The NSNO Everton Forums

Our friendlies always seem to be like this miserable grinds with no real quality against lesser teams

sam of the south wrote: ↑Sat Jul 19, 2025 3:51 pm I think we’re all greatly underestimating what Doucouré brought, as clumsy and frustrating as he was.

He was outstanding off the ball.

I still think that work can be mostly replaced while also adding a bit of quality on the ball.

Its hard being an Everton fan

Pre-season doesn't mean much, especially at this stage.

Would be nice to just beat a load of teams in pre-season for a change though.

Commence operation flappuccino exercise.

Sent from my CPH2305 using NSNO Everton Forums mobile app

As long as we're ready by Leeds.

Can't start another season where we are pissing away points in August like the last two seasons.

No excuses this time around for not putting points on board against Leeds, Brighton and Wolves.

I thought it was fine tbh.

A good physical game against a Championship team quite a bit further along in their pre-season fitness. A good step up in level from the last game.

We'll be a good team this season, as long as we get those key pieces of the jigsaw in place.

We defo have to be better at set pieces generally, with all the giants we have in the squad. That could be a key area where we can add 5-10 points over the season.

kramer wrote: ↑Sat Jul 19, 2025 3:50 pm Also, and I think this is a legitimate fault of his, Moyes teams always start the season like shit.

Yeah, and it's probably linked to his emphasis on physical preparation in pre-season. Which may or may not pay off later in the season.

Same every year with our attitude to preseason and it normally follows on with a slow start to the season. Very frustrating.

biziclop wrote: ↑Sat Jul 19, 2025 4:26 pm Yeah, and it's probably linked to his emphasis on physical preparation in pre-season. Which may or may not pay off later in the season.

True and I think it definitely paid off in the past.

Other clubs would run out of steam as fixtures piled up and we’d go on a winning run to put ourselves in the mix for Europe.

Would be nice to build a proper squad in the next few seasons so that we can start faster and pick up some momentum when fixtures come frequently.

kramer wrote: ↑Sat Jul 19, 2025 5:11 pm True and I think it definitely paid off in the past.

Other clubs would run out of steam as fixtures piled up and we’d go on a winning run to put ourselves in the mix for Europe.

Would be nice to build a proper squad in the next few seasons so that we can start faster and pick up some momentum when fixtures come frequently.

We generally had a really good starting eleven back then, though.

Pickford, Branthwaite, Gana and Ndiaye aside, we range from mediocre to poor with this current lot (maybe Tarkowski is above mediocre/decent)

Quality new signings are imperative I feel, even for mid table.

Went to the match and to be fair Blackburn just put 10 behind the ball whenever we had it, so when we got close to the area it was really congested. O'Brien was a massive improvement on Patterson second half. RB and CM (hopefully Douglas Luiz) seem the most needed after watching us today.

Creativity in midfield is what we need. More so than pace, though I certainly also want more of that.

To put this result into context, Newcastle lost 4-0 to Celtic today.

It doesn’t matter. Just a run out.

From what I’ve seen there was a lot of interplay in the middle of the pitch which is good. Just need better players in those positions.

Alcaraz is a good player but he should be a versatile, squad player ideally.

at least we didnt lose to a pub team