A preview for tonight´s Cup game, written by active forum member Ijjysmith;
Ah, the magic of the cup. Oh no, that´s the FA Cup. Not much magic about a cup that can be shortened to the COC. However, all of a sudden everything Everton is completely boss.
After convincingly dispatching the might of Stevenage FC in the previous round Everton face a trip to Craven Cottage for what looks a tough away game in the League Cup. I say convincingly beat Stevanage, I mean skanked our way through in that crap haired Belgian´s farewell game for us. Nice of him to score in his last game but lets face it, we look a stronger squad without him. So much so that this game will probably see us make a few changes from the beautiful win over West Ham at the weekend. But more on those changes later.
For me Fulham are probably the most likeable of the London Premier League teams. There´s just nothing that offensive about them. In fact, there´s really not that much about them at all. They are just there. Martin Jol is annoyingly friendly, their team is full of alright players. They probably won´t go down, they probably won´t make Europe. They are just there. But hey, that makes them not Chelsea, and not Arsenal and that´s OK in my book. And I certainly hope the Michael Jackson statue is still there this Tuesday for a few of our fans to take humerous pictures next to. I´ll miss that statue when they´ve taken it down. As awful as it is, at least it made Fulham interesting for about 5 minutes.
Martin Jol looks like Shrek too.
A quick look through the Fulham team and you´ll see this won´t be an easy game. Dimitar Berbatov missed their defeat to Chelsea on Saturday evening and we should hope he misses this too. He´s become the ulitmate 1 in 7 player in recent years, but when that 1 comes along he is quite quite incredible. David Stockdale should remain in goal with Stekelenburg still injured, which means we should pepper their goal as he´s not very good. Expect Darren Bent and Damian Duff to cause us a few problems even though it´s not 2005 anymore. Fulham though. If they had this squad like 5 or so years ago they´d be winning the league. Well getting in the Europa.
Enough about them. Onto us and how awesome we are. That West Ham game was so very Everton. The first half was nothing. Literally nothing. Then boom, Martinez makes really intelligent and needed subs, Osman hurts himself, and wow, we look bloody good. Lukaku is a freakin´ animal. Running past opposition defenders like they are made of tracing paper, Mirallas doing what we all know he can and a midfield that actually passes like a football team should……and we still could have lost if it wasn´t for the brilliance of a certain left footed genius….arise Sir Leighton Baines. Not one Evertonian man wouldn´t let him spend a night with their better half. God I love him. Just give him a 25 year contract Bill. He can manage us if he wants later.
What our team will look like on Tuesday is open to debate. If Lukaku can remember his name then i´d be tempted to unleash him from the start. Same with McCarthy and if Gibson hasn´t been on the ale let him have a go. All these options is weird. But good weird.
Give Howard a rest in nets, and have another look at Robles. He was great for Wigan in last years FA Cup, so make him our cup keeper.
And I certainly expect Gerard Deulofeu/del boy/Dulu/Delafooface/That Kid from Barca to play from the start. It can´t be just me that wants this lad to play a bit more for us. In the few cameos we have seen he is right up my street. Flicks and stepovers all over the show. Yes please. Be good to see how he gets on away to an established Prem team too.
As for the rest of the team. Tricky. We are on a good run, so making too many changes may not be the best idea. On the other hand this could be a chance to rest some established names, and give others a chance. And we have a decent squad with depth these days, so we actually have this as an option.
There a lot of Premier League team versus Premier League team games in the Third Round this year. Get through this game and we have a real chance in this. We have to win this competition at some point. So why not this year? There´s something good happening at Everton. We can all feel it.
Get into them blues.