Fun Fact: Everton have won only one more game than Newcastle United this season. They’ve won a massive six games in 23 to our five. The extra game being their 94th minute winner at St James’ Park of course on Boxing Day. That wasn’t so fun. Rob Elliot played well. Mitrovic cost us points by missing at least one sitter and Everton picked up an important three points to move nine points clear of us at the time. We meet now, just over a month later with Everton 8 points clear of the final relegation zone place which is of course occupied by us. Therefore it’s another big game for Everton. They’ve had a few recently. Lose this and they’re in the shit a bit, just 5 points ahead of a terrible Newcastle United side. It’s unlikely Everton will lose this game as they don’t lose many. In fact, they’ve lost just 6 games this season. Only the top 6 have lost less and they’ve lost as many as Manchester United, who lie 5th. Eleven draws is the massive problem for Everton. They’re the opposite of NUFC – who either win (rarely) or lose (regularly). Roberto Martinez is under pressure right now. Everton are into the last 16 of the FA Cup and got to the league cup semi’s – things aren’t so bad. Then again Everton fans aren’t happy so something is up.
Everton have scored an impressive 40 goals this season. They’re good to watch. They have a good team. However they 
lose a lot of leads and should be higher in the league table. A lack of investment is the accusation, yet Everton have a £28 million striker. I’m not saying Everton fans are wrong. The whole situation is just contradictory. There seems to be a lot of unease about Goodison when there’s not a lot wrong. Everton pull crowds of 38k on average. They are in no danger of relegation and are still in the FA Cup…..I’d swap our position (and manager) for theirs. Their team is also young. John Stones is 21. They turned down big money for him in the Summer. The club is run sensibly. Yet anger remains in the stands. Kenwirght and Martinez wouldn’t be missed by many. So what is wrong at Everton?
I don’t have the answers, but I’d back them to beat United this Wednesday. I’m still going. £25 for a ticket and a do-able drive on a work night. We’ve only taken the lower tier by the sound of it. Why is it we get shafted more than most for ‘reachable’ away games being moved to mid-week. Stoke, another I’d have done is almost in exactly a months’ time, on a Wednesday too. Still there’ll probably be around 1,200 freezing cold mags to watch the lowest scoring side away from home in the football league. The euphoria of the performance against West Ham was sufficiently punctured by McClaren who played an unnecessary, mental formation. The team was playing well 4 4 1 1, and McClaren changed it to counter the threat of Deeney and Igahlo – who scored 4 goals between them against us in 3 games. Well done Steve. Please lets go back to normal against this lot.
McClaren simply can’t set a team up away from home. It was his downfall with England. One goal and one point from Russia, Croatia and Israel away in qualifying. Or not qualifying as it turned out. At Boro there were two seasons in which his sides scored 12 (twelve) goals in 19 away league games. Twelve! His average away goals tally at Middelsborough was 17. In 19 games. It’s not good enough. Newcastle United’s major problem last season was our away form. We won just 3 out of 19 away games last season. Only QPR managed less. So who did Charnley and Carr hire to arrest this slump away from home? The man who’s away record in England at the highest level is a disaster. What a surprise we’re heading for relegation.
We are as well. I’ve had people on twitter recently telling me that I’m exaggerating or attention seeking. If that’s how you feel, the hour is later than you think. There are 15 games left to play this season. Two of them are this week alone. We’re four points behind Swansea and Bournemouth. Norwich play Vile at the weekend, so the chances are, even if we pick up 3 points this week. We’ll still be in the relegation zone with Chelsea, Man City, Stoke and Leicester to come. Three of those away from home. How many points will we get from that lot? Four? Six would be miraculous for a team that can’t score away from home, never mind win. All of the other teams, bar Sunderland, play each other in the same period. To reach 40 points NUFC need to win a minimum of 6 games. A minimum. 6 wins from 15 games including Everton away, Chelsea away, Stoke away, Leicester away, Southampton away, Liverpool away. That’s 6 of our 15 games you’d have to be mental to predict NUFC winning. It leaves 7 games, to get our 6 wins including Man City at home, Palace at home, Spurs at home and the mackems at home. Good luck with those 6 wins.
United, as I type, look to have failed in their bid to sign a recognised Premier League striker. Remy, Gomis and Berahino all staying or moving elsewhere. Townsend, like Shelvey is a welcome addition. We lack pace as a side so teams feel comfortable pushing up high against us and squeezing the space our creative players so badly need, away from home especially. As I said.
Good luck getting those 6 wins.
Prediction: Everton 4 United 1
I’m buzzing, slightly, and going for a positive 2-1 or 3-1 to us. We’ve been such an easy team to read and beat tactically but with more new bodies on the pitch we will baffle the opposition tonight, perhaps. I hope the bafflement continues until we’ve gathered in the points we need to survive. Whilst I quite ‘enjoyed’ the last stress-free trip to the Championship, I don’t want it again. I think our coach needs a ‘ hands up’ session with the team – hands up who prefers running down the right wing and putting in the odd cross, hands-up who likes running through the mid-field and getting one in, hands up who prefers running the defence etc etc. The coach can conjure up tactical gems in his head but it’s no good if the players aren’t comfortable and proficient with his notions. Would like to like him but I can’t – he’s like a chocolate teapot.
Well I am usually happy to add to all the depression,especially if it means we get rid of Ashley. However,trying to be objective, I think the signings are potentially good. Some of them come with “baggage” and may not relish a battle with relegation. But I think Ashley is actually beginning to get it. Not the club and what it stands for, but what is needed to stay in the Premiership. It seems clear that Mclaren must have had an input into these signings.Why Ashley did not invest the money in the summer and save him and us the worry,I do not know. It would be great if he is just trying to make us attractive to sell, but I still think publicity for Sports Direct is his motivation. If a quality centre-half and a proven goal-scorer was added to this team, I think it good be quite a decent team. Until they are added, I still think we will be vulnerable,especially away from home.
I hope I am wrong but I think Ashley is improving! Need to get rid of him quickly!
Peter, presumably Ashley doesn’t particularly want to pay for the advertising the association with NUFC brings. That is why the club must be self sustaining and non loss making. I think he has realised that if you don’t spend, it will eventually catch up with you. That day has now come, hopefully it’s not too little too late..
I was feeling a little more positive after getting 2 young current internationals to sign for us along with Saivet & Doumbia to strengthen our weak as piss squad, but as has been already said, we’ve missed a trick (again) not getting a proven Premier League goal scorer and a decent commanding central defender and a left back who can play at left back. Can’t see us outscoring many teams especially once we go a goal behind (hope I’m proved wrong) and like many others I think its perm any 2 from us, the Mackems & Norwich although I’d love it, just love it, if Pardew’s Palace got sucked into the mix. Wonder what the relegation clause is with our 2 new Englishmen?
Very depressing reading indeed but said all along , before tonight’s results, it’s Norwich mackems and vile for me. We will scrape through my concern is the thinking of our manager….. How he devastated the post West Ham momentum with bizarre selection and setup was shite of the highest order. No faith in you schtevie…..prove me wrong.
We changed system against Watford because we had no recognised left back. McClaren is a good coach, and probably the best we’ve had since Bobby. A head coach is only a small factor in a teams performance. We are in the relegation zone because we are a poorly run club and a crisis has been building over several years.
5 wins will be most likely be enough because at least one of Norwich, Bournemouth or Swansea will have a bad run. Chances are we’ll win one of the six away games that Alex listed as not winnable. That leaves 4 wins from home games against WBA, City, Bournemouth, Sunderland, Swansea, Palace and Spurs; and away games against Norwich and Villa.
I think we’ll stay up by the skin of our teeth but thing won’t be easier next season unless we a better run at boardroom level. I fear its more likely that the board think ‘crisis averted’ and rest on their laurels leaving to another mess next season, with McClaren being made a scapegoat by our support and ending up as the fall guy.
Good coach? not seen any evidence of that
Crikey that was a depressing read!!!
Not way off the mark at all tho, whilst I can see us surviving it will definitely be close and no doubt due to others ineptitude as opposed to any improvement in performances from us.
Just as well we fluked a win at Bournemouth then (yes Steve we arent unlucky all the time) and Spurs had their usual underperformance against us at home. TBH I think 5 wins and a few draws should be enough. This time last year we were losing games by 3 and 4 so at least theres an improvement of sorts.
I’d be inerested to see what happens re Graham Carr in the summer seeing as for the first time his overseas transfer policy was binned to sign two PL players. Next we need to bin the under 25 policy as well, look at how well Huth has done at Leicester who was available and over 25.
McClaren will never get another job in the Premiership. That’s because he is not a Premiership class manager.
As for us, I don’t think we are adrift and I believe that (given the right plan) we can still survive this year.
Number 1 priority: we must stop shipping/gifting goals.
We are not the kind of team that can score 3 per game. Schteve’s biggest failure has been the horror show that is our defence. For all his defensive instincts, he is playing people out of position (or he is picking the wrong people for specific tasks) and it has cost us time and time again. Luckily for him, fans were only to happy to oblige him by jumping on Thauvin’s back and looking for scape-goats on the pitch (a bit like when Pardew threw Ben Arfa under the bus to justify his own “masterplan” against Southampton).
There was no reason to capitulate against Chelsea. That’s 2 points gone.
There was no reason to lose against Everton. Here is another 3.
No reason to concede against Villa. Here is another 2 points.
And let’s not discuss the games against Sunderland and Crystal Palace; could we really not get a couple of points from games whose forwards cannot score from open play against any other team?
There are 15 games to go. We need to beat Villa, Sunderland, Swansea, and Norwich. And get draws against Bournemouth, Stoke, Southampton, West Brom and Everton. Anything we get from the other 6 games (which include a wounded ManU, a practically manager-less ManCity and a crisis-ridden Chelsea) will be a welcome bonus. To my eyes, this list does not look like the 12 labours of Hercules. If we can’t accomplish this much, we’d be better off in the Championship.
Hi Anton – I wish I could share your enthusiasm but our record against these sides, bar Vile, is so poor I can’t see us beating any of them. We’ve won one in 8 against SAFC, one in 7 against Swansea. We can’t score away from home so does a win against Norwich look likely, particularly when their home form is better than ours?
If we can’t beat Bournemouth at home – there’s no point in stopping up.
But yes I agree, it IS possible to stay up. I just don’t think it’s going to happen. Would love to be wrong
Hi Alex – I take your point. We have not been particularly good for a long time, have we?
In terms of Sunderland, maybe I’m too stuck in the past and the good times before Pardew started picking a striker-less Newcastle squad to line up against them 🙂
Or the ancient times when we didn’t need to play 3 (!!!) centre-backs against the likes of Barcelona, let alone a Watford team which had just lost to Swansea in a terrible game and registered 2 shots on target.
Player for player there is no way that they or Vile, or Norwich, or West Brom or many others above us have a better squad. Our problem is that we haven’t had a pragmatic, decent manager who can make the most of the players at their disposal since Houghton.
I’m hoping (probably against reason) that McClaren will let players settle and do what they are getting paid to do without tripping them up.
No Man U to play again, 0-0 at OT and 3-3 at SJP
“McClaren simply can’t set a team up away from home. It was his downfall with England”
He did once, for one half away to Watford in the Cup (3-5-2 with Mbabu and Janmaat down the flanks), then changed when we went 1-0 down and we were shit.
Agreed, unfortunately. The priority going into the window was at least one forward and we’ve got nowhere. Lads on Twitter are going mental over this Doumbia because he’s good on the PlayStation and scored on the telly in the champions’ league but in the real world there was only us and Villa interested in him, which pretty damming. Happy to be wrong about him, like.
Your words make depressing reading Alex, especially since I totally agree with you..