MATCH THREAD - Everton V Stevenage - Cap One Cup 2nd Round - Weds 28th August @7:45PM

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Right, I'm going to try some positives about the evening first
- Having never sat in the Upper Gwladys before, I really liked it. The wooden floor and the way the seats are arranged is ust right for me. There were times when the players got far away that it felt like I was playing Sensible Soccer, but I still enjoyed it overall
-Delicioustofu, Barkley and Stones looked promising at different points in the match. Promising enough that I feel reasonably optimistic each one developing into a potent performer
-Artetafan being the fine gentleman he is and texting me updates on the Celtic game (Complete with "witty" and "humorous" comments about how rubbish Celtic are/were)
- Fellaini coming on and turning the game
-I had a Crabbies before kick off and it was lovely

Now, the negatives. Before the Martinez Brigade leap all over me, can I just stress that these are my opinions and I am entitled to them. I pay for my season ticket and I paid to go and watch the match last night. If you have a counter argument you'd like to throw at me, by all means do so, but be secure in the knowledge that if you say "You can't comment after Martinez having only 3 games", you lose the argument automatically and I win by an immediate 3-0

Right, here we go

- Kone was turgid and missed a sitter that was so much of a sitter Jabba The Hut could have waddled on and converted it
- Osman was terrible. I mean really terrible. I mean, so terrible that I wanted to rip my seat out of the ground and chuck it at him
- Naismith worked his arse off but sadly has no end product to back any of his hard work up
- Playing a poor man's version of Tikki-Takka isn't good to watch or effective on the pitch. It fluctuates between boring and infuriating at the drop of a hat
- We looked like Wigan and retained all of their defensive frailties. We'd pass it 20 times and get nowhere and then Stevenage would make 2-3 passes and cut us up like raw cabbage.
- Due to a travel snafu, I wasn't in bed till 1AM and had to be up at 7AM for work. Bad times at any point, but after watching that awful game of football it left a particularly sour taste in the mouth this time.

I'm not saying we need to sack Martinez or anything like that. And yes, I know it will take time to adapt to a new managers techniques, but last night just wasn't good enough. If we play that team against Fulham and employ those tactics, we're going to get slapped all over Craven Cottage.

I know we did a bit too much long ball last season for a lot of people's liking but the fact remains that we played Leyton Orient this time last year, with a weaker side on the field, and thrashed them. It took extra time and a lot of luck to beat Stevenage. These tactics aren't working. I'm not saying we play hoof ball, but we need to mix it up a little bit. This Tikki-Takka Crap doesn't work unless the opposition chases you to get the ball back and until the 2nd half of extra time, Stevenage were just sitting there, almost daring us to do something because they knew we wouldn't. When it was clear that it wasn't working it became equally clear that we didn't have a Plan B

Cardiff on Saturday is not going to be an easy game. They just beat City and they've got a rowdy crowd who will be piling the pressure on. I'm genuinely worried that we'll be their next scalp

Under Moyes you could argue we were a little too direct at times. Under Martinez we haven't been direct enough. All I'm saying is, surely there is some kind of middle ground?

At the end of the day, I'm a little bit peeved that I'm going to have to watch this team every week at the moment, because I would never pay to watch a team like this normally. As it's Everton and I've got my season ticket, my hands are kind of tied and I will be honest and say I have seen Everton do worse in my days as a supporter. That being said, I really hope some improvements can be made, otherwise this season is going to be a slog

Cheers

Let the flame war commence!

Mikey

 

[sageyefc]

Robles= didnt have much to do, caught everything in the air, good quick distribution.
Hibbert= should be sent to the glue factory, hes finished
Jags= solid, was at fault for there goal though not taking control of the long punt forward. some of his hollywood passes came of though.
johnny= for me contender for MOM, never gave away possesion once when on the ball
Stones= fast, good on the ball, good leap, and strong for a skinny kid, was impressed.
Oviedo= his crossing was hit n miss but he got up and down all night and hes a tidy footballer
Osman= leon plays in his own little world, at his own pace and just plods around, get rid.
Naismith= works hard and some decent one twos around there box, still not prem quality though.
Barca lid= fast, direct, cant arf cross a ball, doesnt track back but who cares
Barkley= give roberto credit for giving him his confidence back after moyes tried his best to destroy it, hes getting better by the game.
Kone= not as bad as some are going on about, did well when dropping deep and getting involved in play but in the box he was ****e.
Subs, felli hasnt played with that urgency in months, distin solid, coleman ok.

Not as bad a showing as some of you drama queens are making out, The tempo was much faster than the west brom game, so theyve learned there. Thought we looked better playing the 3 at the back with Johnny stepping up into midfield when we're in possesion, think he should be getting game time unless hes sold his disribuiton is ten times that of jags and distin. Just lacked a bit of penetration in the final third along with luck and poor finishing. Its gonna take time though before we're firing on all cylinders

 

[bol-uk]

Robles= didnt have much to do, caught everything in the air, good quick distribution.
Hibbert= should be sent to the glue factory, hes finished
Jags= solid, was at fault for there goal though not taking control of the long punt forward. some of his hollywood passes came of though.
johnny= for me contender for MOM, never gave away possesion once when on the ball
Stones= fast, good on the ball, good leap, and strong for a skinny kid, was impressed.
Oviedo= his crossing was hit n miss but he got up and down all night and hes a tidy footballer
Osman= leon plays in his own little world, at his own pace and just plods around, get rid.
Naismith= works hard and some decent one twos around there box, still not prem quality though.
Barca lid= fast, direct, cant arf cross a ball, doesnt track back but who cares
Barkley= give roberto credit for giving him his confidence back after moyes tried his best to destroy it, hes getting better by the game.
Kone= not as bad as some are going on about, did well when dropping deep and getting involved in play but in the box he was ****e.
Subs, felli hasnt played with that urgency in months, distin solid, coleman ok.

Not as bad a showing as some of you drama queens are making out, The tempo was much faster than the west brom game, so theyve learned there. Thought we looked better playing the 3 at the back with Johnny stepping up into midfield when we're in possesion, think he should be getting game time unless hes sold his disribuiton is ten times that of jags and distin. Just lacked a bit of penetration in the final third along with luck and poor finishing. Its gonna take time though before we're firing on all cylinders

Erm, do what?

Do people not realise
A: he changed the game last night
B: his style is not very urgent, he's no David Silva ffs

 

[The Hibbert Agenda]

I really miss seeing Vic

 

[Jay]

 

[Deleted member 28206]

Shouting at Kone?

Brilliant pic this.

 

[blueser]

I hope the fans boo the house down after this.

glad you don't go to the match lad and you just moan on here best for all concerned

 

[Ara]

This! We see it in every game, there is no one making runs or giving options. They just stand in front of defenders and wait for the ball to go out wide for a cross. Drives me crazy.

Attully twice he could of passed and put Kone through on goal and both times he tried to beat another man. He is the star of our season but still needs to learn and lose some greediness.

Look at the positives, was a 2nd string team against one of the best giant killers in recent years and we got an extra 30 mins of practice with the new style of play. WE WON

 

[pablo 1878]

Thing is, he's ours and we need to go easy on him. He can score goals but looks a bit lost at the mo. Give him time to settle in and find his feet (literally I fear after last night) before ruining him.

This, he doesn't look like he settled yet and his confidence looks a bit shot

I thought Kone was awful, I don't think I've ever hated a player so much after such a short space of time, He's simply garbage! We need a real striker not a VERY poor man's Saha.

Hate? Really?

I can only assume that you didn't see some of the absolute cack that we've had to endure over the years. Get a grip FFS

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Kone did anger up the blood, but I've nothing personal against him

He had a shocker though

 

[D410]

Right, I'm going to try some positives about the evening first
- Having never sat in the Upper Gwladys before, I really liked it. The wooden floor and the way the seats are arranged is ust right for me. There were times when the players got far away that it felt like I was playing Sensible Soccer, but I still enjoyed it overall
-Delicioustofu, Barkley and Stones looked promising at different points in the match. Promising enough that I feel reasonably optimistic each one developing into a potent performer
-Artetafan being the fine gentleman he is and texting me updates on the Celtic game (Complete with "witty" and "humorous" comments about how rubbish Celtic are/were)
- Fellaini coming on and turning the game
-I had a Crabbies before kick off and it was lovely

Now, the negatives. Before the Martinez Brigade leap all over me, can I just stress that these are my opinions and I am entitled to them. I pay for my season ticket and I paid to go and watch the match last night. If you have a counter argument you'd like to throw at me, by all means do so, but be secure in the knowledge that if you say "You can't comment after Martinez having only 3 games", you lose the argument automatically and I win by an immediate 3-0

Right, here we go

- Kone was turgid and missed a sitter that was so much of a sitter Jabba The Hut could have waddled on and converted it
- Osman was terrible. I mean really terrible. I mean, so terrible that I wanted to rip my seat out of the ground and chuck it at him
- Naismith worked his arse off but sadly has no end product to back any of his hard work up
- Playing a poor man's version of Tikki-Takka isn't good to watch or effective on the pitch. It fluctuates between boring and infuriating at the drop of a hat
- We looked like Wigan and retained all of their defensive frailties. We'd pass it 20 times and get nowhere and then Stevenage would make 2-3 passes and cut us up like raw cabbage.
- Due to a travel snafu, I wasn't in bed till 1AM and had to be up at 7AM for work. Bad times at any point, but after watching that awful game of football it left a particularly sour taste in the mouth this time.

I'm not saying we need to sack Martinez or anything like that. And yes, I know it will take time to adapt to a new managers techniques, but last night just wasn't good enough. If we play that team against Fulham and employ those tactics, we're going to get slapped all over Craven Cottage.

I know we did a bit too much long ball last season for a lot of people's liking but the fact remains that we played Leyton Orient this time last year, with a weaker side on the field, and thrashed them. It took extra time and a lot of luck to beat Stevenage. These tactics aren't working. I'm not saying we play hoof ball, but we need to mix it up a little bit. This Tikki-Takka Crap doesn't work unless the opposition chases you to get the ball back and until the 2nd half of extra time, Stevenage were just sitting there, almost daring us to do something because they knew we wouldn't. When it was clear that it wasn't working it became equally clear that we didn't have a Plan B

Cardiff on Saturday is not going to be an easy game. They just beat City and they've got a rowdy crowd who will be piling the pressure on. I'm genuinely worried that we'll be their next scalp

Under Moyes you could argue we were a little too direct at times. Under Martinez we haven't been direct enough. All I'm saying is, surely there is some kind of middle ground?

At the end of the day, I'm a little bit peeved that I'm going to have to watch this team every week at the moment, because I would never pay to watch a team like this normally. As it's Everton and I've got my season ticket, my hands are kind of tied and I will be honest and say I have seen Everton do worse in my days as a supporter. That being said, I really hope some improvements can be made, otherwise this season is going to be a slog

Cheers

Let the flame war commence!

Mikey

Good post and fair. The penny is starting to drop, some hope that it will all magically click together with the same players in terms of tempo, pace and finishing. IMHO he does,nt have the squad to play that system to win football matches on a consistant basis and that the key word. The top 4 or 5 teams will just attack us and the rest will sit behind the ball and wait till we give it away and hit with a direct counter attack.

Bob is crippled by the lack of spending power and if he does,nt find a plan B in games then we will drift down the table over the season.

 

[Jeff Jones]

That was awful .to slow no penetration going forward to easy due to the tempo to counter .boring as well hope it was just one of those nights.we need. A couple of midfielders or we will struggle to get. results.

I didn't see the match, but this is a fair description of the way Everton's matches have been played, even over the past seven or eight seasons when we've finished well up in the top half of the league.

We rarely win matches comfortably, usually hanging on to one goal leads and often not even doing that, having to settle for draws in games we should win easily.

I'm sick of sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the whistle.

I've loved my many, many years of supporting Everton, but it isn't good for the nerves, nowadays.

 

[Nobby Nobbs]

For what its worth this is my take on the game, once again we see how good a player Barkley is and with experience will only get better, thought he had a excellent 70mins or so before he tired. Stones to me looked a great prospect good on the ball, pacey, distribution and passing was excellent also. The gk may have been at fault for the goal I don't think that he was to slow coming for the ball but that his starting position was wrong and this made it more difficult for him to come for the ball, other than that mistake thought he done ok. As for Osman I'm sorry he's not good enough and should be replaced by Gibson when fit. I not going to jump on the Kone is s***e bandwagon I actually thought he done ok considering it was his first full game, showed for the ball and most times it stuck, stayed on his feet which is more than you can say about Vic, and hopefully with time and games he will improve. In no way I'm I trying to gloss over how poor we where last night but a little commonsense has to be used here, Lets give the manager and the team a little time please at least till Xmas before we go into meltdown.

 

[kev101]

Where's our 'new manager factor'? most teams go on a nice little run when the get a new manager, it rarely lasts, but you know, we've got nothing out of this so far.
I guess the only answer is.......... We are Everton :/

 

[Mogwai]

Where's our 'new manager factor'? most teams go on a nice little run when the get a new manager, it rarely lasts, but you know, we've got nothing out of this so far.
I guess the only answer is.......... We are Everton :/

I think that ran out in Pre-season unfortunately....There was a little bit of it left over for the norwich game mind