Everton v Crystal Palace. 21st Sep at 16.00.

[scratchnsurf]

I know he scored again, but am I alone in detecting a hint of donkey-ness in Lukaku's general play?

We don't really help him by not playing to his strengths. He needs to be facing the goal far more, but our build up play was slow and palace were happy to leave no space behind for anyone to play him in. Fair play to them, they sussed that but he just came deeper and deeper. It would have been nice to see him come wider and at least have the opportunity of running at the defender.

 

[DanEFC92]

Still fewmin'

 

[Big Fat Sam]

Reckon Petr Cech would join us, even on loan, in January if he's still not getting a look-in at Chelsea?

 

[deipnosophist]

Still fewmin'

yep...with all the other results, all we had to do was put a competently professional performance together, on our home ground, against Crystal Palace......and we absolutely bottled it.
Very, very, very disappointing...and unacceptable

 

[maccavennie]

Reckon Petr Cech would join us, even on loan, in January if he's still not getting a look-in at Chelsea?

Doubt it mate, he would walk k to any top CL club. Would absolutely love a keeper of his calibre though.

 

[Jamo Martinez]

I missed the West Brom game coz my computer was broken. Missed the Wolfsburg game coz I was away camping.

Depending on how we get on against Swansea, I might not watch the derby.

 

[BlueToff]

Reckon Petr Cech would join us, even on loan, in January if he's still not getting a look-in at Chelsea?

no, and we couldn't get him on loan anyway

 

[mrb85]

How technically good, but oh so tedious and unfruitful, was that 20 minutes or so of pass-ball between taking and losing the lead? And some on here complain about the lack of atmosphere at GP. It's enough to stay awake never mind give vocal support!

 

[Stonesy]

tl;dr you basicaly wanted us to sign a goalkeeper and central defender and play without a striker. Sounds good.

I said that we didn't need Lukaku to score goals. Eto'o & Naismith and maybe even Kone when he returns would have been enough.

 

[JAYTALITY]

Id say this has been well said already but in terms of other results it could of been a much worse situation. United, spurs, Liverpool also loosing. I know it was a good oprtunity we missed but I wanna look on the brightside. Them three teams are our main rivals. The odds of all them loosing would be staggering. Ill say it like this I feel better about it than I'd imagine I would have felt that we lost this one.

 

[Brennan]

I said that we didn't need Lukaku to score goals. Eto'o & Naismith and maybe even Kone when he returns would have been enough.

That's not how football works. You can't just sign players on what you need at that moment. That's why we've signed players like Galloway. Lukaku would have gone somewhere else if we hadn't signed him, long term he'll get us 15+ goals for a decade, assuming he doesn't move.

 

[Blue Cally]

A 10hr round trip with my 3 young sons for there 2nd ever trip to Goodison to watch that [Poor language removed]! Only just got back home still fuming, only plus point at least my boys got a photo with Pienaar

 

[red1]

I said that we didn't need Lukaku to score goals. Eto'o & Naismith and maybe even Kone when he returns would have been enough.

Eto'o and Naismith can certainly score goals, but you needed a striker that will basically guarantee you a minimum of around 15 goals per season. Lukaku in my opinion was actually worth more than 28 mill, look at his age for God's sakes. He should have been at least 35 mill in today's market. He's flexible, can play across all attacking midfield positions as well as a traditional striker role, he can hold up the play and get others involved and he could have a resale value in excess of 40mill in the future if he develops a bit further since he is still so damn young. 28 mill is so cheap.

 

[AJC5]

Very very frustrating performance. But I think there's too much knee jerking going on. The actual performance was fine. We controlled the game and created plenty of chances without having a sustained spell of pressure. Fact is individual players are making mistakes and we are being punished everytime. Howard is a decent shot stopper (apart from long range shots - still don't know how he didn't get to that Lampard floater in the final) but the rest of his game is very weak, his distribution is pitiful - kicks long when under the slightest pressure, no accuracy and often slices it, not great at catching crosses, terrible decision making when coming off his line. Good goalkeepers are decisive. Howard seems to call for the ball and then waits to see what everyone else is going to do. Seen it too many times from him. Should have been sent off against Chelsea for handling outside the box due to poor judgement and there have been numerous other cock ups similar to today that we have gotten away with in the past few seasons. He was to blame against Sunderland at home last year as well. He tends to cost us at least 6 points a season. Not good enough. Osman is the same. Getting caught in possession in your own final third is criminal for a midfielder. He did the same against Sunderland last year as well.

 

[Stonesy]

This is the biggest load of baloney I have read in a very, very long time.

I don't even know where to begin with my disagreement. It's just knee jerking to the highest degree.

The reason for our brilliant defensive record last year was the protection of McCarthy and Barry. We had our best ever defensive result in the 'Premier League era' as we must now refer to it, last year. The notion that Martinez made them better defenders doesn't really have much substance. Moyes was an excellent defensive coach - specifically the coaching of defenders - and had them well-drilled but even then they (and Howard) always carried the odd very costly error in them. It seems like a lifetime ago but I remember the general consensus was that individually Distin and Jags were the best two, but they didn't function as a pair, and needed Heitinga to organise, cajole, harry and also bring it out of defence, to take that responsibility. Heitinga had some vulnerabilities but he was discarded too harshly and too rapidly.

No, Jags and Distin were afforded a protection never employed under David Moyes - two out-and-out defensive midfielders. Not holding Arteta-style (though he was careful to get two players who could pass well) - but genuine defence-screening, pressure-soaking, positionally astute players, and two of them, who had a very good understanding of how to get the best out of playing with each other. They were fantastic additions, because it shored up an area that was vulnerable - Jags and Distin getting a bit overexcited and chasing players/balls down too far up. The responsibility placed on the defence now was: defend the 18 yard box and bring the ball up to the halfway line. Thatr's all. Their efforts in this regard have been woeful so far and you can say what you lke but we have the worst defensive record in the league. We've shipped a stupid amount of goals and I thnk Barry has been excellent all season. What more can he do? And how more needs to be said to convince you this isn't kneejerk?

The summary of the rest of what I said was:
- Howard isn't a great keeper and creates uncertainty with his defenders by not coming off his line to claim the ball (save for when it's on the floor and he rushes out to tackle them like a madman)
- Jagielka and Distin are limited and in horrific form, at the very least Stones must start
- It's difficult to see how the Lukaku fee will be justified and the magnitude of the fee worries me

Where's the kneejerk?