FA Cup Semi Final - who do you fancy?

SF against....?

  • Palace

    Votes: 269 41.7%

  • Arsenal

    Votes: 15 2.3%

  • United

    Votes: 108 16.7%

  • Watford

    Votes: 151 23.4%

  • West Ham

    Votes: 102 15.8%
  • Total voters
    645
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davek said:
But the league placings were of the utmost importance this tome last week, weren't they? That's what you and a few others were saying: that every place counted in the financial stakes, and that it was important in any case to show that we hadn't become a bottom half of the table club.

Now it all seems to be the attitude that "oh the Pl was screwed by Martinez months ago, so we may as well just lump on the cup game(s)".

There's some hand brake turns going on here.
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The problem is that Martinez hasn't appeared to have learned from his managerial weaknesses as well as the team's defensive problems, which actually stem back as early as the start of last season against Arsenal at home. We had dominated the game, played some fine football and had a 2 goal lead going in to the final 10 minutes. We then conceded in the 83rd and 90th minute to throw the game away. Now I personally place the blame on our defence for that game rather than Martinez, but the warning signs were there that we struggle to defend crosses.

So why has he repeatedly failed to act on that on numerous occasions this seasons where again we have dominated matches, with a lot of that being due to his attacking positive managerial style? He could be a great manager if he learned from his mistakes, but that is the problem. He refuses to accept that we have those weaknesses and doesn't spend the time working on them.

The West Ham game was the final straw for me. We lost that game due to the above mentioned reasons. We are still terrible at defending crosses, and Martinez has a detrimental "philosophy" when taking a 2 goal lead in the second half. He puts his own ego above the team's needs and has done so time and time again. If he manages to realise that the West Ham game was his last chance, then he may be able to salvage his Everton career. He's now (far too late I should add) realised that Robles is the better option to Howard and it's produced a positive outcome. Let's hope he no longer allows us to throw games and league seasons away due to his own stupidity.

You're right that he won't get the sack in the near future, but with Moshiri there now, his position is far less secure than it was a couple of weeks ago, and I suspect you will continue to try and delude yourself that this isn't the case, but we all know it's true.

I personally hope we rest the key players for the derby like Lukaku and Barkley, whilst still putting out a very strong team. 7 or 8 first team players. I still think we're capable of beating the RS with the squad we have and getting the win on the weekend in the Semi Final.
 
Tubey said:
Bold part is not an achievement for us. Never has been, never will be.
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Never been a sackable offence either.
chazzle_dazzle said:
I most defo don't feel like that - the league is still massively important and i don't want to be a lower tier team in the prem (based on where we finish).
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No, I dont either. That said, it is all just a pecking order of the ordinary isn't it? 5th or 12th - you get nothing for it that's worth having. The status of being one of the best of the rest was never an appealing one as far as I was concerned. But, yeah, I'd like to see Everton on the first page of teams when MOTD shows the table at the end of every edition.
Saint Domingo said:
That's because the top 8 is now gone (probably). We're talking about soft pedalling one game as well not a whole league season. It's also a game where injuries are very likely so it makes sense as the cup is the only tangible prize left. The inconsistency works the other way as well, I'm sure if we continue with our 11th best league form as displayed recently then there'll be those saying 'doesn't matter it's all about the cup'. Yes it is, but we are in this position because we have thrown the league. Spurs and Leicester actually threw other competitions because they are going for a league title. We are bottom half.
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That 'just one game' if we won it and our other game in hand gets us to 7th though. So I dont know how you believe that it should be sacrificed if that goal is very much within reach.

I see a lot of inconsistency on the cup/league programme balance now: it does appear that a possible final slot against a team that can easily be beaten has concentrated minds on the cup and elevated its importance for posters who formerly turned their nose up at it.
EFC78 said:
The problem is that Martinez hasn't appeared to have learned from his managerial weaknesses as well as the team's defensive problems, which actually stem back as early as the start of last season against Arsenal at home. We had dominated the game, played some fine football and had a 2 goal lead going in to the final 10 minutes. We then conceded in the 83rd and 90th minute to throw the game away. Now I personally place the blame on our defence for that game rather than Martinez, but the warning signs were there that we struggle to defend crosses.
So why has he repeatedly failed to act on that on numerous occasions this seasons where again we have dominated matches, with a lot of that being due to his attacking positive managerial style?
Click to expand...
But after last season he went out and paid £9M on a CB who is good in the air, presumably because he saw the likes of Giroud causing havoc for us. And that addition also gave us an aerial attack in the opposition box.

EFC78 said:
He could be a great manager if he learned from his mistakes, but that is the problem. He refuses to accept that we have those weaknesses and doesn't spend the time working on them.

The West Ham game was the final straw for me. We lost that game due to the above mentioned reasons. We are still terrible at defending crosses, and Martinez has a detrimental "philosophy" when taking a 2 goal lead in the second half. He puts his own ego above the team's needs and has done so time and time again. If he manages to realise that the West Ham game was his last chance, then he may be able to salvage his Everton career. He's now (far too late I should add) realised that Robles is the better option to Howard and it's produced a positive outcome. Let's hope he no longer allows us to throw games and league seasons away due to his own stupidity.

You're right that he won't get the sack in the near future, but with Moshiri there now, his position is far less secure than it was a couple of weeks ago, and I suspect you will continue to try and delude yourself that this isn't the case, but we all know it's true.

I personally hope we rest the key players for the derby like Lukaku and Barkley, whilst still putting out a very strong team. 7 or 8 first team players. I still think we're capable of beating the RS with the squad we have and getting the win on the weekend in the Semi Final.
Click to expand...

I think you need to put the West Ham game one side and look at the trend both before and after that game: 16 goals conceded in 15 matches is very respectable (the previous 15 games to that we conceded 24). The new year saw a page turned in our defensive performance which was only spoiled by the Chelsea and West Ham games.
 
davek said:
No, I dont either. That said, it is all just a pecking order of the ordinary isn't it? 5th or 12th - you get nothing for it that's worth having.
Click to expand...

Isn't it at least 500k extra per league placing? So about £4m extra prize money, which isn't amazing but it helps, plus good league placings make it easier to convince players to come when there's a lot of competition for their signature.

End of the day cup runs are great but the league is the competition that matters the most. Doing well at both is what we should be aiming for, not trying to play down the importance of the league because we're doing relatively bad at it.
 
Just heard something about tickets - it's unlikely it'll go down to non-ST holders.

Everton are meeting with Wembley and Man U + West Ham officials next week to talk allocations.

"Given the increase in the number of Season Ticket holders since Everton last played at Wembley, it is likely that only a very small amount of tickets, if any, will be available to non-Season Ticket holders."

They've advised not to make travel arrangements until the allocation and eligibility criteria are known (will be published on the OS).

No date set for that meeting yet, but next week sometime. Also no date for the match yet.
 
Is it confirmed that we are playing our semi on sunday 24th? Found this on my footy app.
Screenshot_2016-03-16-21-29-01.webp
 
When is it going to get announced what day we play on? got to get holiday day in for either the saturday or sunday, hope they hurry up.
 
marsh said:
Im in the same situation. Whys it take days to announce what day there on. Idiots
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I know, i thought they would have decided by now, i'm meant to be working both that saturday and sunday so need to find out so i can stick holiday in for which ever day it is.
 
snipellis11 said:
I know, i thought they would have decided by now, i'm meant to be working both that saturday and sunday so need to find out so i can stick holiday in for which ever day it is.
Click to expand...

Same im in both so I've just booked both days as annual leave n then cancel one when date is confirmed
 
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