He filled in surprisingly well as a RB in one of the cup games - Barnsley?
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Yes it was mate. Though against League 1 oppo. when we were chasing the game. Wouldn't want to see him there regularly haha!
Ha no, although I'd prefer it to Lennon playing there
The Equaliser
Player Valuation: £50m
He's not a defensive midfielder anyway. I think Martinez just wants to get him in the team even though we have 2 players on the bench who are better at that position.
Toffeelover
Player Valuation: £80m
I think you have some thing there. I bought him so I will play him syndrome. But there are exceptions so that is not fully correct look at TH!
Tbf a midfield combo of Barry and Gibson would have lacked pace against a decent Stoke side.
Think the plan yesterday was for Barry to play the deeper role and McCarthy pushed forward a bit to help Barkley creatively, James certainly seemed to be getting forward a bit more hence the assist. If that was the role then Cleverley was probably a closer like for like replacement after Mccarthy's groin went than Besic who so far seems more defensively minded.
Think Besic should have come on instead of Naismith though when Tom injured, especially as we were leading at that point and tightening up rather than pushing on further made sense.
streeky
Player Valuation: £35m
Achilies Tendon injuries usually associated with older players, I've had a few. The fact that he walked off probably means he hasn't done huge damage (8 months- 1year) but any strain or damage on the area take an age to heal due to the lack of blood flow to the injured area. Funny thing is you think it's fine after a short time ,because you don't have pain and can jog, but it slowly returns after a few minutes. tough to give any kind of time limit on it ,expect him when we see him.
The Equaliser
Player Valuation: £50m
I take your point Legs but for me what we needed yesterday was Gibson or Besic helping out Stones at the back and not leaving him isolated which caused him to have a poor game.
We have more than enough in attack with Barkley, Del and Lukaku all in prime form. Martinez needs to get the balance right otherwise it will be his downfall.
Iirc Coleman got a cut to his Achilles last season that seemed to take a long time to heal and he was out of sorts for quite a while even on his return as if it was still troubling him.
Toffeelover
Player Valuation: £80m
Thats the point, put Nais to press for more goals even though we had Lukaku, Kone and Del upfront so midfield was weakened. Should have had Besic on to tighten up the middle. Indicates perhaps the weakness of his defence thinking/
Hughes seemed to manage his subbing far better.
Toffeelover
Player Valuation: £80m
If that is the case, very bad news indeed another Gibson, Pienaar scenario, I hope not.
streeky
Player Valuation: £35m
Hope he returns soon, I really rate him. keeping everything crossed and preying for a Christmas miracle.
Agree and going to be interesting if/how he does it.
Toffeelover
Player Valuation: £80m
There is the crunch. How much time will he get, all season in my view, no early exit on the cards no matter what the results are.
But Cleverly did seem to be finding his feet in there very well.
He did and this further injury is a cruel blow, cross fingers it isn't too serious but this is Everton....
One thing I particularly liked is that his attacking nature takes a little of the weight off Ross and Deulofeu to create, for Ross in particular he is beginning to drop back at times in the game into a slightly deeper role which is probably where he will end up long term.
Barkley has some big areas he needs to improve to work as effectively there as he does at the #10, particularly his tackling, but we're only going to know if he can do it if he gets real world practice and doing it in spells is probably a sensible approach.
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