Here We Go Again

Mike Oates 11/08/2019 18comments  |  Jump to last

Just when we seem to be close to that elusive Top 6 place, along comes the transfer window and our hopes are elevated to the clouds, and whilst we buy some quality, we inevitably seem to lose our key players and we just have to start all over again, rather than building on. It's been like this for years.

Lescott, Arteta, Stones, Barkley, Lukaku and this season Gueye and Zouma have all left us for taste of Champions League football or silverware from somewhere else and, whilst we've bought class like Gomes, Digne, Richarlison, Pickford and Sigurdsson, it's never been good enough to push us into that Top 6.

If you look at last season, we bought well but, other than Digne and Zouma, the rest of the buys, Gomes, Mina, and Bernard, took an eternity to get used to Premier League football or were crocked when they came to us and took months to recover> Add Coleman after his double leg break and we only found form late on. We finally saw a team we thought was capable of challenging, in about March and, after a 17-day break, we then finished the season in Top 3 form, let alone Top 6. All we craved for was that 20-goal-a-season forward, retention of Gomes and Zouma, and keep Gueye from the clutches of PSG. We retained Gomes and we might, just might have a top forward, but lost two key players in Zouma and Gueye.

ADVERTISEMENT

About these ads

We all know and fear we will possibly have a problem coming up with the lack of a 4th centre-half, but we won't know for some time, I'd imagine, whether we've truly replaced Gueye with Gbamin, and whether Moise Kean will get us those 20 goals which we desperately need. It will take Silva some time to find his best 11, his best formation with the players he's got; it's not going to happen overnight or in weeks, and I suspect we could well throw away the potential of starting well in this opening run of 10 fixtures with only one Top 6 opponent in it.

A good League Cup run can only happen with rotation and playing the likes of Holgate and Gibson, as Keane and Mina cannot play in every match we undertake – it's just asking too much of them. The cover there is the weakest in the team now, and might cost us, certainly in the period before the January transfer window.

I don't believe you can integrate more than 2 at most 3 players into a team per season; wholesale changes of 4 or 5 just can't be accommodated to provide a successful season. Yes, I know you need depth, you need cover, but you can't tell me that the likes of Delph, Kean, Gbamin, and Iwobi will not see themselves other than bang on 1st team choices. Sibidé and Lössl will probably know they are cover for now.

I'd like to believe that all our new players make it, become regulars, show they are capable of being part of a team that can challenge the top, but it worries me that it will take too much time and, just about when we start believing we are getting close, along will come the summer transfer window and we will lose Richarlison, Digne, Pickford etc and we will have to start again.

Déjà Vu

Share this article

Reader Comments (18)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer


Clive Rogers
1 Posted 11/08/2019 at 19:23:43
I can't argue with what you say, Mike, but what you are describing is the situation that most Premier League clubs are in, apart from the top four or possibly 6. In other words, clubs who have money to spare generated either by a benefactor or continuing champions league involvement.

We have to accept that since the days of John Moores and after Johnson lost the bulk of his fortune, the club went into a twenty year period of decline and although not a small club, we are now in Premier League terms a medium club rather than a big club.

However I personally feel that since Moshiri took over, we are moving in the right direction. Mistakes were made obviously, but these have been corrected and we have entered a period where the intention is to improve each year, with money invested in the team until, with good fortune, we return to the big club status.

Steavey Buckley
2 Posted 11/08/2019 at 19:31:34
A good squad of players need good back-up from the Under-23s. Unfortunately, players from the Under-23s are not clearly identified to make the next step up. This is disappointing because the purpose of the Under-23s is not to win the PL2 but to support the Everton first-team squad with ready-made players who can at best make the subs bench.
Jay Harris
3 Posted 11/08/2019 at 19:38:23
Mike,

I don't know how you can say that after just one away game.

Yes, some players take time to adjust but some players hit the ground running.

In addition those players that took time to adapt last season may well fly now. Some of the youngsters have developed too.

Mina was probably our best player yesterday. Pickford looks to have matured somewhat and the back 4 looked immense.

If we can instill a sense of belief in our supporters and players then we will be flying this season and January isn't far away for reinforcements for the cup runs.

Steve Ferns
4 Posted 11/08/2019 at 19:43:45
Only Gbamin is expected to make the first team. Delph doesn't make many people's best XI and so he is an option not a shoe in. Moise Kean is expected to claim the striker position but he's 19 and we need patience. Iwobi is competition and will not be expected to immediately replace Richarlison or Bernard. All of the signings are about bringing depth and improving the squad not just the XI.
John Keating
5 Posted 11/08/2019 at 19:54:23
Jay,

I think until we play a decent attacking team I doubt calling our defence immense" probably isn't accurate.

Palace can't score but yesterday they cut through our defence a few times and only Pickford saved us from an embarrassment.

It's not so much that the support needs a bit of belief it's more the management and players. There was nothing on show yesterday that was much different from our average of last season. Slow, pedestrian, no cutting edge, questionable formation and tactics.

We really need a true leader on and off the pitch.

Chris Gould
6 Posted 11/08/2019 at 19:54:25
Steve, I can't believe Delph would have signed for us if he wasn't given some sort of assurance that he was going to start. Why swap being a squad player for City to sit on our bench? I think when he's fit, he'll play. I would personally find a place for him as I believe he'll be vital for us this season.
Steve Ferns
7 Posted 11/08/2019 at 20:09:02
Chris,

Gomes is a nailed-on starter. Sigurdsson too. And Silva said himself that Delph is not Gueye and he would need to replace Gueye. Delph is not Gueye's replacement, Gbamin is. Delph should be used in place of Gomes, or hopefully Sigurdsson as we change formation and go with Silva's preferred formation and system, the 4-3-3.

The fact that silva was trying to stock up on central midfielders who go box to box like Doucoure and Delph tells you that he is very keen to get us to 4-3-3.

But no, Delph will not be starting in a 4-2-3-1 if everyone is fit and ready.

Dan Kemp
8 Posted 11/08/2019 at 21:27:41
Just imagine a current starting 11 of...

Pickford
Coleman
Stones
Zouma
Digne
Gueye
Gomes
Barkley/Sigurdsson
Kean
Lukaku
Richarlison

Any good?

Dan Kemp
9 Posted 11/08/2019 at 21:29:41
To be fair, it's not so bad when you think about a current starting XI that Southampton could field if they hadn't sold anyone...
Chris Gould
10 Posted 11/08/2019 at 22:47:40
Steve, I think when fit, Delph will play and be the leader you're looking for. It will just be a matter of time before Silva adjusts his system to play him. Whether he can stay fit long enough to get a run of games is a different matter.
Graham Hammond
11 Posted 11/08/2019 at 23:51:49
Mike,

You are right to be worried about players such as Richarlison and Digne leaving Everton on the back of another poor result against Crystal Palace; good players will not stick around at a club that lacks ambition and is not actually going forward. We were yet again impotent in pre-season and yet again carried this forward into the season proper, nothing changes.

We should have got either the Doucoure or the Zaha deal over the line to show a real and genuine statement of intent, only this reduces the possibility of top players leaving. Watford next is now an absolute must-win.

Nicholas Ryan
12 Posted 12/08/2019 at 00:42:23
We got an away draw, in the first game of the season, against a team who finished 12th out of 20 last season; and we kept a clean sheet. On which planet, is that a 'poor result'!!


Kevin Prytherch
13 Posted 12/08/2019 at 00:48:36
Nicholas - some sense on here.

If we are expecting to beat the team who finished 12th, then we presumably expect to beat the other 8 below them. That's 8 always wins and top 3 form (is normally say champions form, but Man City and Liverpool have set the bar very high).

We looked solid, let's build from there. I'd rather draw 0-0 than 2-2 at the moment, as the majority of our signings, who should get better, are attacking. Get the foundations right and the goals should come.

Steve Carter
14 Posted 12/08/2019 at 04:47:35
Well, if his effort against Man Utd is anything to go by, Frank'll be spending the next few months until January trying to convince us that he really didn't mean we couldn't have Zouma.
James Lauwervine
15 Posted 12/08/2019 at 10:00:33
The only déjà vu I'm experiencing is all the usual ill-informed, jump to conclusions, negative shite on TW threads (after ONE game) interspersed with the odd reasoned/sensible comment.
Tony Shelby
16 Posted 12/08/2019 at 10:08:08
James (15) - Well said!
Kevin Molloy
17 Posted 12/08/2019 at 11:13:25
Even though it is just one game, Silva must be concerned, we've played one of our easiest games away from home for the season, and were lucky in the end to get a point.

The good players we lost shouldn't have affected our game on Saturday, they were about adding steel, not goals. But the whole team just looks very flat. I don't think we can use the excuse that we've got loads of newbies coming in, cos that team on 'sat has been playing together now for a year, and right through pre-season.

We've got no goals in us at the moment. Not just this one game, right through pre-season. It aint gonna be solved just with swapping No 9s. I'll be blowed if I know why Digne, Bernard, Sigurdsson and Richarlison are devoid of spark at the moment, but the stats speak for themselves.

I also noticed with Martinez teams, if they started the season (pre-season) sluggishly, it took months to put right. I've got a bad feeling we are going to be experiencing an extremely frustrating next few weeks.

Look how full of vim Liverpool were on Friday, yet their season finished in June, and a lot of their players then went to tournaments. But nearly all our team have had a full preseason and rest behind them and look flat.

Richard Parker
18 Posted 12/08/2019 at 11:21:02
I thought we were decent until half time when Gomes went off. We dominated and could've bagged a couple... however the front players didn't have masses of goals in them last season, so I'm not surprised that we didn't create lots of clear chances. Palace defended well, but we controlled the game away from home and could've been 2 or 3 up after 45...

Second half, without Gomes, wasn't great. Worryingly we let them in down the right twice for clear chances on goal. I'm concerned at what a good side would do to us if we play the same way.

All-in-all, a decent result, first game of the season and away from home – considering we didn't get the breaks with our attempts on goal, the Gomes injury or the Schneiderlin red card.


Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

» Log in now

Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site.


About these ads



© ToffeeWeb