Elston Gunnn

Although the must-win cliche isn't quite to be taken literally, it feels that way psychologically, so Pearso's point seems well taken, especially given tonight's results. A loss or dismaying tie tomorrow night will mean Everton lose ground to Man U, W Ham (away win), Swansea, Reds (away win), Villa (away win), even Newcastle (away draw). 
As we've no chance at top 2, I'll hope Chelsea and Man City win tomorrow night, and I suppose I prefer a draw for Arsenal-Southampton. But no question that anything other than a win for Everton would mean these midweek fixtures will have been terrible from an Everton perspective.
 
If Hull City manage a win, Everton will be losing touch with a pack larger than merely the top 4.
 
Edit - Just realized how awfully pessimistic my post is; so, for balance, an Everton win, and it's up to 8th. Conceivably even 7th, though that seems hallucinatory.

Thanks Paddock. Thinking on, I should have used the Intro thread, but if anything like Bluemoon, it doesn't get read too often.
 
Defo Man City fan with a close allegiance to Everton. I married into a ready made family of Everton supporters and I have adopted you as my second team and always look out to see how your doing. Spent most of 1976 working at Cammel Lairds and whilst never got to see a game, always enjoyed chatting with Evetonians over a pint afterwards. Used to like watching your neighbours during the 80s but soon lost interest in them when I had the displeasure of meeting Grobellar et all at a charity event for kids and they were disgraceful. Although a close run thing last season, it was beautiful to watch it all unfold, particularly as they thought they had won it in April.
Mind you, we were hanging on at the end against you.
 
Anyway, as I said, Everton are my second team and I genuinely thought / hoped you would be pressing for a CL spot this year so I jumped on this particular thread, as its your next opportunity for points and I'm passing my desire for you to get them.
 
Been s atrange season so far, and apart from Chelsea, everyone just hasn't seemed to get fully going yet.
 
So come on the Blues (Both)

I admit I'm surprised, because my own impression as the match went on was that Gibson uncharacteristically gave the ball away several times. I thought his passing was rather more uncertain than in an earlier match this season. He looked to be struggling to keep up the final 20 minutes.
 
But I'm willing to be corrected. Maybe others who saw the match can comment.

Yes, I'm a proper angel, my Mum says.
 
Still, as long as we're being honest and all, I honestly just assumed that if I honestly pointed out the error, I'd surely be awarded 20 or 50 Honesty Bonus Points. After all, I'm aiming for top 4, so I can make next year's Champions League, the veritable Silver Chalice of the Meaning of Life. Failing that, those Honesty Bonus Points would fix me atop the Fair Play Table, and maybe a spot in the Europa League.
 
If all honesty gets me is a couple of spots lower in the table, down the muck with Spurs and the Redshite, well, heck, I'll just go the Luis Suarez route, and cheat every chance I see. He's made a good living, and hasn't been caught even once.

So fuckin frustrating!
 
We had a near full strength 1st 11 out there. Plenty of creativity available...but yet again created minimal clear cut chances.
 
These boys need a wobble. But let's not disrespect Sunderland, they are a solid unit.
 
Plus points...Jags and Distin looked good overall. McGeady put in a brilliant shift and shouldn't gave gone off. Eto'o looked as good as ever in his deeper role. Barkley showed glimpses with powerful runs.
 
Not so good...Lukaku. Fuck me, what an enigma this bloke is. Might as well have stayed at home. The wall for that free kick was abysmal. Gibson faded alarmingly quickly. Barkley went missing for most of the 2nd half.

McGeady has saved Coleman several times. Jagielka steady. Eto'o bad miss early on, and Barkley should have scored. McGeady probably our best (........) so far. Not enough play down left side, though Baines has created some good movement a couple of times.
 
Not a smooth team today. Sunderland always look dangerous on corners.

I want to see Gibson whilst he's fit.

i have a feeling he was singing into it after his antics at his dinner the other night
 
i think we all played well last night, from back to front, start to finish. Lukaku had his best game for us since signing perm. aiden looked alot better on the ball, and jimmy mac really does look a bargain at £15million. I loved how gibbo came on and started dictating where to play the ball from the back, and gave MacCarthy more freedom to bomb forward.
 
Strange how we all see the game differently at times, but this is why i enjoy the site, its nice to be able to see other peoples views on the game.

He looked good tonight. Best cameo I've seen from him since his injury. He should get a bit more playing time now, and a good chance to give Barry a rest once in a while. Think we have 4 very good centre midfielders.

When we have everyone fit he will be a bench player this season too.
 
The club can't not offer an extension but Osman needs to realise that his time has been and gone.

Can't bang this in enough... Mirallas needs sorting now! He'll walk and easily find a CL club and we'll end up with buttons.

Get 2 years out of eto'o. Snide remarks aside, Lukaku can't not learn from this man.

It was one of those games where we were poor but we tended to do it at the right end of the pitch. Too often this season we have fucked up in our half leaving us exposed but it's a slightly positive sign that we were actually pretty solid in our half and they didn't create much at all.
 
It was a weird first half because so many players were taking bad first touches when they were in decent positions and it robbed us of all momentum, the main culprits being Barkley and Pienaar.
 
Once Pienaar went off, we sparked into life but McGeady wasted countless opportunities to play a good ball in or take a shot. His movement was decent to get him there but he fucked it up after that. Besic was very disappointing. He was a ghost for the first 75 minutes and only kicked into gear at the end and whilst Barry was by no means perfect he had to do a lot of clearing up for him and put in a massive shift.
 
Jags was good, Hibbert held his own and Baines and Etoo both gave it a good go. Atsu looked livelier than I have seen him when he came on to and Lukaku was very good in his cameo.

He always scores against us as well the fucker. His pace is going to run our defence ragged all day.
 
I so hope we click tomorrow we are in real trouble if we get beat tomorrow.
 
For those who take that literally to mean we're going to get relegated, I don't mean that I mean another home defeat will be catastrophic to our confidence.

Much better in the 2nd half. That was much more like what we expect to see. But it adds to the frustration. We can do it, but we aren't just now.
 
The first half was just drab.
 
Thought Oviedo made a big difference when he came on. Gave us an extra option and wasted very little. Be great when he's in full swing.
 
Osman looked good when he came on too! Fair play to him.
 
And Browning looked good again. Marching down the right side, putting those crosses on. That's why he came on.
 
Lukaku needs to step up. I'm not a Lukaku hater, but I am a fan who looks at our main striker and wants more from him. He needs to sharpen up. I'm not bothered about his fee, his age, his touch.. today, right now, the team needs more from him.
 
Another game down. We need to find ourselves and quickly.

Weird game. We didn't deserve a point, but really should've had 3. Yet, we end up with nothing.
 
What saves from De Gea.

I don't actually think we were that bad in all honesty.
 
Defence was pretty sound and even pushed forward when they had chance.
 
Besic came in and did a decent job.
 
Hibbert did a decent job.
 
Stones was impressive.
 
We didn't do much offensively but still created chances.
 
We need to understand that we are not the only team on the pitch during that 90 minutes. There is always going to be another team trying to score against us and they will create chances. As much as we hate Liverpool.. they are a very good team. Did they roll us over? not in any way.
 
We had a few players who didn't look up to it today but we also had a few players looking very solid.
 
Browning came on and not only looked comfortable but also pretty strong.
 
It just wasn't as bad as being made out. Even Howard played well, yes maybe he could have done better for the goal... but even that is a maybe.

The biggest positive to me was that the defense looked more organized than it has to date. There wasn't much space for Sterling and Balotelli. I thought Howard played mostly well. Maybe he should have made that save on the free kick, but also don't forget that that penatly was garbage. Balotelli flopped; there wasn't any contact so it should never have been given.
 
They didn't get much going offensively but I think that was the game plan. They played it safe and limited their mistakes. I think there are positives to build on going into Old Trafford next week.

Can we get off this anti-Rom bandwagon? He was nowhere near as bad as being made out. Once you start looking for negatives, you'll find them in anyone. If you look for positives, you'll find them too! We see what we want to see sometimes.
 
We just went to Anfield, lost Mirallas in the first half, and still stole a point. Much better than last season, good play from Hibbert (despite all the slating of him before kickoff), nice debut for Browning, strong defence (something to really be noted and appreciated), and a potential goal of the season.

My biggest fear for this game is that Coleman won't be fit and we go with Stones at RB. That has nothing to do with the mauling he took playing there last season (I know he wasn't alone in that respect) but because him playing RB disrupts our balance even more than it has been this season. I don't care how shit Liverpool have been so far this season, if you gift them chances to score they'll take some of them.
 
Please be fit, Seamus!

3-3 probably would have been a fair result. Disappointing, but closer to actual play on the pitch. Baines really good defensively today. Eto'o very impressive. Jagielka wildly inconsistent. Many good hustle plays on our goals. Defense tired last 20 minutes, or more.
 
Shots/on goal -- Everton 12/7, W 27/13.

That's no penalty, outside the box.

Want to see, well, a 4th goal, of course, but also gradual subs starting around 60 minutes -- Eto'o for Lukaku, Besic for Naismith, Atsu for Mirallas.

If we're serious about this cup we need to field the strongest team available. Wolfsburg will be one of the harder tests.
 
Tonight's line up will give us an indication if Martinez motive in this competition.

It's true that RM is being paid rather more than I to think way too much about the problem - or as RM prefers, "enjoyment" - of this crowded list of matches. Still, thinking in some detail about possible lineups must surely be an acceptable expression of Everton football obsession. Next you'll tell me there's no Santa Claus, or that Basil Fawlty is a kind-hearted soul.
 
Take your own speculation about the revised 11 RM may play Thursday. Unless I'm once again overthinking - distinct possibility - you suggest no Lukaku or Mirallas starting v. Wolfsburg. Although it would surprise me a little, yes, I could see Mirallas rested, even held out totally; but for Lukaku, given his publicly professed desire for European football, to be held out entirely from this first EL fixture - that would surprise me a lot.
 
As I said in my post, I agree with you that we're likely to see several to lots of new faces v. Swansea.