adziom

Fully justified on this season's performances. He and Heitinga have been an excellent partnership at the back, and Distin looks good to do a solid job there until Duffy is old enough and good enough to join Johnny at the back. As for Jags, I don't know what the future holds for him at Everton. He shouldn't get anywhere near a return to the line up unless one of the other two get injured or suspended, but I can't see such a highly rated player, and one with international aspirations sitting on the bench for us for long without looking elsewhere.

I think in our current system, my favourite midfield is .....Osman - Felli Drenthe - TC - Pienaar With Ossie getting forward as much as possible. Rodwell needs some more time on the sidelines because he's been injured or shit for 90% of this season. He has shown flashes of improvement though, especially when he was playing for England. I think in the future he could play an advanced role alongside Osman, and in a few years Barkley, with Felli sitting behind them.

I hope so. But I think Heits was down a few minutes earlier with a knock and he had to run it off. Moyes, foaming at the mouth with the opportunity to put Jags on the pitch, asked his man to warm up, but thankfully, Johnny recovered.

Did anybody see Suarez take a little tap on the ankle from a Stoke defender, I think it was Huth, and then proceeding to pull his "Oh My God I'm DYIIING" face, before limping off the field..... putting his weight on the ankle that was meant to be injured! Clown .

I would like it if we could make this happen. Somebody needs to remind the players how it feels for every single Everton fan losing to Liverpool in the fashion we did in midweek. Moyes is clearly not the man to do this.

The thing is, while I can see the argument that Moyes time is up and we could do with a change of scenery, what if we did get rid of him? Who would we replace him with that we could guarantee A - They'd actually come to join us (Lambert? Rodgers?) B - They would do a better job than Moyes? Would you leave a solid Swansea or Norwich on the up and playing good football, to join Everton, with debts, minimal transfer funds, an aging squad and an old stadium? The only managers who we could really guarantee would see us as a step up are the likes of Chris Hughton, Owen Coyle, Sam Allardyce, Roberto Martinez, or unemployed managers - Neil Warnock? Mick McCarthy? Andre Villas-Boas?? Would any of these managers do a better job than Moyes? You can't guarantee it. There's an element of risk that, in my opinion, we can't afford to be taking given our financial situation and the personnel at our disposal. Yes, maybe another manager would bring a fresh approach to the side and in the short term, could get more out of them with some different tactics, but come summer, how are they going to improve the squad and start finding long term replacements for Neville, Distin, Cahill? That is the long term picture that needs to be considered, and I think that as long as we're in this situation, Moyes and his bargain buys and safe tactics, is the man for the job. We are in mid-table, and the quarter finals of the cup, with an outside chance of making it into Europe next season, and I don't think we can expect much more than that, looking at our squad. So you can't say he's doing a bad job at the moment. Yes, he frustrates us with his negative tactics and his persistence with players like Neville, but honestly, I'd rather play shit football and finish mid table than play a fluid attacking game but get relegated. Who would you have been happier supporting last season? Stoke or Blackpool?

Worst possible draw. I don't want to think about how sick I'd feel losing to them at Wembley, for the third time this season. Almost hope we bottle it at the Stadium of Light :/

I actually think we played well. Sunderland have been in good form and we completely outplayed them. Admittedly, they were poor yesterday, but we didn't get anything off the officials. We could have had penalties, we hit the woodwork, Mignolet made some really good saves. Sunderland surprised me with how well trained they were in all the dirty tricks - diving, fouls off the ball, general thuggishness. Forgetting the derby and the expectation that generated for yesterday's game, I thought there were lots of positives to take and I still think we can beat them at their place, just as long as we keep Sessegnon quiet. Howard - did what he had to do, no chance for their goal, no spectacular saves. Neville - best game I've seen him have in ages. He wasn't excellent but he didn't stick out like a sore thumb with his hoof balls, although they weren't entirely absent from his performance either. He seemed to get forward and support Coleman quite well and got stuck in. Heitinga - quiet but solid game, as usual. A rock at the back, and was unlucky with that late chance, what a header it was too! I just love watching a player who shows so much emotion and passion on the pitch, without losing any composure. Distin - looked ten times the player he did in the derby. Obviously much more comfortable alongside Heitinga, and understandably so. I do feel though that, given his immense stature, he should provide a much greater threat from set pieces and he had a decent chance in the goalmouth first half where I thought he should have at least hit the target. Baines - a much more confident performance than we've seen most the season. Looks like he's coming into some good form. His set piece delivery was better, and his cross for our goal was as good as any. With Jelavic and Cahill (if he maintains his performance from today) to aim at in the middle now, I think we'll see him racking up the assists again. Fellaini - good performance, no major errors, some vital challenges won around the edge of our area, but like Distin, it frustrates me that he doesn't offer more aerial threat from free kicks and corners. I was happy that he had a bit more urgency about him today than he sometimes shows. That goes for the whole team though. Osman - had a quiet game, struggles to make an impact but I think he was targetted by some of their thug midfielders. He still showed his class though - excellent ball in for Heitinga for that late chance. Coleman - worked hard, got into some decent positions, but his end product was poor. There was one where he got a bit lucky beating two defenders and broke into the box but he snatched at it and it wasted an opportunity for us. Could do with building up some confidence and composure again. Drifted in and out of the game at times as well. Drenthe - apart from the free kick which hit the bar, very disappointing performance, he looked wound up for the whole match and it was summed up by his stupid argument with the linesman when the ball was still in play. He was unlucky though, and I can understand his frustration. The referee missed 3 fouls on him within the first 10/15 minutes of the match. I still think we need to be starting him as often as possible though because he offers something different. Cahill - best performance I've seen from him in a while. Took his goal well and got into some really threatening positions. Hit one straight at the keeper which he could have done better with I think, and he dropped into midfield late on, think he was struggling to see out the 90. However, he and Jelavic worked well together today. Jelavic - taking into account it's his second start, he's probably not match fit, he got fouled off the ball and kicked in the head several times, he won't have settled into the team fully, and he won't be fully used to the English game yet, I think he played well. He got himself into some good positions and seems to have a real striker's instinct. Worked hard and showed good touches, but I think he could still be trying a bit too hard to make himself a hero. When he followed up Mignolet's save from Heitinga, Fellaini was in a great position just beside him and with a bit more composure he might have decided to pull it back and it could have won us the game. So far, so good though. Gueye - looked alright, put a couple of decent balls into the box, and put a couple towards the corner flag, but he had a go, fair play to him. Stracqualursi - Didn't really have time to impact the game. Nice beard though: http://badatsports.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/300-sparta.jpg

Denies it on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/JoelMogan_EFC/status/180791130126958592

Anichebe gets a lot of stick, some of it justified but I really don't think we can scoff at a player who's earned us 4 points off the bench since the turn of the year. He shouldn't be starting games, and he sure as fuck shouldn't be starting games on the left wing, but he has a role to play for us I think. He could be our very own (but hopefully a bit better) Shola Ameobi.

Heitinga has 3 yellows in the league (maybe 4), I know that, but I doubt he's accumulated 5/6 further bookings in cup games, have we even played that many? I'm just going to continue to pray that Johnny's name is on that teamsheet on Saturday morning. If its not, then I have no idea which Heitinga it is that Moyes has been watching for the past few months.

Moyes has his shortcomings, we knew that before tonight. The team selection was bizarre, and he didn't seem to give a shit after the match, he might have picked unfit players, (although to be honest I don't see how fit they have to be to jog a few yards in each direction for a while before passing to a Liverpool player), he played Anichebe and Pienaar out of position, and he obviously didn't scare the shit out of them at half time for the shocking first half, which he should have done, he has to take a large share of the responsibilty. BUT, look at the respective line ups, compare, and tell me that in losing 3-0, our players haven't contributed with a shocking display that's let themselves, Moyes, and all of us down: Reina v Howard Kelly v Hibbert Enrique v Baines Carragher v Jagielka Skrtel v Distin Gerrard v Fellaini Spearing v Rodwell Downing v Pienaar Henderson v Coleman Carroll v Anichebe Suarez v Stracqualursi Apart from a few stand out players, the team we put out there, if they showed the desire that they should have shown, should easily have still been in the game by the 60th minute, for our actually threatening players to come on and try and swing it for us. This was clearly Moyes' strategy but the toothless performance from the players he picked isn't actually his fault. It isn't his fault that Pienaar missed a glorious chance to score, Pienaar and Fellaini both missed opportunities to create real chances in the first half, and our whole midfield couldn't pick a pass for shit. I'm not trying to absolve Moyes of the blame, I'm incredibly fucked off at him, but both he AND the players let us down in equal measure tonight.

No, 10 bookings is the rule now. 10 bookings in Domestic competition = 2 game Domestic ban.

It sickens me to think that the market value of Jags and Rodwell came to about £30 million or more a season or two ago. £30 million pounds or those two? Hmmmmm....

Moyes has to take some of the blame for playing Anichebe on the wing and Pienaar in the hole. Anichebe is not a winger and his failure to track Kelly contributed to the first goal and another chance after that too.

Well that was clearly a two pronged attack by Moyes 1) Make sure Dalglish keeps his job, guaranteeing us an extra league position by the end of the season. 2) Trick Sunderland into thinking we're very very shit, when we're only very shit, giving us a better chance on Saturday.

Voted for Baines, only one who looked like he gave a flying fuck.

When I saw Anichebe on the team sheet, I thought we must be playing 4-4-2. I forgot the Moyes is an absolute prick that seems to think Anichebe is a winger though, and it contributed to that goal. Suarez has got Jagielka in his back pocket, as I suspected he would. Why the fuck, when you're playing Pienaar and Anichebe, would you play Pienaar central and Vic on the wing? It defies logic. As soon as Pienaar got shifted out wide he put a stop to another run forward from Kelly and linked up with Baines to set up our best chance of the half. But this is what happens when you drop your captain, star centre back, first choice striker, your two most creative midfielders, and your top derby goalscorer since Dixie Dean, when you go to Anfield. We better fucking had beat Sunderland on Saturday if we have to put up with another 45 minutes of that shit.

We're half asleep, pathetic. Fucking Downing and Henderson look more fired up than our lot.

He certainly gave away the penalty, but I still think Suarez won't get a look in for most of this match. His service consists of Henderson, Downing, Spearing and Gerrard, who probably isn't match fit.

I'm not worried about the players on the pitch, I think they'll do a good job. The only thing I'm really worried about is Jagielka for Johnny.

That line up stinks of "let's keep a clean sheet for 70 minutes and then try and win it in the last ten" Would have much preferred to go at them from the off, but I suppose that was never going to happen. Still, Moyes has made crazy-looking decisions in the past, it might pay off again. We all slated him when Hibbert replaced Duffy at CB against City but he was one of our best players. Let's slam the shite anyway, COYB

Aside from insanity, that is the only explanation surely. But why rest players in a derby? I'm perplexed.

4-4-2 with no Osman, Drenthe, Heitinga or Jelavic, and he's actually dropped Neville and Cahill What is this? Sounds like Davey's been cracking open the champagne early for tomorrow....

LiverpooI Team vs Everton – Reina, Kelly, Carragher, Skrtel, Enrique, Gerrard, Downing, Spearing, Henderson, Carroll, Suarez Apparently, but I don't know why their team sheets out so early. More than half of those players are shite and Gerrard won't be match fit so I'm not worried