Drop Deeney - we have like seven s**t strikers, give them a go until I forget how useless he is himself. Foster and Holebas probably need dropping but we don’t have the quality in the squad to replace them adequately.
Was Gracia watching a different game to me? Deeney offered absolutely nothing all match, we may as well have been playing with 10 men. But instead of taking him off, Javi takes off Hughes, Deulofeu and Capoue who were all playing well! Just take Deeney off ffs! What was he thinking? We had a spell where Capoue was anticipating Everton passes, catching them on the break and then Pereyra and Deulofeu were linking up nicely to create half chances. Then he goes and cancels that, takes 2 of them off and switches to aimless hoofball. I usually back Gracia, but that was a ******* joke.
Pukki scored a hat trick today for Norwich. 4 goals in the Prem in 2 games. We have Deeney with the whole goal to aim for smash it at Pickford’s nose. Levels
Much better than the Brighton game, but still not great. The full backs were poor and Deeney is simply past it. We gurn again.
What’s Foster getting grief for? I didn’t see their goal live but on replay at HT it clearly deflected off Dawson. Granted can’t say it wrong footed him but it definitely took the ball beyond him. He had it covered otherwise.
Maybe Gracia thinks the fans etc will be upset if he dropped Deeney - might find the reaction will be totally the opposite.
Who the **** subs our best attacking player for Tom ******* Cleverly when we're chasing a game at 1-0 down. That's Mazzarri type of management that
Performance was much improved from last week. Thats about it for highlights. Deeney was better second half, but how Decoure not score? Yes a deflected ball but. Surely... Everton looked average at best, and fortunate to win. They are FOUR points ahead of us... god thats depreasing. It was nice see Welbeck too Next week we have to start with him. Defensivly not great and I think Richarlisons miss was worse than Decoure's. Overall a definate improvement but we really need to start scoring. It still read zero points abd now four let in, but if we get nothing out of West Ham I really am going to worry. We defended better but our finishing is Leauge 1 level at times. Should of had Gray on from the start, but credit to Deeney he played better today. That Decoure miss is going to haunt me for a week. Can beat the Spam? On that showing yes, but we need to start taking chances.
We were some better tactics away from winning that game, we are screaming out for some width and crosses into the box but Kiko can’t cross for s hit and we are trying to battle to win knock downs and second balls which is a bad version of Burnley. Bringing cleverly on instead of Quina when we need some creativity was brain dead I’ve lost my faith in Gracia completely this year the final last year definitely glazed over how crap we have been for a while. Foster well at fault for 1st goal the deflection from Dawson was slight and at his near post he wasn’t wrong footed or anything he’s a liability at the moment. Welbeck is very rusty and gray looked well up for it. I’d drop Deeney for sure next game absolutely no composure with his shot on goal he rushed it and slid when someone else would have gone past an onrushing Pickford and had an open goal to score in. Deulofeu didn’t look fit
A better performance and no disgrace to lose away at Everton but Gracia's failure to change tactics and make the right subs is worrying Rooted to the bottom and a difficult home game to West Ham to come Often start to season shapes how the whole campaign will go,,,,,,, like Gracia but not his fault lumbered with chronic lack of investment in the defence.... Gino I'm sure will be putting out feelers for a replacement
Everton were woeful yet we couldn’t break them down. Our style of football is unimaginable, ineffective & predictable. Cathcart to Dawson, dawson back to Cathcart, cathcart to Holebas, Holebas back to foster...Hoooooofff we lose possession. I don’t want to see Javi get the boot but he needs a massive rethink
Looking purely at the stats, it sounds as though we matched them overall. Taken in isolation not the worst result/performance. Agree that it is a worrying trend of results. Also seems like JG is scared to drop or even sub Troy. Why is this (not) happening? Hopefully it's not a case of player power. Usually when such things happen it's because of far better players than Troy. Need a good atmosphere against Spam. Definitely cannot afford to lose the next match imo. It's all about the mentality of the squad moving forwards. Lose the next one, I think Javi's job will be under serious scrutiny.
Which is fine as a general observation but he could have flicked it up, megged Pickford and slammed it in with a rabona finish. He would have still been miles offside.
We don’t have a midfield. They are only there to 'mop up' and spray hollywood balls to the fullbacks. Might as well play them in defence.
A more honourable defeat, I think. It was strange, as Everton were having a lot of joy early on, playing high tempo, that they didn't really try that for the rest of the match. Maybe this says something about Watford fighting their way back into the game., which I felt they did. Some players didn't impress enough; Peyreyra really didn't achieve anything, he's capable, but too lightweight for me. But the thing that worries me most is the defence: Richarlison should have had two goals - simple runs left him in acres of space, completely unchallenged, right in front of goal. If our defence doesn't improve its organisation above this standard we are going to concede a lot of goals this season. It's partly why I was surprised Everton didn't go for the jugular - our defence was there for the taking.
Not sure why Gray is not getting more game time. He had the best pre season and offers more of a threat than Deeney. We definitely need Sarr and Welbeck fit quickly to inject some live into that predictable attack
At least we put in an effort today. Foster, Deeney and Femenia need to be dropped from the starting XI. Femenia and Foster were again culpable for goals conceded; today Femenia was beaten by being out of position again, and Foster should never have been beaten at his near post in that manner. His kicking was again poor. Bachmann deserves a shot, Janmaat should be restored for the sake of defensive balance and Deeney lost almost every header. Welbeck had a so so debut. We made chances and plenty of half chances but our finishing was below standard, again.
Rooted? We’re a whole 1pt away from 15th. I think we’d do well to ignore the largely meaningless league table at the moment.
I'd forgotten how "fally overy" (and dirty) Richarlison was - Cholebas' yellow was unfortunate. Hughes was invisible. FWIW It looked a tough game - Everton looked knackered and relieved at the whistle.
Amazed people are desperately trying to find positives from a game where we created next to no chances, didn't score, looked an absolute shambles at the back again, conceded, and lost. Oh, and all with the same personnel and tactics that have lost us the last 6 in a row before. We're getting better though!
Ok. Can one of our less knee-jerk/negative supporters find any positives in the performance? Genuine question, as I haven't watched the match.
Gray got 8 minutes to try and change it and he was the one fit and scoring preseason. Not very long considering a half fit Wellbeck and a defensive midfielder (Cleverley) had already been brought on. Don't think the subs were right today.
After the first goal went in I was very concerned, though over the course of the full 90 minutes it was a pretty even match. It was another case of very fine margins, with their goal being deflected in, while our shots got deflected wide or hit the woodwork. VAR yet again denied us what I thought was a clear penalty as well. If Dawson's header bounces in, or the pen is awarded, it would be a different story. Everton were also poor and looked far from a team ready to break in to the top six this season. Our deficiencies are still clear though. We're too fragile at the back, with actually the two full-back positions looking the main weak points today. Femenia and Holebas were often beaten just too easily. Meanwhile, going forward our one and only tactic now appears to be "hoof it to Deeney", which given that Deeney just isn't very good any more means that it's no surprise we haven't scored yet. Deulofeu also looked to still be shaking off some pre-season/illness cobwebs. I'm definitely not going to write Welbeck off straight away, he had a few decent touches, but he didn't appear a player immediately ready to step up and be a regular scoring lead front man. I'd still like to see him start the next game though in place of Deeney, if only to force us to try something else going forwards, because what we're doing at the moment isn't working. While it has been a case of fine margins, it's clear we need to shake things up somehow in order so that they start going our way rather than to the opposition. Only other slight plus point today was that Hughes was pulled early. He was anonymous yet again.
All well and good but get 1 point form West Ham and Newcastle, then given the 3 game after that I guess we better pay attention when we are 1 from 7 games. Gracia is in last chance saloon in the next fortnight.
