Will Everton fans put up with Big Sam's style of play?

There is a certain type of football that Sam Allardyce like his team to play and it makes for one of the most boring spectaculars. These tactics work well enough to secure a team's future in the EPL but it comes at great cost to the fans who have to watch it every week.

Gary McCarty 13/12/2017 1comment  |  Jump to last

There is a certain type of football that Sam Allardyce like his team to play and it makes for one of the most boring spectaculars. He has the magical talent of making the beautiful game into the most boring game. He packs the defense and then gets his players to hoof the ball up the pitch at any chance in the hope that it will fall to the forward who will get the one goal needed to try to get the points. Strangely these tactics work well enough to secure a team's future in the EPL but it comes at great cost to the fans who have to watch it every week.

It was the 229th Merseyside derby at the weekend and big Sam's tactics worked once again by securing a valuable point against their arch-rivals. His team only had 20% possession throughout the match and were still able to come away with a point. Everton fans will be the happier of the two clubs with a point after the dreadful start to the season that they have had but for how long they will put up with the negative tactics remains to be seen.

Big Sams tactics could not have worked any better against Liverpool as even though the Reds had 80% possession they only managed three shots that were on target over the whole of the match. Many pundits before the game kicked off that Klopp's team were going to hammer Everton by a considerable score but the bus parked at the back stopped that from happening.

What was surprising about the derby was that Liverpool was able to score the first goal. The Everton team at the start of the season would have completely collapsed after going a goal down but not now they have big Sam in charge. His defensive tactics kept them in the game and thanks to the doggy defending of Liverpool's most inconsistent defender Dejan Lovren, they were awarded a penalty when he brought down Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the box after a fantastic ball by Wayne Rooney.

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Rooney was never going to miss the penalty with 15 minutes to go and slammed it past Mignolet to even the scores. Soon after Klopp introduced Philippe Coutinho from the bench and even though it was attack after attack, there was no way past the impressive Everton defense.

There was a stark contrast between the two managers at the end of the game. Allardyce keeps on managing to sneak a point from Klopp no matter which team he manages and once again will feel like he got one over the German manager. Klopp was livid about the penalty that changed the game but looking at replays he cannot have any grievances. For Everton’s upcoming fixtures make sure to read to review of the William Hill bonus on Wincomparator.

The Everton fans may be happy at the moment but they will not put up with paying for tickets to see their team only have 20% possession each week, even if that means they will survive in the EPL. They want to be entertained after all football is supposed to be entertainment but someone forgot to tell big Sam. If they play like this against the lesser teams it will cause a backlash from the fans but for now, big Sam is doing a vital job at securing this season's EPL survival.

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Philip Yensen
1 Posted 02/01/2018 at 13:55:13
However Allardyce wants to play, the players are poor at basic passing, moment off the ball a d taking g command of every situation. It pisses me off watching players pointing at an opponent to be picked up. We need a captain with a set of bollocks who will go up to players a give them the verbals. One player not fulfilling his job takes everyone out of position.

Where do you find a Peter Reid, Kevin Ratcliffe, Brian Labone, Alan Ball? I don't see players get a bollocking. Let's not moan abut Allardyce – it's not his fault we can't put 3 passes together without losing it or passing back to the keeper to launch a 60-yard hoof.


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