Pizy

Fulham have a bunch of attackers who can be very dangerous on any given day. Adama, Iwobi, Jimenez, Pereira. Plus both their fullbacks are really dangerous going forward a lot of the time. We need to be very careful about giving the ball away cheaply. Our boys need to have their A game today or Fulham can do a number on us. Need a big bounce back game from Cole who hasn’t been his absolute best lately.

Santos would get plenty of minutes across every competition we’re still in. How many PL matches has Lavia missed now? With surely many more to come. Instead of having to invert Gusto into midfield or have Disasi playing at all I’d much rather see a proper midfielder there. Ugo for me isn’t close to Chelsea quality.

As I said the other day, we should 100% be looking to bring Andrey Santos back next month. Lavia is out much too often. We almost certainly won’t because it would likely completely derail our sister club’s season, but if we were cold and putting sentiment aside we’d do it.

Lavia still out for this one. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ ffs Expecting an extremely tricky match here. Think Fulham will be aggressive and and go toe to toe with us. So that Lavia, Caicedo, Enzo trio would’ve been picture perfect for a game like this.

I sadly could actually picture it. I hope we don’t even consider him, but would I be completely stunned if we did it? No.

I know people are having a go at Sancho and he was indeed poor first half. But I thought he grew into the game second half and was solid until it came to that final ball. What bewilders me is how Neto was by far our most dangerous player all first half and then we came out of halftime and he barely got a touch. Really just a very subpar, ineffective attacking game all around. We have to be able to break down teams when they set up like this or else every small club will do this to us and we’ll struggle.

The kind of match where we really miss having that alternative #9 to Jackson. A Giroud type. Also a match where not having any threat whatsoever from our fullbacks in attack makes us easier to defend against. They were able to double up on our wingers on both sides. Having a Reece James or Cucu overlapping makes a huge difference against deep blocks and parked buses. Thankfully, I never for even a second let myself think about the title or even a title race so I don’t care about losing ground to Liverpool. We aren’t ready for that yet. But ffs, it would’ve been nice to give ourselves a huge cushion to City and the others behind us.

Absolutely pathetic second half from us. Everton were horrific but we had no invention to our play at all.

So many sloppy fucking passes. And EASY, simple ones at that.

Everton’s ONLY danger comes from dumbass mistakes from our CB’s, ffs. Disasi is woeful.

The first one I can sort of excuse. The cross from Palmer was slightly behind him so he could direct it at all. The header from point blank range has to score.

Probably the wrong opponent for Sancho. Need wingers who can stretch Everton and bring them out of their shape like Neto has done on the other side. Should swap Neto to the other side and bring Madueke on.

Pure anti-football from Everton. At home. The constant diving to win free kicks is pissing me off, too. That being said, we haven’t exactly been as sharp as we should be. Neither Sancho nor Palmer were involved or aggressive enough. And once again Jackson showing why he’s a very good but not great striker. Missed 2 chances that a world class striker would’ve finished.

They aren’t even trying to play football. Just trying to stop us from doing so. Hate these bastards.

Everton game plan clear and obvious from minute 1. Slow everything down, physical man marking, and buying cheap free kick after cheap free kick to try to score from set pieces.

I would love one of the media members to ask Maresca what the deal is with him. He was player of the season for you last season and in the Championship team of the season as well. I know the PL is a big step up but he can’t even be trusted at all to play PL minutes? I just wonder if it’s a physical thing or what. Enzo trusts other players like Disasi and Sanchez who are poor but not someone he knows inside and out and who was the heartbeat of his title winning team just a few months ago? It’s very strange. Veiga is still super raw but I at least trust him to keep things simple. Disasi is liable to do stupid shit at least a couple of times every time he plays which could lead to calamity.

On top of them likely being super defensive, apparently the weather conditions are poor as well very cold and rainy. So this could be an extremely frustrating match unless we can get an early goal and force them out of their shell. God forbid they score first or we’ll be trying to break down the biggest bus we’ve ever seen the rest of the way.

Gotta be Disasi RB and Gusto LB and inverting, surely. Really wonder why Maresca would rather play people out of position than trusting Veiga. Especially against an Everton side that aren’t exactly an attacking team. Feel like we could’ve used Veiga’s aggression and physicality against a team who are going to try to score from corners and set pieces and try to bully us. I’d have played Gusto at RB inverting and Veiga on the left. Of course, all of this would’ve been made moot if Lavia could stay fit for more than 1 or 2 games in a row. Then the team would pick itself…

It’s very concerning. For me it’s even more reason to bring Andrey Santos back. With him in the squad we can carefully manage and rotate Lavia much more easily.

Signed a new contract like 2 weeks ago. Just like Duran did not long ago. They’ve locked themselves at Villa for the foreseeable future.

They’re annoyingly close to us in the table, though! Need them to start falling away soon.

A single player who isn’t even your main goal scorer or match winner missing shouldn’t be THIS catastrophic, though. Especially in a team as expensively assembled as City’s. I know he’s the heartbeat and engine of the team but still.

He’s had a generationally good group of players all in their primes simultaneously. Now almost that entire core has aged poorly and the lack of squad refreshing is biting them badly. And tbh, I don’t think this will be a smooth, super quick fix by just spending a bunch of money. Getting players who are just as good as Walker, KDB, Gündogan, Mahrez, etc will be extremely difficult. They need 2 new starting fullbacks, 2 new starting wingers, at least 2 new midfielders, AND another forward. They need MAJOR surgery. Will Pep want to stick around for that?

If we win this tomorrow we can effectively completely dismiss City as a threat to us this season. Before fucking Christmas! Imagine telling any of us after that first match of the season when City beat us while barely breaking a sweat that we could be 10 points clear of them by Christmas and that they would be in a serious fight just to finish 4th. It would literally sound impossible! All 3 points here would give us a ridiculous cushion and margin for error in our quest to secure UCL football. Must win game for me.

If we feel the need to go in for a CB next month I just hope we go all in for our very top choice and someone who we feel is or will be world class. Bringing in yet another average or slightly above average CB when we already have a bunch just because we need another body would be so dumb. No more Disasi’s or Badiashile’s. Get someone you feel can be the unquestioned partner for Colwill long term.