Ratings for Everton

[Raziel]

They weren't nearly as dominant as you make it sound. They started much sharper in the opening 10 minutes, but after we settled a bit it was a close game. You make it sound like we were Arsenal at Anfield. Everton had 3 shots on target all game. Granted, we only had 2, but it's not like we were taken apart over 90 minutes.

Everton are one of the top possession teams in the league, not sure why them dominating possession for periods is such a surprise to you. Seemed quite obvious to me that part of our game plan was to let them have possession in patches and look for the counter attack. The problem at the start was that we stood and watched as Sherwood said in his interview, but we came pretty close on several counter attacks after winning the ball.

3 midfielders against a good possession team is pretty standard, Ade moving around to get involved in play is pretty standard. Bentaleb is a defensive midfielder if you classify deep plamakers as defensive midfielders.

Completely disagree mate, allowing a team possession is usually based on holding a disciplined shape and restricting the area they play to (usually in front of you, in their half), not giving them the ball via losing possession/interceptions/**** passes, and having them walk through your midfield.

The shot statistic is irrelevant because they were very short on striker options, might just be me, but if Lukaku was playing, wouldn't have seen us get much out of that game.

And I'm sorry, Everton or Saint's or whoever, we should not be outplayed, outpossesed for long periods at WHL by anyone outside the top 4/5 (I don't include everton, they are simply "best of the rest").

 

[braineclipse]

Completely disagree mate, allowing a team possession is usually based on holding a disciplined shape and restricting the area they play to (usually in front of you, in their half), not giving them the ball via losing possession/interceptions/**** passes, and having them walk through your midfield.

The shot statistic is irrelevant because they were very short on striker options, might just be me, but if Lukaku was playing, wouldn't have seen us get much out of that game.

And I'm sorry, Everton or Saint's or whoever, we should not be outplayed, outpossesed for long periods at WHL by anyone outside the top 4/5 (I don't include everton, they are simply "best of the rest").

How many times did they "walk through our midfield" after the opening 10 minutes? Why weren't they creating clear cut chances as a result of that?

Lukaku is a good player and a great talent, but his scoring form has been far from impressive lately. He might have made the difference, but it's not like we were letting in crosses all the time either.

Everton are 5th in the "possession table"http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/3853/Stages/7794/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2013-2014)

This is topped (unsurprisingly) by Swansea, Southampton are ahead of Arsenal and Everton are ahead of United, ourselves, Chelsea and Liverpool. This seems a much better basis for how much possession we should expect in a game than looking at the league table.

And just to be clear, you're not equating being outpossesed with being outplayed are you? If you're talking about being outplayed I point you again towards the shot statistic. Anyone claiming that we got outplayed in a game where the opponents had 11 shots, 3 of them on target and none of them a clear cut one on one chance with the goalkeeper should consider reevaluating how they use the word outplayed.

And for the record, Everton had 54% possession, some of the descriptions here seem to fit better with the stats from the United-Fulham game.

 

[Raziel]

I think you need to watch the game over, the elation of the win has influenced a lot of people into that revisionary "we weren't that bad"

We were, and Everton's possession was not the back 4 passing to themselves, maybe if we want to talk about what is acceptable possession (and having Everton/Swansea/Southampton have a significant possession percentage advantage at WHL, seeing we are/were a possession side ourselves is not acceptable), maybe we should look at where they had that possession.

Everton has an issue in the final third, taking that possession -> making a final goal scoring opportunity, and that is a big part of why we won, not them. Doesn't change the "opinion" for me that they outplayed us for a bigger part of the game that we should be happy with.

 

[BAE]

Amazing how results skew people's view

It was a really poor game from us, massive result, but awful game, if Osman could hit the proverbial cows **** and if not for Lloris the game should have been over by half time.

Good game from Lloris
Dembele continues to flatter to deceive, good runs, great shielding, but ****ing nothing in the end, no really good pass, no shot, honestly wouldn't play him.
Bentaleb is not a DM, not one to control a PL midfield at this point of his career anyway

TS- poor selections, no idea what the tactic is? is Bentaleb really a DM, why play Ade up front alone if he spends half the game out wide or deep? how is it Everton completely outplays us for long stretches of the game (15 minute period where they had 70% of possession), it's ****ing Everton at WHL ffs .. not Barca/City/PSG ... not good enough

Agree with your view on Dembele. He can drop a shoulder and beat a couple of opposition players with a short dribble but then has no idea what to do afterwards. He doesn't carry on with a run into an attacking area, he doesn't play a killer through ball. Not sure why he's in the team at the moment

 

[braineclipse]

I think you need to watch the game over, the elation of the win has influenced a lot of people into that revisionary "we weren't that bad"

We were, and Everton's possession was not the back 4 passing to themselves, maybe if we want to talk about what is acceptable possession (and having Everton/Swansea/Southampton have a significant possession percentage advantage at WHL, seeing we are/were a possession side ourselves is not acceptable), maybe we should look at where they had that possession.

Everton has an issue in the final third, taking that possession -> making a final goal scoring opportunity, and that is a big part of why we won, not them. Doesn't change the "opinion" for me that they outplayed us for a bigger part of the game that we should be happy with.

I specifically remember thinking during the game that "ok, this is better" after 15-20 minutes after we picked ourselves up after the opening 10 minutes. I don't think that was influenced by us winning.

I remember being a bit disappointed at half time, primarily by the lack of chances created by us, but happy that we seemed much more in control of the game defensively and that we had pretty much stopped giving away chances to Everton.

I was expecting a tough, fairly close game and I was expecting this Everton side to have the ball a bit more than us. What were you expecting?

The "having an issue in the final third, making final goal scoring opportunity" sounds like it could have been a description of many of our games this season where I've been distinctly lacking the feeling that we've outplayed our opponents.

 

[diego_maradona]

I specifically remember thinking during the game that "ok, this is better" after 15-20 minutes after we picked ourselves up after the opening 10 minutes. I don't think that was influenced by us winning.

I remember being a bit disappointed at half time, primarily by the lack of chances created by us, but happy that we seemed much more in control of the game defensively and that we had pretty much stopped giving away chances to Everton.

I was expecting a tough, fairly close game and I was expecting this Everton side to have the ball a bit more than us. What were you expecting?

The "having an issue in the final third, making final goal scoring opportunity" sounds like it could have been a description of many of our games this season where I've been distinctly lacking the feeling that we've outplayed our opponents.

I think we were pretty much comprehensively out played by Everton in that first half. It was alarming to me but we saw the same v Palace at home, City at home. We are so slow to start it's unreal.

I think Raziel is right in that people are letting the elation of the win cloud the dross that proceeded the final whistle.

Osman like David Silva had the freedom of the midfield space in front of our back four. I am genuinely scared that Cazorla, Ozil and co will open us up at a canter unless we have Sandro back.

There seems to be a lack of a game plan. Fair enough this was possibly a legacy of AVBs side. But Sherwood is not showing me anything different other than putting more attacking players on.

Essentially we are no different to Jols team. He trusted in his stars to produce something exceptional to win them the game. I don't see us winning too many tactical battles.

We win because we have some very decent players. But there is no real obvious game plan here