Seasons2019-20Everton News
The Toffees don't just need strengthening in a few positions – they need to start the whole project again from scratch
"[T]he longer the game remained scoreless, the more obvious it became that Everton would find a way to lose. It was telling, also, that Ancelotti's veteran players were among the worst on the pitch and appeared to wilt the quickest. Gylfi Sigurdsson, Lucas Digne and Morgan Schneiderlin were all dismal, Theo Walcott was especially awful.
"Instead of giving Everton their critical edge, those players – among others – appeared consumed by what a loss to this Liverpool would mean. Given the same opportunity in the same situation, tougher players of their standing would have relished the opportunity to slap that Liverpool team around. Really good footballers – the ones who have all the technical and emotional attributes – have that habit of giving lessons to young pretenders.
" But these Everton players don't share that kind of personality. They're victims. Losers. After Curtis Jones had scored the game's only goal, there was no determination to respond, just petulance – from Fabian Delph and Yerry Mina – and self-pity. There wasn't even the hint of an equaliser, let alone any sense that anybody's pride was being affronted. Instead, they stood back and let Liverpool pass the ball, allowing them a victory lap before full-time. It was unforgivable."
» Read the full article at Four Four Two
Reader Comments (36)
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2 Posted 06/01/2020 at 19:21:59
3 Posted 06/01/2020 at 19:26:53
4 Posted 06/01/2020 at 19:29:54
I'm not blaming him for the goal but over the course of 18 months he's proven to be a hugely unstable position in the team and his overall understanding of the game in front of him is clear.
I'm not blaming him for the goal Mike, but he's been culpable for many many poor goals over the last year, his decision making is woeful, if I was a defender I'd never know what to expect of him.
Liverpool fans know he's suspect that's why they take the piss every time he's at Anfield now, it's like when they used to come to Goodison with David James, he's a comedy figure.
Frankly, I don't rate him no, but we are all entitled to our own opinions.
It's not just Pickford, it's the entire lot.
5 Posted 06/01/2020 at 19:51:24
More and more it seems that there's no professionalism and match planning by the Everton coaching staff.
Beyond me, but the club, surely must be reviewing the whole sketch at a Finch Farm.
I can take all the carol jokes etc being told today, it's water off a ducks arse, but consciously and subconsciously, all Everton fans must be thinking, what's it really all about.
Does Everton football club, think from the playing side it's doing well?
U23s winning etc is nice but it doesn't get you anywhere, in the EPL.
I sincerely hope that Carlo, hasn't been sold a mirage, as this is becoming last chance saloon for Everton Football Club.
The RS, in time# gone by used to say our motto, means “never win anythingâ€.
For most of the last 50 years that been more or less true. I hope from the ashes of this defeat, the club can rebuild with a new plan and focus on professionalism an£ pride in the club.
May be I'm being too optimistic. But surely after this low of lows, the club board, will see the light?
It can only get better, hope eternal.
6 Posted 06/01/2020 at 20:00:53
Pickford is the least, the very least, of our problems.
7 Posted 06/01/2020 at 20:14:21
Really it makes me wonder at times how Everton have managed to stay in the Premier League because there's better football teams in the Championship right now than us, I said the same thing when Wolves were down three years ago and that's been proven right.
Every club seems to relish these trips to the big away games yet Everton constantly freeze in fear like scared rabbits every year.
8 Posted 06/01/2020 at 20:29:54
9 Posted 06/01/2020 at 20:31:49
I'd keep Holgate. Mina too, but if we sold him wouldn't be overly bothered.
I'd keep Digne, his form is down, but he's a decent player and we have bigger problems.
I'd bring back Kenny and keep him.
Keane, Coleman, Sibide I'd get rid of. We should then promote Gibson and Astley. And sign maybe Max Aarons at right back, and have Ancelotti identify a world class centre half.
Midfield, I'd happily be rid of the lot at the moment. If keep any, just Davies in the hope he can improve, and GBamin in hope there is a player there when fit.
Promote Evans, Adeniran and Gibson. Sign Jarrod Bowen, Adrien Rabiot, Kalvin Phillips, and Eberechi Eze and another box-to-box midfielder.
Keep DCL, Richarlison, and maybe Kean (he may yet make it), get rid of Tosun, Niasse, Walcott. Go for Ollie Watkins, Gabriel Barbosa, and Everton Soares. If we get rid of Kean, get in Reinar Jesus.
10 Posted 06/01/2020 at 20:37:10
Leeds have had Bielsa come in and galvanise a team. They don't have the luxury of spending £45M on a single player. I sometimes think that's a good thing. They've had to rely on hard work and discipline to get them playing the way the manager wants. Not the most gifted players in the world but football is about working as a team. That's something we've been missing for far too long.
I hope Ancelotti still has the desire and passion that the much older Bielsa still has in abundance. He'll need it to get a tune out of this mob.
11 Posted 06/01/2020 at 20:42:28
12 Posted 06/01/2020 at 20:43:30
13 Posted 06/01/2020 at 20:44:49
14 Posted 06/01/2020 at 20:55:01
No player over 24 and no player lacking pace or stamina.
Surely can't be THAT difficult?
15 Posted 06/01/2020 at 20:56:01
The only practical alternative will be to give some of our kids a run out. Perhaps the likes of Gordon, Adeniran, Beni, Evans, Gibson & co might get a look in at long last.
16 Posted 06/01/2020 at 21:08:01
Realistically we all know that we need a centre back and couple of centre mids plus a striker just to tread water.
I just hope that Ancelotti is boiling mad at the performance and takes appropriate action.
In defence. Pickford, Mina, Digne, Coleman, Sidebe should stay.
In Midfield Gomes, Gbamin purely as I cannot judge him due to his injury. The rest wouldn't get into the Watford or Norwich teams.
Strikers I would keep Richarleson. The rest can go.
We will be lucky to get to 40 points this season. No bottle in the midfield is a sure fire way of losing games.
17 Posted 06/01/2020 at 22:12:28
Did Carlo upset the players before the game so they down tooled...
Carlo now knows what a massive job he has got to turn things around...
Senior players who have no heart or fight should be dropped
The Liverpool kids showed them up with all the fight and belife to say to Klopp pick me anytime and I will not let you down...
Do our kids have the same hunger because the senior players have shown their true colours.
18 Posted 06/01/2020 at 22:33:14
19 Posted 06/01/2020 at 22:45:00
20 Posted 06/01/2020 at 22:50:37
21 Posted 06/01/2020 at 22:51:04
22 Posted 06/01/2020 at 23:10:58
We need physically strong and fast warriors, gobby hard bastards who have the proven technical ability at EPL level. Even two would be better than six or eight of the loser types we usually sign.
23 Posted 06/01/2020 at 23:18:05
24 Posted 06/01/2020 at 23:41:10
I replied that their kids would run through our gutless, pedestrian midfield as though they weren't there and so it proved.
If I, and most other Blues, feared this it beggars belief that it mightn't have occurred to the highly paid coaches and management.
25 Posted 06/01/2020 at 23:45:31
Proven technical ability at EPL level??????
That is what apparently Schneiderlin, Keane, Walcott, Sigurdsson, Delph, Iwobi and others brought.
At the same.time talent like Maddison was let to move to Leicester for half the fee and half the wages 'too much of a risk'. B
Give me strength
26 Posted 07/01/2020 at 02:02:48
27 Posted 07/01/2020 at 06:20:49
So, as with any disease, you cure the root cause, before resorting to mass amputation. I am not going to single players out but we know basically where the problems lie.
I don't envy Carlo, and the monumental task before him, but I do have confidence in him and Duncan, to weed out the weeds, and partially eradicate the problem.
28 Posted 07/01/2020 at 09:33:24
We have no warriors in the team, that much is clear to see after this spectacular display of cowardice. But as I've said before, the club's internal culture needs to change. We need to decide if we want to be a family-friendly, community-centric "people's club" or a successful footballing powerhouse. Everyone thinks these two ideals can go hand-in-hand with each other... Personally, I think they're mutually exclusive, or at least, should be treated as such until we have a functional team again.
29 Posted 07/01/2020 at 16:37:03
30 Posted 07/01/2020 at 20:49:01
31 Posted 08/01/2020 at 03:58:21
I do however think it's possible to have a Club that does benefit the Community and be successful on the field too, although the two seem diametrically opposed.
Prioritising play on the field has to come first though, not the other way round, or we may as well be a Club of Morris Dancers ' Hey Nonny No' and all that, although the Morris Dancing Troupe would have dealt with Sunday's opponents more proficiently I believe.
It will be interesting now the pyroclastic ash has begun to settle, and the imminent Transfers about to spark off the usual merry-go-round, although less so in January, just how we look at the end of the month.
32 Posted 08/01/2020 at 05:23:29
I think that the article is jumping on the bandwagon. Easy to slam the team when a bad result comes along (yes, there have been enough of them) but with the exception of Siggy, who has really bombed this season, there isn't much that we didn't already know?
Need a centre back, needs dominating centre mid (or at least Gomes and Gbamin fit), need a consistent forward.
Digne having a down turn in form. For me he gets the benefit of the doubt. As does Richarlison. Bernard was doing well before injury,he hasn't been in the team much since to judge his recovery
Aside from that, Walcott, Schneiderlin are not up to it
33 Posted 08/01/2020 at 10:25:42
The purchasing of players is paramount to a clubs success. Everton do not have a Betty Boo how to do this and haven't for a long long time. The rubbish that has signed on the dotted line for us is staggering. We are like a family that continually buys flat pack rubbish and complains when it falls apart a few months later and is taken to the tip before another trip to Argos. Its madness and the prices we pay for this rubbish is staggering. We really are the mugs of the EPL. the joke club, the court jester but the laughter is at us not with us.
If our players were horses the knackers yard would be very busy this week with plenty of overtime available.
The playing staff are a disgrace and have been since the end of Martinez's first season. They act like none of it is their fault. They blame the manager, the coaching everyone but themselves. There's talk they downed tools on Carlo. god help them if they did. Who do they think they are. They liked Silva and we can all see why - he was too bloody nice to them. Carlo won't be nice, he won't be understanding. he won't be patient and he will ship them out. No more easy living at Goodison. It will be hard work, real hard graft and any ambitious player will lap it up and ask for more. The rest of them can head to Turkey, China, MLS or wherever I wouldn't waste any time on them what so ever. They must be really proud of themselves to have taken part in what I consider the most humiliating defeat I have ever witnessed. This is one game I wish had been solely on Sky, as not ever having Sky, I would have not had the chance to see it but see it I did and its something I will never forget and something I will never forgive.
Carlo please show EFC how to buy players that will not disgrace our shirt ever again.
34 Posted 08/01/2020 at 10:31:20
You don't know too much about Ball then do you?
Walter Smith couldn't wait to get rid of the Ball, Dunne, Cademarteri and O'Toole clique. And not because they were bad players
35 Posted 10/01/2020 at 07:40:01
Clearly Carlo has a mammoth task on his hands but this is not the first club that has had such issues. Even 2 amateur teams a friend coached were wretched when he took over as coach but reached (1) promotion from 4,3,2 to 1 over 5 years and the other took 2 years to win the league and lost only 1 game during the next 3 years - a cup final (that hurt). OK mega distance away from the EPL but the same principle applies IMO. TBH, his policy was never to talk to the team about the performance immediately after the game but with both, their attitudes at the start absolutely stank - prima donnas mostly. So, he ripped in to them after the first game in charge on both occasions. Fortunately, it worked and I see this happening with Everton as, from what we hear, Carlo was likely well out of norm in his reaction in the dressing room immediately after the derby capitulation.
My mates' experience was chicken feed in comparison to Everton but I think the principle stands. Tell them the position as it is, replace the probably 2 or 3 shit-stirrers ("egomaniacs" in his words!!) asap but definitely during the first season improve league position. Attract some key players before the next season and improve and so on.
I'm certain many of you on here have coached at a much higher standard than this. Interested to know your experiences as such and views about the principle.
36 Posted 10/01/2020 at 18:12:54
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1 Posted 06/01/2020 at 18:59:09
Personally I'd quite happily sell them all for the right price because not one of them is good enough to elevate this club to challenge the top six.
I'm not talking about just talent wise, I'm talking mentality, none of them have a tough mentality, they are all weedy little flakes that can't cope under any kind of expectation level whatsoever, as proved yesterday once again!
We have a bunch of jokers throughout the squad starting with that little armed asshole in goal (have I ever seen a goalkeeper beaten by so many long range shots ever?)
Bunch of absolute half arsed twats that are simply here just to earn a monumental wage because they haven't been up to standard at other clubs, so don't worry fellas go to Everton you can milk that club for a fortune despite being bollox.
We need to completely rip it up and start again.
We don't need two or three or four players.
We need a whole new squad and a whole new club motto, a new mentality and then, and only then, might you start to see this dying club wake itself out of the shadows.