Bailey

He was excellent all game and his positioning was brilliant. I didnt see any examples of him getting drawn to the ball and if anything he made several important clearances due to his positioning from crosses/balls into the box. He brought the ball out of defence nicely too and pinged a couple of intelligent passes. Distin was solid but he did have his hairy moments as well and their best chances just before and after half time were partly due to him.

I don't doubt that he is better technically than Naismith (it would be hard not to be at this level) but I don't think he is a very good decision maker and whenever I have watched him he has been one of those players who works himself into a good position before pissing it up the wall. His record in Russia for goals/assists surprises me so I don't know if he has improved but when I have seen him for the ROI in that time he doesn't look like he has. I'm with Steve_E, you either buy someone good enough to start or you get in a younger player who can improve to be a starter in time. You should never start buying back up players unless you need the bodies desperately and we aren't in that position.

I just don't see the point in paying anything for a very average player. With all due respect to him, we have Naismith for that role at the moment who can come in and do a job when needed. If we are going to spend any money, then it has to be on someone who will improve what we have.

Yeh there was definitely some swerve and dip but I would have hoped that he could have got something on it. The way these new balls move can make keepers look stupid.

I dont see the point either, especially as you seem to be able to use the emergency loan system if your 1st team keepers get injured.

Congrats Haf! Harry 'Roberto' Roberts would have had a ring to it though! Best moment of 2013 was this seasons derby. One of the best games of football that I have seen for a long time.

I think he is alright on the ball normally, certainly has a decent passing range for a CB. I think he needs to find an extra couple of yards of pace to play under Martinez IMO.

I think its a bullshit rumour tbh... Robles will be the long term replacement.

Yeh I think its one too. Robles just needs game time which is the same for every keeper. Its very rare that you get a keeper coming in for one game (especially with a change at CB, LB and DM) and look comfortable. He deal with most things well enough but should have got something behind the strike from Ramirez. The important thing is that he didnt let it effect the rest of his game.

Spot on! McCarthy for me too, but Ross and Alcaraz were excellent. Lukaku worked hard for the 90mins as well. Well tell 27 of them that they are wrong!

Really good result as that was a proper battle. Once we went to more of a 4-4-2 we never really looked in trouble and were unlucky not to get another. Shame we dropped our levels for 20mins at the start of the second half but the changes really helped. If I was being picky I would argue that the Barkley move should have been done a little earlier. Big performances from McCarthy and Barkley as they dragged us through the game. Barkley showed Lallana that he is a far better player too and should definitely be the one starting game for England.

Good sub again, need Barkley to start running things from deep.

Oh Robles... Gotta get something on that.

Pienaar coming on is the right move. Should see our possession increase hopefully. Good shift from Oviedo though, he worked hard.

No of course, but you have to realise that this is a really tough match against a strong side with our heavily weakened side. We have done well in the circumstances and we havent really let them do much. We have been poor in the start of the 2nd half but hopefully we can pick it up.

Its not as simple as that though is it! Good move from Barkley, we need that spark to drive us forward.

Sloppy start to the second half. Need to up the tempo.

Some of you lot seem to expect the world!

Very good half considering. We havent created an awful lot but we were never going to against Soton who are very solid defensively. As usual we have worked our way into some decent positions, usually when we have forced them into a mistake but not made the most of it. Alcaraz has come in and been excellent which doesnt surprise me tbh and Baines looks as if he is just starting to warm to the task. Oviedo is putting in a shift but he is very one dimensional and doesnt offer the passing options of our main wingers. Osman is playing nicely which is good to see and hopefully he can keep this up. Robles has done what he has had to do but needs to brush up his kicking!

You only have to look at the team we have put out today to know the reason why we arent going to win the league. Its not the worst starting 11 in the world but having to rely on the likes of Osman or Naismith for more than the odd game will find us out I fear.

Everton 1 - 2 Southampton Naismith

We are really going to struggle now I fear. Soton are the type of team that would give us a run for our money anyway but factor in that we have injuries/suspensions to key players we could be in for a really difficult couple of hours.

I watched until that point too. Our bowling plans in the morning were shocking. I have no idea why we were trying to bounce out a number 11 when he was backing off his stumps in the first place!? If that's a plan to Haddin then fine but not the number 11, just bowl at the stumps FFS. Cook was playing quite nicely when I saw him, finding the middle of the bat but Carberry was getting bogged down in a whole. I think at one point he has scored 1 run off almost 30 balls whereas Cook was around a run a ball. Im also not sure how an international cricketer can get bowled around the wicket by a RH bowler so consistently. Once maybe but not time and time again!

...and what about the rest of the posts in the thread? Bar Trev's initial quote, none of the rest are saying Moyes shouldn't get any credit, they are stating that the article was talking a load of shite which is exactly what it does. You should work for the Daily Mail if you're going to use quotes like that as evidence. Sideliner compares both managers situations, Trev slates the article and highlights the massive improvement in the philosophy at the club under Martinez and both Haf & Nikica disagree about the comments made that their is a lot more going on than just fine tuning giving the players that have been brought in and the style in which we are playing (especially at the back). You seem to see those quotes as people saying Moyes was shit as Everton manager but they arent.

No that's not what they are saying Dunc, that is just what you want to believe they are saying. Exactly. There are plenty of comments these journo's could have made about the good things Moyes did at the club, such as the signings he made on a budget or the team spirit and togetherness he instilled but the two articles posted by the same bullshit paper cant even get their story straight and it has quite rightly been ripped apart for the lazy journalism that it is.