Bailey

McGeady or Naismith off for Lukaku please Bobby.

Jags too easily turned!

McCarthy has been a beast. That little spell out of the team has done him a world of good.

Brilliant first half without finishing off any of the moves. We could be 2 or 3 up and it wouldnt be unjustified. We just havent been clinical enough so far. Etoo has been brilliant but he is drifting wide too often and we need someone in there to finish the move off. Barkley, Naismith and McGeady have been hot and cold, the Scotsman the worst of the three and if one of them could just raise their game that little bit we would be getting on the score sheet.

Barry playing CB... Looks a little all over the place early doors.

Scrap that Besic is being given the nod.

Looks like a collarbone injury to Alcaraz. Gutted because he was playing well. Hibbert coming on to replace him. Will be interesting to see how this goes.

But the medical team clearly didnt think it was going to take as long to repair and heal so at the start it probably wasnt as complicated at the start until they realised the extent of the damage and that the recovery wasn't progressing as quickly as they had hoped. It very easy for people to look back in hindsight and I also don't get how it is embarrassing either. All in all it sounds like a horrible injury. Cartilage problems can be very bad anyway but having to basically regrow another layer must be dreadful. Cartilage acts like a shock absorber and also covers the bones to reduce the friction of them rubbing together so I can imagine its very painful!

Pretty strong team but a slight surprise to see Lukaku rested. Seeing Etoo and Barkley together for the majority of the game will be interesting to see!

Haha you know what I mean ;p

Philip Lah isn't exactly a big guy and he does alright! I don't see why he couldn't. He is one of the best incisive passers in the squad, excellent in tight spaces and reads the game well. I'm not saying he will be as good as he is at RB but I still haven't heard as to why not.

I was just about to post this. It just about sums up what a lot of people have said for a long time. They are interesting comments further down as well in that they were talking about the next manager after that game.

Yeh sounds about right. He scored the goals or at least a majority of the goals from corners and not because he was LB too.

I remember Martinez saying that Alcaraz is the type of player that will see out his contract and then move onto a new challenge so I think he will be gone. Distin is tricky as its hard to tell from this season how much more he has to give. Osman should retire IMO. He can still do well in short spells but his legs have gone and I cant see us releasing him.

It sounds like injury has taken a long time to shake off and they want to make sure it has fully healed and the knee is as strong as it can be before he comes back into the fold. Its frustrating, because like you I think he will be a useful asset but its clearly not a straightforward injury.

Yeh that's how I remember it. Certainly not an attacking threat in the Baines sense as Lescott has never been the greatest passer of the ball!

Looking at his overall stats he is more or less a 1:2.2 striker like you say but looking at the individual seasons it shows that he is really hot and cold. In one season for City he was less than 1:2 but for the other two seasons he was closer to 1 in 3 or 1 in 6. At Inter in his first season he was 1 in 2 but then dropped to 1 in 3 and 1 in 4 the following 2 seasons. He was far more consistent in his last two seasons though at almost a goal game in his first year with Milan and then just over 1 in 2 in his second season. If you look at that he is bound to hit a hot streak at some point. The defending in the Italian leagues is far more stand offish than the PL which would really suits him but he still managed one very good season at City as well.

Haha yeh I do agree with you Paddock its too early to get carried away again as its the Everton way to get a kick in the teeth when you least expect it! The interesting thing about the league this year is that every team bar Chelsea (Utd aside) are dropping points in winnable games. We might have cocked up the start but so have many other teams. Missed opportunity but in terms of being in the hunt for the top 4 we are still bang there.

I don't get what point you are trying to make with that?

Yeh he did alright in fairness but he is clearly a centre half and shouldnt be played at LB unless its an emergency (which I think it was at the start whilst Baines was injured).

Thats what I was thinking... Its not that Moyes came in for both players, its the way he did it and the condescending manner in which he referred to Everton in his press conferences. I do think he has a slight point about Cahill. He might not have got to say goodbye but he hadnt played for us for a whole season and he shouldnt have came out first and left the main spotlight for Neville and then Moyes. Its not exactly a big deal though!

No one is hailing the impact of Roy Keane now either!

I would laugh if Browning started and scored!

Tbh I was amazed that he wasnt played more at the start. There was always going to be some adaption time and I think he had a couple of niggles but he was excellent at Wigan and it's rare to get a defender with such a threat and it's even rarer to have 2!

But that's what happened at the start of the season but in reverse. I agree we should wait and see how well we are doing later in the season but you can have one rule for one and not for the other.