Bailey

Again Gibson and fucking Jags pretty much allowing him throw. At least Stones made a challenge.

Cmon Bobby make a change.

Great challenge Hibbert. Good play to start too but McGeady was on his heels and then he sold Hibbert down the river.

Fucking hell Gibson and Jags. If Gibson plays that back to Howard we are clearing the ball down field. Then fuck knows what Jags is thinking.

I'd bring Besic on for Osman, shift Etoo across and get Browning on for another run out.

Me neither. I thought Etoo might be used wide to at least get rid of Atsu but he seems to be trying to play centrally just behind Lukaku.

Either read what I say or don't bother replying.

I'm not sure going 442 is going to help.

Plus he has some energy. He would spring some life into our midfield. Lukaku on & Atsu off.

No I said starting 11. You can have those individuals in and out of the team but putting them all together is asking for trouble.

I agree. Poor starting 11. Can't expect anything with that 11 IMO. Jags with a big mistake for the goal (positioning & the awful touch) but looked solid before hand.

Atsu has at least got himself into dangerous areas. I'm not sure I have seen McGeady touch the ball for 20 mins.

Bloody hell Jags what are you doing. Played him in. This is a bloody awful starting 11. Only Barry has turned up in midfield and McGeady and Atsu have been a liability too. We need to get someone in the middle with legs to help control the game. I seriously can't believe any sane minded person would start Osman, Gibson and Barry centrally.

Even at Liverpool I thought he showed a bit of promise but then he would go and let himself down 5 minutes later. I think he is a decent player and would be an asset to most teams below the 4 CL sides but he just needs to become more consistent.

I hate it when things like that are over analysed. Sometimes no - one is to blame and it's just good play.

Can we not turn this into another Lukaku bashing thread!

Man U 2 - 2 Everton Baines

Neville is talking absolute bollacks about Mignolet. No keeper is saving that strike especially not with that amount of bend.

The thing with whoever comes in to replace Mirallas is that they aren't going to have his aggression or desire. McGeady is more of a sulker and I don't know about Atsu yet but I doubt he will be a fighter either. Mirallas is a player that can drag you into games whereas the other two need the rest of the team to do the gritty stuff.

I think that if it had been an inch or 2 lower than Lukaku would have had a problem but it was right on his limits so whilst he might have been able to get more on it, I think it would have been difficult to score with.

But it was a save he didn't have to make. He should have collected the ball before it got to Balotelli. Yes he got himself out of jail but that's not the point. I'm not anti Howard but I'm just saying it how it is from a keepers point of view.

Like I said in my first post, he should have intercepted that before it got to him.

I have thought for a while that in the bigger and quicker high intensity games that Barry goes into a rabbit in the headlights mode. He always tries to put his stamp on the game but its just like everything is moving too fast for him and it doesnt work. He certainly doesnt go hiding though like other players might. He has been pretty good in most of our games this season and the age comments are OTT. He is the type of player that you want to start phasing out of those end to end games but he is still a really important player in the 80% of games where we need him to control the tempo.

Im not sure its the place to be bringing in youngsters from the start but then again, I would prefer to give Browning some game time ahead of Hibbert purely for development reasons. Browning looks good defensively from what I saw in preseason and his pace and strength will be an asset. Robles Browning - Stones - Jags - Baines Besic - McCarthy - Gibson Atsu---------------------Mcgeady Etoo I think we should keep ourselves compact again and try and hit them on the break. They are bound to come out quickly being at home and if they are that good on the counter then we may as well attempt to take that away from them a little and try and hit them on the counter. Depending on how the game progresses you can then make it more attacking by bringing in Osman or Naismith through the centre. We could even go 5 at the back and play with 2 strikers fairly easily. If Kone is fit then I would leave Lukaku at home for a proper rest as well as Barry. It would be nice to see Oviedo get some minutes depending on how the game is going as well.

Like I said, not many. 1 from Lallana was a good reaction save and the one from Sterling (which you would have expected him to stop) and the rest were pretty routine.