Zoo 2.0

Says it all when a stray cat covers more ground than half of our team. A truly apawling result meaning that Wolves didn't win by a whisker, furrmidable in front of goal. 

Anyway, cat puns aside that was dreadful. Another bollocks result at home which makes it all the harder going to the game next week. Walking up to the ground in the ice and snow to be served that level of football is infuriating and I said before the game that we would lose 3-1, gutted that I didn't throw £20 on it to at least make some money out of the afternoon. Before anyone jumps on Marco Silva though, our problems run much deeper than him. What we are seeing is the end result of Koeman and Walsh sticking bang average mercenaries on stupid contracts and riddling the club with poison. Most of the lads in our team simply don't care and will never understand what it is to play for Everton. I said it before in another topic but we don't have any Tim Howard's, no Tim Cahill's and no Duncan Ferguson's. Just eleven lads in blue jogging around wondering where the next drubbing is coming from. Our season is over, the two cups have gone so the best we can hope for is another mid-table finish, give Silva and Brands the summer to clear out some more deadwood and actually start putting together a team; Richarlison, Gomes, Bernard, Mina and Zouma have arguably been our better players this season (I actually like Yerry) so for all the results and football is shite it was exactly the same under Ronald, Unsworth and Gravy Tits so sacking Marco will not solve the problem, we will just be another club that gets laughed at for sacking the gaffer every six seconds. 

As for on the field today we were truly appalling, played totally off the park. Had it not been for Pickford it would have been more, made some fantastic saves at 1-0 to keep us in the game but couldn't do anything about the ones that went past him. Did well to even get close to the third considering how close the lad was. Keane and Zouma did OK but neither is a leader and in the summer it's key that we find someone that can organise a defence - having two followers in these two (although Kurt will more than likely be gone in May) isn'tt productive. Kills me to say it but Seamus might be done, just offers nothing down the wing with his pace anymore and gets caught out going backwards, totally lost Jiminez for their second - same with Baines although to his credit he was playing through injury - don't know what he was doing pulling down the lad five minutes into the game though, set us on a downer straight away. 

Absolute stunner from Andre Gomes, came from nowhere and gave us something to shout about. Davies alongside never really got into the game, didn't control the midfield at all and looked like a very much second best Idrissa Gueye. Walcott on the right offered the square root of fuck all with Richarlison on the other side just as bad, whilst he started the season brilliantly with a keen eye for goal he's turned so lightweight that he's quite literally bullied out of most games. He really needs to either bulk up or get his head sorted for next season because at the moment he's not cut out for English football. 

Up top, I felt sorry for Tosun, didn't do much but had absolutely nothing to work with. It probably felt like pulling out teeth for him this afternoon, Gylfi behind him I thought did OK but again, both wings was completely useless so he was having to do it all himself or bounce off Cenk who was in and out of the game. Overall just one big horror show that is turning into the theme for our season, we're a total mess.

2 hours ago, Bill said:

We are so easy to play against, teams just sit back in numbers and know we can't penetrate them, we move forward at a snails pace ... All our opponents are back and marking us,   none of our players are free for a pass, the fullbacks and midfielders have to turn and pass to the central defenders who immediately start playing keep ball with Pickford. 

When are we going to change the zonal marking, I think we are now the team with most concedes from dead ball situations,  we have no leaders / organisers / fighters and nobody who plays with any passion.  Very very poor.

Set-pieces might aswell be penalties against us. Absolutely mind-numbing how many times we concede from them and it's honestly baffling how Silva can't see it and switch to man-to-man marking. What was the definition of insanity again?

According to Sky Sports he's asking for £160,000 a week which is putting a lot of people off including Betis and West Ham. I'm glad that we're not in for him, I didn't want him to start with as he's shite and don't want him even more now that he's just another mercenary after big wages. Our biggest problem is that we don't have anyone in the squad of the "Everton mould". No Tim Howard, no Tim Cahill, no Duncan Ferguson so I'm happy for us to swerve this. Play DCL, Tosun or Charlie until summer and then actually scout someone that wants to be at the club and has the capability of putting the ball in the back of the net. 

8 hours ago, Matt said:

Can we not sign Zouma for the supposed £35m and try this guy as the loan instead? I'd be much happier with that

Zouma said at the start of the season that he sees his future at Chelsea and to be honest can't see how he can look at our performances this season and think that this is the place for him - no way he signs permanently.

We are so consistently inconsistent. 

It's been a brilliant but hectic festive period for me so this is the first game that I actually haven't seen this season, made up that my phone was exploading with all the goal updates, the perfect response to the Spurs game 

I don't know if I'm in the minority but I like the five at the back with two wing-backs, very dynamic and the return of Yerry Mina pleased me greatly as I think he's our best centre back and has shown how deadly he can be when left unmarked in the box. His height alone is such a handful for defenders and he proved in the World Cup what he can do with half a chance. 

Disappointed that we conceded from another corner, it's literally as if we turn into a League Two side against them and had Burnley took that golden opportunity at the start of the second half then it could have been a totally different story, luckily we got away with it and then bounced back with a thunderbolt from Digne (honestly, what a signing) and a class finish from Charlie. 

Bernard looked awesome all game, I'm really pleased that he's finding his feet as he was always Shakhtar's best player, even when they were getting thumped in the Champions League and playing second fiddle to Kiev so glad that he's adapting to our team, he looked an absolute menace throughout and his stats don't lie from the afternoon, outstanding. 

Very optimistic about the Brighton game now, we've had a bit of a wobble but no reason why we can't put together a nice little run, teams will fear us if we can display this kind of firepower every week so it's up to the lads and Silva to keep this standard up. 

On a side note of Burnley, they look in deep trouble. That European Tour in the summer has really killed them heading into this season and they look totally out of it, I said at the time that signing Joe Hart and dropping Tom Heaton and/or Nick Pope was a bonkers decision. My mate is a Burnley fan and said that they best game of the season was when they "only lost 3-1 to Liverpool" . Ouch. Back to the Championship I think as they won't break the bank to sack Dyche and re-hire.

Edit: Forgot to add, a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all at ToffeeTalk Towers, hope 2019 is a cracker for everyone !

Whilst I don't think we will get anything from the game I don't think we will get a battering, City have been playing midweek football so won't have the legs to go all out. 

Personally, I'd pack the midfield and stop them from playing football, force them to play direct balls which should be meat and drink for Mina and Zouma (Pickford too).

Pickford

Coleman, Mina, Zouma, Digne 

Gueye, Gomes, Sigurdsson 

Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison

Tosun

I can't make the formation in the middle of the post as I'm on my phone but you get the idea. Sigurdsson drops back a touch into the midfield three when we don't have the ball and pushes forward when we have it. Gomes and Gueye drop deep to stop them passing, any high balls are dealt with by Mina or Zouma. Having the midfield packed forces them wide and any crosses are dealt with by Mina or Zouma as already mentioned. 

Calvert-Lewin, whilst not my favourite player can operate as a winger and striker so he gets in ahead of Walcott. When we don't have the ball he drops deep with Charlie making the midefield something of a five although when we have the ball gets forward and if the ball is on the opposite flank comes into the middle to give us two up top. 

Tosun, again isn'tt our best choice striker but with us playing with a deep formation it is likely that we will need someone up top to bring down the high balls and hold up the play for overlapping wingers and wing-backs, Cenk does that perfectly for me. 

A draw would be a great result, a win obviously even better! Marco Silva seems to get the lads ticking in the big games so hopefully that happens again here. 

Very happy with a home game against Lincoln, another one of the 92 to cross of my list. It should be a comfortable win for us too considering the gulf between the teams, I'd be happy playing a young side with a few experienced heads sprinkled on top. They're 2nd in the league but it's League Two, hopefully they have one eye on getting promoted and let us have the tie in 90 minutes, going to an extra period or replay would be disappointing.

Pickford

Holgate - Keane - Jagielka - Baines

McCarthy - Davies

Lookman - Dowell - Richarlison

Calvert-Lewin

Keep the likes of Sigurdsson and Gomes on the bench if we're drawing on 60 minutes. Have the likes of Baningime and Broadhead there too in case we're flying at 3-0. 

4 minutes ago, barryj said:

Even with the Gana stoppage ref added to much time. 

Please, let's not have this shite. We lost, we fucked it up. Absolutely no excuses for that goal even if it happened in the 423rd minute. I'm sorry but that's just how it is for me. Could have. Would have. Should have. 

The absolutely embarrassing run at Anfield goes on and whilst yes, looking back with a calm head tomorrow there will be positives the fact is that for yet another year we have failed to win at their place. 

I'm absolutely sick.

8 hours ago, Finn balor said:

There will be ways around it. We will get a feeder club to buy them and pay the wages 

There is no reason to worry for this exact reason, when Barcelona were handed a transfer ban they signed Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan, having them at training as normal but unable to register them officially as they were banned. It'll be the exact same here, we will just have our kids on trials for two years if needed before actually signing them up to each age category. 

If we are banned for adding new youngsters full stop (i.e. - banned from trials etc) then we'll get a feeder club to do the job instead. Look at Manchester City with New York and Melbourne, there's nothing stopping us from signing an agreement with Tranmere for example and using them as our off-site academy. 

A bit of a pain and not the best news in the world but I'd be surprised if this affects the academy process in any way. 

A slow start as mentioned but even in the first half we were the dominant team, Sigurdsson I think it was hitting into the ground in the first few minutes which would have been the perfect way to begin the game, we had a handful of other chances too that had we converted would have turned things into a rout. Gutted to concede in such poor fashion and something which I'm sure Silva won't be happy about but it's three points heading into the Chelsea game. 

Pickford didn't have much to do, couldn't do anything about the goal and had just the one save to make in the second half I believe. Zouma and Keane were once again class, not sure who lost Dunk for the Brighton goal so will have to see it again. Digne was again fantastic, a phenomenal signing and whilst Coleman was poor in the first half for me turned the screw in the second and took his goal brilliantly. After that I thought he was back to his usual self, brilliant to watch.

Gomes with another Crystal Palace-like performance, superb in the middle alongside Gueye doing the yard work. Theo didn't really get a grip on the game but always looks a threat with his pace, a 6/10 performance along with Bernard who had flashes of brilliance but never really took the game by the scruff of the neck always losing the physical battle against Bong, Duffy and Dunk. 

Sigurdsson in the middle was how we've come to expect. Quiet but by no means a passenger, a great assist for Richarlison (my MOTM) and a constant threat acting as the pivot in the middle. Richarlison up top took a few knocks, he really does seem to get  bullied which he will have to overcome but two well taken goals. The first with his back to goal under pressure and the second totally leaving Duffy for dead and rounding the goalkeeper, a fantastic move to seal the game. 

Good to see Mina on the pitch too even if it was for a few minutes. Excited to see what he can bring to the team. 

Just me that's really excited to be going back to Goodison? The Silva Effect . 

Agree that this is a very winnable game but they're organised, it could well be another Palace game where we have to huff and puff for 80 odd minutes before actually breaking through. Given how Brighton will approach this it could well turn out to be a single goal that wins it. Fingers crossed that Pickford doesn't need to make it a hat-trick of penalty saves this weekend and we can actually make some clean tackles! 

Pickford

Coleman - Keane - Zouma - Digne

Gueye - Andre Gomes

Walcott - Sigurdsson - Bernard

Richarlison

I do agree that Richarlison is better suited to being on the wing but I just don't think this is the right game for Tosun. We need to get at them with pace and it's not what he's about, Cenk's a lot more suited to the games where we need a physical presence in the box. I've no doubt that he will make an appearance on the hour mark or there abouts but I'd stick with Richard up top from the off. 

Need a big game from Theo as he was poor against Palace and United, same with Bernard to be honest. Keep Gueye away from our own penalty box at all costs and tell Andre Gomes to put in another performance like the game against Palace. 

On 30/10/2018 at 11:24, Matt said:

I don't get the idea of sticking Richarlison up front. I've not seen any game yet, only the 20 minute highlights for each, but from what I remember happening was him scoring and assisting on the wing, and not sure he has scored since being put up top? Why are people / the manager so eager to change the formula?

Tosun's goal drought probably forced Silva's hand. Remember DCL got a few games up top too.

On 01/11/2018 at 07:11, Finn balor said:

I feel someone is going to get a tonking off us very shortly 

Gor Mahia probably .

On 01/10/2018 at 09:11, Romey 1878 said:

https://readeverton.com/2018/09/30/former-everton-target-malcom-not-wanted-at-barcelona/

Barca are terrible at integrating new players into their team

South Americans especially have a hard time getting into Barcelona and Real Madrid as they are mostly bought for marketing purposes. There is a power struggle between the two to be the most marketable which is why so many flavour of the month players from that continent make the switch and then get thrown onto the rubbish heap when they next one comes along. James Rodriguez was signed by Madrid after a solid World Cup although they already had Isco and Modric. Yerry Mina was signed for Barcelona despite Pique and Umtiti being one of the best centre-back pairings in Europe and they signed Malcom as he's an up and coming Brazilian that's popular at the moment. There was also an insane power struggle between Madrid and Barcelona for the signature of Neymar (so much so that he's still on Florentino Perez's radar) and to a latter extent Vincius Junior who's signed for Real Madrid for £40,000,000 despite being just 17.

It will continue to go on and on. South Americans will sign for Madrid and Barcelona as a marketing PR stunt before being tossed aside when the next one comes along. I disagree that Barcelona are terrible at integrating new ''players'' into their team (Lenglet, Arthur, Coutinho and Semedo for example are doing well) but without a doubt they sign players that they have no intentions of using just to expand the brand. 

I don't think he will leave either for what it's worth. Ousmane Dembele has a terrible attitude, most famously smashing up Jurgen Klopp's flat when he was denied a transfer out of Dortmund so is expected to leave Spain as the management there have had enough of him. I expect him to depart for Arsenal as early as this January leaving Malcom free to be the ''bit-part'' player of the front three. 

22 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

Pickford. If they’d have gone ahead we’d have got nothing from the game. 

Pretty much this, such a game defining moment. They score we lose, they don't and it knocks the stuffing out of them and gives us an enormous boost. The atmosphere following the penalty save and cleared corner was absolutely electric. 

I thought Pickford did well all round to be honest, a couple of tidy saves from open play to nullify any threat. 

If Bottas is pissed about today then he should have been faster when team orders had no business being used earlier in the season. He's got the same car as Lewis yet has taken until Russia to have a nailed on chance of winning. Where was this pace in Australia, Bahrain, China etc? Not that I'm bashing Valtierri, I think he's a solid set of hands and a great part of the Mercedes machine but you simply can't be upset about what happened today given how the title race is shaping up. He's not in the fight for the grand prize and points are everything at the business end of the season, like it or not the only two drivers relevant at the moment are Lewis and Seb. 

In theory, Hamilton can DNF twice now and still win the title, had he come second today then he couldn't. It's basic strategy. Can you imagine the rattlement if Lewis let Bottas back through and then lost the title by a point in Abu Dhabi? Nah, not having it. Mercedes were spot on today and had the roles been reversed then Bottas would be the first to celebrate, as would Vettel/Kimi etc. It's not great viewing or what the fans want to see but it's about winning and as quickly as possible, whilst it might not seem like a necessary move at the moment it could well prove to be when the chequered flag comes out in November - if Bottas wants to stop being a wingman then he needs to drive faster and take a note out of Nico's book - even Sebastian when asked about the move in the paddock said that it was totally understandable.

Just what we needed that, despite a wobbly ten minutes between the half hour mark and half time where Sessegnon hit the bar I thought we looked very much in control today. To be honest I thought we looked great against West Ham and Arsenal until conceding so it's great that we were able to get the first goal today and put the game to bed. A clean sheet too (the first of the season I believe?!) is the icing on the cake. A fitting way to celebrate Jordan Pickford signing a new deal. 

Jordan himself was solid, made a great challenge at 1-0 when Fulham broke free and whilst he wasn't challenged too much did what he needed to. Kenny and Digne were boss on either wing, the latter turning into a fantastic signing and a worthy replacement for Leighton Baines. In the centre, Zouma did well, and I've been critical of him in the past alongside Michael Keane who is turning into the player we all wanted him to be.

Gueye was absolutely everywhere, a bit sloppy in his passing for me which was frustrating but a great defensive display alongside Tom Davies who has come under fire recently - unjustified criticism in my opinion. A great choice of captain for the future so here's to hoping the good performances continue. 

Theo continues to impress, a constant threat on the right hand side and unlucky not to have got himself on the scoreboard. Richarlison as always a danger, lovely to see him picking the ball up and heading for goal as opposed to passing it sideways, knowing where the goal is can be a good habit to have. 

Sigurdsson, mediocre in the first half but came into his own in the second. I didn't feel confident when he stepped up for the penalty funnily enough but he got his head down and scored two great goals - the first seemingly going into the back of the net in slow motion from where I was sitting.

Calvert-Lewin again was poor for me, other than winning the penalty I don't know what he did. Now that Tosun has found the back of the net (finally) then he really should be back in the side with Domenic dropping back to the bench. 

As others have said, we are very much a work in progress, phase one of a much bigger plan. That said we need to win games and it's great to be able to celebrate at Goodison again. Three great goals and a clean sheet, top stuff .

Oh, and Bernard. What a little player we have - loved him at Shakhtar and happy to see he is making the transition. 

Considering I was born in 1993, the five-a-side team that I pick will be from players that I'm old (or young) enough to remember. You won't find an Alex Young or Brian Labone in here . 

Goalkeeper - Tim Howard (329 league games, 1 goal).

An absolute legend in my eyes. Tim joined in 2007 when I was playing as a goalkeeper myself and was a true inspiration growing up. He took Everton into his heart and put in some amazing performances inbetween our sticks, the best memory I have is the penalty shootout against Manchester United where he saved penalties from Rio Ferdinand and Dimitar Berbatov to send us into the FA Cup Final. Now at the Colorado Rapids, Tim would be a great addition to our five-a-side squad and if it was a particularly windy day, perhaps a goal or two could be on the cards? 

Defence/Midfield - Thomas Gravesen (149 league games, 11 goals):

Not a defender in the eleven a side matches but would fill in the gap on the smaller field. An absolute beast in his day was Thomas, a big bloke who would run through walls for Everton and despite only bagging eleven goals was a handy person to have around going forward. I was gutted when he left for Real Madrid and whilst he did have some success there I'm a little bit sore that his career never really went into the elite levels. He was a fantastic player IMO. 

Midfield - Mikel Arteta (162 league games, 27 goals):

A magician on the ball. He's going to be a top coach too after learning from the best, Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. In his prime, Mikel was unplayable at Everton and was a great replacement for the Danish man mentioned above. A brilliant partnership with Tim Cahill is one of my fondest memories of the Moyes era, it's just a shame how his career with us ended and how the relationship went a little sour following his spell with Arsenal. 

Attack - Landon Donovan (17 league games, 2 goals):

An entry from left field - Landon Donovan. In his first loan spell with us he was untouchable. Had he made the move permanent like he wanted then he would be spoken about in the same breath as the Arteta's and the Cahill's. His love for football (or lack of it) put a damp shadow over his time in the USA and I do think that it's a shame he never reached his full potential. Landon gets a place in my five-a-side. 

Attack - Romelu Lukaku (110 league games, 53 goals):

Like him or not now, the best goal machine we've had in the modern era. A monster that's wasted at Manchester United. 

1 hour ago, MikeO said:

No.

Always the life and soul of the party?

Haven't seen an AIDSfest like that in a long time. We were absolutely bullied and played off the park by a West Ham side that everyone has been laughing at. I called it like most before the game too, regardless of past results we were going to drop points here. 

Pickford was poor, totally at fault for the second goal. Jonjoe Kenny was appalling, demanding that his intentions were checked, verified and signed off before playing a pass, flat around refusing to just kick the fucking thing and give us some rhythm. Kurt Zouma continues to confirm my fears, way out of his depth at Chelsea and an integral part of a Stoke City defence that shipped about 16,000 goals last season - get Yerry in soon. Holgate was alright but mugged off for the first goal. Digne I actually thought did OK, was about a 6/10 so thus our MOTM I suppose. 

Credit to Schneiderlin for playing under the circumstances, that's all I'll say on the lad today. Gueye's passing was on par with Steven Hawking's for large portions of the game however seemed to settle when Bernard came on alongside him, the Brazilian himself at least trying to create a spark although it was an uphill battle.

Walcott was bang average but had Kenny behind offering the square root of fuck all, on the opposite flank DCL had an absolute shocker and I'm disappointed that the Bernard change wasn't for him to come off, how he lasted 90 minutes is beyond me but perhaps it's because he's tall up against West Ham's Empire State defence? Siggy as captain was anonymous although took his goal very well - plus points for that. Up top Tosun was gash, had one good chance and took about fourteen years to take it. 

Overall, a shocking display in every sense of the word. The Evertonians clapping the lads off at the end left me speechless and are part of the problem. We are still laying the foundations under Silva but if this is the kind of football we are going to be given then we should have just saved a few quid and kept hold of Koeman and/or Allardyce.

Ademola Lookman on the bench but doesn't seem to have come out to warm-up with the rest of the squad? Hope there is nothing sinister in that.

That aside, really pleased with the XI out there. Gueye and Schneiderlin will provide the stability needed for the likes of DCL and Walcott to get at their full-backs. Masuaki is absolutely awful and will get pulled left and right all game if Theo is given the freedom to get at him, the same with Dom if they switch. 

Hoping for another big performance from Siggy as he's captain and a ton of respect goes to Morgan Schneiderlin, playing as normal so soon after the passing of his father. 

Despite playing well so far, Tosun desperately needs to start scoring. Fingers crossed today is the day, end the duck. Oh, and it's great to see Lucas Digne statting, get at them! 

4 hours ago, aaron said:

I've seen us win 1 in my life time, no where near enough.

Lucky you, Andy van der Meyde getting a bit merry and lifting a pint glass over his head is the closest I've been to seeing an Everton player lift a cup. 

I know what you are getting at though. Whilst I think it's important for us to rest players (especially in ties like this) there is a fine balance between selecting yourself out of the competition. 

That said, our kids should be able to handle Rotherham.

23 hours ago, MikeO said:

Same as every season; it's a tough job a lot of which is down to players being "clever" but the sooner VAR is put in place the better imo.

I was surprised that it wasn't given the green light to be honest. Even Spain (where there is a lot of verbal corruption) has implemented it yet we're lagging behind. I'm sure that it will be a feature for the 2019/20 season but I don't know how much more testing they need to see when it was done so well in the World Cup?

5 minutes ago, johnh said:

All the refs at the World Cup were foreign.  An indication of the deteriorating qualities of English refs.

Not really. 

Each nation is represented by one referee, the chosen official from England was Mark Clattenburg but he surrendered that place when he moved to the Saudi Arabia. The fact that England wasn't represented in Russia didn't have anything at all to do with the standards in this country. 

I wouldn't trust Stekelenburg to run a bath, nevermind keep a clean sheet for us. Whilst we don't want to burn out Pickford following his World Cup campaign I don't think it'll do him any harm playing on Wednesday and it will be a good chance for him to get a clean sheet under his belt for the first time this season. 

Zouma will more than likely play in the centre, perhaps alongside Holgate if Keane isn'ttt fit and seeing as Jagielka is banned. Digne on the left would be nice too and would give him a chance to show us what he's got. On the right, Jonjoe Kenny maybe?

The middle of the park we can tinker with, happy for Davies to start alongside one of the established two of Gueye and Schneiderlin for consistency. Out wide, maybe some changes with any of Calvert-Lewin, Lookman or Sandro coming in. Dowell in the middle giving Gylfi a rest would be nice to see too, keep him and Bernard fresh for the weekend. 

Up top, I'd keep Cenk. He's worked hard this season so far but needs a goal, against struggling opposition maybe he can get one in the bag and be off the mark?

Pickford

Kenny - Holgate - Zouma - Digne

Davies - Schneiderlin

Sandro - Dowell - Calvert-Lewin

Tosun

Subs: Stekelenburg, Feeney, Gueye, Lookman, Walcott, Niasse

Cenk's defending was brilliant yesterday too, ran his socks off for the time he was on the pitch and from closing down the Southampton back four they had to constantly pump it upfield as opposed to playing out from the back. Last season we would have sat back until they were in our final third however with Tosun running around like a pitbull, teams are having to go route one against us which will be perfect when we have Yerry Mina and/or Michael Keane and Kurt Zouma at the back. 

Also, massive thumbs up for this too. Doesn't take a lot but means everything to the fans. 

Great first 45 minutes from us, the best I've seen at Goodison in a long time but regardless of what manager we have and the philosophy we use it's always a nail biting finish with Everton isn'ttt it? How we made the second half so difficult I don't know as Southampton were awful and there for the taking. Had we played the second half the same way as the first then we would have strolled to the end but thankfully, that's a minor gripe in what was an enjoyable afternoon at the Old Lady - the first three points in the bag under Marco Silva too!

Despite Pickford spilling Cedric's shot I thought Jordan had a good game, especially towards the end when a few balls were being thrown into the box. He gets a bonus thumbs up from me for rattling Mark Hughes with that scissor kick on Danny Ings so for that alone he was in contention to be my MOTM. 

Further forward, I thought Seamus Coleman linked up well on the right and had a decent afternoon as captain as did Holgate and Keane in the middle (who I'm excited to see alongside Yerry Mina). Baines on the left had another comfortable game, despite being hardly troubled. 

In the middle, and this isn'ttt me jumping on the bandwagon but I thought Gueye was the only dodgy character out there. His tackling and break-up play was fine however he got caught in possession a few times and some of his mis-placed passes really could have put us in danger, fingers crossed this is something that he can iron out as the season progresses. Schneiderlin on the other hand was brilliant, calm and collected on the ball and bossed the midfield up until his injury - hopefully it's not something that keeps him out of action for too long as he seems to have revolutionised himself under Marco. 

Richarlison is, well, Richarlison. 3 goals in 2 games, worked his socks off from start to finish despite being booted by Mark Hughes' Stoke Southampton at every opportunity. If he can continue this form throughout the season £50,000,000 will turn out to be a steal, at the moment he's making things happen whenever he gets on the ball with goals being the cherry on top.

Theo, despite missing an absolute sitter was my MOTM yesterday. A lovely finish from a well worked free-kick (bonus points to Morgan for the pass) which got us on our way and then a delightful cross to Richarlison for our second. He should have added to his tally with the shot that he dragged wide and so nearly could have had a brace with the goal that was disallowed. A fantastic afternoon for Walcott. 

Up top, Gylfi and Cenk worked their socks off, a real grafters performance from both of them. 

17 hours ago, hafnia said:

Why the fuck was that so testy??? Was key that we got over the line - a draw would have knocked the stuffing out of us. 

Defence needs sorting. 

I was worried about that myself going into the last few minutes. An equaliser and we go back to the mentality under Martinez where going into the last 10 minutes of a game you just knew we were about to implode. We've got our first win under Marco and we've held out on a one-goal advantage which will work wonders for morale, the defence needs tweaking I'll agree but we've got Mina, Zouma and Digne waiting in the wings.

16 hours ago, MikeO said:

Nice to see us still trying to go forward when just a goal up rather than sitting back and inviting Southampton to come forward; attack is the best form of defence, we finally seem to have a manager who realises this.

 To be fair Roberto did this too but the difference seems to be that we have much more stability with Silva. Yes we were pushing forward for a third but not once did we get caught out with our pants pulled down at the back. Whenever Southampton pumped it long we seemed to have the men in numbers to deal with it.

1 hour ago, jofanon said:

Its exciting to think some of the players on the bench are upgrades on what is currently starting

Not sure where Gomes/Bernard would play though

Gomes I think will be a direct replacement for either Gueye or Schneiderlin. He played rather deep in the midfield for Barcelona operating alongside Sergio Busquets so I can see him being something of a deep play-maker for us. He did play on the left-wing for Valencia though (where we he played his best football) although I can't see Richarlison being moved from where he clearly excels.  

Are they going to reimburse the fans that had Cuco Martina shirts printed for this season?

Heard both of them are livid.