Match Thread Everton v West Brom. 13th Feb at 1500.

[VentureBrosEFC]

Someone has to be the voice of reason.

And you're not it.

 

[Dutch Toffee]

Big improvement from Howard, 1 shot = 1 goal. Well done Big Bird. Experiment should be over.

It's not an experiment, Howard lost his place to Robles. And quite rightly so!

 

[BigDunc'sFod]

I thought the subs were spot on. How they then played may be another thing.

We needed someone else in the box to help Lukaku, so Kone for Cleverley. He's better suited to that than Mirallas.

As well as Lennon was playing, he needed a rest so Deulofeu.

Then we needed to bang one more attacking player on, to try and get that pass to unlock them. Osman for McCarthy again made sense.

Fume and prejudice clouding some minds.

Unfortunately that Howardesque goal in the first half played directly into their strength.

Wtf

Kone couldn't control a ball if you sat on the floor and rolled it to him with your hands ffs. He offers nothing.

Lennon came off and looked like he'd only been running around for half an hour.

Osman for McCarthy made sense? How?

Pienaar, Mirallas, even Baines would have made more sense than Kobe and Osman.

 

[Big Fat Sam]

Kone for Cleverley. He's better suited to that than Mirallas.

Do you mean the system that wasn't working and hasn't worked - for more than one game at a time - for over 18 months? You may be right. Otherwise no, abysmal sub. Kone should be nowhere near the squad, never mind getting onto the field. Deulofeu for Cleverley was the correct sub there, nothing else at all.

As well as Lennon was playing, he needed a rest so Deulofeu.

Again, wrong imo. Lennon was still sprinting around the pitch and our most dangerous player. The second sub should have been McCarthy off for Mirallas, and with it a change of formation. It was not working, so why continue with it?!

Osman for McCarthy again made sense.

Osman should be retired. He should never, ever play for us again. It's not his fault his body has caught up with him, but he shouldn't be playing for us. Even Baines coming on at this stage would have been better. Or Kone because he shouldn't have been on the pitch at the time.

 

[MartSlinger]

For about 55-60mins today i would have said we were playing well but desperately unlucky, then Kone jruined everything. What a horiffic substitution that was, every touch of his went back away from goal, made the wrong decision time and time again and after about five minutes of being on the pitch our momentum was destroyed and we all begin to question the Manager.

He had to make it up with his second sub, instead it got worse by taking off our best player for Deulofeu, and whilst we needed to bring Deulofeu on, why did it have to be Lennon, why like for like when we are losing 1-0?! It gets worse when he FINALLY decides to take a CM off but why oh why was it for Osman? That last 30mins was the worst ive seen for a while and the Manager must take blame for it as his subs are the reason for it.

No reason why we couldnt have ended the game with;

Barkley Barry
Lennon Deulofeu Kone(Clearly insisting on having him there)
Lukaku

At least then we could have said 'Hes went for it the last thirty etc' but we never. It was embarrassing that last half an hour and RM has undone all the good work, eradicated all the positivity that he and the team created last week.

 

[BlueToff]

Season isn't over, anyway. Exactly the same position really, in terms of distance between us and 5th. It's just now Watford and Stoke have leapfrogged us. Not concerned about that though, think we'll over-do them.

@roydo @Woolly Blue @The Esk and et all... can we now request a carpet-ban on any threads that start off listing all the 'easy' games we have... it never ends well

 

[ham2]

If he says" we were unlucky & west broms defending was phenominal" i swear i'm gonna smash my telly to bits

 

[ToffeeDoug]

Someone has to be the voice of reason.

Shame it is not you.

 

[CahillsCornerFlag]

Someone has to be the voice of reason.

Your obvious attempts to wind people up are tedious.

 

[BigDunc'sFod]

Of course he wasn't to blame. Only keepers with the initials TH can be at fault.

Nice popcorning Tim lad

 

[Groucho]

Big improvement from Howard, 1 shot = 1 goal. Well done Big Bird. Experiment should be over.

But 3 consecutive clean sheets in the previous games?

 

[VentureBrosEFC]

If he says" we were unlucky & west broms defending was phenominal" i swear i'm gonna smash my telly to bits

Can I have it and I'll smash it for you?

 

[Ring master]

If he says" we were unlucky & west broms defending was phenominal" i swear i'm gonna smash my telly to bits

thats spot on what i expect him to say lol

 

[GrandOldTeam]

Seems a lot of fans drastically alter opinion from one game to the next...

 

[banno]

One of those days then?

WBA got their goal, predictably from a corner, shut up shop and refused to play after that. Don't blame them at all, make the most of what you have got.

Everton are at their best exploiting space with quick counter-attacks. Less so against a team with every man back in their own half.

What can we learn? Don't put lofted balls in towards a defence that can deal with that easily. Don't take off Lennon leaving Barry on the pitch whose job had become largely redundant by that point. Kone instead of Mirallas, joke. McCarthy needs to inject some urgency into his game, not strolling around knocking sideways passes as if we were 4 up.

Noticed McCarthy today when he had plenty of opportunities to turn and go forward but instead plays the way he is facing and that is usually back or sideways. See RM's thinking with Kone trying to get the shackles off Rom but it didn't and doesn't work nowadays. Kone is always caught in 2 minds what to do and is now easily dispossessed. Keeping the ball and bringing Rom into play has deserted him now which renders him useless in my eyes.