According to rumors In a expand of 15 minutes, James fought Lerma Barrios Muriel Cuadrado Davinson Zapata And still managed to play the 2nd half. Dude is fucxking batman
Better from James today. Ancelloti changed his formation and went to 3-5-2, ostensibly to get James as 10 floating behind Richy and DCL. It took a bit for James to find pockets of space but about fifteen minutes in it clicked and Everton played champagne football and he was involved in two beautiful goals - they could have scored another two or three. After the break Everton seemed to tire quickly and James was taken off as Ancelloti looked to protect the result. Having Richarlison back made a huge difference today.
He looked frustrated with himself despite playing being pivotal in those two goals. For a good month now, his body language has been off. Ever since he picked up that unclarified injury...
Playing Iowbi on the right hand side also opened things on the left flank. I liked how the lineup worked in the first half, but Everton looked really tired the whole second half. A busy month is just around the corner and stamina is going to be critical in many of those matches, but at least they don’t have mid week games for the next two weeks.
James is playing very decently. Would have had his nice goal counted if he wasn't offside and had it not been for another player, his cross assist would have counted as well. He's gaining momentum.
Tough loss. A goal and assist by James taken away for offsides. Then, after great chances for both teams, you lose 1-0 from a goal on a shot from outside the box.
And the irony is, Raphina never would've attempted that shot had James not put such a strong effort in closing down the passing lane to the guy streaming down the lefthand side.
Agreed. Also - that was AWFUL finishing today from Everton. James shot to the keeper directly a few times from outside the box but he also had a bunch of great dead balls into the box that should have been goals too. Just a really annoying match.
Everton need to get wingbacks and find a way to balance the middle. The 3-4-3 will not work with Davis and Iowbi. James had a decent game but Richarlison was totally out of sync.
Annoying match for James today. Forced one save on what could have been a gorgeous goal and served up what should have been the match winner at the end nutmegging a defender with perfect weight only for Sigurdson to shoot straight at keeper from point blank range...
It was not his best game, but the guy should have a minimum of 5 more assists to his name. And Everton would have 2-6 more points as a result.
James looks short on stamina and seems to just wander around for several minutes in the second half, yet he has so much talent that gives Everton an edge at any moment. From a collective standpoint, Everton is extremely thin, especially on the wings, mostly due to injuries, but also due to poor squad management. They really need to beef up during the winter market and get fullbacks, wingers and another striker, probably trading some of their attacking mids, where they seem overloaded.
Coleman and Digne were giant losses. The moment the first got injured, the slump started. Some Everton fans are beginning to turn on Carlos for his decision to continue on with 3 in the back despite having a talented young LB who he won't even call to the bench. The squad is certainly not deep, but the insistence on a few things that clearly aren't working is alarming.
It's concerning, and making me wonder, if age is starting kick in, or if the player is not fully fit. Either way, James need to step it up, because if this keeps up he's going to be judged very soon.
He’s 29 - plenty of 29 year olds should be able to handle 40 game schedules. Besides we just started December. I would be more sympathetic to March fatigue
On his defense, nagging injuries, lack of playing time for the last two years, and a short preseason, could mean that he’s not at full speed. Hopefully he gets on a growing path and reaches peak performance sometime around March.
I think it's also the shifting formations and personnel. He put in a shift today and ran about - I think the defense worries are sometimes branding issues. According to the bpl's official stats James is #3 in the league on creating chances (despite missing a game) and I think whoscored has him at 6 or 7 overall in the league for ratings this year so I don't think the league is the issue - he and Carlo have to unlock the attack back to where they were in Sept! Am also on grandoldteam (as myself) I assumed one of you was SassyColombian!