Wigan 2-2 Everton. 6th Oct @ 15.00.

[Goat]

FFS OSMAN

 

[toffeechris]

Sounds like there's a couple of scapegoats reading back to be honest, it's just noticeable that even if Neville scored a hattrick of own goals you would be able to defend him somehow.

no i wudnt and if you bothered to read an earlier message i said going by the highlights neville was poor today

 

[Elong]

He shouldve been stronger on the 2nd goal... But the supposed defensive midfielder in no way made any challenge or offered support to either goal apart from trot back and point somewhere when they scored.

Attacks just glide through him and Osman unchallenged. It's happened for weeks.

Their get out of jail is the fact that we're a massive attacking threat.

Let's be honest mate, we've been crying out for Moyes to be more attacking, and now we're more open and trying to play lovely footy some people want us to tighten up. I don't think we're capable of doing a mixture with the players available (Gibson injured, Fellaini pushed forward etc).

I'd much rather we play with the theory that we try to score more goals than the other team even if it means letting a few in, and playing that way we're going to have these results but at least we're scoring goals and looking good doing it yeah?

 

[Elong]

no i wudnt and if you bothered to read an earlier message i said going by the highlights neville was poor today

But you still try to defend him? Interesting.

 

[Titus Bramble]

We only really got our passing game going properly for the first 10 minutes of the second half and we created some good opportunities in that time. Their forwards had far too much space in front of our back four, especially in the first half and our center halves, particularly Heitinga couldn't handle them. Hopefully Gibson will bring our midfield stability back.

 

[toffeechris]

But you still try to defend him? Interesting.

no but interesting by you its nevilles fault and not a word about heitiga who was simply shocking today and he admitted that himself

 

[Elong]

no but interesting by you its nevilles fault and not a word about heitiga who was simply shocking today and he admitted that himself

I didn't say it was Neville's fault we lost I haven't seen the whole game, I just said he's a very poor player.

 

[CahillsCornerFlag]

From the highlights;

We should've had another pen.
Heitinga and Neville were both very poor. Joint blame for their second.
Fellaini was poor too, saw very very little of him. Its ok to play him further up in tougher matches, but against the likes of Wigan he's a better option in defensive mid and you need more creative players further up.

 

[kenada_blue]

Let's be honest mate, we've been crying out for Moyes to be more attacking, and now we're more open and trying to play lovely footy some people want us to tighten up. I don't think we're capable of doing a mixture with the players available (Gibson injured, Fellaini pushed forward etc).

I'd much rather we play with the theory that we try to score more goals than the other team even if it means letting a few in, and playing that way we're going to have these results but at least we're scoring goals and looking good doing it yeah?

The Blackpool method you mean? Not for me. You can do both as we've enough attacking talent.

We dropped Felli deeper in the 2nd half and it shut up shop for the most part but we didn't lose our attacking threat.

 

[toffeechris]

I didn't say it was Neville's fault we lost I haven't seen the whole game, I just said he's a very poor player.

ye poor players win 59 international caps for england and over 500 premiership games for two of english best clubs

 

[CahillsCornerFlag]

ye poor players win 59 international caps for england and over 500 premiership games for two of english best clubs

I think Elong probably meant he's a poor player now. Which he is.

 

[Azzurri]

no i wudnt and if you bothered to read an earlier message i said going by the highlights neville was poor today

As in Match of the Day or his hair?

 

[Brennan]

Let's be honest mate, we've been crying out for Moyes to be more attacking, and now we're more open and trying to play lovely footy some people want us to tighten up. I don't think we're capable of doing a mixture with the players available (Gibson injured, Fellaini pushed forward etc).

I'd much rather we play with the theory that we try to score more goals than the other team even if it means letting a few in, and playing that way we're going to have these results but at least we're scoring goals and looking good doing it yeah?

Nah, don't buy it. I see no reason why we can't play good football and still not concede crap goals. We were second best to every ball today and that has nothing to do with our attacking style. If we're saying we can't be tight defensively without Gibson then we might as well call it a day now.

 

[billycopper]

Their first goal was offside but they shouldn't have been given so much room in midfield to turn and run at our back four. One long ball upfield found Heitinga and Jagielka isolated again for the second. It's understandable that Neville was drawn to the ball but we needed to track Dos Santos running into the box.

There are games like today and West Brom where Fellaini isn't so effective. When that happens Moyes might as well put him back in his more natural position and push Osman forward.

They were playing 3-4-1-2 and it worked really well apart from giving Baines more space. If we'd pushed Pienaar and Mirallas up with Jelavic we'd have had 3v3 and they would have struggled to cope with Felli coming from deep just as we had trouble with Maloney because Kone and Dos Santos occupied our centrebacks.

We had 7 shots on target today, according to the Guardian, compared to Chelsea and City who had 9 and were utterly dominant. I'm sure that we can cut out mistakes and tighten up defensively without sacrificing any of our attacking flair. Normally we start slowly because we're sloppy at the back and can't break teams down and our form improves when we start taking our defensive duties more seriously. Hopefully that will come as it usually does. Even so our record of goals scored and conceded is almost identical to City's and we haven't let in any more than United, Spurs or Newcastle.

 

[billycopper]

Nah, don't buy it. I see no reason why we can't play good football and still not concede crap goals. We were second best to every ball today and that has nothing to do with our attacking style. If we're saying we can't be tight defensively without Gibson then we might as well call it a day now.

I agree. This has to be Neville's last season as a starting player and Osman is never a midfield anchor. We're not defending as a unit or a team and we seem to be repeating the same mistakes week in week out. Maybe we're over-confident about our goalscoring ability and we think that we can win games even if we don't defend well? We need a settled partnership at centreback, Coleman needs more support, the anchors really need to get a grip and Moyes should be adjusting Fellaini's position depending on whether we're attacking or trying to see a game out.