Hope for the future??

[best little spaniard]

I'm in.


*grabs pitchfork

 

[Lao]

Me too.

*sets fire to Liverpool Echo and runs down the street with burning torch.

 

[wolf277]

my God I've rowsed the Natives

Well come on then

*grabs axe, hammer and carving knife then drops axe on toe trips falls flat on face :blink:

 

[bluebastardo]

With the return of Phil Jagielka giving a commanding presence to our defence, the possibility of a fine pairing of Distan and Jags in the centre. An attacking left back and future England prospect in Leighton Baines. The possibility of an attacking right back in the shape of up and coming Seamus Coleman, Not mentioning our future Legend of the Gladys, Jonny "manofsteel" Heitinga as covering right Centre/back and defensive midfield,
forcing the likes of Hibbert, Yobo and Senderos to fight for a place on the bench let alone the first team, then comes Shane Duffy, a talented young player ready to put his body on the line for our beloved team, as we all saw against BATE, he was just unlucky with an unkind deflection. Our defence looks strong again, barring any slip ups, but lets hope Jag's help will give Distan the rock steadiness we ask for and expect.

Now to our midfield, we may have lost Fellaini for the rest of the season, but the return of Arteta, the return of form for Osman, the abilities of Jack Rodwell and Steven Peinaar, the Ghosting of Tim Cahill and the young talent of Dan Gosling, with their ability of being in the right place at the right time to score ever important goals, the experience of Phillip Neville and the vision of Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, yes he is poor at the moment but his ability is there for all to see, just bubbling under the surface. Given some time and a decent rest he will live up to even our high expectations. Add to this mix the counter attacking of Landon Donovan(for the short time he remains with us) and our midfield is something to hold in fear and admire, yes admire.

Up front king louis stands alone at the moment, but hopefully his Goal at spurs will fire up Yaks desire to feature a bigger part of our seasons run in. Maybe fourth is aiming a little too high, but why should we not fight for it, rattle a few cages and see what/who falls, let see who's got the bottle to go for it, is that too much ask of our squad? is it? we can beat everyone we have left to face, its only ourselves we left to overcome.
I started this thread as a discussion, but I think it has Become more of a call to arms. So lets have a little faith in OUR team and get behind them.

COYB
who's with me??????

Distin isn't the future down to his age, and current performances aren't the best either. Moyes made a big mistake in spending that much money on one so old in my opinion.

I don't think our defence looks strong either, infact it looks vulnerable, and has done all season regardless of partnerships.

As much as Donovan has looked good in parts, he's not been as effective as I'd have liked, but he's obviously a very good player who I feel could find his feet if part of a regular place long term.
Unlikely to happen though, so we need to ask ourselves do we need Billy, and if not, sell him on and put the money towards a winger, like Moyes should have done first time round for me.

Saha isn't the future either. Nor the Yak.
The possibility of Beckford joining looks promising though, but I'd like Moyes to look at bringing a further young striker in if possible.

Regarding finishing place, I'd rather Moyes wrote off this season now, and used it to prepare strongly for next season, by experimenting with the squad, and deciding exactly who we need to bring in, long before the window opens, and who is surplus to requirements.

 

[chicoazul]

Distin isn't the future down to his age, and current performances aren't the best either. Moyes made a big mistake in spending that much money on one so old in my opinion. Hate to say it but agreed, Danny called this one straight away too.

I don't think our defence looks strong either, infact it looks vulnerable, and has done all season regardless of partnerships. Not quite sure on that, I think with a regular pairing it could be quite strong which we've not had all season.

As much as Donovan has looked good in parts, he's not been as effective as I'd have liked, but he's obviously a very good player who I feel could find his feet if part of a regular place long term.
Unlikely to happen though, so we need to ask ourselves do we need Billy, and if not, sell him on and put the money towards a winger, like Moyes should have done first time round for me. Donovan, definitely we have to plan without him. Agreed on the need for some pace on the right wing too but you're writing the Russian off a little prematurely there mate.

Saha isn't the future either. Nor the Yak. Saha is super, if he wasn't so injury prone there is no way he'd be playing for us. Yakubu remains to be seen if he makes a full recovery, if so then he's certainly got mileage left in him.
The possibility of Beckford joining looks promising though, but I'd like Moyes to look at bringing a further young striker in if possible.

Regarding finishing place, I'd rather Moyes wrote off this season now, and used it to prepare strongly for next season, by experimenting with the squad, and deciding exactly who we need to bring in, long before the window opens, and who is surplus to requirements. For me, that's spot on, Europe will be difficult to qualify for but were not out of it but we certainly need to use this time to get an idea of who will be first eleven for next.

There.

 

[wolf277]

Distin isn't the future down to his age, and current performances aren't the best either. Moyes made a big mistake in spending that much money on one so old in my opinion.

I don't think our defence looks strong either, infact it looks vulnerable, and has done all season regardless of partnerships.

As much as Donovan has looked good in parts, he's not been as effective as I'd have liked, but he's obviously a very good player who I feel could find his feet if part of a regular place long term.
Unlikely to happen though, so we need to ask ourselves do we need Billy, and if not, sell him on and put the money towards a winger, like Moyes should have done first time round for me.

Saha isn't the future either. Nor the Yak.
The possibility of Beckford joining looks promising though, but I'd like Moyes to look at bringing a further young striker in if possible.

Regarding finishing place, I'd rather Moyes wrote off this season now, and used it to prepare strongly for next season, by experimenting with the squad, and deciding exactly who we need to bring in, long before the window opens, and who is surplus to requirements.

short term Distin is. Getting him and Jags working well together will buy us time to find a replacement and with Heitinga as DM we are strong at the back,
Donovan's effectiveness is his speed on the attack(especually on the counter) which gives him a presence a bigger stronger (slower) player's don't, today with him being just on the pitch, Bale had to hold back a bit more, lessoning the spurs offensive play,(like's the fact he got spurs and offensive in same sentence).
As for writing off the season, where is your fight? There are people who slate our players for giving in so easy without a fight, how can we expect our players to do what we are not?

 

[bluebastardo]

short term Distin is. Getting him and Jags working well together will buy us time to find a replacement and with Heitinga as DM we are strong at the back,
Donovan's effectiveness is his speed on the attack(especually on the counter) which gives him a presence a bigger stronger (slower) player's don't, today with him being just on the pitch, Bale had to hold back a bit more, lessoning the spurs offensive play,(like's the fact he got spurs and offensive in same sentence).
As for writing off the season, where is your fight? There are people who slate our players for giving in so easy without a fight, how can we expect our players to do what we are not?

By writing off the season, I'm not talking about throwing the towel in here, but if we are to look at what our problem has been in the last 2 seasons, most of us can put it down to very poor starts.
This has cost us dearly regarding trying to take the team to the next level.

Rotate the squad now, and try to avoid injuries to key players at all costs. The remaining 11 games would be invaluable for Coleman, even if he only got a run out in each game, and the same can be said for Duffy, Baxter, Bidwell etc.

Give some fringe players much needed time on the pitch, and this will greatly improve the squad, and possibly uncover a few gems.

Heitinga was a good buy, but his late transfer proved costly to us in Europe.
There were other defenders available when we chose Distin. We needed a proven centerback, largely because of injuries, but we could have spent the 5 or 6 million more diligently in my opinion. For a team with no money, buying a player with no sell on value, and forking out a substantial fee in the process was more down to panic than good judgement. I'd much rather we had struck a deal for Taylor ( Newcastle) or similar.

Basically, let's not repeat the same mistakes again next season.
Allowing Spurs, City, and Villa to overtake us in the pecking order for one season is not that big an issue, but not ensuring it doesn't happen the following year will be.

 

[wolf277]

By writing off the season, I'm not talking about throwing the towel in here, but if we are to look at what our problem has been in the last 2 seasons, most of us can put it down to very poor starts.
This has cost us dearly regarding trying to take the team to the next level.

Rotate the squad now, and try to avoid injuries to key players at all costs. The remaining 11 games would be invaluable for Coleman, even if he only got a run out in each game, and the same can be said for Duffy, Baxter, Bidwell etc.

Give some fringe players much needed time on the pitch, and this will greatly improve the squad, and possibly uncover a few gems.

Heitinga was a good buy, but his late transfer proved costly to us in Europe.
There were other defenders available when we chose Distin. We needed a proven centerback, largely because of injuries, but we could have spent the 5 or 6 million more diligently in my opinion. For a team with no money, buying a player with no sell on value, and forking out a substantial fee in the process was more down to panic than good judgement. I'd much rather we had struck a deal for Taylor ( Newcastle) or similar.

Basically, let's not repeat the same mistakes again next season.
Allowing Spurs, City, and Villa to overtake us in the pecking order for one season is not that big an issue, but not ensuring it doesn't happen the following year will be.

true Coleman and Duffy should be used Baxter also

 

[bluebastardo]

true Coleman and Duffy should be used Baxter also

One other HUGE problem we must face is the expectancy that once again, we will be faced with the possibility of losing key players in the market.

Pienaar is likely to leave.
Rodwell is a possibility to leave.

Moyes MUST have plans in place, and ensure that things run as smoothly as possible so as to ensure that we don't suffer a repeat of last seasons fiasco, or the season before where Moyes' own contract talks proved harmful.

He has just over 5 months in which to prepare, and that should be more than enough.
If the squad suffers yet again next season because of politics, then I have no doubt in my mind that Moyes' position would be untenable.

Identify, confront, rectify.

 

[tadpole]

As for this season, we still have a chance of a Europa League place, but it's an outside chance at best. There are some strong teams ahead of us on reasonable form and we have a lot of catching up to do. While the emphasis should be on keeping our momentum going as long as possible, I'd certainly support a bit more squad rotation and giving a few games to some of the younger players.

I expect Pienaar to sign a new contract in the summer and I expect Rodwell to remain an Everton player for the foreseeable future. They want to play for us and we don't need to sell them.

Things shaping up very nicely for next season although a lot can still happen between now and then.

 

[wolf277]

As for this season, we still have a chance of a Europa League place, but it's an outside chance at best. There are some strong teams ahead of us on reasonable form and we have a lot of catching up to do. While the emphasis should be on keeping our momentum going as long as possible, I'd certainly support a bit more squad rotation and giving a few games to some of the younger players.

I expect Pienaar to sign a new contract in the summer and I expect Rodwell to remain an Everton player for the foreseeable future. They want to play for us and we don't need to sell them.

Things shaping up very nicely for next season although a lot can still happen between now and then.

agree at the moment he is tied in too deep Moyes learned from rooney,
Pienaar might go but it will be a career move not that he wants to leave he needs champions league football, in his eyes anyway