Match Thread Everton v West Ham. 5th March at 1500.

[Skeleton Crew]

This one still stings.

A loss on your birthday just hurts more.

 

[froggyted]

I am just going by the 3 crosses against W. Ham The cross from Villa in the last 2 games has seen us concede 4 goals because they are not dealt with. We have only Fune who has a better chance of winning those headers whereas the rest are not good. This is how West Ham played us in the 2nd half by putting Carroll on and getting as many crosses in the box....our Achilles heal. We have to look at the defensive qualities of Baines, Coleman and Oviedo and nothing more and you then see we are lacking defensively. I do agree that the midfield go awol and don't press the ball enough. I am saying that with the money we now have I think we need better quality defenders first and foremost rather than average defenders with good quality going forward.

Maybe you have a point, but then again we did pretty well in Martinez's first season with Coleman and Baines. I haven't seen enough of Oviedo to make up my mind. I think the midfield going awol is part of the price we pay for Martinez having instilled an attacking mentality into them. Since we've scored a lot of goals but ultimately haven't secured enough points i think that Martinez needs to shift the balance a bit in this respect and put more emphasis on man marking, at least when we have secured a lead and need to defend it.