Bailey

Yeh without doubt it had to be Fellaini. I thought there were parts of the first half where he was a little sloppy but as the game went on, he got better and better and by the end of it he was running the show. At one point he challenged a ball in their penalty area only for it to break straight up the other end of the pitch and he was one of the first ones back. I also thought Heitinga dominated the defence against 2 strikers that are bigger and at least as quick as him.

Neill and Baines did well. I dont know whether I like Neill at the back or not, I fear he may be a little small for a CB. Id prefer to see him on the right if we can get one of the other CB's fit and playing well.

Hibbert was half and half for me. 1st 45 he looked a bit nervous with a couple of appalling clearances and he very rarely ventured to far into the opposition half. As the 2nd half went on he attacked more and more and put some real quality balls into the box. He actually played like an attacking fullback with confidence and I just wish he would do that more often.

Osman and Pienaar did well again and when Billy got on the ball he looked good, but I just dont see enough of him. He likes to cut inside a lot from the right and I think maybe he should play a little wider and cut in later.

Cahill was completely anonymous. The only thing I remember him doing was getting booked. Maybe him and Saha dont work that well together, (or maybe that should be he does work well with Saha) as you would normally see Cahill flicking it on for the striker but ATM Saha is winning the headers and Cahill is playing off the last defender. Maybe its time for a 442 with Saha and JV? Saha will drop deep and Vaughan will run his arse off and win headers probably more than Cahill will. Give Tim a rest for a couple of weeks and see if it helps him.

Saha did well in terms of effort but he could probably have scored a hat trick today. Its a shame but Im sure/hope he will start banging them in again soon.

I also though Yakubu looked sharp and I hope it continues.

Yet another game we should have won but only drew. The performances from the majority is certainly there with only a couple not putting in a full shift. On another day Saha could have probably had 5 or 6 but his effort certainly cant be faulted.

well played Hibbo there, I tip my hat.. but why not all the time

FINALLY!!!!!

 

Capped a fantastic performance from Felli so far. MOM by a mile for me!

Yeh him or Heitinga for me...

Was just about to say Id swap Jv for Saha just for his extra energy but Moyes beat me to it... COYB

FUCKING YES! Felli you beaut!

Vaughan should be coming on for maybe for Cahill or Billy IMO

Then move one of the strikers slightly wider with either Pienaar or Billy moving inside if its Cahill.

68% posession according to the beeb. Meed to make some use of it <_< .

We are all over them its just we have nothing to finish it off. Cahill just took a nasty one and looks like he may be coming off...

Maybe not its Osman off for the Yak

What a quality through ball from Fellaini. Split the defenders and if Saha was a little quicker we were in!

 

Thanks for the feed by the way....

It was with his left foot as well!

Our performance doesnt really deserve to be 1-0 down. Our play for the most part has been good, they just scored a good goal (probably being harsh but maybe Hibbert should have been on the cover) and we cant score. Saying that for most of the half we have played with 9 men. The only thing Iv seen of Cahill was when he got booked and Billy is just as anonymous.

Saha has played well but just hasnt quite got the finish or final ball with him today. If that was Jo people would be screaming for his head by now. Plus he is more or less up there on his own because of Cahill.

Fellaini, Osman, Pienaar have all been decent but they need more help from the other midfielders.

Heitinga has been quality and I dont think he has any blame for losing the initial ball for the goal. Bent beat him in the air which will happen and he is much quicker across the ground. Neill has been good as well although I would prefer him on the right.

Baines has been up and down. Some good bits, some crap. Got better as the half went on.

Hibbert doesnt look particularly convincing. Hes had some shocking clearances, and while he has defended pretty well he hasnt offered much going forward. There was one opportunity to bomb forward when we needed width and he declined and we lost the ball because of it. Any other FB in the league would have gone forward an thats my problem. Id love to see Coleman come on just for that extra bit of drive from the back.

It wouldnt surprise me to see Yakubu come on shortly and while it should be for Cahill I bet it wont.

Saha has to start getting these shots on target IMO. He has had 3 or 4 half chances now and you would expect one to be bulging the net or at least really trouble the keeper.

the ref is shit as well... I always thought football was a contact sport?

not sure there is that much we could do with that goal apart from win the original ball... since then however our defending has been shocking. Baines especially wants way too long on the ball.

What a great site! It clears up a lot of the ambiguous details that we get from the club. While it seems we are in a steady position it looks like it wouldnt take much for us to really start struggling. All we have to do is convince City to buy Hibbert and Osman for around 20mil each and we will be fine!

Dont worry fellow blues, I just beat them 3-1 in my Master League on Pro Evo with goals from Saha, Cahill and Pienaar with Bent in return. Its more or less fact...

Im not sure quite what to think with these comments. He is right but to go out and pretty much slate your team mates footballing philosophy and mental strength isnt the right way to do it.

He has been more or less anonymous in the last few games and if he wants to play more footy on the floor then demand the ball more often like Pienaar does.

I used to have a couple of second teams in football but gradually over the years they've annoyed me in some way that I dont support them anymore. I still have a soft spot for Wigan though as its where my nan lives.

Cricket - Lancs

RL - Wigan

RU - Newcastle (only because my favourite RL player as a kid went there but I dont really follow them anymore)

Baseball - Boston

f1 - Mclaren/Hamilton

Golf - Ernie Els

Just to add my 2 cents worth into the RL/RU debate, Iv played and watched both for years and I much prefer playing RL and probably now better to watch. RU of late (especially internationals) has become a kicking game with teams too afraid to play with ball in hand. RU is becoming infested with wannabee thugs putting in sly punches where they think the ref cant see or just end up in a pushing match like a footy game. Either punch him or get on with the game. I also get pissed off in RL because they do just run at players which is stupid, the scrums are a joke and they always try and tackle to high and just get brushed aside.

Plus he's going to be 25 in two months, I'm sure Moyes didn't buy him for "potential" .. We should be seeing a close to finished product here, a £10m product even.

 

Hopefully it's just a dip in form. Isn't this the first time in his life he's played this time of year?

Yeh I agree. He certainly seems to have that final product like his finish on Sunday and against Athens and we have seen some promise in his delivery (mainly early on) but I would like to see him gain more consistency in the latter, and also his passing and work rate. Having said that Im fairly sure Pienaar didnt settle straight down into the PL and Arteta certainly didnt. We may have to wait a season to see him properly get to grips with it so I wont be writing him off just yet.

I dont know whether he has played this time of year before or not but I think he has been playing football consistently for around a while as he joined at the end of the Russian season (I think) so he may just need a rest?!

I dont really know about this tbh. If he was cheap and wages werent an issue then why not. However he wasnt actually that good at Arsenal, especially towards the end of his stay. As someone pointed out, it was a quality Arsenal side that were scoring for fun and he wasnt exactly prolific, but thats not to say he cant be somewhere else.

One thing I would say about Reyes is that I dont think he would have the work rate for a team like ours. Our wingers need to track back and do well defensively and he has never been this IMO.

Id certainly only go for him on loan for now, let him prove his worth...

When Fellaini's name is on the team sheet, oppostion players think "oh shit, big guy, bit clumsy, we're going to have to go around him". If Osmans name is on the sheet oppostion think "crafty little bastard, lets walk all over him"....and they do! Yes he's not overaly fancy, but what you see is what you get, no frills felli and i dont care! yes he lost his marker, one blip. I can think of one that our prodical son Jagielka made against Villa last season...? or do we forget those?

Yeh I agree...

The only reason Osman excelled against Birmingham is because their midfield didnt really do much all game and neither Bowyer or Ferguson are actually that good. Against a powerful strong midfield like Chelsea's he wouldnt have even seen the ball. He has played there many times before and remained largely anonymous so Im hoping people down start jumping on the Osman through the centre band wagon. You need the big strong players like Fellaini to break up the play and get the ball so our little'ns can pass it about.

I dont think i've ever said that , Not living up to my expectations and not filling me with excitement, but cant remember calling him a flop.

And dont keep using his age as an excuse .."For starters he is only 21 (I think)",

We had about 6 teenagers playing last week who put in a good shift, and Rodwell is also only 18.

 

 

 

"When you dont like a player you look at every slight bad thing he does and hold it against him and similarly when its a player you like you take his best bits and extenuate them".

 

Thats exactly what your doing now.

 

Its all down to opinions mate, you have yours and i have mine.

Well you said that he had a lack of talent and that he hasnt come good which is more or less a flop, even if you didnt say the word exactly.

You are right about the age thing but young players tend to lack consistency and to some extent experience, especially when playing a role which hasnt been accustomed to at Everton.

Obviously its all about opinions, it would be boring if we all agreed! But in this case Fellaini made one mistake which led to a goal (or though you could argue it should have been dealt with before them) but worked his bollocks off for the rest of the game to make up for it, like Saha did the other week when he was at fault for 2 of Chelsea's goals.

On a different note Im also not quite sure to make of Billy. He does good stuff and then remains largely anonymous for chunks of the game. You would think by now he would have got to pace with the PL but he still seems to be struggling. He has got quality and I certainly wouldnt write him off just yet but Id like to see more and soon.

Im not quite sure about St Ledger. I always thought he looked a decent player when he was at Peterborough although I didnt see much of him at Preston. From what I have seen of him more recently for Ireland is that he certainly does have some quality but looks a bit prone to mistakes. Not Bramble type mistakes but generally not dealing with things he should do... a bit like Yobo

I hope it is only a matter of time Mike because I'm beginning to Doubt DMs record in the Transfer market.

The last four transfer record breakers have not come good, It started with Beattie, then came Johnson, the 3rd was Yakubu, and now Fellaini, i cant say any of them have filled me with any excitment, we maybe got one season out of AJ and one season out of Yakubu and thats about it. I think Davey is better sticking to his Cahill, Pienaar and Arteta targets for £2 million, i dont feel so bad then if they go wrong.

People always say Beattie was a flop but I thought he did a good job given the circumstances. He knocked in a few goals and worked hard for the team. When Aj came in he struggled but the same happened with AJ and Yak (or whoever else was coming through). Now its happening with Saha and Yak. Moyes' problem with strikers is that he doesnt play 2 which means if he plays 2 quality strikers, one of them is going to lingering on the bench.

Im not exactly sure how you can call Fellaini a flop either. For starters he is only 21 (I think), he scored a lot of important goals for us last year and his form is really starting to pick up this year after he got over his injury/infection and now that he has a specific role. Yes he may have been crap in a big run of games but in that respect you can call Cahill a flop because he has been anonymous in some of the games this season.

When you dont like a player you look at every slight bad thing he does and hold it against him and similarly when its a player you like you take his best bits and extenuate them. He played very well against Birmingham except a very costly 30second lapse in concentration. Everyone made mistakes on the pitch that day but it just so happens his cost a goal.

what makes you think that City wouldn't want Lescott anymore? He's been regular first choice and while they have a new manager I don't see him getting rid of a player who was only bought a few months ago especially as he's probably not seen him play nor will he see him play during the transfer window due to his 2 month injury!

Well im not saying they wont want him but it certainly wouldnt be the first time a player goes to club for a big fee, a new manager comes in who doesnt want him and sells him on the cheap. He hasnt exactly lit the world alight at Eastlands after all.

With all the money at City I expect Mancini to buy a new team to a certain extent especially defensively (as its where they have been worst). I bet an imaginary tenner that players who came for a big fee will be sold cheaply in order to make more room for the new ones.

If I could afford the fee and wages Id bring him back myself! Well thats assuming he doesnt want to play for about a tenner a month!

He was absolute class in his first spell and while he was out of sorts in his second spell there were times when his quality shone through. I think it was the last game of the season against Pompey (?) when absolutely ripped them to shreds on his own.

I certainly think we wont be getting Bentley because if I remember rightly Moyes was looking at him in the summer but Blue Bill said he didnt want a someone like that at the club (it was just after his drink driving ban).

Im also pretty sure Ever Banega is playing regularly for Valencia now so I dont see him trading that for here tbh.

I think we need a creative midfielder, mainly someone who can pick a pass from the centre like Arteta. Maybe Gago could do this? Fernandes was awesome at it IMO and like the original poster Id love to see him come back but I dont think it will happen.

We also need a CB and if I could get him for a knock down fee Id get Lescott back. If he is wanted then maybe Richards or Onouha will be offloaded at City. While Im at City I would also try and finalise a deal to sign Jo permanently. A lot of people really seem to dislike him but I think he has all the real attributes to become a brilliant striker, especially as a one up top striker. If you could get him for say 4-5 mil then Id definitely try and get him. Either that or try and get him on loan for the rest of his contract!

We dont have much depth at LB or GK so a couple of decent young replacements wouldn't go amiss. Obviously we arent going to have much money if any to spend so to get a couple of extra bodies in would be a successful window given the circumstances.

I also think we need another RB... Just joking!