daredevil Timber, Rice, MLS and Merino are man for man all downgrades on White, Partey, Zinchenko and Xhaka in terms of speeding up the tempo and ball progression.

No.

    daredevil We have had plenty of games like this too when the aforementioned personnels are playing.

    Zinchenko is the worst of the lot at taking additional touches and slowing the game down

        Good first half, we are moving the ball well... they have literally come here to just defend. Think we will crack them open in the second half.

        The Merino - Rice partnership in the centre is miserable ploddery. Partey or Nwaneri need to come on for Merino soon-ish in the second half. Merino hasn't been awful but he doesn't compliment Rice.

        If Saka wasn't playing, I'd fancy Everton to nick a point given how Odegaard, Martinelli and Havertz are performing.

        merino is nowhere near the player I hoped he'd be.

        The worst thing about Everton is despite the fact that they’re a shite team most of the season, some of their players - like Pickford, Branthwaite and Tarkowski - are capable of putting in a high level performance every now and again

        Seriously, does Ode have a concussion or something? He is SOOOOOOOO off

        Saliba a bit too cocky there

        Also the fact that we aren’t rinsing 50 year old Ashley Young with every attack is embarrassing. Shows that we have no plans to fix that side

        daredevil — right there with you except for Zinchenko vs Timber. It’s close when Timber plays on the left, but definitely not the case when he plays RB.

        I still think people underestimate how much Xhaka did for the team and Martinelli.

          Clrnc

          Our ability to create chances from open play has nosedived over the past two seasons and it all starts from the players at the back setting the pace and passing through the lines. No matter what combinations we play, we haven't been as good as in 22/23 at moving the ball.

              Finishing/final ball is the problem, not much else. We should have had a healthy lead at the break.

              This is just so shit. Absolutely no quality bar Saka.

              If we concede, we're done. Wouldn't put it past us, so sloppy and poor all round.

              daredevil I reject this idea that creating chances is an emergent property of a system more than the result of individual action. We've had plenty of chances to create chances, but the ball is poor or the shot is tame.

                Saka is beating two players time and time again, but then a third defender comes and helps out. Can some of our others players do something ffs?

                Kai not offering much today. Other than Saka hard to see a goal coming.