FairWooney

i was thinking while watching the metalist game, even van de mayde would be useful on the pitch at the moment. thing was he'd probably have done well, he wouldn't have needed to run as they were happy to sit back especially after they lost their first player. all he'd need to do is stand on the wing and whip balls in. if there's one thing possitive he's proven so far it's that he can cross a ball. at least he could have added a bit of creativity if not much running!

4 shots all first half so not exactly a thrilling game from the sound of it. johnson the non goal scorer or not if were not getting shots then were not going to score goals.

this is getting frustrating, our defence can play brilliantly and we have some real talent there and yet they can't keep a clean sheet, what's wrong with them?? watching the man u game they played so well i wondered how they'd conceeded against every other team and I still don't know, you could say the man u game was a lapse of concentration that cost them but i wouldn't blame anyone for it. with such a defensive midfield as well we shouldn't be giving away the chances.

as already said, without Arteta they didn't know what to do. I accepted in the first half we were trying to play the big attacking thing against a side that were happy to sit back and we struggled. mainly I think because were just not used to playing 4-3-3 with so much space. But then in the second half it became clear that it was done to having no one in midfield that could pass. Neville and Carsely as we've said many times shouldn't be in the same midfield together, when Osman is the only other player in midfield we've no chance. He's an alright player but he's not creative, he's a runner and a player who likes to shoot. I can't pick anyone who did anything special, the defenders played alright but at times slowed the game down too much passing amongst themselves. Yobo put in a good effot being an attacking defender and towards the end a centre forward. Anichebe was probably our most dangerous player all game and they clearly didn't like defending against him but we just weren't giving him enough ball s on the ground which is what he likes. HIBBERT - shouldn't have played this game, while against United or other good attacking sides he's great at that last ditch challenge, important hoof into the other half or goal line clearence, against this side he's got space and chances to attack and he's playing long balls and the same predictable ball to mcfadden. Neville - similar to Hibbert but better balls in, METALIST DIDN'T WANT THE BALL IN THE LAST 20 MINUTES yet nevillet plants it into the box from the half way line, he's got another third of the pitch he can run into and no one will challenge him. Johnson - I said to someone in the pub, if he doesn't score this penalty he'll never score all season. he scores, great goal...oh no retake, he doesn't, i say again he's screwed, the one thing he's renound for he's failed at. another penalty oh no! It's been wearing on my mind for a while and this comparison may really annoy some people but remember when we starting saying that Beattie worked really hard but wasn't scoring, and the goals will come, he's looking good. Johnson hasn't scored in 6 months (yes we haven't played every month but time still ticks) and while he has continued to play well for us, we bought him for his prolific goal scoring, NOT for his ability to work hard and play the ball off to others. If he doesn't score soon he's going to be enrolling in non goal scoring strikers anonymous and even Shevchenko has left that club now. An appalling performance overall against a very average side, i'd say probably relegation premiership to championship quality. Bring on the red shites abuse because we deserve it

I see Neville playing myself. Moyes values his European experience and attitude all round. To be honest I agree though I don't think playing wise he adds much, especially in a game where I expect us to do most of the attacking. His job really is to keep people's head up if were struggling to break them down. If he really wants to play him i'd say he should play right back instead of Hibbert.

or rather by claiming key attacking players are injured then having them on the team sheet when the time comes!

just knocks, i expect arteta and johnson will be ok. wessels will probably continue in goal and i don't expect grav to play. maybe there trying to put metalist off of their tactics!

14/1's there standard i think. bookies don't really put much effort into pricing up goal scorers. they price the favourites too low and put stock prices on anyone who probably wouldn't score based on if they were playing. you'll find VDM probably more likely to score than lescott!!! we've got to attack them hard here, the last thing we want is a tight game and a tough trip back to Ukraine. we also need to make sure we get a clean sheet as well though. ideal score would be 2 or 3-0. or obviously more! johnson and yak up front and for the love of good if we all over them plant the ball in front of johnson as much as possible and make sure he scores! he needs a goal and maybe he'll get his chance here. Wessels should keep his place, he had nothing to do against united and could do with another game to keep him confident that he's not just in the squad to make up the numbers. he didn't do anything wrong at the weekend so no reason to drop him. plus it'll give howard a bit of extra time to get over his injury.

don't get too excited, Beattie's already scored 4 in the championship!!!

how was hibbert to blame for the goal? it was yobo marking Vidic and to be honest Vidic just made a good run and obviously caught him out. Wessels looked sold enough but didn't really have much to do. were there any other shots on targer other than the goal? We had them under a lof of pressure at times then it seemed to switch to them for a bit, very even game I thought but I was imrpessed at how we kept United's key players out of the game. Tevez got a bit too much time a couple of times but he still doesn't look like he's adjusted to the united side. Ronaldo looked a bit out of sorts but that was helped by Baines, Hibbert and Arteta robbing him every time he had the ball. that dive did him no good as with a booking he then had to be more careful and you could see he wasn't enjoying the booing and the odd niggling tackle. We played well overall but ddin't really create any clear cut chances. If we play like that against Metalist on Thursday we should get be able to break them down and score a few goals. the annoying thing was that watching the defence in this game i couldn't understand how we've conceeded in every game, hopefully we keep a first clean sheet on thursday. I thought Pienar looked pretty decent but a bit of a light weight like Osman. a few dodgy challenges but he looked good on the ball and keen to get involved. If he gets a few more games and adjusts to the English game he could be useful.

if anyone wants a great bet on this game i've just noticed lescott is 34/1 for first goal. not that likely but i'd say in a game like this he's as likely to score as the strikers as corners and free kicks could be our major opportunities. well worth a bet in my view. i'm also backing, and therefore reckon the score could be, 1-1 or 2-1 to us.

don't know how true this is, probably not at all report from tribalfootball.com Riquelme on Merseyside for Everton talks tribalfooball.com - August 30, 2007 Everton are in talks with Villarreal midfielder Juan Roman Riquelme. The Daily Mail says Riquelme, the Argentina playmaker, flies into Merseyside today for last-gasp transfer window talks with Everton. Riquelme, 29, unsettled at Villarreal and seemingly on his way to Atletico Madrid, is considering the offer of a one-year loan deal. http://www.tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=54688

3 years ago everyone went mad at BK for letting him go, he was one of the main reasons we came 4th in the league and clearly loved playing for us. yes he had a fair while when he wasn't playing well but he came good in the end and hopefully he can give us the passion and quality that he gave us in that last 6 months for us. yes he's 31 now and won't be able to play every game but his experience in both the Premiership and europe as well as his passion for Everton could prove invaluable especially if we get some injuries.

of course he expects to be in Europe, he's the second highest scoring premiership player in the last 4 years, he wants to be successful, just like every player who joins Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and the Red Shites. they want trophies, top class players to join them and european football. if i was an 11 million pound football i wouldn't expect anything less than competitng at the top in all competitions.

after my experience with trying to get tickets for the spurs game i've decided the Everton ticket sales system is a joke and would reccomend you just don't bother and sit with the barcodes. were clearly not trying to appeal to anyone outside of Liverpool with a system where tickets only go on general sale the day before the game and you can only by them from the Goodison box office or by email (how secure is that?!) if email monkey happens to bother reading it. you wonder why we don't earn much money, it's because were not selling as many tickets as we could. not all spurs tickets were sold but I never got one because they didn't read my email in time. Just make sure you check the ticket information on the offical site leading up to the game which will let you know when they will be going general sale, sometimes they go on a bit earlier than what i had with spurs.

to leave the size of the ground and bring up a point that someone mentioned. we only have 13 boxes at the moment, that is where money is made. I belive the Emirates stadium's boxes generate more income than Highbury did with all of it's seating. As is said, spurs have about 100, this was a noticable thing when i was there the other day, the ground was no bigger than ours but they have boxes that people pay large amounts to sit in so their missus can watch eastenders (yep that's what half the screens were doing!!!). As has been said we wouldn't fill a 70,000 seater stadium, we would however get more than 40,000 people to most games due to the new stadium factor as well as (hopefully) more success in both the league and Europe.

look at how long teves deal took., it's not an easy deal to complete as there's all the mess of him being half owned by his agent. we accepted it would take a long time when we went into this purchase.

only Henry has scored more goals in the Premiership in the last 5 years than Yakkubu. he consistantly scores goals for a very average Boro side each season and did similar at Pompy. He's played a couple of seasons successfully in the Uefa cup. less than 12 million is a snip as far as i'm concerned and I think he well could be a missing link, he's a differnet kind of player to Johnson and together they could work brilliantly. i certainly hope they do! my only possible downside is he will be off to the african nations cup, but that's the only reason i'm thinking of not backing him for top premiership goal scorer this season!

don't think it's any kind of ploy as he got injured in England training. my first thought was stunt to get him out the game but i think moyes would like to see him make the england side and as it came while at their training it obviously wasn't a manager made injury!

according to the stats in spurs programme we had the 4th best record against the top half teams last season. our problem is losing points in games against lower and mid table sides.

unfortunately blue from a first 11 player we expect that quality that we'd want from anyone in the first team.

anichebe was ok but he's too lazy, doesn't chase balls down and has his hands on his hips stood around once the ball moves away from him. if they can make him run after things like johnson does he's be excellent as his holding and running when he's in the action around the goal is very good.

I was also in the spurs end watching the game, due to the awful way Everton run the sale of away tickets. they weren't sold out but as they went on general sale so late and they sell their tickets by email rather than using a proper online ticketing system the poor beggar who has to read the emails took too long a ciggy break or soemthing so didn't read through them all. Couldn't believe our luck when we took our seats in row 2 right next to the Everton bench. 5 minutes into the game and 2 season tickets are stood next to us asking to check our tickets as they have same tickets. major cock up from the spuds selling off someone's season tickets! they come back, telling us their moving us and at that moment we score! miss the goal and have to run out the ground with a steward and into a different section missing the celebrations. view wasn't bad in the new spot but no close ups on what moyes is saying anymore. great view for the next 2 Everton goals though. the game: well I thought we played well, especially in the first half, it was an entertaining first half, end to end with both sides looking threatening but us amking the clear chances. I was busy slating Osman in the first 15 minutes and still have to say he's not really good enough, certainly as a first choice left mid! the only times I was ever worried we would conceed was when i looked at keane completely free on their right and Osman strolling around in the middle of the park, he would only notice keane when he got the ball then he would chase it down on the back foot and keane would get past him. saying that he worked hard and improved after his goal. I noticed arteta moved to the left for a while in the last 10 mintues possibly to sure the area up. Lescott was oustanding as ever, as was the whole defence. Arteta was quiet but didn't do anything wrong, though his set pieces weren't quite up to scratch and I wish he'd take a shot in open play sometimes. had a couple of chances to get a shot in with space but chooses to take it further and look for a pass. Johnson worked hard and had a good game. I think we did our usual and sat back too much in the second half, waste of time against Spurs, we were putting ourselves under unnecessary danger even though they never looked like scoring. I think if we'd played our same game second half we would have scored 4 or 5 as the spurs defence is utter shite! I'm sure spurs will improve but they played awful and completely ran out of ideas. fans were very disgruntled booing from early on and many were leaving by 70 minutes.

GOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL...............Beattie! for Sheffield United. well done to him, hope he has a good season with them.

offical line up from evertonfc.com Howard Lescott (left back) stubbs yobo Not mentioned - presumably hibbert Neville Carsley Osman Arteta Johnson Anichebe subs: Ruddy Van De Mayde Valente Jagielka Pienaar some close calls but unsprisingly he's left both the new players on the bench. midfield doesn't look great, hopefully we'll see pienaar early second half to see what he can do.