Allardyce looking to put Arsenal debacle behind him

Man City are in all cup competitions and plodding on, we just have league games, no reason to rest players.

Excuse me, Sam, but I think the fans know exactly what's going on in the games

The leadership at our beloved club is absolutely unbelievable!

We have had the same blip in almost every game this season it's just that that it didn't reflect in every scoreline.

With twelve games left and only 7 points from the bottom three it goes without saying they cannot afford any more ''blips'' over these next few weeks.

Everton have been easy targets all season, home and away, so a game against Zaha-less Palace will still be very difficult to win.

I would tend to give managers a decent crack but from everything I've seen so far, Allardyce is not the answer and the absolute key Summer signing is a new manager.

So he put on a 'B' team against Arsenal because he knew there was little or no chance of getting points there, and rested key players for Palace.

Atlanta at home 5-1, spurs home and away 3-0 and 4-0, united away 4-0 and saints 4-1 of which Sam was in charge during 2 of those.

Then there was Bournemouth, Leicester away, West Brom home and away, all of which this delusional bully was in charge off...

Such is his way of presenting his sides I've got to the point where I couldn't care less if we lose whoever we play if it means we are well rid of this cowboy.

I can stomach a defeat and even a heavy one if we were deemed to be trying and was just outplayed by the better side but the bilge he sets up game in game out not for me thanks. SAM OUT!!!!

I have watched most of the pre match and post match press conferences and a lot of what he says makes sense. Seems now he is under more pressure, he is struggling to make sense.

If we can get 7th this year, that would be a reasonable posn considering the season we have had.

Craig Shakespeare seems to have gone quiet..does he have any accountability at the club?

The sooner he does one the better. I couldn’t bear another season like this. I know he didn’t start off in the chair but he’s there now and I’m not sure Koeman couldn’t of done any worse. We need to move on as soon as the final whistle has blown on the season and forget Sam was ever here. He’s just a blip in our history.

Sam Allardyce
12 Premier League games.
4 wins, 4 Draws, 4 loses.
33.3% WIN rate

David Unsworth
5 Premier League games.
2 wins, 1 draw, 2 loses.
40%

Ronald Koeman
9 Premier League Game.
2 wins, 2 draws, 5 loses.
22% win rate.

Our best manager so far this season has been Unsworth and should have given more time. He was turning things around and the play was marginally improving.
Sam, you fell into an easy run of games and the optimism of the 4 nil at West Ham. Please, just leave the club.

At first I hoped that it said b-l-i-m-p and that an airship had been made from his pumpkin sized head.

Float off into the ether BFS, and spare us the agony of yet another outpouring of your bilge.

His “only I would know that” comment is an insult to every Evertonian. Surely this man is angling to get the boot and be paid off early.

I was quite happy to accept a seasoned veteran, an English manager in Allardyce but he hasn't come to grips with the faults in the team particularly at the back.

Only the Coleman performance against Leicester stood out and went a long way to getting three points despite the team still struggling to compete for a while and riding their luck.

Allardyce is a dead man walking!!!

I love that.

Visions now of Allarydce cruising about, music blasting, one leather clad hand caressing the wheel, the other gripping a Ginsters Sausage Roll he's using as a makeshift microphone to bellow along to a bit of Chesney Hawkes, feeling on top of the world as he shouts "I Sam, the one and only. Nobody I'd rather be!!". Only for his saggy jowelled jaw to drop suddenly as the traffic slows to a crawl in front of a tatty, old, second-hand shop with one yellowing poster still on display in the window:

Link

I also cannot see much changing regardless of who the manager is because we are hardly going to appoint a proven top class manager. It’s Everton and we will gamble on somebody like Silva if he is still available in October when they sack Big Sam, and it will be a big gamble.

If there was no method in this madness (his team selection), then we definitely missed our vocation in life because, with six weeks worth of the money this manager is receiving, then most of us would be able to set ourselves up for life.

Thousands of Everton fans knew that the second you lined up with only 2 midfielders against one of the best midfields in the league (and one of them being Schneiderlin so it doesn't actually register as having a player) that they would get completely overrun. Alas, an Arsenal midfielder scored a hat-trick, and we played better when a third midfielder came on.

If only you knew that was going to happen as well Sam.

When are we going to have a manager that is in tune with how the fans are feeling and knows what the fans expect, which is 110% in EVERY match, that goes for the manager as well as players.

Allardyce is bullshitting on a weekly basis now.

There was no reaction whatsoever to the hammering we got at Spurs just a horror performance against West Brom where we got lucky to scrape a draw.

Arsenal took their foot off the gas at 4-0 last Saturday, they could have won that 9-0 if they had wanted and we were hapless to do anything about it!.

Picking and choosing the games you want to perform in is a disgrace but it's clear that's what Allardyce has now got in mind. It will come back to haunt him though should we lose to Palace and it wouldn't shock me if we did lose looking at how poor we can be more often than not.

He's dug himself a hole and last week he gave the players a ready-made excuse for that horror show by changing the team and acting like he didn't care, so why should they?

Pathetic for an Everton manager to do this.

I think we'll have a new manager in the summer. Hope they make the right decision this time. But a bit of a clear-out is needed too.

Surely he's only got this season.

What a lunatic. He makes Martinez's David Brent psycho-babble seem almost sensible.

How can a manager with so much experience, not look for stability in his team? It's baffling unless he's got an ulterior motive, but it's something that has got me wracking my brains.

I don't think it would matter if he had 100 games in charge is dire style of football wont change. He has been in charge of numerous clubs and the fans of most of those clubs couldn't wait to see the back of him, and at 63 he isn't going to change.

Nobody on here was happy with the squad from September.

Central midfield to soft, give the ball away, etc. As soon as Allardyce can do so, he plays McCarthy. McCarthy breaks leg. Obviously poor decision on the part of the manager, sack him.

No experienced forwards. As soon as he can, Allardyce buys two.

No pace. Allardyce buys Walcott and Mangala.

No left-sided players, buys Mangala.

He analyses the problems, tells it like it is and attempts to solve them within the constraints he's working with. Pre-Christmas the squad couldn't have entertained a pensioners' party. What sense is there in complaining because they still don't play "the Everton way"?

He will do his job with what he has at his disposal. If the owner has any sense, and doesn't want to throw good money after the bad of last summer, by and large, he'll fund Allardyce and his team to overhaul and rebalance the squad.

Off to renew my season ticket tomorrow.

Either way, you can put your mortgage on Schneiderlin the Crab making the starting line-up and picking up another match fee for nominal distance covered and very little forward passes.

Sam, Sam, are you listening come out mate we'll forgive you, God loves a trier.

And by doingso places extra pressure on the team to win Saturday. By selecting a side that terrible side at Arsenal and resting his better players he better fooking hope they perform.

Were does he go if it doesn’t work?

I actually think he’d prefer it if we were bottom six, it would then fit his MO. Instead as we are far better than he normally manages, he simply looks way out of his depth.

He has added a striker but doesn't think he's able to play at Premier League level yet? I'm sorry Allardyce is doing nothing that much different to Koeman and for that reason he should be replaced as soon as Everton FC are mathematically safe from the dreaded drop.

I don't believe that most Evertonians are expecting miracles but at this point we should be seeing some semblance of a team but we're not, hence the disgruntlement.

Another example of red media darlings...

07:00 – wakes, has brief delusion he is still England manager before shuddering and going to bathroom.
07:15 – has a brew and a bacon sarnie while watching Top Gear repeats.
07:45 – shaves, wonders whether he should bring back the moustache before dressing and heading out.
08:30 – arrives at Finch Farm, hangs about in the canteen with Little Sam watching repeats of The Sweeney. Bacon sarnie consumed.
09:00 – opens first packet of chewing gum prior to attending a strategy meeting with Steve Walsh and Craig Shakespeare.
09:01 – meeting adjourned.
09:05 – briefly waves at the players as they are put through their paces by Little Sam. The sound of Tom Davies calling Little Sam “a proper red shite” might be heard.
09:10 – watches the last match featuring their up and coming opponents, makes notes on what the side they played against did tactically.
11:00 – the second packet of chewing gum is opened.
11:30 – bacon sandwich while watching The Professionals.
12:00 – snooze.
12:30 – rub down.
13:00 – tactical session with the squad using a Subbuteo set and a fizzy drinks plastic straw.
14:00 – ends the session along with Little Sam by shouting out percentages and statistics at the squad who gradually leave the room looking puzzled.
14:30 – the third packet of chewing gum is opened.
15:00 – team selection meeting with Shakespeare and Little Sam. Big Sam writes down the names of Jordan Pickford and then Morgan Schneiderlin (because he’s proud he can now spell the latter) as 1 and 2 in the first eleven. The other players names are all on little strips of paper which are pulled out of a bag until the squad of 18 has been selected. The formation is then decided depending on who was pulled out of the bag the first 9 times. Sam then changes it around if more than two attacking players were in that group.
16:00 – some explanations for an Everton loss at the weekend are agreed between the three of them. It is decided that this week, to explain not winning at home with a 8-1-1 formation, they should blame Goodison Park’s ground staff for making the surface lush and nice for the opposition to play on.
16:05 – Shakespeare, as the only one with internet savvy, finds an image of Plough Lane circa 1987.
16:10 – Pub.

The club should reimburse the travelling fans their hard earned money for a start. It's embarrassing being a fan when your team are set up to lose before a ball is kicked. Subbing Walcott on the hour and saying "I am saving you for next week" makes things even worse.

The club are a mess from top to bottom. No pride, heart or passion.

The money is in the bank, They have took Everton for a ride and think the owner is a dickhead.

Can't disagree with them if my theory is correct!!

No matter what he does now will just confuse the matter further as desperation is bound to creep in with 12 games left and 7 points out of the bottom three.

That's not much when you can play so poorly, so often as they have this season.

Some teams below are starting to pick up whereby we are still awaiting Everton to start the season.

Like most I can't wait for this debacle of a season to end.

Sorry Senile Sam, but this season's losses have been anything but "brief interruptions". They have been regular occurrences and we have continued to have many "blips" since you came along. I do realise that we also had quite a few before you came to save us.

In the same dictionary and not too long after " BLIP", we come to a true definition and description of the Arsenal game, namely the word " BLITZ": " a sudden destructive or overwhelming attack". Arsenal had four of them inside of thirty minutes.

I just wish Senile Sam was a "BLIP". I hate to repeat myself but that would mean, " A brief temporary interruption". I don't really like to use the word "senile", because I am actually fifteen or more years older than than Allardyce. However I am not the manager of a Premier League team. I also realised my limitations many years ago.

One comment while I have my dictionary open.Not too far before "Blip" you will find the word "Bleep: "a substitution for an expletive,vulgar, coarse or taboo word". Most Blues supporters would like to direct many, "bleeps' in the direction of our own Mr Blip. Actually how about Mr Bean ? There are similarities.

ps: To Saviour Sam. "A dictionary is a very large book full of words". I am one of the thick Evertonians who wouldn't be able to understand just what happened to Everton on 3 February 2018. After all... only you can. Now I can relax and just bleep bleep bleep bleep about our blip blip blips.

Unbelievable arrogance.,"Only I would know that" !!! Can the man's head get any bigger?
Unbelievable arrogance.,Turned on,michael.kenrick@gmail.com,1,23:54:39,,176.25.46.189,monitored,18030,02/08/2018 23:54:39,alanball1878,monitoring,, 898432,36238,toffeeweb,09/02/2018,Clive Mitchell,mitchell_reigate@hotmail.com,"Don't pick Schneiderlin.

What makes me angry is the pathetic surrenders to the top 6. Our record against them stands at played 10, 3 draws, 7 defeats, goals for 5 goals against 27. That's abject, Burnley would be ashamed of that record and so should we be.

Chelsea have lost more matches against teams outside the top six than we have – yet they're 19 points ahead of us. I've seen Everton teams struggle before.

But I've not seen them give up almost before they start like this lot have done time and time again this season. Don't ever pick Schneiderlin again and make sure your bags are packed for May 13.

And don't pick Schneiderlin.

Serenade survival because the squad he inherited was deffo going one way only! We stay up... he's done his job! Please chaps... shut the fuck up... Be elated that next season we might, still be in the mix!

What you just said was strictly opinion, FACT. Just writing “FACT!!!” does not make a thing a fact. We were, what, 14 games into the season? If it was a fact that we were to be relegated, then we would be getting relegated. We haven’t been. We were on 15 points and above the relegation zone by a few places when he took charge.

Rest key players by all means if you have to, but why on earth would you drop untested players into a formation the players aren't used to? Why effectively exile young prospects and reduce your overall options if you are worried about player fatigue? Why keep playing players who are not performing?

Peter Lee (48), - who wanted ‘experienced' forwards? Proven would have been nice, and Tosun doesn't fit that bill. He is as much of a gamble as Sandro was and, thus far, as much of a success. We've needed two left-sided defenders all season but the absolute, 100% most important was left wing-back or full-back.

I doubt we would even have got Mangala if City hadn't recruited Laporte. Whether he's more help than hindrance remains to be seen. Allardyce was unfortunate with James McCarthy but, as he was so key to the way Allardyce wants to play, why wasn't he replaced in the transfer window?

So far it's a pat on the back solely for Theo Walcott, otherwise it was yet another uninspiring transfer window with serious squad issues remaining unaddressed.

Martinez played some of the most entertaining stuff we have seen but was so full of bullshit when it hit the fan... then Koeman and Co... the man who ruined a club, more akin to a demolition derby than a project, dismantled a team and was sacked leaving us with the worst – I can't say 'team' because there wasn't one left – with demoralised players leaving and no plan for replacements.

It's no wonder this season went to shit before a ball was kicked.

Talk of foreign managers untried in the Premier League was folly especially with the utter dross left behind by Koeman, was it really a surprise that the new transfers suddenly found themselves competing with each other for places in a team full of holes?

In the bottom three you don't have the luxury of ideology, nothing but the best is a great motto but the board doesn't believe it for a moment.

Allardyce was brought in to ensure survival, protect Moshiri's investment, not for anything else. Pragmatic and painful it's not the Everton we love or want, but it's a means to an end, survival is the objective. That's all purely short term.

This season was and still is disgraceful, every season ticket holder should be given their money back.

But right now I am not going to kick Allardyce for the very simple reason I too want safety, I too want an Everton side playing as a team in the Premier League next season, I too want a new stadium... and like it or not I still believe he will deliver what he is being paid to do, keep us in the Premier League.

Don't get me wrong, I am not an admirer of his style but his effectiveness in delivering safety.

That's all... it makes me cringe the way we play, it makes me angry because of the incompetence of the board and management whose dereliction of care caused this situation, but right now we need to get the points on the table and regroup.

It hurts watching Everton at the moment, but the frustration is better than watching them in the Championship any day.

Alladyce has brought in Walcott, potentially our best froward for a long time and also, the as yet unproven, Tosun and Mangala.Leicester was our best team performance for a while. Then we were stuffed at Arsenal.

For those of you returning dewy eyed to Unsworth we were also stuffed at Southampton 4-1 and fell within 2 points of relegation. Leaving all the insights into his Machiavellian like personal motives to one side – in my opinion Allardyce needs more time.

Can't agree that a left-back, certainly not a wing back, was a priority. We need pace and strength at the back. Baines will return but none of the current crop of centre-backs are up to the mark.

A back four which has Coleman, Baines and Mangala gives us covering pace across the field, balanced distribution and, therefore, the opportunity to push out in a way we couldn't.

Allardyce made it clear that the club was seeking a full-back. He judged that none was available that would have advantaged the club given Baines's return. That's what he gets paid for.

The following might explain:

Sam Allardyce has won nothing as a coach? Fact.

A number of teams with, arguably, lower expectations than Everton have seen fit to sack him? Fact.

Everton would have been relegated had he not been appointed? Pure conjecture.

Sam Allardyce is possibly the worst appointment in our history? A matter of opinion.

Some have got very short memories. After the Southampton disaster (and they've only won once since then themselves) which followed 3 days after the 1-5 at home to Atalanta, we were in free fall with relegation looking very possible indeed.

We are in a better position now. Not a good one, but a better one. I'm waiting till the end of this wretched season before I even start to judge. Like I said above, I'm not exactly enamoured myself, but he has to have more than 12 games. Even 26 isn't many, but we will have a better idea come the Summer.

What? Koeman was given how many games this season? Did you want him gone after Arsenal? According to your "logic" Koeman should have been given more time. Also, Unsy should have been given more time. Did you object to him not being given additional games?

Odd you and other Big Sam supporters claim he is saving us from relegation when Unsy was already doing it.

Phil,

Since you like "facts' so much,, let me add to the posts of others to try to illustrate to you what is and is not a "fact."

Fact: Koeman's squad was in the relegation zone after the October 22 Arsenal match.

Fact: the opening 10 game schedule was hard.

Fact, Allardyce had an easier (based on relative position in the table) set of fixtures when he took over.

Fact: Unsy already had Everton out of the relegation zone.

Fact: BS used Unsy's line-up to produce some points initially.

Fact: Since BS has tried his hand at selecting a line-up and tactics, Everton's performances have deteriorated and the results clearly show it.

Fact: Using exclamation points after the word "fact" does not make it so.

Opinion: Anyone thinking Everton were in need of saving from relegation after less than half the season, when Everton was, err, not in relegation positions, to justify hiring the utter crap manager that is Big Sam, is either blind, delusional, or both.

See how it works.

I thought your Champ Kind impression was a cracker. Screaming "FACT!" like it actually adds credence to a purely speculative claim? Pitch perfect. Doubling down on the doltishness by dropping "Utter FACT!" as a direct follow up? Dead on. (I hope to fuck you finished by slamming your fist down on a table, while wearing a big Stetson, for the full effect.)

Then things got a bit too Brick Tamland for me. How is it that a team sitting 13th in the Premier League at the end of November were defo in imminent danger of the drop, but the relegation favourites rooted to the bottom of the Championship in February, with a minus 34 goal difference, are somehow not?

To get rid of Allardyce now would be tantamount to suicide.

I have long since advocated getting behind the man and the team, no matter what our personal feelings are, and then hope the board have the good grace and sense to have a major overhaul of the club from top to bottom before preseason.

Furthermore, it's not just that we have to accept Allardyce, but also accept horrific football. Sorry, no. He's a disgrace of a manager and has never won a Goddamn thing and never will. He should have never been associated with this club.

As somebody who would be recognised on here as a cutting-through-the-bullshit kinda person, you are making the most surprising statements in defence of Allardyce.

This was not a rescue act such as the one Sam performed at Sunderland. We were not in the bottom three as you seem to suggest. We were not even in the bottom six when Sam arrived. We were 13th, we had put a 5-point gap between ourselves and the bottom three and we were heading north.

I will accept that we were not in home-n-hosed territory, but given the players the teams below us were relying on, you would have had to be a card-carrying panic merchant to have allowed yourself to lose sleep over our Premier League status

Sam was fortunate; he arrived just in time for a run of fixtures against three teams who will be on everyone's shortlist of those who will need to fight right up to the wire. Since then, we have seen a team which would be nailed on certainties (imo) to face the drop if we hadn't stolen a march on the teams below us.

It's not just results that are poor, Christine, If any team, anywhere, ever, has played so consistently in the face of the very spirit of the game, I'm pleased to say, they were doing it when I wasn't looking.

What Allardyce is doing is truly shaming. He not only dares to serve up this dross, he then insults us by claiming "only he would know that"... Who the fuck does he think he is?

I saw these players fight like fuck and reply five times to going behind to get results against Palace and Watford, despite being outplayed by both. Could anyone see them fighting like that for Sam? After the way he has so persistently hung them out to dry?

I never thought we were in a dogfight, but defeat today could change all that. While we slip and slide, others are starting to scrap.

Victory today is absolutely crucial, otherwise the guy so many believed was going to save us from the drop may well end up doing the opposite...

As I stated in my post, contrary to your comment, I understand why he chose to do so and it was obviously the case we were in trouble, and frankly Unsworth was way out of his league in attempting to turn it around. Love the guy but sorry, okay for holding the reins but to steer a Premier League club to safety? The likes of Oxford and Barnsley are interested in taking him, not another premier league club though is it?

Do you think I am happy for the quality of football we have seen so far this season? I might add yesterday and at Leicester might have been better, but Atalanta, Southampton, Arsenal... in fact, most of the games before Allardyce we were poor. We may have more cohesion but no consistency now is still a major issue with me.

But frankly, as I have said before and will say again, both Unsworth and Allardyce did not have a "team" to work with. So many players short of a full deck... an unbalanced, distorted squad, lacking in key players in key positions, make-do playing players out of position. Address that one first before you slam Allardyce because the reality is exactly that. It would not have mattered who managed us, the issues would not have gone away.

Allardyce was brought in to ensure we avoid relegation. It's amazing to remember just how many on this site forget how bad we were, I mean so sodding bad that – for the first time in my living memory, I and many others believed we were the worst team in the league. If we weren't, we were certainly candidates for it. That's why Moshiri acted in bringing Allardyce in... pragmatism, money and realisation that it may not be pretty.

It wasn't a defence of Allardyce... it was an observation of the choices made and an opinion on it. The blame for where we are lies with the management of the club and it's the elephant in the room. As long as people keep slamming Allardyce then the real culprits slip under the radar, yet again. Koeman deserved to go but then again so did Walsh, Kenwright and Elstone.

I do think there is a point being missed here though and it's being missed by just about everyone who is supporting Allardyce.

We were not in anywhere near as bad a position as they want to make out. Okay, we were bottom three when Koeman left, but by the time Sam had arrived we were five points clear and heading up the table.

That's where we differ. Some will accept the anti-football we have been served as a necessary evil, a consequence of getting in Sam to save us. Others (like me) think we didn't need saving, at least not from relegation and that we would have done far better if we'd have given Sam a very wide berth.

Just to clarify one point, Christine, I think I am right in thinking you do not want Sam here next season, do you?

Allardyce is a means to an end, but who knows we may even just make Europe.. and I am sure thats what he would love to do, prove his style and methods can produce results.. I just think he still hasn't got a team to do it.. not his fault though that one..

Like you and many others I didn't want him but the situation we were in more or less demanded him unfortunately. "Hugely Probable" rather than "Maybe Possible" I guess went through Moshiri's mind in the event he ever weighed Allardyce against Unsworth for the full-time post bent on avoiding relegation. That doesn't mean we're fans of his but for the record he's still without the left back Koeman said we needed over six months ago, we've only just signed an extra CB Koeman also said we needed, and we have also got rid off one of our four "no.10's", albeit for way less than we might have got with more astute leadership in the club, thereby limiting our spend on a consistent goalscorer to £20 mill (no disrespect Cenk).

And that's why in my opinion the issue of whether or not to give Allardyce an extended contract, which would in fairness make everyone at FF get real as a by-product (and no, I am not saying I want him!), should be way off the top of Moshiri's "must do" list well before this season ends. There are far bigger problems than that to resolve if he ever hopes to have his cash generate the max for him.