chicagoblue

Thought he played really well last night, made one particularly great trap and turn in the first half on the right side. Made good passes, kept possession well enough. His shot has looked weak, but 25 yarders were never his strength. When the ball falls to him in the box he'll put it in again. We just haven't had any quality deliver of late. If it had been AJ instead of Vic tapping in he'd of done just as well (and stayed onside....)

Take of Cahill, put on Vaughan. Play 4-3-3 with AJ and Vaughan supporting the Yak.

Well, with all the injuries and the nonsense I'm calling a mulligan and revising my squad. ---Neville---Jags---Lescott---Valente ---Arteta----Cars----Manny----Osman -------------AJ-----Vaughan----------- Wessels Yobo Cahill Hibbert Baines Not exactly a Champions League bench, but the 11 should be able to take care of Reading, 2-0 AJ and Manny

Of course he goes and does this as soon as I pick him back up on Fantasy. Was really hoping for a brace from him, but this is ridiculous. He needs to at least pass word through Yobo where he'll be and what the deal is.

Howard played decent for U.S. last night in Huston, though to be honest, he really might have come and grabbed both the crosses that led to the Mexico goals. Picking up on those balls in from the wings really seems to be his weakest area. Did a great job of keeping his eye on a ball that popped loose when he flattened Bocanegra though. Michael Bradley looked OK. I like the kid and think we should give him a serious look over the summer. The U.S. set up with two defensive types in the middle of the park and so couldn't put much together going forward, but for us I think he'd be a perfect replacement for Carsley. If I'm not mistaken he's also got goals in the his last 5 for Heerenveen. Not entirely sure Baines is completely comfortable up on the wing, but don't really see many options and think he could probably become halfway decent there, we know he can hit a ball and I'm sure he'll poke in a few crosses. ---------------Howard------------------ ----Nev----Jags----Joey-----Lescott-- ---Arteta--Osman--Manny--Baines-- \\ Then either -----------------Cahill----------------- (if he's ok from the flight) --------------Johnson----------------- or --------Yak---------Johnson---------- I would like to see Yak right back in the 11, but expect at the least he'll come on around 65. I would prefer to see Yak and AJ start with Cahill coming on if needed for the last 20. We really need goals and a solid victory would be the right way to head into Europe. 3-0, two to Yak one to Osman

I don't speak the Portuguese so good but if my eyes don't deceive me that's Manuel Fernandes captaining the Portuguese Under 21 team. Did his performances for us recently get him the armband or has he be captaining the side for a while now? Well good luck to him and hopefully we'll see him in the full squad soon, maybe this summer?

Well Baines had best stay fit then as we're going to be making a left winger out of him...

more more more more please

Well, shame for us I think, not really sure what we're getting out of this. If he's over his injury though I imagine he'll get some real playing time at Derby, wouldn't be surprised to see him come back into the Everton family once this contract is run out though. Best of luck to him, but praying we bring something in.

Haven't been able to watch the whole game so far but I've somehow caught the last 15 minutes twice and all I can think is that we need to send Arteta off to shooting school. Right about the 82nd minute he stepped inside the right corner of their box and the whole thing opened up, but instead of having a crack he just dinked it across the box?!? Flabbergasted, he can hit a free kick well enough, why doesn't he try to curl one into a corner on the run. Sort of reminding me of Fabregas from years past, but that boy's learned to shoot and look at the good it's done his game. Vaughan really should be starting, at least while Yak is away if for no other reason than Vic seems so much better as a sub. On to rovers now though, should be a win, but a tight one.

Cahill and Hibbert should both be back. Osman is just an ongoing minor injury as I understand it. Santa Cruz is a real danger, he seems to keep on making goals out of nothing so we'll have to mark him tight for the full 90. Really wish Arteta had just stepped inside and had a crack against spurs but I reckon he's due for one. 2-1 to us, Lescott and Arteta

I couldn't get that other link to work, but this one is supposed to be up, http://www.fsicrew.info/forums/showthread....8461&page=9 (It's on there somewhere, Tv Ants Live 6.) I'm buffering it now, and it is taking ages, but I'm told it's working -- edit ok i can confirm that the link i posted is the correct game, but it's slow as anything. Took about 5 minutes just to get a picture and it's stop motion at the moment.

Yeah, from what I can't see sounds ok. Apparently against all odds Woodgate is the stalwart for them

Anybody got a link online for the game. The one I had is playing inter v juve. Not that that's a bad game, just that I don't much care at the moment!!!

Have we no one in the reserve side that we can draft into midfield. If VDM were match fit (i'm sure he's not) I'd at least put him in, no worse than Cars and Nev or Cars and Jags in the midfield. We're going to need Manny and Arteta to be right on top of things and with all these players missing out I think we'll have to go with Victor up front to at least give us a chance of holding things up. Here's hoping their defense is as barebones as our midfield.

Even though they've signed woodgate I'd be a bit surprised if they threw him right into the side. They've also got dawson out suspended. Is King even fit, they played Huddlestone there on the weekend. I really think we'll be able to win this one. Without Cahill I imagine we will revert to a 4-4-2. So I'd imagine: -------Howard--------- Hibbert--Jags--Lescott--Nuno Arteta--Manny--Cars--Osman/Neville ----Aj----Vaughan---- 3-1 to us. Lescott, Vaughan and Manny for us, Jenas for them.

Yeah, wouldn't be surprised to see the Nigerian boys back though I'm not sure they'll be in the finest of spirits

As much as it is nice to be in 4th alone I really think the loss would have hurt pool. Oh well, can't really complain at the moment.

Heard SWP out for several weeks with ankle ligament damage, Lampard won't be back, and A. Cole is carrying an injury. They barely squeaked out the 1-0 against Birmingham so I think we really should be able to take this. 2-0 us, Osman and AJ.

Hibbert is a great option at RB when there's serious defending task to be done. He's done well against Petrov and Palacios last two games. However, if it's a team we want to push on against from the flanks he's really just about useless. AJ seems to know where he'll put the ball every time but so does every player on the other team. If he's got someone (Manny) in the midfield to easily dump it to though I can see him being important for a while. Osman seems to have come leaps and bounds from last year where he couldn't buy a goal. I know yesterday was his first game back off injury but that missed volley just seemed like painful deja vu. I"m sure he'll come good though and I'd be a bit surprised if we didn't see some interest coming in for him.

Well said rob. If he is available and interested in coming here for that money it's a no brainer. Yes we do need other position to be strengthened considerably, but if we don't take him I feel fairly certain he'll be somewhere else in the league and we'll likely regret it. The only real downside I see, as I mentioned before, is that he wouldn't be eligible to play for us in the UEFA cup this year. However, our real goal should be the CL and he's the type to get us there.

Can we seriously not at least loan him out to Barnsley or something? I mean I understand he's a twat but he's supposed to have some bit of quality about him. Are we just keeping him on the bench for punishment or is there some other reasoning here?

Age 31, at Barcelona now. Had a really nice run at Atletic Bilboa but hasn't really figured for Barcelona. I don't know if it would be a free transfer or a loan but I don't see Moyes paying big money for him. I can imagine he'd like to play and if his wages aren't ridiculous I'd think we'd have him for the season.

One of the really nice things about picking up a player like Arshavin is that he's versatile. I personally think he'd probably fit into the first team plans on a weekly basis but that he might move around a bit. Right now we have Phil Neville doing that sort of thing on the defense end and I think we could have a much better player in Arshavin doing that on the sharp end. Don't know that we'll sign him though. I can't really see Moyes letting out close to ten million in January for a player who is already Cup tied in Europe. Since the Russian league is already in pre-season training (Dubai I think) I can't see a loan coming along either. I think he'd be a great buy in the long run but perhaps not ideal cover for the rest of this season. Unfortunately by summer time I think he'll be tied down somewhere.

If Arshavin is truly available in the 8 million pound range and if we do sell McFadden for 5 - 5.5 I would be very surprised if Moyes doesn't pull the trigger. Not that Gravo has done us a ton this season but he may be out too and I feel we'd be a little short in the middle. I see Arshavin as a very versatile midfielder but it's very hard to ignore the crucial goals that Cahill comes up with. I would see Arshavin starting more games than Tim though if they were both here.