bizzaro
LOVE GOT JUST THE WAY IT IS #ALWNV
Everton.
It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing…
We come to the final game of the group stages, having bossed a group that at first look wouldn’t be out of place in the Champions League. Everton has qualified comfortably top with a game to spare, leaving this game as basically a pointless exercise.
Nonetheless I’m excited. Not because of the game. It hardly means anything. Krasnodar look like decent opposition, but it doesn’t benefit them to go all out. They have nothing to gain. Rather we finally get to see the mythical Kone and Oviedo return from injury, Ledson get a run out and a few other youngsters get their debuts. Bobby will play the kids, give fringe players a go to push for selection and get injured players some match fitness.
So that being said, Osman will start as per the norm.
First we’ll take a look at Krasnodar. Krasnodar FK I might add, there’s two, and they get offended when you mix them up. Rivals and all that you see.
Krasnodar is in the middle of nowhere. So much so that even those with an Arts Major in Geography have no idea where it is.
It’s a city somewhere in South-Western Russia, just off the coast of the Black Sea. Literally 10 or so capitals of other countries are closer to Krasnodar than Krasnodar is to Moscow, so to put it bluntly it is a mission to get to.
Despite this we still took a fair number down to support and so to our brave travelling fans who made that journey, I applaud you. Ace.
Krasnodar FK was only formed in 2008, and despite never finishing in the promotion spots in any of the lower leagues, they’ve managed to somehow make it up to play in the Premier League. Either they have the luck that our red neighbours have, or money has spoken.
As for the team, they sit fourth in the Russian Premier League, so make of that what you will. From memory they’ve got a couple of quick Brazilian imports up front who could cause us some damage if given space.
The away game was fairly close with us snatching a point at the end thanks to that beautiful smiling man Sammy Eto’o, so if they come here and are arsed about the game, they could very well take all three points against our weakened side.
Now for the Blues.
It’s been a mixed bag so far this season. Dominant in a hard Europa League Group, looking very fluent and accomplished, yet when it comes to the league, we have been the reverse.
Inconsistency going forward and a lack of focus when defending has left us feeling dreary about where we sit in the league table and how we've been playing.
Not all is lost yet, indeed we aren't too far off the top four points wise and a solid run of wins would take us back up into contention. As poor as we have been, others have been poor too, and so it still hasn't gotten away from us yet.
Injuries to lots of key players certainly hasn't helped either, but we need to see an upturn in results soon if we are to continue to harbour those ambitions of European football next season. It hasn’t quite clicked yet, but if we grind out a few wins hopefully everything will fall in behind.
I’ll have a punt at guessing the team we put out, below being the players we’ll hand a run out to, with some youth and senior players needing fitness lining the bench.
-----------------Robles---------------
Hibbo---Browning—Alcaraz---Garbutt
------------Besic----Ledson-----------
Atsu---------Osman---------Oviedo
---------------Kone-----------------
Ledson looks set to get his debut after travelling to Krasnodar and missing out vs. Hull at the end of last season, while others like Grant, McAleny and Long are likely to make the bench. Browning and Garbutt get another first team run out to gain experience, while Alcaraz starts his comeback to fitness from injury as do Kone and Oviedo. Atsu starts as he will be given an opportunity to prove why we loaned him in the first place.
It’s nice to be in this situation, being able to play the youngsters and not worry about the result.
And it feels good to be back in Europe, watching Everton play an obscure continental side.
Kone & Hibbo to score for the Royal Blues with an end result of 2-1. COYB
Amazingly turbo gash that. Almost as late as @chicoazul too.
Hibbert to score. In off his arse.
