Unsworth is really talking up Sunday's game, and has clearly rested players for tonight's game. Will it have an impact? Do the players in that squad want to play for him - he must think so I guess. I hope they do not get an early goal or we'll have a really difficult time ...
This is a very astute post. Given the strikers we have I also think letting Zarate go was wrong. I think it's clear that Silva wants to play his system with a quick single striker but is happy to have Deeney on the bench to come on in tight games (E.g. v Arsenal). I don't know if he specifically chose Gray, but if Gray doesn't start performing soon I can see the club offloading him sooner rather than later if they can recoup enough of the fee, perhaps to a top Championship club. Silva will be demanding a replacement (Slimani?) asap. We have a number of very good footballers now, but unfortunately Gray is not one of them.
Even if we were in the only match played on Sunday we’d still be last on MOTD. Mints 2 the team you want to play to get your season going 0 Sunday evening will see forum members demanding that Nigel Gibbs is installed as head coach
I think gray is exactly the sort of player we needed, but it has just turned out that unfortunately he's not very good at the things he's supposed to be able to do. I hope you're right and our owners are ruthless enough to get rid asap. I am all for giving players a chance, time to bed in etc, but I've seen enough to believe gray is simply not good enough. Gray is what we need, but a better version. Whether or not that's slimani I've no idea (dont think I've ever seen him play).
Someone in the premiership will want him. I reckon we could get 10-15 million from Palace, West Ham etc.
yeah it's very odd. I dont blame silva/the owners for the signing at all though. I thought it was the perfect signing at the time, but for whatever reason he's turned to dung. The pressure of the signing fee maybe. Or maybe he just cant bare to do well for us after playing for those ****s up the road... Hopefully the fact he's our record signing doesnt mean the club feel obliged to stick with him. Get rid, get someone else in and swallow a £25m net loss or whatever. It's peanuts when compared to what we'll make if we stay up.
Personally, I don't tend to look too far into previous records against certain teams or at certain venues. I think it borders on superstition, and teams (and, in this case, managers) can change a lot in the interim. I actually believe we play better without Troy, much as I love him. I feel like we recruited in the Summer to make us less of a one-club team, and the start of the season while Troy was returning from injury I felt proved just that. So I feel that his absence will be much less of a 'drawback' than people might think. I think your third point has some validity, but I don't think we've played badly, despite the results. We were knocking on the door a lot against Stoke, despite having no shots on target, so that's a good foundation, at least. I would never go to a game at Goodison Park expecting too favourable a result, but I'm certainly more confident around this one than I am around our previous two visits.
Out and out speed is the first thing to go as a sportsman gets older. In the case of footballers injuries can take their toll.
I'd also be interested to see Zeegelar given a go, or someone else in the left-back slot. Holebas has played every game so far, and I feel like he's lapsing a little bit; during the last couple of games, our left side has appeared to have been a bit of a weak spot when it comes to defending.
Just watched Everton game . They really struggled against fast and direct wing play ....and even more against a through ball played behind the 2 CBs. We should have a lot of joy on Sunday judging by this but I thought the same against Stoke .
Everton have one player who can hurt us, Wayne Rooney. Silva needs to pay special attention to Rooney. Silva won’t, thus we won’t win. Oh well. Rooney 2 Us 0
So far this season we’ve had the joint most scorers in the Pl and Everton the least. 10 players have netted for us, only Rooney and Niasse for them. Everton tonight lost their 5th match in a row for the first time in 12 years. Such losing runs always make me nervous when we are next up for them!
Exactly my thoughts! I wish they'd won tonight to be honest. It just feels so unlikely they'd lose 6 in a row.
Watford have never won at Goodison Park in their history, so it's high time that changed. With Everton's form being so poor, without an manager, plus playing tonight, the omens look good. Watford will never have a better chance of winning than on Sunday. I cannot see anything less than a comfortable victory. Watford to win by at least 2 goals.
If we had pereyra I'd be confident of snotting them. Without him, and to a lesser extent chalobah, I'd take a draw now.
Last time they did was 2005 by the way, the same run that they lost the 5 in a row I mentioned in my original post. All those matches were in the PL too, not a mix of Europe and/or League Cup.
I assume Pereyra is out then, despite the comments last week that he might be back by the weekend. What with Prodl and Kaboul having been out for two months with broken toe nails, it does seem like retirement might be on the cards for a few of them.
I must say that I fancy us to get something from this if we are at the races. Everton were poor again tonight and they seemed to have lost confidence it was almost as if they were just waiting to get beat rather than actually having a go tonight. I think the first goal will be important on Sunday as Everton have collapsed after conceding this season this shows that they have lost self-belief. In my opinion they will s**t themselves if we go at them from the off as there is clearly issues around mentality in that team.
I know Everton caretaker boss David Unsworth really well and I cannot believe the furore over him losing his first two games. He's just taken over at caretaker, he's trying to change it with the same players that Koeman couldn't do a lot with. I think he knows that someone is going to come in - it is Everton and they have a wealthy owner - but he is a safe hand on the tiller. He will try to get them playing in the way which the supporters want, which is getting them having a go. He didn't take a lot of the senior players to Lyon for the Europa League game on Thursday so that shows where Everton's focus is. I'm sure he discussed it with the hierarchy and said he would rather get three points against Watford than Lyon. I get that. Their predicament means they need to win some points in the league and I think they will beat Watford. Watford made a great start but they could, and should, have got something from Chelsea and then they got done at Stoke. I wonder if they are on a poor run at the moment. *****'s prediction: 2-0 Bloody miserable that trip back from Stoke, weren't it?
Everton are severely lacking pace. This means they have to push players up field and are vulnerable on the counter. This suits us perfectly. They have a naive manager who needs to win to save his job. I think we’ll draw at the very least.
I bet you didn't think that when Palace lost their first 5 games. If Everton are really poo, then they're really poo - despite their name and history.
I’m sure being really poo is something our stupid 3 man zonal defence and ineffective front line pairing of capoooooo and gray will sort out for them. 1 or 2-0 to them
