SydneyBlue

Did you see Martinez at the final whistle? As soon as the whistle blew he turned round and pulled Naismith to him and started talking to Naismith. Naismith looked made up and you could tell he was giving him confidence and saying how well he did. That for me speaks volumes about Martinez and his management skills

Lukaku in EFC shirt for the first time:
 

 
He looks a bit... high don't you think? Not sure if it's my imagination living its own life but...
 
 
 

can't tell you how glad i am to see this in the general everton discussion...this lad is gonna add so much energy to that midfield..no more quicksand running from osman

We did superbly in the transfer window.
 
Mucha OUT Joel IN
Neville OUT Alcaraz IN
Anichebe OUT Kone IN
Hitzlsperger OUT Barry IN (Albeit a loan, but he's on a free, and if he plays well, I can easily see him getting a contract)
Fellaini OUT McCarthy IN
Lukaku IN (Loan)
Delofeu IN (Loan)
 
Add the fact that Martinez is actually playing our most promising talent and Stones and Oviedo actually look like getting games, I can't understand any argument to say that we're not on track. Every single player above is an improvement. You could argue Fellaini but honestly, I don't care. He had 5 years here, and now we've got someone younger to build up while selling a player we had already improved for a £10mil profit. That and we're still unbeaten ffs

One quality is that he's versatile: he has played as a box-to-box midfielder, as a holding midfielder, on the right wing and even a bit as a centre back last season. Given that we've also signed Barry, I suspect he'll be playing in more of a box-to-box role for Everton. Anyways, that versatility requires tactical intelligence at the very least and he has got that. He's an intelligent player, he'll position himself well, play tactically disciplined, etc.
 
He's a good passer: he's accurate and has got good range. He's also nimble player, who turns easily, and he's got good touch with both feet, so he can receive the ball in tight spaces. He's also got a decent acceleration on him, nothing spectacular, but he'll cover more ground quicker than Osman or Gibson will. I don't know whether you remember the cup game, but it was McCarthy who forced Neville into making that bad pass by making a sprint over the length of Wigan's half and putting pressure on him. He's a clever player winning the ball, he'll put pressure on the opponent's first touch, etc. A weakness would be headed duels though, which can be a problem if he's the sole holding midfield player.
 
By all accounts he's also a player with a very professional attitude (an interview that illustrates that: http://www.ciarano.me/post/36005296438/james-mccarthy-ive-loved-having-to-always-watch-what). His national team manager wants him to be more aggressive though, believe in himself more and let his voice be heard. I don't know how serious of a problem that is, but perhaps that could affect him if the Goodison crowd start to murmur if he doesn't immediately impress as he did cost a lot of money. £13m is a lot of course, but if those extra couple of millions are required to secure the target you really want, I have no problem with that. Especially considering he's also still very young at 22, he could be Barkley's midfield partner for the considerable future. Despite that age, he's already a very experienced player as well, having already played in over 200 professional games (he came into the Hamilton team at age 16).

It's so annoying that it took his performance yesterday for some people to realise what we have had on our hands for the past 2 years... He was sitting on the bench watching Neville, heitinga and hitzlesburger "do a job".
 
I'll say it again Moyes mismanaged this lad, sending him to shitty teams that don't play football, keeping him in the reserves. I'm made up he proven all these "I don't think he will make it, Moyes sees him every day and knows what's right bollocks" wrong.
 
Tim Cahill came out two years ago stating he was the best young talent he had seen. Yeah but the fans only got snippets under that negative prick who was meant to be bringing him along. Please don't anyone say Moyes did the right thing, I know a player - this lad is the real thing, has been good enough to play more than he has. He would be playing for England now if Martinez was in charge 2 years ago.

They've nicked my designs again lol

The vanilla one we had out a few years ago.

Sign him up for Spanish lessons.

This is an exciting week. I wonder if that's it or if Roberto has more planned?
 
Could he possibly be any more different from Moyes?
Dithering Dave to Rocket Robbie!

Why make such a idiotic thread, you say I don't want it to be a "you're not giving him a chance thread" well what do you expect. You're not giving him a chance. Flipping heck there hasn't even been a pre season game yet and you are saying he is not good enough and that he won't last.
 
Lets look at the differences between Wigan and Everton:
1) Wigan cannot attract the same players we can.
2) Wigan defence was weak. Martinez knew that and signed Scharner in the summer transfer window. He kept having a few problems with injuries. They also signed Ramis for 5mil but he got injured half way through the season, January I think and has only come back from injury quite recently. 30th June I think. That is 5 months without his experience. To be honest I don't think they had a lot of money to buy anyone else in January anyway.
3) Wigan have not got a strong as a team as what we have. Martinez would have loved to of had players like Mirallas, Fellaini, Baines, Jags etc.
5) You're a pessimist simples.
 
 
Few questions for you memmaclub.
Were you one of the people who were wanting Moyes out?
 
(Because he didnt win trophies etc, lets face facts here where a football team who can't compete on a finacial scale to the likes of Spurs, Chelsea, City, United, Arsenal and even Liverpool. Where not going to be competing for top 4 football each season. We are close with the squad we have but yes we do need more players and with your comment about signing Alcaraz and Kone what is the problem with that? There is stats out there which show that the team played better and conceeded less when Alcaraz was playing. (Don't have the link but sure someone does)
 
Kone - 6mil. A bit over priced not going to lie about that but again do you think we could get someone like Pauliniho who has signed for Spurs? No we can't. Kone scored 13 league goals for Wigan last year. Jelavic scored 7, Fellaini scored 12. With Baines, Pienaar and Mirallas cutting in the box, crossing it in then he is bound to score that amount or even more.
 
Who would you of wanted to manage Everton? (If Martinez wasn't our manager)
 
By any chance was it Porto manager or Laudrup?
No to the Porto manager as he has had no experience in the PL. Also anyone could have won the league with the players he had at his expence. They didn't exactly win the league like United won the PL was it? It came down to the second to last game where Porto needed to win against Benfica to go ahead. If they drew they wouldn't of won. Benfica made a stupid mistake which cost them the second. Luck.
 
Laudrup has no ambitions, he will stay at a club and coast his way through until $hit hits the fan, watch what will happen when that does happen and trust me it will happen.
 
You cannot compare us to Wigan in any way, shape or form, do you honestly think we will do that bad with Martinez that he will be sacked in January?
 
No disrespect to Wigan fans I have loved the way you have played this year. I think everyone has been the neutral fan and I was cheering you on against Arsenal like a lot of people were but they haven't got the same resources we have simples.
 
Were you around when Moyes got appointed?
 
I was and everyone was nervous about this appointment because we had just signed a manager from Preston, pratically a nobody and look how that turned out he transformed our team into a competitive top 10 side even top 5 side.
 
 
 
I am nervous about the new season, heck I am nervous every season when it starts, like a lot of people are, it is part of what being a football fan is, the nerves, the highs and the lows and everything.
 
Even if we start badly I will still support our team and not want Martinez to be sacked. I mean we have had bad starts to the season before but Martinez will be manager by the end of the season and for more seasons to come. IMWT

As I expected it wasn't a great game to watch. It was extremely boring in fact. We didn't play particularly but we were the better side by some distance and controlled the majority of the game without Stoke managing to cause us too many problems. The only real negative I could see was that I felt we allowed Stoke too much space when they did have the ball; we stood off too much.
 
At the start of the game I thought we struggled to adapt to the new formation; particularly the defence. I thought they looked rather shaky. Jags got the easier ride of the three, but the two side centre backs (Distin and Heitinga) took their time getting used to the system and having to mop things up out wide without having a left-back and right-back to help them out. The attacking players got to grips with the change of formation rather quicker and we created quite a few chances. Although, our good attacking play came in fits and starts. Even so, we should have had the game more than sown up by half time. But we only went in at half time one up. But what a goal it was! And a breakaway goal too . Mirallas got a bit of luck at the beginning but he showed pure quality with the run at goal with the ball at his feet; running straight at the defender and then twisting one way to wrong foot him and then kept his cool to finish excellently. That goal makes me wish we'd always leave him on the half-way line when we're defending a corner or free-kick; having that in our arsenal would be invaluable.
 
I didn't think we ever really pushed ourselves in the second half. We seemed content to just defend whatever Stoke threw at us. And for the most part we stood up well to it and got the three points.
 
I'd prefer us to go back to a more rigid formation when we play Spurs because I think they would exploit us badly. I also hope we play a lot better and don't allow them as much time on the ball because they have much, much better players than Stoke who will have a field day if they get time on the ball.
 
Lastly; Stoke are fucking shit.
 
 
Howard - Made a superb save at 0-0 and I think he made one other great save later on too. Other than those two saves I don't think he had much to do.
 
 
Heitinga - I can't tell you how happy I was that he wasn't playing in midfield! Like I said earlier; it took some time to settle into the change of formation with the protection of a right back but he was generally solid and played well.
 
Jagielka - He had the easier job of the three centre-backs because it wasn't really much of a change for him being the central of the three defenders. He had a great game though and won a phenomenal amount of headers.
 
Distin - Pretty much the same as Heitinga. But, he annoyed me when he'd go marauding forward and then give the ball away meaning he was completely out of position and put pressure on Jagielka and Heitinga who would find themselves outnumbered.
 
 
Coleman - Where you'd have thought the change of formation would mean he would attack more (and Baines) it actually seemed to stifle Coleman (and Baines). It was like he didn't know whether to go forward or hang back and help the defence out. However, he got the hang of it pretty quickly and he was a constant threat. He caused Stoke so many problems with his direct running. He's not like Mirallas where he'll worry you with his skill but he made Stoke shit themselves every time he got the ball because he ran directly at them, and run at them with pace, making them have to retreat as they were defending against him which puts them in an awkward position because they're on the backfoot, and any change in direction by Coleman pretty much beat them every time. And, like against City, he was always our out ball when we needed to get away from our own penalty area. My MOTM.
 
Mirallas - He would have been my MOTM but I thought he was too in and out of the game to give him my vote. But, when he was in the game he was absolutely brilliant. He had one superb spell in the game. It started with his goal which was just Mirallas all over. Showed brilliant pace to race away into their half, skill to make their defender look even more of a donkey, and then absolute coolness to slot the ball home. Some players would have bottled it after the run but not him. Then I think in the very next phase of play he could have made it two nil but his shot went just wide. And then he had some fun in the corner by taking the piss out of a Stoke player. I love him. I hope he's OK for the Spurs game because we'll need him for that one.
 
Osman - He had an OK game. I thought he slowed the play down a bit too much at times but he stuck to his task.
 
Gibson - I don't think he closed down space as well as he should have but his passing range was on show and it helped us a lot.
 
Baines - Like Coleman he seemed stifled by the formation. He didn't know whether to stick or twist. But, unlike Coleman, I don't think he ever came to terms with things and had a below par game.
 
 
Anichebe - He was OK. He showed glimpses of how he played against City but he also showed glimpses of the laziness that has annoyed so many of us for so long.
 
Jelavic - Should have done better with the header he had in the first half from Baines' cross, IMO, and did well with another header in the second half. But, I thought he was a bit sulky yesterday and I hope that disappears quickly.

It's quick for those inbreds.

To be fair i couldn't tell you because i havent seen him play but he has competition as Coleman is progressing and Neville has pictures of Moyes doing nefarious things with a cocker spaniel and that means he usually plays.