Everton v Bournemouth

Well done Sef, managed to bring us the elusive “comfortable home win” we’ve all been craving for… checks calendar… the last calendar year! Up the toffees. Happy weekend all!

Interesting that 8 of the 11 starters were English. Don't see that every day anymore.

Knight of Thorgothshire wrote:Interesting that 8 of the 11 starters were English. Don't see that every day anymore.

Classic Dyche, he won't rest until all 11 of them are English. Me and my lads used to joke about "Brexit Burnley" during his time there, he did select some all English XIs. Then he signed that Icelandic lad, Gudmundsson, and Vydra and Cornet, which spoiled the joke a bit.

My late post-match thoughts tonight centre around the scoring of goals. Quite an important element of the game, I'm sure you'll agree. And you may well recall that we had a little difficulty in this department last season.

Well, that's now 9 in 5 league games, a run which includes the blank against Arsenal. If you include the cup games it's 13 in 7, and that includes both Arsenal and that crime against football otherwise known as the first half against Doncaster.

7 different scorers during that run...

Doucoure x3
DCL x3
Garner x2
Danjuma x2
Beto
Tarkowski
Harrison

I think back to some of the late Lampard-era games, losing to the likes of Southampton and Wolves at home, when not only were we losing but we weren't creating much. We cannot complain about that this season. We are playing attacking football and creating a fuckload of chances. So, time for some more numbers - league games only for this season:

Fulham - 0 goals, 3.07 xG, 19 attempts, 9 on target
Villa - 0 goals, 0.71 xG, 9 attempts, 2 on target
Wolves - 0 goals, 1.07 xG, 15 attempts, 7 on target
Sheff Utd - 2 goals, 2.62 xG, 16 attempts, 6 on target
Arsenal - 0 goals, 0.27 xG, 8 attempts, 1 on target
Brentford - 3 goals, 1.67 xG, 18 attempts, 6 on target
Luton - 1 goal, 2.74 xG, 23 attempts, 5 on target
Bournemouth - 3 goals, 2.09 xG, 25 attempts, 8 on target

So that's an average of 1.12 goals per game, not great, but it includes the four blanks in the first five games. Average attempts per game - 16.6, on target, 5.5.

I want to contrast that with the last 8 games of the Lampard reign. The website I use doesn't show xG for last season...

West Ham (0-2 defeat) - 0 goals, 5 attempts, 2 on target
Southampton (1-2) - 1 goal. 13 attempts, 5 on target
Brighton (1-4) - 1 goal, 10 attempts, 4 on target
City (1-1, incredibly) - 1 goal, 2 attempts, 1 on target
Wolves (1-2) - 1 goal, 12 attempts, 6 on target
Bournemouth (0-3) - 0 goal, 15 attempts, 3 on target
Leicester (0-2) - 0 goals, 12 attempts, 2 on target
Fulham (0-0) - 0 goals, 9  attempts, 4 on target

Average of 0.5 goals per game, average attempts 9.8, on target 3.4.

Not much difference in those two runs of games in terms of difficulty - maybe the Lamps run was a touch tougher. And I realise that the late Lamps era is a low bar to compare against. Nevertheless the difference is clear - over twice as many goals, nearly 7 more attempts on goal per game on average, 2 more on target per game, on average.

We're actually playing some attacking football. I'm not seeing all the games and regular match-goers may disagree to a degree, but my lad is seeing all the games on streams. The old "defensive Dyche" cliché isn't playing out here. I do wonder whether Dyche now has the team he wants, with proper wingers and proper target men and a solid CB pairing. Add to that a midfield duo that might be able to control games and the future might look a bit brighter.

The concern in the above stats is in the two games we've played so far against genuinely good teams, Villa and Arsenal. And the Arsenal game may have been a lesson, in that I saw that game and while we couldn't really get the ball off them for long stretches, it felt like Dyche was trying to bore his way to a 0-0 anyway. The problem was, at no point in that game did I think Arsenal wouldn't score, they're too good and were always going to take one of their chances eventually. So with the derby in mind, this leads me to think that we should take a "don't die wondering" approach to the games against the good teams. Don't sit back too much. I guess a lot of this comes down to confidence - we had none going into the Arsenal game, whereas we might have a bit next week.

In summary, it all comes down to goals, taking your chances. This isn't breaking news, of course. But the important thing is that we are at least creating loads of chances, and in terms of making the most of those chances, the trend is moving in the right direction. We remain in the shit until we're no longer in the shit (another example of stating the fucking obvious) but I think there are more hopeful signs than this time last season.

The season so far is playing out the way I thought it would before it started - that the promoted teams would struggle and that it would be easier to survive this season than last, even if we were playing at the same level. Watching the Luton v Spurs game earlier today reminded me of the chasm that exists between top and bottom in the PL. The Bissouma sending off made a game of it but Spurs really were light years ahead of Luton in every aspect of the game - in how they used the ball, in how they defended, even in how they used their bodies to physically snuff out danger before it developed. They had way more class, but also way more nous. Luton did create chances given they had the extra man, but their finishing was woeful.

I didn't see our Luton game so I'm not going to ask how the fuck we lost to them, my lad just puts it down to two set-piece calamities. But today was also a reminder that we're not the only team that has struggled to score, and when I look at the league table tonight, 8 teams have scored fewer goals than us this season (and for the record, only 10 teams have a better defensive record than us).

We have a tough run of games coming up now. So it's just as well that, the Luton blip aside, we're on a decent run of results and performances, and might be building some confidence, and may well have a solid and pretty obvious starting XI now, with a bit of depth on the bench. We remain in the shit until we're no longer in the shit.  But there is some genuine scope for optimism, for the first time in god knows how long.

Great win but Bournemouth were shit and some important decisions went our way for a change. It was as big a must win as any game so far this season, because we can’t expect to get many if any points from the Shite, West Ham, Brighton, palace or Man U.

Lucky that there are four sides really struggling, because we’d be in the shit otherwise. Survival is all that counts this season, and possibly next if there’s no improvement in our finances/.

Garner was great, as was Branthwaite, and Harrison looks like he can strike a ball which nobody else in our side seems capable of. We are a squad of triers with limited ability. I know Doucoure had been important for us but he is a fucking terrible footballer.

hairy cataract wrote:Great win but Bournemouth were shit and some important decisions went our way for a change. It was as big a must win as any game so far this season, because we can’t expect to get many if any points from the Shite, West Ham, Brighton, palace  or Man U.  

Lucky that there are four sides really struggling, because we’d be in the shit otherwise. Survival is all that counts this season, and possibly next if there’s no improvement in our finances/.

Garner was great, as was Branthwaite, and Harrison looks like he can strike a ball which nobody else in our side seems capable of. We are a squad of triers with limited ability. I know Doucoure had been important for us but he is a fucking terrible footballer.

This is true, but I just feel that the balance in the team is a bit better now, and the team overall is a bit better than last season.

1. Branthwaite is a much better option than Keane or Coady, maybe not as good as Mina, but Mina was no good while he spent half of every season getting splinters in his arse anyway.
2. Harrison as a wide option gives us better balance in midfield than either Iwobi or Gray, IMO. I appreciate he's only played a couple of games so far but I'm basing this mostly on what I saw of him at Leeds.
3. Garner must be close to becoming a starter in central midfield. If he happens to directly replace Idrissa then that's an improvement in terms of our ability to create from the middle, and retain possession. (I still think Gueye will start in certain games against certain opponents though, even if Garner starts more frequently in CM).
4. Our options up front are of course considerably better, especially while DCL stays fit.

It's all cause for hope, but that's all it is right now, given how many opportunities to take three points at home that we've spurned so far this season. We've had some results to cheer of late but it's absolutely right that we remain grounded and remember what we are and where we are.

Getting this in early as will be busy all week.

Everton travel across the park to Anfield for the 242nd Derby on Saturday 21st October 2023.
K/O 12.30.

Not many expecting anything from this fixture as majority Evertonians feel that the gap between both clubs is light years,
For me I would just turn off the light and beat the shit out these kopites.

Never one for lacking optimism so going 1-2 in favour of the mighty blues.
Going for a Jack Harrison screamer with a nodded Down headed goal by DCL

UTFTs