GoodisonRoad

Not sure what some of use have seen in Mirallas he has been so wasteful this game. Pienaars only been slightly better. Id get both off for McGeady and Deloufeu

They were fortuntate to beat us with 1 shot on target and they were beaten last night in the Europa league by Dinipro. I dont think theyve "rolled" anyone over. Money matters when you have situations like City and Chelsea, because they can afford to get it wrong. Just look at the money they've spunked up the wall on utter shite; Torres (Chelsea), Jo (City), Maicon (Free i know but he would have been on a decent wage), Kalou the list can go on. But the frustration is simply they can afford to spunk £20-£25 mill on a player and for him to be a complete waste of space because they can afford to just go and do it again and eventually... it will click. Every player we sign, we have to look at a possible return on them. The frustration for me is that our progress is constantly knocked back as clubs with money can go out and add to what quality they already have in their team. For us, it feels a little like we have to take a step back in order to take 2 steps forward (sell Fellaini, bring in McCarthy and Barry). I think we will get there eventually, but it will take time.

Laughable how you can judge him after 1 game considering his circumstances. Pointless saying anything more because you've already made your mind up. Bit embarrassing really.

See i get that. But the way i look at it, it was either take a punt on a decent CF (albeit an injured one) or rely on Naismith for a month or two whilst Lukaku was out. To be fair to Naisy, he has really stepped up but i dont think many of us saw it coming if we're honest. I like how Martinez has described having the loan signings, better to have them for a short period than not at all. I think this applies to the sitaution with Traore. He gives us an option anyway and hopefully he'll get better the more he plays

Bit embarrasing this. Its like people need a new whipping boy now that Naismith seems to have sorted himself out, or because he had a good game. He wasnt as bad as some of you are making out. I cant remember him being beaten in the air all that much because we never hit a cross to him in the entire game. Of course he was off the pace because yes i am going to bring up the new league, new country, coming back from injury, hasnt played in over a month...because guess what...thats the reality of it. I dont know what some of you were expecting? Messi looked shite when he came back for Barca a month or so a go, dont think people were saying he was shite then. He's going to take a few games to get to show what he is about. I dont even particulary rate the lad but i know he's better than what he showed. He scored on his debut, tracked back well a few times yes he lost the ball a fair few times because his touch was off but i dont get the complaints about his airial ability...when did he have chance to show it? we play it on the ground and when we did get in positions to cross yesterday for whatever reason they were always low and hard or cut-backs.

Dont know if your talking about the post i made in the Lukaku thread? Anyway, i thought Traore did alright. Like Barkley, Delofeuo, Pienaar etc he has been out for a while and it will take some time for him to get his sharpness back. Thought he worked hard and tracked back well a few times. His touch was a bit off at times which limited his opportunities but not a bad debut at all. Overall performance though was pretty dire from the team. Our passing was so sloppy, it looked so half arsed! Naisy did brilliant when he came on and really changed the game for us. Mirallas barely had a touch and when he did he tripped over his own feet and Pienaar just wasnt at the races at all. I would have kept Barkley on and brought Pienaar off for Ossie. Hopefully we'll kick our arses into gear now and make our late push for Europe!

I think our system is better suited to a striker who plays between the lines and is of a much smaller build than Lukaku. Someone who relies on technical ability rather than strength. The reason the shite are playing so well in a similar philosophy to ours is because of their strikers. Both (Sturridge and Suarez) are "nippy" relativley small players who look to get in behind but can also come deep and get involved in the build up as well. Lukaku rather looks to get the ball into his feet and turn a man, or get played through. Unfortunately, i dont think he suits our play at all. Both sturridge and suarez can link up with the midfield because they wouldnt look too out of place playing there, similar to MIrallas with us. At times, Suarez and Sturridge can look as though they are playing in midfield and they build the play up together with sterling etc. I think thats the reason Naismith has been playing that role and has looked a lot better than he did. Because essentially, he is a midfielder but he has the ability to come deep if need be and link up with our midfield or be played through because he's got a bit of pace. We need somone who can do that for us, obviously these players dont come cheap and im hoping Martinez has some spanish guy nobody has heard of lined up, but honestly? Lukaku just doesnt fit in to our style of play IMO. I'd maybe even go as far as to say maybe in the summer try and get Mirallas more adjusted to playing that role and being less selfish. If he could pass and know when to pass, he could be a brilliant player. Someone who can link up the play, run at people, score goals and get assists. I just hope the striker we do buy in the summer is more of a Mirallas than a Lukaku.

He'd ruin his career going to Milan. Italian football is a joke, not to mention corrupt. Cant see Arsenal being too attractive to him either tbh. And United?

cant believe we lost that. We werent at our best by any means but Spurs were shite! if they finish above us it will be an absolute travesty. Hate to say it but the shite have got fourth now.

First shot on target and a goal. Lucky fucks

Only Umbro kits I've really liked were the green athletic Bilbao kit and the black city kit from last season. Seen as they are both away kits, I'm not overly optimistic about liking our new home kit, but the away kit should be decent! I get people didn't like the way nike did a template and shipped out to a load of different teams but nikes designs were always more pleasing on the eye IMO. PSV's home kit this year is boss! though I agree, I don't know what the fuck is going on with the sleeves on ours. Looks like Nev Southhall has tried on everyone's shirt before a game.

You keep contradicting yourself. the point in bold being the most obvious. Tactically we werent that bad, but the shite's tactics were perfect and they exposed us? how could are tactics be good then if we're being exposed? ("the biggest culprits were Barry, Baines, Jags and Pienaar...but lets not start turning on the players that have done so well up to now?) Nobody is turning on Martinez at all, thats a stupid comment. Just because we have picked out a downfall of yesterdays game that was down to him, does not mean we are turning on him. We just hope that he learns from this. And in response to your earlier post, Liverpool were not harrying us high up the pitch at all! if you think that then i'd question if you watched the game last night. It was clear to see, they sat back and invited us on to them and slaughtered us on the counter because we were the ones pressing so high up the pitch!

Couldnt help myself. In a shite mood this morning. Yeah Marco!

Must say mate, your English is brilliant for a Norweigan.

You cant be serious? He's had one bad game and that was last night being played out of position and being asked to do something he was never going to be able to do I.E press high up and do what Coleman does going forward. Get a grip. Like Dunc said, Villa is the worst team to come up against after that debacle. If we deploy the tactics we did last night against Villa, theres only going to be one outcome....and it aint gonna be pretty.

It is IMO. You cant keep referring to the home game against them though mate, we had a makeshift defence tonight with a young CB asked to play at RB, we clearly couldn't play the game we are used to. Im not saying we should have sat back and give them more time, but we should have been more patient in our build up play and not played such a high line defensively. The Stones thing wasnt aimed at you btw, just saw a few people getting on his back and cant really understand why. Thats one thing thats starting to worry me now, how Martinez seemingly doesnt want to change his philosophy when he doesnt have the players to do it. he couldnt have possibly have expected Stones to come in and do a similar job to Coleman and he couldnt have expected Jags or Alcaraz to get us out of tricky situations with their pace like Distin does, so he has to go about it in a slightly different way and he didnt seem to tonight which is worrying, it was a similar situation at WBA.

Ossie did alright, Mirallas was the only one who can take any real credibility. Barkley did alright for me as well. MOTM though? not a chance.

You sort of answered your own question. You have to be versatile and adapt to play against the opposition and exploit their weaknesses, football isnt a "one style fits all" scenario. When we played them at home, we had pretty much our strongest team out and the added bonus of being at home, so we could dictate how the game was going to be played. We had to adjust today because we had players out of position (stones) and players coming back from injury (barkely,pienaar,alcaraz) but we didnt do that and played right into Liverpools hands. Everyone is slating Stones but he was told to press that high up the pitch and everyone knows he didnt/doesnt have the pace to get back if we did get caught out...its painfully obvious stuff like this thats cost us. I agree, Liverpool did get it spot on tactically, and its blatantly obvious how and why, which is why its so embarrassing.

Painfully obvious from the off that they were happy for us to have the ball and sit deep. They were always going to have us for breakfast on the counter when we had our quickest CB out and a CB playing RB, and they have Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling charging at us... Tactically we got it all wrong, it was embarrassing. Ref didnt help and Mirallas and Barkley looked like the only ones who wanted to have a go.

This. Piss poor tactics. We are are without our quickest defender in Distin and we keep getting caught out because our 2 CB's are on the fucking half way line. Joke.

It does in a way because like you and haf have said...its going to cost a club top dollar to get him and i cant see many teams shelling out the best part of £20m on a 29 year old.

Congrats Peter!

Drives me up the wall on Sky at the minute. Yesterday they ran through the game Celtic won 4-0 and went on about how they had gone 15 games unbeaten...like its some achievement? The league's a joke but i understand that you can only beat whats infront of you but it shouldnt get the coverage it gets, its pathetic.

Thats what i was thinking. Its terrible business from their point of view. Rather we didnt to be honest. Dont rate him at all and he's a bit of a prick by all accounts as well.

Genuinely gutted for him! Been a model professional with the whole baines situation, never complained and came in when he had to and give his all. Deserves to go to the World cup, heres hoping he makes it!