Everton vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[RamboandBruno]

..Durán spent too much energy berating his team mates or lying on the turf. It's no wonder Watkins was having a heated word with him after the final whistle.

Maybe there was an opportunity for Duran to have headed the ball down to Watkins who had space rather than go for goal. In Duran's defence the chance of Watkins controlling it would be close to zero. A first time shot however.. probably straight at the keeper. We'll never know.

You really don’t rate Watkins.

Put it like this, I don't love him as much as you do (assuming you're not his agent) but then very few do.
Watkins can be either extremely frustrating, like he's been recently or a top goalscorer. It's one or the other with very little in between.

That said, if Emery is going to rely on Watkins to be our main goal threat we should at least adapt our play to his strengths. Today, he was hardly in the game but then we tried too often to play it through the middle where he was easily marked out the game. Diaby was poor too. I'd certainly be looking to try and get early, low crosses into the box against teams like Everton, Sheff Utd etc as the centre of the park is far too congested.

I think you’ve made a jump there with me ‘loving’ Watkins, you could scour through 100s of posts and not find many comments on me loving Ollie. But obviously life is too short for that. So its easier if I tell you what I think, in my opinion, he’s a very good forward, one of the best in the division, not up there with Haaland or Salah, but certainly better than the rest. But like most players he does have shortcomings.
I just think your praise of him is begrudging and you  find fault when there is no real need.  it would be more honest if you said you don’t really rate him but that would leave open to be shot down when he’s doing really well, but maybe you have and I missed it.

[Clampy]

Very few don't love Watkins? Where did you get that from?

[Legion]

'Villa fail to go joint-top with Everton draw | Emery: Martinez saved us'

http://www.skysports.com/share/13045433

[VillaTim]

I like Watkins, he had a tough game today though with that thug all over him all game

[Mister E]

All match Watkins was in Tarkowski's pocket. Nobody thought to tell him to move out wide then cut in to switch it up once?
A dire snoozefest with appalling officiating which is the standard in the Premier League now.

disagree with almost everything you've said there, apart from your observation on the officiating.

[Aldridge Villa]

Need our autumnal mojo back. However, if this period is our blip for the season I’d take it.

[LeeB]

All match Watkins was in Tarkowski's pocket. Nobody thought to tell him to move out wide then cut in to switch it up once?
A dire snoozefest with appalling officiating which is the standard in the Premier League now.

disagree with almost everything you've said there.

Hasn't his ridulously good form coincided with being told specifically not to fuck off out wide?

[Nunkin1965]

All match Watkins was in Tarkowski's pocket. Nobody thought to tell him to move out wide then cut in to switch it up once?
A dire snoozefest with appalling officiating which is the standard in the Premier League now.

disagree with almost everything you've said there.

Agreed.
Not the game I watched.
He might not have scored but worked tirelessly again.
He had to spend half his time making sure he wasn't going to get his leg broken by the thug.

[pelty]

Anyone think it is worth a go to have Diaby play on the wing for a bit? I think he needs to get a bit of open space to run into and take advantage of his strengths. When he is up too, he has little room to work and disappears.

[CT Villan]

Just watched it...Emi, Lenglet, Moreno, Tielemans and Kamara excellent. We created some good chances but the finishing was not good enough for a top 4 challenge. McGinn seems to have gone off the boil and something needs to be done with both Zaniolo and Duran as they are not contributing sufficiently to the team.

Ref was a clown.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I just think your praise of him is begrudging and you  find fault when there is no real need.  it would be more honest if you said you don’t really rate him but that would leave open to be shot down when he’s doing really well, but maybe you have and I missed it.

I highly rate certain parts of his game and have had no problem in highlighting them and it's not just his goals. Only the other day I was waxing lyrical about two of his assists that were absolutely superb. I love how he gets himself into scoring positions, something not many strikers master.

At the same time he can be extremely frustrating, mainly his lack of a half decent first touch, his shots like the one today that he didn't have a chance in hell of scoring from and his AEG habit of endlessly shooting straight at the keeper. He's also prone to play musical statues next to a defender rather than look for space to receive a forward ball.

It's games like today where you want a striker who if not scoring can stretch the opposition, opening up spaces for the attack, just be a constant nuisance for the opposition defence. Is he the complete centre forward? Of course not. Is he a natural goalscorer? Yes. His record is there for all to see. Ask me again in a couple of weeks if he's still on a barren run. Until then let's hope he gets better service and he does what he does best.

Oh and that Dougie Luiz needs shooting for not shooting today. What's going on with him?

[Astnor]

We did look like a good team I thought, it was good to see that we seems to have a concistensy with high performance showings now. I thought all of the staring 11 did good showings, dont agree with those that talk down Mcginn though we are used to very good performances from him. Special mention of course to Martinez - he actually did manage to top his usual world class standard somehow I thought. Lenglet nearly as good as Torres - did manage to start attacks like Torres. Less said about Everton the better. Duran and Zaniolo not on same wavelength as the others and like to try to impress on their own and mostly fails and the team suffer when they do come on IMO - I think time are running out for them a bit with regard to establish them self in the team.

[jon collett]

If Bailey was offside why did VAR look at whether Lenglet was in an offside position blocking the keeper’s view of Moreno’s shot?

[VillaTim]

Anyone think it is worth a go to have Diaby play on the wing for a bit? I think he needs to get a bit of open space to run into and take advantage of his strengths. When he is up too, he has little room to work and disappears.

needs a ball over the top to run onto. His pace is his main asset and we don't use it.

[RamboandBruno]

I just think your praise of him is begrudging and you  find fault when there is no real need.  it would be more honest if you said you don’t really rate him but that would leave open to be shot down when he’s doing really well, but maybe you have and I missed it.

I highly rate certain parts of his game and have had no problem in highlighting them and it's not just his goals. Only the other day I was waxing lyrical about two of his assists that were absolutely superb. I love how he gets himself into scoring positions, something not many strikers master.

At the same time he can be extremely frustrating, mainly his lack of a half decent first touch, his shots like the one today that he didn't have a chance in hell of scoring from and his AEG habit of endlessly shooting straight at the keeper. He's also prone to play musical statues next to a defender rather than look for space to receive a forward ball.

It's games like today where you want a striker who if not scoring can stretch the opposition, opening up spaces for the attack, just be a constant nuisance for the opposition defence. Is he the complete centre forward? Of course not. Is he a natural goalscorer? Yes. His record is there for all to see. Ask me again in a couple of weeks if he's still on a barren run. Until then let's hope he gets better service and he does what he does best.

Oh and that Dougie Luiz needs shooting for not shooting today. What's going on with him?

Agree re Dougie and the same corner routine over and over!
I thought McGinn should of done better with the one he hit wide, itvreally opened up for him.