NaijaFox

But he was UNDERWHELMING last season. He's doing a "Mendy" this season though...

But it would have solved the numbers problem, no?

Don't want to belabor what appears an obvious point, but enough with the gross mischaracterization of the discourse. Not the least bit interested in the alternative extremes of either the canonization or demonization of Wes Morgan, but he would not have been the first (nor the last) player ever to be substituted when he appeared to be in reasonable danger of picking up a second yellow. That is hardly a novel concept in football, and in fact happens with some regularity to so many players NOT named Wes Morgan! As previously noted, most (if not all) substitutions are meant to be situational and where a particular situation appears to warrant a sub, a perceptive manager would be expected to so do. It's what known in the football vernacular as 'reading the game' and the failure to do so on Saturday almost certainly cost us the game.

No, it doesn't. A yellow card may be routine for defenders most weeks and thus no real cause for panic, but a situation where a defender is being run-ragged by the opposing player that he has primary responsibility for resulting in first a yellow card and subsequently in a 'final warning' does not happen week in and week out, and when it does most managers (or at least the successful ones) tend to act to protect the player and the team. Why do you have subs if not to use them? For the avoidance of any doubt, I am neither Puel in or Puel out, but the way Puel was saving up subs yesterday (we still had 3 to make well into the second-half), you would be forgiven to think they were coupons for the local curry joint.

Other than those, we are good though?

May well be, but subs are supposed to be situational. And frankly the situation, where Richarlison had been running a yellow-carded Wes ragged while flopping at every challenge, called for a sub.

This. The team effectively quit playing after the red, and basically dropped deep and thereafter just tried to hold on until the end. If ever there was a situation ready-made for the possession football that Puel is reportedly trying to install (including even sideways passing), that was it! Instead, each time we managed to secure possession we just seemed to punt it forwards and then retreat to await the next "wave" (and I use that term liberally because the Toffees dribbled more than surged) of Evertonian attacks.

A tad bit harsh... But of the 2 CMs, he brings less overall to the game. He is obviously a better passer than Ndidi, not in the creative sense mind you but more secure - which is primarily because he is a short passer and rarely does more than shift it around (often sideways) a few yards at a time. Conversely, Ndidi is a better tackler and interceptor, a better header of the ball, routinely covers for and supports Chiwell, drops back for Maguire when he ventures forward (and for Morgan the odd time he stumbles forward), and today was regularly getting across to support the right-side of defense which had very little support from Ricardo. Having said all that however I personally would have subbed-in Iborra for Ndidi after going 1-2 down and chasing the game late with 10 men, because it enables us to retain the double protective shield in midfield while adding a little bit of creativity and worrying less about a careless loss of possession that could really be fatal in that situation.

We can argue all we want whether it's the player's or the manager's fault, but there's no arguing that this game effectively turned on ONE incident - the sending off of Wes. Until then, we had started the second half as the much more dominant side.

Names were not needed on shirts back then because only real fans watched football - not trendsetter, "influencers" (sounds like a complication from the flu), prawn sandwhich munchers, nor Americans!

This! ?

It's an FT thing. Once you have a reputation, you either put in a perfect performance or hyperbole reigns...

Maguire is due a rest...

Perhaps you should stop listening to commentators (opinions) and actually watch the games. Just saying...

Not sure we are disagreeing on that (albeit “much better” is a tad bit hyperbolic) as I pointed same out to the poster criticizing Mendy earlier. Nonetheless, both bring different attributes to the game (even though they seem to reprise same role) and I personally think that many on FT have now become pre-conditioned to exaggerating Wilf’s errant passing (not that he helps his own case, but in reality it’s barely a couple per game), particularly given that he often gets the most touches per game (and in today’s game, tried more passes than Mendy), and seemingly takes his other attributes for granted (when as the stats show, passing aside Mendy shows little of none of those attributes in the same measure). Accordingly, while some may moan about Wilf in “general play”, suffice it to note that we would probably see considerably less of said general play without him. Just saying.

It’s not quite that straightforward. Passing aside (92% vs 89% today), Wilf had the much better tackling and aerial showing (including 5 headers won to 0 by Mendy). However, both players reprise pretty much of the same role (interestingly neither made a key pass according to the stats) and it may be best to rotate each with a creative partner.

Wilf somehow manages a couple of spectacularly poor passes per game, but his basic passing is just fine. Nonetheless, he still completed about 89% of his passes today with the most touches of the ball among all of the players on both sides (WhoScored stats).

This

No, he clearly was not

Neither was “terrible”

Especially if you have dudes who had traveled as far as the Seychelles and Liberia and only got back a day or two prior...

Sorry, but Morgan was poor on the day. Frankly, the red card was the football equivalent of euthanasia for him...

To be fair, there were a few good through passes in the first half that simply required better finishing...

But he's primarily there to do precisely that - break up the opposition's play and quickly hand over the ball. Problem is that you still need another CM in front of Ndidi (or Mendy, who seems to be playing an identical role), and thus the issue is not one of form, but formation.