Looking at the positives from Everton's season so far

We should have gained a place in the Capital One Cup Final but due to our own short-comings in attack at Goodison and in defence at the Etihad we let a good opportunity go too lightly. I don’t know how the rest of the FA Cup campaign will go, but I’m hoping for the best and there’s no reason we can’t lift it if the whole team is focussed and has the rub of the green.

However, the league campaign, particularly at Goodison has been one of major disappointment and if we judge the team purely on that basis, they have fell well short of their ability and the supporters' expectations. Thirty-eight points from twenty-eight games is not a good tally and without the cups, I believe the dissatisfaction would have been more prolonged and very much louder.

If, as seems likely but not at all certain, Roberto keeps his position as the Everton manager, he will have to focus on trying to gain as many points as possible from each and every fixture and stop his ’jam tomorrow’, ’performances are more important’ rhetoric – otherwise we will be in a relatively poor position come Winter 2016 and he will be looking for another club.

57 points should be the least we expect from the current Everton team in any given season and the fact we still need 19 points from our last 10 games highlights how poor the league campaign has been. Depending who leaves and who arrives on the playing side during the coming summer, I would hope that Everton will be top six mainstays next season; anything less is not acceptable.

That’ll be except the first one he had here with Moyesy’s team in the main, when he contrived to blow an excellent chance to qualify for the Champions League by losing 3 out of the last 5.

And last season, when he achieved exactly the same to finish, as The Incredible One might put it, champions of the bottom half.

Apart from that, the quote’s "Bob on"............whatever he’s on!

Could end up and remarkable season? All remaining games winnable?
Plenty of positives to take from this season?

I think I must have been watching a different side to the authors this season. So far as all the cup games go, we have had very kind draws really. The only really testing ones being City and Chelski. City we choked and Chelski, thankfully we pulled through. The league has been a disaster really. Very poor, only Lukaku and probably Barry consistently living up to reputations. Lennon has done well when he has come in but really only played regularly the last couple of months or so.

Anybody can win a cup competition and while I would love us to succeed in the FA cup, the league tells the true story of how good a team is. With 10 games to go, it shows we are a miserable bang average team. To argue that all our remaining games are winnable is ridiculous given that we still need 2 home wins to equal the pathetic effort we gave in the mid 90s when we were nearly relegated.

Granted we do have, on paper, a good squad.....just wish games were played on paper. Most of the players have underperformed.

As for the assertion that Martinezs teams always end the season on good form, well if it wasn't such a pitiful statement it would be funny. As stated in one of the posts, the last 2 seasons we have ended the season badly and the season before he relegated Wigan!! A fine record of ending the season in fine form.

I'm all for being positive but lets have a healthy dose of realism thrown in too. Martinez has treated the fans like idiots all season with his inane post match ramblings and now this post is trying to also.

IF we win the FA Cup (and that is a big 'if') that is a great season in my view. Unlike the author, I would not not view two semis (or even one semi and a final) as GREAT cup runs.

By the way, I think he has an amazing reputation is because the whole system is designed to make the best of him. After all, Martinez is all about style and attack.

You think he would have this menny goals this season with ol' sour face in charge?

Barkley’s tighter game, though I hope and expect that he will unite that with the fearlessness and flair he showed 2 years ago to become one of our greatest players; Funes Mori, though he needs to be stronger in the air defensively and to cut out some slackness – I believe he will become one of our all-time favourites (along with Besic); Aaron Lennon, unexpectedly excellent and with the sort of body that will allow him to be an asset for another 5-6 years, injury permitting.

Deulofeu’s early form which showed how wonderful he could be, inside as well as out wide, once he develops enduring fitness; Barry, superb in my opinion, I had written him off as a waste of a contract; Lukaku obviously.

Brendan Galloway, despite his understandable loss of form, and Tyias Browning who I think has been underrated; the continuing development of players like Dowell, Ledson, Kenny, Walsh, Davies, Evans and Williams, and the acquisitions of Holgate (potentially better than Stones in my opinion) and Foulds.

I also think, contrary to much recent opinion, that we will come to see the signing of Niasse as a major plus though I confess I have no evidence to back this up beyond some knowledge of his performances in Russia and gut instinct.

I think a lot of fans are upset because of the home form and I agree we should have Goodison as a fortress like it used to be, and I also think a lot of the fans are kicking themselves because this could have been our year (don’t mean to sound like a kopite) to break that top 4 again with all the other big teams slipping up.

But there is a reason the top teams are slipping up because anyone can beat anyone in this league this season.

I’m happy with the cup runs this season so far, lifting that FA Cup would be special and we’ve got as good a chance as anyone else left in it.

On the plus side tho even though our league position has been poor and too many matches I’ve hated our manager and players for literally throwing results away, it has been entertaining seeing all the goals we’ve scored, just a shame our defense is so poor.

Nice run from now to the end of the season and we can still finish relatively high in the league I’d imagine, all is not lost at this stage, one can hope.

Still in the FA Cup.

Lukaku, Lennon, Barkley and Galloway.

New shareholder promising investment.

Tim Howard linked to a move to the US.

Biscuit supply improved in the People’s Lounge

Always glass half-full.

With 3-4 top quality signings plus the likes of Galloway, Holgate, Ledson, Browning etc... the future is bright, the future is blue!

Fewest number of away defeats for 105 years.

So, there I am looking at the table, 12th. Am I supposed to be happy about that? Then I remember the defeats snatched from the jaws of victory etc...

Let’s just enjoy the cup and pretend the rest of it didn’t happen. Seriously, that’s what I think we should do.

Wigan did exactly that. They fucked everything else up and got relegated but managed to turn up 6 times. That's all it takes. League cup also, Birmingham have won it, got relegated also. Bradford got to the final too. That's why we love the cups because for most part form goes out of the window. It's all about who wants it the most.

As I said, I would love a trophy but it doesn't give an indication of how successful the season has been. If we finish bottom half again, then that’s a failure for me and winning a trophy, as much as it would be a fantastic day out, is just papering over the cracks.

Graham (#14 & #16), if you’re gauging our progress against last season's farce, then we really are clutching at straws. Oh and how many of those away games have we actually won?

To some degree I was being a bit light hearted.

This season on the whole has been one of massive frustration. I say that as a season ticket holder who has missed three games. Sunderland, Villa and Newcastle. So you can imagine the Goodison's experience that I've had!

I guess the point I was trying to make is despite the missed opportunities we are still in a position where we can turn the season round. We still have the best squad I can think of in 25 years. Of course an exit from the FA Cup and a poor end to the season and it all counts for shit. But we can still hope.....

I suppose I should look on the bright side really as, also being a long serving season ticket holder, at least I did manage to see the Villa, Newcastle and Sunderland games!!

I guess you are right in as much as we do live in hope... as sometimes hope is all we have. I’m still hoping for 2 great days out at Wembley

I am only guessing, but it seems to me that having been gerrymandered out of a controlling interest at Arsenal FC along with Mr Usmanov, Mr Moshiri will be straining at the leash to transform Everton FC.

For me, the Finch Farm proposals are only the start; I am really quite excited now as to where the club might go, especially in regard to the stadium. An FA Cup win would set the stage for a very positive season end. COYB.

So we appear to be in decent shape heading into the summer. I just feel that this summer is make or break for Roberto. He has to get pre-season right, bring in at least 2 top signings (keeper as a priority) and then he needs to manage the games right. If you add on some of the points that we have thrown away this year (Chelsea, Bournemouth and West Ham spring to mind), the league would look much different and we would be thinking that we have had a reasonable season.

It’s the hope that makes things so frustrating. Being 1-0 away at City in the semi final, we should have shut up shop, but we carried on naively. The subs in the recent cup game against Chelsea were much better. It gives me that word again – hope! – that Roberto has learnt some lessons also this year, but the key will be the next 6 months. Repeating the same mistakes next season will probably mean Roberto will be looking for another job.

Graham, with your permission, I’m starting a fund to pay you to stay away from Everton’s home games.

Of course all our promising young players will have had another year's experience but, if it's to go backwards as the likes of Stones, Deulofeu and the now absent Garbutt have done, experience alone will not be enough.

But, at least, Barkley may be a star.

Sorry I’m afraid I’m going but I’ve already been offered money to stay away.

Onwards and upwards.

Link

Hold onto Lukaku and bring in some quality players. Oh, I almost forgot – get rid of Martinez. The guy is clueless. Over to you, Mr Billionaire owner.

Guess you also believe in Father Xmas.