05 Feb 2018 01:26:29
Much as we love playing in European football - and however unlikely we are to scrape into the Europa League - surely we can do without the burden of pre-season qualifiers and Thursday night football next season? It's clearly ruined us this season.
:- (.


1.) 05 Feb 2018
05 Feb 2018 10:30:41
A decent break and a good pr-season without having to worry about qualifying for the Europa League would undoubtedly be beneficial for the lads BobbyC, but there are other reasons why they have been so poor this season. The main ones are some of the players simply haven't been good enough and the tactics have, for the most part, been awful. We as fans can see what/ where the problems are. The pundits on TV and in the press can see them too. But for some inexplicable reason the club/ management appear to be blinkered. Playing in Europe can be taxing, but that's no excuse for the dross we have to watch week in/ out.

{Ed025's Note - i have to agree BigH..


2.) 05 Feb 2018
05 Feb 2018 12:31:15
Best post I have seen for a long time, agree completely.


3.) 05 Feb 2018
05 Feb 2018 12:47:38
You can't blame playing in Europe for our poor season. If anything it should have helped us improve as a squad. Think about it. We looked poor in our preseason games, and even in the early rounds of the comp, struggling to beat teams I had never heard of.
The only way we will improve is to stay playing in Europe, being out of it just weakens us.


4.) 05 Feb 2018
05 Feb 2018 15:55:45
I think you can blame Europe to a point. The early start meant our usual pre-season was condensed. Lots of new players didn't get a chance to play together / bed in etc as competitive action started very early.
That said - there is no excuse for the garbage which has been served up. There are far too many bad apples in the squad who are not working for Fat Sam and hardly pulled trees up for Martinez, Koeman or Unsie.
Seamus in his first game in 12 months showed the entire squad the level of guts and effort that should be a given. Likes of Scneiderlin, Williams, Keane haven't shown that much effort all season.

Seamus has been a huge loss for us. Make him captain and bring in a similar sort at LB and maybe we will start to progress.

But having thought we finally had a squad to be proud of it is scandalous that we need to start riupping it up and starting over.

{Ed001's Note - surely the early start to competitive football should have helped new players bed in? The only effect it should have is tiredness later in the season.}


5.) 05 Feb 2018
05 Feb 2018 16:20:36
I would give anything to see us back in Europe next year. It has some obvious drawbacks by having to start the season so much earlier but that is our own fault for only scraping in by the very last spot. We can consider the qualifiers to be our pre season games so don't necessarily need to play any more matches than we would in any other pre season.
By being in Europe, albeit Europa rather than Champions League, we should be more enticing to players considering joining us. And the opportunity to play against some high quality continental competition is what i want to see at the club.
Also, yes we had a disaster this year, but if we did not play our Europa qualifier, we would never have identified and signed Vlasic. It's always worth looking for the bright moments and that for me is one of them.


6.) 06 Feb 2018
06 Feb 2018 08:41:23
Ed001 - my thoughts are that we weren't fit enough AND we hadnt sorted our team shape, best 11 etc etc. WE struggled from the off, confidence was hit and the likes of Sandro, Klaassen and later Vlasic have never had a proper chance.
I think with a settled side the early start may help. But we had so many new faces that they needed more 'pointless friendlies' to sort a shape and understanding.

{Ed001's Note - not being fit enough would have quickly been sorted by playing matches, that is just an excuse. Building an understanding comes in training and playing together, you don't need to play pointless friendlies to do that either. Again more excuses for crap recruitment and management.

The manager is responsible for managing what he has and was utterly incapable of even making the effort to be a part of things, that was the biggest issue. The second biggest issue was the woeful recruitment that saw you pick up the wrong players.

Starting the season early should have been an advantage early on but the mess the club made of the summer meant it was not. Making excuses for mistakes is the way to go about making sure they are not rectified in the future.

Everton deserve better than a manager who thought he was too big and important to be managing Everton. Koeman was wrong, he was not good enough for Everton, not the other way around. But that problem has been fixed, though the choice of replacement shows the club still has not learnt lessons from the mistakes made picking him. You might want to make excuses for those failings but I would like to see Everton learn from them and find the right manager next time out, rather than yet another arrogant arse who thinks he is bigger than the club.}


7.) 06 Feb 2018
06 Feb 2018 14:56:04
I second everything you say Ed001, but fear that without a major overhaul from Boardroom to bench we will slowly sleepwalk to relegation.


8.) 06 Feb 2018
06 Feb 2018 15:01:46
I agree re Everton deserving better and also re the poor recruitment - that said we all thought we had recruited well at the time. Hindsight eh! But 3 no.10's, no decent forward and no cover at LB was scandalous.
Disagree re the fitness side. It is no coincidence that each side that has entered EL at the group stages have had a poor season. The hard graft in pre-season is what builds you up for the season. It should have far more intensity than a friendly match. And as i said earlier, once you start losing games confidence quickly erodes.
All that said, the nucleus of that team have failed for 4 managers now. Total lack of bottle, character and ability.
I see another pre-season of much change.

{Ed001's Note - hindsight? I told you at the time you had recruited badly and got laughed at. I told you Mee was the defender at Burnley you should have got, not Keane. You didn't need hindsight to see that Rooney was finished years ago and should never have been brought back, plenty of others said the same thing. It also did not need hindsight to see you needed a genuine striker, which Sandro is not really.

I see what you are saying about the fitness but it is perfectly possible to get fit and play games, it is about managing it properly. It is also not true that each side that has entered the EL at the group stage has had a poor season. Though that is not related to early starts anyway, as the group stages are not that early in the season. I assume you mean the prelim rounds? In which case it is no different from Champs League sides having to pre-qualify and that doesn't present any real problems either.}


9.) 06 Feb 2018
06 Feb 2018 17:25:14
I think Rooney was as much a commercial / profile raising signing as anything else. Totally agree re a CF as i said above and, whilst i didn't laugh at you, i certainly can't argue on the comments re Mee over Keane. Keane has been dire!

And yes i meant the prelims. My mistake.

PS - What you doing in the summer Ed 001. Hoping there is a vacancy going for a DoF!

{Ed001's Note - I doubt Walsh will be given his marching orders just yet. Moshiri handpicked him, I think he will want to back his judgement call on that for a while yet.}


10.) 07 Feb 2018
06 Feb 2018 20:33:56
Agree with most of what you say there Ed. Although, on the whole, I think Rooney has been a decent signing really. He’s played some good games for us and scored some important goals.

{Ed001's Note - I don't see how he has been decent, he gets in the way in every move and is constantly anywhere but where you would want him to be. Yes he has scored some goals, but at what cost? I mean on the pitch cost, not wages etc. Would say Sigurdsson have scored and created more if he had played there? Would the team as a whole played better without a headless chicken running around brainlessly? If you are in midfield and looking to play a pass to him you have to search around to see where he is, because he could be anywhere. So you can't have an understanding built and just play a ball immediately, like you could with, for instance, Vardy up front. Which slows down your play and allows the opposition time to recover positions. That was especially a problem in the first part of the season when you had so little pace in the team to attack them with. You needed the ball to be moved around at pace but the players are unable to keep it moving one or two touch as they are spending 3 or 4 touches trying to figure out where he is.}