Cardiff v Everton. 31st Aug @ 15.00.

[bicycleheader]

I really hope you're right mate. At 22, if the player you describe is coming in, then it could be okay business at £12m. I'm glad someone who has watched him a decent amount thinks this.

The thing I see is, when I watch him at Wigan, even in the championship, he's not warranting that price tag. When I think of how he'll play for us, I see him doing more of what we saw today, i.e. spreading it wide to Coleman, Baines, Mirallas and Pienaar and not offering much more in these types of games. He'll surely do that job very adeptly, but Gibson does that and Barry can do it to a lesser extent.

As I said earlier today, for £4m I'd take him, but not for the massive fee mentioned. Do you think he's worth that to a club like ours?

Well I think 10 mil seems fair, but if we pay more I think it will be okay because rather than buying from outside the league which can be a risk if they cant hack the league or if they just use us to get a bigger move, we would be buying a young player with prem experience that I am sure will be with us as a first choice first team player for years.

 

[The T-Dex]

Teams are going to sit back against us and get men behind the ball.

We need to find a way past that asap.

 

[chicoazul]

Was hoping we could go into that with a win, mate.

Would have made everyone a bit cheerier.

I think everyone just needs to give him time.

I'm confident that by April we will be challenging for a Champions League spot, vault me if you wish. We'll probably get knocked out of the cup but put together a run of wins as we won't be distracted.

Were going place under Martinez, trust me lid.

 

[ToffeeDan]

The lack of cutting edge must be down (in part) to not having 2 strikers on the pitch - why not put two up front - at least for the final 30 minutes of a game we are dominating?

 

[Tubey]

1) not mindless

2) barely mentioned Fellaini

Oh I just meant the Fellaini bits, not the whole thing.

Fellaini's been **** mate, time to wake up and realise his sale will bring nothing but benefits

Hahahaha classic ^^

 

[kev101]

Ref didn't help, though Eggs.

Another hard luck story where we were the better side but we didn't get the decisions and didn't come away with the win.

Happened a fair few times over the last 4-5 years. Rather have points on the board, like, but it's better then being outplayed.

Every team, has their tales of woe regarding decisions. Means nowt!

 

[Royal Blue Jersey]

I've been anti every manager we've had since royle left, in all honesty.

It's a tough life.

Joe Royle is just a top man all round, brillaint pundit as well, eloquent and speaks great sense. Would love to hear more from him, he should be the go-to man for all Everton ex-player media questions

 

[Azza]

Martinez told evertontv: "The decision is hard to explain really because we all had a clear view and there are probably moments where the referee gets blocked.

"But when the Cardiff player goes to ground and loses control of his body and doesn't touch the football, obviously you are going to impede the player. Clearly it's a penalty.

"Leighton was as shocked as anyone in the ground and it was unfortunate because that would have been a big break.

"But overall, the way we defended and the way we stopped Cardiff having any influence on the game, that was very pleasing.

"We were strong, we kept Cardiff very, very quiet and this is a difficult place to do that.

"On the other side, when you get the amount of moments in the final third that we did, we need to be clinical and start scoring goals - because that was the difference that stopped us getting three points."

Tell Bill you want a decent striker then.

 

[Royal Blue Jersey]

Oh I just meant the Fellaini bits, not the whole thing.



Hahahaha classic ^^

Well at least someone will be happy when he's gone

 

[Allezfan]

Teams are going to sit back against us and get men behind the ball.

We need to find a way past that asap.

I said elsewhere, we got a lot of leeway last year with team treating us like a long ball team (you play a high line vs a long ball team so that the aeriel threat wins the ball away from goal, whereas vs a passing team you play deep so they can't get a ball in behind you). Spurs at home is the example that comes to mind, where as they played a high line all first half because they were obviously scared of fellaini doing to them what he did to man u and Mirallas and Gibson had a great time against it.

I think the pennys dropped that we're not one, so everyone's playing very deep now.

 

[bicycleheader]

I had to go out unfortunately and missed the entire game so I'm in the process of trawling back through this thread in an attempt to piece together something resembling a match report. All I can say is - without seeing today's game, just based on our previous efforts - if your description of McCarthy is accurate (and I believe he is a bring-the-ball-out-of-defence kind of player) then he is precisely what we need and, in that department for sure, a massive upgrade on Fellaini.

We need people to get the ball off the defenders/keeper, bring it forward, and start the attacks from deep. Gibson is again unfit (and probably will be for a minimum of 20% of our games) and, though I am one of his biggest fans, it is increasingly apparent this isn't a job for Osman. He needs to be further forward using his excellent control and quick feet in tight forward areas, but then again Barkley has been such a revelation in that very role it is difficult to see where Osman could fit in.

McCarthy should bring an immediate improvement in the tempo of our game because right now, though we are playing some good composed football when we have it in the middle of the pitch, getting there is a combination of winning 50/50s from goal kicks or taking posession from the opposition. Nothing really comes forward from our own half, the defenders try and pass it round and wait for space but our centre halves just don't really know what to do with it (Alcaraz will be a big plus on his return, too; and Stones looks very good in this department) and the centre mids don't come back to help. It results in Jagielka and Distin playing 1-2s before knocking it long or back to the keeper. It means we are slower getting things going, and overall rely on opposition mistakes (defenders not winning 50/50s, people giving the ball away) to get ourselves going alot of the time.

Regardless, by all accounts this is the 4th game in which - because the opposition aren't exactly quality - this has resulted in us creating a host of chances and yet failing to score enough if any of them. This has to improve. We need to take our chances. Fellaini v West Brom and by the sounds of it Mirallas today should have scored and by taking just those 2 chances could have put us 4pts better off.

I just want Fellaini gone now, and Martinez given the funds to bring in players he wants and we need.

Glad to see some people in agreement on McCarthy. Although if we get him in, I don't think it will take too long for him to win people over.

Although I don't know how we would fit in Gibbo, Mac and Felli I definitely would prefer not to lose Felli.

 

[D410]

I said elsewhere, we got a lot of leeway last year with team treating us like a long ball team (you play a high line vs a long ball team so that the aeriel threat wins the ball away from goal, whereas vs a passing team you play deep so they can't get a ball in behind you). Spurs at home is the example that comes to mind, where as they played a high line all first half because they were obviously scared of fellaini doing to them what he did to man u and Mirallas and Gibson had a great time against it.

I think the pennys dropped that we're not one, so everyone's playing very deep now.

It started at our 1st home game. We,ve been sussed but more the point we and other managers know we are toothless up front.

The only way this changes is that Bill spends beyond his means or Martinez sells and drops the mcarthy chase in goes after loans for CM and paid strikers and wingers.

 

[Eggs]

Ref didn't help, though Eggs.

Another hard luck story where we were the better side but we didn't get the decisions and didn't come away with the win.

Happened a fair few times over the last 4-5 years. Rather have points on the board, like, but it's better then being outplayed.

..agree. We have been the better side which makes me fairly content. We are work in progress and we will be superior than the likes of Norwich, West Brom & Cardiff.

 

[Royal Blue Jersey]

"We might be passing the ball around but we're not doing anything in the final third." Phil Jagielka

Take it up with Phil Jagielka

He's useless on the ball. Wouldn't trust his opinions. It's at least partly his fault given his terrible distribution

 

[obc]

Wow..

The half-time show on NBCSN in the US brought that up and the panel universally scoffed at the notion Baines was diving. They couldn't pile enough praise on him for being an upright, model player not the drama queen suggested by Cardiff.