Bailey

God save Joel! Bit too easy!

The back four look solid. Been very impressed with Funes Mori this second half.

Nice ball from Ross but Coleman just ahead of play. Barkley needed to create the angle so the pass had to wait.

Great ball from Davies... absolute class that lad. Soton defending well in fairness. I think if we got one we could get a couple more as they open up.

I like the fact that we have upped the aggression recently. Long overdue!

Good pressure from Ross and Gana. Ross actually getting stuck in!

Romeu did well to pull out of that otherwise he would be off... and Davies might not have had a head left!

Lovely touch and turn from Barkley to start that move. Shame Mirallas couldn't play Lukaku in as he was clear.

I'm a Steelers fan (still a newbie to it all though) but it looks like it will be a good game. Both teams have improved quite a lot in the second half of the season. From what I do know about the Steelers though over the last couple of years is that they are a bit like Everton, promise you more than they deliver!

Just seen some of the highlights from.the first half and it looks as though they had the best chance with Rodriguez. We look to have had a few half chances though and Barkley is again involved in everything.

The point is that if Martinez was that bad last season we should be doing much better. Barkley had barely seen the first team when Martinez took over, nor did Stones yet one was sold for 50mil and Barkley is worth around that, especially at this stage last season. There are plenty of reasons that Martinez fucked things up but he made both those two lads and developed Lukaku beyond expectations. That is beyond question. I don't expect Koeman to have fixed things so quickly, never said anything like that, and it would be madness to think that but I do expect to see some sort of progress by now and I can't any and no-one has been able to give me any evidence of any progress. I don't think that is unfair?

He is a professional footballer FFS he should be able to take a penalty. Who says Baines wouldn't have missed? I can give credit to Martinez for Barkley and Stones because he turned them from reserve players to premiership stars. You can't tell me that Martinez shouldn't be given credit for that? Once the players had given up Martinez couldn't have continued, we all know that. That why I am comparing the times before that happened as that will give us the most telling idea of where we have or haven't improved. Another point to mention is that at this time last season we had 5 clean sheets, this season we have 4 (premier league only).

I do agree with some of your points but money doesn't mean they are good players though. Just look at Moreno and Balotelli! We may be 7th but we aren't playing like a club in 7th. I can only hand on heart say that we gave deserved to win about 5 games this season (my memory isn't always the best though ?). Like I mentioned in the other thread, I think we are only 1 point better off than last season and my main point about Klopp is that he stamped his style on the squad from day 1, not perfect, but you could see what they were trying to achieve. I honestly can't see what we are trying to achieve under Koeman. In fact I am more confused now that I was on week 1. I agree we look less likely to concede but at the same time we don't commit nearly as many forward and out attacking play has drastically suffered. I think we have only conceded 5 or 6 less goals this season yet we have scored around 15 less.

Dismantled? I agree he brought in some shite but he also brought in Rom, Barry, Gerry, McCarthy and brought through Barkley and Stones. Koeman had the chance to change things and other than Gana he has brought in a worse GK, another old slow CB, and another wildly inconsistent winger. It's only 1 window so I am sure there are much better things to come but as far as summers go it was probably the worst window since Moyes left, despite having the most money. Still further than we have been on both fronts for a while. We should have stuffed Utd in that semi, Martinez can't help it if we miss a pen and the same players big Ron likes missed sitters. I get that you don't like Martinez, and as I said the end of last season was a shambles but don't over do it. Yet again if we were so dreadful last season why are we only 1 point better off than this time last year given the transfer window and a much better manager?

We can't have been that catastrophic to get to two cup semi finals. The last 6 months were largely shocking but the players had given up by then. Plus by my calculations we were only 1 point worse this time last year so how could we have been that bad?

?

I don't think they do understand entirely what they should be doing. We don't press as a team, against Hull there were several occasions when they were pointing anlt each other and arguing who should have been doing what. We certainly weren't as shite as we were against Leicester but Hull were awful and we somehow let them score 2 against us and at the same time we only created 1 other clear cut chance (as far as I can remember). I'm also not having the player excuse to that extent. Only Gana has been a real success. Williams has been the main protagonist for us dropping deep, Bolasie wasn't exactly that great at pressing and if he wants high energy then stop picking the slow and old. Regardless of whether Davies is truly ready, Barry can't play high energy so we are losing out more as a team. We also showed at Arsenal that we are capable of this high octane game and in the first half v Liverpool. When Klopp turned up across the park he immediately got the players pressing and his philosophy into the squad, largely with the same players that Rodgers had. He did that without a preseason. It didn't always work because he did need to get some of his own players in and because it was a new system but you could see what they were trying to do. Since then he has got a couple of new players in, he has whipped them into shape pre season and they are playing as well as anyone. Koeman has already had a summer, has some of his own players in already and we looked far better week 1 v Spurs than we have done at any point after it. I would have expected us to start averagely and then improve not the other way around. Hopefully we do start showing that improvement in the second half of the season as we desperately need to otherwise we will be in the bottom half again.

He isn't a CB. He is like a Magpie when it comes to a football. If he played CB he would be pulled out of position every 5 mins.

Henry is also implying that Ross was shite under Martinez or was even involved under Moyes. Barkley was brilliant at times under Martinez, this time last year he had played his best half of a season since he broke through. The whole team down tools at the end of last season so we can ignore that, he was pissed about by england and this season he has been in and out of the side and Koeman has mishandled him. He is unsurprisingly struggling at the moment but he has still been one of out better players this season and is still highest in out chances created. Deli Alli has scored 8 and created 27 chances in 18 games. Ross has scored 3, created 39 chances in 17 games. Overall Ross has played around 140-150 games. Alli despite being younger by around 3 years has played around 120-130 games. Ross was protected for too long, obviously his double leg break was probably a big factor behind that but he needed the games that Alli was playing. Getting kicked around by grown men, learning what it's like to get stick from 50 year old men who can barely see the ball anymore let alone tell a professional what they should be doing. Ross has had to do that learning in the limelight and then being thrust into the England side as a saviour. Naturally he is clearly a shy person so it will be difficult for him but he is getting there. He is still performing despite clearly not being at his best or playing for a side that sets up to his strengths.

He doesn't really have a position. I think he should be played like Pienaar was under Moyes. Maybe Sunderland will go after him?!

I think the bigger problem is that we don't look like a team that should be 7th. Bar 135 mins of the Arsenal and Liverpool games we have looked poor. We looked ok yesterday but Hull were terrible.

So who would still have Moyes back?

The old firm has started well. Rangers went ahead but Dembele just equalised for Celtic.

Yeh I thought he did very well, showed a bit of inexperience in a couple of situations but that is obviously to be expected. The future is bright for him.

Re Robles... it would have been a world class save to stop it going in from there. It's hit the top of his hand not even his palm. It would have been save of the season if he had stopped it. We know he isn't that good, Stek probably wouldn't have moved! The only thing he could have done was stand another yard off his line. It would give him more chances to divert the ball wide but it would have given him less reaction time. On the whole individually we didn't play that bad but at times we were poor as a team. Problem is Hull were fucking dreadful, worse than against West Ham and City and yet we could only pick up a point and only test the keeper a couple of times. Surely that isn't good enough?