I never try and judge any player in isolation, I judge them by how they affect the team dynamic or how the team dynamic changing affects them
To be fair to Bobby most players have been well below their best levels and levels of the last 2 seasons and there are numerous reasons for that.
We stopped playing the switches and attempted balls over the top almost entirely, they were a huge part of our being so good and creating situations against park the bus sides where we'd most often switch play right to left, having congested it on the right and have Mane and Robbo and one other, quite often Bobby or Gini with more space on the left and the opportunity to release Mane, Robbo or the other through the channel or down the line and because we had congested play on the right and the PTB defenders had turned to go to the situation on our left, we had an overload of 2-3 players on our right all with the run on defenders who'd turned their back on them should we try and cross the ball or put it in low or attempt a short through ball to a player coming in from the right. That's all but disappeared now and is the fundamental reason we've been struggling to break PTB teams down, the automation of a lot of our movement and play of the prior 2 seasons isn't there anymore, through enforced changes and tinkering.
I did warn, quite extensively of this happening and the danger of tinkering with or changing things that worked brilliantly for us and disrupting the best elements of our game that were so automated in numerous match threads, from the very first time I saw it happening, I was slammed for that opinion, yet here we are
Mane and Robbo both started the season absolutely on fire, on fire, the automation was there, the understanding was there, the familiarity of position and movement and when and where they could expect a switch or attempted ball over the top were all still there.
Jota has been absolutely superb since he arrived, so please don't take this as any slight on him as people usually do, but when Jota was brought in, is the same time Jurgen started tinkering with Mane's positioning and runs and in the very first game he did that I called it, because Robbo was making his customary lung busting surges forward, with the ball or to receive the ball, looking for his mate and partner in crime Mane, where he'd always been for him the past 2 seasons and Mane wasn't there, bang, automation gone, speed and directness of doing things gone, extra passes that weren't being played before, more time for defenders to adjust their positions and get back, immediate issues breaking teams down, creating chances and scoring against all teams, not just PTB sides.
There are a lot of thins that have changed or been changed unecessarily, changing and breaking down that relationship and automation is THE biggest gaffe of all of them
Stopping playing the switches and attempted balls over the top and instead trying to pass through teams is another major error that wasn't forced on us
Not recognising the value of the fluid midfield 3 we had in all games Fab was out last season was another
Every single one of these things affects Bobby and other players, Bobby frequently used to link up with Mane and Robbo following a right to left switch or attempted ball over the top, coming on to the ball with the play in front of him, as opposed to trying to play through sides and constantly feeding it into his feet with his back to goal when 2 or 3 opposition players were surrounding him and he could never get turned
In the fluid 3, one of those 3 always covered the opposition player of transition and stayed with that player come hell or high water, although starting at No6, this meant Henderson was actually our high pressing destroyer and creator for long spells of a lot of games and right across the line too, not just centrally, because all 3 covering each other and interchanging positions gave him the freedom and confidence to do that, Hendo high pressing and quickly arriving on the scene in support of Bobby to stop him being crowded out was a big feature in our play and if you'd care to watch Bobby's winners v Spurs and Wolves for brilliant examples of that, it'd be very hard for you to disagree, but they weren't isolated instances, it was a very regular thing, I'm quite sure there's a Hendo goal v Southampton through the same thing, Bobby with the assist.
So, before writing off a club legend like Bobby, maybe consider everything that has changed and affected him and all the other players that his link up with was crucial to his ability to perform and that the strength of this side has never been individuals taking the game by the scruff of the neck and scoring wonder goals from nowhere, but the consistency of selection and formation and the strength of the 11 on the pitch working in unison
"If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, i'd close the curtains”
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