West Brom

[Lowensda]

Wow, some very over the top views there. (some realistic ones as well).

 

May be you were due a reality check, Lukaku has given you the goals to get you to the fringes of the Champions League places (is a £5million loan fee really a long term viability), much as he assisted us in our highest finish for years, a club of your size will always struggle to make the Champions League places, its just about the money and frankly, you don't have it, you don't have a wealthy fairy godmother like Chelsea or man City or the backing of Manure or Arsenal, even Liverpool and Tottenham have a massive financial advantage.

 

You have a very good team, but the lack of strength in depth will always be your Achilles heel, squad depth costs more than you have, we prevented you from playing your A game last night, don't become like some of the big 4 arseholes and think you will steam roller every team in the league.

 

Enjoy your team, they are enjoyable to watch, you will have great results, but you will have poor days as well, I think Champions League is beyond your financial capabilities and unfortunately, its all about the money.

 

regards

 

Zolton

 

Double Boom.

 

[marcopaulo]

Wow, some very over the top views there. (some realistic ones as well).

 

May be you were due a reality check, Lukaku has given you the goals to get you to the fringes of the Champions League places (is a £5million loan fee really a long term viability), much as he assisted us in our highest finish for years, a club of your size will always struggle to make the Champions League places, its just about the money and frankly, you don't have it, you don't have a wealthy fairy godmother like Chelsea or man City or the backing of Manure or Arsenal, even Liverpool and Tottenham have a massive financial advantage.

 

You have a very good team, but the lack of strength in depth will always be your Achilles heel, squad depth costs more than you have, we prevented you from playing your A game last night, don't become like some of the big 4 arseholes and think you will steam roller every team in the league.

 

Enjoy your team, they are enjoyable to watch, you will have great results, but you will have poor days as well, I think Champions League is beyond your financial capabilities and unfortunately, its all about the money.

 

regards

 

Zolton

 

i'm not sure we expected to steam roll you(at least i certainly didn't) and it's not really the result that pissed me off..it was the way we played..we had no pace, creativity, steel...and then no urgency to try and win it..seemed we came out to defend a 1-0 lead which just gave us all terrible memories

[Hafnia]

We had no urgency or flair. If anything we looked a bit leggy. That pitch was a joke, ideal for a team that hoofs it, not ideal for Martinez style of football.

 

That said, they are professional footballers.

[MikeO]

We had no urgency or flair. If anything we looked a bit leggy. That pitch was a joke, ideal for a team that hoofs it, not ideal for Martinez style of football.

 

That said, they are professional footballers.

 

It certainly was.....throwback to the old days, you don't see them that bad anymore, certainly not in the top flight. Still no excuse.

[Hafnia]

On a serious note clubs need to be fined for such shocking pitches.

 

If I was Sam allardyce, tony pulis or David Moyes I would be getting the pitches saturated, played on by the youth team a few hours before so that opposition find it difficult to get it down and play.

 

Perfect for hoof ball.

[Romey 1878]

Not a lot to say about the match other than we were dire in every way possible.

 

The first half was marginally better than the second half in that we actually created some chances and managed to score.

 

The second half was just awful. Long ball, shit passing, no ideas, no tempo, no creativity, terrible defending. We were lucky to come away with a point in all honesty. WBA caused us far more problems than we caused them. Tactically they were spot on and we were anything but.

 

Really disappointed that we blew a golden opportunity to go back above the shite and put the pressure on them before the Derby. It looks like it’ll be a while longer before we get rid of the choking habit we have.

 

I think it’s clear to see just how much we’ve come to rely on Barkley already to give us a spark. When he’s not there we have no one who tries to change the flow of the game, no one who will do something a little different or off the cuff. In short, we’re very predictable and slow. Which makes us very easy to stop. That’s exactly what happened last night and WBA did it extremely well.

 

I hope Martinez is rethinking his plans for January because it’s obvious that we need reinforcements. And I mean proper reinforcements, not just bodies. Naismith is a body and he’ll be a solid player to bring off the bench, but when it’s like last night we need players coming on who can give us something, some oomph. McGeady, once fit, is that sort of player but we need one or two more combative players to add to our team. I don’t know much about this Traore but I hope he’s good because Lukaku needs pushing and pushing hard.

 

 

Howard – Maybe could have dealt with a couple of balls into the area rather than being rooted to the spot but couldn’t have done anything about the goal.

 

 

Coleman – In the first half I don’t think he was involved all that much because we seemed to concentrate on going down the left. Second half he came into it a lot more but why oh why was he so scared about crossing the ball?! Quite a few times he got into a good position to put the ball in but didn’t. It was very strange. I hope his hamstring injury isn’t too bad because he’s been a big player for us recently.

 

Jagielka – I don’t know if it was because of Distin’s impression of a clown next to him but he looked nervous as hell and his defending was terrible. And his distribution… was like the Jags of a year ago; aimless.

 

Distin – An absolute liability. He was misjudging things left, right and centre, slicing the ball when under no pressure, didn’t have a clue what was around him whatsoever and was at fault for their equaliser because of that. Was he fucking high?

 

Baines – Thought he had a pretty decent first half and was involved in anything approaching good that we did. As with every one else he rolling in a shit pit in the second half.

 

 

Oviedo – I thought he was our brightest player in the first half tbh. Could have had two goals early in the half and was at least trying to get us moving forward and was one of the few players that didn’t look completely cream crackered. How he went off before Osman is baffling. My MOTM because he got me excited a bit. Not much of a reason for MOTM but I had to pick someone.

 

McCarthy and Barry – These two were on the pitch last night right?! Easily their worst games for us since signing and it’s unfortunate that it happened in the same game. They provided zero protection for the defence and neither made themselves available to receive the ball from the defenders so that was a large factor in why we played such awful football.

 

Mirallas – A typical performance from him this season tbh; extremely frustrating. He was trying hard and he took his goal absolutely brilliantly but his touch at times was shocking and I wish he’d stop running into players. You’re supposed to go around them, Kev. If I hadn’t spent the entire game wanting to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze then he’d have gotten my MOTM vote.

 

 

Osman – Despite my reservations when the line-up was announced I thought he was one of our better players in the first half (not hard I know!). He used the ball well and actually managed to keep hold of it or actually find a team mate. He did a good job at getting at the WBA midfield too and managed to win the ball back a couple of times. Second half, though, he was utter shite. It was clear after about 5 minutes into the half that he was done for so how the hell did he last until the 88^th minute before being substituted?! Complete madness.

 

 

Lukaku – As with most of our players his better bits came in the first half. I thought he put himself about pretty well and did well for our goal with that flick on (probably the only header he won all game!). Second half though he just gave up totally. A lot of that was down to how we played. Why do we insist on using him with his back to goal when his touch and control is pathetic? So I can understand him getting frustrated but it’s no excuse for the shit attitude he showed at things not going his way.

[Newty82]

 

How is that arrogant exactly? Its my idea of what we should have done because it makes sense.

 

Frustrastes the hell out of me that you seem toto accept a draw at West Brom....No disrespect to them but we should be wiping the floor with them. 5th wouldnt be an achievement, because you get sweet Fuck All for finishing 5th. 4th is what we need financially to keep competing and make ourselves better and we missed a big opportunity here. It just seems to me that you dont want to criticise Martinez at all because of how good he has been. Nobody denies that, but he has made some errors today and it could be costly.

Some of it came across as arrogant, thats not to label you as arrogant (hell, I dont know you so I make no assumptions and couldnt give a shit anyway!!!), mainly dictating what RM should have done despite RM being the one who spends the time coaching and managing these guys, he knows them better than any fan, he has the knowledge.. So, in the meaning of arrogant, possibly too strong a word to use, but only slightly.

 

The reason I accept a draw at WBA is....because it happened! So, if I dont accept it, does it change the result? No. So I accept it and look forward to the next game. Thats life...if you cant influence it, whats the point in being a blabber arse about it?!

 

If you read my comments, I have said that both the team and martinez had a poor day. That is criticism in proportion to the big picture. We all have bad days...imagine being at work, you've done ace for months on end, hit your targets etc...you have a bad day and your boss rips you to bits for it 'blah blah blah, in your face, blah blah blah, cost us millions today.....' You'd be like 'thats a bit unfair isnt it?!!!'...same principle really.

 

And the reason I say 5th would be an acheivement is because there are 6 clubs ahead of us in terms of spending power and size (maybe 7 if you count Newcastle). We have finished in the top four once in past 25 or so years. In that same time, we have finished 5th twice (last time being 4 & 5 years ago). So, for me, yes, 5th would be great and loads of you didnt even give us a sniff at that at the beginning of the season...now suddenly only 4th is good enough?!

 

You touch on a slightly different subject...what we need financially. Hell, financially we need 1st, thats the real money! 4th doesent mean we suddenly get a load of CL money, we would still need to qualify to the proper rounds to see real money.

 

This game is a lot easier to follow if you keep a realistic view on things and put the emotion to one side. Not that you'll give a shit what I say of course, haha!!!!

 

Big shout to 'Zolton' too...dead right in what you're saying. And yes, we are being disrespectful by expecting a win. WBA always give us a tough game. The pitch was nothing to do with our performance, WBA seemed comrtable zipping the ball around.

[Bailey]

I don't think anybody wanted a draw, but we have to accept that playing away from home against a team who were desperate to impress their new manager was never going to be a walk in the park. Yes we didn't play as well as we could. I think we missed somebody to link up with Lukaku and drive us forward, Osman is not that man, he is too slow and lightweight. But he is better at passing the ball than Naismith, and a better finisher so I understand why he started. Also the pitch was poor and made passing difficult.

 

 

Where I think Martinez made a mistake was not replacing Osman sooner. Naismith would have offered more hustle, which we needed. I would have done this as soon as it was apparent we were struggling to impose ourselves, about 55 - 60 mins.

 

In future I would like to see Mirallas operate behind Lukaku when Barkley is not playing there, with McGready on the wing.

 

On the whole we need another center midfield to cover / competition for Barry and McCarthy.

 

Mirallas did play alongside Lukaku yesterday and at time we were more 4-4-2 than our usual 4-5-1. At one stage they showed that both Oviedo and Mirallas were ahead of Lukaku in their average position (as we were trying to get in behind). Personally I think its more important for us to have someone who can play as an out and out midfielder in that role, as opposed to an attacker. We needed that player to find space, get his foot on the ball and then look at bringing others into play. Barkley is the main man for that role but Osman/Pienaar can do it well enough for the odd game, but when we have the injuries all in the same areas like we have, our football is going to suffer.

 

It was a bad day at the office for all concerned but hopefully we can draw a line under that performance and come out much stronger in our next game, hopefully with a couple of players back from injury.

[Cornish Steve]

Well IMO fourth place is gone now.

 

We dropped two points. If we win against Liverpool, we pick up six points. That game is far more important.

[Dalziel Kane]

Of course fourth place is still achievable - (no concern, your real favorites will get third place behind Manchester City and Arsenal) and as the club (Everton) has only lost once or twice this season and done well for the most part, there is everything to play for. The current setup has more talented players than 2004-05 when European Cup soccer was achieved, so why not this time. Still got every faith in Martinez he can deliver something special by end of season and if that is a top four finish, then more power to him. No sense in writing things off at such a premature stage or after a recent setback, after some often good play that came before it.

[Blue 250]

Not Lukakus best game for us and it's been mentioned he didn't/doesn't win many high balls.....BUT, to be honest the header he did win to set Mirallas on his way to goal was brilliant, he didn't just win it, he directed the ball with such skill as to show when he does start winning more, good things will come from them.