Not brutal, but cynical. Wrapped his arms around the shoulders/neck of a man in the box 2 or 3 times and he went down with a shooting chance right in front of Howard.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum--official Everton Thread
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Not brutal, but cynical. Wrapped his arms around the shoulders/neck of a man in the box 2 or 3 times and he went down with a shooting chance right in front of Howard.
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Nicholas Constantino
Guest
Didn't watch the game, and haven't watched Everton much this season, but certain styles of play fit the league better and certain styles of play fit the champions league better.
United, especially in the last few years under Fergie were masters of the Premier League, but didn't quite play as well in the Champions League, though they did make a few finals. Ferguson knew exactly how to play teams in the league and exactly how to win the league. Europe is different.
It could be the opposite for Martinez and Everton maybe the style they play is more suited to the European game.
I think this is part of it, but it isn't so much that the style isn't suited for the league. The problem is that in the league we did well last year, but now each team has played us three times under Martinez. They know how to close down on our attacks up the middle, how to play the offside trap against Lukaku, etc. Add to that injured players (some of whom returned today) and a lack of wide options, and there we are.
In Europe our opponents have not had as much time to figure us out and thus have a harder time shutting us down.
And, honestly some of it might just be down to motivation. It's been a long time since I've seen Everton play like they did today. We were threatening in the box for most of the game. Those four goals could have easily been 5 or 6 with the number of close chances we made. Plus to hold them to one goal, even after we went a man down in the 61 is nothing to complain about.
English teams park the bus, Martinez even predicted before yesterday it would be a more open game and that Young Boys will play their game and Everton would look to take advantage.
I think Lukaku has a lot of potential and A LOT of developing to do. It's easy to lay the blame on him because of the price tag, but the fact is that the entire team is not creating chances or taking enough shots. Lukaku can poach and he can out muscle defenders 1-on-1 if he gets the early ball, but he's not getting the service he needs to do those things.
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Nicholas Constantino
Guest
I agree. With a team like Everton that doesn't have an unlimited supply of money, I never think its a good idea to use the majority of the transfer budget on one player. Especially a player that was already on loan at that club. Basically what happened is Everton used all, or most of their money, I think, on a player they already had, so they didn't improve their team and stagnated.
Not that Lukaku isn't going to improve and isn't a good player. But he seems like a player that the balance needs to be right to get the best out of him, and so far they're having a hard time doing that at the moment.
Martinez has to go,we should not be 14th or 15th in the table below f•cking Crystal Palace and West brom.
I'm still not quite in the Martinez-out camp, though I can understand the sentiment. I only got to watch the first half because of a work commitment, but from what I saw we were actually making an effort to adapt: playing long balls and fast counter attacks. It looked like Martinez is finally realizing we should be playing to the strengths of players like Lukaku and Lennon.
That said, our finishing and defense were still awful and one of the commentators said that this is the 12th time we've conceded the first goal this season and we have never come back to win one of those. Grim times. If it wasn't for the Europa play I don't know what I would do with myself.
Thought I'd revive this thread in honor of this afternoon. Last English team in Europe, playing on a shit pitch in a warzone. COYB
