Cornish Steve

As mentioned in another thread, I would anticipate the following line-up - assuming a 3-5-2 formation.
 
Howard
Alcaraz Jagielka Distin
Coleman Baines
McCarthy Barry Barkley
Kone Lukaku
 
Depending on the opposition, I can see Deulefeu, Pienaar, and Gibson being used as starters, too. Robles would cover Howard, Stones and Heitinga would cover in defence, Oviedo would cover for Baines, Pienaar and Gibson would cover in midfield, and Deulefeu and Vellios would cover up-front. Frankly, based on their performances to date, Osman, Mirallas, and Jelavic need to prove their form in training before returning to the first team. Also, Naismith and Hibbert are going to struggle to get back into the team.

Right, thought I'd throw my 2 pennies in since I was actually at the game, but I'm acutely aware that people may not read my sometimes overlong laboured posts. So I'll keep it to the players that played and how I thought they did:
 
Howard - Solid game, never really challenged too much by Cardiff but never really looked like being beaten.
 
Coleman - Good performance in an average game. Spent most of his time in the opposition half and made some half decent runs, but was stifled by our inherent lack of directness.
 
Jagileka - Great game. Played well, found a man with almost every pass, pushed forward when he could and looked calm on the ball. Certainly seems comfortable adopting to RM's methods.
 
Distin - Saved himself with some important defensive work but he was awful positionally. Read the game wrong at times and had to rely on his pace and power to save his errors. Not teh strongest performance by him but made up for it with his usual effort.
 
Baines - Fantastic game from him. True professionala nd convinced me in 90 minutes that there was no way he was leaving. Crossing hasn't been spot on but he can't be perfect every game.
 
Mirallas - Very, very poor. Had several opportunities to run into space and neglected to do so. Chose the wrong option on several occasions and not even a hint of a barnstorming run ala stoke being made. Needs to up his game.
 
Osman - Please for the love god let the arrival of McCarthy and Barry mean he doesn't start anymore. No sort of impact whatsoever.
 
Fellaini - Basically played as a defender. Showed a complete lack of motivation and made it obvious that his time with us was over.
 
Barkley - No idea why he made man of the match. Seriously. A good performance in parts, including some great incisive runs, but teh amount of times he tried to do too much, lost the ball and we ended up chasing back was ridiculous. Seriously guys, how anyone can say that this performance deserved man of the match is beyond me. Granted he was losing the ball in their final third as opposed to ours which is a big imporvement, but he was still trying far too hard. He looked a lot better distributing the ball and acting as a playmaker than as an attacker. Although his ability to create chances was hindered by the inferior quality of the rest of our midfield, barring one...
 
Pienaar - Man of the match. By far. First half saw a few moments of individual brilliance but he couldn't link up well enough to create a solid threat. Second half though he and Baines looked like they always used to, overlaps and underlaps, Pienaar would burst in and out of pockets of space allowing runs from 2 or 3 of our players. Everything good about us going forward involved at least one key pass from pienaar, if not a sudden burst of movement. I was in the ninian stand and second half he was in fornt of me the whole time. Everytime he got on the ball he lokoked a threat and more than once cardiff fans had to say "fair play" as he was a class above the opposition.
 
Jelavic - FFS sums up his performance.
 
Delofeu - How is he not starting? 5 minutes and gave us more threat than we had for the other 85. Superb player on the looks of it, direct skillful and put in a few crosses one of which had every cardiff fans heart in their mouth. Seriously, should start the next game ahead of Mirallas. Or at least get a good 25-30 to show what he can do. We've got a player here.
 
Kone - leave the poor bastard alone!! Kone came on and then it looked like we actually had a striker playing!!! Good first touch, good link up play, and at least he took a fucking shot!!! Jelavic on his current form is a good few steps behind Kone. Kone will score for us, he looked like Saha when fit and firing for the short time he was on. Again, I'd say he should start against Chelsea. I think we underestimate this guy.
 
 
In summary, although it was a lacklustre, uncreative and scrappy draw, there were elements and passing movements that suggest we will be playing very good football and winning games by good margins before too long. And if nothing else, Pienaar and Kone are getting way more flak than they deserve.
 
Anyway I rambled again. Yeah....sorry bouth that

Having had time to sit back and reflect on the day's deals, I think we came out of this really well. Where did we have need? Midfield, with the departure of Fellaini and limited options for Martinez' style of play, and attack, with talented forwards who are struggling with their confidence right now. Who did we bring in? McCarthy knows the Martinez style of play really well, is a talented young midfielder, and will no doubt do a sterling job. Barry, while not my favourite, at least brings a wealth of high-level and international experience and a style quite compatible with the RM approach. And we have Lukaku, with almost 20 goals last season and a lot to prove. His energy and goal-scoring abilities may just turn around our existing strikers. I can't wait to see Lukaku and Kone pair up-front, for example.
 
Plus, we kept Leighton Baines, who should be rewarded with an improved contract deal. And we made 20m that, potentially, can be spent in a less rushed manner during the January transfer window. Net result for this summer? Seven new faces: Two new strikers with many goals between them last season, one of Barcelona's brightest young talents, one of the most talented young mid-fielders in the English leagues, an experienced England international player, a solid squad defender whom RM trusts, and a huge improvement in second-string goalie to keep Howard on his toes. Of these, four have played the RM system before and a fifth, Deulofeu, is also at home with this style. More than that, by taking an early chance with home-grown youngsters, we can add Barkley and Stones to the list of new faces. At this point, we can safely transition a couple of veteran players out of the first team. And we have genuine competition, and cover for injuries, for every position on the field.
 
How will we start now? There are so many options, but I'm sure RM will quickly move away from his careful Moyes-like start to the season. With a core of 15-16 worthy starters, team selection need not be the same week-in/week-out but can change depending on the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents. With added fluidity, we can switch between 3-5-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 3-4-3, and more - an option that RM really values and will use to great effect.
 
Despite starting the season with three draws, and with Lukaku unable to start against Chelsea, this could become quite an exciting season. I'm really looking forward to it.

Does that mean that McCarthy and Barry will be playing square?

We're talking southern USA? Around here, we drive vee-hickles.

Josh found this...
 

Not meaning to be picky, but 6+5+13 is 26m, not 24m.

Yes. Absolutely. He's been terrible in the first three games. IMO, Kone, while still not at full fitness, has been better. Maybe Mirallas will find his form in training, but we can't afford for him to continue in the first team right now.

For the moment, at least, the days of Jelavic and Mirallas starting are over. They've been given ample opportunity in the first three games to show their stuff and have disappointed on each occasion. At this point, it will be between Deulofeu, Kone, and Lukaku.

Most commentators this morning seem to believe that Everton had an excellent transfer window and especially a great final day. Contrast that with ManU, who failed on almost all counts.

The way i see it we look strong all over the park now after selling two players, one of which was never going to cement a first team place. After letting go of Hitzlsperger and mucha and neville retiring, we needed cover desperately. At first, the mad dash for 3 wigan players made that desperation look transparent. But when you look at the squad and where everyone can play, we are in a stronger position than a lot of teams in terms of quality:
 
Keepers: Howard, Joel, Springthorpe
 
Springthorpe probably wont get a game but Joel and Howard give us 2 strong keepers for the season, necessary in my opinion to create the competition needed to maintain top end performances. Joel's age also gives us a future prospect of some potential, whilst Howard is still holding his own at the tail end of his career.
 
Defenders: Coleman, Stones, Hibbert, Browning, Jagielka, Distin, Heitinga, Alcaraz, Duffy, Baines, Oviedo, Garbutt
 
Defensively this season, I think we're going to be fine. I don't see the whole expanisve style means shipping goals ethos being applied here. Everton had one of the best defensive records last season and you don't just forget how to defend overnight. Alcaraz will prove important in terms of depth, and Stones coming through means we don't have to stress too much about the possibility of selling Heitinga. Distin isn't getting any younger but by the looks of things he can handle it for at least another season. Keeping Baines meanswe still have europes best left back.
 
Midfielders: Delofeu, Mirallas, Naismith, Gibson, Osman, Barkley, McCarthy, Barry, Pienaar, Kennedy
 
The emergence of Ross Barkley has been like a new signing anyway, Martinez faith in his maturity paying dividends so far, but the most important player we acquired was Barry IMO. He has experience that Gibson and Osman simply don't, and his all round game will add a calmness and assurance to our game. In Mccarthy, we've signed the much touted replacement for Fellaini, for a similar fee for when we took Fellaini from Liege. The key difference being Mccarthy has worked with Martinez for a few years, there is an understanding there, and he also has Premier League experience. All round he is better than Fellaini when he first arrived, and I think he will progress quicker. We could still do with selling naismith and buying a left sided winger but overall we have a stronger midfield now without Fellaini than we did with him.
 
Strikers: Jelavic, Kone, Lukaku, Vellios
 
Vellios was our young player of the year in his breakthrough season and I think he will benefit from seeing another young player in Lukaku taking his chance. I think Vellios might see a handful of games and get himself one or two goals. Obviously Jelavic is lacking in confidence but we know he is a first time finisher and a poacher. If he starts scoring again, I don't think he'll stop. But just in case, we have Kone, who notched 11 last season and again, if he can find form, will be another striker who could bag us more than we bargained for. Finally, Lukaku's 17 last season was an indication that he, like Benteke, deserves to be a first choice striker. the fact that Chelsea bought Samuel Eto'o for a year means I think mourinho didn't trust Lukaku under the pressure that is now on Chelsea to win the big prizes. He scored 17 fo West Brom, but that's West Brom. Chelsea will be expected to win the league and having also signed Atsu and Schurrle and having a plethora of attacking midfielders, I can easily see why they plumped to loan him out again. luckily, we were perfectly posied as we are a step above West brom in terms of quality and expectation, and I imagine he'll start every game he's fit enough to play in. Lukaku will bring us much needed goals and to swap that for Victor makes it even sweeter.
 
Overall, when you look at our squad, we're maybe only one or two away from actually having a squad that can compete at the very highest level.
 
Barry is a free agent at the end of this year, which means we could simply sign him straight up if he has a good season for us, the option to resign Delofeu seems plausible and so we'll only really lose Lukaku at the end fo this season. However, dependent on Chelsea and our success this season, we might even be able to prize him off them if we're clever.
 
I'm extremely happy with the signings, and I honestly think ourselves, Liverpool and Chelsea have done the best business of the window. Tottenham's massive spending offset by bale wont backfire, but it could take too long to settle the team down for them to reap the rewards this season. Arsenal have signed a fantastic player in Ozil, but not solved the defensive problems, Man City have bought well but have a new manager who I feel will do better in the champs league than the league, and Man U under Moyes are an absolute joke, but the players there should not be written off.
 
The top 7 this year will be Chelsea, Man City, Tottenham, Everton, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man United, but the order is so far up in the air, I don't think we'll have an idea of where people will end up until at least February. If we can maintain our solid if uninspiring start and utilise our new look squad properly, I see no reason why we can't be in the mix.and rightfully, given that all the loan players could just leave and not return at the end of this spell, we need to maximise their input and use it to get as much from this season as we can.
 
A trophy would gaurantee us Europa League next season, whilst a consistent season could easily see us pushing for 4th.
 
After all that, it would be interesting to see if Martinez still thinks the transfer window should have shut a month ago

did you use a calculator?
 
6+5 = 11
11 + 13 = 24? are you converting GBP to EUR?

Not meaning to be picky, but 6+5+13 is 26m, not 24m.

Excellent and objective summary.
 
I'd add that his pass completion rate approaches 90% (considerably higher than Fellaini's), and he spreads the ball around well. He's often the one who originates attacks with his quick thinking and intelligent positioning. I agree with the statement about lack of aggression. By striking up a partnership with Barkley, though, I can see this changing quite quickly; each will build on the other's strengths.

There Herrera deal has collapsed. Time to demand 35m for Fellaini.

You're missing the point. We are clutching at last-minute straws because we have been unable to plan - and that's because of the farce over Fellaini. RM is right: the transfer window is pure circus, and we're being made to look like clowns.

Paul? Now that would increase the average age of the team!

Everton 1-1 Chelsea
McCarthy

Paul? Now that would increase the average age of the team!

Lingard, not Lindegaard. Jesse Lingard is a midfielder who plays for the England U-21s.

Which is a real shame. Negotiation is all about finding a win-win situation. ManU could have agreed a price while allowing Everton to find a replacement: that's a win-win. What we're heading towards is ManU paying more than they needed to, whereas Everton has very little time to bring in replacements - a lose-lose situation. Why ever would Everton want to do business again with ManU? I wouldn't.

To get the additional players, though, we'd have to sell Baines. That leads to the following line-up:
 
Howard
 
Coleman Jagielka © Distin Alderweireld
 
Deulofeu Marrone McCarthy Moses
 
Barkley
 
Kone
 
Subs: Robles, Holtby, Gibson, Stones, Pienaar, Alcaraz, Jelavic
Squad Players: Anichebe, Naismith, Oviedo, Hibbert, Osman, Heitinga, Vellios
 
Now that would be an awesome lineup - younger, talented, with greater depth to the squad.
 
Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised to see Heitinga and Anichebe sold. With Moses added, we could even afford to sell Jelavic or Naismith.

I'd rather he came on as a sub, because he's not yet fully fit.

But what was said, when England were playing the West Indies back in the 70s, was "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey." A Brian Johnston classic.

What a moment for this young man.