Points rarely more needed than today.
Apparently beatable opposition.
Six points in the space of five days to put tangible distance between us and thee drop – with others faltering when we need every bit of regrettable help…
..and this?
The thought not only of being the butt of everyone’s jokes for an indefinite period of time, but the absence of power to do anything about it.
Yes, there’s a hell of a lot of things that either could be said, if they’ve not already been said – and at times, repeated over-and-over-and-over…
I’ll make an admission of my own: I mistakenly under-estimated the opposition we faced today. Doing the double against a club minus it’s two best forwards in 2020-21; one because of a Liverpool transfer and another a horrific injury.
Well, one of them were back, meaning we were facing a team with no obvious weakness in their game, if not necessarily the most star-studded or gifted a team they may be.
We were facing a TEAM. A unit not only resilient enough to compete against desperate home players and a superb crowd atmosphere, but a unit that could play that little bit better – in AND out of possession.
Concerning to many that the newly-discovered ability to pass the ball more quickly and efficiently at home didn’t happen today. But why? When we really needed the points. Was it a case of the Southampton defeat (i.e. the foe imposing their pattern of play onto the game the way they wanted)? Surely it couldn’t have been the opposition were better than us (like Man City or the lot that wear red for their club)?
You’ll all be taking something away from today we all didn’t like.
But one thing I’ve increasingly spotted this season is this:
Watch what happens when a loose clearance leads to apparently nowhere, and a duel between two players jumping for the ball occurs. Both players fully-committed. Sometimes the Evertonian bigger, sometimes smaller. But all-too-often the result the pattern of play six touches later slightly favours the opposition more than us, from where the play had begun prior to that small, aerial duel.
The opposing player times not only the leap of his jump better than ours; the opposing player was already anticipating not only where he needed to be slightly better – he knew how to either head the ball to (should the contest likely favour him), or if the duel favoured the man wearing a blue jersey – where another Evertonian would most likely be, and to then position himself in the denial of an ‘effective’ Everton flick-on.
Those who really know their football may be able to tell you even more than that, and probably in even greater detail, given the time.
My observation highlights two issues, and though I’m not going to go into forensic detail about either, both leave very worrying conclusions to those charged with sorting it out:
1.
Football being played with the brain: Is the fact that nine of the eleven players starting for our XI cost less than £30m because they genuinely can’t play to this speed of Premier League football in the mind as well as just about all 19 opposing clubs? By this I categorically DO NOT mean academic intelligence (or anything of the sort), but simply being able to instinctively react; knowing where and what to do, as quickly as need be. 2.
Collective knowledge/chemistry between team-mates: As individuals, we tried our best whilst on the pitch. But off it – how hard to we try to learn each others’ strengths and weaknesses to the extent that when one player has the ball, everyone else knows what he is capable of doing with it next – without having to think about it for even a split-second? In short – improvisation. Off-the-cuff, instead of having to teach plans.Some will no doubt be saying: “the players need to work harder in the gym, so that they can pass the ball more delicately/with greater disguise - and tackle that little more fiercely.
Others may point to the fact that we’ve only qualified for European action 7 times out of 29 Premier League seasons prior to this, plus never playing a European fixture since 2017, meaning we’re not used to facing high-quality opponents used to winning; and not learning more on the pitch, more quickly, and working harder for the results.
But the observation of how many players we’ve EVER bought for more than £30m, in comparison to a) our rivals, and b) the players sale fees for whom we’ve let go of, tells many disturbing stories of its’ own.
Without treading into the waters of state capital policing funding policies (i.e. the number of London cops made redundant in the year 2010; and how the effects it had in the very long-term of teenage knife crime victims would gradually, but invisibly ‘til long after the decision was made, become apparent, from make those spending cuts), UEFA’s FFP policy, introduced in 2011 and enforced from 2014 onwards has had a similarly huge impact on those with little sponsorship revenue back in 2011. Yes – us.
To consider that Everton Football Club, the fourth most successful English club in 2011 (and still today) had been defeated not by directly what happened on the football pitch, but by commercial and financial decisions, would sound ridiculous in just about any other form of global team sport in any other time of professional era.
That is the here and now though. If you’re not in Europe (the biggest global club stage), you’re a soft target for European sanction example-making. We can bet our bottom dollar that IF we were legally open for deduction of points by The F.A., then UEFA would only be willing to give someone a phone call of virtue. That makes me very angry AND embarrassed, as it will most of us, but it’s a problem we can only fix ourselves.
The new stadium will help a lot. Limping through ‘til then won’t be much fun, but it really is that bad for us.
The F.A. Cup would make a massive difference in removing that trophy drought too.
I was a Lampard doubter at first, because of a lack of managerial achievements, but his credentials of adapting to different circumstances himself has proved very promising – so far. We’re not going to find anyone better for now, so backing him to the hilt ‘til it’s time is also the only show in town, however painful the embarrassment of the here and now.
Embarrassment is one way of looking at this situation.
Enjoying the thought of getting out of it, when all others are hoping/loving the thought of our crushing failure; a pressure to thrive on.
We were defeated by a better team today. We’ll only succeed if we’re united a team, home and away, from now on.
