Everton Banter Archive November 30 2014

30 Nov 2014 22:42:32
Agree with most people that was not great today. But to be fair we've never done very well at the Spuds. Thought we stared well, but this habit we have of allowing teams to run at us unopposed is killing us. When we had the ball they pushed up compressing the space and giving us nowhere to go. When they had the ball we dropped off and let them run to the edge of our box. Carry on doing this and we will lose more than we will win. One more point, can anyone tell me why McGreedy came on for Kev? Cod other than get in Seamuses way he did nothing.

Perhaps RM was protecting Mirallas for the midweek game against Hull or, more likely, the following game against ManCity. But what do I know? Sometimes RM's starting selections - and his subsequent substitutions - just baffle me, but he's the experienced professional and I'm just an opinionated fan.
;-)

01 Dec 2014 17:04:07
You don't take a goal scorer off and replace him with a ghost when your losing. Or maybe you do? What do I know.

{Ed025's Note - mcgeady may not be a ghost WB...but he certainly scares the hell out of me mate.. :)

30 Nov 2014 21:45:54
Started well enough against Spurs who were their for the taking after suffering 4 home defeats already, however after they equalised their tails were up & from thereon in looked comfortable & hardly broke sweat to gain a valuable 3 points in the race for 4th.
Gave 2 sloppy cheap goals away yet again Distiin @ fault for the equaliser with an unsworth style hopeful punt up field anywhere will do instead of trying to find a blue shirt & Spurs took full advantage, Barry lost possession to Kane then lennon fed soldado who scored the winner.
Soldado hadn't scored a premier league goal for 9 months but if u wanna get your season up & running just play Everton & they usually oblige.
Hope we don't play them again till final game of the season but it's possible we could meet in latter stages of the europa league, They've got 2 much quality for us even their bench looked very strong.
The Blues were so predictable & laboured going forward it was so easy to defend against
apart from a Coleman effort 2nd
half the Spurs keeper could have got his deck chair, pipe & slippers out.
Ain't reached the heights of last season by a country mile but can't use extra europa league games as an excuse because if u wanna be successful your going to have to play 2 or 3 games a week.
Need a striker, centre half in Jan please Santa. out Mcgeady, alcaraz, kone, distin

30 Nov 2014 20:57:36
Looks like we're down to the bare bones again with half the players not yet fully fit

Gareth Barry - he literally had 10-15 seconds left on the clock until half time and chose to run around with it in a dangerous spot - got dispossed and goal within 10 seconds - brilliant - anything but what he did would have seen us safely to half time

We've got a few players who seem a bit thick and lack judgement to me

The main thing though was the lack of confidence - once we went one up you could see them all thinking they should not be winning away at Spurs so they started shrinking back towards their goal - inviting a crap looking Spurs to gain confidence

Howard has to go soon - making too many mistakes now

And how come Martinez has a reputation for attacking teams when all we do is play the effing ball backwards and sideways - slowly- we just do not attack at all - how come Martinez has this reputation? It's b******* as far as I can see

Seriously reconsidering the season ticket renewal for next year - I can't stand paying about 700 quid to watch jags and distin play it backwards and forwards between them any more

30 Nov 2014 18:37:42
Post-match, RM said that our performance today didn't warrant a defeat and he also complained about the penalty That we didn't get late on.
Well, imho, he's in a minority of opinion if he thought we deserved anything from today's overall performance.
I also don't like it when he blames refereeing decisions for poor results - there's plenty of time throughout the whole match for us to get the victory.

Afraid we got what we deserved, slow, ponderous and clumsy sums up our performance

30 Nov 2014 18:19:02
Id Probably put that up there with the worst performances I've ever seen, why does he insist on playing barkley out wide? It clearly doesn't work. Barry and baines clearly are not fit and he didn't want to 'risk' garbutt or ledson in a premier league game, oh but what happened to 'he gives kids a chance' who, browning for 20 minutes, garbutt twice and ledson on the bench. Why did he take a fully fit osman out despite him playing well in the holding role against west ham, at least have someone fit there. I love eto, but he, ross and naisy cannot play in the same team, there is no balance, have one of them behind rom and put either pienaar, mcgeady or atsu out wide, at least the formation will have balance, but he has to fit both eto and barkley in all the time, ITS NOT WORKING, the top 4 'dream' is now definitely over despite how long is left, chelsea, city, arsenal and man u will be the top 4, its now between us, liverpool and spurs for 5th and personally I would leav it now and concentrate on the europa league. A new goalkeeper, centre back, striker and winger in january please bobby. But he wont, he will buy a 19 year old right back who will never play and some 37 year old attacking midfielder on a free, maybe riquelme, he needs to get a team together that works, lukaku won't score goals if he gets no service, which he wont.

Outplayed and out fought in every position. I wouldn't score any of the team more than 6 after that performance. I don't like slating Everton players but a few of them need to ask themselves about their performance today. Coleman, Baines, Barry, Mirallas & Eto'o didn't look fit. Howard nailed to his line on crosses & through balls. Lukaku and especially Barkley got caught in possession too many times, Jagielka caught out of position too much, Besic looked good first 10-15mins then went missing except for some dodgy tackling & passing. Distan had a shocker today, couldn't pass, head the ball, tackle and even looked slow against Kane. Not sure why his form has dipped so much this season but he needs to improve immensely or we need Stones back by Wed. night.

{Ed025's Note - distin has been a bitter disappointment to me this season joe, is his heart really in it anymore?..i dont really know, but he cannot be considered as anymore than a bit part player for me mate..

Agreed

I don't know what has happened to Distin this season ed, he has been very poor in a lot of the games he's played. The only person that knows if his head is in it is Sylvain & doubt he'll read this and answer for us.

{Ed025's Note - which is a pity joe..

30 Nov 2014 19:54:42
Age has caught up with him I'm afraid Ed, shame really. I thought we had a good first 15 minutes but then took the foot off the gas. Nobody stood out for me today, for the right reasons anyway. Was quite surprised by the possession stats but that kind of sums up our season so far. Plenty of the ball yet not creating enough chances. Going to throw a grenade in the mix here before retreating, did we miss Ossie not starting today? Results did seem to pick up in the games he's started. Answers on a postcard to: Swan, Everton Banter Site :)

For what it's worth Swan, I totally agree about playing Lukaku, Eto'o, Naismith and Barkley in the same team. He has to play either Eto'o or Lukaku up front with Naismith or Barkley behind. Combinations of players outside their "normal" positions just doesn't work. Not against the better teams anyway. Spurs are not that great, but they do have sufficient to punish you if your midfield is light. I think that and heavy legs from Thursday with a couple of half fit players being picked made it look like we were heavy legged at times. The ref should have given a couple of yellows earlier which would have stopped Spurs being so physical. Overall a poor performance. Feel really crap now.

OP - worst ever performance. How long have you been watching Everton? Also i'm not sure you watched the same game as you are correct it did not work fitting Naismith, Eto and Barkley considering Naismith was not playing and I don't remember those three being the 3 attacking midfielders once this season, McGeady has played in Mirallas absence as the winger who can carry the ball, Barkley I think was 1st choice before a ball was kicked at number 10 but Naisy took his chance very well when Barkley was out injured. The left hand side is a serious problem as I don't fancy a single player in our squad to play there. Why not Garbutt left back Baines up top?

01 Dec 2014 18:33:42
Sorry svenny you must of misread the post, I said ONE OF the worst performances I've seen, I also said it annoys me the way he has to have 2 of naismith, barkley and eto in the same team, sometimes all 3 when it doesn't work, I didn't say eto, barkley and naismith didn't work against spurs, it doesn't work in general

01 Dec 2014 19:00:09
gonna throw this one out there as a potential team when all players are fit.
howard
coleman stones jagielka barry
besic mccarthy
mirallas barkley baines
lukaku

I don't believe for 1 miniute we are going to make top 4 this season, but valuable playing time must be given to ross to further develop. if we drop him and play naismith there, he's getting no playing experience at all. focus our attention on the europa league and attempt at winning that to get into champions league then strengthen the squad from funds invested each year. Only buying youth should be our policy now with so many aged players in our squad too, no one over 26 years old please. thanks

{Ed025's Note - i think its up to ross to prove himself worthy of a place craig, i am desperate for him to do well, but we cant afford passengers mate..

30 Nov 2014 18:11:01
OK, it's a knee-jerk overreaction to a defeat, but for the first time in RM's reign I just can't rationalise the team selection or the performance.
No one playing naturally wide right midfield (until McGeady came on) to work with Coleman, a complete lack of urgency in our attacking play, too many aimless balls forward out of defence (especially from Distin) that gave away possession, too many second balls lost, and late-on too many times caught on the ball. Their players were definitely up for it while we just lacked any spark and had no effective intensity to our play. We do have a worrying knack of making opposing players and teams look good, when we should be capitalising on any low confidence or lack of form.
For me, today showed how much we need McCarthy and Naismith in the team. Even without them, today we had a great opportunity to exploit an opposing team's fragility - especially getting their fans on their backs - but, once again and not just in a post-Europe game, we blew it. Would it be wrong to ask whether our players - and our club in general - have the mental attitude to handle these challenges?
If we don't perform against Hull in midweek - and certainly if we don't win - then I'll realy start to get worried.

30 Nov 2014 18:22:19
This always happens, like against liverpool, mignolet playing awful, so what do we do? don't shoot until the 92nd minute, if we don't beat hull, the same hull who got beat 3-0 by united yesterday then like I said above, forget the premier league and focus on the europa league and maybe the fa cup

30 Nov 2014 17:49:54
It's a pity Butch Wilkins isn't still playing we could put a bid in I've never seen a team to play the ball backwards or sideways as Much in all my life

{Ed025's Note - i agree mate..

It was like having Vinny Sideways alongside Wilkins ;-)

30 Nov 2014 17:00:13
Half time and very sloppy. I notice that during the recent good run we had (including the Thursday Euro win) the team contained a player by the name of Voldamort. ie he who should not be named. I hope he comes on 2nd half and changes it a bit. You know who I mean.

30 Nov 2014 16:23:17
Great goalkeeping again from the mighty tim howard

{Ed025's Note - poor for the first one i agree,

Could always put Robles in Swan? Oh no you are selling him too.

30 Nov 2014 18:10:05
Or in january we could get an actual decent keeper in who can catch a ball

{Ed025's Note - tim was poor today swan, along with most others mate..

Is Martinez just Wenger in disguise?

{Ed025's Note - if he attains half of what he has...lets hope so..

Ed025: unlikely while he insists on scoring the perfect goal and only from open play, unlikely if he can't address the goalkeeping situation, unlikely if we can't get our medical team to deal better with the injuries we get, unlikely if we select unfit players, unlikely if we put players in the wrong positions.
Other than that, we've every chance don't we?
;-)

{Ed025's Note - our squad are not good enough to play the martinez way maybe sid?, some of them seem to panic when in possession, they give the ball away then and end up on the back foot too many times, for me we need to speed it up a bit mate..

Ed025: I think you're rght about some of our players (especially the pre-RM ones) not being suited to RM's desired possession & passing style, but I imagine he's developing our youngsters to play that way and is trying hard to get our current players coached to adopt that approach and he's using the transfer windows to bring in the right players. Whatever style we play, we also need to show that "big club" (i.e. successful) winning mentality and we must surely play with greater urgency and intensity.

{Ed025's Note - one would hope so sid, im afraid the barca tika-taka is old hat now mate, its been replaced my the more dynamic cut and thrust football that has been adopted by the likes of real madrid and bayern munich, and that looks like its the style to follow, its also easier on the eye..

Ed025: it's our inconsistency of performance that I find so puzzling. That and the fact that even when we've kept a clean sheet, it's often down to luck (e.g. offsides that aren't offside or last-ditch blocks and deflections or the woodwork) AND too many goals we've scored are down one or two players raising their game and/or scoring "worldies". If we perform badly and lose any confidence among our players - especially in our defending - then we could easily start shipping goals like we did against Chelsea.
Come on RM - show your leadership and get the players on track!

30 Nov 2014 14:34:03
Swan and DegsyPulford.

You both need a time out. I know a really good counselor if you're interested. ;)

{Ed025's Note - it is a bit like a telephone conversation with the krankies at times QB..

Even being sarcastic to them doesn't help, in fact I think I make it worse!!

{Ed025's Note - it makes me happy though howie.. :)

It's said that love and hate in a relationship are basically the same emotion in that they show both parties still deeply care about what each other does and thinks. Once both parties can ignore each other - and not rise to any baiting - then we'll know they're both over it. Until then, get a room.
Just kidding ;-)

Sometimes I come on here and start with all good intentions and then something winds me up. Or someone! So I reply. Then it gets into a heated debate and I know we are both like women who have to have the last word. To be fair to Swan, he sometimes ignores my posts and that irks me even more. I do have to say that these last few I have posted include the statement with tongue in cheek. And he did say Osman-free debates were ok. So I set up a couple of Osman-free debates. Listen guys, this just goes to show that we are all the most passionate of supporters. Better than all the plastic. "lets go the pub and watch the game" ones. COME ON YOU BLUES. Think we will struggle today with fitness. We will look tired and lethargic. The lads gave 110% on Thursday. That only leaves 90% for today. Hope I am wrong on this one!!

30 Nov 2014 13:18:05
thier is talk of beckham wanting howard for miami would u let him go and how much for

{Ed025's Note - not for at least another 2 seasons bretto, i still think he has a great deal to offer us mate..

If we get offered 5 mil or over it is worth considering because of his age

I really don't get all this talk of who we should get rid of. Swan's post with 6 players he would like to see go. Then mention on this post about getting rid of Howard. Then the comment of getting rid of Barkley. Even Ed025 says McGeady to Hartlepool. We are going to have a pretty thin squad after all these departures. One thing I learned in football was that you get players in before you get rid of anyone. Nowhere does anyone mention which players are coming in to replace Howard, Osman, Pienaar, McGeady, Joel, Kone or Barkley. I would guess it would be extremely difficult to replace all these players for less than 50-75 million and even then the players coming in might be inferior to the ones going out. In fact if you all think that these Everton players are so crap, why not go and support a team with players that you actually like? We are Everton FC. As far as I know, the players under discussion play for Everton FC. Our supporters are supposed to be the best, but all these recent posts seem to suggest that we enjoy saying X is crap, Y is rubbish, let's get rid of A, B AND C. My God we all sound like manic depressives.

{Ed025's Note - its all about opinions degs, we know we dont have a say but we dare to dream mate...by the way, sell mcgeady and bring in carlton palmer is my shout mate.. :)

Begovic