With no FA Cup tie to prepare for, Everton have a week to ready themselves for the Premier League trip to Cardiff City, and even decided to share some pictures of the players in training, which only got the fanbase talking for all the wrong reasons.
The shots of Richarlison and Jagielka limbering up over plastic gates, Yerry Mina – who is not AWOL in Colombia – holding off Ademola Lookman, and the rest of the squad jogging around are nothing more than you would expect to see on the practice pitches, but given our current run of form, some heavier focus on defending set pieces would not go amiss.
That is, in fact, just one of the issues the Goodison Park faithful looked to raise in response to the post on Friday, with one fan suggesting the players don’t even practice stopping the opposition from scoring corners or free-kicks, which has, of course, become Everton’s go-to criticism of late, among other things.
One good thing did come from the pictures of Jagielka and Mina in action, though, as it suggests the defensive duo are back in contention for a mention on Marco Silva’s next teamsheet having been out of action with respective injuries of late.
Not that Mina will be welcomed back by all the fans anytime soon…
People might think these are still pictures but they’re actually videos.
— Michael (@XantosDomingos1) February 15, 2019
Unless its pictures of them learning how to defend set pieces then nobody is interested in their ‘hard work’
— Sean Ready (@ready1878) February 15, 2019
If they’d have worked a bit harder and been a bit more organised at Millwall they’d have had a light session today ahead of an FA Cup tie.
— Dave Whiteside (@DWDTP) February 15, 2019
Do you have too. I’m trying to have a nice weekend here.
— AJ Smith (@andystreacle) February 15, 2019
What a load of rubbish this is. Same old stories getting the fans hopes up, then the players fail to turn up. Give it a rest until they decide to show some guts for once!
— Steve Dow (@SteveDow1) February 15, 2019
Never thought I’d say this but think Jags needs putting back in probably with Zouma. It would give us some stability. Keane is like a giraffe, on stilts, on ice and Mina doesn’t appear to be far behind him. Also, drop Sigurdsson and Walcott. Neither has stomach for the fight!
— Jay (@Jasman9) February 15, 2019
Maybe just getting on with improving performances, tactics, discipline & effort nice & quietly would be better
— Rodger Armstrong (@rodgerarmstrong) February 15, 2019
Try jibbin these weekly pictures off an try winning games instead
— Stu Ely (@StuElyF1EFC) February 15, 2019
You’ve missed a trick not showing set piece defending or I take we still don’t do that
— owenparkesUTFT (@owenparkes123) February 15, 2019