Colin Harvey agrees with us - Everton are boring

I met a grand old Evertonian yesterday, Colin Harvey. I introduced him to another, my father-in-law, who is old enough to have seen Dixie Dean play. Colin was at the pub where we were celebrating his 95th birthday. It turned out they had something else in common - the first team my father-in-law supported was New Brighton FC. Colin's brother played for New Brighton, which disbanded in 1983.

"We could have done with you yesterday", I said, referring to the Everton game against Bournemouth, which we had won to make it 5 home league wins, at the 18th attempt. It turns out Colin is a very modest, self-effacing sort of chap. "I'm not sure about that" he said, adding "I only go these days because I take my grandson". We chatted about how slow the build up play had been and agreed that, by the time the goalkeeper had passed it to the full back, who had passed it inside to the centre back and then to Darron Gibson, playing in a kind of withdrawn quarterback role between the centre backs, the other team were all back in position, waiting and watching. "I'm not asking them to just knock it long" I said. "No, pass it forward" said Colin. He didn't mind the goalie throwing it out - after all Gordon West often did, partly because he struggled with a thigh injury for some time which stopped him kicking it long. "Mind, he could throw it to the half way line" said Colin. I remember! And the full back then looked to play the ball forward.

The clear implication was that Colin finds Everton's play these days just as mind numbingly boring as the rest of us.

The puzzling thing is that, earlier in the Martinez reign, Everton had handled transitions well, breaking quickly to destroy Manchester United, for example, when Moyes brought them to Goodison Park. Barkley was free to play, whereas now he looks to me as if he is over-thinking everything. He seems to want too many touches and ends up surrounded by opponents. I expect this is because his mind has been filled with so many words from Martinez around the subject of decision making.

Transitions are dangerous - for both teams. When you win the ball, if you lose it again straight away - especially in the last third, it's very dangerous. Hence Pep Guardiola's 6 second rule for winning the ball back after losing it (see https://keeptheball.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/barcelona-defensive-transition/).

Probably because Everton were leaking so many goals, they've become cautious when they win the ball. They consolidate possession rather than looking to break quickly. I'm sure the record shows we've tightened up over the last few months. but the scoring has dried up as a result.

One couldn't imagine Harvey, Bally or Peter Reid being happy playing at Everton's current tempo.