Everton v Norwich City - EFL Cup - Tuesday 20 Sept, 19.45 KO

[blulouie]

Barkley needs dropping to the under 15s. Absolute shambles this season. You'd think a local lad would put in a bit of effort for his 70k a week, but nah, all seems to be too much for him. I'd play Kone over him atm in a 4-4-2 ffs.

Now dont be silly eh.

 

[blulouie]

I saw flashes mate - I was covering another game and had them both running at the same time.

Clev looked (at first) to be doing just fine, and it's this ridiculous hatred for a player who is 'just fine' that stops people from seeing that.

Lennon was poor first half. He was involved in most of our chances second half before going off.

Weren't at the level overall, and we got punished.

At no time at all did Cleverly look anything other than crap tonight mate.

 

[degsy]

I am now convinced he's not a #10 and will not ever be. Needs to drop back a bit where it's not quite as congested and decisions needn't be made as quickly as they are around the box.

Better late than never; He's a pure instinct player and his 'wonder goal' Vs Newcastle was a one off (see Beckford Vs Chelsea, Barnes Vs Brazil and others)
It wasn't just his fault we lost

Just as Huddleston was the next Hoddle and Spurs persevered until one manager, I forget who, dropped him and then (and it might've been yet another manager, who cares.) moved him on...or was it somebody took a chance on him...or both. Now at Hull
Ross Barkley - 'This will be your life' for which you have/will be no doubt well rewarded in every day terms. If you keep fit and don't balloon you may get another 10/12 yrs out of it.

Vault me; NEA...He's 'good' and he may yet be a late developer...but I doubt it.

The bigger point is - Now Martinez has gone just who ARE we going to blame...or are we putting it down as League Cup / Everton innit / it's a one off / Koeman isn't really bothered about it, despite what he said beforehand

 

[Mosh Pit]

Ultimately our fringe players failed to step up to the plate when offered the opportunity - perhaps that's why they're fringe players. Lessons from tonight - we need to strengthen the depth of our squad (we knew that already but tonight confirmed it) and sadly whatever the demons are that stop Ross from playing consistently to his potential, no-one including him have found the answer - yet.

I know who the demons are mate..... The home crowd. Last season he seemed to be the scapegoat. The home fans would be frustrated at our dodgy antics around the back & sideways football, so Ross would get on the ball and attempt to make something happen (mostly then losing the ball) and the whole stadium would go ape [Poor language removed] on him. I would say he had a 50/50 success rate at whatever he planned, whether it be to charge at the opposition or make a pass etc & the crowd would immediately forget his successes (he was the only one trying to make something happen) and destroy his confidence on his failures.

Just this weekend Howard Webb said live on BT sports that Goodison Park was the hardest ground to referee... Well, not only do we make it difficult for the opposition, there's no easy ride for our own either.

 

[AndyZ]

Trying to remain optimistic.. which players played well today? I think Gueye was outstanding. Coleman did not disappoint as captain and put in a good shift. Lennon had an excellent second half.

 

[TheFinnFan]

Oops lol

Well I quess the inevitable nosedive had to happend at some point. Glad it was a cup. Suprisingly Nea really.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Trying to remain optimistic.. which players played well today? I think Gueye was outstanding. Coleman did not disappoint as captain and put in a good shift. Lennon had an excellent second half.

The Lennon on the left experiment needs to be over. He could never do it at Tottenham and it hasn't worked a single time here. On the right he is a very useful player and the exact opposite on the left as shown again in this match

 

[Paul w]

I saw flashes mate - I was covering another game and had them both running at the same time.

Clev looked (at first) to be doing just fine, and it's this ridiculous hatred for a player who is 'just fine' that stops people from seeing that.

Lennon was poor first half. He was involved in most of our chances second half before going off.

Weren't at the level overall, and we got punished.

Lennon is gash mate no end product what so ever has been the same for years.

 

[malmic]

We need to replace Cleverly, Funez Mori, and get a decent striker come January. Until then we have to use them in emergency. Lennon, Holgate and Def are good subs. Koeman is still building and we have at least seen improvements on the last years

 

[Southern Yankee toffee]

Lennon is gash mate no end product what so ever has been the same for years.

In each of the last two seasons he has had a run of 3-4 games as our best player. Great squad player.

 

[smileychap]

Kept that feckin mask on for 3 years too long.... Wow was I vindicated though after seemingly creating the single largest thread known to man since the dawn of the internet forum.

Eventually though it just became page after page of me just being so remarkably right, that I began to use it as a form of perverted self engraciating "I was right" pornography. It was all fun and games at first, but soon i became a full blown addict to my "rightness", my greatest moment of essentially just having a really accurate hunch about something. That's when I started missing work and rent payments, just to have "one more read" of all the pages of utter "i was rightness"...

Today, I shan't reveal my hunches about Koeman for fear that another such exhibition might just be the thing that eventually causes my head to literally explode from hyperinflation secondary to the most severe case of "I was rightitis".

Needless to say however, I am no longer wearing the mask. The mask, has finally, been set free....

I'm Fat Stan, and that was my story of being really really really [Poor language removed] right.

This kind of rant is precisely what I log on for., good stuff. Martinez is a self deluded world class £#nT.

Do you see Koeman going the same way as Martinez, though? I think he's defensively too good, no? Also, RM was a not a world class player (fine, many managers aren't),but I think Koeman better understands Coleman, Baines, Mirallas etc which will give us better defense and attacking options out wide again.

As for Norwich, they're going well, we underestimated them. I read a bit about our squad in this thread, and that may well have been justified this evening, too. Cleverly links up but doesn't threaten teams that sit back. Lennon provides effort n crosses but I'm not sure how many assists/goals he actually generates from that. It hasn't clicked for Kone and Del/Barkley aren't delivering despite being ' quality '. Too soon to judge Valencia.

Given the number of games needed to win this cup, and Europa league ( which I understand we want ), this is a reminder about leaders and strength in depth and we lacked both this evening.

 

[Eggs]

...when faced with a difficult situation we need the players with gold dust in their boots to make something happen. It's what the best creative players do on a consistent basis. In the starting X1, Barkley and Deulofeu were those players last night and neither were able to make the difference.

On that performance I wouldn't put Valencia in that category of player.

 

[harris78]

watford has quality strikers

Deeney January bid

 

[ToffeeTim]

I saw flashes mate - I was covering another game and had them both running at the same time.

Clev looked (at first) to be doing just fine, and it's this ridiculous hatred for a player who is 'just fine' that stops people from seeing that.

Lennon was poor first half. He was involved in most of our chances second half before going off.

Weren't at the level overall, and we got punished.

No point picking individuals last night when the team as a whole were so off the pace. That said the concerns over Ross are understandable given how off the pace he was. He went through on goal twice and failed to pull the trigger on both occasions. He wasn't taking responsibility and that's poor.

 

[Gwladysstreetlad]

I know who the demons are mate..... The home crowd. Last season he seemed to be the scapegoat. The home fans would be frustrated at our dodgy antics around the back & sideways football, so Ross would get on the ball and attempt to make something happen (mostly then losing the ball) and the whole stadium would go ape [Poor language removed] on him. I would say he had a 50/50 success rate at whatever he planned, whether it be to charge at the opposition or make a pass etc & the crowd would immediately forget his successes (he was the only one trying to make something happen) and destroy his confidence on his failures.

Just this weekend Howard Webb said live on BT sports that Goodison Park was the hardest ground to referee... Well, not only do we make it difficult for the opposition, there's no easy ride for our own either.

And yet most of our other first 11 manage to go most games without making even one of the five to ten basic errors that Ross seems to nearly every single match both home and away.