Everton v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Rudy65]

I think hartman is partly right.With a better Gabby instead of Holt, and a better midfielder than Westwood, then we would'nt have lost today.

 Bacuna and Bertrand were very good, and the back 3 restricted them to almost nothing until they scored.The lack of quality on the ball was our undoing.

It's partially that, but it's tactical as well. Why start 3 centre halves against a team with no strikers? it immediately says you don't want possession. Lambert has lost any sort of attacking thoughts he ever had, and we are an embarrassing team. As paulie says we're the sort of team that I would want to see relegated if I wasn't a fan.

No it doesn't. Martinez plays three at the back all the time and his sides always look to retain possession. It says you want them going outside you and not playing through you. Baines is a winger but he underlaps rather than overlaps and we forced him outside today.

I'd suggest our performances and the way our centre halves kick the ball away show we don't want possession.

I'd argue it's because they don't have any movement in front of them. Lambert's already identified that as a problem, once he has done that and offered his targets it's not his fault if they don't arrive.

Agree the movement in front of the centre halfs is poor, as it is all over the pitch when we are in possession. The Liverpool games proves we can play well though. Why not play the same way and have Albrighton plays Gabbys role. Not ideal but much better than what we got to see today.

Clarks defending has improved this year but his passing is dreadful, either long or short.

[David_Nab]

Why is it every fucking time the ball is played back to Guzan he blasts it upfield ..we have 5 defenders yet none of them are capable  of starting an attack with the ball at feet ?

Holt and Benteke the only combination worse was Kozak and Benteke.On what planet is playing 2 big strikers with a midfield comprising for 2 cms and another striker a good plan ? Once again the powder puff nature of our midfield was exposed only Delph can physically hold himself up against strong oponnents.

We had one corner as far as I can tell and guess what another god damn floaty piece of shit.Seriously when will management and players wake up to its non effectiveness ?

Despite being 10 we are very much still in a relegation scrap and with Vlaar a doubt against West Ham I only hope Carroll keeps suspension as he destroyed Swansea today.

[Smirker]

You are a half full man then

Look at the table. We are 5 points off the bottom three and have West Ham up next.

I wouldnt trust PL to spend any money

Its the manner of the performance and tactics that is so appalling

Yeah, we have West Ham at home. we'll beat them.

Games like Fulham away, Palace at home and Sunderland at home are the ones that really piss me off. Today was not one of those games. They were better, but we've played similar and came away with wins before (Southampton).

Obviously I don't want us to play like this every game but we have to do what we can to get points and up until 75 mins it was working.

[hartman_1982]

People taking issue with him changing a winning side, it isn't the 80's. Also, was that not exactly what MON got slagged for? He picked a formation to stifle the opposition and for 65 minutes he got it spot on. We used the ball poorly but to me we looked shattered, maybe Wednesday night took it out of us?

I think that's the issue, he picked a formation to stifle their side, rather than to actually play football ourselves. I must admit for a while i thought it might just work, but with no real out ball and absolutely no midfield presence it became obvious the pressure and their massive possession were almost certainly going to pay off for them eventually.

Is that not his job? If he'd played 4 at the back and Lowton at right back, the midfield runners would have had a field day and Baines would have tore Lowts a new one. People saying they had no striker on the pitch but we had three CB's clearly have no perspective of how the modern game is played. How many times have Barca or Spain played without a striker?

Well i would say the remit of his job is a little larger than 'pick a side to stiffle the opposition', for instance i seem to remember the club and Lambert saying at the beginning of his tenure something about 'playing football' the right way.

I agree that we had to be wary of Everton's goal scoring threat, with 34 of their 43 goals this season not coming from their main striker, and said as much in the prematch thread and the start of the match thread. We weren't however playing Bareclona and have played better football against better teams then them this season so i don't agree there was a need for such completely negative tactics. The way we were set up we had no midfield or attacking threat whatsoever and without a massive slice of luck such as we had at Southampton, Everton we're always going to get the result.

I would rather lose playing football and having a go, than playing this negative ****

Why is it that all of our good results are lucky and all of the bad ones are down to Lambert? The bottom line is we are the tenth best team in this league and let's not forget that we have already played Liverpool and Arsenal twice. For a club slashing their wage bill, the manager can't be doing that badly.

Ok so a couple of hyperthetical  questions; Lerner sells up and we are bought by the Bahrain royal family/oil Barron sheik who provide us with a 300m war chest. Do you think Lambert could have us winning the league within 2-3years? Then secondly, the same scenario with Everton-do you think Martinez could do it with them?

I know my answers

No and no. Everton are miles in front of us at the moment, they have a lot of quality that we don't simply just don't have.

[hartman_1982]

I'm listening to Lambert now on WM and he is saying we did not deserve to lose as Guzan had nothing to do for 70 mins! I'm stunned

He didn't

Unfortunately the matches tend to last at least 90 minutes, highlighting something of a flaw in Lambert's master plan and logic.

Statistically Guzan had little to do for 70 minutes. But playing the tempting fate game isn't usually going to end well.

So you knew Vlaar would get injured? You should have text Paul.

[ChicagoLion]

The odd nutjob seems happy with that performance, I don't see how Lamberts tactics can be applauded.

 5 at the back for a team with no centre forward.

With 5 at the back you think we could play it out no Guzan hoofed it every time giving them possession.

Weiman gave the ball away every time he got it, so he stays on the pitch for 80 minutes.

We got our first corner in the last 10 minutes.

There was no plan, except defend and try and get away with it. When it became obvious that we were not going to get away with it he did nothing.

[Jimbo]

I said during the game that this is a team desperately in need of a brain. We give the ball away like a sack of cheap Christmas cards. We make stupid fouls in stupid areas. We can't work out how to pass a football. But I think it goes deeper than that. We are a club desperately in need of a brain. From the owner, to the chief exec, manager and the vast majority of the players, when it comes to the game of football, there's hardly a brain cell between the lot of them.

[Rudy65]

You are a half full man then

Look at the table. We are 5 points off the bottom three and have West Ham up next.

I wouldnt trust PL to spend any money

Its the manner of the performance and tactics that is so appalling

Yeah, we have West Ham at home. we'll beat them.

Games like Fulham away, Palace at home and Sunderland at home are the ones that really piss me off. Today was not one of those games. They were better, but we've played similar and came away with wins before (Southampton).

Obviously I don't want us to play like this every game but we have to do what we can to get points and up until 75 mins it was working.

You reckon today was much better than Fulham. We made the latter look like Barca that day.

Going forward today was as bad as Fulham except we actually managed to score.

Glad youre confident for next week. Wish I was

[Legion]

The odd nutjob seems happy with that performance, I don't see how Lamberts tactics can be applauded.

 5 at the back for a team with no centre forward.

With 5 at the back you think we could play it out no Guzan hoofed it every time giving them possession.

Weiman gave the ball away every time he got it, so he stays on the pitch for 80 minutes.

We got our first corner in the last 10 minutes.

There was no plan, except defend and try and get away with it. When it became obvious that we were not going to get away with it he did nothing.

I don't think anyone was happy with the performance at all.

[N'ZMAV]

Awful, really not sure how they manage not to create anything for most of the game, we sat off them too much, and gifted them the ball too often.

[WarszaVillan]

I thought the performance was alright, just not quite good enough to pick up the points. Inconsistency =  midtable

[Rudy65]

People taking issue with him changing a winning side, it isn't the 80's. Also, was that not exactly what MON got slagged for? He picked a formation to stifle the opposition and for 65 minutes he got it spot on. We used the ball poorly but to me we looked shattered, maybe Wednesday night took it out of us?

I think that's the issue, he picked a formation to stifle their side, rather than to actually play football ourselves. I must admit for a while i thought it might just work, but with no real out ball and absolutely no midfield presence it became obvious the pressure and their massive possession were almost certainly going to pay off for them eventually.

Is that not his job? If he'd played 4 at the back and Lowton at right back, the midfield runners would have had a field day and Baines would have tore Lowts a new one. People saying they had no striker on the pitch but we had three CB's clearly have no perspective of how the modern game is played. How many times have Barca or Spain played without a striker?

Well i would say the remit of his job is a little larger than 'pick a side to stiffle the opposition', for instance i seem to remember the club and Lambert saying at the beginning of his tenure something about 'playing football' the right way.

I agree that we had to be wary of Everton's goal scoring threat, with 34 of their 43 goals this season not coming from their main striker, and said as much in the prematch thread and the start of the match thread. We weren't however playing Bareclona and have played better football against better teams then them this season so i don't agree there was a need for such completely negative tactics. The way we were set up we had no midfield or attacking threat whatsoever and without a massive slice of luck such as we had at Southampton, Everton we're always going to get the result.

I would rather lose playing football and having a go, than playing this negative ****

Why is it that all of our good results are lucky and all of the bad ones are down to Lambert? The bottom line is we are the tenth best team in this league and let's not forget that we have already played Liverpool and Arsenal twice. For a club slashing their wage bill, the manager can't be doing that badly.

Ok so a couple of hyperthetical  questions; Lerner sells up and we are bought by the Bahrain royal family/oil Barron sheik who provide us with a 300m war chest. Do you think Lambert could have us winning the league within 2-3years? Then secondly, the same scenario with Everton-do you think Martinez could do it with them?

I know my answers

No and no. Everton are miles in front of us at the moment, they have a lot of quality that we don't simply just don't have.

And a much better manager. His astute signings in the summer, if nothing else. He has comfortably beaten us twice this year and consistently did it with Wigan.

Makes me weep to look at Barry passing it around simply but effectively and also being able to still play the killer pass. We should have got him back in the summer. Maybe we did try, but obviously not hard enough.

[Smirker]

You reckon today was much better than Fulham. We made the latter look like Barca that day.

Going forward today was as bad as Fulham except we actually managed to score.

Glad youre confident for next week. Wish I was

Today was better than Fulham. Fulham are shit and bottom of the league. Everton are a very good side.

I agree that going forward we weren't great today but don't forget Bacuna had a shocker against Fulham, defensively we were better today. It took two moments of genius to break us down, 75 minutes into the game. We collapsed fast against Fulham.

Anyway I'm confident for next week yeah.

[ChicagoLion]

The odd nutjob seems happy with that performance, I don't see how Lamberts tactics can be applauded.

 5 at the back for a team with no centre forward.

With 5 at the back you think we could play it out no Guzan hoofed it every time giving them possession.

Weiman gave the ball away every time he got it, so he stays on the pitch for 80 minutes.

We got our first corner in the last 10 minutes.

There was no plan, except defend and try and get away with it. When it became obvious that we were not going to get away with it he did nothing.

I don't think anyone was happy with the performance at all.

There are a few people defending it.

[loughborough villain]

Just back at the hotel, poor performance, what were the possession stats second half?  It seemed like we never had the ball, I will be surprised if we achieved 25%

No ambition.