Everton Banter Archive October 07 2014

07 Oct 2014 15:27:15
There is a lot of Bobby bashing on here, let's face it the players are the same as last year with a few in to strengthen, only a small few are still performing, the main issue is defence where we are at sorts, if Distin has thrown one out of the pram and walked out after critism, its not what we need right now, we need players to man up and be counted, we need Jags to do a proper skippers job and pull the team together and help the manager and club out.
We need players with WC hangovers to put it behind them and really earn the vast amounts they do!
COYB

Wakka I don't think we are bashing Bobbie but are just concerned that with the current set of injuries and players available we are not able to play the way he would like and win games, hence hope he will change tactics to suit the available players. This may give us a better chance to win. I for one totally support him and the boys 100%

Wakka 57

Agree! remember the cushion throwing under Kendal, got one on the back of my head! every one shouting Kendal out. one lucky break and the season changed, let's face facts, the team returned from a midweek Europa league game in the middle of god knows where! 7 hour flight, came back missing a number of key players and yes struggled a bit against the deluded Mancs, a couple of world class saves kept us from earning a draw if not a win?
We all new it was going to be hard with us playing in the Europa league, so let's face facts, first game of the season against a newly promoted team, always going to be hard. 2nd game the arse, to throw a lead 2 goal lead again disappointing but years gone past would of taken that, Chelsea? title winners this season!
Palace, S--T result one bad game, every team has them. Baggies great result. Liverpool, just as bad as us considering were they where last year? UTD considering what they have spent and what has been made by the Knob heads on MOTD about their injury problems. could of been 3-2 to us but for a penalty miss and some excellent saves. so let's get behind them, rather then slagging them of. If we believe it will come.
We are not that far away!
Football is 25% ability 75% confidence.

Great comments slev. I back what you say 100%. We've now played Arsenal, Chelsea, the Reds and Utd - all expected to finish higher than us this season with some success. Chelsea were the only ones to 'change into a different gear'. With players to come back from injury shortly plus a more favourable run of fixtures after the international break, we will move up the table quickly (as Utd proved last weekend).
All these calls for Roberto's head after 7 games are way short of the mark and totally unjustified.

08 Oct 2014 09:26:03
Slevs, Daveyboy the voices of reason. Time is starting to heal it seams

07 Oct 2014 12:02:06
I re watched the full 90 minutes yesterday trying to watch it without passion and to be unbiased. Bottom line is, we were ok. Sadly that is not going to get us anywhere, we could have been Hull or Stoke (no disrespect intended to those two teams) there was no zip to our game, no real quality apart from a well worked set piece.
Howard was at fault for the second goal and he seems to have gone a bit mental after the world cup, he looks like a disaster waiting to happen and I do not mean conceding sloppy goals I mean punching someone in the face.
Hibbert in hindsight should not have started, missing Coleman is a big problem, the way RM likes to play means in many ways attack is our defence, Hibbo can't do that and the system breaks down. Browning has the pace and energy to try it at least even if he can not replicate Colemans class. However it is easy to say this after the game, eyebrows would have been raised giving a kid a debut at Old Trafford up against Di Maria
Stones and Jags did ok not too much to report not too much to possibly change their personel wise anyway.
Baines was average first half, he was pumped up after missing the penalty but his head dropped after we went 2-1 down and offered not a lot in the last 10 mins of the game
Barry - did ok typical performance from him
Besic - was actually quite good. Looked for the non easy pass as the game went on, took some risks, ran his socks off, quite happy with him.
Naisy - the guy is a hero, never stops, very clever, as it stands when Ross comes back I would be playing him up top as a false 9 and be dropping Lukaku
McGeady, did ok for him, the problem is ok for him is scrapping Premiership quality, Mirallas is a big big miss.
Pienaar, never ever rated him, the partnership with Baines is now non exsistant so I do not see what he brings, too light weight, no pace, losses possesion, doesn't score. Again the issue is that there is very little in terms of replacements
Lukaku, he held the ball up better than he was at the start of the season, he has done this in the last 3 games, however where is his pace and power? At times last season he steam rolled through defences, now he is barely even making runs in behind. His form is a serious concern, more so than the defence.
Im not going to remark on Oviedo and give him the benefit of the doubt that he had a serious injury but he looked like a League 2 player out there.

My main concern is RM not changing his philosophy based on circumstances. With Barkely, Mirallas, Coleman and McCarthy out we have a real lack of pace and energy in the team. So playing the way he likes will not work. Look at what we have available, play a system that will suit us. We are not going to be awful this season, we will be just fine, I also have full faith RM will get it right, it is however a harsh reality check this start to the season. I think 5th is our ceiling and I do not think it is made of glass. So as fans what do we want? Well I want to win something, the league is never going to happen so in some ways we are lucky that our season has not really started yet. If we reach the heights of form we found in periods last season at the right time this season the FA Cup or Europa League is not out of the equation

07 Oct 2014 13:27:20
good post svenny, I agree with a lot of the points there, I would however question Gareth Barry's commitment, since he signed the contract he has looked a yard slow and his tracking skills seem to have disappeared. Even as far as his passing has looked off. I really thought both Barry and Lukaku would step up to the mark being given long term contracts with us and Martinez trusting that these two could take us forward, but both seem to have gone backwards since making their loan moves permanant. I would go as far as saying besic and McCarthy would be my starting two in the middle of the park when both fit, and as you say dropping lukaku when ross returns.

Svenny I agree with most of the post, I disagree about Peanuts and Barry. I totally agree with your statement about Hibbo although I do think he is trying to push forward more and to be fair against MU he did win us the penalty. Coleman is a different class going forward though so would always start when fit. My problem is building from the back we need loads of movement from the attacking mids and front line I don't think we are getting anywhere near enough movement from any of them. If you look at some of our better stuff it all came from pasing and good movement at tempo. Far to often we are giving the ball to Barry with no movement infont of him and when he is pressed he has no real option but to give an easy sideways or backwards pass. This is the same with Jags and Distin teams are quite happy to let them both take the ball up as they doe not have the passing range to cause too much trouble. For me Besic is showing promise as he runs his socks off Oviedo and Peanuts are just coming back from injury so the jury is still out. I thought Peanuts movement off the ball was okay but he is nowhere near match fit after his injury and drifted off the pace just be fore he sub'ed himself. The problem we do have is Rom and Naisy just don't seem to be complement each other in the current system. I would like to see Rom given a decent run up the middle with Naisy playing of his shoulder but I can't see that happening anytime soon. To be honest I am not sure what is going on with Tim but have to agree it does look like he is waiting to deck someone. For me are injuries have shown us exactly what the squad can do and its not play the RM way that's for sure. Once everyone is back I can see us hitting a real patch of form and taking teams to the cleaners. let's hope its not too far into the season before that happens.

07 Oct 2014 17:52:36
some of our best play this season has been built from the back short 1-2's between centre back and centre mid, but that must result in one or two of the opposition players being left behind the play. What I mean by this is Stones and McCarthy seem to have a understanding on how to play out of defense in short passes with eachother and then combining with another player in a triangle which commonly leaves a couple of opposition players behind the play and this is when an attack becomes promising. This usually results in Stones running through the middle of the park carrying the ball towards the opposition defenders and looking for some of the runs which we are lacking, so I agree, Lukaku in particular needs to learn the art of making runs off the ball, even if it is to free space in an opposition defense for another player to run into (something naismith does very well). The wide players at this point need to do one of two things, 1. if the full backs are in promising positions high up the pitch, cut inside to tighten the play leaving the wings clear for full backs to attack the byline and cross the ball (which we seem to have lost the ability to do more recently, surprising considering we have a few good headers of the ball in our starting line ups) 2. if full backs are not infront of the play the wingers stick to the side lines creating space for central midfielders and strikers to move between the lines of defense to create a shooting opportunity or a through ball in a more prominant position.

Craig spot on mate, we seem to just keep passing further and further back until either stones does suttin, Howard Hoofs it, or we lose it I like the passing game but some of our players technically aren't good enough plus we miss Barkley coming deep and turning because the opposition don't fear some of our players one bit and prssure them all game till they mess up