Everton ease to friendly win at Dundee

Shouldn’t this guy be playing as much as possible given the amount of football he’s missed at Everton?

Rom off with a hamstring injury, this is getting beyond a joke now!!

Lukaku may or may not be out for a long time but regardless there is too much expectancy on him. I know McAleny has done well but the Premier League is a different kettle of fish than kickabouts preseason, we have seen the likes of Vellios have great pre-season’s but their limitations are soon exposed.

Crack open the auction war for Charlie Austin with an opening bid of £14 million (buttons in this day and age).

Pennington looked good. As did Dowell. Wouldn’t share others opinion on Browning. Good for one-on-one’s. Awful for crosses coming into the box. His man lost him on numerous occasions.

Barkley showed nice touches but took too much out of the ball constantly. Robles looked safe. Naismith tried hard as always but lacks ability. Nice to see Oviedo back. We are threadbare as a squad and still not close to Premier League speed.

Have to mention Cleverley who I thought showed a lot of good touches and passing range tonight.

That said I can't find the article now.

Anyway good run out for some of our younger players marred by the curse of the hamstring!!

We are awfully light upfront, and we are missing someone who can do some damage in the final third. Kone is a bit of a non-entity. And I wouldn’t deem Naismith and McAleny as out-and-out strikers.

It wasn’t all bad. I think Cleverley will be a great signing and Dowell and Pennington also impressed for me.

John Barnes once played against Ruud Gullit and it was evident it was one way traffic, they could not get beyond trying to stop JB. This is for England by the way.

The same is true for Glenn Hoddle... nothing went through his area of the pitch, he never lost the ball and was a colossal player.

The same is true of our Ross... except we are over-expecting as when Glenn and JB got to the level of what I am talking about they were 27-ish...

Ross is a baby in terms of time on the pitch. However, in the right-hand side of central midfield, he will dominate the pitch. Let’s forget the big foraging runs and amazing goals... let’s just let him play an anchor role and start short passing movements off... until he sees the space and can then orchestrate the whole game...

That’s my humble opinion... which I will no doubt come back to over the years of watching Ross! ;-)

And there’ll be people saying it’s just down to luck and is a very common injury in football (despite the fact almost every player we have has had this injury in the last 24 months!). Well we’ll now likely be starting the season with the following unavailable;

● Deulofeu, hamstring
● Lukaku, hamstring
● Pienaar, hamstring
● Besic, hamstring
● McGeady, hamstring

No less than 4 midfielders, 5 when you add the usually injured Gibson. And our main/only striker.

So Kone or McAleny it is then to lead the line in 10 days’ time!

Nothing to do with our training methods mind....

The fragility of our players' hamstrings requires an in-depth look at the fitness and training regimes, however.

I didn't think Stones had a good game by his standards but I put that down to all the media nonsense that is going on at the moment.

If a multi-million pound deal is on the table he would not be risked in a friendly. Too many people are believing the papers who are desperate for a big transfer story with some concocting the Rom to Man Utd tale on the back of an innocent tweet from Depay on his holidays.

Journalists have back pages to fill and Talksport has to have topics to discuss so if there is nothing going on they will make something up and Stones to a Big 4 club is a bit of an obvious one. Maybe he will go but I doubt we are anywhere near a deal yet.

Anyway, I didn’t see the game because I decided not to pay however much it was for a stream that didn’t work, so as for a review of the game, don’t know, don’t care.

It’s only Dundee anyway. I know you’ve got to beat who’s in front of you and a win is a win etc but Swindon, Hearts where we needed 2 penalties, Dundee where we needed another pen for breathing space.

These teams are poor, the Scottish teams especially. Hearts were probably the equivalent of a mid table League 1 team and Dundee are probably no better.

Yes we may have beaten them comfortably but they offer no indication of where we are, only to show how threadbare our squad is and how poor seemingly our training sessions are as shown by these continual hamstring issues.

in the 2 competitive games we’ve played we scraped past Stoke in a shootout and got completely blown out of the water tactically, in terms of quality and fitness wise by Arsenal.

As for these young players, Dowell and the others will be in the under 21s and years away from the first team. 1 performance v Dundee doesn’t make them automatic options for the first team squad.

We saw Chris Long last season in pre season look promising and get rave reviews from the manager, look where he is now. Burnley.

I don't know who arranged these non-competitive games but the crap pre-season of 12 months ago is beginning to look better than this one.

'Anyway, I didn't see the game because I decided not to pay however much it was for a stream that didn't work, so as for a review of the game, don't know, don't care'.

Plenty of free streams on line.

If you 'don't care' why write this uninformed and largely conjectural post based on not seeing the game?

We played very well.

Lu did not get a hamstring injury.

'Fitness wise' we looked very good.

You have little idea like - admittedly - most of us about what will happen to Dowell et al.

Long was never going to make it with us. If you had watched the match against a decent Dundee team you would have been very happy with McCaleny.

The squad is not 'threadbare'.

We did not need a pen for 'breathing space' as we were well on top - you didn't watch the game.

Wouldn't disagree, Jay. I was really taken by the fact that there were so many young lads in the side, and Stones is still one of the young lads but one who has developed so well that we consider him an automatic pick, even though last night might not have been a stand-out game for him.

It looks as if we will go into the first game of the season without the central defender needed as back up to Jags and Stones, with no back up to Rom, and without the promised number 10. What we have achieved is to fill the medical room with injured players.

I fear it is going to be a long season!

As for the match, you can only beat what is in front of you and I thought we played quite well and was pleased to see so many of the young lads get a game.

The player who stood out by a country mile for me, was Kieron Dowell. What a classy player, with instant control but even more impressive was his vision and instant, accurate passing. I think he was wearing the 51 shirt but couldn't give a tinkers toss what number he wears, if he carries on developing, I think he will be in the 1st team possibly this season.

I thought Cleverley, Barkley, McCarthy looked very comfortable in and around the midfield, with Barkley able to get forward much more. Browning looked quite composed but did make mistakes. I'm not too worried about that as the lad is learning and coming on well.

All in all, a decent run out and great to see some our youngsters get so much time on the pitch.

Roll on Sunday

Cleverley looks good. I think he will get us 5+ goals this season unlike McCarthy who will maybe get us 2.

Dowell looks like exactly what we lack, a player with touch and vision, but probably needs another year or two and a good loan to be consistent at PL league level.

I certainly feel better than I did this time last year but reckon we need another creative player (especially with Pienaar crocked again) and obviously another CB though Browning I think can be relied on to take up the 4th choice CB role.

With one game remaining albeit a testimonial this has hardly been an inspiring pre-season so far in regard to the the quality of the squad or their general fitness. Goals v injuries is a close call too.

The last six months have seen you slip to almost Victor Meldrew levels of cantankery.

I actually completely agree with you on almost every occasion... but please, for your own sake and mine, look for the odd glimmer of hope as we ebb into the abyss.

Also Dowell is 17, Long is 20. It's a little more exciting when a player so young makes a impression.

Dowell looks like he has a bit of a spark and a physique that helps out -- need to make sure we hang onto him.

Also think that Galloway has quality.

Ledson and Pennington solid -- will be interesting to see how they come on.

McAleny has to be a senior player now and could probably cover Osman.

Browning already has a PL physique and did well but I still think we are desperate for a senior CB.

So, a CB and striker seem pretty essential even if we lose nobody.

I do think we look much fitter and I’ve liked the way we’ve been trying to play in the final third.

We’ve been trying to play quick, one-touch incisive football in and around the opposition's penalty box to try and combat deep, stubborn defences which was a big problem last season and in the past two games, regardless of opposition, we’ve done it well imo. We seem to be full of running and on the move and popping the ball off more quicker to get by and in behind defences to carve open chances and that’s how you want to see a passing game of football played.

Also, we’re not scared of playing it over the top for Rom to chase on to and stretch the play that way, so we are trying to be flexible in the way we play, as opposed to being predictable, like last season!

We look like we’ve got a few good youngsters to come through in next few years. Hopefully McAleny can stay fit and get in and amongst the squad this season, he could be a useful player to have. Browning looks to have filled out a bit more and looks a lot more comfortable and confident on the ball but I do think him, more so than Galloway, could do with going out on loan and getting regular games.

Galloway looks ready to be called upon to me and young Dowell has shown up really well too. The lad has some really nice touches, quick feet and an eye for a pass and the future looks bright for him. Ledson is another that looks neat and tidy in central midfield but the likes of him and Dowell could probably do with a loan move at a decent standard to just kick them on and help them grow up in football terms.

As for the seniors, Cleverley is looking like a useful little player for us. He seems perfect for the Martinez style of play and no wonder he courted him for so long! He never stops running or moving, is full of energy and always wants the ball. Rarely wastes it either and he doesn’t always play safe either and he looks like he could be a useful addition.

We all know we could do with 2 or 3 new additions to the squad, a CB, a playmaking midfielder capable of playing centrally and wide left for me and a Striker. If we can get those 3 players in of the required quality to improve us without selling, then I’m sure we can have a good season and kick on as we have the basis of a good side here!