[Slick_Footwork]

Football is strange, isn't it?

If that had been Alan Irvine who had sent a team to park the bus, not have a single shot on target and only have 30% possession, he would have been slaughtered. Just like he was when he eeked out a point away at Hull, the worst team in the Prem who we narrowly beat at home recently.

However, for me, the difference was playing Yacob...

I think the difference for me is Irvine's lack of tactical quality in comparison to Pulis.

Irvine often did set the side out to defend first, yet Yacob and Mulumbu were nowhere to be seen.

The decision to put Yacob in has instantly improved us from a defensive point of view. Going forward, I think we'll be a work in progress because we don't have the quality to take all of our chances on the break yet.

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Tidy,
Everton are playing badly but they are so much better than Hull.
Irvine would have lost that game last night.
The difference is TP will not be that negative at home, Irvine had one way of setting his team up home & away.
We must win home games and grind out points away.
Clean sheets = points
The garden isn't rosey yet by any means but the rot has been stopped. It's time to build on what we have and with a few new faces we can start causing teams problems.

Of course, we can only speculate on how the result would've gone with Irvine but I share the opinion that we would've got beat.

Everton absolutely wiped the floor with us at home, they bossed the ball, created loads of chances. We didn't create anything that day and just played hoofball.

IMO, for TP to set us up to go there and not even concede a chance, with the same players, is an obvious step in the right direction.

He will know we need to be better on the break and I think his 'idea' to play Saido on the wing (where he was excellent at times last season) was to try and move us forward quicker and add an extra goal threat. It didn't work from an attacking point of view, but going forward will be a work in the progress, the improvements defensively are there for all to see.