Newcastle United FC 1-0 Watford FC - 03/11/2018

Yes utterly pointless. Who cares at the end of a game what the "expected goals" score was ? You can tell from the possessions and shots stats which team was on top.

 

An entertaining read. Apparently we're little more thsn a pub team. I didn't realise there was a pub in the home dressing-room at the Etihad

 

2 stood out for me -

1 was the bloke next to us booing our own players after about 15 minutes and the score at 0-0. My mate stood next to him and called him out every time he did it, but he genuinely seemed to think it was justified and carried on for the whole game.

The other was a lad in a burgundy jacket carrying a Watford flag who tried to offer out a queue of people waiting for a bus near St James's Park. Made a 24 carat helmet of himself, then acted like he'd beaten Anthony Joshua and Khabib Nurmagomedov at the same time with one hand tied behind his back, as he walked back towards the station.

I've got a proper 2 day hangover after the trip.

 

It was a good away day again despite the result. A noticeable downturn in terms of traveling Watford though and as has been pointed out, a bigger portion of d1ckheads this time around.

 

14 points clear of the relegation zone.

 

Eh?

 

Did seem an odd thing to say considering you've won 4 out of your last 5!

 

2 goals at Wolves in a 2-2 draw. The winner against Southampton in a 2-1 win. A goal at Leicester in a 2-1 win. 2 goals against Brighton in a 3-1 win.

Take away his goals, and Everton would have had 7 less points as a direct consequence. If Everton had only 11 points at this stage of the season, after 11 games, I'm pretty sure most Everton fans would want Silva out.

 

Fewer.

 

You could solve our goal scoring problem, as you never miss an opportunity.

 

Ha! I am flattered, but regrettably I think it is best for all if I stick to being a grammar Nazi.

 

GOBE is your leader

 

That doesn't mean we'd have been playing with 10 players. It's flawed logic.

Is Perreyra keeping Gracia in a job? Or Hazard keeping Sarri in a job?

Richarlison has, on the whole, been very good this season, but we've had a number of players who have been playing really well - Keane, Sigurdsson, Digne, etc etc

I know lots of Everton fans, as you might expect, and your comment was "Ask any Everton fan. He's single-handily keeping Silva in a job right now" - he really isn't.

 

Looks like Gracia is subtly admitting his mistake over selection Holebas over Masina.

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...ulties-admits-hornets-head-coach-javi-gracia/

Personally I think it was a mistake for Gracia to drop Masina, because of the fact he's been so fair to all the players this season and I feel it's gone a long way to building the team spirit. Two clean sheets and good performances from Masina, should have earned him the right to keep the shirt. That seems to have been the rule all season, and to go back on that didn't feel right to me.

I understand why he did it, as Holebas offers more in terms of set-piece delivery (usually this season anyway). Now he's got himself another yellow, and it feels like a countdown of 4 more yellow's before a nice Christmas break.

I get the feeling he regrets making the call to drop Masina now.

 

It's not flawed logic at all. Who else could come in and do the job of Richarlison in your squad?

He's turned draws into wins and defeats into draws. He's papering over the cracks for Everton. Without him you'd be struggling right now. Not relegation, but just above it.

I've not been impressed with Everton at all. It just seems to be a one man show, although Sigurðsson has been playing well.

Your overall style and performance levels are not impressive, from what I can see.

It seems that Silva needs lots of very good players to make something work. That's not the sign of a good manager IMO.

 

Good grief.

To turn that around, go and ask any Everton fan you can find if they agree with that assessment - I'd be amazed if you found one.

On the "one man team" bit - Richarlison went from 18th August until 6th October without a goal. Everton have won 4 of the last 5 games - Richarlison has only scored in two of those. Don't get me wrong, he's been excellent, but he's far from the only one.

I'd argue the exact opposite on the style and performance levels - most Everton fans I know (and I speak to many of them) are delighted with the style of football we've been playing and in actual fact we think we've been v unlucky to only have picked up the points we have - and that, strangely, would be the one criticism that has been levelled against Silva so far - that the results haven't necessarily matched the performances (well, that and the defending corners bit).

Games against Wolves, Bournemouth, Arsenal and Man Utd we should arguably have picked up more points than we did. We've only really put in two poor performances in eleven Premier League games (West Ham and Huddersfield).

On the last bit - I don't know how to argue against that. It's not like we should be buying rubbish players to see if this is true or not.

 

Well, it's not the sense of opinion I'm getting when I hear Everton fans moaning on radio show phone ins and also what I have read on social media. They must be different Everton fans from the ones you know I guess.

 

I'm fairly active on Everton twitter

@Andy_H_EFC

If you could point me in the direction of any of these comments you've seen, I'd be interested in speaking to them

I follow a couple of thousand Everton fans on there and I can't remember seeing anything about style or performances at all from anyone - frustration about a few results, absolutely. The odd individual being singled out (Walcott and Coleman are the current favourites of the boo boys since Davies is on the bench currently), but style and performances? Not from what I've seen or heard.

 

I'm hijacking the thread here, sorry, just was amazed at that post

Anyway - Richarlison is doing really well, not that I need to tell any of you that

 

I’d imagine HB1 is talking about the Everton fans he heard call in on Spanish sports radio this weekend.

You need to expand your range of sources, Toffee.

 

Thank goodness for the ignore function. ******* hell.

 

Just type #silvaout and you'll find loads. Listen to the TalkSport radio phone in after Everton have lost.

I watched your match with Brighton only last week and it was saviour Richarlison to the rescue again. I think you're just kidding yourself, but time will tell I guess.

 

We've lost three games - two of them were a tad unfortunate (horrible refereeing decisions in away games against Arsenal and United). I can imagine that the phone in calls were angry after the West Ham game as that really was a bad day at the office

Brighton - yes, he played really well at the weekend. First time since he's been playing as a number 9 that he's looked a real goal threat. He has scored 6 of our 19 goals in the league this season. It's a very respectable tally at this point, but he's not close to being "one man team" territory like we were with Lukaku just yet. Worth pointing out though that most Everton fans I know still think that striker is the position we are weakest in currently. That's not a reflection on Richarlison, just perhaps a view that people aren't convinced that's his best role just yet (FWIW, I think he's eventually going to end up there)

 

So does 75-78 make me "Rookery Grandad?"

 

And that would be a very fair argument to make IMO

 

To me the most puzzling one is "Possession" on text commentary. I'm no mathematical genius but even I know if a team has 45% at 30 minutes it can't have 60% at 33 for instance.

 

I'm not a biologist but that would be a short generation except for, maybe, mice.

Rookery Cousin?

 

Yay an unwanted record goes tonight. Until just now we were the last visiting team to concede at Huddersfield!

We have this tag as the side that play other teams back into form, but actually Newcastle were the 4th winless team we’ve met this season and the first to beat us!

 

I acceot we won 2 -

We are poor in defence. Wait and see. Long season ahead.

 

Yeah, the possession stat always puzzled me and then I heard a guy from Opta explain that it is basically the % of successful completed passes for each team.

So if Team A has 600 completed passes in a game and Team B has 400, Team A is said to have had 60% possession.

Thinking about it logically, it’s probably the best way to express who has had most control of the ball because timing it with a stopwatch would be so subjective. At what point is a loose ball out of possession.

But really, calling it possession is perhaps not the most accurate description. It’s ewally an expression of who has made the most completed passes.

 

That should be “really” in the last par - not ewally. Butter fingers typing on a phone here

 

I do not agree with some of your points.
Have you seen our defending at corners, crosses and free kicks? We couldn't head a queue. Another header conceded on Saturday.