Rightdm00

His pressing today was excellent. Unselfishness won us the game.

Warkins played well. 2 assist. Was a pest the entire game with his pressing and running.

Warkins played well. 2 assist. Was a pest the entire game with his pressing and running.

It pains me to say this but you watch Bruno over at Newcastle and we don't have a single midfielder like that in our entire squad. We desperately need that link between attack and defense.

And then McGinn and Ramsey on either wing supporting the pressed high fullbacks. Midfield is empty. Makes sense we kept pumping in crosses. We had no other option given our setup. A good manager would have stopped with this busted formation after a couple games. Steven has persisted even though it has never bore fruit. Very worrying.

He's clueless, that's the scary part. Even if he stumbles on a working solution for Everton he won't have any idea how to build on it. We are just treading water right now. Sucks but it's looking like another season of stops and starts.

Yeah he started that once we started that poor run to end the season. Zero ideas and looks totally out of his depth.

Fully agree. The game yesterday looked like the 39th match of last season. Nothing has changed. We still abandon the middle of the park and attempt to force our way down the flanks. When that doesn't work we either recycle to the CBs or loft in an aimless cross. It's all so predictable and boring. At this point I hope Purslow is building out his new manager list because Steven will not be long for this job.

The nightmare continues. Midfield just scattered to the winds. Kamara is a 3rd CB and McGinnis and Ramsey are isolated to either flank. He's learned nothing and persists with a broken, never going to work at prem level system.

Go back to his appointment and we have only gotten worse. That was absolutely appalling.

Honestly, he doesn't have to say a word. Just wait til they get back to bodymoor and wait for the video review of the game. Just sit there and watch a Keifer Moore win header after header and stare daggers at Steven.

What was that? F*ckin awful.

Early days but labelling him as a 6 or 8 would be doing him a huge disservice. He looks to have the entire toolset. Just a complete midfielder. We could line up Boubacar and Nakamaba or Douglas in a double pivot. Then put Ramsey, Coutinho and Buendia as an attacking 3 behind a striker. It's a little lightweight but my god as soon as we got the ball on the ground defenses would be sh*tting bricks trying to stop that attack.

Yeah because Matt knew he would be nailed to the bench. Steven wants FBs who can cover endline to endline. That isn't Matt's game, so the writing was on the wall. I fully believe it was a mutual parting of ways. Both sides wanted something different. Villa was able to secure a deal that worked for us and Matt. It was a win-win. I guess some on here just aren't going to accept that.

Townsend, Delph, and now Tarkowski. Everton are a proper PL retirement home. Hope they inserted strong relegation clause.

In the end the loan worked as well. No way are we selling Targett for a double digit fee if he had sat on the bench for the second half of the season. Steven didn't want Targett, not even as a backup. So getting him off the books at pretty much a break even price is job done.

If he gives us this the world cup season and the one after that I would be more than satisfied. Gives us ample time to scout a replacement and we will make a massive profit given the long term deal we just signed. The fact is until we up our revenue streams we will need to sell a player every now and then to fund our ambition.

Yep. Seems we lost the patience necessary for a long term project. Maybe NSWE looking for a quicker return on their investment. We can only speculate from our end. Either way this new direction does not fill me with confidence. It works.

Huge flaw in this idea. You are looking at Liverpool as it exist currently. They didn't start there. Here's how old each player was when they signed them: Salah - 24 Mane - 24 VVD - 26 Henderson - 20 Robertson - 23 Fabinho - 24 Matip - 24 I could go on but you see the trend. Liverpool's window with their current roster has been open for 4 years now. They probably still have a nother year or 2 before they need to start rebuilding. Our window is going to be much smaller. 2 seasons at best. If we miss then there isn't any do over. Will be the new Everton if we get it really wrong. No one is taking 30+ year old players off our hand for anything close to what we paid for them. The risk is huge. Old team, small window of success and a manager with half a season of PL experience. The risk/reward here is massive. It could go right but oh man it could also go really, really wrong.

Unless we are selling Mings for somewhere near this # then I'm not feeling this at all. By the time Steven moves on we will have the oldest team in the PL.

Sometimes it's one of the top 3 teams in the world having ten players camped around your box. Once we got pinned that far back it's just a matter of when not if we concede.

Leathered it where? You don't relieve pressure by punting it out of bounds. There was still 15 minutes to go. You relieve pressure by possessing the ball. Make Man City chase you for a chnage. I think it was a pass but Luiz was, probably due to fatigue, not on his toes to receive it. Put better midfield options in front of our backline and they will look twice as good.

About the most reasoned response on here. Watkins running gets him into all kinds of great places that most other strikers would never bother. He chases lost causes all game and until we have a midfield that con dominate the middle 3rd we will need a striker who will chase ball after ball over the top.

You guys are wild. 17 pages in a meaningless end of season league game. Not sure if it's already been mentioned but I think that is our first fullback to fullback goal under Steven. Have a feeling we will be seeing a bit more of that next season. Wrong sub but the bench left a little to be desired. Let's hope this summer window leave the manager with some improved options.

Looks great when Burnley concedes the midfield from the opening whistle.