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jeez, our defense has let up and now we are playing careless...

this would be a good match to give jags + baines some rest but do we have any defenders to sub in?

lukaku working hard!!!

Really? Just shows how he splits opinions. I'm no where near a Lukaku basher but I don't rate him tonight. Didn't think he was working hard enough and some awful touches/pass attempts...but then so has Mirallas, McGeady and Naismith.

i think lukaku's mere physical presence opens it up for alot of our guys - especially naismith. he has been a huge benefactor. the goals haven't been there but he hit the post off a vicious header vs. chelsea and almost another one today. he's a work in progress but his presence is still felt.

get eto in at the 65/70 mark...

FAMOUS GOALMAN!!!!

so far, 5 matches into the season, it seems our main issue is sloppiness with the ball...

4 in 5 for yaysmith? wow...

crowd sounds electric on radio...

again, i am a newbie so please excuse this question but is this the first season in a while that everton has "expectations" places upon them? is this the first year that we feel pressure to live up to what we did the prior season?

entertaining match, frustrating but definitely entertaining.

so what do i take away from this - we are just not at chelsea's level. we have to play perfect to stay in a match like yesterday while all chelsea has to do is just hold on for a bit b/c they could really score whenever they wanted to.

it's ok. from what i gather, this is still a process in building this team. there will be growing pains with youth.

i can't speak highly enough of naismith. my first year following the team and all i can say is that if every player had the hunger, competetiveness and drive that he has, well we would easily be the best team in the league.

mirallas had a great first half and then we went to the other side of the field in the 2nd half. i'm curious as to why we did that. and the block on miralles attempt in the 2nd half was the play of the game. that ended our comeback attempt.

jags had a really tough one - so many mistakes and again, alot of our players were visibly gassed. barry couldn't even run back in the final 10 mins.

lukaku has bricks for feet but still manages to make some really good lead touches.

and besic...well that was a hell of a way to make your debut. wow. that one play told me everything i needed to know about him - crazy young and cocky. needs to be humbled a bit. maybe lock him in a room with naismith for an hour and see what happens

what an emotional match. tough to really figure out what to make of it right now. gonna have to calm down and let the blood head back to other parts of my body first

 

You can't look at it in a vacuum like that. Could Besic be ready? Possibly. But only 11 players can be on the field at one time. The question instead is, "does he deserve to play over McCarthy or Barry" That's going to be a rough one for Besic to conquer. Those two were huge rocks centrally for Everton last season. Martinez isn't going to sacrifice one of those two ESPECIALLY against teams like Arsenal or Chelsea just so he can show off the new shiny toy.

 

Most likely, Besic is going to spend this season as a substitute who starts whenever there's an injury or fitness concern as well as getting big minutes in Europa and cup matches. That's quite fine. Besic is only 21. There's no rush here.

thanks. besic will just have to wait his turn. the good news is that he's ours and he has some serious skill. i guess as the season goes along and with all the europa matches, we will have to play him and give him quality mins so we don't kill our players by the end fo the season.

I think Roberto has a tough time subbing out Barry or McCarthy for Besic because of the massive responsibilities they take on in their positions. It would be ideal to put him in as a sub for our attacking mid. And he would've been great to sub in during the Arsenal match, but the Pienaar injury kind of forced Roberto's hand early, and I don't think he wanted to sub out Osman who had already been subbed in (if I'm remembering correctly).

Maybe we will see him against Chelsea. Who knows!

does that mean besic is not ready for a bigger role like barry or mccarthy? too young?

by all accounts, it looks like besic has very good skill level. why isn't he playing? is it fitness level? or is he still learning the system? is martinez bringing him along slowly? or are there just better players ahead of him?

it seems having barry + besic's passing ability would make us all the more lethal - is there something my novice eyes are not seeing?

Is Costa really oit?

looks to be a game time decision:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/08/28/uk-soccer-england-chelsea-costa-idUKKBN0GS16F20140828

minor muscular injury.

just watched the 5 min highlight again. our defenders were just standing and watching on their heels when both cross kicks came in. they were either *tired* or were just *poor*. hope it's the former.

i think we are seeing a very big value in martinez. i think he is the main reason we are able to get lukaku and eto'o here. it seems that he has alot of respect already from players. if the rumors are true and eto'o took less to play with us, then i give rm all the credit.

if we can get into that elusive top 4, i think we can really take off.

thanks for the explanation thoward. i guess the thinking is that tying up that money on eto'o may bite us in the ass. but i don't know if it's crippling.

mr. eto has never been the same since he was killed by the smoke monster on lost.

ok...let's eto'o the crap outta chelsea this weekend

thoward18 - how could it be a disaster? i ask b/c i am new to this whole crazy world of soccer

will this signing prevent us from making moves next year? what are the final details of the contract? is the 2nd year guaranteed?

he just needs to stop those ridiculous back heel pass attempts

Welcome buddy.

 

We really need top 4 to break into the Champions League. The fifth and sixth place get you a date with the CL's fat and ugly friend. We finished 5th last season.

thanks but i see that finishing 5th allowed us to spend on rom and now eto'o. more finishes close to top 4 will continue that trend imho.

saturday august 30 at 530pm

everton 0-2-0, 2 points

chelsea 2-0-0, 6 points

50 mins of solid play vs. leicester

70 mins of solid play vs. arsenal (still ticked off at giving away 2 points here )

maybe we can get it to 90 mins this week...eto'o thinks so

again, i am a newcomer to all of this but it seems to be a move to really make a push for top 6 with an outside shot at top 4. i think if we can get to top 6, that means more money coming in. i sense ownership feels they are close to getting some serious influx of money so they made the decision to spend. you have to spend money to make money and that's what everton seems to be doing now. 2 year deal will not cripple the franchise.

4 points thrown away.

we looked so tired in the 2nd halves the first two matches.

i hope this doesn't become mental and we become a choke team.