Shukes

Although the stats say that. they dont show how many goals have been saved after his mistakes or bad judgment. Anyone watching can see that there is a world of difference between Jags and heits at the moment and if moyes dropped Jags for him, then he should be sacked. I dont think there is a manager in the world that would pick heits above jags for form at the moment.

Although he seems to be highly rated i dont think it's a big miss for us. we have players copming through in that same position and i think having Holtby would have just persuaded Barkley to move on or at least hampered his development.

On the other hand i love this about him. he does seem to love the club doesnt he. Ok how do we get him back to the form he had last season? an extended run? confidence boost? i bet moyes is scratching his head on this one.

We go on about him being the best ball playing defender we have, but all i see are long diagonal balls. i dont see this ball playing. and this season those diagional balls are not getting anywhere near the target. In fact watch the match against newcastle and you will find our young under-achiever Anichebe had a stormer when he came on and spent most of the match using his physical strenght to salvage bad ball after bad ball. You can always tell a good long ball. it hits the open space in front of your taget to run onto and collect, or it hits the yard space around your target. Anichebe had ro run backwards or sidewards 5 yards to retrieve each ball. Jags on the other hand is making a great effort this season to find the feet of a midfield player. and that is the reason i think Heits is struggling. we are not playing his style of football this season. He has good positioning skills, but these are sometimes let down by bad decision making.

He looks a good player, but from what i have saw so far he looks like a replacment for Rodwell? Is this really the type of player that we need right now? Where would this put Barkley? I know they are different players but i think Gibbo has nailed his place for the next few years and we also have another young midfielder coming through at the min along with Barkley ( names out my head at min ). Just not sure what this guy can offer us. what i have saw so far, and admittedly it's not much he looks like that young swede we missed out on not so long ago. Does not look better than anything we already have. Has anyone got a link of clips of him?

As much as i hate the guy, you can't take Suarez out of the team as other than RVP he has been a one man team over there. Still hate the cheating f***ing twat though.

Carrick? I cant agree on that one. every time i watch that guy play he reminds me of beaty for Leeds.....looks good for 80% of the match, but the other 20% is total utter dogshite! Next time you watch him for England, count how many times he gives the ball away and look at where it is...i can tell you every time i do it the ball is always in his own half. This is the reason why Moyes is struggling to give our own Barkley much game time, and hes only 20. You cannot rate a player as top if he gives the ball away and puts your team in danger. Sorry about rant but Carrick always reminds me of Fergies big mistake that he is too embarassed and stuborn to admit. But back on the the Everton choices. Baines has been without doubt one of the most consistent performers over the twelve months in the prem. Jags is becoming mister reliable again. Felly, whats there to say that has not already been said. Bargain at 15m.

Elstone did say in that interview that they did have funds available because of the failure in bringing the other belgian guy in. I know that it was origonally on loan, but it was with a view to a permanent move for 6m wasnt it? Then if we could sell Heits for 7m ( will shock the shit out of me if someone pays that ) then who knows. Damn i actually feel a bit of Optimism after the last transer window haha! Knowing Everton that will be knocked out of me shortly

this is just the type of match that we need at the moment. It could be either the reality check or a massive confidence boost. Either way it will be a good thing. I would also like to see more commitment from our team. Defence = needs to be more commited and make decisions, not just wait to see what happens. Midfield = needs to be more direct, shoot when you have space, stop trying to walk it in. Forwards = need to work to make your chances and not just complain when your not getting service. Come on guys we have the ability we just need to shine!

I dont disagree that Howard was at fault, he was, simply as. i also agree that he isnt commanding the box as he should. Goalkeepers should own that area. But i do disagree that Heitinger wasnt at fault for not only losing his marker but also not jumpin, which he seems averse to doing his share. As a defender myself i know the value in challenging for the sake of challenging when it comes to the " goal area ". I was always told that even if you are not going to win the ball, still jump as you could put them off, you could get lucky and get in the way of a goal bound effort and at the very least you can make it difficult for them. I have just watched so many goals go in this season because a defender judged not to make a challenge in the goal area and it frustrates me. As i have said before, my opinions about heitinga are born more through frustration than a dislike of him, as i think he could be a much better player than he already is. Last season he was player of the year and this season he just seems to have lost something for me. Desicion time...should i jump or not? no i wont.....damn it's a goal. i am not saying he could have stopped it, just that it's those desiciocs that cost goals.

Can anyone see my point about Heitinger not jumping now? It's those decisions that cost teams points. Not saying he is the only one making bad judgment calls at the min as Howard could have also claimed that ball. But for gods sake if that guy would just learn to challenge for balls then it would improve him by 25% as a player. Distin looks as though age is starting to catch up on him this year. Jags is starting to look his old self again, but he needs a solid partner and we dont seem to have anyone that can slot in with him. We need a top class centre back urgently. Does anyone think maybe Duffy could be ready yet? and do we have any others coming through that can maybe help out? I think goals will come back. Mirralis will be back and hopefully Barkley will get some minutes on the pitch too. And Baines telling Jela what for might be just what he needed. Last season he ran around like he wanted to prove himself, come on Jela half a season does not make you a success. Roll em up lad and get muddy!

I watched a few of them interviews as he is just the same as any other ambitious player. He has a goal and is trying to make sure he heads in that direction. He has also commented about his own inconsistency in those interviews and has spoken how the whole team needs to make the next step...including himself. If i am honest i think having characters that are ambitious can only be a good thing for the team as confidence breeds confidence. If he can get us in the champions league in what is becoming an increasingly difficult league, then even if he leaves in the summer he will go with a big thank you from myself.

Have to admit that while everyone has been watching Barkleys progress for Engalnd over the last 12 months this lad has been shinning. Anyone who has seen him perform for England, i am sure would agree that he looks like a man playing with a team of boys. I for one would be very suprised if this lad doesnt have a promising future ahead of him. Watching him on international level he seems a great prospect, has anyone saw much of him for our own set-up?

Ye strange one though. When he wasnt playing he gets picked, then just off the back of a months loan at the Owls which is the best run of first team games he has ever had, he misses out. Hopefully you are right and it could be due to match fitness. I am just hoping that his progress isnt slowing too much.

Very suprised that Barkley has not been called uu.p for England at any level this time round. Hes getting more first team experience and no call-up?

i watched Barkley play a lot for the young lions and one of the best comments i ever heard to describe him was " Thats a bit of a mishit pass from Barkely but luckily it went straight to his team mates feet" reply " trust me i have been watching Barkley for a few years and that was no mishit, he does things that others struggle to be on the same wavelengh" The guy is not ready for our first team yet butmis benefiting from playing for the Owls. he needs to up his pressence in games by either working harder, or making more of an impact when he has the ball. Skill wise he is an absolute world class "potential" Wants the ball all the time and is confident to recieve it. He is on a youth loan contract with Wednesday, so they can only loan him for a month at a time. They can however renew this each month. I am keeping a close eye on his progress at the Owls and he seems to be winning the fans over after a shaky start.

Not an easy game by any means but still one we should win at a stroll if we turn up. I think we have learnt our lesson from the WBA game. If we come out with the fast and crisp passing we have shown lately then there are not many teams that can handle us. There have been passages this season where we have outshone Barca for passing.....funny thing is, that is no exaggeration! some of the one touch, fast paced passing has tied teams in knots and there is no way to defend against that type of football. You just have to hope that a pass goes astray. Now if we play like that against Wigan, we will destroy them. I am going for a clean sheet and four goals...optimist i know haha! but i just have a good feeling about Saturday.

Another thing i noticed...Mirallas making a tackle at right back more than one occasion. This guy could turn out to be the signing of the season if he continues like this. Goes past players with ease. Has pace. Has a footballing brain. And he's got a rocket on him too.

Funny thing is that Heits and Jags have swapped places. Now Jags passes and Heitinga keeps trying those long diagonals that 90% of the time dont reach the target. I am still 50/50 about him. but i do agree that second half they improved together. Maybe they need more pressure to wake them up? They did come out and attack a bit more in the second half though and it was good to see us stand up and close them out. Which i think shows that along with our attacking play we are getting the maturity to defend when we need to. We just look so shaky when put under pressure. we could do with Jags getting his tackling boots back because Heits will never be good one on one.

Anichebe got my vote. At least he had a few efforts on goal. Heits and distin should be worried about thier place now after that. wasnt until tonight i realised how much we rely on baines....may be worth 15mil to many teams, but to us he is simply irreplacable.

well done to leeds they deserved to beat us. We were a pile of shite tonight though. even when our big players came on, we still looked a mess. Naismith was nothing like he seemed pre-season...in fact he didnt look good enough for the championship. Heits...well i know i dont rate him as much as jags, but after that performance even his biggest fans will struggle to disagree. tonight he was even worse than saturday. In fact the strange thing was that against a team like leeds where we needed to outfight them....the player that would seem the lightweight, Kev..was the one that at least battle back. though he was ineffective at his role. And that second goal? where we just asleep? All in all a pretty abysmal performance really.

Interesting to hear the commentators saying they were speaking with Everton staff. They said that he really lacks confidence and sometimes thinks he is not good enough for this league. This could be the making of him if it's true. all of this not celebrating and arrogance could have been misread and really the guy may just simply not realise what he is capable of? Watching him this weekend really put a smile on my face. He was not playing against mugs you know! he was playing against premier defenders and made them look like sunday league players. it was almost like the job Felli did on carrick! Anichebe, watch the video of that match kid and you will see what you are capable of.

I have seen a few bits of junior and would say he isnt ready for the prem just yet. He needs a few cameo's to get him up to speed. Seems very energetic and fleet footed, but he uses speed and skill to ghost past players and looks like he would struggle with the physical side at the moment. Now what i would say is that when seeing him i looked closely at the incidents where he didnt go past a player or when he went into tackles and he seemed one of those players that takes a shoulder and loses balance, but somehow seems to drag the ball with them! i couldnt make out if this was one of those lucky drags, or whether he is stronger than he looks. If it is his strenght then it bodes well for us. He reminds of Barkley a lot as he seems ready to take that next step, but just seems to be holding off or maybe even trying to hard to get it right.

No way Jags is a must over Heitinga any day. after today its just re-inforcing it, unless he ups his game second half.

Just needs to challenge for a header every now and again and he would add 20% to his game. on 36 mins when that corner came in he was lucky that Felli challenged or that was a goal. But have to say other than that we are laying excellent. again we could be four up easily. keep it up guys and well be back on track. Another shout for Anichebe though, he is looking a menace.