Philosopher

Need Dougie on to help us play out.

He's struggling with the pace. Still needs to adjust to the league.

Could do with doug on.

Konsa really is having a mare. McGinn is getting in the way. Ramsey is not doing enough.

Konsa needs to get himself together. Still 1-1 all to play for

Hopefully it isn’t a severe rupture. That's a year out regardless though. I was very impressed with guy, I thought he would be a great signing. Now he has to fight hard just to be the same player his was. It's going to be winter 2024 till he is back to his best. Devastating!

Defensively was caught on his heels a couple times, but good distribution.

Thought he was excellent today. If he had a better frst touch he'd be a world beater.

Martinez made crucial save as usual. Mings was soilid. We needed him back. Carlos is doing okay, will improve, looks made for the premier league. Digne was a little off it today. Cash he usual energetic self, lack quality in the fnal third, I would have kept Kessler around. Chambers showed why he is back up. Kamara has quality, his distribution was good, still finding his feet though. Ramsey was the pick of the midfield driving through Everton almost at will. McGinn was fairly tidy, thats all! Coutinho did okay, but needs to step it up. Ings got the goal and was tidy as usual. Watkins was the pick of the attackers, constant handful, pressing, running the channels and not giving centre backs a minutes peace. Got 2 assists, my man of the match. Buendia was very lively when he came on and link things up well. When we play 2 striker he compliments them best and we have 3 hungry tireless pressers. Bailey didn't make an impression really. Konsa also looking like a back up centre back. Gerrard played what should be the away formation at home. Buendia fits the 4-4-2 diamond better than Coutinho. This is because this formation is more of a counter attacking line up, the hustle and bustle buendia brings is more appropriate. Not sure our strikers suit the 4-3-3 the way gerrard plays it. Needs a lone forwards with pace that has the creativity of a 10. That is a world class player we couldn''t attract regardless of money. But ultimately of what we have Watkins is better suited to the 4-3-3. The 4-4-2 diamond worked because Everton are a team that tries t play, unlike Bournemouth. Gerrard still has a lot to prove but the pressure has eased. Average managerial performance in the end. Made the right decision to bring Mings back in and subdue the unrest allegations. Got lucky that the early offside Everton goal was offside!

I hate that site too. But they called a few things long before they came out as true. They may just be speculating, or may occasionally get some good info. Jack to city, they called it first, and Dean Smith being under scrutiny just before the last season started.

You can add Hourihane's 40k per week to that. Also Young probably took a pay cut.

Yeah but the quote was 100m per year!

Do you think they're on 500k each per week? I believe Digne is on 125k.

No his pass completion is marginally better than McGinn only significantly less progressive. However his goalscorering is exceptional. His 7 goals came from an average of just over a shot per game. McGinn's 4 goals came from 3 shots per game. His ball carrying stats are a little less than McGinn's.

Mings is opinionated and my guess is Gerrard doesn't like that. This can rub people up the wrong way. But he is also intelligent and well mannered. Strong characters are opinionated, leaders are opinionated. Sometimes such characters clash, this is what is happening with Mings and Gerrard. But how can we not be switched on at the start of games, it's a managers job to send his players out there focused and with some fire in their bellies. I don’t believe we have a dressing room of bad apples. Deano's thing was bringing in good characters. Players focused on improving themselves. I really feel this is on Gerrard and his team.

In a situation like the Bournemouth one the half time sub should have been Luiz for McGinn and Buendia for Ramsey, more Coutinho to the 10 position and play a double pivot. Instead it was some mess where Buendia spent most of his time in midfield and McGinn tried to be measured and responsible (which simply isn't his game).

Of the three Ramsey has noticeably poorer stats, apart from goals. I'd play Luiz as a distributor in a more static 8 role, and give Ramsey to freedom to get in and around the box. Because Ramsey is the future, whereas McGinn is becoming the past.

The stat show that Luiz played out of position has the same goals and assist ratio from DM, worse passing and 'clearances (because Luiz tries to play out)' and a lower number of key passes and shot, while having a vastly superior pass completion a making more passes per game. To interpret that, defensively Mcginn is a very British player, gets stuck in and is no nonsense in defensive areas. Luiz on the ither hand always looks to play out from the back, come deep to bring the ball out and holds his position more, rather than charging into tackles. Offensively McGinn scored one more goal and has one more assist, when playing higher up the pitch, with over 300 more minutes and 3 times the number of average shots, and average key passes. Which means Luiz is far more efficient going forward. This is all combined with far fewer stray passes, all be it less progressive with his passing. Basically he suits a midfield trying to keep the ball and maintain possession. McGinn on the other hand suits a midfield trying to progress the ball quickly, in stretched out game situations.

I agree, but if we don't have a win after 5 matches he'll at the very least get the dreaded vote of confidence! Also another 2 defeats and the majority of the fans will turn on him, by then the writing is on the wall. The Everton game is a huge one for him! Win and all this becomes pie in the sky, lose and the scales are tipping to oblivion.

If he doesn't get at least 4 points from the next 4 or 5 games he'll be gone by the middle of September.

Can't say I disagree with this viewpoint. Maybe a couple things are harsh, but you can't dismiss any of what he said.

He'll be a good player for us I'm sure. A double pivot with Luiz would be very good. As would Luiz as an playing a deeper 8 to dictate the tempo.

I don't believe we can criticise the new signings. Coutinho is an improvement on El Ghazi for sure, and Digne is a clear improvement on Targett. Targett, was getting destroyed on a regular basis last season. I haven't seen this from Digne. Tactics has always been an issue. Smith was a poor tactician but he found a formula by relying on Grealish's talents. Gerrard on the other hand has a clear vision on how he wants to play and doesn't want to deviate from that, which I respect. However he needs a team of top class players to play the way he wants, he also needs to get the team to start matches playing a bit more compact and with greater intensity, because this conceding of early goals is killing us. It's happening regardless of personnel, which suggests it's to do with tactics and coaching. Gerrard has messed up big time with the Mings, McGinn, captaincy thing. He has an issue with Mings clearly, which has now become public, due purely down to his own handling of the matter. His post match comments have made things worse rather than better. Those comments won't have gone down well with the squad. McGinn simply isn't a leader. And neither is he our best player. A captian should either be the best leader, or the best player. McGinn is nowhere near either. We all see the need for a new number 8 and we generally agree that new player should be taking McGinn's place in the team. Making McGinn captain shows Gerrard doesn't see this. He probably wants to push Ramsey out of the team. Which if true doesn't look good for the young players. On a final note, Gerrard has been operating on a net spend in the region of 30 million over 2 windows, on the back of a window with a net spend of 0. It seems like the boardroom have either been cutting back, or are unwilling to back the managers due to doubts over their abilities.

All we need to do is drop captain fantastic for Douglas Luiz. He's very good at keeping the ball moving.

On his first game as captain he wasn't even his usual self, instead of being all over the gaff, he was anonymous! This doesn't bode well!