Milk
Udderly delicious
Welcome mate, always good to see fans getting involved.
Especially with a well reasoned post
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Welcome mate, always good to see fans getting involved.
Ah honest misunderstanding. Carlos works on vibe management which the forum desperately needs this seasonI'm not a hater, didn't realise the lad was being genuine, he was agreeing with everyone, thought he was taking the piste,
Sincere apologies Carlos, my mistake, thanks for pointing it out LAToffee.
Mate you can't blame him for that.
Had Mirallas being subbed off RM would have been slaughtered on here and by fans for 'taking our best player off'...
But you would have understood it knowing he was on a yellow and his previous. I ma nage at semi pro level, we have a great striker who's 38 now, Ive managed him for ten years at various clubs, I know when to sub him off, when the red mist is descending on him, I know his body language, I know him as a player. I always give him a shout, he knows he's going to come off, I havent always got it right but being a good manager is knowing what makes your players tick, Martinez doesnt care if he gets slaughtered or not, if he did he would have dropped Howard months ago etc
Mirallas is responsible for Mirallas being sent off. Mirallas stays on, we probably win that game. The 10 men did really well, but couldn't sustain the energy levels for the whole 90 minutes and West Ham took advantage in the last 20 minutes. Martinez obviously felt that Niasse with fresh legs, could occupy their defenders, support Rom and give us an effective out ball so that we weren't inviting them on to us. It didn't work, but I get why he did it.
This is my first ever post on GOT guys. Been an avid reader for a number of years but never felt the need to post until after yesterday's game. Having gone to the game here is my take on the most salient points.
Starting formation. Where the hell did three at the back come from? RM tried it for the last 15 mins against Villa midweek and it didn't work then. Why on earth did he then decide to experiment against one of the in form teams in the premier. The only two players who knew their role in the team were Joel and Rom. Everybody else looked uncomfortable with the system, which just lends itself to the tippy tappy nonsense that I thought we had, to some degree, moved away from. It was alarming the number of times we gave the ball away in our own third and it was down to pure luck/poor hammers play that we weren't punished for our mistakes. Indeed I thought we took the lead in spite of, rather than because of, the system.
John Stones. The lad is clearly suffering some sort of confidence crisis, and I thought it was a terrible decision by RM to bring him back into the team in an experimental defensive system that none of our defenders are comfortable/familiar with. Having said that, I was both startled, and deeply saddened, by the number of fans who have so obviously turned against him. I was in the street end, and it wasn't just the odd fan shouting abuse. The amount of vitriol the young man had to put up with almost every time he touched the ball was astonishing, and I've no doubt we are driving away from our club, potentially the best defender ever to have graced our famous ground. I believe he really will be that good, and we are going to lose him.
Kevin Mirallas. I'm a Mirallas fan but I believe he deserved his red card yesterday. I absolutely hate simulation so he deserved his first card, which made the tackle for the second card total lunacy. Having said that, I felt that he was also guilty of trying too hard, which I would much rather see than somebody not putting in a shift.
Ten Men. The sending off actually worked in our favour. Reverting to a flat back 4 made us more defensively sound and, more importantly, provided a balance to our play that we didn't have with 11 players on he pitch. I thought for that last 15 mins of the first half and the first 30 of the second, we played some of the best football seen at Goodison all season. Credit RM for switching Besic for Stones at half time, although I think there were probably 35000 Evertonians in the ground who would have done exactly the same thing. We defended sensibly, fought for every ball all over the pitch, broke with pace and purpose and controlled the game without really looking under any great pressure, despite all the endeavours of the excellent Payet. The players even got the much maligned home crowd completely behind them and I was even singing myself at one stage. It's why we're Evertonians and I admit I had a lump in my throat at times during that period, because I was so proud of what the boys were doing on the pitch. I could even take on the chin Rom's penalty miss and his excellent chance soon afterwards, as we were still in control and, for once this season, I couldn't see the opposition getting back into it. Then RM made his second substitution!
Substitutions. One of my biggest issues with RM is how he manages (or rather mis-manages) games in progress. Yesterdays second substitution was probably the worst example of mismanagement yet. There have been many times this season (and last season too) when the game was crying out for change, whether it be formation, personnel or both. Yesterday though, all we had to do was keep things the same. We were in total control and were still looking dangerous on the break. Everybody looked full of energy (especially Lennon). If anything, I would probably have brought on fresh legs for Barkley, but even that would have been reluctantly as he was the springboard for most of our breaks. I was totally gobsmacked when he took off our best player and replaced him with a second striker (who incidentally doesn't look remotely like a professional footballer to me). In which football manual does it instruct you to replace a midfielder with a striker when you are 2-0 up in 15 minutes to go and own to 10 men? I think it's possibly the most ridiculous substitution I have seen in 40+ years of watching football and, along with almost everybody else inside Goodison, I was not surprised when we started to surrender our lead and ultimately lose the match. Have I ever experienced so much mixed emotions watching Everton before? Probably just the 1985 F A cup final, but that doesn't make it any easier.
Everton that though.
....he might score the next few but I'm not a fan of the way Lukaku takes penalties. He's got a kick like a mule and I can't understand why he tries to be fancy.
I still cannot believe their isn't a Martinez out thread yet!!!!!!
Maybe I should start it.....
Cheers mate.Hi mate. First and foremost welcome to the forum.
Agree with you on a few things but I think you're maybe being slightly harsh on other factors.
- Starting formation:
I actually - and so do many others on here, including people who firmly want and have wanted RM out for a while - think that the idea to go with three at the back was a sound one. Barry wasn't fully fit and W.Ham were playing 3-5-1-1. So what we did was match them and you have to say in the first half an hour we were by far the better side. They had obviously prepared for us to go 4-2-3-1 and there was plenty of space that we exploited on the counter. What adversely effected us was the dismissal of Kev (but touch on that later). Overall though I think the system worked fine up until that point and it was the best we have looked at home in a while.
- Stones:
Again, I don't see where this idea that he's lost all of his confidence. It's just a matter of giving the lad time to regain his place and refind his form. He had a shaky month when some of the fans, and like you I don't get this at all, turned on him - claiming he wasn't arsed about Everton and 'NSNO LAD'. It's ridiculous. He's still one of our best players. What again was detremental to him in the main was having to be moved over to right back after Kev's sending off. It was a necessity though as we needed to get to HT and then make the reshuffle.
- Mirallas
Agree 100% on Kev. For his first you have seen them given either way but you don't always see (in fact rarely) a player booked for it. Total inconsistency across the board and it's extremley frustrating.
- Subs
Couldn't agree more on that mate!
RM - and I've been one of the biggest advocates of his on here and will defend him to the hilt if I believe he deserves it - got it totally wrong with the Niasse sub. As you said, we were in control at that stage and nothing needed changing, and, if it had to be done (lets be honest Lennon could well have told the coaches he was feeling the pace a bit) then he had much simpler and better options on the bench than a foreign striker with no PL experience.
He deserves all the stick he gets for that sub and it's gutting as I think in the last month or so - and mainly since the turn of the year barring one or two anomilies - we seemed to have got away from the bad habits that saw us collapse on Saturday.
I also was disgusted with the defending in that last 15 minutes though and I'm as mad at the players for that as I am RM - though you have to say it was clear fatigue had come back in.
There's obviously other factors like the penalty miss etc, and RM is right to say if that goes in then we have the points. But the thing is is we still looked sound after that both in defence and attack until he made the second substitution, after initially he and the team had put in one of our best displays of the season.
I disagree mate, i think most, including myself have burned their bridges with Kev, they just aren't banding it about. Personally i have spoke in support of mirallas this season, and he has let me down in that respect, i wouldn't mind never seeing him pull on a blue shirt again. To be sent off once for petulance in a season after coming off the bench is forgivable, to be sent off when finally getting a run in the team isn't.Definitely wrong in hindsight to take Lennon off but for Martinez to be getting more stick from this game than Mirallas does show that some people are looking for problems now.
We were substituting from weakness as tiredness was going to be a defining factor at two nil. It feels comfortable but when players are tired one goal changes their adrenalin and you often see more goals straight away when fatigue is a problem.
Sadly I think till the end of the season anything that goes against us or any gamble Martinez makes that doesn't work is going to be presented as part of a long term problem, and wins are just going to be what we should be doing. I still feel we have a great squad and a progressive style that needs working on so the manager gets a pass because I've seen too many teams who would have played horrible desperate, hoof ball going down to ten men, lost three one and talked about how they were better than the sum of their parts.
For the record Bilic would have been my first choice as manager after Moyes and I was convinced Martinez was a mistake right up till this season. So I think I'm allowed to say Martinez needs time and the judging after each setback is bad for the club.
Hmm, it would be a tough call to get rid of any of Coleman, Jags, Mori, Oviedo, Baines, Galloway, Browning. It's the midfield that needs sorting imo. An attack-minded LB and RB wouldn't be such a liability if we had a bit more defensive ability in midfield.