Obstructed View - Reflections on the WBA (A) Game

The u23's are supposed to bolster a squad, not form it, and it's easy to forget that this is a huge ask, not just because of the inexperience of our youngsters, but the fact it must drain them mentally, so good point about Tom Davies being tired.

If we're to become a better footballing team, we have to look at the top teams in the league, and recognise that they are where they are, because not only do they have the quality in depth, and the experience, but they all have goals in the side.

Everton have struggled for goals as a squad. Our Midfield haven't contributed at all, with only Gylfi Sigurdsson on the score sheet this campaign (3) in the league, from a pool of 14 approx Midfielders.

Although Baines has scored twice from the spot, in open play, only Ashley Williams has scored a goal.

If we look at our Strikers, Rooney, Niasse, Ramirez, and Lewin, 2 of them rarely play, and Lewin is mostly up front on his own. Rooney is often not playing in the striker position, which I'm fine with, but then if we call him a Midfielder, it means our regular Striker has just 3 goals all season, which further highlights the point.

We're short on Strikers, but when you look at the Midfielders that don't play much, such as Mirallas, Lookman, Vlasic, and let's not forget Klaassen, (let's include Barkley & Bolasie too) it's clear to see why we've no goals from Midfield, as the ones that have goals in them, aren't on the field.

At what point does a manager, be it Koeman, Unsworth, or Allardyce notice this, and address it?

It shows how defensive minded we've been all season, not just now, that we prefer 2 Defensive Midfielders, sometimes 3 over an attacking player.

Yes, we've been leaking goals, but is it fair to say that if you can't score, you invite pressure? Is it fair to say that if we'd scored more, and posed a much bigger scoring threat, that the result of giving our opponents more to think about, might have reduced the defending needed against them? In a boxing match, if you don't hit back, you're going to be in for a rough night, and it's the same with all sports, as if you only defend, you're going to have to defend much more.

This then brings me to the part of our players not being good enough.

Defensively, we're improving, because mainly our whole ethic is to protect the defence, but that doesn't mean our Defenders have suddenly risen in quality, as they haven't, but that they're now protected by all but DCL. Their confidence might grow from the clean sheets, but it's a bit of a false confidence, similar to that of walking around with your big brother to protect you in order to avoid the bullies. As soon as we focus more on attack, they'll have to cope. Let's then not kid ourselves that the likes of Williams, Jags, and even Baines are suddenly worthy of extended contracts, and ensure we have plans in place to replace them.

If we aren't going to use players, replace them. Our u23's are showing us that the seniors we have aren't up to it, or at least not keeping fit, so do we need 'senior' fringe players? I'd consider selling a lot of players in the next 2 windows, and making sure we have quality in every position.

It's funny to hear people say "Get to 40 points" before worrying about playing well, which although I see their logic, are we going to pretend that we can't amass points by playing positive attacking football, utilising attacking midfielders? If we don't score, we'll have to get 13 draws from the 18 available left to play to get to 40.

Penalties have been kind to us, but we need to start scoring goals. We won't do it by playing the players we've been playing, whilst keeping our attacking options in the shadows.

Kenny gets a lot of praise but he didn't mark his man and entered the box too often leaving an attacker in his zone so has to be more aware of marking his territory. Niasse had a go but that was about it. There's zero entertainment value in a goalless draw against them. I know they held Liverpool too, but it was us who did the defending, not them, which makes it even harder to enjoy. Bolasie offered nothing at all so why drop Lennon?