sixx

It’s kind of great that improving the RW is our biggest priority in the market yet it’s the position delivering the best in preseason. Goes to show there’s competition in the squad and underlines Howe’s ability to extract the maximum from average players.

29 minutes ago, TotalWar said:

I have seen many people citing Everton as a justification why we shouldn’t do this or that. 
Have Everton become the new ‘doing a Portsmouth or Leeds’ that the press and other fans threatened us with for years whenever we as fanbase suggested Ashley should show a modicum of ambition?

I feel we should trust those at the club to do the right thing, after all what else can we do, and hope they will show the same desire, ambition, connection to the supporters, to build this club in a similar way to the Keegan days of the 90s. Then to surpass that part of our history and win things while staying connected to the city and its people.

This club can be almost unstoppable once it gets going, it was only really finances that stopped us long term in the 90s, hopefully that ceiling doesn’t apply now. 
 

 

 

 

By 'Doing an Everton' we would spend half a billion pounds and somehow look worse. It's very much the notion that spending in and of it self is not enough. Thankfully it's become very apparent that our ownership is aware of this.

As I said in the match thread I’d be disappointed if he doesn’t make this season’s squad. Especially seeing how average Longstaff, Almirón and Murphy all are. He’ll be 20 come November and at his age Declan Rice, Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford were all involved in the first team and none of them ever went out on loan. Homegrown players are valuable commodities these days and having a local lad progressing through the ranks during this new ownership lends us much needed integrity which I’m sure our directors can appreciate.

I'd be very disappointed if Anderson isn't in the squad this season.

Isak is the one I'm most excited for so far. Obviously we have a greater need for a right winger but Isak is the real deal. 

What a pointless signing. 

Haven't been paying much attention but where's Ousmane Dembele going? And why on earth didn't Barca want to keep him and spend 60mil (which they don't have) on Raphinha?

Not a huge fan of Zinchenko. Don't like the way he always progresses down the left flank and then shields the ball on his left foot with his back to the goal. But he's supposedly very good with Ukraine as a centre mid (?).

Don't want to sell Lascelles unless we receive a very sizable bid and he's very adamant to leave. He looked shit under Bruce but under proper management from Benítez and Howe he's a very capable understudy. We also need leaders in the dressing room.

Don't mind missing out on Carlos. I'd want us to take a chance on a young centre back like Botman who can be a sort of a legacy player for us and a part of our spine for a long time. A bit like Kompany was for City. Diaby and Lodi look proper great but please tell me we're not after overpriced English players like DCL or Winks. Those are exactly the type of transfers that Everton would make.

4 minutes ago, Groundhog63 said:

Wierd how players who've been heavily involved in a team's successful run, on a par with Champion's League teams, are now deemed "Championship standard" and/or "deadwood" 

It can easily be argued that right wing is our weakest position and I'd be very surprised if any one of them is consistently a part of a PL XI next season. Maybe a bit harsh calling Fraser Championship standard, he'd surely do a job next season as a back up for us.

Wouldn't mind keeping one of the three for next season - Fraser, Almiron or Murphy but to be fair they're all Championship standard.

Did Lyon line up a pure defensive midfielder behind Bruno and Paqueta? If we're in for him we must be in for a DM as well and removing Joelinton at least from midfield seeing as neither Bruno nor Paqueta are really defensive midfielders.

He had space and time on the ball. He buckles under opponents who pressure. Useful player and a good game. I’d keep him.

Hate the fact that a £41 million centre back is sitting on the bench as usual while a geriatric Fernandinho gets to play.

Haaland is my favourite player to watch. An absolute specimen, not sure I've ever seen a player with his physical quality. Honestly can't wait to see him in the PL but at the end of the day it's kind of revolting.

Don’t mind if ASM is a bit shit defensively and talks bullshit in interviews as long as he delivers the goods offensively. Which he doesn’t.

I actually quite like him  And I like the thought of a local lad in the squad going forward. He's useful enough as a backup player for another year.

Always a bit surprised at how actually good Nacho is. Very useful olayer.

If there was anything substantial to the Liverpool doping claims we would be hearing some rumours stemming from other players in the league, which we haven’t so far.

Can’t fault our overall performance much. Didn’t really agree with Joelinton out wide and Willock centrally but Howe made a lot of brave judgement calls for the game. Didn’t get anything out of Maxi, Almiron or Wood when he came on. Can’t wait for a bit more quality up front.

Dubravka absolutely immense today. Been so solid and really no reason to replace him next season.

We definitely have a chance to hurt them. In between CL games, Everton managed to contain them a bit and no one wants to come to SJP currently. However they have ridiculous squad depth and on current form I'm not entirely sure I've seen a better football team bar peak Barcelona. 

What a brilliant read. It becomes more clear every day what a perfect appointment Howe was. He’s literally providing everything we wanted before the takeover while also providing everything this new takeover era needs. The single facet of his repertoire that excites me the most is his ability to develop players. We can’t just buy ourselves towards the top - you need every player to perform at their peak levels of abilty even if they are mediocre in talent. This is what Liverpool and Man City have done right and what Man Utd have got wrong for the past few years. Most of City’s and Liverpool’s elite players were not quite world class when they signed but they definitely are now (Salah, Mané, Robertson, de Bruyne, Silva, Dias etc). Man Utd have gone down the path of signing world class players for extortionate fees just because they were available (Ronaldo, Pogba, Cavani, di María, Sanchez etc) resulting in a disjointed squad most of whom playing well below their ceiling of ability. I honestly belive this type of player development is by far the most important factor to take us forward and Howe really seems to have this ability.

I have no idea who these people in the Norwich team are.

Very disappointed not to see Gayle start.