Ratings & Reactions: Everton v Villa

[Pez1974]

Bailey was offside - but why 4 minutes? Also, Lenglet was definitely fouling the defender. Such an easy decision. 

Tarkowski has been studying Bee Mee - I thought those out of control, off the ground challenges were an automatic yellow? He did at least 2.

Diaby should've gone down - it would have been a pen (albeit VAR is now random). Not smart.

McGinn had space, but an off game for me. Unfortunate. 

We need to stop the silliness - Dougie again could've been booked twice. We don't need it. We keep collecting bookings and it will hurt us.

The ref needs firing. No control. Poor decisions. Again. 

[tinker]

23 minutes ago, Herman22 said:

Wan Bisaka has just been booked for clearly winning the ball and following through. Half the level of this! 

 

 

24 minutes ago, Herman22 said:

Wan Bisaka has just been booked for clearly winning the ball and following through. Half the level of this! 

 

It's an absolute disgraceful decision,  I'm still in shock that VAR never took a look,  the ref never even give a yellow. 

Mind you some clown gave Emery a poor and someone else liked it, should be embarrassed to post on here.

[Lochheads twin]

Poor game

a point not a disaster. Keep winning at home and picking up points on the road will keep us in the European mix.

Good to see Tielemans back, just adds that bit of guile up front ( and gives option to rotate Bailey & Diaby).

onwards.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

The more I see the Tarkowski foul on Diaby in the box the more it is a clear penalty and a red card.

[Stevo985]

2 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Ah we'll have to disagree there.

Stodgy in the final third but total control for 90% of the match. It looked like a cup tie against a league one side.

I’d hardly say we controlled it. We can point to a Diaby penalty all we want but Everton had the better chances. 
 

We were probably the better side but it was marginal. 
 

It certainly wasn’t a good performance, and like I said we haven’t put in a good performance since the arsenal game. 
 

We need the break badly

[markavfc40]

Up there with the worst refereeing I have seen this season and given the abundance of shite in that field that is saying something. A competent performance from the officials and we are walking away with 3 points and Everton are walking off with 10 men and f all to show for their dire Dyche Ball.

I thought our performance was decent, we've controlled what was overall a scrappy game due to Evertons tactics/the officiating meaning a stop/start game that never allowed us to get into a flow. 

On the downside Diaby was again poor which is becoming a bit of a worry as with so few attacking options we could really do with him on it. 

 

 

 

Edited January 14 by markavfc40

[Leeroy]

We’ve been poor for weeks and again were today.
 

1. Watkins mostly anonymous again, again didn’t score, his England place is in jeopardy. He needs to go on a scoring run but is barely involved at the moment.

2. McGinn really poor today. Had a great season but when he plays like that we’re usually poor.

3. Luiz - well below his usual high standards.

4. Diaby anonymous mostly.

5. Bailey a bit better but not great either. 

6. Moreno was ok but his crossing is poor and inferior to Digne’s. I think Digne is first choice left back when he’s fit.

 

Tielemans was good when he came on and should start next game. We need Pau Torres back as his passing is one of the best in the squad. Emi made some top saves too although Calvert Lewin’s finish was appalling. 
 

We’ve been mediocre at best since beating City over a month ago and it’s not good enough, as Unai says we need to demand more of ourselves because to not get top 4 after the season we’ve had would be so disappointing. We need to come back against Newcastle raring to go and start winning some games because we’ve won one of our last four games mostly against shit teams and it is a worry.

[Marka Ragnos]

1 hour ago, jim said:

Whilst we have been getting results performances since Zrinski have been poor. 

This. Houston, we have a problem … with defensive opponents. Mings, Buendia, Pau badly missed, but we have to start finding the net. 

no disrespect meant, but I just don’t give a shit about bad refereeing today. I would feel angry if we had lost. Our problems go beyond refs or VAR. I don’t know if it’s tactical stuff, or a lack of quality upfront. I suspect it’s the latter. I’m not positive Emery has the tools he needs to take that last step upward to the top of the league. We’re not conceding too many goals, and that’s great, but there’s a log-jam with scoring.

We all know Emery can work miracles with players, but there’s logically going to be a limit to that, too. I think we may have hit the limit.

Again, I’m not saying that the referee wasn’t annoying today, or even deeply concerning, but I just don’t think that should be our focus as a club in terms of going forward.

Edited January 14 by Marka Ragnos

[TRO]

The footballing idealists, will have us believe its all about free flowing football, where space is just offered as a gift....and swashbuckling football is the utopian dream, don't we all wish.

The truth is, teams who are less likely to be able to join in , in that, have to find another way....that other way, may not be a favour for the purists.

So, for teams like us, who can't have there own silky way of playing, every game, we have to force the opposition, in to errors, to counter their agricultural style.....forcing errors, is what we have to do, and that encompasses, many things.

so the question is....in a squad of 25, how many players, do we think we have, who can happily force those much needed errors?.....who is comfortable with that task?

I would hazard a guess, and say too few.

 

[Tom13]

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/Zzc5UGpr6I

No pen **** off.

[Hank Scorpio]

Seems to a degree our attacking plans have been nullified by the opposition.  We may need to change and adjust.

[Jas10]

Crazy

 

[Paul33]

14 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

It certainly wasn’t a good performance, and like I said we haven’t put in a good performance since the arsenal game. 
 

We need the break badly

We haven't played particularly well since McGinn lost form. He is a key playmaker for us but I've never seen him as bad as he has been in recent weeks. Not sure what is up with him but he looks slow, ponderous, confused and, at times, disinterested !

Edited January 14 by Paul33

[TRO]

31 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

The best pressing teams in the league are Man City, Liverpool, Spurs, Brighton, Arsenal and Newcastle. Unai Emery has beaten them all. 

The problem today wasn’t physical it was technical.

It was both.....if you struggle physically, the technical game can get affected adversely...as opponents stop you playing your normally technical game.( by the way, I am not trying to labour physicality, because its just one element of game....but it does seem to be dismissed, very quickly, as irrelevant ,in some quarters)

All those teams,above,  let you play, because they fancy their chances as Liverpool and Newcastle highlighted in their home games against us.... we was pummeled with intensity, and urgency, not to mention talent...and we had no answer.

Look, we are doing some things right, no doubt, and in some of the better games, doing more right than wrong.....but it doesn't stop us looking at the last 3 games, and seeing shortfalls, that maybe we can work on.

Hand on heart....was that what you expected form a top 4 team today?....be honest.

 

[AVFCDAN]

8 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

This. Houston, we have a problem … with defensive opponents. Mings, Buendia, Pau badly missed, but we have to start finding the net. 

no disrespect meant, but I just don’t give a shit about bad refereeing today. I would feel angry if we had lost. Our problems go beyond refs or VAR. I don’t know if it’s tactical stuff, or a lack of quality upfront. I suspect it’s the latter. I’m not positive Emery has the tools he needs to take that last step upward to the top of the league. We’re not conceding too many goals, and that’s great, but there’s a log-jam with scoring.

We all know Emery can work miracles with players, but there’s logically going to be a limit to that, too. I think we may have hit the limit.

Again, I’m not saying that the referee wasn’t annoying today, or even deeply concerning, but I just don’t think that should be our focus as a club in terms of going forward.

The problem is we’ve hit the ceiling with what’s possible with our first 11, nothing to do with Emery or his ceiling, he’s gotten the max out of this team. Even if we add a couple in Jan I wouldn’t expect too much improvement until next season and they would have to be real quality additions circa 50-60 million.

This season has to be about top 4 and nothing else. Forget winning the title it’s not going to happen, it’s starting to look like hanging onto top 4 is going to be an epic challenge.

[Jas10]

 

[smokingzen]

First off, Everton certainly let you know you've been in a game of football, without actually playing any football.

Martinez made a couple of top drawer saves, thought most of the defense played well, with Lenglet and Moreno the stand outs. Konsa is almost always good but definitely preferred it when he moved back to the centre and Cash came on.

Kamara played well defensively but offensively for the most part we were disjointed. I was disappointed with most of our midfield and attack, with consistent bad decision making throughout the game.

McGinn couldn't keep the ball or string a pass together first half, but got better second half. Luis was disappointing most of the game, slow and tentative and almost always taking one touch too many. Was pushing his luck a few times with shirt pulls etc.

Bailey and Diaby again made consistently bad decisions and struggled to beat a man. Watkins wasn't any better.

Thought Tielemens improved us, and Duran gave us a little more threat, Zaniolo likewise, but still not enough.

Everton certainly made it difficult for us, getting tight to us and getting a lot of niggly tackles in to disrupt our flow and the game, quite a few of those should have been fouls, but when it wasn't clamped down on by the ref, they were emboldened to carry on with it and it got worse.

A point away at the end of the day, but as others have said performances since Man City haven't been great. That said we're still picking up points and in the top 4.

Strange to say, but having Pau and Digne out, 2 defenders, affects our attacking capability quite a lot. So will be good to have them both back.

Edited January 14 by smokingzen

[briny_ear]

Awful game. I am only glad I don’t have to support Everton week in week out playing rubbish, thuggish, football like that.

We got better once the subs came on but we still haven’t cracked how to break down these teams defending in depth.

Very glad Diaby didn’t get a broken - or very badly damaged - leg from that tackle. How the ref ended up booking 4 of our players and only 1 of theirs I have no idea. (Apart from the general fact he was useless.)

Positives were Moreno ruling the left wing and a good performance by Lenglet, who seems to be the current Villatalk whipping boy judging by the pre-match thread (having taken over the role from Torres). Thought we defended well apart from a short period towards the end of the first half when we might have conceded but for Martinez - another star performer today.

Not very happy with 1 point - we really should have been able to get all 3  - but it’s better than nothing.

A game best forgotten.

[TRO]

32 minutes ago, tinker said:

The ref cost us that game, you could see the influence he had on it and the way Everton played, they had 1 yellow card and we had 4. We're not pulling up trees but no one apart from City are.

We won't get anywhere, whinging about referee's.....even if the claims are right.

We dropped those points....us, we was the architect of that wishy washy display.

I saw players out there, wondering what the hell, their objective was...and equally some were working their socks off.

You cannot win games, with half the team coasting, and casual and others close to coronaries.

Once again, our Goal keeper saved us, despite his rick.

[TRO]

37 minutes ago, El Segundo said:

Don't think we've beaten Liverpool since Emery took over.

and I don't think we are likely to.