Bailey

You wouldnt have thought so!

A very Ferguson-esque selection from Moyes too. Welbeck starting wide and Jones starting at RB.

No striker for Chelsea either, very interesting to see the ramifications for the likes of Torres and Ba.

I think you would call that passing and not moving haha. The point is passing it back and/or switching flank allows you to start another attack and move the defence around. Hoofing a ball forward against some teams can be a decent ploy but West Brom have big strong CB's and were well organised with Mulumbu and Yacub sitting in front of them. We were unlikely to win the first ball and it would have been just as difficult to win the second ball. I have seen us pointless hoof for too long tbh and whilst we need to move the ball around quicker I would rather we keep the ball and stop them scoring than give it away and get caught out. Yeh we didnt move. I think Barkley did alright in that regard and Kone was excellent at moving defenders when he came on, but Osman, Felli and Mirallas especially didnt do enough. Having said that WBA did their job very well as well and they made it difficult. We got the ball in good areas but didnt do enough with it. We created some chances, and IMO enough to win the game, but ultimately we had the ball in attacking areas but lacked the quality to make the most of it.

I wouldnt say we are playing tiki-taki by any stretch of the imagination and we never will. I think the idea is simply meant to be that if the ball isn't on then it shouldn't be played and its up to the players to make that decision. Unfortunately I think that is where we may struggle as the likes of Pienaar, Coleman and Mirallas aren't the best decision makers I have ever seen. I couldn't count the number of times Coleman ran into Yacub at the weekend because Ridgewell showed him inside every time which is exactly where he wanted him. Pienaar see's the pass but he has trouble with the execution and Mirallas is also a bit of a head down and run type of player, again running into trouble at the weekend. They are all pretty much used to getting their head down and whipping in a ball (I include Baines in this as well) but now they are being asked to look up and be selective and it will take time to come. We didnt play the ball forward quickly under Moyes and some people seem to forget that. We had our moments but 90% of the time we would play it across the back and then finally launch it forward to try and win the 2nd ball. A counter attack was practically unheard of and personally I would prefer that we keep hold of the ball at the back rather then lump it forward and lose possession.

Id certainly agree with that last bit. The problem he has is that no-one wants the players that don't really fit into his system, at least not at their market value. Unfortunately he will just have to do what he can until then and he is doing that by introducing the likes of Barkley and Stones.

I think my team would be fairly similar to the ones above... Robles Stones - Jags - Distin (or Alcaraz if he is fit) - Oviedo Heitinga Pienaar - Fellaini Deulofue Vic Naismith I think he will start Kone against Cardiff so probably best to give Vic a run out. Stones and Oviedo should get a chance. Oviedo is the obvious replacement for Baines but Jones it could be for either Coleman or a CB. Hibbert may even start if he is fully fit. Im pretty sure Heitinga will be involved in the place of Osman, but it really does highlight the lack of strength in depth that we have in the middle because I cant think of anyone else who can come in for those positions that havent already started both our previous games. Deulofue should get his chance and its likely to be for Mirallas and Naismith will probably also get run out.

cough Irish cough Its like groundhog day!

I think he cost £8mil last season on the back of a good spell with Wigan where they wanted to keep him, so after a mediocre spell with Chelsea and they want to get rid, I think £4mil is a fair enough starting point.

Pienaar especially was putting in a big shift. The thing with Robertos teams is that he expects them to play the same way from the 1st minute to the 90th. You should show the same urgency and willingness from the first minute to the last which as a concept is right. Our long balls forward yesterday were diabolical and easily read by the West Brom defenders so that would have been a pointless exercise too. I think that bringibg ob fresh legs earlier would have allowed us to push that little bit harder at the end of the game.

No they didnt. He left McManaman advanced to isolate him against the full back just as he is trying to with Mirallas but both have had to track back as well. Maloney was used to drift around the pitch a lot like he is using Barkley. Both the above players were allowed more freedom when he played 5 at the back.

Gutted for the lad. Hopefully he does come back better and stronger. Depending on the type of break and with the medical care they get nowadays Im sure he can. He only has to look at Ross, JV or Vic to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Didnt see the game... Was it a deserved win for Cardiff or did they score against the run of play?

Cardiff 0 - 2 Everton Kone

Maybe because he didnt play with 3 up front at Wigan.

Didnt realise that he did it for them as well. With only one up front we need to make sure the striker is given more support, especially when they have been involved in the build up.

2 games where we have done enough to win but for whatever reason we havent so far. The system looks solid, we have got into lots of good positions but failed to kill the game off. Mirallas played on both the left and right today and I think the problem was that he didnt cut in enough and get involved in the play. When he did he cocked it up. I wouldnt pick Oviedo ahead of Baines. Kone was very good when he came on today. His link up play, work rate and ability to read the game were better than Jelavic by far. Its a shame he was playing in a side with heavy legs at that time because he looked sharp and should be given a start. Overall yes its a frustrating start but I think that is to be expected. The changes arent going to happen overnight and we will need to be patient. The last thing we need is to start jumping on the back of the players and manager before they have even been given a chance to adapt. Its a big change from Moyes to Martinez and I think we have done well to be as cohesive as we have so far.

Yep I have heard pundits galore saying that is where he should be playing and that we should hoof it up to him. They forget that it didnt really work that much last season other than the Utd game. Must admit, one of our midfielders should be making more of an effort to get into the box, namely Barkley. He needs to mix it up a little bit more between coming deep and gambling on a cross ball coming in. Same for Mirallas too.

Well we head the Pienaar chance early as well as a couple of chances on the edge of the box that we should have done better with. We had a couple of good balls across the box but no-one was there to put them in. We didnt create as many as we should have, because poor decisions let us down and there was also some good defending in there as well. Just listening to Merson now saying that Fellaini was better playing off the striker and that we arent playing the Fellaini way. Jesus Christ these people are frustrating.

Pienaar for me. Lots of good work, even without the final ball.

Haha

No we didnt but we still created enough chances to kill the game off and should have done. I would also drop Jela as Kone was very good when he came on and the less said about Jela's overall performance he better. Naismith linked up well a couple of times in both games but I generally dont think he should be used as a game changer. I understood bringing him on against Norwich when we were ahead but not so much today when he needed a spark and some quality.

West Brom did a very good job of shutting us down but we created more than enough chances to win that game, and to win it comfortably. We didnt play as well as we did against Norwich, but West Brom only really showed some initiative when we started pressing forward at the end of the game. I was a bit disappointed that the subs were a bit late in coming but I dont think they were bad ones with Kone looking very good in the 20minutes he had. Im not really a Naismith fan but even he linked up well with Kone. Pienaar was very good I thought, but as always his final ball was missing and that same comment applied to both full backs and Mirallas too. Distin had his moments but did well on the whole but Jags and Osman were both below the level I would expect of them.

I dont know how we havent won that.

Why wont this ball go in their fricking goal!