McCormick

no hat trick.

Almironnnnn again

Almiron

If he was fit, I’d honestly rather have him than Longstaff.

Maddison and a quality dm would solve a lot of our problems.

Wonder how close Shelvey is to returning.

Same guy? http://www.football-analysis.com/author/andrew/

I don’t think the position/ play-style you played as a player necessarily determines your philosophy as a manager. Pep was a dm, Howe was a cb etc.

He doesn’t even need to be on the cutting edge. Some understanding of how to change the game when things are looking awry, or even swapping things up tactically to nullify threats/ take advantage of other teams’ weaknesses would be a nice start.

I can understand him picking his favourites; there isn’t any time left now to throw in new names and see if they gel. What Southgate is seemingly good at is creating team spirit, and picking guys that have done well previously seems like the safest bet. He’s extremely risk-averse and there is probably some merit to that approach in competition play. In saying this, Southgate was never the man to lead this generation of talent. He’s a gutless dinosaur and lacks any understanding of modern football tactics and imposing them on opponents. On managerial talent alone, I’m confident in saying he’d be the worst manager in the Premier League. Difficult to argue with his success but there are major caveats to that, in much the same way we use caveats on Pardew’s 5th season.

Huh? All players should want to fight for a spot, good or shit. I just get more disappointed when actually good players don’t and then push to leave us. If shit players do that then great, deadwood shifted. Apologies if you find that double-standard unpalatable.

I would’ve thought it was a very reasonable feeling; as a fan of a football team you want a squad full of good players with high competition for places in every position. Ideally, he’d have been willing to fight for that starting spot- either through impressing in training or on his subbed cameos. Him pushing to leave because there were players playing well, and were therefore selected ahead of him, seems a bit entitled*. At the end of the day I’m disappointed because I didn’t want him to leave. *tbf there may have been other factors involved too, but that’s what it looked like from the outside.

No? Obviously a difference between shit players no one wants and a good player not wanting to put in the work earn to his spot again.

Really liked him but yeah, decided to move away the minute he couldn’t break back into the team again after his injury (Shelvey and Diame were on an amazing run of form at the time). Under Rafa as well; not a fan of that.

Yeah. This, basically.

He really likes Howe; on Bein he’s often very complimentary of him. Fits in with his incessant “British managers need more opportunities in the prem” agenda. It’s just a grim coincidence that we’re aligned on this as we’re all fully behind Eddie (on merit I should add, not because he’s British).

I don’t think Lampard is massively better than Gerrard, he’s just bought a load of great dressing room characters and leaders that have made his job easier. I think it’s a really underrated aspect of making new signings and a principle we’ve been putting a lot of work into as well.

I do really rate Burn and Schar though, so maybe not worth the risk for a marginal improvement. He’s head and shoulders above Lascelles though.

I’d have taken him over all of our current cb options other than Botman. Underrated on the ball as well.

Lot of disrespect was directed at this guy; often their best player now and a great dressing room leader. I’ll never not choose to die on the “Tarkowski is a fantastic player” hill .

Tarkowski, Coady, Onana, Gueye, Garner, McNeil, Vinaigre and Maupay were all decent to very good purchases. Similar to our business in January, the majority of their signings were good honest pros with PL experience. Reasonable fees paid out too.

Everton have bought really sensibly imo.

That fact that we’ve only lost once with the injuries and the state of our back-up options is a testament to Howe tbh. There’s a good 15 players on our books that wouldn’t pull-up any trees in the championship.

We have around 11 players in our 25 man squad that are actually PL quality. Still so far away from where we want to be, unfortunately.

Longstaff, Almiron, Fraser, Willock and Wood are “important” players for us. Is it any wonder why we look so damn average?