Deacs

On the evidence of that we should be favourites, but you have to take everyone seriously in Europe, particularly away. Krasnodar were the "minnows" of the group but bossed us for long periods. We need to tie down qualification as soon as we can, then we can look at resting people. First XI (or near as damn it) for me.

 

That's the key point, win this one and the next one we will probably have qualified. Then we have two games we can rest players.

My point about McGeady was about his consistency tbh. Because I do think there's a player in there. It's just a case of whether the decent one makes an appearance or the one that makes you want to run on to the pitch and strangle him!

 

 

 

Rotation should happen, but not to put out a reserve side - two or three changes is about right. Like Patto has said, it would be very shitty to put out a total reserve side when 10K+ of our fans have gone to great expense to go out there and watch us play. The fans have shown massive commitment and they deserve that commitment to be returned and rewarded.

Agreed, that number of travelling fans deserve to see a strong team (hopefully winning easily).

If Coleman, McCarthy & Barkley haven't felt any ill effects after Saturday they should start again. Ideally the only changes for me would be Besic in for Barry and maybe give Pienaar a start instead of Osman.

If the other match in the group is drawn and we win this we are in a great position.

Everton 2 - 1 Villa

Lukaku

Not just cocks Brett.... Big cocks!!!

Ironically Gary Neville is one of those in the game known for having a lash. You always do get a little scrawny sod with a 3rd leg!

Always makes me laugh when I remember John Terry talking about Claude Makelele "beer can swinging around in the shower" and Claude was what all of 5ft 5?

And there' isn't a person alive who hasnt wished they could throttle Freund!

No, instead we just made a cult hero out of a thug up front. And laughed when he wrapped his hands around another persons neck and watched him do time.

In fairness to the big fella, he did his time before he joined us

Man United 2-1 Everton

 

Naismith

Good call, wish it wasn't

First goal might literally decide the match.

People were expecting a high-scoring game at Anfield as well. Personally I don't think we will see too many goals.

 

There'll be goals in this. Utd are good going forward & terrible at the back. We have the capability to play amazing football, I just hope our trip to Russia doesn't take to much out of the tank.

This could be a high-scoring game, although I'd take our current defence over theirs any day.

Agreed, they're that bad at the back now they make the formidable Barthez, Brown, O'Shea combo look solid.

.................Howard...................

Browning Stones Jags Baines

......McCarthy ..... Besic .............

Atsu ..... Naismith .....Oviedo

...................Lukaku..................

 

Yep, I like the look of this as a starting line up. Anyone know how long Coleman & Pienaar are going to be out for?

Man Utd 1- 3 Everton

Naismith

I'm not suggesting putting out a full-strength side by any stretch of the imagination; I expect changes. But to say to give this game away is silly.

That's probably my biggest worry. A few changes for Thursday and then a few more again on Sunday, just enough to disrupt the fluidity of the side (neither of which would be our strongest available) and we end up losing both.

I hope I'm wrong!

Yes, giving away any momentum and confidence we may have built up at Anfield is an excellent idea. I'm in full agreement with this sentiment!

We've already seen that playing on the Sunday after a EL game on a Thursday is challenging. We took a lot of positives from the Wolfsburg game into the Palace game but were still shocking. We have to accept that playing the two games in such close proximity is going to mean changes to the line up. Even sending a full strength side to Russia is no guarantee of a win, but it would probably mean a weaker side playing against Man Utd.

As I said before, a loss on Thursday after fielding a weakened team won't harm our chances of progressing in the EL (which I really want us to do), but another heavy league defeat could do real harm to the teams confidence.

Give this game away. A loss here isnt going to stop us progressing, but sending a first choice 11 may well cause issues (travel, short turn around etc) I'm hoping RM sends a second team.

That said, I do concede some of his recent decisions/team selections don't really support my thoughts that this is part of his master plan.

That's all true, but I don't see how it relates to what I posted? Martinez has made some boo boo's this season, so has been a weak link. Not getting on his back, I like the man and think he's been great for us on the whole but he has been a contributing factor to our troubles.

My point was its hard to judge the manager as a weak link until we see the end result of his plan. (hopefully i'm not being stupidly optimistic)

Liverpoo 1 - 2 Everton Lukaku COYB

One of our major weak links this season is Roberto Martinez I reckon. As big a weak link as the defence has been.

Mate ive been living in oz now for 8 years.

Pretty much all sports they play here are geared towards a finals series at the end of the year.

As a result some of the better sides in the respective sports often start slowly (poorly) building towards the finals.

Obviously we aren't playing for a finals series but hopefuly RM is priming the team for the sharp end of the season.

Remember Blackburn coming home strong and pipping us for a UEFA spot 10 or so years ago, and West Ham getting off to flyers when they played the inter toto cup only to disappear by xmas.

I'm saying I 'm not in any way happy with the start, but if at Xmas we are in the top half and qualified for the next stage of the Europa with Barkley and the rest back. Things might look different.

Everton 2 - 0 Crystal Palace

Mirallas

Great result, combined with the other result in the group makes for a perfect start.

Still issues at the back though which are very concerning.

Certain players are going to need resting for the Palace match, which we have to win. It's going to be interesting to see how RM finds the balance. For me he needs to keep the stongest team for the league and let the Swansea game go.

It's fairly obvious that we do need more options up top.

The injury to Ross is a huge blow, but Mirallas, Naismith & Pienaar should be able to do a job in behind the front man until he's available.

IMO still need a back up sticker. If Lukaku gets injured we would be in real trouble.

Off topic, lets hope the back four tighten up a bit. The players we have available are much more capable than the performance against LC.

All up though a decent transfer window.