Noddy

I was devastated by the result last night. Ireland were fantastic; they're a credit to their country. It's a shame we lost under the circumstances that we did. In 2010, football needs to re-assess alot of things!

I wasn't basing my opinion solely on tonight's performance, which I also think wasn't the greatest. I stand by my point that some youngsters should be given a chance ahead of him.

I thought Benfica would still be as dangerous tonight and they were. They look very strong and wouldn't be a bad bet to win this thing. It's either that, or Everton are very poor at the minute. There can be no excuses that there were players out of position tonight either - that was a first team of regulars and seasoned professionals - they don't seem to be interested. I think it's clear that Jo was a poor piece of business too. Moyes would need to start blooding some young players like Baxter and Agard more often, instead of waiting for the injured players to get better. I'm sure some of the youngsters would be a lot more hungry and passionate than Jo (and indeed others!) was tonight. Strangely, for a Brazilian, he seems to have no real flair or technique about him at all. Howard - 7. For the few good saves he made. I don't think any of the goals were his fault. Hibbert - 6. Made a few good challenges, but always appears to be a liability. Distin - 5. Should maybe have scored, but he is a defender; had some dodgy moments Yobo - 5. Was also slightly dodgy and played countless aimless long balls. Baines - 6. Got forward well, but his end product from play and set pieces was awful Gosling - 5. Not looking like a top-flight player to me and tonight he was playing in his favoured position, but still had a poor game. Rodwell - 5. Despite all the hype, he still has a lot of refining to do in his game. Shows a lot of hunger, but he was giving the ball away too much. Fellaini - 6. Had a decent first half, but seemed like he was all over the place in the second. Cahill - 5. Not the performance you expect from a captain. Seems to be demoralised or something at the minute and I hope he can pick it up. Bilyaletdinov - 6. Had flashes of skill, but unfortunately no real end product. Shocking that he wasted that freekick. Yakubu - 6. Was strong in the first half but faded in the second. Jo - 4. Terrible for the time he was on. I don't know what Moyes sees in the man. Agard - 5. Wasn't really on long enough to make much of an impact in a self-destructive team. Hope to see some more of him this season.

Tight affair at the minute. Not a bad game. Distin would need to watch challenges like that in future. Rodwell is showing hunger to score and win the ball but he needs to work on his end product (both passing and shooting). Howard has been playing well and Yakubu's turn in the first 20 minutes was great - shame he didn't score. The right side is Everton's weak link at the minute. @Grarghsies - Ken Doherty hosting the show??? What is that all about?? Good to see Gary Kelly on the panel though.

Sweet man. I have that then so. Thanks!

Is this on Channel 5? We don't get that in Ireland, does anyone have a link for the game?

Heard this in the gym today. Ridiculous stuff. Wonder will he be given the boot?

Yeah, at the minute the defences is looking very thin, despite the availability of several senior players, but it would probably be too much, too fast for Duffy to be expected to help marshal the defence. It's a lot of pressure and maybe a few lower-profile games will build enough confidence for him to make the step up. I mean, I don't think there are too many other 17 year old central defenders in the first team of many other Premiership clubs. (I'm open to correction on this)

Hey MikeO, how are you able to differentiate between whether it's a spelling mistake or a factual error in markduff's case? I think he's well aware of the fact that David Moyes' name is not 'Moyles' and as far as I'm aware there was only one occasion where the name was spelt wrong. In that case, it's a mistake and Bill felt it necessary to point this out, for whatever reason. Of course if someone continually called Shane Duffy 'Shaun Duffy', people would correct the consistent inaccuracy, but on one occasion, I think most people would let it slide. Unless of course, Bill was being jocular and was having a harmless jibe? It's a bit silly really, if you ask me. I could sit all day and point out the grammatical and spelling errors of genuinely interested posters, but it's silly and never contributes to discussion. Just thought I'd weigh in there and drag the thread further off-topic...

If he was loaned out, who do you think would be a suitable team for him? I think maybe someone like Tranmere or Preston would be good for him. To be honest, I suppose any loan move would benefit him as long as he was getting first-team experience.

The defence has been very shaky of late, even with seasoned pros! Hopefully Everton can turn it around. This run of form can't be good for morale.

It's certainly to his credit that he's deemed to be worthy of making the bench. Out of interest, how many of you have actually seen Mustafi play? There seems to be some kind of mentality among some of the fans that rates him very highly. I think it must be based on the fact he's German and has an 'exotic' name... I've seen him in it all right! It was pretty surreal. It definitely has his likeness and a rating of 67(?) in it isn't bad for a 17 year old defender! Duffy's been on the bench for the recent games against Benfica, Bolton and Spurs. I wonder is Moyes hesitant in throwing Duffy in at the deep end? Or will he get a few appearances this season? What would you guys say? Every time I hear he's on the bench, I'm always keeping an eye out to see if he makes his senior competitive debut!

Yeah, but he'll play young players out of position in defence, *cough* Gosling *cough*. Shane's just 17. Not many top-flight managers like playing young defenders who, while they may be talented, don't have experience - this is especially true of centre-halves. It's a different story in other areas of the pitch, like on the wing or up front. Defence is arguably the most crucial area of the pitch. There is less pressure on a 17 year old striker to perform than there is on a 17 year old central defender. I'd like to see Duffy get some loan-experience in the likes of the Championship or something, as it would give him extended first team experience and it would undoubtedly boost his confidence. He'd be in a better position next season to break into the Everton team as an 18 year old who has played in the Championship and who knows, may get senior international experience in the mean time (as much as I'd rather he played for the Republic of Ireland, he has already been in the senior N.Ireland squad). I think it's fantastic that he's the captain of the N.I. u19s at only 17 years old. It just shows the maturity of Duffy and his approach to the game. I was at an u21 game that Duffy was playing in and he looked like the only leader on the pitch, despite being 3 or 4 years younger than the rest of the team. It's also impressive that he's got such a good goal-scoring record for the N.I. youth teams, since he's a defender. Taking penalties requires a fair amount of confidence and shows he's brimming with it at the minute. I think that's 4 penalties out of 5 for N.I. youth teams - I'm open to correction on that, finnharps and markduff! The fans need to show Everton's young players that they're behind them too. It'll help their development. I can't believe that some fans write off youngsters at such a young age, it's a disgrace to be fair.

Man are you being sarcastic? I almost hit the TV in frustration when one of them claimed James Wallace to be "a young Irish youth international". The guy's not even Irish at all and he played under 16 without being eligible. That fact really annoys me.

Actually, FIFA changed the eligibility rules did they not? Shane is still entirely able to play for ROI, if they call him up I believe (I hope!) Seems he had a solid game by a few accounts and he took his penalty well. He must have a lot of confidence to step up and hit the penalty. I think it's a bit mad considering he's only 17 and that's U21 level - there are obviously a few more established players in the squad. Here's a youtube clip with the goals in that game, including Duffy's penalty http://eurorivals.net/highlights/portugal-u21_v_northern-ireland-u21_20090812.html

Duffy has played in 3 out of 5 pre-season games for the first team. He played the full 90 minutes versus Bury, scored against Rochdale and came on to notably settle what was a shambles of a defence against Blackpool. Great experience for him at only 17 to be training with and playing alongside such seasoned professionals - it can only help raise his game. I think (though I'm not sure) that he played and scored for Everton reserves tonight versus Bangor City. I think that's about 4 goals Duffy's scored in his relatively short Everton career RE U21 call up. It's great news. I mean, at 17, Shane's still very young and to be playing against Portugal U21s will be a test! I'm just thankful that FIFA changed the eligibility rules regarding age-limits, so that he's still eligible for the Republic if he plays!

While I agree that he is probably not ready for the Premiership, Duffy played just over an hour and not 45 minutes as you say and while I'm biased, I genuinely believe his level of performance wasn't exclusive to him. The whole team had nightmare moments; Hibbert failed to adequately track back and Wallace failed to cover, meaning Duffy had to close the gaps created, the great Phil Neville gave away a terrible penalty and I saw Lescott give the ball away on several occasions. I reckon Moyes only stuck Hibbert in centre-half because he wanted to give Coleman a run out and didn't want to replace Hibbert or Baines (and Lescott could be his golden-goose, so to speak). He didn't seem to have any other viable options for centre-half on the bench either. Was Mustafi even there?? Duffy showed his potential in the Rochdale game and capped the performance with a nicely taken goal. If he's playing reasonably confidently at this age, can you imagine him when he's say, 19? Incidentally (and keeping on-topic) Duffy and Mustafi played alongside each other the other day in a reserve game. Perhaps that's a future combination for Everton?

Haha, on reflection I realise how silly it sounded. I meant primarily in the reserves, although surely the likes of Mustafi and Duffy are expected to step up at some stage? Including the reserves and youth, Everton have about 8 centre-backs and there are only 2 first team places for centre backs in 4-4-2!

Who do Everton have in centre back now? There must be a lot of competition for places and that keeps players sharp.

I don't have much other reason to post on these boards, since I'm not an Everton fan... To be fair, my adding of some information or asking a question on the thread isn't what earned Shane his place with the first team in pre-season. I was delighted to see him play, so regardless of his performance on the day (which I believe was just the same as most of the other regulars') I was proud. Forgive my bias... I agree that the proof will be in the pudding, but it can only be positive that Moyes believed Duffy merited a first team place ahead of some of the new signings for example. His performance was decent, bar some errors that can perhaps be attributed to nerves, and the goal was good.

I was furious! Hibbert did the exact same, if not worse, moments later and nothing came of it and the commentators completely ignored it. It certainly is a big step-up and I think he's only been training with the first team for a few weeks too, so maybe that's another factor. I'll make sure to tell him, he needs all the assurance he can get He wants to play for the Republic, but he hasn't been selected since he trained last year, for some reason or another. N.I. on the other hand have been offering him countless opportunities. I would love to see him play for the Republic too though!

I watched the Everton versus Rochdale game there earlier. Was a good result. I was delighted to see Shane start again, nevermind score an excellent header - fantastic stuff. I thought he was fairly solid and never looked out of place bar a few small errors. I also thought the commentators were a bit harsh on him to be honest. After scoring the opening goal, Shane made what looked to me like a fair challenge (he got the ball!) and the commentators were quick to point out that it was 'an inexperienced challenge'. It was actually Hibbert's fault that Shane had to make the challenge, since he strolled back from his earlier run up the wing and Wallace failed to cover. The whole team made some ridiculous individual errors that would have otherwise been punished, had they been playing stronger opposition and Phil Neville, the captain, even gave away a terrible penalty. While Shane did make some small errors (as is to be expected from an inexperienced 17 year old!), the commentators seemed to nit-pick every one and largely overlooked many of the more experienced players' mistakes. Overall however, I thought that he did very well, winning several key challenges and it must be said, at times it was hard to tell which of the centre halves was worth £15 million

Depending on how he fares with the first team, it looks like he may be going to the Milk Cup with N.I. He could possibly captain that team too. I think it would be N.I.'s way of trying to keep him there, rather than 'defecting' to the Republic Haven't a clue where you'd buy a programme online to be honest. Unless you go to the competition, or have someone send you one (you could contact the website?), your best bet will probably be ebay after the tournament?

At first I was like "How does he know my name!?". Then the penny dropped... unless you've been spying on me?? I've been told he's been given a squad number (34, I think) and that he may be going on loan after Christmas, although I don't know who to. I wonder what team he'd be loaned to?

Played the full 90 minutes against Bury there last night. Seems to have made an impression - commentator David Unsworth even noted his potential. Anybody see the game?