nogs

Did very little?!? He scored, laid on Rodwell's goal with a perfect little pull back, and played a sublime first-time cross into the Yak's feet for what should have been a straight-forward tap in - what part of that is 'very little'?!

On a more serious note, I truly believe what Maddock is saying is right, i think our squad has matured unbelievably in the past couple of years and we now genuinely have the talent and strength in depth to compete with pretty much anyone in the league - I'm excited by what next season could hold for us. BUT, I think it is imperative we have another crack at the Europa League before we even contemplate champions league football, Moyes has shown again this season that he is naive when it comes to Europe, with an unfavourable draw I would worry about us not even making it past the qualifying stages of the CL again, and we all know what that could do to morale. Breaking into the top four means nothing if it isn't going to be a stepping stone onto something better, i.e. winning the league or a European trophy.

Thought you were talking about your profile pic for a minute

I wonder what side of the 'sectarian' fence that guy sits on...

Read again there were three on my 'weakness' list

Strengths: In football terms: Shrewd in the transfer market, brings the best out of players, excellent record on developing young players, has consistently improved the quality of football we play in line with consistent improvement in results, generally a very sound tactician defensively (bar the occasional aberration), clearly a very good coach (examples - how physiacally fit he demands his players are and how often he asks players to play out of position, meaning he clearly coaches his players to add extra dimensions to their game). Personal/leadership: Commands respect and loyalty from players, maintains strong sense of team unity and discipline, maintains excellent relationship with club chairman and board, conducts himself impeccably in the public eye (generally managing to demonstrate both humility and burning ambition at same time), generally sets the highest standards for every aspect of the club and is a true leader in the way he demands those around him live up to those standards, and possibly most importantly has the ability to make those around him (players, fans) believe they can achieve even against the biggest odds. Any more?

This is all pure bullsh*t. 10 years ago the only pleasure we got all season was when we knew we were mathematically safe from relegation, with maybe a few of Walter Smith's derby wins thrown in as an added bonus. Now, we're feeling the crushing disappointment of going out of Europe and losing away to the team currently sat fourth in the Premiership after back-to-back victories against the top two. Time to question whether the manager's doing a good job? Do one, please. For the record, I'm really hurting after the last two games, and it probably hurts more when you think you're team is capable of winning something only to see them fail than it does when you just expect mediocrity and worse. Moyes has turned us into a very, very football team, he has bought and nurtured some outstanding players and made us the envy of most clubs in the country again. He isn't perfect - he is naturally cautious and that isn't always the best trait for football manager, he still hasn't mastered the art of knock-out football and we have an annoying habit of occasionally playing brilliantly in one game and utter gash the next, or even in one half to the next (e.g. Spurs). But all of that is far outweighed by his many, many strengths, which i'm not going to bother listing because there's too many. Moyes will be feeling the pressure to win something with this club more than anything, he has room for improvement as a manager and I'm sure he demands the best of himself. In all probability, this season will end as a slight disappointment, but I still think we've done enough to show we're a better side than we were last season, and I think we will keep improving. The time to start questioning his role at the club is if we're still having these discussions in 5 years - it's a long road to success, but look how long Man Utd and Chelsea both went without winning league titles.

I'm sure Moyes is as confused by how crap the players on the pitch have been for the last game and a half but ultimately, as manager, it is his responsibility to ensure they are not crap. Fact is, despite talking about being positive in Lisbon, Moyes once again set us out to be anything but in a crunch game, we were on the back foot from the start and got stuffed because of it, that's HIS fault, and therefore so is the complete absence today of all the confidence we showed last week. Well let's see what he can do, 45 minutes to rescue our season, at least we can't play any worse

Yep that's a word that springs to mind

How can you beat Chelsea and Man Utd and then play so damn abysmally? This is just utter shite - our two biggest games of the season in four days and we've been terrible in both, how has Moyes let this happen?

Tell you what, if the lads need any more motivation ahead of the game they should have a look at the fixture list and who we could be playing if we stick in this competition - Atletico or Galatasary to come next, two great European names, and then the potential to meet Juve, Ajax, PSV, Hamburg, Roma, Valencia, Werder, Benfica again (revenge!) and even the shite on the way to the final - the Europa is looking a real competition, if this is the kind of quality we can expect in the latter stages most years I can see it catching up on the Champions League in terms of interest and hype pretty soon, and there'd be a hell of a lot of prestige about being the first side to win it, especially if we can knock out some of them names on route

I take your point about height to a certain extent, but strength?! Heitinga's athleticism is easily his biggest asset, he had no problem handling Drogba and Rooney, two of the stronger centre forwards in the league, so i really don't think he has any problems with strength, and he looks hard as fook! I think we all get a little carried away with the need for height in centre backs anyway. Heitinga is the same height as Kevin Ratcliffe, easily the best defender I've ever seen in an Everton shirt, and an inch shorter than Dave Watson, who is probably a close second. Being good in the air is more about timing, spring and positional awareness, and I think Heitinga is pretty good in all those departments. And if we did want to stick a crane at the back to keep Crouch quiet for two games a season, we've always got Shane Duffy who's huge and possibly still growing!

I doubt any of them would want a rest the way we're playing with so much left to fight for. If we got to the final of the Europa, that's 20 games left this season, which is a fair old shift, but then if you think the likes of Jags, Arteta, Rodwell, Gosling, Yak, Vic, Vaughany, Coleman, and even some of the kids like Duffy, haven't played much football between them at all this season, there's plenty of quality there to come in and do a job as and when necessary. The trick is not to make wholesale changes and play players on form - if anyone does tire, their form will dip, and we have plenty waiting in the wings to come in and show what they can do.

A lot of Lescott's best performances for us came playing left-back, and that's where he got a lot of his goals from as well. On his day he could be a fearless, dominant defender who read the game brilliantly and looked class with the ball at his feet - a genuine international. But, and this was always the big 'but' with Lescott, it wasn't 'his day' just a little bit too often, he was prone to lapses in concentration and mistakes, and when his head wasn't quite right, he could be a liability - I will always remember Stephen Dalmat for Liege making an absolute mug of him all night at Goodison, he was truly dreadful that night. The reason why Heitinga, and Jags, are better centre backs is that those kind of mistakes are few and far between (yeah I know there was the Jags howler vs Villa, but did he put another foot wrong all season?), and the truly rank performances virtually non-existent. I've never seen Jags have a poor game playing CB for us, and i don't think Johnny has made a single error playing there all season. That's what you need from a CB, just like a goalkeeper - total commitment and consistency. So yeah, Lescott by and large had a great three years for us, and on his day was world class, but on evidence of this season I'd take Heitinga any day because he just looks rock solid and reliable week in, week out.

I just hope Moyes doesn't set the stall out to sit back and try to not concede, you've seen it time and time again in Europe when teams try to hold on in the second leg with an away goal against them, it breeds nerves and all it takes is one cock-up (like their penalty) and suddenly we're behind. We're bang in form, we're the better side, we should be going out to dominate them and put the tie to bed by half-time. Then as Carl says, we can start thinking about the 'six-pointer' on Sunday

Think someone else has said it already but we're going to have to be careful not to fall into the 'after the Lord Mayor's Show' trap for rest of season, we've had a fantastic February but we have to treat every game like a cup final now, not just Spurs, Villa and City, but all the teams fighting for survival who will be happy to come to Goodison and park the bus to earn a point, we'll have to beat them too. I have no doubt all the teams above us will take points off eachother, the question is whether we can keep winning when they do. The other big, big risk is we go to Lisbon and get beat 1-0 on Thursday - it will be so deflating to go out of the Europa that I honestly wouldn't fancy us to bounce back with a win at White Hart Lane, and the way i see it if we don't win there, we ain't gonna get in Europe again.

Problem is we already have Cahill and Osman to play off one main striker, we bought Bily as a winger/wide midfield player. I agree about his lack of pace, but although he may not have set the world alight in his first season, his goal/assist return has been pretty good - pretty similar to Felli, in fact, and look how he's improved in his second season after we were all tearing our hair out about him last year. I think Bily will be fine, he's got great touch and a peach of a left foot, once he's had a proper pre-season and is up to the job physically i think we've got a really good player. And you don't always have to be quick to play out wide, look at beckham.

Fact is, as fabulous as we're playing at moment, we're STILL eight points off the pack chasing European places. We all pretty much knew we had left ourselves with too much to do - we pretty much cannot afford to lose a game for rest of season, and if we do somehow pull off qualifying for Europe again, it will be Moyes's finest achievement and he'll be a shoe-in for manager of the season again Guess we can only take it a game at a time - if we go to Spurs and beat them next week, the dream's still on. But I'm sure Moyes has half a mind on next season already, how to keep this squad together, who he needs to add, what he needs to do to finally get us off to a strong start come August. Because what our form for the last three months has shown is that once we get on a run, with a more-or-less fully fit squad, we make a mockery of all this 'top four' crap, we're a real side and we're getting better. Don't want to get ahead of myself, but anyone fancy a tilt at the title next year?

ah ok, Bily!

Damn, stream went down, who scored?!!

quel suprise - weak toe poke from Distin, no challenge from Neville six yards from goal. Any one remember last time those two weren't at fault for a goal we conceded?

That's the most galling part of it, it seems as soon as one of our lot hit top form, they're bound to get injured, Arteta and Jags were on fire last season when they got crocked, now Felli. It's so demoralising it's untrue

"Tony Hibbert and John Heitinga play at right-back for Everton but Moyes is desperate to add some pace." Is this Greg Gobere the most ill-informed footy reporter ever or what? When did John heitinga last play RB for us? And what about Neville/Coleman? Think Onuoha would be a good signing but he's definitely a CB - and based on this guys total lack of knowledge, I'm guessing the story is total BS

Here here! Gonna have to start predicting defeat every week

what the fuck is up with Neville? Garbage again