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Everton v Stoke City. 28th Dec at 1500.

Stoke City

  • Sound

    Votes: 13 5.0%
  • It's near Alton Towers

    Votes: 38 14.5%
  • Mutants

    Votes: 84 32.1%
  • Phil Taylor is an MBE stripped motorhome attacking fat woolly sex pest

    Votes: 65 24.8%
  • We'll probably draw

    Votes: 62 23.7%

  • Total voters
    262
  • Poll closed .
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Can't believe at 3-2 Geri's taken a knock and still hobbling back to the centre circle. FFS go down, get the trainer on and kill a couple of minutes time. We never do it. Every other team in the league does it.
I was saying that at the time. That type of mentality may not have seen us end up with all 3 points but it would surely have prevented us losing the game.
 
We seemingly just don't learn from our errors,we keep on making them and then again,I can guarantee you I wasn't the only blue in the ground today who felt at 3-2 up we needed another goal to at least get a point out of the game,it's absolutely ridiculous,to be scoring three goals home and away and drawing/losing games is criminal.

....I said it before, it's about getting the balance right and having a team shape/model for when the opposition has the ball and when we are defending a lead.

The Kone position has more disadvantages than advantages. Sure, he can get in little pockets and support Lukaku but when we have possession there is no balance on the left and everything has to feed right. When we haven't got the ball our left flank is totally exposed, especially if our LB has had to make a forward run (e.g. the 2nd goal yesterday). It also means if we lose the ball high up the pitch, Lukaku, Kone, Deulofeu and Barkley are totally out of the game. One pass leaves the back four exposed.

It's not rocket science, it's not lack of personnel it's being organised and hard to break down. The first thing to do is change the Kone role, it's not as if he's scoring vital goals. Now that we're more bottom half than top 6 I can see Lennon getting a run just like last season.

Basic football at any level.
 

The major frustration for me is this, 95% of our all round play today was excellent. Unfortunately the 5% of schoolboy errors we commit is costing us big time. At 3-2 I had little confidence we would see it out, I doubt even Aston Villa could have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in such style. Einsteins theory of madness is someone who does the same thing over and over again but expects different results. Koff Bobby ( for now ).

You use the same logic as I have in previous posts - particularly the Einstein definition. I am rapidly losing faith in Martinez when he absolutely fails to deal with a serious and repeated goal haemorrhage which is destroying our season.
 
You use the same logic as I have in previous posts - particularly the Einstein definition. I am rapidly losing faith in Martinez when he absolutely fails to deal with a serious and repeated goal haemorrhage which is destroying our season.
It's not rocket science, 3-2 up at home with ten minutes to go, with the personnel available to bring Stoke on and hit them on the break. I'm all for playing open expansive football when we're trying to gain supremacy, but we had it in the bag ffs.
 
The most sickening part of yesterday's match, which I have now long mulled over is, is that it must be quickening the departure of Rom.

This young, exceptional talent (gem of a player) is giving his all and scoring goals to boot, yet we are consistently unable to see out a victory.

At the kick off once the fourth had gone in, his body language said everything. Disheartened, disenchanted and utterly frustrated and fairly so.

We've arguably amassed one of, if not the most talent squad in a generation but we are at risk of losing it if we not change our approach soon.

Some may argue that Clattenburg was the reason for not getting any points, and to an extent he is with the poor decision for the penalty.

Nevertheless, when looking at the bigger picture we are all seeing a reoccurring theme: constant mistakes at the back; poor defensively overall.

At 3-2 and with ten minutes to go, Martinez should have been smart and adaptable enough to tighten things up; simply see out the result.

Put simply we let Stoke back in to the game with our defensive naivety just like at Norwich and Bournemouth. Clattenburg just exacerbated that.

Ten minutes of tight and nasty football with everyone closing down and making solid banks of four/five would have gained the victory we deserved.

The same story with conceding easily against Palace and Leicester after dominating possession and copious amounts of chances to gain victory.

And that's what is the most annoying aspect that after each game we say the same things, about the same problems, yet have the same outcome.

Howard makes a mistake... lots of possession with no dominance... failing to take chances... caught on the break... not closing down. Any more?

They'd make an amazing Everton bingo game! Let's see who can get a line with acceptable excuses which have emerged during a game.

And unfortunately, especially with our incoming run, I just cannot see things getting any better time soon as we seem unable to adjust and learn.

Nice fact about Stoke as well: they'd scored six away from home all season before yesterday conceding shed loads. Puts it all into perspective!
 
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Flip it. Would you not scream "thats a penalty" if that were Lukaku? Blame the FA they dont want to introduce replays or have the ref's answer questions.

The referee robbed us of at least one point yesterday.

Stop apologising for a ref who has screwed us over before yesterday.
 

Seems to me he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't as far as some people are concerned.

For years we complained about Moyes "nicking a goal" then shutting up shop with a "what we have we hold" policy.

We saw it backfire on many occasions when teams equalised late against us as we sat back protecting a lead...away to Reading in his last season springs to mind....home and away to Norwich that same season.

Most spectacularly we saw it at Wembley against the RS in the 2012 semi final......when we had them on the ropes at half time but Moyes surrendered the wide open spaces of Wembley for them to attack us when he decided to close the game down and Suarez ran us ragged.

And yet Moyes is being lauded on here as some sort of guru in the art of closing out games.

Nowt wrong with charging to the sound of the bugles when we are on the front foot.

Nowt wrong at all.

And if the players "have no confidence" in seeing a game out then happen they should look at themselves and give their heads a wobble.

(They have no such problems anyway......they kicked on against Chelsea and Saints among others with great success)

I get your point but the difference I see with Martinez is that he had five out and out attackers on the field. Taking one off for a more naturally defensive option wouldn't have been negative. Moyes regularly took the only attacker we had on the field off, and replaced him with a holding midfielder.

Making change such as besic/baines for kone would not have stopped us being a massive threat on the break. In fact kone was really struggling stamina wise too so a simple fresh legs move would not have been a bad move. If martinez is going to continue with such an aggressive 11 at such stages in games then he has to demand more effort and discipline from likes of barkley, del, and kone.
 
Last two home games; 5 goals scored 0 points gained. 5 goals at home should be enough to win you two football matches, but it doesnt because we condeded 7 in those two games; not to your Man City or Arsenal, nah, Leicester and Stoke!!!
 

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