(d) Lescott was next to the real deal in Jags, plus he is a better left back anyway. More to the point, why do we still give a shit? He walked out on this club.

I have little patience with people who use this site to write obvious garbage, no matter how angry you are. You’d best think carefully about the veracity of what you come out with next: three strikes... and you’re two down already.

Come on Moyes, give him a go, instead of putting defenders (Heitinga) and forwards (Jo) in midfield.

ps: There are players at the club who will never get to play at Goodison, so why won't the club play some reserve team games there? It can only help the young players.

I will concede that his match fitness is not be 100% as he hasn’t done a full pre-season but quality wise he is our best right back. I believe that hoofball is a tactic that your mate Mr Million Caps has perfected.

I suppose the injury list has demonstared that no matter where Hibbert plays he is average at best. So when we do have a fully fit squad then I know that we won’t have to put up with his sad attempt at being a RB.

Be of no doubt Lucas Neill's pathetic header cost us the game on Sunday. He was truely garbage for the entire second half and only poor finishing saved him further embarrassment. His inability to cover the first cross that came near him last night cost us the game.

When Kevin Davies was playing skittles with Neill and Heitinga, Tony Hibbert stood up to be counted and I’ll tell you this, he actually played better at left back than Neill played in his customary position.

Nobody, not one club, would touch your hero with a barge pole; Moyes only signed him as a final act of desperation, Ask yourself why. The amazing thing here is your continued ability to comment on games you clearly have seen. Get back to me when your hero has shed a couple of stone offa his caricature of an arse.

Now your hatred of Australian players that play for Everton is quite obvious. Wait until Lucas Neill is fully fit and judge him. We have all seen Hibbert fully fit and he is not good enough when we have no injuries to make the team and probably the bench.
How do you know that I didn’t watch the game? Some people see different things when they watch a game. Where was Hibbert on Sunday night when they scored the first goal because he clearly wasn’t where he should of been or the Bolton player would not of been able to make a cross. I saw us score 2 goals on Sunday and funny enough they were both set up by a composed RB who can actually pass it to a teammate not like your hero Tony, who has made clangers an art form.

What do you want, a medal for going to watch Everton play a game? Who cares if you are going to cop some banter at work. By the sounds of things you are 25 years younger than Neill not older. Just reserve your judgement for a player when he has had a chance at being fully fit and playing with a team who doesn’t have 10 players out.

Hibbert has had his chance, as has Osman, and believe it or not I think Timmy isn’t looking like a starter when we have a team to pick from, not a bunch of youngsters (Gosling, Rodwell) past-its (Cahill perhaps) and "had potential but really quite ordinary"s (Hibbert).

Bily has been here for two months, and I question the mentality of anyone who feels able to write him off as a signing. A player needs AT LEAST six months to adapt, some may quicker but in general Premier League football is so much different from other leagues in terms of tempo that immediate performances are a near impossibility. (Even the likes of Henry and Drogs took months and there’s several of our current stars that took time to settle.) By the same token, it seems harsh to judge Heitinga, although, as previously stated, I am concerned by his pace and feel that this element of his game might affect his long term success.

With respect to Fellaini, he hasn't been consistently the player we hoped for and I don't see how any arguement to the contray can be based on one goal this season. Last season it could be argued that his goals saved him but in general his performances have been too often lacklustre and the great performances he can put in too seldom.

However, everything should be considered in the context of our injuries, which affect the team and the current players. When most of our team is fit, we will have a very impressive outfit... but until then we need to grin and bear it and hope that we can pick up some points along the way before we are constricted to mid-table mediocrity before the cavalry return.

Reading comments on here, I get the impression I am alone on this but I have to say so many injuries to key/first team players is unheard of... surely it's more than just coincidence.

I also remember the Aussie coach stating what bad physical condition Cahill always turns up in, and he even took credit for helping him recover.

I am also in disbelief at how wrong our physio gets the return dates of our players, it all seems so very Mickey Mouse to me.

The number of last-ditch tackles Hibbert made to pull the rest of the defence out of the shit last night will ensure he’ll be in the team next time too... no matter who is fit.

Your claims of the porcine one "setting up" the goals last week sounded a little desperate, a punt forward which Fellaini latched onto and an admittedly decent pass to Saha will not stop either of these players filing these goals in the "all my own work" tray. The millions who have seen the goals know they are entitled to do that.

I will be delighted if Lucas Neill comes good... God Knows we need him too, but until he and the other free loader get themselves to some level of fitness. The money Everton have been guaranteed for the past forty-odd years will be staying in my sky

3rd goal - Neill was at full stretch running backwards with Kevin Davies leaning in to him. He wins the header and he comes back off Kevin Davies head and drops in box. Coleman was slow to react but again no real blame on anyone.

Link for goals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hbn0Xi0BBw&feature=player_embedded

If your local hospital had 3 times the death rate as any other hospital you wouldn't go there and you wouldn't put it down to bad luck. It is also true that most club physios are ex players who have done shortened training courses. The best physios are working in hospitals — and anyway who would you prefer to see if you had your cruciate repaired — a physio who treats 5-6 a week or one like Rathbone who maybe sees the same number in a lifetime (unless its Everton of course). And I hear Arteta has fallen out with them over his care.
So we may get a few back soon but then at this rate others, presumably Cahill and Fellaini, will be next. Bad luck — what tosh!

Take a simple example — the knee should be balanced between the quadriceps muscles at the front and the hamstrings at the back. If the quads are too strong they will tend to draw the knee forward putting more strain on the anterior cruciate ligament. Now suppose Mikel’s knee had been better balanced and his cruciate hadn't gone — just think where we might be in the league. No wonder he and us are a bit pissed off.

The bad injuries in general can be blamed on having a small squad. When the squad is small and muscles are over exerted then injuries become more likely (like the cruciates injuries, groins etc) which have obviously been a big problem for us over past few seasons in view of our extremely small squad.

Trying to blame it on our physio or Moyes is absurd and rehabiliaton with certain players has been very impressive. We’ve actually managed to get Louis Saha fit, which is a near impossible feat as we are likely to see for sometime whilst Yakubu has returned without any real reoccurrences which is again a hugely impressive feat given the general muscle pulls that accompany the return of players after lengthy layoffs. The injury problems are simply a matter of bad luck and the problems associated with having coped with a small squad for so long.

3 cruciate injuries yes, but all acquired whilst being on the wrong end of dubious tackes in the middle of a game, hardly down to the physio is it!

Also, if it's all Rathbone's fault, how come we have only had injury problems in the last 18 months and we hardly had any in the preceeding 3 or 4 years.

The season we finished 4th we had no squad at all, but finished in the CL places using about 18 players — hardly injury ravaged was it!

Ciaran
"Heitinga — I knew this would happen"

Knew what would happen precisely, that he’d come to the premiership in a sdie that have numerous injuries, play in 4 different positions inside 10 games and then the entire support would judge his entire career on those performances prehaps!

Oh and Steve, I know T Marsh says a lot of stupid things but they are mostly in the form of his in-your-face opinions that people don't like, or his ridiculous predictions, which I personally think are foolish in the extreme, especially as he gets most of them dead wrong yet never learns or adjusts. But I don't believe he crosses this particular line.

And Chris Briddon you obviously dont understand anterior cruciate ligament tears — they don't go due to a forceful tackle, they tear because of a sudden imbalance in the knee usually when running or landing which happened to both Mikel and Jags. These guys and us deserve the best and they are not getting it at present. Hence Mikels falling out with Rathbone.

It’s the politics of football and the nature of media, if Cahill is in such a poor physical condition then how is he able to work as hard as he does every game for the full 90? And then go on the extremely tiring trips to Australia and rescue them time and again like he does?

Just because you read an article from an Australian coach criticising Cahill’s fitness, doesn’t mean there’s a problem or even that the quotes are true. You shouldn’t pay attention to everything you read and take it as fact.

We could blame the head Physio at Everton based on some kind of nepotistic conspiracy theory as we’ve got an unusual amount of injuries at the moment, and by that token Chelsea’s injury problems last season (8 first team squad out at one time) must also be based on a bad Physio, or Arsenal’s well documented problems last season based on the same.

Or we could look at facts. Namely that we have a small squad and therefore players are less likely to be rotated and therefore more susceptible to injury as muscles and joints become strained. (Muscle fatigue around the knee can be the contributing factor in knee ligament damage and obviously general fatigue causes hamstring/groin/other injuries.)

ps: 4 yards away — are you Seamus Coleman? You were closer than every other player on the pitch. It’s clear from your previous posts you do have a penchant for gross exaggeration. Oh and I’m also guessing you’ve never played football at any level.

Clearly, the Yak rates him?

Perhaps our friend just has the overall impression that Fellaini has not contributed anything (which is not true) but relative to his price tag (and the expectations that come with such a fee) he may feel that he has not been up to scratch. Perhaps he is incredibly frustrated that our record signing is not playing to his level of expectation.

I think Ronaldo cost Man U around £12 to £13m in 2003 -Arshavin cost £15m this year (I know he wouldn’t come to us!) but, given the price tag, is Fellaini really in the same league? Is he really performing? Is he any good in his chosen position? He scored a lot of his goals whilst playing up front as a beanpole target man!

Is our friend slightly justified at being frustrated with Fellaini? I think perhaps he is. Is he entitled to his opinion not matter how ’stupid’ you think that is? If I support him is this a strike for me as well? How about Shane? If one or more person agrees with Ste (who incidentally has already said perhaps he was being a bit harsh) then perhaps his comment is not so stupid.

I think Fellaini has been mediocre and for the money we paid I think he has underperformed. Richard Wright made some fine saves but he was still a failure at Everton. Fellaini may yet prove to be decent (remember how frustrated we all were with Keown when he first played for us). I just hope this is sooner rather than later.

The first goal on Sunday was scored from the same position as the one Huddlestone scored last night... On BOTH occasions, instead of attacking the ball, our right back stood there like a fucken lighthouse, that isn't even Pro standard, let alone Prem Standard, you cant have it both ways.

I’ll tell you something else, many people were screaming at Neill for costing us the game against Bolton. As they used to say in our school, "He might have jumped, but you couldn't have got the Echo under his feet."

What do you think Moyes was referring to when he moaned about our inability to defend basic crosses?

People who say we should look at the whole picture and Moyes's whole tenure, well I beg to differ; only recently have we been successful with all the extra games. Before you shoot me down, it is a good thing, but surely we should look to prepare our squad better.

Yes this includes purchasing more players but also looking after the ones you have, and not becoming to reliant on them. I use Saha as a good example and the benefits he is having currently.

However, I have friends within the medical profession and they comment on how unusual it is to have so many knee injuries at any one time, and they seem to think this is due to poor preparation. Also the argument that some have been from tackles I take, but surely a stronger well conditioned player would be able to take impact better than a tired overplayed player.
Really I'm quite undecided but the logic I'm afraid points to the fact our team is poorly prepared. The fact Rathbone felt it necesarry to defend his position on the OS last week further aroused my thoughts.

All speculation, I know... but sometimes facts speak for themselves.

It's a bit old but probably more relevant than not liking him because he's Aussie and PARTLY at fault for a one goal that someone was 20 yards from.

Fellaini is still very young but has definitely made an impact and shown glimpses of real quality. As for the injuries, it's pretty childish to blame the on Rathbone, he didn’t tackle Anichebe, Neville or Pienaar.

It’s amusing that you will take to task anyone who makes valid points about Tony Hibbert but will be the first to lambast a new player who isn’t quite matchfit just beacuse he looks in all honesty to be the man to replace your Local lad hero, Mr Million Caps Tony Hibbert.

Once again, where was Hibbert when the ball ws crossed in from the right for the first goal against Bolton?