We look ahead to Everton v Man City, discuss penalties and laugh at Newcastle.
Hello and welcome to episode 68 of the Blues Brothers Everton podcast. Three of us here today. This is Ben in the captain's chair, because Austin is currently engaged in some sort of Boxing Day festivities, so we hope he's having a wonderful fun time doing that. So you don't get his insights this week, but we do have Adam who is with us. Adam, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good thanks, yeah, had a good Christmas. It's been today making stick or brick models and Lego models and playing with dolls, and then Adam has two young girls, To be clarified.
Speaker 1:he's just not really into stick or bricks and dolls.
Speaker 2:I was good. Yeah, I was just about to make some of my joke, but you know you beat me to it, you've got to be quick, you better be quick around it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But did the girls have a good Christmas?
Speaker 2:More importantly, yeah, so they loved it. Yeah, they had a really good Christmas, thank you.
Speaker 1:Right, amazing, and we've got Andrew with us as well. Andy, how are you Hi?
Speaker 3:Ben, I'm good. Thank you, yeah, I had a fun day round at Mum and Dad's yesterday, as always. Obviously, you know, briefly, how chaotic it was when you were that joined us on that video call. Yeah, for those of you not, like.
Speaker 1:we're recording this on Boxing Day. You know, let's have a segue at the very beginning, because you know this is what this podcast is and Ellen and I, obviously in DC, there's a Zoom call with our parents yesterday and Andrew and Mary were there and Adam and the girls were there and the sound came on and it it sounded like what I imagine, like a war zone sound, like there was just noises and sirens and shouting. It was just. There was an air of general chaos, but wonderful, so breakery, brilliant chaos, but like chaos on the left. So I can't imagine how it was for you guys actually on the ground, as it were, on the front lines. But yeah, it was great. So everyone had a wonderful Christmas. That's good. That's lovely to hear. We hope all of our listeners also have a wonderful Christmas.
Speaker 1:We are recording this, as I say, on Boxing Day, so ahead of the man City game. You are hopefully listening to this before the man City game, but may well not get to it until after the man City game, in which case you'll know exactly what went right or wrong. We won't. So you are listening to this from the future. We're going to kick off by talking about the last two games. That's how we recorded the pod wars before the Burnley game.
Speaker 1:And if memory serves, I think a couple of you went for two nil, as the other two one, I think, and I think every Adam and Adam and Austin, who isn't here both went for, both went for two nil, so you both were correct. So, adam, given your prediction was correct, I'm going to come to you first. Talk to me about Burnley, how you sort of felt about that, like what you liked, what you didn't like, anything.
Speaker 1:you know thoughts on that and then also feel free to talk about Spurs as well, which is the other game that we've played since then, where I think you know the general consensus is we were really unlucky not to get something out of that. So talk to me about those things.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to start off with a cough. There you go, that might happen for a while, I apologize. So I mean, for Burnley, we've over the years it's not since like Moises time, where we've gone into a game like taking a lead and then just look really, really comfortable. And that's exactly what it, what it was Really we took our chances, the one we got them, got into a really early lead and then, you know, manage Burnley's attacking threat, attacking threat well and never really looked uncomfortable. Perversely, you know, we got, obviously got, three points from those two games. But for me the more impressive performance overall was actually Spurs, because it spurs away and also generally we actually played better football and you could see the sort of the approach that we took. So I'm probably going to talk more about that game actually, because I think we've all said and I'm probably going to steal both of you from here, but we've said in the past how you know we go to, we go to know down to Spurs away, and then the number of times we've just absolutely collapsed or it stays to nil, and then they might add a third in the second half and it's a really easy victory for them. Much like, much like it was. You know, for us a certainly. But we saw the. We saw like probably the best Dice Everton, I'd say, of the sea of the season so far, and unfortunately I had nothing to show for it.
Speaker 2:But at this stage and you know, we're a team that's got 16 points, but we're not a team that's got 16 points, we're a team that's got 26 points. And that's always the work, the way that you need to. We need to look at it because we're a good team with a really good philosophy, a really good way of playing. And you saw that we knew exactly how to play against Spurs. You know we pressed them really high. We, you know we won the ball back early. I mean, there was a really opportunity where I think a good, a good example is the opportunity where Dan Juma produces a really good save from the car. He over on his left foot, he tips it over the bar because we win the ball back. And then we've got the players and it's not just about winning the ball back, but it's having the players in the, in the positions where they can really hurt, where they can really hurt the opposition. So if you look at that, if you look at like that, that instance, you can see, dan Juma is not there for the sake of it. He's there because he knows that there's a high chance that we're going to win the ball back in that tight in the area from Spurs is throwing or whatever it was which we do the ball.
Speaker 2:I think you know when Neil wins the ball and then sprays a pass to Dan Juma and he's one on one with the defender and you know you could argue that you could have squared it to to to Calvert Lewin, but you know he pretty, it was a good shot and a really good save from from a Vicario.
Speaker 2:So I mean, we were incredibly unlucky not to not to get a point. We absolutely deserved at least a point and I'd argue that, you know, contrary to what Son said in his interview, obviously you know he would say he would say otherwise we deserved. I'd say that we deserved all three points actually. And if that's the sort of performance that we're going to put in against a team who very much have the capability to blow teams away with their style of play, you look at that result and it was disappointing, but the actual performance was, you know, absolutely brilliant and the terms of the way to look forward to, to to Dice Dice's Everton in the future, for the rest of the season and, you know, hopefully seasons to come. We're not the sort of narrative of him being some sort of dinosaur as well and truly dead amongst pretty much everyone now, unless you're Barry Glenn Denning.
Speaker 1:Barry Glenn Denning just regularly gets a pasting on this podcast, quite fairly, because I don't think he watches it. What the fuck is it?
Speaker 2:But yeah, I agree, carry on, yeah, he's, and, like I think Michael Richard said you know Michael Richard's on the match of the day's analysis it was all about Everton and saying how fantastic we were and it was good that we got the praise that we deserved. And I think it was I can't be Michael Richard or his other person that was. That was the point on there on the other day but they said you know, we're actually, we play good football and we're exciting to watch. And not many I don't think many Evertonians would have probably expected that, given what the sort of narrative around Dice's philosophy was before he, when he joined.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with all of that. Andy, tell me what you think Burnley Spurs and then we'll go from there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd agree 100% with everything that Adams just had and especially I agree with the point that the doubts that a number of people had, both Evertonians and all the fans of other clubs that might have had when Dice was appointed those doubts have well and truly evaporated. I mean, the way that his, the way the team currently are now, reminds me of when Moise was first appointed and his all started on, you know, started to go on an upward trend there and you got the feeling that this was a team that could go places. And it's a similar story now because the underlying numbers, consistently since the start of the season, don't lie. We regularly were having less of the ball, but we're doing much more with it and we're regularly having more shots and a higher XG than the opposition on a consistent basis. Now, if you are doing that gaming game out, yeah, you're going to have the odd game where you don't get what you deserve. We saw that earlier this season and it was certainly the case in the Spurs game. But more often than not, if you keep doing that, you're going to score goals and get points and win football matches, and you could play the Spurs game 10 times and we get something out of it on seven or eight occasions.
Speaker 3:It was just one of those two occasions, unfortunately, where the ball didn't quite drop for us. Obviously, we were within inches of making it to all right at the end. When the ball hits Vicario's knee and bounces out, if that's a millimeter the other way, it bounces in and I'm just so happy as an Evertonian watching productive football. And the flip side of that is it's so good to see us or one of the many things that are good is to see us see possession but have the confidence that the defense can soak it up and then, even if they do get in behind, you've got pick for their goal, because all these games that the opposition have more possession, they're not peppering our goal with shots.
Speaker 3:Even Manchester United that won 3-0. That wasn't. It was a 3-0 game because that was the score. Equally, we could all agree that it wasn't a 3-0 game at all, if that makes sense, because they didn't do much for their three goals and that's arguably the most anomalous result that we've had this season. So it's just really refreshing to be able to watch a team and you get the feeling that it's doing things. It's doing good things. It's being productive, it's going places and, yeah, it's a good on the pitch. Anyway, it's a good time to be a blue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally. So in that mind, you know I do. To your point, andy, they've got three goals, one of which is the best goal you will ever see in your life.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And they had four shots, like you know. So four shots on target, sorry, they had nine shots, four shots on target, we had 24 shots and six shots on target. So I think the issue as always with Everton, this was the issue in the Spurs game as well it comes down to that conversion. Right, if you're creating that number of chances, or that number of scoring opportunities, how regularly are you converting them into two, three, four goals? And that was the problem against Spurs is that there were several chances in that game. Yes, we were unlucky, dan Juma, you know, really unlucky with the one off the bar at the minute, great save from Vicario from the one earlier. But there were other chances in that game, you know. I distinctly remember Calvin Lewis in the first half, ranked clean through Jack.
Speaker 1:Harrison was running clean through and took a bad touch and ended up, you know, having two defenders catch up with it. So it's in those situations, you know what can you be, what can you be doing to improve that conversion rate, Because actually that's where you're going to make the biggest difference to turning those, those sort of performances where you're creating a lot, into points. But yeah, I, it sounds weird to say, given that we lost, but I think Spurs was our best result, the best game of the season performance wise, because I think to go toe to toe away from home with a really good Spurs side we're playing a really aggressive, like high energy brand of football and to basically play them off the park for 70 minutes we had a bad 20 minutes. We had a bad start to the game. We gave away a couple of circles after that. I don't think anyone was neutral watching it. I don't even think a lot of Spurs fans would argue that we didn't deserve to get something out again, given how we, how we, how we played.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just just to add to that. I mean obviously went two nil down, and Adam alluded to this a few moments ago. There definitely are times where we would have capitulated in that game and ended up losing it by five or six, and indeed there was a game at Spurs I can't remember exactly when it was we were five nil down after about 55 minutes, and the only reason it didn't end up seven or eight is because Spurs basically just coasted and tried anymore.
Speaker 1:It was in the lamb part. Was that under the lamb part?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we had that many managers that couldn't remember exactly where that figured into the managerial spectrum you can look at.
Speaker 1:you know we probably don't do that under Antiovotti, but you will cut under lamb part. You will come to Benitez, you go back and you will come to.
Speaker 1:we had games out under Cooman where there was a soft underbelly to Everton, where if you got a couple of early goals, we would just fall apart and we didn't come back. So you can't say, like you know it was in the comeback, but like we did everything apart from score the goal in the comeback. So the most amazing thing for me is that we, like we went two nil down and that wasn't the end of the game. Yeah, we actually were able to get ourselves back into it, whereas you know, under lamb part or, or, or Benitez or several other managers, two nil down after 20 minutes you just switched off. You'd have gone to like do the dishes or like wash the cars.
Speaker 1:And because you just we're not getting. I just know we're not getting back into this game. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was his only thing coming up that we saw that propose. Sorry, we were like quarter of me and we're also about, you know, a quarter of the ball away from coming away from a point. Yeah, totally With that, with that UNICEF, right to the end. Yeah, totally. I'm just looking at a couple of our you know, I mean I know we talk about XG a lot, but you know, just listen to the start of November. There's only been, there's only been, two games, two Premier League games, where our XG has actually been higher, been lower than the Oppositions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're creating loads and loads of chances and you know we just need to get better at finishing them off and then we'll be okay. But, as you said, adam I think you mentioned this earlier like you look at the table and you sort of you know, after the games. We're recording this after the Burnley Liverpool finish, while the Villa man United game is currently going on. It's two-ones of Asta Villa, in case anyone was interested. But if you look at the table, you have to treat others as being on 26 points. I know we're not obviously because of the deduction, but like in terms of like how?
Speaker 1:where do we fit within the league? Where are we in terms of quality of team? With 26 points, that puts us in 10th place above Chelsea in Bournemouth, one point below Brighton, two points below man United, three points below Newcastle. Right, so that's the quality of team and this is the other thing, and I'm going to go on a slight sort of tangent rant about this. As Evertonians, we have suffered a lot in the last two years. Well, honestly, we need to calm the fuck down about the prospect of relegation. Like and this is people online and social media Evertonians are the worst Evertonians in the world.
Speaker 1:But like Luton win today and then Burnley won last week and everyone's melting down that we're in a relegation fight. Like we were eight points behind. We were five, however, many points behind them three games ago and we've, you know we're now above them because we're playing well. Like we're a top half of the table team. Like, if we've not had the points deduction, the idea that between now and the end of the season, we're going to lose points to Sheffield United, luton, burnley, forrest Pavis, like it's just nonsense. Like and everyone needs to like there's going to be some weeks where it looks closer because we had a temporary deduction and we don't play tomorrow and we play man City. Like you know, if we, if we lose to man City tomorrow which is what everyone expects everyone's going to be going we're in a relegation fight. We're in a relegation fight, you know play.
Speaker 1:Man City every week, right Luton aren't going to win every week. Burnley aren't going to win every week. Burnley got you know, should have been bad five and ill by Liverpool today. It's a miracle that it was only two. Like we're going to be fine, and actually the stress of involving yourself in the idea we're in a relegation battle will just it's not good for you individually but also it's not good for, like you know, the atmosphere around the club. We can't treat every game as if like, oh, we're in a relegation battle because we're genuinely not. I know the tables, the table technically. If it ended today you'd say, oh, I have to win a relegation battle. I confidently predict we will be 10 points clear of the relegation zone come end of season. Like absolutely confidently we will avoid relegation by 10 points, like because it just we're just a good football team and yeah, and that's before.
Speaker 3:we may or may not get some points given back to us following the appeal. It's perfectly possible we could end up with three or four points being given back. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that's the expectation.
Speaker 2:I would lose the Twitter hysteria for anything. I love it. Evitonians, just like bending over backwards to out to out, worry each other and like it's absolutely fantastic. I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally I agree. So, yeah, that will. I think we're all agreed. Played great against. Spurs should have got more.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about two players individually because I think it's worth. There's interesting discussions about them. One is Andrei Gomez and the other is Arnaud Danjouma, and I'll sort of we'll do them together and I'll sort of kick it off. But like I think for a long time the assumption was that Gomez wasn't in favor, wasn't favored by Daesh, wasn't. Was someone we were looking to move out on high wages, probably not going to contribute, doesn't fit the system, blah, blah, blah, all these things.
Speaker 1:I thought after Gomez came on against Spurs. I thought he was the best player on the park playing in that number 10, sort of the Decoray role. Like I don't think you could play him deeper because I don't think he has the same physicality that you know you need in the deep part of the pitch in the decision. But I think we might have, you know, not accidentally, because I don't think Sean Daesh does these things accidentally, but like we may well have stumbled onto a very creative solution to the fact Decoray is injured Because also the other thing Gomez gives you that Decoray doesn't, and you saw this quite a lot. Someone did a stitch of all these touches like all of his moments during the Spurs game and put it on Twitter and what you saw is that his ability to spot a path and that incisive sort of passing.
Speaker 1:You don't get that from Decoray. Decoray gives you a load of other stuff more physicality, more energy. He's going to charge around, he's going to, you know, get, be in the right place to stick those knock downs in. And you're going to get less of that from Gomez. What I think you are going to get from Gomez is, in games where we are facing teams who are happy to sit behind the ball, I think Gomez gives you something more creative. That's going to sort of unlock a pass. And then the other thing I would say and you know about Danjume is I think there's an interesting debate to be had because he came on in that game and he probably had two or three chances good chances that were. You know he was unlucky with a couple of them, probably should have squared another one of them, you know, and I think there's a debate to be had about how happy are we to live with that level of wastefulness, potentially in exchange for what he unlocks?
Speaker 1:because I think he's the only player we have that actually can get the ball and run it and run it to player and beat a man Like. I loved white McNeil, but he looks like he's wearing concrete boots all the time. Right, that's not his game. He's never going to knock it past and you know, and beat somebody for pace. I don't think that's Harrison's game either. He's more of a technical footballer, decorator, gardener. They're never going to do that.
Speaker 1:So I think if you look at the team, if you're going right, who's the most direct and is going to get the ball and actually beat a man and do something? I think Danjou was probably the only one, but it comes across the slightly blinkers and slightly wasteful. So I think there's an interesting like debate around what role he has to play in the second half of the season. So, andy, I'll throw to you first take Gomez, danjou, talk about whatever you like in that sense. And the other thing we need to talk about actually, because I looked at our fixture list and realized we just glazed over it was the caribou cup game. Because we need to, we'll do it in a second, but we need to talk about how to do it on his penalty. So we can all have a rant about that, but let's park that Do Gomez and Danjou my first yeah, gladly.
Speaker 3:Well, gomez is almost like a new signing, because I only half remembered that we still sort of employed him to play professional football for us. I knew he was there around the club, but because obviously we've not seen him in a shirt for such a long time, I'd almost thought that we still had him as an asset. I only saw them actually the day highlight of the Spirits game, but even from those it came across what a good game he had. I certainly agreed then with the points you've just made that his ability to sort of, you know, pick a pass out and have an overview of the game from midfield is definitely an asset that could be exploited. I mean, one thing I would say is if you played him I know him and James Garner were both in midfield for the Spurs game Now, long term are they a bit similar footballers, would you say Arguably just sort of lose a little bit too much physicality if you're playing Gomez and James Garner together, that's one possible worry I might have, although you have three quarters of one game of them together.
Speaker 3:So it's too early to make any sort of definitive statement on that. Regarding Dan Juma, it's a very interesting point you made about him being the only player to have the ability to run a run, but someone beat them. Now I'd argue that if you've got somebody you could do that. That's a skill that you should be able to use. You should be able to tell the dude when you've beaten your man, look up and square it or find a ball to somebody. I think that end product is something you can teach somebody, as opposed to not having what Dan Juma brings to you on the pitch at all. So I think, if you keep Dan Juma around the team or not, my view is to keep him on the team for his ability to do just that, just to beat a man for pace and go past them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I get that. I would challenge that slightly that you can teach him. I think players are who. They are right In terms of like you know we all watch Peter Beak repeat the same man 15 times, right.
Speaker 3:And I'm sure people told him.
Speaker 1:Hey, Peter, when you've beaten him once, you can just cross the ball right, Like, and if there is an element where it is kind of inbuilt in who he is that he is slightly blinkered and doesn't have that wide a vision. But, Adam, what do you think?
Speaker 2:With players like Dan Juma, you sort of focus on the things that they can't do, because the most important aspect of what they do up to that point is the final pass. And if you get players like Sean Mike Phillips, where you know they played football in a bowling alley, where and they have, you know, quite a little final product and you know you can write a lot of loads of players you know like, like you know, aaron Lennon was, you know, thrown in the same, in the same bracket you know, beats a man, but the final product wasn't always there. And you get very few players where they were wingers, where they beat a man, but actually they've got the decision making there as well. And Anthony Gordon as much as I hate to admit it is very much someone who is working on that level at the minute. And the thing was like Dan Juma is, he will do so much more for us with the way that he plays because he will be able to beat a man and, yeah, he won't always get the final ball correct and make the right decision, but he will make the right decision sometimes. But he will also know that he's not someone who can you can have one on one as a defending team, as a defender, so he will get doubled up, which frees up space. So there's other elements going on when you've got those sort of players. So I mean I'd like to see Dan Juma get more minutes because he just certainly gives us different options and I can see why. I can see why likes Harrison, he likes McNeil, because I think they're a bit more disciplined in terms of their, the way he wants them to play, and I think that's why Nathan Patterson is not favored at the right back position, for the same reason.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought I mean go go. I mean I think the comments absolutely blew me away for spurs. I mean I've said I didn't watch the game but from what I've read and what I've read and like the clips I've seen and watching the highlights and stuff, he is the most anti. On paper he's like sort of the most anti Dice player you can really have. But initially that's what I thought and then I remembered that when, when, when Dice was with, with Burnley, he bought Stephen DeFoe, who was exactly the sort of same sort of player, like he was a slow, a slow, creative center midfielder and it probably like my, my, me thinking that that Gomez is the most anti Dice player, is probably actually just lending itself to the.
Speaker 2:The thing that I've, you know, I what clerical complaining about, is the, the, the, the unfair treatment that that he gets in terms of his foot is playing style, whereas, yeah, he's not going to bring, he's not going to bring the same energy and things like you said about. You know, with the Corey, but you're absolutely right, he can pick a pass and he's a lot more composed on the ball and he'll bring us a different, a different elements and you know, I'm obviously a decor is not back, I assume, for tomorrow. So I imagine he will, imagine he'll learn your lineup alongside an honor, and I want to want to have either an honor, ghana or gay.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, I think the decor is definitely out and by Dice's press conference, the strong suggestion was that Ghana gay was also out. So I suspect that the midfield three we saw against Spurs will be the starting midfield three against man City, and messy decided to do something with system wise. But you know, we played very, very well against Spurs with that team.
Speaker 1:So you would have you would like to think you would have taken that rather than trying to do the only thing I could see him doing Although this would potentially still have some issues is potentially playing a five at the back and going to three centre backs with wing backs and playing and then, having like I don't know how that would, that would work practically, but having like an honor and Ghana sort of as the sitting midfielders, and then just having the three, three attackers like in front of them and then playing, so essentially it becomes a back five, you take a, you take the number 10 hour, put in a centre back, essentially to be a bit more defensive. So, but I don't expect that I think you'll probably stick with, stick with what, what we've had so far. But given that we've taken way down to it and let's talk about no, let's do an honor penalty. It was fucking shit, wasn't it? I don't. What do you think?
Speaker 2:No, it wasn't. I'll be the only person who will actually say this, and you probably know what I'm going to say. Yakuubu made a career out of that sort of penalty. It's just that. An honor, an honor. All right, let me retract an ounce.
Speaker 2:Penalty was shit in the sense that it didn't it, he didn't score, and it looks really, really shit because he didn't score and the way it went and the way he took it. The actual technique and the idea behind it is a sound, proven one, if you execute it correctly. The problem is is that burn Leno read it and he wait, and instead of like the gold, the attack, the pound to take a waiting for the goalkeeper to go down and then just sticking it, on the other side, the opposite happened. So you automatically look a 24-character when yeah, and then you exactly, and then sorry, then multiply the and then that's multiplied by the fact it's the deciding penalty. So it looks really arrogant and it's not.
Speaker 2:And it's not, but he's that sort of player. It's like he's. He's the, he's the player that you want to take beforehand. He's a sort of player that you want to take that fifth penalty because he's very Composed, he's technically very, very good and it's like people saying you just want him to smash it. He's not that an honor smart. He's never gonna do that, he's not. He's like he waltzes around the pitch. He's like he's not that sort of player. So, yeah, it looked really shit and it was shit, magnified by the fact, you know it was the winning penalty. But, like, the idea behind it Isn't a bad one and that's and I will die on that hill.
Speaker 1:Andy, do you want to die on the hill without him or do you want to say it was a shit penalty?
Speaker 3:I I Respect Adam's view and I understand why that sort of penalty can work. But the key thing is, if you're gonna take a penalty that's hit but with as if a kittens stroked it, you have to get that technique right and unfortunately he didn't and I'm very.
Speaker 3:I'm a horses, of course, as guy, when it comes to penalties, I would much rather prefer them to be hit with pace and power, because even if the goalkeeper goes the right way, it still might beat him and go into the net due to the power it's hit. And that's why Fulham scored so many of theirs, because Pitford got close to four of their penalties and I, gibly, should have done better with two of them. But the reason that they one of the reasons that they were they were able to go past him was they were drilled with pace and power. So Any time you don't hit a penalty with pace and power, in my eyes You're just give the goalkeeper an additional opportunity with which to save it. I understand the technique and Adam's right. You know you could be. Lots of players have managed to make a success out of that technique, but you have to get it right, because it's a bit like risk and reward football playing out from the back. The reward is there, but the risk of of cocking it up is greater and unfortunately for us and Anna didn't get his technique right.
Speaker 3:One thing I would query Is why Pitford didn't take one of the first penalties, for two reasons. One he took one for England in the Nations League final, which is a penalty shootout we lost but he nailed his penalty. And secondly, he's the player in the team that hits a dead ball in a match situation most often, so I. So I was a bit surprised that he wasn't amongst the first five. Certainly when you've got, like you know, gone again ahead of him because gone again, took the seventh one, I think, and missed yeah. So, yeah, so that's. I would query the order of penalty takers. You know what you can add. You can argue that would you have a nine or any first five amongst the players are on the pitch to the end? Yeah, you probably would. Would you have been taking the fifth one? Possibly, but yeah, I would. I think there should be an inquest at Finch Farm as to why Pickford wasn't amongst the first five we've, we've, we've gone.
Speaker 1:You've gone quite hard there. We're now at inquest level.
Speaker 3:I mean.
Speaker 1:It's a penalty shootout, not a covert inquiry. But I know I do hear you right, I I can, I can like get on board. I think there are five players who you would trust to take penalty, maybe before Jordan Pickford potentially, but I could understand it being fine, he definitely should be before a dresser gone again, because, as we have got to go on this, like I think I joked about it before and Before the penalty shootout started that we shouldn't let gay take one Even if we get to 11. We should just, we should sacrifice him and just and we say we'll just take 10 like yeah.
Speaker 1:He just can't. Whatever it is technically about the process of shooting, he just can't do so yeah the idea that he was taking one before pick was obviously absurd.
Speaker 1:But, Adam and Adam on. Adam makes a really good point about an honor. It is a well burst technique that lots of players use and they all look like geniuses when it goes right. The problem is is that Two problems when it goes wrong, you look like a pillock and it relies on getting the keeper to move, and if you don't get the keeper to move you have to have a second plan. Whereas it just looked like an honor decided that he was going to wait for the keeper to move. Then, when the keeper didn't move, he was sort of like well, I'll just do what I was going to do anyway and obviously look ridiculous. So like that's where it, that's where it sort of all falls, all falls down a little bit. But okay, disappointed to go out the cup, especially disappointing when you have one penalty kick to To get yourself to a semi-final. But for them then did roll of the pool, so maybe we spare ourselves.
Speaker 1:Another you know some more semi-final heartache.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and in the interest of balance, just on Ghana games, penalty it. Any post that hits the penalty is About two or three From being the any post that hits the penalty. Is that what I said? It is exactly what you said.
Speaker 3:Okay, let me rephrase that sentence any penalty that hits the post is two or three inches away from being the perfect penalty, where it's right in the corner or at the side of the goal, where the keeper is extremely unlikely to get it. So, in the interest of balance, it was very close to being the perfect penalty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, in the interest of balance, if my anti-abolish would be me uncle, but she doesn't. So she's not so, because this is the thing about penalties. Penalties are binary, right. Good penalties are scored, bad penalties are messed like. If you miss a penalty, it's a bad penalty because it is entirely dependent on the result of the penalty. So an honest was a bad penalty because he missed games, was a bad penalty because he missed, even if he strikes it beautifully, wonderfully, into the keeper, get big, say it's about penalty because he missed and you should score a penalty anyway.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about man city and because that should be played tomorrow. You might have said earlier, you may be listening to this, by the time we are, by the time we've made, we've ever already played them, by the time you're listening to this. If I can get my words in the right order, adam, I'll start with you. What do you think? How do you think we should approach this game, given you know how we would have won against Birmingham and played really, we're well against birds. Do we approach it in the same mentality? Do you go its city? And therefore it's going to be difficult. So therefore, do you go five at the back or do you go? Actually know? I believe that we believe in the system and the players that we've got. We're going to take the game to them and then give me a prediction at the end of that as well.
Speaker 2:I think we take the game to them because two reasons. First of all, City are on a bad run of form and they're not the City that are where they go on like a 15 match winning run and blow teams away week on week. On the one hand you can take it like that. On the other hand, you could say that they're a team where this could be the first result where they do go on that run. They tend to go on At least once a season. But I absolutely want to take the game to them for that reason but also because, like City are much, much, much the better technical side. Obviously everyone knows that. So we're not going to be able to play go toe to toe in terms of, like you know, playing out from the back, which we don't obviously do anyway. But I want to see the fact that City are absolutely the team that always, always plays out from the back, Even though the fact they've got Harland, you might see that tomorrow they might go a bit long. You know they might look for him as being more of a target man a bit more often than the maybe you've seen in other games, as a reflection of our, our pressing style. But I absolutely wanted to see us do that because I think we're really. You know, the Spurs game is a perfect example of how good we are at it against teams that do like to play out from the back. The only issue with obviously doing that is when they do beat that press. It does leave you vulnerable because then you've got players like you know, anyone of Greenish Foden, Dockoo, Harland, Bernardo Silva, you know, really technically often, and most of whom are very quick as well. Players, to you know, exploit the space that inevitably gets left. So I don't think that we win the game by going, doing a, you know, having a back, a back, three in their wingbacks and like inviting pressure and counter attacking.
Speaker 2:I don't think that's the way that we win this game. I do think we need to be on the front foot and going on the back foot as well. It massively nullified the, the Goodison Park crowd, which you know. The fact that we've won four out of the fast, the four out of the five last games, the 10 point deduction, has massively galvanized the crowd. Everyone knows that and it's a game under the lights as well. So playing on the front foot will mean that we have the, the crowd, on our side as well and that can really make a huge difference.
Speaker 2:So it is my prediction. You know I would. I don't think it's not beyond, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that we're going to, that we win, that we win at all. So, but I think we will draw. I think we will draw one one, but anything sort of like the, you know, the Spurs performance. Even if we were to lose now, I'll be you know I'm going to the game tomorrow, so I'll be you know, leaving Goodison after 10 tomorrow night Very, very happy if we put in anything like the performance that we saw in the Spurs, regardless of the result.
Speaker 1:Because that's just fun to watch. It's just nice to watch a team play good football when being on the front foot. I agree with that. If you watch a good game of football and you lose 2-1, you're sort of like, okay, but we played well. Angie, talk to me about City. What do you think?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can completely understand why Adam thinks that we should take the game to Manchester City and play on the front foot for all the reasons he's described.
Speaker 3:Equally, you can make a cogent argument that we're very well set up under how we play in terms of letting the opposition have the ball and so can up the pressure to get a result.
Speaker 3:That was well, because man City are all dominate the ball, regardless of who they play, so there are opponents who are going to be able to accept that and be able to deal with it, and I think where the way we play under Dice is perfectly, perfectly set up to soak up the pressure. Yeah, they're going to create chances, they're going to have shots on goal, but, as we demonstrated before, not least the Brighton game last season, we're perfectly adept at hitting teams on the break, and that is where City are vulnerable, if you can get the ball off them and get behind them quickly and create chances against them. Whether we can take those chances is obviously, and we've touched them already. Just use the Brighton's CR. Clearly, they've got better players than Brighton. So will they create better chances with possession? They have, possibly, but I'm certainly more confident about this game than I was when we played them at Goodison last season, which was a game I went to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so. It's a free hit, really, isn't it? Like nobody expects you to be man City, like everyone just looks at man City either home or away and just goes.
Speaker 1:Oh well that we're not going to get anything there and I don't think we will. I think we will lose and I'll print my prediction to say we'll lose. I think we'll lose 2-1, because I just think it's beyond the realms of, with the injuries and the sort of missing decor and stuff. I think it might be a challenge, but I think, like the Spurs game, in many ways these two are essentially free hits. We can lose both of them and not drop into the relegation zone not, as I discussed earlier, that matters at all, but we have the freedom to not worry about them.
Speaker 1:So I'd like to think that, from a tactical point of view, we will give it a go. We won't try and sort of shut up shop and play a different way because it's man City. I'd like to see us try and play the way we get and play against Spurs, because the gap between Spurs and man City. There is a gap between Spurs and man City, obviously, but I don't think the gap between Spurs and man City is as big as the potential gap between us and Spurs in terms of squad ability. So I don't think it's like oh well, you can play that way against Spurs, but you can't play that way against man City. I think if you play that well against Spurs away, you can absolutely play that way against anybody else in the league. So I would like to see us start Gomez play the same system and try and take the game to them in the moments that we can. I think they will have too much quality, but you never know.
Speaker 1:Funny things have happened. We were on our arses when Dice came in last season and his first game was against Arsenal at home, which no one had given a cat a set. Who were top of the table at the time. No one gave us a cat in hell's chance at that and we wouldn't want nil. So football, anything can happen and stranger things have happened. So I want to go see us take the game to them, play that style of football that Dice has sort of embedded in the squad. And who knows what will happen? We might lose, we might get something out of the game.
Speaker 1:But the positive thing is you go into this game with a level of not trepidation about oh god, how many are we going to lose by? There's an interest going actually something could happen today.
Speaker 1:We could get something today, and even if you don't, it's nice to be going into games with that view rather than like, oh shit, luton won a game. If we don't get anything against Manchester City, we're done for, which is sort of where we've been quite a lot of the last two seasons. So, yeah, I think we'll lose 2-1, but I think it will be maybe not quite like Spurs, where we absolutely deserve to get something from the game. I think if, to pass forward to the post, into the post man City podcast, I think we'll all be saying, hey, good performance on another day, a couple of things go your way, you might get something, but probably a fair result. That's probably where I think we'll end up, and so we'll see.
Speaker 1:And that brings us to the end of the sort of form of agenda as much as we have one. We did have a space in the agenda to sell a laugh at man United because they were losing two goals in the second half of 1-3-2. So we can't do that, although what I will say is that is the perfect result for man United because it gives them the impression of improvement, whereas actually it's just one good half of football and all of the problems that always have existed there still exist. So we'll get another opportunity to laugh at man United at some point when they do something dumb in a couple of weeks, I'm sure but for today we will park that We've really got anything else they want to talk about not really know.
Speaker 3:No, I'm just looking forward to forward to catching up on today's 40. I just like to make a point. Actually, what's here we can laugh at is Newcastle. Oh, yes, let's do that, then losing that is a dreadful result at home, you know, losing 3-1 at home to Nottsom Forest, that is a dreadful result.
Speaker 1:After losing to Luton the other day. I was just looking at their fixtures as well. They're next three games. They go away to Liverpool. They've got Sunderland away in the FA Cup, which is a fascinating tie. Then they're at home to man City and then away to Aston Viver. I think there's a world where they sack Eddie Howe before the end of.
Speaker 3:January.
Speaker 2:Most definitely. I think he's closer than that. To be honest, no matter how well he did with him reason this season, he was always going to like in the summer. They move him on regardless Because he's not the sort of name that they will want, in charge with their ambitions, of what they want to do. I think that's the only thing that they want to do.
Speaker 1:They want to make Newcastle for the purposes of sports washing? Yeah, totally, he's not the sort of they want to be like the PSG where they're hiring the biggest manager and the biggest names and stuff.
Speaker 1:Eddie, I think Eddie Howe's a really good manager. I've always sort of seen him as one of those people who will end up managing Everton one day. I think that he's an Everton fan. Actually, I've always seen him in the mold of the way he's doing it. I think Carlo Anciotti did end up Everton for a little bit, but he's not an Anciotti or a Thomas Tuchol or a Pep Guardiola. He's not of that caliber or that gravitas. And I think you're right. I think they will be looking to bring somebody in who can attract the caliber of player and gives a shine to the club that, unfortunately, eddie Howe doesn't. I think he's going to be a big manager for him for being part of a giant sports watching experiment and ignoring all the terribly humanitarian issues in order to collect a huge paycheck every week. So I'm less keen on him being our manager in future than I was before he was in charge of Newcastle. But that's that.
Speaker 1:On that note. As we've now left at Newcastle, which was quite a proper thing to do at the end of the day, I think we're going to wrap it up there. Thank you all for listening. This has been the Blues Brothers Everton podcast. You can find us on Spotify, itunes and all those places where you get podcasts.
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