Everton<\/a> create the least number of chances in the league. No team have committed more defensive actions than The Toffees under his command.<\/p>\nAlarmingly, the Blues average pass length is among the longest, and their pass success one of the lowest. In summary, it\u2019s long ball, defensive football from the dark ages.<\/p>\n
Everton fans may dislike Allardyce for his disparaging comments, and spin on mediocre results as positives, but they dislike him most for his football.<\/p>\n
They want more from their team. They want a side that lives up to the club motto of Nil Satis Nisi Optimum<\/i>. \u2018Only the best is good enough.\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n
Yet to the pundits this is a notion that makes little sense, believing\u00a0Everton fans\u2019\u00a0desire to see better football is, at best, fanciful.\u00a0It is hypocrisy at it\u2019s worst.\u00a0These same pundits will openly criticise clubs for not having more ambition at every given opportunity.<\/p>\n
This criticism is expressed every time one of the top six beat one of the so-called smaller clubs. They will question why these sides don’t they have a go, be proactive instead playing a defensive game.<\/p>\n
Watch Match of the Day from this season and you will find numerous examples of this.<\/p>\n
Yet, when the fans of these clubs start to call for management change because they\u2019re not happy with such football, they become the focus of the pundits\u2019 criticism.<\/p>\n
As Glenn Hoddle put it on Saturday during BT Sport’s coverage of Everton’s clash with Southampton;<\/p>\n
\u201cEverton fans should go to the theatre if they want entertainment.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
The hypocrisy and contradiction behind such a statement are staggering.Fans should want their teams to challenge and compete but they have no right to demand their team play that kind of football? It\u2019s baffling whichever way you look at it.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it is only the top six that should have ambition in the Premier League. As far as the pundits are concerned, everyone else should simply be happy to exist.<\/p>\n
Football is a sport. Sport should provide entertainment. If it doesn\u2019t, there\u2019s very little point to it. Perhaps if people like Glenn Hoddle had watched more Everton fixtures under Allardyce, he\u2019d understand why the fans want more for their money.<\/p>\n
Everton are a big club, one of England\u2019s biggest, with a history of playing good, attractive football. There is a reason they once called themselves \u2018The School of Science.\u2019<\/p>\n
Their fans have every right to demand more from their side, and shouldn’t let pundits like Hoddle tell them otherwise.<\/p>\n
Embed from Getty Images<\/a>