31 Dec 2017 08:55:05
"Our goalscoring abilities are limited, you don't need to be a manager to look at what the squad has got, " said Allardyce after the game. He added that we have plenty of creative midfielders but not many natural goalscorers. exactly what I have been saying since Martinez started signing them all. He added that this is why he has concentrated on coaching defending. Until we get natural goalscorers in, that's all we can really work on.
31 Dec 2017 09:10:19
That sounds like madness. You're no good at something so we are going to work on something else?!
I spoke to Craig Johnston who used to play for Liverpool at the launch of his Predator boots back in the 90s. He said he was bloody rubbish at football and had no natural talent at all. So he worked on it every single day to improve and get better. If someone told him to do something he would do it and then do it again and again until he was a master of it.
That's how you get better at something not just leave it one side and hope it fixes itself.
31 Dec 2017 09:40:18
BJU, I will try and explain in a way that maybe makes sense. The way I see it. I understand exactly what you mean and agree 100%. providing you have one thing on your side. time. Craig Johnson was presumably talking about growing up and throughout his career. Allergy is on about now. We were in the bottom 3 when he arrived. He could work on attacking skills and formations and we could maybe score 2 or 3 more goals this season than we would have with the scale of improvements you can make in that sort of time with established adult footballers at the prime of their lives. But is we were still conceding 28 goals every 8 games we would still be losing eg 5 2 or some similar score. I could go on and on but wont. What Allergy said makes complete sense to me. for the short term to get us some points. Long term is get other players. Bring youth through. Work on attacking skills. If he could do all of those now, I am sure he would. But he can't. So he is working on what he can do. Putting in plans for what he can't do right now. I can see it. Maybe you can't mate?
31 Dec 2017 09:44:29
Utter nonsense, he can ramble on about our lack of goal scorers all he wants, let’s look at this.
He said after the West Brom game that DCL is knackered so he plays him again yesterday (makes no sense) .
He is moaning about a lack of people who can put the ball in the back of the net, so he plays 3 defensive midfielders against a team so bad at defending they make us when Martinez was manager look like the Milan side from the mid 2000s.
If he wants to help increase the goals we score then he should probably start the likes of Lookman, Vlasic, Niasse or Sandro rather than park the bus against a terrible Bournemouth side and look to get a point only to lose the game. He’s talking out of his arse.
{Ed025's Note - i cant argue with that swan..
31 Dec 2017 10:23:13
Well guys, I am in the monority. I agree with the man himself. I get his point about DCL. But yeah maybe he could have played Niasse? Maybe he could have played all the attacking players you suggest. He could have picked them in the last 8 games too. Maybe we would have scored those few more goals. Maybe we would have carried on conceding 4 or 5 a game? None of us know the answer to those questions. But I do know that if you have a hole in a bucket, you plug the hole first ad make it look prettier and painted etc afterwards. Making a pretty bucket with a hole in is good for some things but not to be used as a bucket.
{Ed025's Note - i like that degs, i dont think the guys are talking about wholesale changes but better options on the bench mate..
31 Dec 2017 11:06:32
I am trying to tone down my responses after my 6 month sabatical away from this site. Being an Evertonian on-line is so much more difficult than face to face! You can explain things and respect each other so much easier. When someone on here says, "utter tosh" or "what a load of ***ocks". it is so easy to take offence. On a lighter note an old mate of mine used to say, "take a gate". its smaller than taking offence!
31 Dec 2017 11:22:24
Agree Swan, he has strikers he just refuses to play them. The only way a striker can play his way into form is by being on the bloody pitch. He can’t do it from the bench. Don’t think any of us know if Sandro is any good or not, as the lad just isn’t getting a fair chance, and as for Lookman, seriously why is this kid not playing?
31 Dec 2017 12:11:54
I think I may have the answers to your questions Woburn. Sandro is simple: 116 first team appearances in his career and 31 goals. 15 of those goals for Barcelona B team. that's a forward averaging one in three playing for (mostly) a team that thrashes every other team and averages a minimum of 2 or 3 goals a game. In our team, creating 1 or 2 chances a game at the moment, he is likely to hardly ever score. Now if you are saying we need better midfielders to create chances for him, I would agree. "Sideways" Shneiderlin, Gueye the "interceptor" and Grappling "McCarthy" don't have a run or penetrating pass between them. not many anyway. Besic is another. Sig was brought in to do this, but on his own. its not enough. without a center forward with some muscle and experience to hold the ball up. Lookman is still a kid from what I have seen. Yes he has potential, but in my humble opinion, put him in to a team with no creativity in midfield other than Sig and he will just be out the game. Easily marked by any experienced defender. I do see potential in Tom Davies too and don't understand why he is not picked regularly and told to carry the ball. Like he did against Man City last season. If you look we replaced Arteta, Gravesson, Fellaini, Carsley, Pienaar and Osman with what we have now and in between we had Cleverly and Barry. The fact is the lot from 8 years ago were all capable of running forwards with the ball and nearly all the midfielders since are sideways/ tackling players. The first bunch had bags of goals between them. the current lot don't score many at all. Never have in all of their careers. The dissapointment is the Ajax lad Davy Klassen. He was supposed to be the forward passer with Gylfie Sig. Hopefully he will come good?
31 Dec 2017 13:07:03
I have to say I am a little baffled by some of Allardyces comments. Sometimes he makes complete sense, more often than not in the pre match conference and then totally contradicts himself in the post match interviews. I think I heard him after the Bournemouth game say he could have gone more defensive! Really, not sure how? We are screaming out for forward passing midfielders so for me Davies, Baningime and Klassen or Vlasic should be next to Gana and not Schneiderlin. Maybe there is an argument for Schneiderlin against maybe Chelsea or Man U but not WBA or Bournemouth. WBA sit deep and therefore require craft and guile to unlock the defence, maybe Klassen, Davies, Lookman or Sandro. Bournemouth bomb forward with no regard for defending so maybe a Niasse or Sandro could have had some joy as Niasse did for a while against them.
Really we should have 2 almost different attacking teams for 2 or 3 different type of opponents, teams that sit back and those that pressure and attack. We have one team which only defends but does that well, the only problem is, if we go behind, we need a plan B.
By the way Sam, no amount of No9s in the world are going to help us if we can't get the ball to them.
{Ed025's Note - thats a fair point smit..
31 Dec 2017 13:21:32
Sorry degsyp have to disagree. Lookman is more than ready. Put him on the wing and move Sig into the middle where he should be playing. As for Klassen, again if you don’t play him you will never know. By the way Gueye plays a lot better without Scneiderlin next to him. So why do it?
31 Dec 2017 14:18:51
Well we all seem to agree that Schneids should not be playing even if we differ views on other players and tactics. It is obvious to me that Barry had some sort of positional sense that we are missing even if it was his pace etc that slowed him down. But I think my main point is the overall lack of goals from midfield. In our winning/ drawing streak Rooney bagged a few from midfield. Other than that we have 1 from Gueye and 3 from Sigurdsson. None from the rest in midfield. So as well as missing a center forward, we are missing goals from midfield. Compare that with the players I mentioned from 8 years ago.
31 Dec 2017 14:19:22
Good question Woburn? Makes no sense tome.
31 Dec 2017 15:48:02
I think a lot of Allardyce's comments smack a little of self justification. The point about 3 DM against a team of Bournemouth's attacking bias and defensive fragility is well made. As a squad player such as Vlasic, Lookman, Niasse or indeed Sandro, I would be dismayed to see the manager stating that there are no attacking options other than what we see. I think the truth is that the manager does not want to risk a more attacking style and talk of the inability to open up and play more is to deflect criticism than anything else.
31 Dec 2017 17:27:00
strange thing is watching that game yesterday, with 3 DM's our defence reverted to rat droppings once again. I posted this yesterday, two teams on the park one team could not defend the other team could not attack, one team could defendish the other team could attack. Only one outcome.