Derby build up thread

[BiggyRat]

The 3 points are the most important as spurs have city.

True. In the context of current table positions, you are quite right.

 

[Librarian]

To preserve my own sanity I've decided that I don’t care about and don't want to think about team news and omens and what might or might not happen in the game. I don’t care how we play or who we play or what type of game it is so long as we take the points...somehow

 

[Big Fat Sam]

Oviedo is touch and go to be fair.

Heard Kone is gonna slot in at right back.

 

[royalblue66]

I really want us to shut that smug bar steward Brenda up,

 

[Brennan]

Laughing at people fuming that Barkley is being left out because Martinez said it to the press.

'We're not signing McGeady until the Summer'

Martinez plays the media like a fiddle.

 

[barneygumble]

I guess I will never, truly understand the passion of the Derby from this distance but it's clear it is the main priority for most Evertonians but...with respect...isn't it a little "small time" to want to risk the season results against a victory in a local derby?

I'm just concerned that if our focus is truly on the derby only, then mediocrity elsewhere will become acceptable. I think the biggest insult we could dish out across the park would be to stop calling it a derby & making a big deal out of it, and just say it only means another 3 points.

Just a thought.

From a fans point of view it almost certainly is. Even before we played WBA, a lot of fans were just writing that off whatever the score and just focusing on the 3 points.

I don't think the team are though, in the past, i'd point to us losing 3-0 against the shower 3 days before a big QF against Sunderland, that the team may have been weakened, but they didn't look focused one bit.

We went to Stevenage on Saturday, who in the kindest of respects aren't the best team we'll face this season, but the players looked determined to play for the whole 90 minutes, 2-0 wasn't enough and they strove for more, even with the knowledge that the derby was just 72 hours away. I think the players are gonna be focused, and as much as the nerves are creeping in, I feel confident we can get something tonight. Arguably, Anfield is one off the hardest places to go to and win this season, but as Aston Villa showed, attack them, and they fall to pieces, it's our job to do our job on both halves of the pitch, and i genuinely don't think the players will be nervous, if anything i think they'll look at Chelsea, Arsenal and United from early in the season and be confident in going and getting a result.

But as an Evertonian, it's never that simple. Haven't won there for 15 years now, which is a joke in itself, but it's gotta end sooner or later.

 

[Blitzer2011]

RM is a real master of head games

 

[bluestevon]

We'll do them purely because we look focused and sound focused, Brenda sounds panicky as are their fans, will be interesting seeign what happens with the crowd if we grab the game by the scruff of the neck and go ahead early like, their not confident one bit and the teams election is key, if we get a few back their not expecting then their arses will go big time

 

[Jayhow15]

Hibbert or Stones at RB then?

Youthful exuberance on one hand,

or

Experience on the other?

I dont know where I stand with this one.

 

[Boxcar Ira]

Confident of a win tonight, for no other reason than I'm not going! First one at Anfield I've missed since my first one in 1999, which is 14 games in a row that I've not seen us win.

I had a similar record at Old Trafford (never seen us win there), and this year was the first time I didn't go in about 10 years.

If we win I may never go to the match again, we'll be Champions next year!

 

[barneygumble]

Hibbert or Stones at RB then?

Youthful exuberance on one hand,

or

Experience on the other?

I dont know where I stand with this one.

Stones. Hibbert has been a great servant, but he's slower than my Nan now, and even though he may have experience, so does Jagielka, and how will Stones ever get experience if he isn't on the pitch. Hibbert would really limit our attacking option, and i fear his pace could cripple us.

 

[bluestevon]

Hibbert or Stones at RB then?

Youthful exuberance on one hand,

or

Experience on the other?

I dont know where I stand with this one.

depends on who we have fit tonight for cb mate, if jags and say alcaraz are fit then stones will come in at rb, if only jags fit then i guess he will start stones, can see jhonny getting a game at cb after martinez oversaw the targeting of him in the games vs wigan last year like

 

[RyanGordon]

We are gonna ****ing **** them.

 

[quasi modo]

Hibbert or Stones at RB then?

Youthful exuberance on one hand,

or

Experience on the other?

I dont know where I stand with this one.

Stones for me.

 

[bluegirl]

Howard
Baines Jags Distin Stones
Barry McCarthy
Mirallas Barkley Pienaar
Lukaku

Realistic with doubts or?

That would mean bench of: McGeady, Hibbert, Joel, Troare, Vellios, Naismith???