Fulham (CoC) Away

[Shukes]

Hahahaha brilliant shukes, love a player that puts as shift in. You would have elevan Dennis's in given the chance... I could sprint round for 90mins for ya if ya

 

throw me a wedge... How do ya think the scouting mission went when he was younger ' get on that wee blonde lid chasing down well, who gives a fck if he can play with the ball, he tries, that's all we ask of'

Ye nice.

But he did score, showed good positioning and also forced the keeper into another save.

So maybe people with better footballing brains than us see something more in him.

He is after all a premiership player!

 

But let's end this now! You dont like him and will continue to slate him whatever he does, I will support him while he wears blue!

[Brett Angel]

I do try my best to support any boy in blue, don't get me wrong. I just know that he is only good enough for the SPL.

He will not make it and end up being bought by a championship side or newly promoted side in twelve months.... Would rather give another youth player the chance now, while RM still has the honeymoon period.

[BlueBlood81]

The final whistle has gone and we've been eliminated, what a load of old cunt.

 

 

No offence DK but I usually pass your comments by....

 

....That however was absolute gold!

[Dalziel Kane]

Have to be careful what you present on these pages sometimes, as you never know who, or what, may be reading.

 

No offense, but I don't even know who you are. Not a name to recognize and guessing I've never read anything you've presented - so it works both ways.

 

I don't give a fuck about favorites or preferences. I make visitations to present my views as a follower of over thirty-five years of this club and only want the club to do well and try to get back some of it's past glories and become fully recognized once again and finally end that 19 year wait for a trophy, and well, this night was another opportunity passed by.

 

Good you found some humor in it though, although from a personal perspective I found little to get amused about from tonight.

[Johnsy]

Just got in from the game. I'm not up to a Romey style player-by-player analysis, but I thought I'd share a few observations:

 

Robles - his distribution was terrible in the first 30 mins or so (then he stopped trying to be clever), and it looked to me like he should have done better for their second goal (but it was quite far away so I couldn't see too well!) Other than that he didn't really have much to do.

 

Stones - looked solid. I don't remember him doing too much wrong, and I remember one great pass he pinged out to Oviedo on the left. I think he's going to be a good player for us, will definitely be able to step up when (if?!) Distin retires.

 

Oviedo - I really want to like Bryan, but he just seemed a bit scared to run with the ball whenever he got it, even if he had space, and just seemed to pass it backwards. I was particularly disappointed in injury time when a Fulham player over-ran it on the right & I thought Oviedo would easily get it & get the ball back up their end again, but he just seemed to run over the ball & off the pitch & let the Fulham player go on!

 

Deulofeu - Looked like a world beater in the first half, but during the second he just seemed to run out of ideas when he got surrounded, plus he is really selfish. I do think he will get better as the season goes on & be class for us though.

 

Naismith - Again, I want to like him and I've refrained from slagging him off, but.....I don't want to compare him to Cahill (because I loved Tim & think he's a legend), but he reminds me of a rubbish version of him, in that he tries really hard and pops up with goals(albeit not so many), but contributes little else to the team.

 

Lukaku - I took my girlfriend to her first game tonight & before the match I told her he was "awesome". She doesn't know much about football, but she doesn't agree! I was disappointed tbh - I expected him to beast Fulham, but though he was strong on the ball, I thought his first touch was generally poor & he didn't have a great game. Considering how he changed the game at West Ham I'm hoping that's a one off though, and I'd like to see him start at Newcastle (I know he came off the bench a lot for West Brom last year, so hopefully he's not only effective from the bench....?).

 

 

I thought the subs were a bit weird - I can see why Barry came on for Gibson, but as we were chasing the game & crying out for some creativity in midfield I would have thought that instead of Jags for Heitinga & going 3 at the back we would have been better off just bringing on Barkley to play behind Lukaku with Barry & McCarthy sitting. I think it goes without saying that Mirallas should have been on for Naismith much earlier than he was too.

 

Ah well, I don't get to see many games live, so I still had a decent evening out. Proud to sit in the completely full away end & look at the thousands of empty seats in the home sections of the ground too. Best fans in the league!

[Mike21]

I was reading comments by Martinez before the game about how much we shouldn't underestimate Fulham, field our best team possible, etc. In the end we didn't do either, we treated it as a training game like that cup in the U.S over summer. So I don't think we really wanted a win. Our best players should be able to play 2 games in a week, they shouldn't need to be rested, and with the likes of Barkeley, Barry and Baines I feel we would have had a better chance at clinching this one.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Mike21

[JoeQuince]

Regarding Naismith, I love that he really tries with all he's got. If he could have a role where he didn't have to touch the ball until we are in the opponents' box, then we might all love him. That won't happen in Martinez's team. He needs to be able to pass and move with some sort of intelligence and accuracy. He just isn't that type of player. We can't possess the ball with him on the field, and it ruins the flow of our play.

[Steve_E]

I'm honestly not getting any of the stick Naismith's getting today. He was one of the 3 or so best performers today imo.

[Cornish Steve]

I agree. The very fact that Naismith was seen to fluff his lines a few times means that he was getting into good positions and covering the field well. He was where the action was. Not everyone is technically brilliant - but being a star is 90% perspiration, and he offers that. Personally, I'd much rather see someone give 110% effort and sometimes screw up than witness a more gifted player who too often just can't seem to be bothered.

 

It was a disappointing game, but I can understand why we'd want to rotate the team. We learned a lot tonight about some of our squad players without it costing us points in the league. Plus, for much of the game we were clearly the better team and were a hair's breadth away from equalizing. We can't win every competition.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Cornish Steve

[Blue 250]

Shock, Horror.......Everton lose a game with Martinez in charge and Lukaku up front!

 

It's like a dent in your brand new car, it had to happen some time, now we can relax and let Martinez get on with his job of finding the best team/squad and tactics.

 

He needs time, the lads need to gel, but the overall signs are good.

[Bill]

If you dont treat your opposition with respect, you pay the consequence (sp). If you split up a team with a winning mentality and leave 7 1st teamers on the bench you will get what you deserve.

The time to rest players (if you need to) is in the second half when your 2 or 3 nil up, no point having to play them in the second half when your 2-1 down.

Always play the strongest team or we will never win anything, when will we ever learn.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

If you dont treat your opposition with respect, you pay the consequence (sp). If you split up a team with a winning mentality and leave 7 1st teamers on the bench you will get what you deserve.

The time to rest players (if you need to) is in the second half when your 2 or 3 nil up, no point having to play them in the second half when your 2-1 down.

Always play the strongest team or we will never win anything, when will we ever learn.

This

 

I just hope Roberto treats the FA Cup with a bit more respect.

 

If the object of the exercise last night was to see if the fringe players were worthy of a run in the starting XI then I would say the answer was a resounding no

[weebittight]

You have got to take your chances. Not our night. Coleman close with a lovely left footed effort but should have scored with another on his favoured right. More strong running from Lukaku. And young Deffo looked tricky. Disappointed to be out but wins at The Cottage come rarely for us no matter what team we put out.

[Sibdane]

Just watched the extended match highlights. What terrible goal to concede by Robles. Bent got very lucky.

[pete0]

Can't believe people are blaming the changes, lets smash the bulbs and light some candles to welcome Moyes back and run the same 11 into the ground. Gibson needs to gain match fitness and RM was subbing him once he waned, would have been subbed had the ball gone out for us before the goal. Coleman missed an open goal at the death too. We didn't lose because the team wasn't good enough, bad timing and a bit of luck won the game for Fulham.

[RuffRob]

The Tin pot cup is the tournament to try out youngsters and give fringe players time on the pitch and get injured players back in.

 

If you think about it. It's McCathy and Lakaku's first start and only Stone, Joel and Gerry' second start in a Everton shirt so this coupled with Gibson and Heitinga's lack of game time this season, you have to say to go away from home and against a Premiership team I think to come back with a narrow 2-1 defeat isn't too shabby a performance. we where just a little unlucky, in a game we did possibly did enough to possibly win.

 

It is disappointing to go out of a cup competition, but the signs for the future are decent enough if you ask me.

 

with a bit of luck one of the big clubs win the cup and the an extra euro place goes to the league places.

[Toffee_in_LA]

Can't believe people are blaming the changes, lets smash the bulbs and light some candles to welcome Moyes back and run the same 11 into the ground. Gibson needs to gain match fitness and RM was subbing him once he waned, would have been subbed had the ball gone out for us before the goal. Coleman missed an open goal at the death too. We didn't lose because the team wasn't good enough, bad timing and a bit of luck won the game for Fulham.

Not upset with the changes (rather I welcome them), especially now that we have a lot of depth in the squad. The issue I had was the late subs made by RM, dare I say they were a bit Moyesesque when it came to timing. Having said that, I loved giving our squad players a run in a real game where we bossed for I'd say 60-65 outta the 90 minutes.

[Vranny]

Not upset with the changes (rather I welcome them), especially now that we have a lot of depth in the squad. The issue I had was the late subs made by RM, dare I say they were a bit Moyesesque when it came to timing. Having said that, I loved giving our squad players a run in a real game where we bossed for I'd say 60-65 outta the 90 minutes.

 

Completely agree. I think we're just as liable to cock up a league cup game with a full strength team when compared to a second 11. Even Fulham made 6 changes from their weekend game, so what are we blaming their win on? Bottom line is we should have won with the team we put out and Roberto should've been willing to alter things a bit sooner before the goal.