The Regulator

if anyone else gets injured we might end up playing both. I just want to see if Castillo is worth it, i've only seen him a few times and not really had that much chance to judge his effectiveness. I think a starting place and a full 90 minutes would be a good judge of how valuable he really is.

Players unavailable for game: Hibbert (thigh) Valente (knee) Vaughan (knee) Saha (Hamstring) Anichebe (hamstring) Jacobsen (shoulder) Possibly unfit Pienaar (knee) Yakubu may be our only striker and we could well be without pienaar, either the thin numbers forces us to play amazing or we'll just play shit and lose badly Moyes will go with: Howard, Neville, Yobo, Jagielka, Lescott, Osman, Cahill, Rodwell, Arteta, Fellaini, Yakubu I doubt he will play Castillo because he doesn't like him, and I doubt he will play Baines for god knows why. Lescott will let every fast player through, howard yobo and jags will work overtime while neville will long ball it, Yakubu will stand around waiting for inspiration... It does not look good

You're spot on with it but my argument is more towards our reaction rather than the flaws in the team. We are 7th, we don't deserve to be however our poor form is something the team need to work out themselves. It's close enough to the same team we were fielding last year bar one or 2 exceptions, so we know we can get the results with the players on the pitch. There's a difference to how you play however with 10's of thousands of fans screaming and spurring you on, to a few thousand fans barely reacting because you're playing poorly. I just think that positive re-enforcement is what the players need, they need confidence in theire abilities, and right now they don't have it. As fans we have an obligation to do our part, however small, in helping us get that confidence back. It's easy when we play shit to criticise and poke holes, but it won't change how we are on the pitch. Some people have said that after the performance we put in their not even going to watch the spurs game, and excuse me for saying but i think that's fucking shit. Youre only a fan if you stick by your team through hard times and good, and considering were 7th, were not exactly on hard times just yet. My point was our season isn't over, and when we get our confidence back we'll be every bit the everton that other teams are afraid of. It just pisses me off that people level a constant wave of criticism at the players, even if they deserve it, because they know what's right with the club. If that's true then every fans an expert. Yes they are some changes that should blatantly be being made, and it's frustrating not knowing what is going through Moyes head when he makes the decisions he does, but he has everton's best interests in mind and he has got us results before. I just think that while they deserve the criticism at a certain point you have to cut your losses and just say look, we're in a good position, we're playing badly, but we have to believe that the players are as disappointed, if not moreso, by the performances and our doing the best they can to improve. If it turns out we fight relegation and have a shit season, then we'll have got what we deserved. If things change and we end up having a great season, then the team saw the problems worked em out and we won't have to worry. Im just not a fan of being this negative at this point in the season, because nothing is written in stone, and everyone turned up at Goodison and started shouting how they felt at moyes and the players, they wouldn't want to win if they knew the fans were that fickle. It's not a massive point, i was as disappointed as everyone else last night watching the game, shouting and screaming at every bad pass and wasted chance, but when i left i thought ok, lets get ready for the next game and hope for something better. thats just my attitude on things, and its why i dont get dispondant when we play football like a bunch of blind drunk donkeys trying to cross a bridge in the dark.

Hopefully Saha's injury isn't as bad and we've got him against Spurs.

We'll play shit as we have done this season, we'll also get lucky as we have done this season. 1-1.

Is it possible because he'll be out of contract they might not try that hard for him? Sounds strange but Adams is a different kind fo manager and he might want different players than they have got in the past, I don't think they'll break there neck over signing him if we go in for him as well. They don't need him, but we do, which could be the deciding factor.

I....uh....

shit happens guys, suck it up and get revved for the next game Moyes is not an idiot. If we're noticing these things happening your damn skippy Moyes has already tried ways around the situation; all he's doing at the moment is trying to force things to work. He's kept Lescott at left-back because he doesn't want to drop him and he's trying to fit him in the squad. He probably feels that Baines is not up to the fitness levels needed. He has looked a bit red-faced at the end of games where he has started. He's not playing Castillo probably because he's not confident he will do the job Moyes is asking of him. Casti is more like Fellaini, he likes going forward and is box to box but like Fellaini not consistent, and therefore Castillo is only if too many players get injured, a situation where he has no other choice but to play him. Arteta, well, there's no excuse for his bad form and I get the feeling Moyes wants Pienaar to start but the same reason he didn't start tonight is the same reason for boro, he's struggling with some niggling injuries. I’d love to see Pienaar play more but I’d rather him be fully fit and gives us his best than us ending up criticising him only to learn he was still coping with injury. Cahill came back off injury and hasn’t look the same, remember he had an operation and has still managed to bag a few goals for us. The Yak and Arteta are the only pair with no excuses but look at it, Moyes’ options right now are very limited. We can’t play 4-5-1 because we don’t have the strength in depth, but we spent all last season playing it so now the players are finding it hard to gel in a 4-4-2. There used to have a different setup and theyre trying to adjust. But for fucks sake cut em some slack. Yes it’s Wigan, yes it was a poor loss but everyone is losing to everyone this season. To be honest this is the strangest and most exciting season I’ve seen for a while. And we were doing pretty shit the year we got a champs league place. While Moyes has options and could arguably employ a different setup there’s noone to replace our key players if something goes wrong, Moyes is just covering all bases. Unfortunately it means our form is compromised until we have all our players fit at which point we’ve got options. But Pienaar is out so no-one in midfield is getting dropped. Vaughan is out, and Moyes won’t play Saha on his own so The Yak won’t be dropped. The only change we could expect to see is Baines starting the next match, which I would be glad but like I said there may be reasons for it. At this point in time we’re about to enter the Christmas No Man’s Land against 3 teams going for the spot we want and 1 team who will probably win the league. Its going to be tough, but just suck it up, move on and get behind em for the next game. A season is not defined by one game, but the attitude you take from it could decide your season. The players have to improve, but we have to encourage them to. Moyes is as frustrated as us and I think if he had a choice he would make some bold changes but at the moment he’s trying to keep a balance. At the end of the day, the big four have all suffered upsets, look at Arsenal. Nothing is certain, and we still have more than half a season left. I’m not losing faith, I never will. Yes we played shit, deal with it.

a piece of string is a boot lace, the length is irrelevant

close but no cigarillo there el capitan; the trick to this riddle is to answer the statement not the question

If a piece of string is a boot lace.......who?

I cained Wigan last night in Fifa 09 3-0, Yak with the double and cahill with one. In 5 minutes. Also lost 4-3 to chelski

is he left or right footed? we could do with a leftie, id see us struggling for a formation with a right-sided winger.....

Moyes should consider the free market a little more before writing off signing players in January, and I don't understand what's wrong with loaning, we've done that with plenty of players. We can always ship Hibbert off for 4 or 5 mil to Celtic or someone like this, Hibbert is unnesecary now, Jacobsen will be back soon and I feel he will be the back-up for Neville's position. Pip is doing alright at the mo, and I think the dane international will prove a little more effective than Hibbert. Maybe consider shipping off Valente as well, Baines is there for back-up at left back, and I highly doubt with the lack of cup action this year that Nuno will see a game. Maybe get shot of Ruddy as well, he's got to go through Nash and Turner to get anywhere near the frontline, so it looks doubtful for him. Combined sales of these guys should generate some cash for a loan move or 2. Being a bit sharper about money like he has been in the past is the wya to go, can't see why he's writing off january.

I don't doubt liverpoop have a better squad, I'm just thinking about going forward. If Liverpool are 2nd in the league and in the Champs League without him playing a game for them, it says something about his quality. Plenty of players can cross a ball, and I'd much rather a player who is more driven to go as far as he can with his team than ones who are happy to sit on the sidelines. If Pennant was really trying his hardest in training and wanted to show the FSW that he was good enough for 1st team I'd think differently, but he's not even a bench player, and it says something about his attitude. Saha was different because he was plagued with injury, and worked hard when he did play, and does now. I perosnally think Pennant will be closer to a Van Der Meyde signing in that respect, do fuck all work for us and just add another wage slip to our bill. And if we want to get into Europe next year, and continue to progress in the premier league, we need underestimated and up and coming players that will help propel us to that position. Pennant won't, he's just bench fodder. Granted the type of players we need either get snapped up by bigger teams or don't want to move, or are in short supply anyway, but if we're going to improve as a team we need a player with a good work ethic and a strong desire to play. Pennant is a liability in that aspect.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_4521135,00.html seems he will deffo sign but we're no longer interested. With Castillo not featuring in Moyes' plans maybe January would be a good time to pick him up. He's training to stay in shape so I'm assuming he'd pass a medical.

ditto, osman and pienaar are both naturally right footed, I would have liked to see manny fernandes stay as he added some flair to our left, and i'm not all too confident with Osman's recent central role. Still it's pennant, if he's not good enough for the red shite's bench why should we settle for him?

We have played a lot of players out of position. I didn't hear Jags complain when he was played in midfield at the start of the season thanks to thin numbers, or Baines for that matter, who played left midfield and did admirably. Lescott needs to learn to adapt to where he is played. If he can't then he shouldn't get frustrated, he should learn from his mistakes. I'd prefer Baines at left back because he has pace, he actually closes down attacks when they come in and he has a very decent cross on him, as does neville, so why we aren't letting those two overlap and knock in some crosses and have osman and arteta sit further back is beyond me. Arteta has proven he is not a winger, and Moyes relying on him to be is frustrating. Ideally, I'd like to see Pienaar and Osman on the sides, Fellaini in the centre, and Arteta and Cahill in Attacking midfield with The Yak or Saha up front. Moyes likes 4-5-1 so that style would suit us. And we could play a full midfield that way. Whatever Lescott's grumbles he needs to know he's not the only player asked to do something that does not come naturally, and it's all part of developing.

Oy Vey.

Well, it's a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand were in a partnership with a best selling and highly popular videogame, on the other hand were using a game to try and find good players. Make us more well known, probably, boost our credibility, not likely.

tricky one but considering there record im going for 2-1 to us. Saha and Osman for us, Zaki for them.

people seem to think that Moyes will be using this for direct reference which I highly doubt. Teams scout players anyway, having a database of thousands of registered players is useful, for example we want Lorik Cana here, who knows there could be someone as good as him who noone has noticed yet for whatever reason, that Moyes could check out. I don't think having a database of the worlds players is a bad thing, especially since they would be scouted in person before a purchase if they were really serious about getting them. I don't see as much of a downside, apart from potentials, that other people are seeing.

anyone seen him play at centre half, is he any good in that poisition? I was just thinking if any of this does come to fruition we have a player that would cover 2 positions for the price of 1, and so would be a very good investment considering we only have jags/yobo/lescott for cb and moyes insists on playing all 3 every game.

There was a guy stumbling out of Walkabout in town the other day, cursing at some police officers and revealing himself to young ladies, and swearing blind he was a famous dutch winger on merseyside......he wasn't ginger so it couldn't have been dirk kunt, i wonder who it was.....

Howard - 6 - Never really got threatened that much this game, pretty solid performance overall, apart from the goal. Jagielka - 9 - Again our best player, defended like a champion and made sure noone was getting through. Yobo - 7 - Did better second half, made some good tackles and an overall decent performance. Lescott - 4 - Fucking bunk on the back foot. Shouldn't be left back, Baines should get a run next game for sure. He's worrying in that position and needs to know his game needs improving if he wants first team action. Was ok going forward but not great. Neville - 7 - Solid performance by Pip, did well to get some crosses in and a few touches of skill in the match, seems to be really comfortable at right back but he also left the door wide open for an attack late on. Fellaini - 8 - Brilliant again, just lacking that stamina but that will come. Worked hard this match and is showing definate improvement. Cahill - 5 - Missed a few good chances to score where he would normally put us ahead (no pun intended). Deserved to come off and needs to improve his game otherwise I'd play a 4-4-2 without him. Osman - 6 - Worked hard but remained pretty anonymous in the first half. Didn't really add that much to our attack, bit of an off day for normally one of our more reliable players. Arteta - 3 - The weakest point of our attack. Yes he got the cross for the goal, but it was lucky in the end. How many times during the game did the chance for a break come and Arteta pull it back and slow our pace down to a crawl? Something mOyes needs to notice, he definately needs a game off. Yakubu - 4 - For the goal only. Didn't see any reason for him to be on as long as he was. Saha - 8 - Another solid game from him. Great ball control, good attacking flow, just needs more shooting opportunities. Overall, I can't understand why we can't play the kind of football we played in the last 15 for the whole game. And Moyes needs to put vaughan/anichebe on much earlier, how does he expect Vaughan to make an impact in 3 minutes?