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Steve Hogan
1 Posted 07/11/2017 at 19:42:58
Paul, a great story as ever. I too had the 'free' pack of Pepperoni, the new 'beef' flavour was awful by the way, I gave the rest of mine to the dog.

Agree, on most of your ratings, but I thought Tom Davies 'stunk the place out' on Sunday afternoon. To give him and Jags both a 5 mark, was a little unfair, I actually thought Jagielka was pretty solid over the 90 minutes.

Tom Davies constantly gave the ball away, and his passing was dreadful. Perhaps he needs a break from a side bereft of confidence and short on inspiration.

On a general comment, I don't think most of our fans realise the actual 'damage' Koeman has inflicted on this side over the last six months. He has simply destroyed the confidence in most of that team, hence Baines and Sigurdsson missing fairly simple chances.

I honestly think he has set us back a couple of seasons. It will take whoever the new manager is that long to put this mess right, and probably get a new set of players in.

Mike Gaynes
2 Posted 07/11/2017 at 19:58:38
Hold up a second, Steve... so Baines's and Siguurdsson's failures to finish were Koeman's fault??!?!

Ooohhhh-kay.

Steve Hogan
3 Posted 07/11/2017 at 20:04:19
Mike (2)

Certainly, I put the majority of blame for this mess absolutely at the hands of Koeman, he's been an absolute disaster for this club.

You obviously think otherwise.

John Boon
4 Posted 07/11/2017 at 20:10:27
Great to win even if we did get some luck. Still think there is a long way to go. Koeman has left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that it will take patience and time to recover from his uselessness. It shows how things have gone sour when so many of us, me included, are delighted to have beaten Watford.

We do have some good players and some young ones with potential but we don't have any great players including one who we paid over £45 million for. I would like Unsworth to succeed but we all need to reserve judgement before deciding that he is our saviour.

Danny Broderick
5 Posted 07/11/2017 at 22:36:56
Sigurdsson was never a 7 in my book. Set pieces aside, he is just not producing any quality. He works hard, but nothing is coming off. I haven’t been impressed at all by him unfortunately...
Clive Mitchell
6 Posted 07/11/2017 at 23:33:55
Funny what you see isn't it? For me Sigurdsson was dire – lightweight and little involved, 4. Tom Davies was everywhere and making good things happen – 7, only behind Niasse for our MotM.

We were outplayed for an hour. Baines and Jags just can't do it at this level any more, and we can't afford to carry passengers like Sigurdsson and Rooney.

Mike Gaynes
7 Posted 07/11/2017 at 23:46:00
Clive, most observers here, including me, thought Davies was awful, made multiple bad passes that left us open to counterattacks. Great young player who had the worst game of his career IMO. Different eyes see the game differently, I guess.

Steve (#3), that's not what you said. Koeman definitely deserves massive blame for a whole boatload of stuff. Blaming him for missed goalscoring chances two weeks after he was sacked is just plain ridiculous. So what I do think is that you made a silly comment.

Don Alexander
8 Posted 08/11/2017 at 01:28:36
It's premature to be dissing Sigurdsson or anyone whose role is to feed a credible centre-forward. The fact is that the season was sabotaged from within before the window closed by the failure to sign such a player.

Koeman's got the chop but just who was responsible for the transfer window debacle? The silence is deafening from the club but I hope our next manager establishes the truth before he signs on, thereby making a repetition more unlikely.

As an aside, whoever sabotaged our season deserves to be publicly castrated – or is that still illegal according to the bollock-kissing sycophants still serving Kenwright?

James Byrne
9 Posted 08/11/2017 at 04:01:17
One of the big let-downs recently for me is Gueye. He just isn't doing it at all and he's become a bit of a liability. I think he needs a spell on the bench for a month in place for one or two of the younger lads.

I'm not slating the lad – I just think a lot of these players have suffered during this horrendous Koeman period, and some more than others lack confidence and belief.

Good write up.

John McGimpsey
10 Posted 08/11/2017 at 07:15:41
Davies over the last six weeks has been awful. He is a midfield Naismith.
Bob Parrington
11 Posted 08/11/2017 at 08:54:14
Wow! Massively differing views from the same game. it would be interesting to see David Unsworth's view on this trail.

IMO, Clive has picked up on Davies being heavily involved, with which I agree, but looking lightweight, knocked off the ball too often – feature of several players – looked like our off-the-ball movement was mostly crap so the players with the ball didn't have a clear pass.

Sigurdsson was anonymous for the first 30 minutes or so. Rooney showed some class at times but was caught with the ball too often, leading to counter-attacks by Watford.

Jags was good in some ways but was woeful in defending crosses. Baines was "steady" but is clearly slowing. Gueye was, like Davies, in the action but the "out-pass" was regularly not available because of our "off-the-ball" laziness (or lack of thought).

Jonjoe Kenny (who I think has a bright future) has received quite a lot of praise and so this is going to be counter to the general thought. Much of Watford's pressing was down their left - our right - and IMO Kenny was caught regularly out of position with having to be covered by other players being drawn out of position and leaving big gaps in the middle and beyond to Baines's position i.e. the left-back drawn to the middle leaving a huge gap behind. Of course Kenny also did some damn good work!

Having watched the game only "vonce", meiner herren, I bow to other viewpoints.

Steve Hogan
12 Posted 08/11/2017 at 11:25:51
Mike (7)

I don't think you understand my original post. I won't rise to the 'silly' comment jibe. What I'm saying is the presence of Koeman over a long period has affected the form and ability of both players, hence missing the straightforward chances.

Does that make it any easier for you?

Mike Gaynes
14 Posted 08/11/2017 at 16:08:54
Thanks for easing my struggles, Steve, but I clearly understand your initial post.

I just think it's nonsense.

Andy Meighan
15 Posted 08/11/2017 at 16:17:42
Don (#8),

Why is it premature to be dissing Sigurdsson?

He's been terrible since he came and shown nothing to justify that ridiculous price tag. Lacks pace, can't tackle, can't spot a pass, can't dribble, can't score... All-in-all, a shocking buy. He may or may not come good under a new manager; my guess is he won't.

Oh, and I forgot to mention he's meant to be a purveyor of set-pieces... Only seen one so far – the assist for Williams.

No, the jury are back in and they are unanimous: Shit!

Brian Williams
16 Posted 08/11/2017 at 16:59:15
Steve has a point – and not necessarily a silly one at that. Confident players take chances when they "put their foot through it" "smash it" "wellie it" call it whatever you like.

Both Baines and Sigurdsson "appeared" more concerned with not hitting Row Z with their shots rather than having the confidence to smash the ball into the back of the net.

A confident player may have done better than they both did on Sunday. A confident player takes chances rather than playing it safe, which again I feel both did on Sunday.

Steve Hogan
17 Posted 08/11/2017 at 17:04:16
Thanks, Brian (#16)

Exactly what I was saying; however, Mike Gaynes thinks it's nonsense. Doesn't mess around, does Mike...

Brian Williams
18 Posted 08/11/2017 at 17:29:39
No problem, Steve. I've seen it first hand y'see when a manager completely ruined my son's confidence after he'd been top scorer for every team he'd played for and scored a lot fewer for this man. The man was clueless, and an arsehole to boot. Took a while before my son recovered and got his confidence back.

Baines and Sigurdsson are both adults but it's still not an instant thing to recover from – no matter what your age.

Tony Stanley
19 Posted 09/11/2017 at 01:55:00
I think Steve Hogan’s post was spot on,
William Cartwright
20 Posted 09/11/2017 at 04:15:49
Brian you are spot on with the link between confidence and manager style. Even in a non-inspirational day to day environment a good manager is primarily a motivator and a good organizer. The thing that struck me about Koeman was everything was always about "him" whether it was the route to Barcelona, the project, the private jet arrival, the golf, the distanced manner, the bullying style of Niasse, etc.. . . . . .

The style of Unsworth is the complete opposite. The insistence upon the role of the team, the depth of feeling for the club, his dismissal of his own significance, all text-book good man management whether sincere or not, and I believe he is sincere.

If hte future plays out as I would love to see it, Unsy keeps his role until Christmas, see where we are and then, hopefully keeps it until next summer. If a big name (Simeone?) comes in then Unsy stays as assistant manager to one of the best in the game at the club he loves.

There's nothing wrong with hope and faith and sometimes dreams do come true. COYB.

As for Koeman, well I am not usually a spiteful person, but I hope his Barcelona gig is flushed down the kazi together with all the other expensive, arrogant, bullshit he served up for the last year and a half.

Bob Parrington
22 Posted 09/11/2017 at 08:49:53
Steve Hogan, The comments you made about Koeman's effect on the confidence of the players are real and cannot be overlooked by any newly appointed manager or David Unsworth. Think I wore some weeks ago something like "it is too soon for us to know what real damage Koeman has inflicted on the whole playing staff". Possibly this damage goes further in to the inner annals of the club. The close season was so positive (except many on TW wrote WTF, why so many midfielders and no new strikers and, by the way Everton, we need another CD and LB).

It is one thing to build up expectations but, then, to knock them for six insect a small time by utter ineptitude is another thing entirely.

So, I think this aspect of your initial post is smack on the money.

Brian Williams - I've seen this with both of my sons, who showed great promise only to have the guts knocked out of them with some managers/coaches.

My belief is that Unsworth should be given the opportunity to rebuild this confidence even if he doesn't eventually get the full time position. I believe he is ideal for this role. A new manager (immediately) might find this part of it difficult!!??

Steve Hogan
23 Posted 09/11/2017 at 09:56:29
Tony (19) and Bob (22)

Appreciate your comments, I was merely trying to point out, that the prolonged 'presence' of Koeman with the Everton squad, even with experienced pro's like Baines and Sygi, CAN have a detrimental effect on player's form.

With Sygi in particular, 12 month's ago, he probably would have buried that chance he had in the Watford game, and that's WHY I laid the blame at Koeman's door.

Bob Parrington
24 Posted 09/11/2017 at 12:08:16
Yup . positives and negatives! Winners and losers! Understood!!
Rahman Talib
25 Posted 14/11/2017 at 06:48:06
The Watfird game was the first this season where our Fullbacks were actually shooting at goal.

That opened up their defence and made slowed Watford's attack.

We need to continue doing this every game in and out because it helps opening up defences

Rahman Talib
26 Posted 14/11/2017 at 06:50:16
Also.

Forget about blaming Sigurdsson or Baines etx

Our main problem now is that we give away too.many cheap goals

The two goals Watford scored would not have happened under David Moyes.

We need to plug this hole and quickly.

If Unsworth can do this then I see him as our next permenant manager


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