Sunderland (league home)

[Zoo]

One of the easiest games I've ever seen at Goodison Park. Sunderland did sweet fuck all to trouble us and whenever we went forward we looked like scoring, the amount of times we caught them in possession in the second half was laughable and I'm so happy to be an Everton supporter at this moment in time - credit to Moyes and the team that played today top stuff.

 

Nice to see Faddy playing too, he's a top man IMO.

[Dalziel Kane]

This is going a bit off topic for todays game but being quick, such links illustrate why magazine guides should be obselete by now, If anyone wants to check a program, look on line, instead of going into some unfriendly shop and paying money for it, these magazines will be a thing of the past eventually as people can get their desired information elsewhere, as will newspapers no doubt. It can only be a matter of time.

 

Ben Hur was on today incidentally, I've actually seen it before, and anyone who is able to sit through that from start to finish deserves a goddamn medal in my opinion. You honestly believe the finish will never arrive.

[Hafnia]

Vic's attitude still suspect....didn't celebrate his goal and walked straight off the pitch at the final whistle.

 

Obviously thinks he should be starting (he's said as much) but not the way to behave imo.

 

Totally agree, had a face on before he trod on pitch - absolute prick. Wish I was getting paid the daft money he was getting for half arsed performances with the odd goal. Sell him, his attitude stinks.

[Steve_E]

I do think he's right about deserving more game time. He's now got 5 goals in 11 league appearances (mostly sub appearances on the wing), yet someone who's only here on loan and who's got 1 goal in 17 league appearances starts ahead of him. I agree he shouldn't be behaving that way though even if he is (imo rightly) disgruntled.

[Romey 1878]

That first half was mind numbingly boring, who knew what was to come? I really couldn't wait for it to end if I'm honest. Despite it being boring we had total control of the half and we actually moved the ball about really well, we just didn't have any sort of oomph or penetration (we missed Gibson for this I think, and it took us some time to adjust to his absence) and Sunderland may have not been on the pitch for all the involvement they had in the game.

 

The second half was a completely different story. We still controlled things, had the majority of the ball and moved the ball about well. But we found that oomph and attacked with more pace and vigour and Sunderland couldn't cope with it at all. Where in the first half it was like we were moving the ball around just for the sake of it in this half we moved the ball around with purpose, like we knew exactly what we wanted to do. We asked all the questions and Sunderland had none of the answers. It was childs play at times and we looked like we could score at will, we really should have had an even more convincing scoreline in our favour. In parts we were a bit scrappy but when we clicked we were a joy to watch and some of our link-up play between players was fantastic.

 

The most pleasing things about this game are that we made so many changes but the new players, although they took a little bit of time to get going, slotted in well and showed Moyes that if called upon they can do a job for us, we scored four goals without our best striker, our defence looked solid, our midfield was dominating, and our team look confident (particularly with the ball).

 

The one thing I was disappointed with today was that we failed to give any sort of support to Straq, he was completely on his own for most of the game.

 

Lastly, Sunderland are shite. Absolutely shite. O'Neill needs to have a major overhaul there.

 

 

 

Howard - Had absolutely nothing to do.

 

 

Hibbert - Apart from his crossing being absolutely shocking he had a solid game.

 

 

Heitinga - This man is fucking immense. When Sunderland did actually venture forward he was one of the ones mostly responsible for snuffing anything out. For me, he's one of the first names on the teamsheet for Saturday. I shit myself when we went down towards the end of the game, I had my fingers crossed that he'd get up. Thankfully he did.

 

 

Jagielka - Looked a completely different player not being next to Distin, much more like the Jags of old where you felt that nothing would get past him. Sessegnon got absolutely nothing from him all game long.

 

 

Neville - I thought he had a pretty good game, especially when you consider he wasn't in his natural position. And I felt that he helped Gueye through the game and didn't let him get too downhearted when he was struggling to make any sort of impression on the game.

 

 

McFadden - I groaned when I seen that he was starting and he was the only problem I had with the starting 11. However, I actually thought he played pretty well and looked quite bright. He seen a lot of the ball in the first half and, for the most part, used it well. He tired very quickly though, which is understandable with the amount of football (or lack of) he's played recently. But he showed enough to say that he could add something for us.

 

 

Pienaar - He was the main orchestrator of us having so much of the ball in the first half, he was everywhere like a busy bee. However, in the second half I thought he was poor until he scored. Up until that point he was sloppy with the ball and his first touch let him down to often. But after he scored a quite magnificant goal he was absolutely brilliant, and it was like he was just taking the piss out of Sunderland. If it hadn't have been for that lull in performance he probably would have got my MOTM vote.

 

 

Fellaini - Another beat of a performance from him. Whenever he went near a Sunderland player when they had the ball you just knew he was going to take the ball from them, every time. He was a dominator and an enforcer in the middle of the park. I loved his few driving runs forward too, we need to see more of that.

 

 

Osman - Another game he plays in the centre of the park and he was, once again, a little maestro pulling the strings for us. Where Fellaini destroyed Osman cleaned up from the wreckage with his twinkle toes, it was a match made in heaven in the centre of the park. And his finish for the third goal was beautiful and just topped off his performance. My MOTM.

 

 

Gueye - After his first half performance I was incredibly underwhelmed. I thought he struggled to make any sort of impression on the game. He's clearly a confidence player and at that point his confidence was extremely low. Highlighted by the fact that every time he got the ball in space he was scared to go forward with it and mostly turned backwards instead of driving on. But his goal, which was a thunderbolt, gave him the confidence boost he needed and from that point onwards he really grew into the game and became a key cog. When we had our insane goalscoring spell he was at the heart of everything, and when we were pushing to really embarrass Sunderland he was a danger man.

 

 

Straq - He was completely on his own and added pretty much nothing to the game.

[MikeO]

Match of the Day ‏ @BBCMOTD Reply

 

Running order for tonight's programme -Spurs v Norwich, Newcastle v Bolton, Fulham v Chelsea, Everton v Sunderland and Aston Villa v Stoke

 

 

Bit ridiculous to decide when Fulham/Chelsea's only been on for fifteen minutes .

[pete0]

MOTD is a joke we should have been on second. The Newcastle goal is nowhere near good enough to warrant being on before us, also the Chelsea game didnt have much to it either.

[adziom]

Does anyone know who is in charge of Match of the Day? Everton are only on early when we lose to a top 5/6 side, the highlights frequently make it look like we played worse than we did, two of their three regular "experts" Lawro and Hansen are ex-Kopites and Lineker seems to be under contract to never mention the fact that he ever played for us....

 

It must be a media conspiracy

[MikeO]

Straq - He was completely on his own and added pretty much nothing to the game.

 

Lovely bit of control in the build-up to the second goal though....I'd forgotten about it until watching MOTD.

[marcopaulo]

shite first half

 

great second half

 

3 great goals and 1 lucky one

 

that's all really..odd game

[Zoo]

shite first half

 

It wasn't shite, we just didn't get the breakthrough we needed. We bossed them around and looked totally in control, we just lacked that edge to put the ball past the keeper and into the net. I (like those around me) was happy at the break.

[flaminfox]

It wasn't shite, we just didn't get the breakthrough we needed. We bossed them around and looked totally in control, we just lacked that edge to put the ball past the keeper and into the net. I (like those around me) was happy at the break.

I agree, I actually enjoyed the first half because I love it when we dominate.

Great game by the way Good way to go into the semi-final.

Edited April 10, 2012 by the_everton_way

[Dalziel Kane]

MOTD is a joke we should have been on second. The Newcastle goal is nowhere near good enough to warrant being on before us, also the Chelsea game didnt have much to it either.

 

Newcastle are in a higher place than us, the BBC simply puts on what it thinks are it's most relevant games or in order of league placings. I almost fell out my seat when Chelsea were not featured first or us last for that matter.

 

As for the presenters, Could you find a more duller, boring, mundane, banal bunch of miserable fucks as we get on this program, tonight was no exception. It's one main reason why 90 per cent of the time I simply don't watch (or am unable). But tonight I actually did tune in, (I wanted to see a couple of things), and Everton amazingly were not on last and we got about 10, maybe 12 minutes of highlights, there was some brief post match analysis between said boring, mundane, banal, miserable presenters and 'who was favorites for the weekend'. Lo and behold the dull, lifeless Hansen went with his beauts from across the park, no surprise.

 

I saw that Moyes did not do a post match interview today, Round took his place and said a few words, any reason for this or did I miss something really important today. All said, bit of a lame first half that sparked into life second period and we played well and ran out easy winners. There could be a sterner test than this waiting ahead in the not too distant future.

[marcopaulo]

well i thought it was dull an shite...passin it around the midfield and not gettin a decent shot on target isn't entertaining for me

[Bailey]

We really came into life once we got the first goal and its amazing how much more confident the players got. As Romey says, Gueye looked like a different player and where I thought Straq was sloppy first half, the ball suddently started sticking to him and we built our game off him. I think he deserves to start ahead of Vic for what he brings to the team overall. Vic has done well off the bench in goal scoring terms but in all honesty he didnt bring anything different when he came on, he just hit an air shot and then scuffed the 2nd off of the Sunderland player. If he wants to leave then let him, but he does a job off the bench that no-one else seems to at the moment and providing that is his role then thats where he should stay. Straq may not be scoring himself but you only need to look at the amount of goals we have scored with him in the team to know that he has made an impact here.

 

I liked seeing Osman in the middle and I thought he was brilliant. Where Gibson sits, Osman will break forward and I prefer that.

 

The biggest surprise of the game for me was how well Neville did on the left! He didnt join in the attacks as much as Baines would (obviously) which is probably why Gueye wasn't so influential until we went for it. I wouldnt have any doubts about having Neville fill in there more often if Baines gets injured, and while money is short we dont need to bring anyone if he keeps playing.

[pete0]

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