Silva: No doubts that 'mature' Everton will improve

Saturday, 17 August, 2019 43comments  |  Jump to most recent

Marco Silva says he is sure that Everton will play better this season than they did against Watford today but he was pleased that his side were able to see out an important victory.

The Blues edged what became a fairly even encounter at Goodison Park thanks to Bernard's 10th-minute strike and while Richarlison squandered two good chances and Moise Kean came within inches of marking his home debut with a stoppage-time goal, they had Jordan Pickford to thank for an excellent save to deny Troy Deeney in the second half.

The manager was asked for his thoughts on the game and he reflected on another vital clean sheet while also admitting that his team didn't put on their best display, albeit against tough, physical opposition.

“Yes, an important win and a good three points,” Silva said afterwards, “with good support from our fans so the first words to them.

Article continues below video content


“It was not our best performance, for sure. We played really well [for] the first 30 minutes but even when we weren't doing so well in the game, the fans were always behind the team and supporting the players.

“I think we deserved the three points. Of course, it's always a tough game in the Premier League but we created more chances to score. They had that one chance with Troy Deeney which was a big save from Jordan [Pickford] and one more with [Roberto Pereyra] but we had more chances to score.

“[It was] a good first 30 minutes and a good goal from Bernard and to keep the clean sheet was really important. We want to make Goodison our fortress.

“We'll improve, I don't have doubts. “If you ask me about the performance today it was not our best. We could do better and we will be better for sure in the future. I don't have doubts that we will play with more quality.

“You know, sometimes you have these types of games — and we had some last season — where you don't achieve the win and this is a big change for us because we have to be more mature in some moments.

“If you can perform well and win the football match, it will be fantastic, but in some moments you cannot [so] it's important to win even when you don't perform well like the second half."

 

Reader Comments (43)

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


Pat Kelly
1 Posted 17/08/2019 at 19:38:59
We are way off top six but it's early days. Need to start converting chances. Hopefully Kean can do it as there's precious little goal-scoring talent available to Silva.
Paul Burns
2 Posted 17/08/2019 at 20:01:41
They'd better... that was garbage. Ran ragged by Watford at home.

Change the manager immediately, we're wasting time and money with this fraud, am I the only one who can see the obvious?

Three points are the only good thing to come out of this charade.

Dave Williams
3 Posted 17/08/2019 at 20:07:40
Give the man a chance, Paul. He had a good run at the back end of last season and deserves the chance to get his new players to gel. It's not a case of waving a magic wand.
Colin Glassar
4 Posted 17/08/2019 at 20:08:40
Game two and we're on the same points as the defending treble winners. It wasn't great but Marco is right: we will improve but winning when not performing well is an encouraging sign.
Joe O'Brien
5 Posted 17/08/2019 at 20:54:24
Paul, I'd be interested to know where do you think he is after wasting money? From my view, every player Silva and Brands have brought in have looked top quality.
Brian Williams
6 Posted 17/08/2019 at 21:02:11
Paul Burns #2.

Are you going from thread to thread, spouting complete shite on each one for any particular reason?

Nick Lacey
7 Posted 17/08/2019 at 21:04:04
Paul, I feel that you're being a little harsh on Silva for the amount of time that he has been here. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't overwhelmed when we got him as the manager, but he and his team have improved the squad. Don't forget the shambles we were left in after Walsh and Koeman.

Since his arrival, Keane, Kouma, Richarlison, Schneiderlin (not a player I like) and Calvert-Lewin (a good forward but a poor striker) have greatly improved as players. Over the last 13 games, we have achieved 10 clean sheets and they have come against some of the best teams in the league.

As time goes on and the new players have bedded in, I'm sure that we will continue to improve. Our scoring at the moment is the issue but I do feel that, once the team get into a rhythm, that the goals will come and the flood gates will open against the 'lesser' teams.

My criticism of silva is that I wish he would stop playing players who do not achieve, such as Walcott, but I guess you need to play fringe players if you want to succeed on multiple fronts.

Have a little faith and see how we are doing at Christmas.

Bill Gienapp
8 Posted 17/08/2019 at 21:22:14
Paul (2) - *yawn*
Gordon White
9 Posted 17/08/2019 at 21:22:34
Early doors. I agree with the more positive comments.

Second game. Key players unavailable. Digne substituted. Gomes still not 100%. New acquisitions still to bed in.

It's how you view your glass. Half-empty – we should have well beaten them. Half-full – if we play like the second half, and waste so many chances, and still win.


Jerome Shields
10 Posted 17/08/2019 at 21:25:39
Paul #2,

I think you have to give Silva more time. There are frustrating aspects to Everton under Silva, but given the changes necessary, the changes in players and the constraints getting new players, he has done a reasonable job, considering there are other changes necessary, which are beyond his control. Against teams who don't set up shop, it will be surprising what his team can achieve.

With recent injuries and the introduction of new players, he has got positive results in this past two games.

Bobby Mallon
12 Posted 17/08/2019 at 21:29:13
Paul Burns, we were not ran ragged... get a grip!
Dermot Byrne
13 Posted 17/08/2019 at 21:38:25
Paul it wasn't great but nowhere near as bad as you are suggesting. And maybe give it half a dozen games of a new season.

The end of last season was good and we have added good players who you haven't seen properly yet.

Take a breath mate and see how things develop.

Jim Bennings
16 Posted 17/08/2019 at 21:56:11
A hard-fought win for Silva against the Snake Wavers, sorry the Hornets, it wasn't pretty, in fact it was shit and scrappy at times... but it's a win.

I'd take another 1-0 against Villa on Friday and another against Wolves, for me it's a score that if mastered in the right way, can really propel you up the table. David Moyes was a master of the 1-0 win.

Anthony Flack
17 Posted 17/08/2019 at 21:58:23
Silly comment by Paul in my view but of course entitled to an opinion

We clearly were not run ragged by Watford - we were however less physical and easily bullied - though I felt Mina and Keane did well in difficult circumstances

I still think we are way too nice a bunch of players and need a harder more determined, even nasty edge

It will get better, I am sure

Jay Wood
[BRZ]

18 Posted 17/08/2019 at 21:58:35
Gordon @ 14.

He did, Gordon. As a final assessor of trainee Samaritans.

If they could talk Paul off the ledge, they made the grade. As it was, many of those who didn't make the grade were themselves calling the Samaritans within a week of taking Paul's call.

Paul doesn't do happy.

Nigel Munford
19 Posted 17/08/2019 at 22:05:28
14 out of the 18 posts mention Paul, sorry, 15 out of 19 now, so he wants to wind up, his post had his desired effect then I’d suggest. 3 points are three points, I’m not complaining.
Gio Mero
20 Posted 17/08/2019 at 22:06:33
13 matches, 10 clean sheets.

Silva is doing lots of things right.

Nigel Munford
21 Posted 17/08/2019 at 22:07:48
Can’t argue with that Gio. If you don’t concede then you don’t lose.
Mike Gaynes
22 Posted 17/08/2019 at 22:27:28
It's been a long time since I've seen a more ridiculous comment than #2.

Always the most negative contributor to any thread. What a great hobby.

Dave Lynch
23 Posted 17/08/2019 at 22:28:13
The mark of a decent team is grabbing the win when you're not playing well.

We will improve and markedly at that, I expect us to be at full strength and flying by October, the new lads will have bedded in by then and any niggling injuries will have been sorted out.

Greg Mckerracher
24 Posted 17/08/2019 at 22:40:11
Paul Burns yer on crack la. Not got going yet but 2 clean sheets and 4 points? Solid foundation for a banger of a season.
David Pearl
25 Posted 17/08/2019 at 22:48:52
Mike,
everyone needs a hobby.

Silva is correct in that we will improve. Paul does have a point, although somewhat over the top. We are missing something and it will take a while for our manager to find his best 11 and best shape. Of course it's only game 2. Richarlison shouldn't be playing. Actually Walcott is looking quite refreshed. Iwobi still a couple weeks away too probably. Gomes doesn't look quite fit either at the moment.

Anyway, next Friday evening we could be top of the league and dreaming of a parade.

Peter Bourke
26 Posted 17/08/2019 at 22:58:46
Many positives to come out of the game.

Gbamin playing the full 90 minutes and looking decidedly better than last week. If he keeps improving at the same rate will be a revelation for Everton. Mina and Keane partnership developing nicely. Bernard playing the full 90 minutes and again improving with each game. Gomes again looking masterful in midfield.

Only 2 negatives I could see were Digne injury and Holgate clearly miles away from first team standard.

Great to get the win COYB.

Si Smith
27 Posted 18/08/2019 at 01:47:33
Read through the comments and was about to speak back to Paul for his pathetic comments, but once I seen everyone else having ago I soon realised that we probably just have a kopite infiltrater in our camp!!!

Fact is any top side who wins ugly and keeps clean sheets get called professional. We won, we didn't concede, we barely allowed them a sight of our goal, and our main goal threat missed two sitters, and YES we didn't really perform well.

We've had more clean sheets in 2019 than any team apart from Man City, we've not conceded at Goodison since February, and most of our new signings aren't yet up and running. If the new signings start to fire, and they have the same impact as Richalison, Bernard, Zouma and Gomes then were well and truly in for a treat.

Iwobi, Keane, Delph and Mina (who signed last season but at 24 years old and in from another continent can be classed as being like a new player) are all more than good enough to force there way into our team, not just squad, meaning we would improve. All that we are now missing is a ruthless streak, once we find it we will start to look better.

Siggy and Richalison haven't started the first two games well, Kean looks lively but isn't fully fit, Iwobi will add craft and goals, plus DCL will benefit from others scoring to lighten his load and take the limelight off him.

Imo we are better than we were over the past few seasons.

All in all we should be happy with that.

Jay Harris
28 Posted 18/08/2019 at 03:45:35
Si
We know the potential is there but we were abysmal today.

Mf in particular was a shambles and we were very lucky to get 3 points.

However I hope and believe you are right about only getting better.

Annika Herbert
29 Posted 18/08/2019 at 07:21:53
Si @27, your comment just about sums up things right now for me. Unbeaten and yet to concede is hardly a worrying start. Let's hope we start to improve at Villa next week, although I would happily settle for another scrappy 1-0 win!
Rob Dolby
30 Posted 18/08/2019 at 08:21:18
We will play a lot better and get beat this season. 2 clean sheets without Zouma and Gueye.

The defence is looking good and for the first 20 mins yesterday we looked good as a team.

The tactic from goal kicks needs to change. It's an accident waiting to happen.

Sigurdsson had another quiet game. He should be the easy pass for the centre mids but at times just wasn't there.

In his 20 min cameo Kean looked strong with the ball at his feet. Don't expect the lad to win headers it looks like it's not in his armoury yet.

Roll on Friday.

Martin Berry
31 Posted 18/08/2019 at 08:47:48
Very solid at the back and a great test for a new pairing against a team of long ball bruisers, a good result and outcome I would say.

We have skill and talent and abundance now and of course it will come out, patience is required.

Neil Lawson
32 Posted 18/08/2019 at 10:09:02
Sitting quietly on a Sunday morning catching up. Poor Paul. Perhaps best if he stays in bed all day and dreams of a Moyes return.
Martin Mason
33 Posted 18/08/2019 at 10:25:52
We need to remember too that we're still not able to compete with the top clubs on player buys. A top player now is £200M plus and our typical buy is £40MM. I have my doubts about Silva but he could come good and we just may have the basis of a good squad which can improve as time goes on. Top 6? I really doubt it but will be happy to be wrong.
Gary Carter
34 Posted 18/08/2019 at 10:50:10
4 points out of 6 is not a bad return, however, let’s make no bones about it, we dropped two points against if we have aspirations of finishing top 6. We also struggled a bit at home against a Watford side that haven’t started well.

It’s all well and good saying we will play better this season but we will also play worse under Silva. For me the jury is still massively out on him. People say he took over a shambles, he took over a squad that finished 8th and so far hasn’t looked like bettering that. I like that we have started picking up clean sheets but regardless of that, goals win games and we look woefully short of them.

Silva and Brands last Xmas told us that they had a long list of transfer targets lined up for the summer yet we have the same forward line including DCL who it’s so very clear isn’t good enough. I’m tired of hearing how well Brands has done because he’s sold players, selling players doesn’t win games. We have not signed replacements for Zouma or Jags, the latter we would have been giving another year considering the current centre back situation and we still haven’t signed a striker that Silva deems good enough to replace a player that scores once every nine games ! If Moise is good enough then he is old enough, successful winning mentality clubs play their best players, it’s really not rocket science !

I’m happy enough with our start, not overly happy with other aspects and really struggle to see us finish much higher than 7th/8th. Signing a player like Zaha would have given me far more optimism on that, he would have brought another 20-25 goals to our team and would have given us a forward line of Bernard, Richarlison, DCL, Moise and Tosun to positionally rotate and choose from

John Graham
35 Posted 18/08/2019 at 11:47:26
We now have a fantastic manager who is in the process of creating a great team.
As usual there are some fans who think everything can be done immediately without any backward steps along the way.
We haven’t been a top European team for a very long time and don’t have the money of the top six teams so will find it difficult to attract the very top players, the alternative is to attract players with youth and promise and then develop them into premier players. This all takes time.
In my opinion we now have our best manager since David Moyes, with more of an attacking style who at the end of last year we were all loving the way the team were playing. Why anyone would want to get rid of Marco Silva I find totally unbelievable.
We all need to support our team, support our great manager and support our club.
COYB
Joe McMahon
36 Posted 18/08/2019 at 11:55:49
Neil @32 Ha love it! But Shhh, don't mention his name to Sunderland fans.
Eric Myles
37 Posted 18/08/2019 at 12:12:05
I liked what little we saw of Moise Kean, great touch and control.
Ajay Gopal
38 Posted 18/08/2019 at 12:30:36
Jay (28), we were not overrun in the middle, okay we were in the last 30 minutes, that was because Gbamin is not yet up to speed and Gomes was not a 100% fit. And Lucas Digne coming off injured for the last 15 mins (20 mins counting injury time) did disrupt the rhythm with Holgate taking time to get to speed. But even he grew into the game and did not allow Deeney to bully him.

Pickford has had an excellent start to the season, he seems less excitable, and that has a very calming effect on the defence. Sigurdsson, Richarlison, Bernard and Calvert-Lewin worked their nuts off; we are definitely missing a bit of guile and trickery and also composure on the ball, but I expect that will come later in the season when the new boys get integrated.

Jay Harris
42 Posted 18/08/2019 at 16:21:07
Ajay,

You're contradicting yourself a bit there. You say we were not overrun in the middle (I didn't say we were, btw) and then you said okay we were for the last 30 minutes. I happen to think it was the majority of the match that Watford dominated the midfield which is borne out by the stats

44% possession at home to Watford is extremely poor. I know we had injuries etc which is why I said I hope and believe it will get better but yesterday was not a good day, apart from the 3 points and a clean sheet.

Alan J Thompson
43 Posted 18/08/2019 at 16:53:00
Paul (#2);

We couldn't possibly afford to sack Silva now as we've just bought the second half of a new team (5 last season; 5 this) and we couldn't possibly afford to buy the next "super" coach a new team when he too can't get the present one to perform.

We live in hope.

Mick Conalty
44 Posted 18/08/2019 at 21:19:55
As far as I am concerned, the jury is still out on Silva. The performances pre-season and up to date have been, by and large, negative.

And for him to state that Schneiderlin is an important player for the club baffles me, it's not so long ago that the same player downed tools along with the rest of the deadwood.

I await with interest to see a positive team selection and a positive result. If the team are not up for this game, then that says it all.

Don Alexander
45 Posted 19/08/2019 at 00:57:41
Assessing Silva, Brands or any other newbie needs to be measured against the pit of shite that's become USM Finch Farm from the well-established inadequacy of Bellefield.

The inadequate's who've infested the club under our self-proclaimed top Toffee's "leadership" established a canker of acceptable mediocrity decade after decade.

Consigning it to history seems to be a task too difficult for even Mr Moshiri.

If Brands can at some point achieve this first step to professional ambition I'll buy him a pint in the Wetherspoon's of my choice.

Matthew Williams
46 Posted 19/08/2019 at 13:35:57
Sorry, folks, I'm just not convinced this bloke is gonna be "the one".

Way too negative, with still one up top and still two holders in midfield, we need to be braver or we'll just end up a footnote in Footballs history.

Were still playing the same formations and giving players who perform poorly the next fucking game, the real concern is our away form which has been a disaster for 15-20 years!!!

I can only see a draw on Friday at best, but if we can keep bagging the points we should be playing European footy next season which is of paramount importance.

COYB

Paul Richards
48 Posted 20/08/2019 at 17:55:32
I really can't understand people predicting us dropping points. What does that do for you? Do you get some twisted pleasure of the "I told you so" variety, Matthew @46, needing to be the first to promise that we aren't going to do the business?

I simply don't get it. It's the absolute pinnacle of negativity. Surely a major part of being a fan is at least hoping for a win? After all, that is what the game is about. Why would you then spend any time or effort to predict a draw? Or, as you have many times, a loss? If you really have to think like that, can't you just keep it to yourself?

Martin Mason
49 Posted 21/08/2019 at 17:53:47
Almost as eye-opening as seeing how good Liverpool and Man City are it was equally eye opening to see how good Leicester and Wolves were against Chelsea and Man Utd and the resurgence of Brighton who also have 4 points now.

I've come to accept now that we will almost certainly see many more games like our first 2 where we are disappointed with the performance, the difference now is that I'll be very happy when we get 3 points and accept 1 point as much better than none however we get them. Hopefully the new players will improve us and increase our chances of getting the magic 3 points more often but it will be tough for all but the very best to get points consistently this season.

I've been very impressed with the Championship games and there'll be no easy games if we go there in the Cup competitions. It's quite telling that our loanees look nothing special at that level now.

Karl Masters
50 Posted 21/08/2019 at 18:44:51
In seasons gone by, we could easily have dominated at Palace and let one in at the end, and then started brightly against Watford only to concede a late equaliser. That would have yielded one point.

The fact we haven't conceded and have 4 points despite not playing good football bodes well.

I think that the next two games are also very telling. At least another 4 points are necessary against a Villa team who will be looking to get off the mark and a very good Wolves team who will be pushing for Top 6 too, imho.

Martin is right that the overall standard is improving... don't be surprised to see Norwich pull off some good results either, especially at Carrow Road.


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