MancFox24

I go back to an interview Barnes gave after the Villa defeat. He was smiling throughout the interview and seemed completely unaware that we were in a relegation fight.

I agree. I would have tried to convert Barnes to a striker a long time ago. His finishing is pretty ropey but has improved. He hardly has any assists this year cus I don't think he's very good at that side of the game. And he doesn't help out defensively either.

Agree with alot of this but I'm struggling to see how 2 managers can't see it. The issue with 3 at the back is that limits your creativity and pace in the side cus Barnes would have to come out of the team. But I agree that I'd sooner see us looking defensively more solid and sacrifice some attacking threat. There was that period before the world cup where the press looked good again and KDH was being used as the trigger for the rest of the team and he was doing it really intelligently. I just don't know what's happened since then. As for set pieces, I just think we must lack the profile of player to want to attack the ball. We let far too many in and carry no threat ourselves from them either

I've defended Tielemans alot on here but I think he has to come out of the team for the remaining games now. Whether it's a fitness issue or poor mentality, he isn't offering anything and certainly no leadership. He'll be lucky to get a move to a top half club after the way he's been playing

I just don't get it. Perhaps someone who knows more about tactics than me can explain how we allow so much space through the centre of the pitch every single game. We seem to do a stupid half press where some make a half arsed effort to press and others don't so teams play around us so easily and then they're in on goal. I just don't understand how it's being allowed to happen over and over again under 2 different managers now

Because things are still happening now which you would expect to improve if it was the manager. Still conceding bucket loads of goals and chances, still going behind in games, still conceding from set pieces, still starting games slowly. And maybe people will start to realise that starting Soyuncu and Iversen would have made no difference to the outcome of this season.

Just goes to show how badly the finances at this club have been mismanaged

It's so easy to say the players like fight and passion but tactically, if you keep playing soumare and tielemans in midfield this was always going to happen. Look how many chances Everton had against us. Soumare is a liability- if he's still on the pitch then just watch him for 5 mins and you'll see how clueless he is positionally

I think people are being a bit harsh on his performance last night. I thought he did ok in a poor team performance. There's no doubt his form has been bad but he's playing in a disjointed team which gives away so much space to the opposition which means the defensive players are exposed. I think the whole team structure is wrong and has been for some time now. I would have liked to have seen Smith try to change this but in fairness he had 8 games and probably thought he didn't have enough time so we might as well go out swinging.

It's the performances that concern me more. We concede so many chances every game that we often rely on the keeper to have a great game just to stay in it. I can't see us surviving if we don't find a way of becoming more solid. For me, Soumare has to come out of the team and bring praet or kdh in

We've taken points in 12 games Maddison has started this season. In 10 of those games Maddison has scored or assisted. Without him we are bottom of the league with no chance of survival. It wasn't his best game tonight but the best period we had was when he was on the ball. He needs to play every minute of the last 4 games for us to have any chance of staying in this league

Today just sums up our season. We look a threat going forward but we're just way too open. How you concede that many chances to a team like Everton is ridiculous. And the way we start games has been a problem for 2 years now. Unless we can find a couple of clean sheets over the remaining games I just don't see us staying up.

I know what you're saying, but actually thought he had a good half there

We've been so poor in that half. Their full backs are causing us no end of issues. I'd go 4-4-1-1, Soumare off and KDH or Praet on. People going in on Maddison are just ridiculous, without him we wouldn't even be in with a chance of survival

I agree, they've been poor and don't carry much of a threat at all going forward. But they have got some tall players and McNeill has got good delivery. Just worry about our defending from corners cus we've got a pretty small team

Have a horrible feeling that we're gonna get Dyche'd tonight. We looked dodgy defending set pieces against Leeds and pretty sure that's an area they'll be targeting

Wish he'd have interfered a bit better for their goal. And for the Villa winner as well while we're at it

But he didn't stand in the way of their goal when that's pretty much all he had to do. He was so slow across his line. I just think we've got 2 poor keepers at the club at the minute and he seems to be getting a pass cus he's not ward

Fair points. And I'm by no means calling for Ward to come back in. But some of the goals he's conceded are worrying. He just seems to get caught in weird positions in his goal and his feet seem to get stuck underneath him

Mate, let it go. People who spent so much time hating Rodgers don't half like to carry on talking about him

Ready for the pelters on this one, but I really don't get what everyone sees in Iversen. I think his positioning for some of the goals he's conceded has been really poor, including the goal today. His kicking is also really bad, he can barely reach the halfway line from a rolling ball and seems to lump it out of play alot. Decent couple of saves at the end but they were straight at him. Not seeing the massive upgrade that everyone is talking about

I've seen others say this but I just dont get it. I thought he was terrible, got caught on the ball so many times and has no awareness of danger around him at all. Prime example at the end where we should have been going for the winner but him being so slow on the ball meant we should have conceded from that corner. He's a liability

Smith has been good with his changes in the first 2 games but thought he left it too long today. It was pretty obvious that Vardy or Daka would cause havoc for their defence. Don't understand people calling out Maddison, it seems just cus he sometimes has a bit of a smile on his face after a foul people confuse that with not caring. He was by far and away our best player today. Soumare just needs to be binned off, if he can't realise after 2 years that you don't get time on the ball in the PL then he's never gonna get it.

Constantly find ways to concede shite goals. Completely switch off from a throw in and Iversen doesn't cover himself in glory either. So much space in this game, if maddison can just turn up in the second half they're there for the taking

And only the second half version as well. He was still gash in the first half