Match Report and MOM v Everton

NWCherries98 said:
Good report.

Ramsdale 8 MOM - Decent distribution and quick off his line; his best game so far imo. Kept us in the game at many points, so for that he’s my MoM.

Stacey 6 - Not bad at all for your first PL start. Good tackling but also very loose on the ball. Promising display.

Cook 6 - Might need a rewatch but not great? Solid enough, but played a lot of hospital balls throughout the game, seems to be struggling with injury still?

Ake 8 - His positioning is genuinely world class at times. Always in the right place.

Rico 7 - Breakout game? Still some problems, but some fantastic last ditch blocks, consistently excellent set pieces and a good assist. An individual performance to build on.

H. Wilson 5 - Another anonymous performance. Bit of a luxury player? Those Free Kicks are a good luxury to have tbf.

L. Cook 8 - Engine, passing, dribbling, defending; he has it all. We’ve missed him.

Billing 7 - Occasionally lackadaisical, but good defensive work and a great range of passing throughout.

Solanke 7 - A great foil for King and Wilson, dare I say a long awaited successor for the Yann role? Just needs a goal.

Wilson 8 - Two great goals, back to his clinical best. Led the line well.

King 8 - Confident display of power, pace and trickery. Much better than recent games.

Subs
Fraser 8 - So much better than the Fraser we’ve seen recently, gamechanging performance. Shame he’s lost his smile a bit.

Lerma 6 - Some good interceptions, didn’t have too big an impact on the game.

Mepham N/A - 90 seconds.
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Were you at the game? Steve Cook took a knock to his left knee which required treatment and this was immediately before he had to sprint back with an Everton attacker. He never put enough pace on his passback and Ramsdale made a good interception. I think the pass back was with the leg he had just injured.

Other than that he had a decent game and was on a par with Ake.

For their goal Calvert-Lewin jumped higher because he had hold of Cook's shirt.
 
SlowDownDerek said:
I think we lose goal threat when we play with three in the middle. The wide players can get pinned back and Wilson gets isolated.

We had to add the extra man in there in our first Championship season after that drubbling at Watford it wasn't until we got Yann who gave us the link and goal threat we needed in a 4-4-1-1. Solanke could be that player for us at this level. He's got a big part to play.
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Time will tell. I’m not convinced by him yet but it’s early days and he is only going to get better. Yann brought lots of goals and I think you need to do that with two up front as you will concede.

I think you also have to be adamant the front three don’t retreat beyond a certain line. That way they don’t become a permanent five. Just as when you play wing backs you have to be adamant they don’t sit too deep.

This is why I think we stick to 4-4-2, we can’t coach the other two systems to be brave enough or be effective.
 
Neil Dawson said:
Time will tell. I’m not convinced by him yet but it’s early days and he is only going to get better. Yann brought lots of goals and I think you need to do that with two up front as you will concede.

I think you also have to be adamant the front three don’t retreat beyond a certain line. That way they don’t become a permanent five. Just as when you play wing backs you have to be adamant they don’t sit too deep.

This is why I think we stick to 4-4-2, we can’t coach the other two systems to be brave enough or be effective.
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As much as I like the look of him he'll need to add goals or at the very least assists to justify his place.

Well, as you know I don't think everything is necessarily down to coaching, just like all our problems previously weren't down to our transfer policy. Maybe Howe just prefers two in the middle - fair play to him if he does. It works. That said I'm sure we'll see three in the middle this season away from home.
 
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SlowDownDerek said:
As much as I like the look of him he'll need to add goals or at the very least assists to justify his place.

Well, as you know I don't think everything is necessarily down to coaching, just like all our problems previously weren't down to our transfer policy. Maybe Howe just prefers two in the middle - fair play to him if he does. It works. That said I'm sure we'll see three in the middle this season away from home.
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All formations work. If you play them right. I think we need Lerma for Friday and for me it would be Solanke that missed out with Fraser in for Wilson.

All good problems to have though!
 
We have yet to see how Lerma, L.Cook, Billing and Solanke all gel together into whatever system Eddie pursues with...maybe back to more possession....I noticed Everton had slightly more today.
Next week will be a good test.....that lot seem quite good defensively so far.
Exciting weeks ahead!
 
paul49 said:
Were you at the game? Steve Cook took a knock to his left knee which required treatment and this was immediately before he had to sprint back with an Everton attacker. He never put enough pace on his passback and Ramsdale made a good interception. I think the pass back was with the leg he had just injured.

Other than that he had a decent game and was on a par with Ake.

For their goal Calvert-Lewin jumped higher because he had hold of Cook's shirt.
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Tbf I did say “Might need a rewatch”- upgrade his rating to a 7 then if it makes you feel better. Personally I thought he was average. A 6 is still a positive game.
 
Solanke was signed as a natural striker so it’s tempting to judge his performance as such. He’s not really playing a striker’s role so I think he should be judged on a slightly different skill set. Either way, based on today there is some room for improvement.

I felt in the 1st half, the gap between S. Cook and Aké was too big. I guess Lerma would usually be covering that space so I suppose it was one of those games where a bit of defensive uncertainty could be genuinely be attributed to “the way we play”.

I still think S. Cook is struggling for fitness. No one is going to question his bravery, but he still seems a little slow to react and at times a bit cumbersome. It was good to see Rico put in such a strong 2nd half. He needs to maintain that level now.

I was really impressed by how King reacted to getting shunted out wide and Fraser being dropped. They were the difference makers after the break and like Rico, we need to see that level consistently now.
 
The away support was feeble. No real noise and loads quit early. I know it's not a barometer with much accuracy, but it felt in keeping with our team's energy and drive that was largely unmatched by Everton. So called big team expectations dashed perhaps? Chortle.
 
Noticeable how much bigger and taller our players are this season
Gives us a real threat at set pieces
Hopefully in future games we’ll get it straight into the box all the time and not prat about with short ones
 
The obvious switch (other than whether its Wilson Jnr or Fraser) is Little Cook in for Solanke. I really like Solanke but away from home a deep number 10 in Cook allows for midfiled control but a link to Wilson. Cook is perfect for that.
 
AFCBilbo said:
Noticeable how much bigger and taller our players are this season
Gives us a real threat at set pieces
Hopefully in future games we’ll get it straight into the box all the time and not prat about with short ones
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Yeah, I had to laugh at the commentator saying that we shouldn't do short corners; given the size of our team, we're more of a threat in the box.

Made me feel nostalgic for SOD's magic midgets.....
 
Good team and individual performances.

Pre match concern was the full backs, both defended well, Rico covered to stop richarlison having a free header, the goal was a combination of king not tracking back, lewis cook not blocking the through ball or cross and steve cook being out jumped. Good to be able to bring on lerma to see out the game,
 
As a fan base we seem to get really agitated by short set pieces. Far more than I hear at other grounds and it’s similar with playing out from the back. The Sky commentator picked up on this yesterday and I don’t think it helps the players with such a nervous atmosphere.

I think it’s good we have a wide variety of set pieces as it always keeps the opponents guessing. For our 2nd goal, Everton weren’t set up for an immediate low ball in like that. It was clever play even if the deflection was slightly lucky. Had Delph managed to clear it, such is the fine margins, we’d have had thousands moaning about it and probably numerous threads on here too.
 
Lots of comments on Cook(L), Billing and Lerma, nobody mentioned that one David Brooks, is close to fitness and will be in contention for a place soon.

Fraser and Wilson (H) likely to be subs quite often if those four are all fit and firing.
 
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hba1 said:
Neil a little bit picky but we didn't beat Saints in 1987 it was a draw on the day we won the tie over 2 legs having won at home. A quick look at the records on the net and we don't ever seem to have won there at all although perhaps going back pre 1950's might prove otherwise. It would be nice to break the duck next Friday.
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Where were you for the Hampshire Cup?? ;-)
 
rgb said:
Lots of comments on Cook(L), Billing and Lerma, nobody mentioned that one David Brooks, is close to fitness and will be in contention for a place soon.

Fraser and Wilson (H) likely to be subs quite often if those four are all fit and firing.
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Is this an injury update you’ve read somewhere? I thought Brooks was due back mid October?
 
Brooks - Eddie mentioned on Solent that Danjuma and Kelly were close to return but no word on Brooks. Could mean something or nothing!

Also - the video on COWS shows Calvert-Lewin with a handful of Steve Cook's collar as he scores, pulling Cook down. Ref would not have seen but surely lino should have flagged.
 
rgb said:
Lots of comments on Cook(L), Billing and Lerma, nobody mentioned that one David Brooks, is close to fitness and will be in contention for a place soon.

Fraser and Wilson (H) likely to be subs quite often if those four are all fit and firing.
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First match Brooks has walked in without his protective boot on. He reckons another five or six weeks at least. Gosling and Smith are walking ok.
 
langham said:
Brooks - Eddie mentioned on Solent that Danjuma and Kelly were close to return but no word on Brooks. Could mean something or nothing!

Also - the video on COWS shows Calvert-Lewin with a handful of Steve Cook's collar as he scores, pulling Cook down. Ref would not have seen but surely lino should have flagged.
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It was blindside of the lino. VAR should have spotted that.
 
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