Match Thread Everton v Man City. 23rd August at 16.00.

[paulus]

Mate, I want Besic to play but he'll never get a go with Barry in the side, I don't want Barry in the side, but he was good today.

I'm not going to blame today on him just for the sake of it.

Do you see what I m talking no matter if hes good or bad hes playing , and how the [Poor language removed] we are going to make new player. Hes not that good that hes can t be sub , just his not and I don care if Besic replace him , whoever . Besic if hes smart should ask for loan or to go , hes doup by Martinez

 

[coollino]

Anyone not crying right now simply does not bleed blue.

 

[navidson]

Lots of horrible defeatist attitudes in here today - Making it sound like we shouldn't have even kicked off, just print out the current bank statements of each club and play a game of Premier League 'Top Trumps'

We didn't lose today because City have more money that us ("Waaahhh Waahhhhh") We lost because our best players didn't perform and tactically we were atrocious.

 

[fareastblue]

Stones seems frustrated no? He was trying to do too many things, and getting in the way of Browning and Coleman in the second half and often out of position.
His body language tells me he wants to play in a better team.

 

[Eric Djemba-Djemba]

Martinez out

 

[My Friend George]

Close game settled by one team having invested properly over the last few seasons. You only get so far by scrimping along and today proved that

More protests please

Protest for what? You want a multi billionaire owner? I prefer the romance of a hard earned victory.

 

[Eggs]

Stonus Augustus

....he's just getting better and better, think what Aguero did to Terry and Cahill last week. I'm sure he wanted to do better than those two and he clearly did. £70m and rising next season.

 

[Azza]

The same Howard who kept us in the game for 70+ minutes?

Shame he didn't do it for 90 minutes...

 

[Steve Wigan]

City are the best side we'll play this season, and we gave them a great game. They will win the league, and we are probably top six. We are 'good' now and we are going to get a lot better. Don't think Lukaku was offside, certainly he wasn't in the second phase of that incident, unlucky also to hit the bar, and Kompany saved them in the scramble late on. No disgrace today...we will win a lot more games than we lose this season, and the future, over the next few seasons is bright if we can hang on to most of our young players.

 

[Groucho]

People saying city played us off the park were watching a different game to me. What I watched was a team with no width sitting back and inviting pressure.

I'm happy to lose a game providing we give it a good go but we didn't, 1-0 down and he puts Naismith on when we were crying out for width and pace to push them back, absolute schoolboy stuff from martinez again which all but confirms their is a clique at the club- Naismith simply has to play in his eyes and sadly so will cleverly.

I agree with the bolded bit. I thought we gave them a game which at least gives me hope for the season.

I don't agree with the underlined bit though mate, I'm never happy to lose a game.

 

[Joey66]

We've gone from thinking Kone is crap to actually needing him in the side to look remotely decent.

Jesus wept.

The reason why he pairs up with Lukarku - he went into a lonesome mess when Kone went off, no one to hold the ball up our midfield today consisted of two RB and TC?

 

[CahillsCornerFlag]

They are winning the league, comfortably.

Not a bad performance from us, and we didn't get the little bits of luck we needed when it mattered most.

Tim Howard needs replacing, but we knew that already, and Roberto needs to remember where Mirallas and Deulofeu play.

 

[riddick]

Not a Cleverly fan but thought he did okay today tbh

Feel the same. Think he did well.

 

[Axlswhk]

There should be no fumes after this. We got beaten by a considerably better team.
.

we made them look good mate, when a team like City press more than we did then something is definitely wrong somewhere.

The second half was just suicidal football in terms of defending, how can we allow them, time after time, to hold onto the ball for such a long time in our penalty box without putting in an attempt to win the ball back is simply amateur.

 

[BigDunc'sFod]

I hope we cut Howard a break for that goal. He made three fantastic saves, claimed everything in the area for 89 minutes, and just gambled wrong when Kolarov scored. Yeah, you never like to see a keeper beaten at the near post, especially from a tight angle, but we'd be crucifying him if Kolarov had rolled the ball past him for an easy tap-in from Agüero.

No, and no. Its his job.