Cheers Ross.
I'm a bit negative about our season so far if I'm honest, and actually think the football under Koeman is verging upon hoof & defend, and I'm not enjoying it.
In my book, he's had a very fortunate start to the season, where fixtures are concerned, but I don't see a plan A, let alone plan B.
Mirallas and Barkley normally raise their game against the top teams, so I was surprised at the line up, but not surprised that we defended all game, as that's exactly how Koeman set his stall out.
We used to have a right go at City under Moyes with good effect, and I hate the way we played yesterday, looking like a mid table team holding on for dear life for most of it.
Lukaku jogged about for most of the game, and until his goal I found him frustrating.
Williams and Stekelenburg had great games, but they were kept busy, by a poor performance in my book of the rest of the team, and for our captain to give away not one, but two penalties, was verging on unacceptable, and it's not the first time his arse has gone in a big game, as all he did was appeal to the ref throughout which is a big sign of nerves.
The way we hoofed the ball upfield at every opportunity was terrible, and most of them were nowhere near the intended targets.
Yes, it was City, but I'm far from impressed with Koeman, and given we've introduced 4 new players to the eleven, five if you include Valencia, I see little change in terms of the poor quality of football we were served last season.
Don't really agree Av, but you certainly have made some accurate points. I tend to see this as a 'journey', allied to increased investment in the Club and the ground, that won't see a Year 1 fix. We've kept our attack in place for the most part from last season, but Koeman has come in and started at the back, the complete opposite to RM. So we're conceding fewer goals, and helping to provide a more solid base on which to build. It's not breathtaking football all over the pitch, although there have been hints at what we've got in our locker, but I appreciate that I'm not expecting a goal against every time the ball is slung in to our box! It'll come, it'll come.
Not agreeing is perfect as it creates debate, and so agreeing is the last thing I'd want.
However, I'd like to challenge a few things that Everton fans seem to use as a comfort blanket, and so please don't take it as an attack on your opinion, as it's much more aimed at the cliches that emerge from the club and it's fan-base.
1. Journey.
I appreciate that throughout the years, we've seen numerous management styles, all serving a variety of teams, and that will continue, but it's important to remember that at some point in the journey, Everton found it convenient to stop aiming to be the best, and accept mediocrity.
The club started to use Social Media as a way to influence their fanbase, and it became easy to talk the talk, and disguise the hard facts that we were no longer a club challenging for the title. I first noticed it when we were declared "The People's Club", and it grew from there with the popularity of the Internet. I think the club's website was built in 1997, and I personally started to use the Internet much later, from around 2004. Although I was using forums from about 2005, it wasn't until I embraced Social Media that I saw the full extent of how brainwashed our fan-base was becoming, and how they followed like sheep, acceptant of a club that was selling them a mid table package, and those that rocked the boat, and were less acceptant, were shot down en masse.
After the struggle of the 90's, which is far more vague in my memory thanks to 6 days a week work commitments, it was easy to start feeling positive again, as Moyes started to chase the top 4, but the cold truth was we were getting excited about the prospect of Europa League football, which was often 7 places below that of a title win, and the best we've achieved in 30 years is a lowly 4th place.
In my lifetime of almost half a century, Everton have won the title just 3 times, which is awful if we're honest about it, but what is worse, is that we've only managed to finish in a top 4 position 9 times, in my 48+ years. If I want to twist facts to highlight a point, I can say that in my adult life, we've only won the League title one time, and won one FA cup, and finished in the top 4 ......... yes, you guessed it ........... just once.
How many adults are alive today that have 'never' witnessed a single trophy from Everton?
We talk about Everton being a big club, yet only one of our nine league titles occurred during my lifetime, and 5 of those titles occurred before the second World War. 4 of them occurred in a 11 year period between 1928 and 1939, all of which means very little, but fans today, who have never seen Everton win a single trophy, in their entire lives, will argue about how big a club Everton are.
Can you then understand the feeling of the proverbial Everton fan, when whilst feeling frustrated, and daring to 'not accept', another tells him "Be Patient", or in your own words "We won't see a 1 year fix"?
Our club are quick to give us articles that state "Player X hails player Z" or "Koeman hails player A" but why? The answer is because we've absolutely nothing to be positive about, so have dropped our standards of expectation, to accept headlines that celebrate a good performance, as that, is the best we can hope for.
If we get a good player on our books, the club then declare them one of the world's best, regardless of whether they are or not, because 'that' is the best we can hope for, and fans have resigned themselves to accepting this, and calling anybody who refuses to follow suit 'negative'. If you go against the grain you are asked "If you feel that way then why do you support the club". Fans no longer want to hear the truth. They want to hear dreams, and false positivity, and will grasp on to the slightest glimmer of hope, like it is a raindrop in a desert.
Just as we celebrated Martinez, and his early promise, instead of actually waiting to see if he could achieve anything, and to be fair to him, he came close, we are now celebrating Ronald Koeman. We are celebrating the "Our best ever start to a season in the club's history if we win, trophy" (we didn't) but regardless of whether it's our best start, it's also worth noting that firstly, it's been the easiest fixture list I can remember, and secondly, we're actually only 6th in the table, and if United beat Liverpool we'll be 7th. Still, 7th is great, as long as we can rescue a stat out of it, isn't it?
We've actually won 4 out of 8, in what was a fairly easy start to the campaign, and have scored just 13 goals (equal 6th best) but hey, Koeman has tightened our defending up - well woopy-*****. We're also out of the EFL Cup, but some fans will console themselves by telling others the cup is not important, and that it gives us time to concentrate on bigger things (like winning the other cup) .............
2. Investment.
Apparently we now have a billionaire 'majority owner' who is going to invest 'all he has' (his own words) into the club, and that might be true, but so far, we've heard more promises, yet the general consensus is that "we must be patient".
Fans are uplifted by talk of a new stadium, but in the grand scheme of things, we're not fans because we dream of a new stadium. We're not fans because we put blue cladding on the outside of our old stadium, and we're not fans because we want to see a bronze statue outside. We're not fans because we love 'Everton In The Community', and we're not fans because Denise Barrett Baxendale won an MBE. All those things are great, but it's not why I support the club, and I've been supporting the club before every single player in our squad was born.
Why are we fans?
We're fans because we enjoy football, and want to see our team win on the pitch, and quite frankly, Moshiri had an opportunity to invest during the last transfer window, and instead the only thing he spent was time, and time spent texting Jim White with a boat load of bollocks.
We ended the transfer window without the key players we were desperate for, and did so without so much as spending a penny. Because we didn't buy those key players, we now have to endure yet another season without a hope of winning the league, but hey "Let's be patient" - where have I heard that before?
3. Football.
We sold possibly the best football player we had in 22 year old John Stones, a player who actually enjoyed playing football, as opposed to simply wellying it, and I'll back that up by saying City could afford any of our players, but he was the player the 'apparent' best manager in world football wanted, and the only Man City player this season to play in every game. We swapped him with a 32 year old Ashley Williams, and have since tried to convince ourselves that Ashley Williams is in fact the better player ........ on what planet do those that think that actually live on? Williams is a solid defender, and played well over the weekend, but please let's not go there.
Koeman's style of football is not the slick passing style that was enjoyed under Martinez (I personally hate passing football unless it's forward passing) but is based upon long balls up to 3 Strikers (we actually have 1 striker but Koeman likes to call it 3).
I ran a poll on Twitter, and although it was only answered by 300 or so, 89% actually think our playing style is better under Koeman, which amazes me.
We are struggling to name a player that can actually head a ball in our entire squad, and I'm not exaggerating here.
Our passing is absolutely terrible, and I mean TERRIBLE and against City I witnessed one of the worst examples of giving the ball away as an Everton fan, that I can remember.
Possession was woeful, and that had nothing to do with the fact that City were likely to dominate possession, and everything to do with the fact that we had zero composure, mixed with zero ability. It was dreadful!
Attacking, we are creating very little, and had it not been for a moment of magic from Lukaku we'd hardly have troubled the City keeper. It's been like this all season, with possibly Boro (the mighty Middlesbrough) the exception.
Yet fans came away delighted with the point, and celebrated it as an achievement, and again, we console ourselves by stating that not many teams will come away from the Etihad with a point. That might be true, but let me highlight something:
4. Defending.
Fans think we are defending well. Let me dispel that myth. We STILL can't defend crosses, and once again we were beaten by a header, in the middle of our goal, by 7ft 6" Nolito ....... actually he's 5ft 9".
Our captain, with all his captain's composure, was an absolute mess, constantly crying to the referee, and gave away not one, but two penalties. Does that not count as bad defending, or am I missing something? Stekelenburg was man of the match, and kept extremely busy all game, with some outstanding saves, but can I ask this question: "Why was he so busy if our defending was so good"?
Against Crystal Palace, on
numerous occasions, we were found out by crosses, one of which was a disallowed goal that was debatable, and Benteke could have scored more than one header.
Against Middlesbrough we were found out by crosses, one of which led to a goal as Negredo challenged the keeper.
Against West Brom we were found out by crosses, as McAuley headed home.
Against Spurs we were found out by crosses, as Lamela headed home.
Against Man City, again it was a header that found us out.
Sorry to labour on the point, but we can't defend crosses to save our lives, and only the fact that the other teams have failed to put the ball in the net more often, has caused our defensive record to look healthy, but it is important that Koeman addresses this, as it is our Achilles heel, and it is up to our fullbacks and defensive midfielders to stop these crosses, as much as it is down to our defenders to clear the ball.
The bottom line is that
IN THE AIR Everton are abysmal, and Koeman needs to bring in a coach that can teach our players how o head a ball, and the timing of the jump. A coach that can tell our players how to put another player off. Hang on, do we not have a fabulous header of the ball already on our coaching team in Duncan Ferguson, or am I missing something? Why then, are we so bad in the air?
So far, we've avoided the teams in the league that are playing well, with the exception of Manchester City, so let's not kid ourselves into thinking all is good under Koeman. Yes, I agree he needs time, and he has my support, but still, we are a very poor substitute for those teams that are going to challenge this year, and unless certain things are addressed, another year will pass us by, but it's time fans actually took off the Blue Tinted Spectacles and actually watched the game in more detail.