out of sight in every match but this is real life and you have to ride with the punches. If you can't do that, you should find another sport to follow.

Even the most negative on here will begrudgingly admit that we have been generally stronger in the 2nd half.

As I said, only Spurs have won more points from losing positions. We are much improved since the new year and will annihilate last season's points tally.

We had 35 points after 25 games last season. We have 41 from 25 this season. Last season we got a measly 12 points in the last 13 games. I am expecting at least 24 points from our remaining 13 games. That will put us on 65 points. Compare that to last season's 47.

Whichever way you want to spin it... that's progress.

On the much more rare occasions that we have changed the score line positively, it's proved to be a real struggle to make these 'strong' second half performances count. 88th minute against Palace, 89th minute against Swansea, 87th minute against Arsenal, etc.

We've been behind to some terrible sides this season. Boro at home, Swansea at home and Hull away. Hardly a great achievement to have fought back.

Yep, 6 more points. Leicester away and Stoke at home, the only difference between this season and last?

We've still got to go to Man Utd, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool, West Ham and Swansea. We also play Chelsea, and even West Brom, at home. If we play the way we have in the last few aways, I doubt we'll win any of the remaining ones. At least 24 points from the last 13 games? Bit optimistic that.

"We're 19 points off the top compared to 18 points at this stage last season."

So, would you rather we go back to Roberto Bellendino and his methods or are you so bored that you're just looking for an argument? Are you the guy who lurches around the Pier Head with a bottle in a brown paper bag shouting at Pigeons? ;-)

Incidentally, I was seriously pissed off after the Swansea game, as I have been after other poor performances, but I do see that there is a brighter future now than before and I do realise that we are actually capable of coming back from a goal down whereas I was never confident of that under Martinez.

People are entitled to criticise a shit display, and people are equally entitled to acknowledge progress. The two things are not mutually exclusive.

I think we will continue to struggle around 7th if we don't address this. However Barkley may have to go if we get the right man in as I don't see how or why we should try to fit him in.

The real acid test to where we finish will come at The Lane... win that one and it's game on right 'till the final game at Arsenal. Lose it and we finish 7th!

We were better at it around this point of the season under Martinez.

In the remaining games we went behind a further 8 times, coming back only the once. The semi-final against Man Utd.

I'd also be interested to see how many times we lost a lead last season, versus this, as that was also a major complaint under Martinez. Statto?

The thing about statistics is they can be made to prove whatever point you want to make. I prefer to use my eyes and make my own judgement.

My advice: stay off the loony juice.

We may well have the firm prospect of an iconic new stadium. We will have some money behind us and some business acumen on the board at last.

I, for one, would have signed up for this last August.

Also, whilst the sounds coming from the Lukaku camp are positive if he finishes top scorer (or close) then big hitters could come after him. If the offers are huge and the player's head is turned then what we need at CF could change. I think RK figured the wisest thing would be to reevaluate in the summer.

As for Lookman I was underwhelmed when we bought him but the lad not only is far more talented than I thought but looks willing and able to learn. He's slotted right into the team, has had chances iirc in every appearance and looks like an absolute steal for the money we paid. Made up we sourced him so early before he appeared on the big boy's radar. Our financial position means we can ward off future interest. Wasting money was what we did with Bolasie who was already a developed player and frankly not good enough for a team intending to crash the top 4.

I'll ask again, Grant, would you rather go back to Martinez and his methods? I actually look forward to going the match this season, despite hiccups against Swansea etc. I had to drag myself to watch Martinez's teams propel us last season to the worst home record in the history of the club. Clearly, we didn't "come back" often enough did we?

Brill. That is surely what the whole fucking pantomime is about. If we won the league and you had never looked forward to the game, then to me the win would be meaningless.

Whatever we do, in the end I hope you look forward to going to the game. I cannot go but like you, I am looking forward now to each game I watch even if we draw or even lose now and then.

Especially as these days I forget what I had for me dinner.

Signing players who improve us, bringing in young players who improve us, and a manager who doesn't speak in tongues.

Things happening to encourage you and give you some hope for the future. All the statistical masturbation in the world can't change that.

This season we have lost 5 of our 17 leads and reclaimed 0. We have gone on to lose 2 and draw 3 of the 5 games where we lost the lead. Last season we went on to win 2, draw 3 and lose 2 of the 7 games where we lost 9 leads.

Whilst we lost a greater percentage of our leads last season. (9/24 - 5/17) The percentage of leads that stayed lost was pretty much the same. (7/24 - 5/17)

Well those methods produced a Premier League record beating 72 points for a season. An entertaining Europa League run beating the likes of Wolfsburg and Young Boys convincingly along the way and two cup semi-finals and one quarter-final.

Koeman's method helped us beat Man City at home. :}

Cherry-picking some 'highlights' of one manager over 3 seasons and comparing it to the 25 games of his successor is not really a balanced comparison is it?

For balance, here are some stats from last season to emphasise the shambles that Koeman inherited:

Everton had their worst ever home record (23 points) [adjusted for 3 points for a win].

Everton kept just 3 clean sheets at home in the Premier League – all against the relegated teams.

Everton won 6 home games in the league. They have won fewer in only one season previously (5 in 1957-58).

Everton finished in the bottom half of the Premier League for the second consecutive season after finishing in the top 8 in the previous 8 seasons.

Everton have finished in the bottom half of the Premier League in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2000-01 and 2001-02.

Everton conceded 30 goals at home in the league – the most since 1993-34.

Everton conceded 3+ goals in 3 consecutive games for the first time since 2002.

Everton lost 18 points from winning positions and won just 7 points from losing positions.

Everton lost their last 10 games when their opponents have scored first.

Everton allowed their opponents to score at home 10 times in the league and did not win any of those games and lost 7 times.

Everton were in a losing position at half time 11 times in the league, winning just once and lost 9 times.

Everton conceded 15 goals in the last 15 minutes of a league game – the joint-most in the Premier League.

Everton conceded 16 goals in the last 15 minutes of the first half of a league – the most in the Premier League.

Everton conceded 31 goals in the last 15 minutes of a half in a league game – the most in the Premier League.

Everton conceded 2+ goals in a game 19 times in all competitions.

Everton conceded 3+ goals in a game 11 times in all competitions.

Everton were the only team to go through the entire season without scoring from a free kick, directly or crossed, in the Premier League.

Grant, after the terrific post by Chris (#108). Any comment of mine is superfluous; however, seeing as you mention our Premier League record of 72 points with Moyes defence, discipline and fitness levels, I'll just point out that, once Martinez got his talons into Everton and guided us into his way of playing, we turned to crap.

You haven't answered my questions.

a) Do you prefer Martinez and his methods?
.
.
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b) Are you the man at the Pier Head shouting at pigeons?

Why focus only on goals conceded and not goals scored? We had the 3rd best attack at home last season. Despite managing to fail to score from 34 attempts against West Brom. :}

Which 3 games in a row did we concede 3+ goals in? Are you sure you haven't just made some of these 'facts' up? :}

If the team was such a 'shambles' last season, then how did we only lose 2 games in all competitions between the defeat on the 24th October 2015 and the defeat on the 24th January 2016? The two games in question being thanks to a disputed penalty in the last minute against Stoke and the game against the eventual champions, Leicester. Or make 2 semi finals for the first time in around 30 years?

Comparatively, Moyes's fitness regime WAS terrific, you need only read Osman's book to see evidence of that. And, of the players you mention, only Stones played in defence, and even then for only half the Premier League games.

Pigeon Man, why are you scared of answering the question re preferring Martinez's methods and football to Koeman's? :-)

Have I misinterpreted your posts? If you honestly believe that we were performing better at this stage of the season last year then I'm afraid I can't take anything you write seriously. I'm also beginning to question your motives?