Bailey

For me Delph has grabbed Barkley and normally that would be a foul. He wins the ball in the tackle but the foul is before that in my eyes. Howard should take a lot of blame IMO. Cant be letting them in!

For me Barry and McCarthy especially have to up their work rate. They aren't closing quick enough and they aren't making space quick enough. McCarthy especially has been very stagnant and he is one of those players that needs to drive us forward because he has that ability to drive the team along with Barkley. I wouldnt say that we have really dont anything wrong in that half but we havent stamped our authority on the game. Big second half coming up.

It really is poor keeping from Howard. Legs wide apart!

Jeez Baines get that ball right... Big chance!

Oh FFS... Delph grabbing hold of Barkley and fuck knows how he beats Howard from there.

Not been overly impressed with Barry so far. Not that he has done anything particularly wrong, but he has slowed play down when a quick ball forward or wide was on.

Just starting to up the tempo now.

Nice ball by Barkley and run by Baines. Never off side.

Stones gets fouled and ref plays on. Stones wins the ball back legitimately and its a foul.

Lazy performance so far. No real energy.

We have brought in 2 more bodies to replace the two that have left though. I get what you mean, especially in relation to Kone/Gibson but I think the two players in (certainly McGeady) will have a much bbigger impact that the two we lost. The Lukaku injury is just incredibly bad timing although I do think it might do him wonders in the long term given he wasnt at his best recently. Lets see how Mirallas copes today along with Naismith if he comes on. Hopefully we will know more come 5pm.

It will good to see how McGeady plays on his first Prem start.

Interesting line up. Good to see some of the injured players available too.

Its not being derailed by the lack of signings though, its been derailed by the horrendous injury list that seems to have happened all at once. I would have liked to see more bodies in the squad but I wouldnt want us to buy players just for cover. When our main players do return, all they would be doing is filling the bench, taking up wages and also taking up transfer fees that we (should/hope) be able to spend on players who will improve the first team in the summer. I just hope that we can find a way to get through these next couple of weeks picking up as many points as we can so that we can really push on after that. Its always something that Moyes was able to do with the squad so it will be interesting to see if Martinez can also show the same qualities.

I think his only start has been against Stoke where he pumped the ball long too him and he couldn't get involved. Other than that it has been cameos off the bench I think. He hasnt done anything of note for the reserves but in terms of 1st team performances we havent seen enough to say whether he will or wont be good enough.

Good post Steve_E (and MikeO). I dont think we have lost anything in this window and I think the amount we got for Jela is very good business. We desperately need to get players fit again and if we do then we have a very good squad, its just really shit that half of them arent available at the moment. Money had better be available in the summer though!

Everton 2 - 2 Villa Mirallas

Good luck to him and I hope the move works out. Id have prefered to have another body in the squad but its not like we are going to miss him.

Pretty much nothing!

Just seen the tweet from Suarez and it was dated the 8th December...

Not got a clue but as a guess I would go for Jan Mucha... with his left hand (presuming he is right handed!) and still wearing his GK gloves!

Yeh I knew what you were getting at but other than the farce of a game at Utd, he is always looking to win games (mainly on the counter or by set pieces) whereas I get the feeling Allardyce would have been happy only losing 2-0 lol. If I remember rightly from that CL tie, didnt Inter end up with more shots on goal than Barca at least in the home leg? In fact that game was reminiscent of Tuesdays!

Cant find much about him either... Although it appears he is a rapper/singer on the side and he has videos on Youtube! He is on twitter too.

The tweet before that from Fourth Official said that if Heitinga is off then Moisander will be in.

Id be worried about Lescott on the ball as he hasnt really looked confident in that area for City or England. Quick, strong and knows the club though so wouldnt be disappointed.