Leicester City v Everton. 16th August at 15.00.

toffeejack · August 16, 2014

butters said:
Why did we look absolutely shattered and Leicester looked fresh as a daisy?

we'll be the ones looking fresh coming into the business end of the season and they'll be labouring towards the finish line

rascal · August 16, 2014

Ah well, at least we're not Ashley Young

Boss_Blue · August 16, 2014

LinekersLegs said:
Lot of positives in first half, especially Pienaar and Baines looking back to their best with Naismith & McGeady doing well.

We ran out of energy in the second half and let them back into it with our subs too late.

Ah well, could have been worse but we'll have to get our fitness levels back up and sort out the shakiness at the back.

Agree with all of this, I'm surprised Martinez didn't make changes a little sooner but a lot of lids seem to have forgotten how good we looked in the first half.

We will be fine this season and play a lot of teams off the park.

*Silently fumes

Connor · August 16, 2014

We go again lads, lost it to two fortuitous bounces their way. We'll be sound and up for it next week.

Yes, we should have killed it off in the second half but you know the score with us, it'll come when everyone's fully fit. Lukaku's had 45 minutes in Pre Season and then played 90 here, looked sharp early on but when he's fully fit he'll be linking everything late into the game. Chill lads.

marty mcfly · August 16, 2014

kevdotbadger said:
Came here expecting a [Poor language removed] storm of negativity and that's exactly what I got! I thought we controlled the game very well, Barry and McCarthy looking great.

I take it your stream went down and you didn't see the 2nd half.

KUEFC09U2 · August 16, 2014

Del said:
There is a reason we looked good in the first half then went to tits in the second, The players are not match fit

Martinez has to take the blame for that

Chelsea and Arsenal will smash us if we defend like we did today

Did we not say the same last season after the first couple of games "oh Chelsea are going to smash us argggghhh" but did they? no!!!, people need to get a grip they really do, the level of fume and feeling of entitlement is embarrassing

orly · August 16, 2014

People forgetting that the players have probably not been beasted in pre-season due to the Europa league commitments.

Anyway, we got 3 points from our first three last season - and look how that turned out

ART · August 16, 2014

I see the word tricky to describe an away game to a team like Leicester or good away point, not bad for first game, ffs we should have knocked forty shades of [Poor language removed] out of them just as a welcome back to top flight footy. Six points from the next two games it is then. Its Everton ffs COYB.

Professor Toffee · August 16, 2014

Petit said:
Fitness is the problem. Like you say, in the second half our players were knackered which invited Leicester back into it. You just knew they were going to score, since Everton never win on opening day. Seems to always be a crual equaliser as well.

Questions we need to ask is why our players look so unfit. Jags, Distin, Lukaku and even McCarthy looked miles off the pace.

So why are they so unfit, most players weren't at the World Cup and those that were weren't there for too long, in the main!

banno · August 16, 2014

hktoffee said:
How can anyone happy with losing two points to a pub team? We just throw this away thanks to some sloppy defending.

Distin is back to his old-self Dustbin. Please for fcuk sake stop giving him the ball he can't pass! And he is extremely sloppy today. Jagielka is really struggling with their hoof ball, he just let the ball bounce time after time. Stones is just not a RB. Why the hell he chooses to make dangerous pass in our own half? Why don't he just clear the ball? McGeady takes his goal well yes but he rarely involve and should have been subbed much earlier. He tries too hard to beat their men. Naismith needs to stop his first time passing, it never works. I think Martinez should make the subs much earlier on, we lose our ideas on how to attack in the second half.

Very frustrating.

Strongly agree with the bolded bit. He is OK at sideway passes but any forward pass is usually inaccurate. What I cannot understand is Jags and Distin used to mop up long balls a couple of years ago, it was there bread and butter. Stones is not great at RB but would still prefer him to hibbert. I was crying out for subs earlier as we let Leicester back in the game but I was perturbed at Peinaar coming off as he was a real threat for us. We shot ourselves in the foot by not attempting to kill the game off and we are not strong enough defensively to see a game out.

marnie · August 16, 2014

daz4matty said:
He was swanning around in brazil and not put the effort in pre season.
We looked tired in pre season an out of it 2nd half.
We were badly prepared for the start of this season simple as that

kevdotbadger · August 16, 2014

Adversus said:
I take it your stream went down and you didn't see the 2nd half.

Saw all 94 minutes. We failed to control about 10 mins of the whole game. Away from home at this level is very impressive.

bluelife · August 16, 2014

Winci said:
We actually played some very good stuff, but second half players looked exhausted, especially Lukaku. So, Im not gonna criticize Roberto on our first game of the season, but he should have really took Lukaku off for another Mid, be it Besic or Osman. The way the game was going we really could have done with another CM to help keep possession. But all in all we looked better, we are just not fit enough to keep it up for 90 minutes.

If he did that then it would have been slandered as the biggest Moyes move ever. They just weren't good enough second half and that's it...

luimneach · August 16, 2014

Disappointing result as we left them back into the game :-( First half did some good work, especially down left side but in second half, tried to be over elaborate with play! Tiredness is not a reason for draw as their trained professional footballers so get them match fit before season ffs!
Defence all over the place so lots of work to be done before next week :-(

Last season with our top points total in premier league we missed out on Champions League due to draws against "lesser" teams and started this season in the same way :-( No disrespect to Leicester but WE should always beat teams of their level, even if we had a team of Hibberts and Osmans :-)