The College Dropout

I agree we don't press cohesively. Away from home to be compact, we need our fullbacks closer to our centrebacks.

Ben Arfa? A few games ago, I'd have agreed with you but I think Hatem's been off since then, I thought his attitude stunk against Hull. It's all well and good directing attacking play but I think he's been very poor at doing some basic defensive tasks of late. I'm worried he's been given so much responsibility that he's lost the teamwork ethic he seemed to learn in 2011/2012, he was really working in every game then. Proper #10's seem to be back in. Should play that AMC role. With his injury past I don't think he should be running all over the gaff. RVP's injuries subsided when he did less running. If that fails then he'll need to be more disciplined.. at RW. Also think his fullback on our team should just focus on defending. He and Santon on the left where as useless as you might expect defensively.

Yeah. It was alarming to see it put like that, fantastic analysis though. The confusing thing is, I'm sure we weren't organised that way against Villa, we looked far more compact, disciplined and focused. Perhaps they were just crap, Pardew's tried to change it a bit or the players are tactically poor. The gap between our holding midfielders and defenders was crap as well, so much so that they couldn't compensate for us playing so far apart. Space galore for Everton's attackers. Yep... gap between the whole team is just too big. Between defence and midfield, midfield and attack. Like someone said we play in separate compartments - defence - midfield - attack rather than one unit. We had two sitting in midfield but 1 pass down the middle takes them both out the game and then they are on to our defence.

At least he scored.

Our whole positioning is just too wide and open.CB's too far apart. Fullbacks away on walkies. Gap between midfield and defence large. Midfield 2 are flat and wide apart, one ball down the middle takes them both out the game. Just terrible. Someone needs to be between the CB - 7 yards in front.

Thought he was alreet tbh. Equally as poor defensively as Anita.. apart from that suicide ball from Krul into him he was decent in possession.

The best piece of analysis was that positionally, we defend like a team in the top 4, at home. Fullbacks so far up the field with our CB's defending 1vs1. With Colo slow and weak with MYM the positional sense of Stevie Wonder. I thought we would go there be tight and compact looking to hit them on the counter. Their first goal started with Santon further up the pitch than Mirralles. Once more - our passing is slow and aimless - no purpose. So our fullbacks are pushed forward for no reason, we didn't do anything positive going forward in the first half. That's what happens with that midfield 3 I guess.

This was nothing new from Colo. I've said time and time again. His biggest problem yesterday was not organising that defence. Needs to tell Santon to stick closely to him. Mapou and Debuchy to do the same. You see Santon running off.. what are you doing? Tell him to come back and help you out, stay compact. But no he deals with Lukaku 1 one 1.

Lukaku has chosen to bully Colo for the last two seasons and he was terrible. Particularly for the 3rd goal. It's all problems we know about Colo. If it gets too physical Colo might break and break he did. With Mapou - it's just basic defending that's defeated him. Terrible positionally for every goal, not pre-empting the danger for every goal, running away from danger for every goal. Mapou was definitely the worst. For the first Colo really has to go near post as Santon's been terrible.. when Colo goes near post (as he should) Mapou needs to tuck in and pick up Lukaku. It all happened so fast with Santon's error making our defence have to shift but it's a problem that continued in the match - Mbiwa not reading the situation/running away from danger. For the second Mapou needlessly looses possession then runs away from Barkley who ends up scoring. WTF? For the third he decides to stop defending. By the time the ball bounces (twice) it's actually over on his side of defence as the ball has curled to its right but he's long since run away from the danger. The most worrying part is that he must've seen Colo tussling and struggling to deal with Lukaku but he's decided to not go and engage the ball and help out his team mate anyway. I thought positioning and reding the game where meant to be his stengths?

Don't see what this has to do with running away from the ball and wasting possession.

You look at our side and you simply have to question some of the lads desire. Not Gouff however, puts in a great shift. I thought a couple of his left foot deliveries where decent tbh but i'd love to see him start in the middle. I can kinda see Pardew's logic with Remy up top. I thought we would come and play deep and compact, looking to spring Remy on the counter attack with balls over the top. Never went like that and we ended up hooking it to his head which got denied ever time.

This. Useful in the air for a RB> Keep saying it but wish he would stay at the back and just focus on being solid.

He's played there for France at the very least.

Maybe Lukaku prefers attacking to his right but he always identifies Colo as a weakness in the air.

Around 85 minutes he welcomes Coleman to our box. His shit man.

Taylor is error prone, no doubt, but Mbiwa at the minute is even more of a liability. Lad hasn't got the physicality or the brain yet for the Premier League. Needs dropping. We simple can't afford another performance like that. He's got to sit the next one out. Whether it's for Taylor or Williamson, he simply cannot start the next game. And Colo, who was quite a bit worse? I wouldn't say he was quite a bit worse, to be honest. As bad, perhaps. As bad, at best. Directly at fault for goals 1 and 3. Personally thought Mapou was at fault for 1, didn't pick up Lukaku at all. Mapou a little for 3 as he didn't bother to defend at all. I mean as a defender you do just stop and watch. Just terrible all round from all of them tbh. WHAT? The second goal was mostly his fault. He floats one into Remy when he was under no pressure whatsoever, needlessly giving away the ball. This is made worse by the belief that he's meant to be tidy on the ball. It gets head back, then he runs away from Barkley giving him the space to score the goal.

Agreed. But not competing for headers, running away from the ball and rival players is just terrible.

Aye, the rest where worse. I don't like Debuchy going forward however. Just stay alongside MYM ffs.

Two games.... before that he conceded 1 goal in 4 games. Nothing like a good knee jerk though. How we play is more of a problem than the CBs themselves.... we don't have the players to sit back and absorb pressure none of them can do it not one. 2nd half was an example of how we should defend, squeeze the midfield and press from the front. He ran away from the danger for 2 goals.

Aye Debuchy wasn't too bad besides his wandering.

This.

A lot of it is down to Pardew. The fullbacks positionally are terrible but some of it is down to Pardew's defensive drilling. So fucking high and wide... but ineffective going forward. Get fucking compact and defend.

Highlighted by Neville this. Plays so fucking far away from Colo even in defensive positions.

This. He's meant to be a player. He's in 10 yards of space... floats it into Remy - access denied by Distin. Positioning? He was running in the wrong direction.

Agree with Neville here. We are rarely nice and compact, on a string. Two fullbacks always on walkies. What happened to the counter-attack?