Everton hit by Fellaini injury

Just think about it; the big guy pretty much controls the air balls on the whole field... I'm not sure any of our other mids are over 4 ft tall!

I'm going to be optimistic and suggest that this is nonsense.

What if Moyes wanted to keep this a bit quiet?

QPR and Liverpool now have two or three weeks to plan whatever knowing Fellaini won't play.

Surely Liverpool/QPR would realise he was injured when he didn't play for Belgium anyway.

I just think the Belgium FA should keep quiet.

Its fair enough to announce that he's injured and won't be playing for Belgium but not for us.

Very convenient for the lad to be injured during the international break , I wonder if his father cum agent has something to do with this.

Let's hope he will be back for the QPR match. It's bad, but just two injuries to important central midfielder/attacking mid players really has the potential to screw us up. We haven't got the likes of Ramsey, Walcott, Sigurdsson etc to come off the bench, like our competitors. I would imagine either Heitinga would come into the midfield, or Naismith would play behind Jelavic. Hopefully he will be ok though, as I'd rather neither happen.

If it's confirmed, let's get him back to Finch farm and start his treatment asap. The Derby is looming ominously....

My opinions on Fellaini are well known, I don't think he's world class. He put in a very good performance against Man U at the beginning of the season and I praised him for it but he has not kept up that level at all. He was quite good against Villa and Swansea but his performances were made to seem better because of the goal Given allowed in and his deflected header. After this I'm not sure if he's helped or hindered us to be honest. He was very much at blame for the loss to West Brom, missed an open net (also did the same at Swansea) and then allowed a runner to nod in the corner, he was anonymous at Wigan and was more of a liability discipline wise, whilst he put in the worst performance of the whole season at Leeds. World class players, your Ronaldos Messis Iniestas they don't do that, they don't have this level of inconsistency. the closest we have to world class in our team are Baines and Pienaar who play the same way every single game usually regardless of the opposition. Fellaini is one great game, 3 decent games, two terrible games.

Will the RS be soiling themselves over facing him? Past evidence would suggest not, have we won a derby when he's been playing? His only meaningful contribution has been luckily avoiding a red card against Kyrgiakos. He was anonymous in all three games last season with his best performance against Liverpool being when he still played for Liege. Add this to the fact that prior to the back end of last season our best form has usually come when he's not in the team, I believe we play better quicker football with more pace and rely less on the long ball to him. We played well before he came to the club and we'll play well after he's gone and we're certainly capable of beating Liverpool without him (as we have done every time we've ever beaten Liverpool).

There is every chance he played in the Gosling cup tie too

MF has played in 6 PL games against LFC with 5 losses and 1 draw.

Maybe we won't miss him as much as we think. At least the Manager of the Month has a couple of weeks to think about his tactics , better to lose him early than to lose him on the eve of a game.

He will be a big miss even if he does not have a great derby record and RS will be pleased if he's not in the lineup.

Happily we're not a one man team and should have Gibson to play alongside Osman in midfield with either Coleman or Naismith on the right and Mirallas behind Jelavic.

One mans misery is another man's opportunity. Naismith is having a (enforced) 2 week break also, so time for him to step up and make it hard for moyes to drop him.

Also having a break are Osman, Hibbert, Neville, Pienaar, Distin, Gibson, Heitinga (prob wont play), Coleman?

More than enough to beat both sides

The only wish I have for in the international break is that Mr Leigton Baines does not play a single nano second for Twatland. He is the guy that Everton can ill afford to loose - the man is irreplaceable, and if he does play for Wankland and gets injured they wont give a fuck and no one will give a shit except us. Needless to say I was over the fucking moon when Woy cleared Cashley for the San Marino game.

I don't begrudge Leigton his international duty but its not the 1990's anymore and playing for England means next to fuck all. For all the ejaculations over St Georges Park those bunch of fucking clowns arnt going to win a world cup of the European championship for another 100 years probably more.

In any case no one appreciates Baines like we do everyone would much rather fawn over Cashley and his pathetic tweets - fucking go ahead drop fucking rose petals for the guy but leave Leighton out of it. the press have only started climbing up Baine's arse when they realised cole could be suspended anyway.

For me Naismith has no chance of filling the hole behind Jellavic, his Leeds performance was shite plus he has no pace - Anichebe will get the nod for the QPR game, his performance in that match will then indicate whether he gets to play against the RS.

The worst idea ever would be to count on Naismith hitting form with Jelavic again, because we have seen how poor he has been since the start of the season. This Naismith guy is trouble, too much out injured and too unstable a performer to be used VS the reds. Naismith is miles away from any kind of form, the cup matches have showed that even better.

The only candidate to replace Fellaini should be Mirallas. Remember you get what you pay for, and Mirallas has done a much better job then Naismith so far this season.

In fact I would count Naismith out until January, only then has he got a foundation to do well with. It is simply too early calling for Naismith to do anything since he has been out injured for a very long time, and a bad injury as well. Naismith is a pure gamble by Moyes, either it will work or fail, but I have seen nothing yet convincing me that Naismith is ready to start games and perform up front with Jelavic.

No need for any rash decisions anyway. Hopefully Fellaini will be back before the Derby at least.

One way to bolster MF would be to put Oviedo at LB, Bring Baines up and put Pienaar into centre mid, but I'm sure that won't happen. More likely to see M Gueye left MF instead - oh dear! Drenthe would have been handy in this situation, but ...

If we ever played to Ossie's strengths he would be up with Jelavic, and would have many more goals and assists to his credit. That too, is unlikely to happen.

The Good news is that he has avoided playing the 2 international matches and making it any worse. Also, Gibson is due back very soon so we may have a replacement to come straight it. On the downside, we don't know for sure yet how bad it is, but it can't be that bad if they are waiting till Monday to have a proper look.

Small squad and injuries are part of football. Time to just get on with it really.

We have a psychological problem against this wretched club and Felli paired with Gibbo brings a "fuck 'em" swagger that raises the rest.

Not one iota of hope should we give them while at their low ebb because they'll take it.

Make no mistake they'll be happier if he's not there, c'mon Felli.

But to be honest, I reckon he was equally culpable re that injury against Liverpool. From my viewpoint he deliberately stamped down on the incoming defender's two footed tackle (Sotirios Kyrgiakos) would have done himself a favour by riding the tackle rather than stamping!

He can be his own worst enemy although he's certainly mellowed since that incident.

Howard
Hibbert Jagielka Distin Baines
Osman Gibson
Mirallas Naismith Pienaar
Jelavic

Totally capable of being the piss out of QPR with this team. No way Fellaini misses the derby unless something far more severe develops out of this injury. They said Jelavic was out 2 weeks and then two days later....

Will Hibbo be fit? No doubt about him being on the teamsheet if he is. But the young lad will be seen as a threat like Bale was (is). And Moyes double marked him with Coleman right MF.

And Peter, you've set up a lovely footballing team for QPR there. But it's still a Mark Hughes team, and Moyes will see it foremost that way. No Neville? Might be nice - RB if Hibbo isn't ready would do me, but he's likely to start.

Peter#032, that would be the team I would pick, but Keith#037, valid point, suspect Pip will start, and Ossie will miss out. After thier Manager lambasted the teams lack of effort they will be coming full on at us and as usual the game will be a battle/attrition and Pip probably shades Ossie in that respect. Peters back four looks like it could stand that challenge.

Still hope Fella is there to destroy them and I am looking forward to being there.

Thanks!

Howard
Neville/Hibbert Jagielka Distin Baines
Osman Gibson
Coleman Mirallas Pienaar

Jelavic

Either way we go, it's a strong team. Hughes has no idea what to do with that team he's got. No doubt that no away match is a cakewalk, but we are simply a superior team with more organization and solid partnerships, even without Fellaini.

I can still not understand why Moyes did not hand him a contract, Drenthe saved half of our season with his goals and assists. Too bad he was his own worst enemy.
I miss both Donovan and Drenthe, these are two players that got me exited about Everton again when there was very little positives to find.

How is Naismith going to change that, he has been shit because he is injury prone and too weak for PL. Naismith will need a long time to be used to the PL, he might not work out, but we paid nothing for him so it does not really matter. I can promise you right now, Moyes will NOT pick Naismith to play just behind the striker; as a right winger maybe.

It's not often I can recall national newspapers taking much notice of one of our players being injured. And its not just because of his hairstyle.

We have more than every chance this time against the RS and I think we will be fine against the R's. Team for derby and R's:

Howard,
Neville/Hibbert, Jags, Distin, Baines,
Mirallas, Gibson, Osman, Pienaar
Naismith, Jelavic

Subs: Oviedo, Anichebe, Duffy, Mucha, etc, etc.

Things are good!

Fellaini cant tackle in general,every time there is a 50-50 he goes in to protect himself with studs raised.That is his first thought,not to win the ball but to make sure he does not get done.

I am hoping to be back playing for Everton as soon as possible."

No mention of missing any Everton games.

Fingers crossed.