closed Everton 1-0 Chelsea

[Jap Si. 50]

We were being rubbishing I'm afraid and Havertz is plop.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Not an overreaction whatsoever. Not even in the slightest. I have kept my mouth shut watching Werner playing LW week in, week out since he joined us. The whole point of buying him was because our strikers last season couldn't finish their dinner on a consistent basis. I get it, the idea of Tammy or Giroud upto with Werner on the wing sounds good but what we are seeing is a mess on my opinion. We need to at least give him a run in the ST position and see that lethal striker we saw in Germany. 

No I know he's underperformed but to question why we bothered signing him doesn't make sense.

He was a bargain price for one of the most prolific strikers in Europe (who was also prolific on the left). Lampard intended to play him up front but can't exactly play him up front when a 3 of our wingers are injured. And it's made easier when tammy (at the start) and giroud recently have been performing well. He hasn't hit the ground running but doesn't mean it was wrong of us to buy him

[Laylabelle 9,300]

3 hours ago, Jason said:

Yes, although things started to go downhill from the 13th game onward last season. 

Ohh hopefully this won't follow that then..  had a few dodgy December's 

[Milan 17,835]

Jesus again so serious, smartass He hardly criticized the fact we actually bought Werner. Rather the fact he was used on the right flank again, neutralizing his main strengths. But keep playing the smartass.

[Tomo 21,681]

7 hours ago, DDA said:

Not an overreaction whatsoever. Not even in the slightest. I have kept my mouth shut watching Werner playing LW week in, week out since he joined us. The whole point of buying him was because our strikers last season couldn't finish their dinner on a consistent basis. I get it, the idea of Tammy or Giroud upto with Werner on the wing sounds good but what we are seeing is a mess on my opinion. We need to at least give him a run in the ST position and see that lethal striker we saw in Germany. 

Werner's issue has been his finishing, something that won't be automatically solved by playing down the middle.

His general tactical displays have been pretty good, and our clincher goals vs Newcastle and Leeds were scored by world class bits of play from Timo that wouldn't have happened if he were playing through the middle. He was also signed for his versatility and ability to coexist with other forwards.

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Tomo said:

Werner's issue has been his finishing, something that won't be automatically solved by playing down the middle.

His general tactical displays have been pretty good, and our clincher goals vs Newcastle and Leeds were scored by world class bits of play from Timo that wouldn't have happened if he were playing through the middle. He was also signed for his versatility and ability to coexist with other forwards.

But another issue is that we aren't exactly playing or using him in a position where he can consistently get at the end of chances. You have games like yesterday where he just spent too much time out wide, doing winger things when he isn't a winger. 

Maybe I'm being biased (lol) but between him, Giroud and Abraham, I'd back Werner to score more goals out of the three, especially given his goalscoring record in his career so far. 

Perhaps circumstances have forced Lampard to play Werner out wide more than he has liked but if we are going to use him out wide more often than not and play him like a winger, then you gotta wonder why we didn't just sign an out-and-out winger instead. Instead, it looks like we're filling square pegs in round hole at times by playing Werner out wide. 

[Tomo 21,681]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

But another issue is that we aren't exactly playing or using him in a position where he can consistently get at the end of chances. You have games like yesterday where he just spent too much time out wide, doing winger things when he isn't a winger. 

Maybe I'm being biased (lol) but between him, Giroud and Abraham, I'd back Werner to score more goals out of the three, especially given his goalscoring record in his career so far. 

Perhaps circumstances have forced Lampard to play Werner out wide more than he has liked but if we are going to use him out wide more often than not and play him like a winger, then you gotta wonder why we didn't just sign an out-and-out winger instead. Instead, it looks like we're filling square pegs in round hole at times by playing Werner out wide. 

Possibly because Lampard has commited to Pulisic-Ziyech with CHO as the squad player meaning no winger worth his salt will come to effectively be the new SWP.

This way we have wing cover and keep depth up front as Tammy/Oli will have enough minutes to remain satisfied. If we want to have good squad depth you need some players that can cover more than one position, the two players in every position notion doesn't work in practice, they'll always be a couple of players totally starved of gametime (case in point, what's happening at CB now and KDB when we had six AM's).

[Hutcho 8,443]

Jesus again so serious, smartass[emoji3] He hardly criticized the fact we actually bought Werner. Rather the fact he was used on the right flank again, neutralizing his main strengths. But keep playing the smartass.

Yeah the words. "Why did we buy Werner???" [emoji23]

We have no wingers. What are you not getting?
We have played fine with him wide several times this season despite it not being his best position. Yet when we have a bad game everyone starts with the bold over reacting statements.

[Atomiswave 6,072]

Horseshit, horseshit man. I despise that ground, always have a hard-on for us these fuckers. But we were bad, where was the motivation and hunger....no fucking desire. And fuck them goal posts.

[Muzchap 8,966]

You cannot win evey game.

Yes we played badly - but we had chances to win it and Everton created almost nothing.

This is football. 

We can cry and moan or put it behind us and move on.

A wise person learns more from adversity than success, we are not a finished article yet. If this is happening in season 3 or 4 or FLs tenure, then I will be concerned, but at present I'm not.

I think we need to be realistic about Pulisic, he is essentially Darren Anderton MK2. We should be looking to sign a replacement and just have him as backup.

[Tomo 21,681]

28 minutes ago, Muzchap said:

You cannot win evey game.

Yes we played badly - but we had chances to win it and Everton created almost nothing.

This is football. 

This is why football is so small lines. Unless you have a team largely in it's late 20's managed by a Mou/Conte type manager it's very dangerous to base your entire assesment on games purely on results which I feel far too many people do.

I feel this was very similar to the SHU game, went behind early and largely dominated the rest of it, the real difference is we had our shooting boots on in the other game.

[Jase 43,479]

2 hours ago, Tomo said:

Possibly because Lampard has commited to Pulisic-Ziyech with CHO as the squad player meaning no winger worth his salt will come to effectively be the new SWP.

This way we have wing cover and keep depth up front as Tammy/Oli will have enough minutes to remain satisfied. If we want to have good squad depth you need some players that can cover more than one position, the two players in every position notion doesn't work in practice, they'll always be a couple of players totally starved of gametime (case in point, what's happening at CB now and KDB when we had six AM's).

But here's the thing (a) surely Lampard gotta consider Pulisic's injury record when searching for a wide player and (b) when we play Werner out wide, we practically lose an attacking outlet because he isn't a winger and he isn't going to consistently beat players and dribble past them to create chances. I mean, how often in games this season that we attack through Werner? Not often and it's a reason why we always attack down our right, looking to Ziyech or James to deliver the crosses in. Moreover, playing Werner on the left wing may have also impacted Chilwell's attacking input on the left. Compared to James, Chilwell certainly isn't charging up and down the left flank as often as James does on the opposite side. 

[Jase 43,479]

Down to 4th. Will be down to 5th if Leicester win later...fan-fucking-tastic!

[bigbluewillie 1,807]

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

Down to 4th. Will be down to 5th if Leicester win later...fan-fucking-tastic!

what more can we expect a 3rd of the way through the season, and not once have been able to field our preferred front three.

And I think until we find a suitable replacement for Puli sick then we are going to struggle, we just don't have a competitive front three.

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, bigbluewillie said:

what more can we expect a 3rd of the way through the season, and not once have been able to field our preferred front three.

And I think until we find a suitable replacement for Puli sick then we are going to struggle, we just don't have a competitive front three.

We would have been alright had CHO and Ziyech not gotten injured as well. It's just BS that all 3 of our wingers are injured at the same time! 

On this injury note, I'm almost scared of the free week that we will have after West Ham.....

[communicate 2,703]

11 hours ago, DDA said:

Not an overreaction whatsoever. Not even in the slightest. I have kept my mouth shut watching Werner playing LW week in, week out since he joined us. The whole point of buying him was because our strikers last season couldn't finish their dinner on a consistent basis. I get it, the idea of Tammy or Giroud upto with Werner on the wing sounds good but what we are seeing is a mess on my opinion. We need to at least give him a run in the ST position and see that lethal striker we saw in Germany. 

I don't understand with people insisting playing Werner as no 9. Is Werner by far our best player? No. It is about the team not just one player unless you just happen to be by far the team best player

[Milan 17,835]

So basically we lost just 1 point on all our main rivals (not counting Liverpool yet) and at the same time we cleared one of our bogey grounds. Forget this game and go beat Wolves.

[King Kante 1,302]

27 minutes ago, Milan said:

So basically we lost just 1 point on all our main rivals (not counting Liverpool yet) and at the same time we cleared one of our bogey grounds. Forget this game and go beat Wolves.

Just about to say the same thing. Watching the games it appears this weekend was the one where all the additional football caught up with the big teams. Dippers only got a point as Parker put that clown Kamara on. Madness of a substitution.