Minority Report - Everton

I am about to prove why I call this series of posts “Minority Report”. Please, please, please do not be too upset with me.

As I walked towards home I reflected upon what I had seen. I had seen 8 goals. I had seen us score 3 against Premier League opposition for goodness sake. I had seen 55 attempts on goal, 18 of them on target. But I had also seen Everton have 62% possession and I had seen us concede 5 at home and at the end of the match, we had lost. Why can’t I go away from the ground saying, “that game was exciting, that was a rare pleasure and a privilege”, as I see in many others comments tonight?

Let me first tell it like it was. Everton were dreadful in that first half. They were dreadful at the back and they were dreadful up front. Martinez must have turned the air blue at half time in the away dressing room, because they came back out a different team. Everton dominated the second half and in extra time they cynically picked us off. It is easy to be magnanimous in victory, and I hear that Lukaku and Martinez have both said what a good side we are. Is that what you think he really thinks? He thinks that they were lucky on account of how bad they were in that first half.

I know that football is a game of emotions, but just for one moment, let us put emotion to one side and look at our performance dispassionately. We started 4-4-1-1 with Crowley the nearest player to Winnall, but we were more direct than we were in our last match, tending to hit the ball from back to front. This got us up the park more quickly, but proved once more that Winnall is not a targetman. There will be those who tell me that he scored a goal and I will point to just 38% possession. Winnall is my first square peg in a round hole.

I have been of the opinion that Crowley’s best position will be as a support player behind the centre forward in the 4-4-1-1 system. If he is to make that position his own, he will have to find a lot more energy than he showed tonight, because he has to get back to fill that central midfield hole when we do not have the ball, and he just does not have the energy for it. And before everybody shouts, “he scored a goal”, we conceded 5.

Because Crowley played behind Winnall, Hourihane was forced to occupy the wide left position. He is my second square peg. He is not effective in that position because that position requires skills that Hourihane simply does not possess.

The biggest square peg in the narrowest round hole was Nyatanga. That second half I felt desperately for him. He is a perfectly adequate central defender, but a left back he is not. He got well and truly taken to the cleaners, whilst on the bench sat not one but two left backs, waiting for a call that never came. The Barnsley manager really does have to make his mind up who the best two central defenders are, and pick a left back in that position.

With Winnall’s hamstring still not trusted, he had to make way for Wilkinson, and hope left with him. Extra time brought a change to 3 at the back and confusion ahead of them. This really is a pig’s ear of a system. Yes, Hourihane hit the bar with a terrific effort, and we had at least two more half chances, but in truth, Everton took their time to pick us off and it could have been a lot worse.

Just in case you thought that I was at a totally different game to you, Davies, Mawson and Scowen (even though he was at fault for one of the Everton goals) were excellent, but Roberts was fantastic. Why has he been playing non-league football, and how did we miss him first time round. I am sure that many managers will have noticed his pace and when the remaining sharp edges are knocked off him, we will have a real star.

I feel a bit like Scrooge in Christmas Carol as I finish my report, but we really must find the players to fill round holes with round pegs, and we really must find a structure and balance that allows us to score goals without conceding. Christmas is cancelled.

 

All I can say is..... I'm glad I'm not you!

 

You're right about Nyatanga. You can get away with his lack of pace at full back in league one for the most of the time because of the lack of quality in the league but it was obvious after a couple of minutes that Delofeou was tearing him apart & Smith needed to either replace him or support him in a 3-5-2.

Crowley & Hourihane did well in their roles tonight. I'm not generally keen on square pegs in round holes but Hourihane coped well tonight, it's the regular league games he doesn't seem to have the appetite for his defensive duties in.

Crowley just needs to learn when to release the ball at times & to recover quicker when he does lose it. He was a massive assert to us tonight.

Feel you're harsh on the 3-5-2 system. It wasn't the system that left us exposed it was the (correct) decision to gamble to try & get an equaliser at that point. Regardless of formation we had to go forward with numbers to try & equalise which would give Everton opportunities

 

Chill out man and enjoy the moment. You'll be very lucky to see a better game this season and try to remember we drew 3-3 with a PREMIER LEAGUE team who started with 11 internationals.

 

You make some valid points about Winnall and Nyatanga.

But remember we were up against a team containing some world class players. Lukaku and Mirallas are starting players for the team SECOND in the Fifa world rankings. Just be proud of the lads tonight, they all ran themselves into the ground and gave us a game to remember.

 

I thought you didn't like putting extra lines into formations.

 

To be honest Red Rain, I think people will not be 'upset' with you - I think they will just feel sorry for you. That is, they will if they think your post really does represent your views and is not just an attempt to say "look at me - I'm different", or just to provoke folk.

Football is a game that is played with the heart sometimes - not just the head. And the greatest moments I've witnessed at Oakwell over the years have exemplified that. I'm thinking the League Cup run in 1980-81, the 1996-97 promotion season, that game against Bradford, the FA Cup wins against Tottenham and Man Utd at Oakwell, and the Cup wins against Liverpool and Chelsea in 2008.

Everton were not dreadful in the first half. Sure - they made mistakes, but they looked dangerous every time they came forward. And in any event a 'dreadful' Everton would still represent a formidable challenge for a team that couldn't score in open play against Burton and Bradford. That Barnsley twice took a lead represents an effort of exceptional proportions, and as far as I'm concerned, every member of that team (and it's management) can be very proud of last night.

You like to analyse, so you'll surely see that the fact that we had only 38% possession was actually a factor in why we were successful over the first 90 minutes. Our breaks were that much sharper for being against the run of possession. It may be that Lee needs to factor that in to how we go about winning games. Where we boss them too much, and teams get behind the ball, we may not enjoy as much success.

So yes - as far as I'm concerned, that game was exciting, and a privelege to watch. If you really didn't think so then you need to find another pastime. There - I've 'bitten'!

 

I'm going to get thi some fingerless gloves Cratchit, Last night I couldn't careless about formations and who was lacking pace etc, I just enjoyed a night where at times our young team outplayed a premiership side on top of that we got to see 8 goals and fantastic atmosphere all of which is rare at Oakwell these days, I think sometimes you shouldn't be so analytical and just sit back and enjoy.

 

You may have some valid points. Football is just sometimes about the heart not the head. It was a fantastically entertaining game to watch and sometimes you just take your analytical head off and enjoy it. We were far from perfect but we gave our all against a team that operates in a different financial stratosphere to us and sometimes that's all that matters. Hourihane was fantastic last night both technically and in terms of spirit now if we keep him and get him playing like that regularly we would get promoted regardless of tactics.

 

Miserable f'cker.

 

Some good points again red rain, cant agree with how poor Everton (to start) were but they made bad defensive errors.
Think we were very good to match them at 3-3 and what do they do anyway they bring on another international (Berkley) who imho ran the show when he came on.
I pointed out last year "Tangs" cannot operate at left back and yes we need a front man to compliment Winnall, as he aint a holding type of striker.
Didn't realise our team is the youngest in the entire football leagues btw.
After a few games we have yet to discover the perfect formation for our "kids" but i'm sure it will come.

 

Everything isn't perfect in any sport. Passion, desire, application, are all things that detailed analysis doesn't evaluate. This is why I felt proud, happy and entertained last nite. I didn't think about formations, tactics or set piece plans once. I loved how we played which was essentially a good prem side versus a young L1 team.

P.S. Can you make your reports more 'minority' in future. Seem too long for me.

 

I agree with a lot of this but, quite simply, I enjoyed watching the game last night and after so many games where I've not then I'd rather cling on to that than have the joy of football sucked out of it by over analysing.

Lewin Nyatanga is not a left back but any full back would have struggled with the lad on their right wing in the second half.
They made two mistakes at the back but we capitalised on them
Sam Winnall won his fair share of headers & flick ons and in fact he and Watkins linked up really well down our right hand side
Conor Hourihane is not a left winger but he showed his quality throughout
Conor Wilkinson is *****
I enjoyed watching Daniel Crowley
Marc Roberts was exceptional
Josh Scowen will be the next one out

There you go

 

Red Rain, typically I enjoy your more detailed insight... and rarely do i concur with Orsen.

But this time I'm thinking, jesus.... if you can't be proud of our players giving their absolute all, and showing quality and passion and connection with the fans, against a team often on the cusp of European qualification with a budget that squashes ours totally... can you ever see good in a football game?

It's never perfect. Players will switch off, opposition players may get a lucky bounce, a slip, a trip, a misplaced pass. So many errors will be made in ever single game. But celebrate the good. Let's let some things slide and praise the players and the manager for getting them to have a go.

We all remember Man City where the players became autograph hunters, this was completely different and we should be universally sending the message.... yes.... thats what we want.

Attack, be technically good, throw your body at everything to block. Thats the Barnsley DNA we want.

We've seen it, now repeat it and we'll cheer you relentlessly.

Let's have that as the clear message from this game. That the players, fans, custodians and football last night saw and realised what Barnsley is about.

 

Winnall and Watkins are gelling more game by game from what I`m seeing. Spot on Dys.

 

Well, I finally plucked up the courage to read the responses to my original post, and to be honest I have found almost them all to be measured and well argued. My post was not intended as a wind up, but at half time, I genuinely thought that we might win the game, and I am disappointed that we did not. In fact, we lost the final 75 minutes 5-1.

Everybody seems to think that I am a miserable so-and-so, and that is pretty much how I thought people would react to be honest, but I think that some of our past managers would have recognised the situation at half time and changed players and formations for the expected second half Everton barrage. To me, and possibly only me, it seemed like providing entertainment to the watching TV audience became much more important than winning the game.

The final point in my post addressed the situation that we have scored 3 goals in a game only twice this season and we have conceded 2 and 5 in those games. This suggests that the team finds in very difficult to be tight at the back when they place an emphasis on scoring and when we are tight at the back, we struggle to score. Given the apparent quality of our two centre backs, there is a suggestion that there is a problem elsewhere. Full back was definitely a problem last night, but I also thought that picking Crowley gave us a problem defensively in midfield, and I would urge everyone to watch his movement and judge his work rate when the team does not have the ball.

Just by the way, I do not take a word of what I wrote last night back, but perhaps my timing was a little out. Que sera

 

Think the last sentence is bang on. Agree completely about fullbacks, I said as much after Millwall. But citing that after such a rousing gutsy effort... lets enjoy the connection between club and fans. Crikey its been a rare thing the last 17 years.

 

Whilst you're probably right in what you're saying, I think we needed that, as a club, the entertainment factor has been missing for a while now and last night was as exciting as any game I have seen in the past.
Give me that than a boring defensive second half display to Scrape through and advance to........READING!!! Ffs.

Now we can go into Saturday full of confidence.


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