Bailey Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Well I was expecting a good performance after reading some of the views on here and Im afraid I didnt see it. Yes there were some nice passages of play but the crux of the matter is they wanted it more, they had the better chances and they played like a team. Jagielka clearly wasnt fit and him and Distin were really shakey at times. Both of them were at fault for not picking up Jones for the first and then Distin losing his header to Jones (one of many) and Jags not seemingly being interested to challenge the ball in the air accounted for the second. Neville seemed to be happy to dive into challenges of which Im not sure he won one (also at fault for the first!) and Saha was anonymous (although Daveys aftermatch unprompted quote suggests he thinks Saha had a really good game, but hey I guess he sees him in training everyday and knows best...) The midfield were all over the place. Now Arteta is back Felli seems to have taken more of the Heitinga role in being more attacking with Arteta sitting deeper. Sometimes they switched but most of the time they switched off neither really looking like they knew exactly what they should be doing. When Felli was moved deeper he looked great, the further forward he got the worse he looked. Pienaar at times was cutting in so much we basically had Baines as our left full back and winger. At times it was easy for Stoke to pick passes through as there were channels of space left in between these four, especially seeing as we didnt really press them that much either. I thought Coleman did alright again, just a shame he doesnt get much support from the rest of them, although he could have also closed down the cross for their first better. Cahill tried but no end product and gave the ball away several times, and as previously mentioned Saha was anonymous. The subs didnt have much impact either, it just meant we got even narrower and made it easier for Stoke to defend against. They sat deep and tucked in and we still tried lumping it through the middle. They had more opportunities in the last 10 than we did which says it all. Osman to be fair to him tried to get us moving and did more than Arteta did in the whole game/season, Vic barely got a touch as did Becks. Its begining to get depressing now. Yes there were some really nice passages of play BUT they didnt really end up in chances. Jags looked uncomfortable out there tonight and hoping we dont get news that he will be out for longer because of struggling through this game. With Yakubu not even on the bench it looks for deffo that he's a goner but who we will get in to replace him for the money he is likely to bring in is anybodies guess? Not that it will matter... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Its with great reluctance but I have to agree with all of this. Some say it's nonsense to have a go at Moyes, its the players to blame just like the passengers on the Titanic, iceberg what iceberg. We have thrown points away this season like confetti at a wedding. Yippee we play nice football but it is totally predictable and has now become virtually ineffective. Since when did possession win a match, you can pass the ball round all day but with no cutting edge it becomes a total fucking waste of time, your possession stats will look good but they will also hide the truth. If the manager keeps repeating the same mistake how the bloody hell can that be right.............his major mistake being bloody Saha but he still won't listen Unfortunately I agree too... It will be interesting to see what concoction Moyes comes up with now Cahill is off? I swear Im gunna flip if he just chucks Felli forward! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inertia8 Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Glad I went to bed instead of staying up.. watched a replay of the match this morning, it was very tempting to just lookup the score and do some housework instead... I only saw 10mins of the first half and the whole second half, quite depressing especially the last 20mins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gzcon Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 I agree with everyone who says we have to start experimenting. Give the kids a go! Being in Australia I have to sit up pretty damn late to watch the games and it's getting a bit depressing watching the same thing week in week out. Saha in particular has to go. For the 80 mins he was on he did nothing (I really wanted to see Yakubu start but it's pretty obvious he's on his way out). We're too predictable now, we're played the same formation for how many years? We also gotta give the right hand side of the pitch a go. Coleman looks great on the ball and is willing to take players on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c1982 Posted January 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 what club exactly were yakubu and felliani in on the eve of a match? Newzbar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c1982 Posted January 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Moyes/Pullis - it was a pen The league table doesn't lie - but how f*@cking unlucky have we been on so many occassions?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Moyes/Pullis - it was a pen The league table doesn't lie - but how f*@cking unlucky have we been on so many occassions?! Well Stoke had a disallowed goal last time we played them so they could say the same. Dont buy the luck thing Im afraid, every team has bad decisions go against them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romey 1878 Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 (edited) We're in big trouble and if Moyes doesn't do something relegation is going to be a very strong possiblity. The sides around us all look capable of picking up points and we really do not look that way. We can't score but we always look like conceding. We've got problems all over the pitch, we can't just patch up one thing and we're sorted, we need major fucking surgery to fix this shit - we've got a CB pairing who don't look comfortable together (and never have IMO). A midfield that is unbalanced, devoid of any creativity, scared to put a challenge in, is far too narrow, leaves bucketloads of space behind them. A frontline that is being led by Saha for some baffling reason, and he looks massively disinterested, is hardly ever actually up with the play when we do manage to look a threat (how many chances has he actually had this season, not many I'd guess, and I can't remember anything of note yesterday). All of this is without looking at problems such as Moyes' stubborness and reluctance to change things on the pitch (fuck being proactive, I'd like him to at least be reactive again!), the fact that our build up is painfully slow, we've got fuck loads of players out of form... The list could go on and on. This ship has so many holes in it I'm surprised it hasn't sunk already! Fuck me, yesterday was horrible to watch and I thought we were awful, we did not play well like Moyes said. Yes, in the first half we had lots of the ball and passed it around nicely, but we looked so fucking unthreatening it was unbelievable. Having lots of the ball is not the same as playing well. Playing well is when you tear the opposition a new arse hole and make them scared every time you look to attack, but Stoke, for the most part looked incredibly comfortable. As for the second half, I'd like to erase that from my memory altogether. Our midfield was a fucking shambles and that's where most of our problems lay IMO. They couldn't pass for shit, they were so unorganised like they didn't know who was playing where, and they gave the ball away countless times. Stoke walked right through the heart of us in that second half and we did nothing about it. New year, same old shit from Everton and Moyes. Happy fucking New Year everyone. Howard - I thought he looked very nervous and didn't have the best of games. Baines - I felt so sorry for him. It's not the LB's job to push the entire side forward FFS, but that's what he was having to do, and he did it well tbh. He made forward run after forward run. He was like a Duracell battery. Great performance by him. Distin - He had his hairy moments but he still managed to have a good game and didn't let his couple of mistakes affect the rest of his game (like Jags did) and came out of the game having looked mostly solid. My MOTM. Jagielka - Fully fit or not that was a terrible 90 minutes for Jags. He looked like a little lost lamb and make mistake after mistake. Neville - I thought someone of his experience was supposed to have composure and is up for the tough games? I didn't see either of those things yesterday. He just lumped the ball up to where he hoped an Everton player would be. Pienaar - Tried to make things happen but his final ball was shite every single time. It's just not good enough. Arteta - What is wrong with him? He looks 2 yards off the pace; slow to react to anything whether it be a ball coming his way or to chase an opposition player. He gave the ball away so many times as well, I was losing my rag with him and was actually hoping we'd stop giving the ball to him! And why, oh fucking why, was he playing deeper than Fellaini?! Fellaini is a quality DM and protects the defence well but Arteta is shite at it, and that's why our midfield is unbalanced and doesn't provide the defence with any sort of protection. ARGH! Fellaini - I didn't think he had the best of games tbh. He gave the ball away a few too many times and this more advanced role doesn't suit him one bit because he's not creative in the slightest. Coleman - He gets the same sort of comments as Baines. He drove forward as much as he possibly could and I thought he helped out well defensively too. Cahill - Tried hard but he was pretty ineffective up against Stoke's size tbh. Saha - Total waste of space. That is all. Edited January 2, 2011 by Romey 1878 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Brilliant Mark, i agree with every word. "Jagielka - Fully fit or not that was a terrible 90 minutes for Jags. He looked like a little lost lamb and make mistake after mistake". Hibbert wouldnt have been that bad. The whole squad is devoid of confidence and that must be down to the Manager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Beard Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 Beginning to sound like a broken record. Awful, shambles, lacking in skill, creativity and pace yet Moyes seems to think we played well. Maybe that was why he gave the crowd a right old glare at the end as they voiced their disapproval. We have the players there but it is just not happening with the system he wants to play, maybe after so many years playing likewise others have cottoned on to our style and can now nullify our threat. We all knew Cahill was going to the Asian Cup so I think he should have tinkered the system a few games back, possibly the Wigan game to see if we have anything else to offer and give some like Beckford, yakubu a run out to get some match time and build up confidence because if Moyes decides to change it all around against Spurs, lets hope they have an off day or I really fear a hiding against a fast paced counter attacking team. Not the best start to the New Year but here's hoping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Jags looked uncomfortable out there tonight and hoping we dont get news that he will be out for longer because of struggling through this game. Bloody knew that would be the case. Why play someone who was clearly struggling and risk him getting injured further, especially when he wasnt even fit enough to put in a good performance. I would much rather have had someone else step in against Stoke than against Spurs. I hope Heitinga is fit because I dont want Hibbert starting at CB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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