El Segundo

I don't think I've implied anything of the sort though. What I've said, or tried to say, is that Nyland , for example, and despite being rightly derided for many aspects of his all-round game, was nevertheless a decent shot stopper, who, in my opinion might have done better than Martinez has recently in one aspect of goalkeeping, getting down to low shots. That's not the same as saying he's in the same league as Martinez at all, he clearly isn't. The are hundreds of keepers around who are great shot stoppers - considered the very basics for a keeper - but don't have the all round game to be top level.

I know I'll be in the minority and probably get pelters, but really don't get the hype with Martinez. I think he's great at coming for crosses (from general play, not so much from set-pieces), does some great reflex saves occasionally but seems to be quite poor at times with shot-stopping, especially getting down to low ones. I honestly think someone like Nyland, who despite his shortcomings elsewhere was a very decent shot-stopper, would have saved quite a few that Martinez has let in. I'd jump at 50m for him if we could get it as long as we replaced him with someone decent, and I'm not kidding.

Ah ok that makes a difference then, Lampard's PL % win rate drops to just under 31% and 0.9 ppg as Laughable chimp mentioned, which makes Gerrard's record significantly better. The article I read it in was trying, I think, to imply Gerrard has been performing worse than Lampard, which is why it surprised me. Looks like a case of lies, damn lies and statistics.

I read today that Gerrard's win percentage with us is less than Lampard's at Everton which I found hard to believe, however Wikipedia (I know) suggest it's true though. Gerrard 38.1% from 21 games, Lampard 38.46% from 13 games. Points per game slightly better though at 1.24 compared to 1.15 because we've drawn a couple of games and they haven't. Not sure what this says about Gerrard's performance so far but Lampard doesn't seem to be generally considered a successful appointment by Everton.

My worry with Gerrard and hs stated desire to bring in a few "finished articles", is that it ends up like Lerner/MON mk II where the coach is given the keys to the bank vault, spends it on a bunch of 28-29 olds, it doesn't work out, and we're left with an expensively assembled but ageing squad with little or no sell on value and not able to cut it in the top 6. I don't think Gerrard has (yet) proved himself worthy of being trusted with a huge transfer budget in the summer and beyond. I can't see that he's really taken us forward from where we were under Smith, and I think a really good coach would get more out of the squad we have than he has managed. I am far from convinced that buying a few finished articles is going to fix the tactical and coaching shortcomings. Surely his job is also to coach unfinished articles to make them better. I don't think there has been a great deal of evidence of that apart from maybe Nakamba.

When things have gone pretty well first half the best managers should/would be asking themselves a couple of things at half time i) "what is my opposite number likely to change to counter our dominance and improve his chances?" ii) What should I do to prepare for that change and be ready to counter it? I don't think either Smith or Gerrard do this. Conte is a top manager, so no surprise he changed Spurs tactics at half time, despite them being ahead. Gerrard should have had a plan b to deal with that. He clearly didn't and never does. He just keeps on with plan A regardless, as many managers do. I think instead of warning players they are playing to stay at the club next season, he should be more concerned about keeping himself here next season. Any other manager losing 7 out of 10 at any time in the season would be crucified by fans and media alike, and rightly so.

Difficult to know what to make of that. My emotions went from anger at gifting a goal after 3 minutes yet again, to delight at the way we murdered them for the rest if the half tinged with frustration that we couldn’t make it pay. Digne was having Emerson on toast down the left, Coutinho was great, and the others were all doing their bit. Lloris, poor finishing, and over-elaboration were the only reasons we weren’t 3-1 or 4-1 up at half time and I was optimistic we’d get back into it. Then we just decided to give a couple of world class players the run of our half. Bonkers. Konsa has become a liability and Chambers or Hause should be in ahead of him. What the **** was that weak header under no pressure straight to Kane to gift a goal, utter shit. I’ve said it before and I know a lot of people will disagree vehemently and call it blasphemy but I honestly do not think Martinez is a top notch keeper, certainly not a good low shot stopper. Should Kolosveski really have been beating him from there? It’s not the first low shot that he should have saved but hasn’t, not by a long way. Very slow to get down to the low ones. Ask yourself if Lloris would have let that one past him. Overall it was no better or different to a lot of schizo-type performances under Smith. One more defeat and StevieG has matched Smith’s 5 defeats in a row, having already come close to it. Progress? Hmm doesn’t feel like it.

I recall when we hired Gerrard some pundit who focused on Rangers said we should be prepared to see football more influenced by Benitez's pragmatic style than anything else. I can kind of see why he said that now. I think SG has done ok but have some concerns. The insistence on playing out from the back even when it's obvious a team is pressing us into errors and when the players look very uncomfortable with it. I don't think our defenders and midfielders are good enough on the ball to play that way against a good pressing team. When we do go forward it's often too slow and laborious, giving teams time to organise themselves behind the ball. I don't understand why we don't mix it up a bit with some fast breaks and one touch stuff. We have players like Bailey, Ramsey and Ollie who could thrive with that kid of approach. But the thing I really dislike is this absence of width. Ok it's supposed to be provided by the full backs but then you need really top notch full backs. Even then if the opposition decides to play two wingers high up the pitch, the full back are either pinned back (see Young v Sako) and there's no width at all, or the gaps are exploited if the midfielders don't cover - which they often don't - see the many breakaways from Wolves. A bit of tactical flexibility would be nice. There are other frustrating issues - a seeming lack of urgency, a frequent reluctance to play the ball forwards when there is a safer ball backwards or sideways, a lack of movement up front which has been an issue for years, giving too much respect to some teams instead of getting at them. These are things that good coaching can and should fix. I'm also not sure about SG's stated desire to bring in "finished articles" as opposed to promising younger talent. It might work to boost us into the top 6 or 7, but it might not, and then leave us with a lot of older expensive players on very high salaries if it doesn't work and /or SG moves on. Jury is still out on SG for me.

Completely Meh! today. Didn't think Arsenal were all that but were better than us which is all they needed to be. Our build up play is too slow and predictable. Two number 10s isn't going to work. Looked much better after the subs. Ollie's touch and ball retention are terrible., another awful performance today, though admittedly he didn't get much service. This will be an unpopular opinion but I think Martiinez has let a few in that really top keepers would save - today was one of them. Not sure what Sanson has to do to get a start.

Indeed Rob, he was very good in the air, building several successful aeroplanes, and should be saluted. Andy Lochhead RIP on the other hand was a great header of the ball and also deserves a song.

I find it strange people think we we will / should sell players like Traore and Bailey because they are not first choices. It's a squad game and to move into that elite level we are going to need minimum 15-20 players who can perform at that high level. What happens when, inevitably, we get some injuries or suspensions? What happens if we qualify for Europe and go further in the domestic cups and have a lot more games to play? The trick is to keep all those players happy when they are not automatic first choices. I think Gerrard should rotate a little and give the likes of Sanson, Bailey and Traore a start, and now the season has fizzled out a little maybe Chuk and Iroegbunam as well. Links to Suarez concern me because, together with Coutinho, I do wonder if it hints at a "galactico" type thinking with everything centred around a few big stars rather than on a team system that players can become interchangeable in. There are already signs that we are becoming very reliant on Coutinho for creativity, much as we were with Grealish. Sure it raises our profile, but is that at the cost of a long term team plan and system? It's a dilemma that seems to be affecting Man Yoo since re-signing Ronaldo.

I don't think West Ham's style is that bad, certainly nothing like as bad as Wimbledon back in the day or Burnley now. They have some good footballers and some physical footballers and they mix it up well. I do think this game is where a different type of forward would have helped, someone bigger and stronger i.e. a Davies type, to distract the big CBs involved with a more physical battle. Re-watching the second goal breakaway a few times, Lanzini starts at roughly the same place that Coutinho is and maybe 5-10 yards nearer our goal than Young. Coutinho barely breaks into a jog, Young takes about 3 seconds to realise it's a breakaway and by the time Lanzini scores Young is about 30 yards behind him. For all his magical skills I do think Coutinho needs to work a bit harder when don't have the ball. Buendia is much better at that type of thing. Ramsey for me shows some great skill going forward but has a habit of drifting out of games and also losing or not winning the ball in dangerous areas. I think he's a great player but I honestly think he needs a rest and maybe Sanson given a run.

Poor for much of the second half where the midfield seemed to disappear for 25 minutes again. Actually thought Ramsey was a bit lost again until he popped up to score. Love the way he passes it into the top corner. Didn't do much wrong for their first goal, just a very well taken snapshot, and you just knew the Ukrainian would score as soon as he came on. Shame we didn't really start going for it until the last 10 minutes as we showed we could rattle them a bit. Bailey and Buendia both did very well and livened us up. Young frustrates me, so many crosses and passes hit straight at the first defender.

Their home games may just save them - they show a lot more fight and intent there, beat Leeds and were absolutely robbed of a point against Citeh and they have looked half decent since Rafa left with the Goodison crowd behind them. Away from home they are a shambles. BTW I've never got why Richarlison is so highly rated by some, including Barcelona it seems. Never been impressed by him.

I'd agree with you - a great win and let's all enjoy it but it doesn't mean everything is suddenly fixed. There was still a lot of wayward passing and lack of movement at times, we conceded a lot of possession, especially second half where the midfield seemed to disappear for a while, which better teams would have exploited, and again sometimes struggled to play it out from the back which often led to those channel balls being played. When we attacked though we cut through them, and we defended pretty solidly too, in no small part due to an excellent performance from Chambers - gave him MOTM not only because I wasn't really expecting him to be that good but also for the pass of the season into Coutinho. Great to see that Watkins and Ings can play together and both score and some of Coutinho's play was sublime. One worry for me is Ramsey who has seemed off the pace in the last 3-4 games games and yesterday it seemed to largely pass him by. Thought Sanson and Buendia both looked good in their cameos and maybe a rest for Ramsey is due? Finally, although he had his moments, finally a decent ref.

The worst thing about this game is the lack of redeeming features. Difficult to find a single positive except at least we didn't get hammered. We are normally shit at Newcastle for some strange reason but this was special - if we really did give the ball away 136 times (and it felt like we did) then that's once very 40-50 seconds. How can Professional Premier League Players paid tens of thousands a week, some of them internationals for Brazil, Argentina, France and England, be that bad at passing, controlling and retaining the ball? How/why does Luiz overhit every single set piece he takes? Why has Watkins turned into Trezeguet without the occasional instinctive goal? Why has Digne taken up Targett's mantle of hitting crosses straight at the first defender? Home form has been ok except for defending but we were poor all over at at Brentford, bang average at Everton and as bad as Smith's worst (Arsenal, Southampton) against Toon. Gerrard has to do better than that with what he's got.

Martinez - I’m not convinced he is quite the Keeper many think he is. Cash - In the passage of play leading to Leeds’ third goal Struijk was allowed to win two headers, the first was cleared off the line by Mings, the second was also blocked by Mings but rebounded to James who scored. On both occasions it was Matty Cash “marking” Struijk and he did a terrible job, but many seem to be blaming Mings. Mings - was all over the place the first 20 minutes but after that I thought he was very good. Konsa - once again failed to close down quickly enough to allow a shot at goal (see also Brentford’s first goal) and then got two stupid and avoidable yellow cards. Again I’m not convinced he’s as good as many seem to think he is. Digne – played very well I thought Luiz – Typical Dougie, some good things some classic brain farts McGinn – Decent game I thought Ramsey – looking like we’ve unearthed a star, great runs and cool finishes. Perhaps needs to work on his tracking back. Coutinho – world class, simple as Buendia – I call him the nearly man, so much of what he tries is nearly brilliant but not quite. When he gets it right it’s Coutinho-like. Watkins - needs to take some lessons from Keinan Davis on how to keep the ball under pressure from defenders. Almost every time he either mis-controls it or else controls it but has neither the strength nor the skill to stop the defender dispossessing him. I even think using Davis as a focal point for the interplay of Coutinho, Buendia, Ramsey McGinn et al would work really well. Young – did ok when he came on Chuk – looked half-soaked and was playing daft passes in dangerous positions. His worst showing so far. Chambers – did the job he needed to do to see time out. Gerrard - First half in particular Bielsa countered Gerrard’s “keep it narrow” approach by overloading the wide areas with up to three players attacking at speed who then played little triangles around the defenders who went out to challenge them, and into the gaps they left in the middle. Lack of cover from midfielders exacerbated this. It was like a knife through butter first half. Gerrard didn’t really do anything to counter this directly. Ref - did one good thing, playing advantage to allow our third goal to happen. Other than that he made was pretty poor I think, letting some blatant fouls go and giving others for nothing. Overall - Our defending was awful but I wouldn’t just blame the defence for that, they were left exposed too often. Meanwhile their man-marking seemed to have us rattled when on the ball. It was only Coutinho’s brilliance and Ramsey’s cool finishing that got us back into it and then a

Is Lampard really that bad a manager? He did better at Derby than those who came before and after him, and was judged at Chelsea in comparison to elite managers who came before and after him. Ok Chelsea were in 9th when they fired him and they'd overspent on the likes of Werner but he gave more chances to the likes of Mount, James and Abraham, some of whom are now established first choices or have been sold for hefty fees. Up to a few months ago Arsenal were much lower than 9th and everyone was saying Arteta was a shit manager but that tune seems to have changed. I think it's a risk for Everton but by no means a foregone conclusion that he will fail.

100%. Pickford went straight through Watkins after Watkins had got the ball, Pawson not interested. Today as VAR he see fit to overrule the onfield decision to bring attention to something that's nowhere near as clear. The guy is either an idiot or a cheat, or both. It's getting beyond a joke now how inconsistent and bad they are. Actually there is some consistency, I suppose, in how often things like this go in favour of the Sky 6 but not the likes of us. Still it keeps the title race more alive so the PL will happy the refs "did them a favour" meaning that their product remains attractive for longer , and I guess that's all that matters these days.

Peter. I'd agree you are right about the key decisions, and I'm grateful for once to have a ref who didn't ultimately influence the outcome. But that still doesn't mean his performance was acceptable - just not as bad as some of the shockers we've had to endure. There were quite a few obvious mistakes like giving/not giving corners and throws given the wrong way (for both teams) that had me wondering if he could see straight. The incident where he yellow carded Mings happened a few feet in front of him and was as clear as day a foul on Mings. Mings jumped for the ball and was backed into and taken out mid air, which also endangered him. He gave Everton another one first half when Richarlison was clearly backing into Mings or Konsa rather than being pulled or held. And the non-foul on Ramsey running through when he was clearly kicked. Too easily conned I think. And despite ultimately not influencing the outcome, he seemed to be doing his best by adding 5 minutes from nowhere, and then playing an extra one on top giving Everton one final chance from a corner. You may rate that as acceptable, I think it's a sign of the appalling standards we are used to that some people do, and I'll have to disagree.

For those saying the ref was ok, just have a look at the incident he booked Mings for. Comically bad.

Good first half, midfield disappeared second half. Good job we defended well and Everton lacked that bit of quality in the final third. Probably didn't deserve the win overall, we need to play well for 90 minutes not 45. Felt like we were playing against 12 men again at times with yet another inept referee who booked Mings for being fouled and then found 6 minutes of added time from nowhere.

Ref trying his best to give Everton an equalizer - almost 6 minutes payed

How the **** is there five minutes added?

Us being poor and the ref having a shocker are not mutually exclusive though are they? He's given some terrible decisions, that yellow for Mings was just laughably bad.