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12.8.18 Stoke City (h) via Everton Arent We

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Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone at home?

In a change from the scheduled programming, your Everton reviews are now going to be coming in a game by game format rather than monthly. Why? Because I [Poor language removed] said so. Missed the L4 Azzurri over the summer? Ready to get back into it? Buckle up then and enjoy the ride.

Of course this wasn’t quite the first Goodison outing of the season. Due to last season’s 7th place finish, we were all given the luxury of a two legged tie against Spartak Yerda from the former Yugoslavia and let’s be brutally honest, it was perfunctory yet crap. 1-0 in each leg was enough to earn a tie against Hadjuk Split of Croatia for a place in the group stages and Thursday night matches until Christmas.

To the league then, the bread and butter as you were. Stoke were the first visitors of the season, featuring an array of beanpole strikers, wee fat wingers and the Premier League manager that most resembles a menopausal hag. Throw in a Stone Island clad travelling support with the highest bulldog tattoo per person ratio and that’s your opposition. I can’t be too mean to them though, because they made Paul Nuttall cry. Well in.

Ronald Koeman set up Everton in an unconventional 3-5-2 to start with Dom Calvert-Lewin at right back, Rooney and Sandro up top and Davy Klaassen at the tip of the midfield diamond. Quite why there’s a need for two holding midfielders at home to Stoke, I’m not sure but Koeman is an internationally renowned football manager and I’m a [Poor language removed] off the internet that writes about football so we’ll let it go.

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The first half was, without kidding ourselves, rancid [Poor language removed]. Stoke were mostly set up to draw with a faint hope of hitting on the counter so the impetus was on the Blues to set the tempo. The only problem being, there was a distinct lack of pace, movement or width, with the players looking uncomfortable with the setup. Chances were at a premium, with only a Gana Gueye long range effort and a Sandro scuffed pea roller to shout about.

Right on half time, with only an additional minute announced, Wayne Rooney started and finished the only really promising move of the half. A flowing sequence of passes found Calvert-Lewin in space wide on the right and his first time drilled cross found England’s record goalscorer in space, heading back across Butland to leave him floundering as the net rippled. “ROONEY ROONEY ROONEY”

The abject shapelessness was obviously not lost on RonKo at half time, with Williams sacrificed from the back three for Martina, allowing Everton to revert to a 4-4-2 system with Calvert-Lewin being freed up to move further forward. Rooney sat slightly off Sandro and really came on to a game. Buoyed by his first league goal for the club since 2004, he began to dictate play, displaying a range of passing that freed up Calvert-Lewin and Sandro to press Stoke further back, although in truth, Butland wasn’t really tested anywhere near as much as he should have been.

With only a goal advantage, Everton were always susceptible to a breakaway but anything coming forward from Stoke was immediately repelled by the excellent Keane. [Poor language removed] hell, if Kim Jong Un starts lashing ICBMs at Goodison (not sure why he would like) I reckon Big Mick Keane would get up above his man to head them to safety. The only real moment of worry came in the games dying moments when Shaqiri broke from midfield and unleashed a thunderbolt that was destined for the top bag, but for the intervention of the leaping Jordan Pickford and an excellent fingertip save. Isn’t it nice to have a goalkeeper that inspires confidence instead of “oh [Poor language removed] hell, what’s he tried to do there???”

In the end, it was a game that should have been won by more, but without any real moments where you thought we wouldn’t take away the three points. We’ll have to play much better than that against teams that aren’t utter dog [Poor language removed] mind. Still, I’d take a season of 38 scruffy 1-0 wins, wouldn’t you?

See you next week. Up the [Poor language removed] Toffees.

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Everton 1-0 Stoke City: Rooney returns as Pickford shows his class. via GrandOldTeam

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“Remember the name; Wayne Rooney”, those famous words muttered by Clive Tyldesley all them years ago still ring true to this day. This match was all about the Premier League return of Wayne Rooney in the famous blue of Everton and he certainly delivered. His precise header right on the stroke of half time proved to be the winner as we began our 2017/18 campaign with a hard fought 1-0 win. As we have already seen from our two Europa League games, it’s going to take time to get this new Everton team to gel and play to their full but today showed us a glimpse of why we’ve invested so heavily in the likes of Jordan Pickford and Michael Keane.

The first half was as frustrating as ever, with the obvious lack of pace really effecting our build up play. Whilst Stoke barely threatened at all in the first 45 minutes, we didn’t show much either up until Rooney’s goal. The starting formation was strange to say the least with Calvert-Lewin playing in some sort of half right wing/half right back position. Ironically, Rooney seemed miles off the pace before his goal and provided little support for Sandro who again struggled to have much of an impact. Davy Klaassen was also very non-descript which really showed why we’re crying out for more creativity and the signing of Gylfi Sigurdsson. We seemed comfortable at the back however with Michael Keane again showing exactly why we paid big money for him. The back three system worked well enough but switching to a more rigid 4-3-1-2 after half time undoubtedly made us stronger.



There are very few more obvious examples of how a goal can transform a player’s performance than Rooney’s today. After bagging his 199th Premier League goal he was head and shoulders above everyone else on the field for the duration of the second half. His passing and ability on the ball hasn’t faded at all and he pulled the strings behind the front two of Sandro and Calvert-Lewin. He still makes everything seem so effortless and was the link between the midfield and forwards that we’d been screaming out for in the first half. We looked comfortable throughout the second half however as the game wore on, Stoke pushed further forward in search of an equaliser and the arrival of Peter Crouch gave many of us flashbacks of last minute sucker punch equalisers as we’ve seen so many times in the past.

One thing we’ve lacked over the past few years though is a solid goalkeeper and that’s exactly what Jordan Pickford was today. He was the personification of confidence and claimed a couple of dangerous Stoke corner’s late on before his match winning save late on in added time. When Shaqiri slammed the ball towards Pickford’s top left corner in the 94th minute it seemed for a split second that Everton were well and truly back before the £30million man came to the rescue. The attention this summer has nearly all been on the arrivals of Rooney and Sandro but Pickford could very well turn out to be the best bit of business we’ve done in years. Not since the days of Nigel Martyn or maybe Tim Howard’s peak years have we had a rock solid ‘keeper who you can rely on week in, week out to give you match winning saves but Pickford, as he showed last year at Sunderland, has all the ability and potential to be the answer to our goalkeeping problems for many years to come.

In terms of fitness we seemed far better than we were in our last competitive game 9 days ago and that was obviously expected. There are still areas where we need to strengthen, particularly in attacking areas but this opening day victory, our first since 2012, will give us the perfect platform to build on as we get ready to face Hajduk Split at Goodison on Thursday.

The post Everton 1-0 Stoke City: Rooney returns as Pickford shows his class. appeared first on GrandOldTeam.

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