Stoke (home)

[Mogsy]

Totally and utterly disgusting performance, and I think Moyes is solely to blame. One up front at home, against a side who have played mid week is a disgrace!

[flaminfox]

We need a true attacking player in the midfield that can create something, all we did was get balls to the outside and cross into the box versus the tallest team in the league.

[SimonButtle]

We need a true attacking player in the midfield that can create something, all we did was get balls to the outside and cross into the box versus the tallest team in the league.

This!!

 

we all go on about needing a goalscorer, but what is the point when we don't create chances for the strikers we have already. we need to start improvements in midfield first imo.

[Bailey]

Such a dissapointing game. We started off so brightly, controlled the ball, got the ball forward with some urgency and put them under pressure. After that first 20 minutes though, they looked increasingly comfortable and I dont even remember their keeper making a save or even a decent shot?! We got slower, had less movement and ran out of ideas.

 

Why on earth we persisted with the long diagonal balls, the aerial crosses and floated balls forward is beyond me. Every man and his dog knew from the start it would be difficult to beat them in the air and even after we had a real good go early on, it was obvious that they could deal with it. The amount of times Osman & Cahill received the ball and knocked it outwide instead of exploring opportunites inside was baffling. The substitions played into their hands if anything as well. I really thought we had the beating of them today and we should have, but we persisted to whipping balls in, with little movement and the pace of play slowed. Not for the first time we were too predictable.

 

Motm for me was Heitinga. Probably the best CB performance of the season for me and both him and Jags looked in control.

Edited December 4, 2011 by Bailey

[Bailey]

This!!

 

we all go on about needing a goalscorer, but what is the point when we don't create chances for the strikers we have already. we need to start improvements in midfield first imo.

 

I would agree, although I think if we had a line-up that included the likes of Barkley, Drenthe & Gueye we would get that. I dont mean to say they all should play in our next game, but the likes of Coleman, Cahill and Osman (to an extent) are predictable and static. It was always going to be a tough game today and it required patience and a bit of quality. We should have been trying to work triangles against their fullbacks to try and get some space and not whip balls in constantly.

 

I feel a bit sorry for Vellios today, as both starts he has been up against big strong defences. Having said that, there were times when I expected him to do better on the ball and he disapointed. I didnt think his movement was that great either if I am honest, which is strange as when he comes on as a sub he makes some nice runs.

[Mogsy]

 

I feel a bit sorry for Vellios today, as both starts he has been up against big strong defences. Having said that, there were times when I expected him to do better on the ball and he disapointed. I didnt think his movement was that great either if I am honest, which is strange as when he comes on as a sub he makes some nice runs.

 

Maybe he just needs a couple of starts to get up to full prem speed.

[SimonButtle]

Maybe he just needs a couple of starts to get up to full prem speed.

a bit of decent service might help him as well.

[Bill]

Arrogant refereeing. Gave nothing. Horrible prick.

 

We really have nothing in attack. The window can't come soon enough.

 

Yakubu and Beckford would have been better than what we have at the moment.

Edited December 4, 2011 by Bill

[Mogsy]

a bit of decent service might help him as well.

 

True, and some fresh tactics might help

[Mogsy]

“We huffed and puffed a little bit,” said Moyes. “Their keeper’s not had a save to make. What wins games is goals; they got the goal and we didn’t.

 

Is it me or does he not take responsibility for his selections!

[chicagoblue]

From BBC Match Report:

The home side's attack was particularly disappointing and bereft of ideas with Stoke never needing to make more than scrambled clearances or well-time blocks.

 

 

Everton were impotent in the middle and up front, with midfielder Tim Cahill, the reliable provider of goals in previous seasons, unable to penetrate the backline with his surging runs, while Russian Bilyaletdinov was substituted in the second half after another ineffective display.

 

--

 

About sums it up for me.

Edited December 4, 2011 by chicagoblue

[dark]

Fuck me that was bad!

 

Referee was pretty awful today, every single time that we whipped a ball into to the box there would be arms all over Felli which would be ignored and some of his corner/throw in/offsides decisions where beyond a joke.

 

What pisses me off about Everton these days is though how whenever we go forward we always play it wide rather than going through the centre, I've not seen a chance this season where we have had our striker one-on-one with the keeper its always a cross from the side which does nothing at all. We never looked like scoring today and at home that's just not good enough in my book.

 

Moyes again needs to take some of the wrap for today. Negative football and I can't see why when we are 1-0 down he decides to take Vellios off. When we need goals we should be leaving our strikers on the pitch, the fact that Cahill didn't get taken off is beyond a joke (probably the worst player on the pitch - did nothing)

 

Once again coming home from Goodison dissapointed.

 

Oh and regarding the boo's at Sorenson I did think it was quite harsh. The crowd were wound up about the officials but Cahill did seem to give him a whack and it looked like the guy was pretty bashed. I myself didn't boo nor did the people around me, it seemed a bit cruel to boo someone that had such a bad injury.

[Bailey]

True, and some fresh tactics might help

 

I think its about time we bite the bullet and drop Cahill and either go with 2 out and out strikers up front or with some creativity behind the striker. At the moment Cahill isnt providing any creativity or a killer instinct infront of goal and if that is the case then why have him on the pitch. If Saha isnt fit, then get Straq up front with Vellios. Straq might not be a world beater (although its hard to tell what he is at the moment) but he is a striker who's stats suggest he can put the ball in the back of the net, which means he must either be creating goals for himself, or he gets into positions to put the ball in the net.

 

If we want to stick with 5 in midfield then bring something new into the team. I dont expect this player to come in and he our saviour, but helping create one or two chances here and there would be an improvement. Personally I would go for Barkley and let him drift ahead of Felli & Rodwell, but Gueye did quite well in this role last season and it would be a surprise if Bily or Drenthe could play in that position. We need another creative outlet in the team, as having only one isnt good enough.

[Romey 1878]

Other than the first 10/15 minutes we were absolutely shite.

 

Our midfield is embarrassing to watch this season, it really is. They are so slow and totally bereft of any creativity, it's painful watching them when we're on an "attack". They play sideways, backwards, sideways... fuck it, we've got nothing else so let's pass the buck onto Baines so he can put the cross in. Often they'd look to pass sideways or backwards when they had no opposition players around them! Predictable in the extreme. We needed pace and a bit of trickery so Gueye was a good substitution to make, but not with only 10 minutes to go. What is the lad going to do then when Stoke are shutting the game down at that point denying him the space he needs? We needed something else upfront so getting Denis on was a good substitution (not because he's good, but because he was the only other striker tbh). But we needed him up there with Vellios I felt (even though Vellios wasn't playing all that well). Cahill needed the hook because he may as well have not even been playing for all the use he was. We needed some creativity in the middle of the park so Barkley should have come on IMO. Yes he's young but, fuck me, he tries things and we desperately needed some sort of spark. Anything.

 

How Cahill and Osman managed to complete the 90 minutes is absolutely baffling. Particularly Cahill.

 

 

 

Howard - Looked shaky as hell at set-pieces.

 

 

Hibbert - He was OK I think, can't remember him doing anything majorly wrong and didn't do much in attack because we tended to ignore the right side for large periods.

 

 

Jagielka - In the first half he was very bad. At one point he charged out of his defensive position to win a header and completely misjudged the bounce of the ball and it went over him and the Stoke player was in. Thankfully, he settled down and looked solid in the second half.

 

 

Heitinga - When you have Jagielka and Hibbert in your defence Heitinga is an absolute god send for his calmness and willingness to play the ball on the ground. He also mopped up a couple of Jags' mishaps and dealt with the physicality of Stoke even though he's not a big CB. My MOTM.

 

 

Baines - Was a bit meh tbh. His set-pieces were pretty shite, Arteta-esque you might say i.e. hitting the first man. I don't think his crossing from open play was any great shakes either. But, at least he was getting into the positions to get crosses in there.

 

 

Coleman - Not as good as he's been the past two games but not as bad as he'd been before then. So an average showing from Coleman.

 

 

Fellaini - He had a good game, one of very few players that did. Mopped up infront of the defence and then passed the ball on, just like he's supposed to do.

 

 

Osman - I've seen people saying he played well today but I thought he was absolutely shocking and should have been substituted. He is in the midfield to be the create but he just passed it on for someone else to do instead. His passing was sloppy and he dallied on the ball too many times. We need him to pull the strings and get us going but the strings were hanging limply in his hands for all the control he had on our play.

 

 

Bily - In that first 10/15 minutes when we actually played well I thought he was one of our best players tbh. He looked more confident and he put in a couple of cracking crosses. But after that he was one of the shittest players out there.

 

 

Cahill - It's actually sad watching Cahill play for us these days. He really doesn't offer much at all now. He barely wins a header anymore so I wish we'd stop launching the ball up to him. He's even slower so when he has the ball at his feet and runs with it he inevitably loses it. He needs to be a player that's coming off the bench when defenders are tired and getting sloppy now. I hope Moyes realises this before he completely tarnishes Cahill's reputation in the eyes of some Evertonians. What I mean is, he should be remembered as a great Evertonian who did a lot of good for us, rather than be remembered for the performances he's putting in now which are well below what he epitomises.

 

 

Vellios - Had shite service tbh, but didn't make the best of what he was given either.

[c1982]

For too many seasons now teams like Stoke have come, parked the bus and left with points as a result of us not breaking them down. We need an injection of attacking flair out wide, in the middle and up top so basically we need at least £20m investing in our squad (for starters).

[Avinalaff]

[adziom]

Hi, new poster here, long time frustrated Evertonian...

 

I had to come somewhere to vent my frustration with today's performance. While I was quite appalled at several of Mason's decisions today, none more than the headlock on Vellios, and a piggy back ride that, judging by Felli's reaction, was not offered to Ryan Shawcross, it was even more depressing to watch our boys perform so poorly in a game I thought had the potential to be a morale-boosting victory, by a couple of goals. A few of the key points for me:

 

Tactics: Why are we lining up 4-4-1-1 at Home to a non-top 6 side? And why did we maintain practically the same formation until the last few minutes? Why was our tactic to play the ball around in search of a crossing opportunity, or play diagonal 60 yard balls, against a defence containing Woodgate, Huth, Shawcross and later Upson? Why, having failed miserably to achieve anything this way for the first 45 minutes, did we persevere with the same tactics in the second half? Get it sorted please Moyes.

 

Selection: What honestly was the point in bringing in Stracqualursi, if he can't be trusted to play more than 15-20 minutes when we are chasing the game at Goodison? Also, when Cahill, Osman, Coleman and Bilyaletdinov are clearly lacking in form, why don't we give other players a chance? Gueye and Barley in particular deserve a chance to show what they can do for more than 5 minutes plus stoppages. Honestly, I wouldn't change the back 4 we've played this season, nor Felli or Rodwell, but the front 5 have not delivered and wouldn't be playing 70 minutes week in, week out for another team performing like this. We know Cahill, Coleman and Osman can do more, so I believe Moyes could do with dropping them for a couple of games to show them that their places in the starting line up are not guaranteed regardless of their performances. Perhaps then we will see our "attacking" players take some responsibility and create something instead of passing on the responsibility to each other until they either lose the ball or fashion a crossing opportunity for the full backs instead. That's what has been so exciting about Drenthe when he's played this year!

 

Take a shot! For goodness sake, neither Sorensen nor Begovic had a save to make in the whole game, they must be going home laughing. It shouldn't be our left back who is the only one willing to adventure forward and try and attack the heart of the opposition defence. Yes, Stoke's defenders did well to get blocks in on many occasions today, but we're playing too much like Arsenal when we simply don't have the quality to do so.

 

Heitinga: I haven't been the biggest fan of Johnny since he joined the club but I thought he was our best player today and I see many of you agree. Let's hope he can deliver like this more often.

 

Boos aimed at Sorensen: While I can understand the frustration at the officials and the scoreline, and while I understand I had the benefit of TV replays and those in the stands didn't, I was disappointed to hear our fans booing Sorensen. Especially when the stretchers came out. Come on guys...

 

Rant over, I think. Not particularly looking forward to next weekend's game after today's performance!

[MikeO]

Nicely put literate rant adziom. Hope you stick around and rant some more!

[Bailey]

boys ive missed the game today because of working away so ive only just seen the team selected so moyes is at fault he could have picked a better side than the one today,regardless of how the defence played today distin would play for me for his height against stoke also rodwell does moyes think osman is better than rodwell,we needed strength in midfield osman does not give us this.

so you were happy with todays team selection then yeah.

 

We didnt lose this game because we were 'outstrengthed' by Stoke. We lost because of sloppy marking at a set play and awful attacking intent. Rodwell could have potentially helped with the latter but bringing Distin in wouldnt have made any difference. We were unlucky not to keep a clean sheet today really as Heitinga was superb and bar a couple of misjudgements Jagielka wasnt far behind him.

 

We lost this game because of our inability to break a team down, especially when they could clear crosses all day long. More creativity would have helped, and Cahill wouldnt have been on my team sheet but blaming Moyes for not playing Distin or Rodwell seems a little bit ridiculous, especially when you havent even seen the game!

[Avinalaff]

so you were happy with todays team selection then yeah.

 

It was more the automatic knocking of Moyes Patto. You didn't see the game as you stated, but if you had, we actually played very well first half and it was a travesty to be behind. 2nd half we ran out of ideas, and we're unable to break them down, but we were by far the better team all game. Rodders and Distin have been injured, so no surprise they didn't start. Not sure with Saha, but Vellios was given a go. Few other players out, so not sure what better team he could have played. One thing you won't see tonight was how determined the ref was to award us very little, and that isn't bitter, but born out of frustration at the officials today.

[c1982]

To be fair Moyes had little options today but with todays poor performance in mind I'd love to see this line-up vs Arse (injuries permitting obviously)...

 

...................Howard...................

Coleman..Jags...Heitinga..Baines

Drenthe...Rodwell..Felli...Gueye

................Saha......Velios............

 

No chance of it happening but I'd love us to approach the Arse game with a nothing to lose attitude with 'winnable' games vs Norwich and Swansea fast approaching. Moyes could say, "Have a good game vs Arsenal and there's a place in the team over the Christmas fixtures available!" If nothing else it will show how desperate our squad is in need of strengthening!

Edited December 4, 2011 by c1982

[pete0]

Easily 2 pens that. Law of averages my arse in this league. Refs have probs lost us 5 points more than any other team.

[Avinalaff]

[Avinalaff]

We're up against Arteta next week. Psychologically it will be difficult, though traditionally they normally give us a good seeing to, and I'm expecting a very heavy defeat next week of at least 3 or 4-0.

[Lowensda]

It bloody freezin last night and I had to sit in the Gwladys Street (for the first time in years) and genuinely, I wish i was at home. Was an utter piece of shit....the whole game.

 

Moyes HAS to take alot of responsibility for the way we've played. How, and seriously i mean HOW the hell Cahill still starts is a joke. He offers nothing. And for 90 minutes, he offered....nothing! Even the opposition have stopped marking him, they aren't as tight on him anymore, so to me he may as well be at home too. Utter shite. If Cahill is our 2nd 'striker' and he hasn't scored for 12 months, drop him, people have never had that sort of faith in Emile Hesky FFS.

 

Gueye did more than Tim in the short time he was on the pitch. And bless Vellios, no service, no help, was asked to lead the line with a huge 'void' left between him and the midfield.

 

Also was it just me who thought that we didn't chase down that well today? We seemed not bothered, or commited. Heits being the only player who showed it, and Straq when he came on?

 

I was livid last night. What a waste of f*cking time and money. What a horrible tribute to G Speed (the performance)

[BoroBlue]

I really don't understand all the calls for us to play 2 upfront. We have no strikers of the required quality at the moment so why do people feel picking 2 of them is going to help anything?

 

Most the top teams play with one striker these days the difference is they have players around them who can create and play off the striker. I think our problem is our midfield 5 is completely flat, all players are expected to be involved in both defensive and attacking phases of play and it just doesn't work. We are so easy to defend against because we are so flat, teams can afford just to soak up the pressure and hit us on the break, yesterday we had 70% possesion and still were unable to create anything.

 

It seems to me players are unwilling to move into space and play in the hole as this would mean leaving an opposition player unmarked, it is such a negative way to play and is why we always end up playing hoofball, because there is no-one linking midfield/defence and attack.

 

If we play with a back 4 with Baines and Coleman at fullback and Rodwell and Felliani playing as defensive central midfielders this gives us a solid back 6 capable of controlling the game at the back as well as joining attack when appropriate. One up front with the ability to hold the ball and bring others into play, I like Vellios for this as I feel he has all the attributes and ability needed and is only going to get better.

 

That gives us 3 players who can afford to play with abit of freedom to create chances, and play in the hole between the oppositions defence and midfield. I am not saying these players should have no defensive responsibilities at all, but not when we have the ball. What really impresses me about Barcelona aside from there obvious technical abilities is what they do when they don't have the ball, they defend from the from the front and don't give the opposition a moments peace. How many times do you see there attacking players in and around there own box, but that doesn't mean they don't contribute defensively.

[Lowensda]

It seems to me players are unwilling to move into space and play in the hole as this would mean leaving an opposition player unmarked, it is such a negative way to play and is why we always end up playing hoofball, because there is no-one linking midfield/defence and attack.

 

Exactly, this infuriates me.

[Hafnia]

At least a few of you are starting to hold Moyes more accountable - it's not me looking for things to moan at, they have been there for quite some time. For those of you who are trying to defend him- give up! It's quite frightening the loyalty that is afforded to those at the club for historic achievements - it's not a charity, nor should we be content with what we are watching based on budget etc.

 

The man stands up for kenwright then uses the lack of funds as an excuse - can't have it both ways.

 

Cahill is in danger of becoming chastised by the fans who used to hero worship him because of Moyes insistence on playing him. I said a good while ago that his powers need to be at 100% to be effective as he lacks technique and skill - Moyes clearly doesn't see that.

[Bill]

At least a few of you are starting to hold Moyes more accountable - it's not me looking for things to moan at, they have been there for quite some time. For those of you who are trying to defend him- give up! It's quite frightening the loyalty that is afforded to those at the club for historic achievements - it's not a charity, nor should we be content with what we are watching based on budget etc.

 

The man stands up for kenwright then uses the lack of funds as an excuse - can't have it both ways.

 

Cahill is in danger of becoming chastised by the fans who used to hero worship him because of Moyes insistence on playing him. I said a good while ago that his powers need to be at 100% to be effective as he lacks technique and skill - Moyes clearly doesn't see that.

 

He's always been accountable but lets face it, he hasn't done bad for the 8/9 years he's been here.

 

We could go gung ho like Keegan did at Newcastle, scored lots of goals but had lots scored against them, its only now they are recovering after a spell in the Championship.

 

Lets all calm down and see where we finish at the end of the season, Get behind the manager and hope we can get some one to invest in the Club.

Edited December 5, 2011 by Bill

[SimonButtle]

He's always been accountable but lets face it, he hasn't done bad for the 8/9 years he's been here.

 

We could go gung ho like Keegan did at Newcastle, scored lots of goals but had lots scored against them, its only now they are recovering after a spell in the Championship.

 

Lets all calm down and see where we finish at the end of the season, Get behind the manager and hope we can get some one to invest in the Club.

yeah, but he does'nt look interested this season Bill, maybe its because Arteta got sold from under him, and the lack of money during the summer, who knows, but if he really is as disinterested as he looks, then he needs to fuck off now, we have enough off field issues without team based ones as well.