ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

How ?

How in God's name did we win that? The first half was torrid and we should have been dead and buried by then. The 2nd half was not much better, mind.

I think they just tired and left themselves open for the counter. Just heard Moyes state that he 's "pleased for himself" that we are through, can't think why, have you seen the other teams we may have to face? The rollercoaster that is Everton rolls on. I'm still in a state of shock.
Dave Lynch, Merseyside Posted 04/10/2007 at 22:12:22

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Steve Mink
1 Posted 04/10/2007 at 22:17:53

How we got through that tie I'll never know. Played 180 minutes of football without a central midfield. A remarkable achievement in a way.

tony gee
2 Posted 05/10/2007 at 00:01:24

pure luck, rather than tactical nouse got us through that tie...

Moyes is clueless, and captain Neville is utter bobbins...

Neil Pearse
3 Posted 05/10/2007 at 00:00:18

No central midfield, Metalist scything through the centre of our defence time after time, Jagielka utterly hopeless - and Carsley on the bench for the whole game. Am I missing something?

Jagielka, Neville, Osman, Yobo and Yakubu were absolutely horrible. (Apologies to Tony Hibbert - maybe you are the best right back we have.) I suppose Jagielka can at least claim he was being played out of position.

Positives? Lescott head and shoulders above all his team mates (I have this dreadful fear that Arsenal are going to offer £15M for him in January - he’s worth it and more). Pienaar and McFadden both kept going and showed skill. Howard was solid as ever. And of course Victor showed Yak how it’s done.

Moyes at the end looked like a man who couldn’t believe his own luck. At least he’s not stupid. Nothing he did got us through these ties.

Scott
4 Posted 05/10/2007 at 00:05:02

Lay off yakubu !!! I know he was probs the wrong signing for us but now he’s here lets get behind him , he’s not a hard worker but if he gets 1 on 1 with the keeper he will score!! and get 15 - 20 goals a season where as i dont think AJ is a natural finisher but makes up for it with his work rate, The likes of adriano and anelka score alot of goals but dont work hard just like yakubu give him a chance .

Brian Waring
5 Posted 05/10/2007 at 00:18:01

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,this side plays some of the shittest football I have ever seen from an Everton team.Also,can someone explain why,when we got it to 2-2,and were going through on the away goals,did we continue to twat it up front?Even when we had a free-kick in our own half,instead of playing it short and knocking it about to waste time,we just hoofed it forward.I’m over the moon we are through,obviously.But it was excruciating to watch once again.

Ged
6 Posted 05/10/2007 at 00:40:43

We got through so therefore we’re ace again.

David Barks
7 Posted 05/10/2007 at 00:48:50

I don’t know how and I don’t care how we got through. All that matters is that we have more European football to play, something that Blackburn can not say. I’m thrilled to see McFadden getting games and scoring goals. Perhaps Moyes’ patience has paid off in his case. But we dreadfully need Cahill and Gravesen back ASAP in the middle of the pitch. With Arteta and Pienaar, who is starting to look very good, on the wings and Gravesen distributing the ball from the middle we could be about to go on a very good run. That’s 3 wins in a row now, with 8 goals scored, 2 conceded, and two of those games away from home.

Roy coyne
8 Posted 05/10/2007 at 00:55:26

I spent most of the game feeling sorry for the fans that went they deserved a better performance but I am sure the result will make up for that,they shown more pride in the club than afew of those well paid players.

Paul Cook
9 Posted 05/10/2007 at 01:55:44

Anybody know when the draw for the group stages is? Also what type of teams will we be in with? Bayern?

Paul Cook
10 Posted 05/10/2007 at 02:04:40

Be fucking annoying if we make it through the group stage and get Liverpool in the next round. I wonder how many big teams will drop down from the Champions League to the UEFA.

Michael Tracey
11 Posted 05/10/2007 at 02:10:00

I’m tired, hung over and generelly feel like shit, but fuck I’m happy. I can now do my 12 hour shift with a great big smile.This is why I love Everton because when its all seems up to shit they produce. Not the greatest performance ever and we were very lucky but we got a result. Hopefully when we get a more settled team on the pitch and players who are actually playing in there right position we can do very well. Good on McFadden I just hope he can continue to score and play well. Paul the draw will take place on the 09th October. COYB!!!!!!

Adam Bennett
12 Posted 05/10/2007 at 02:09:48

Before kick off ? Baines, who IMHO has been our best player this season, is dropped. For the biggest game we have had in two years, when we need to score while not conceding, Moyes drops our only player who can attack and defend. Conclusion? If we lose he?s (Moyes) in trouble.

Half Time ? SACK MOYES!!! ? Make a load of changes and change this shit!!

2nd Kick Off ? No Changes, ?we need to change things and he (Moyes) does fuck all. We?re gonna lose and it?s his (Moyes) fault.?

Couple minutes later ? Equaliser, Oh yeah. ?why change things when a goal is all we need ? he knew what he was doing.?

Couple more minutes later ? Metalist take the lead again. ?why the fuck won?t he change it, we?re struggling and he?s (Moyes) doing sod all about it.

Half way through 2nd half ? Jimmy scores to put us ahead in the tie. ?Keep it the way it is Davie, we?ve got these on the ropes?

88 Minutes ? Victor (I am too drunk to even attempt to spell his surname) seals it.

Full time ? Moyes is a managerial genius. He knew what he was doing all along. Brought on the right players at the right time. Changed things around at the right time, which resulted in us reaching the group stages.

BRING ON BAYERN!!!!!

Neil Millichip
13 Posted 05/10/2007 at 06:50:01

Now That the dust has settled and we have scrapped through to the next stage of the UEFA cup, one thing is obvious, there are not many easy games in the competition. Some bigger well known sides went out to their lesser known opponents. Sampdoria, Ajax, Blackburn , CSKA Sofia, Dinamo Bucuresti, Rapid Bucuresti, Real Zaragoza. All went out of the competition at the first hurdle. I know we were poor for much of last night, but we got through. We have won our last 3 games but didn’t play that well in any of them. One thing we have got now that we didn’t have a few years ago is a "never say die "attitude that some times is enough to get you the result .

arthur jones
14 Posted 05/10/2007 at 07:06:58

We’re in the group stages of the UEFA Cup , we’ve just beaten a good , underestimated team on their own ground when we were robbed of victory in the first leg , we’re missing Tim C , Tommy G , AJ and Vaughany , all soon to return , have won our last 3 games scoring 8 , conceding 2 , are 5th in the prem and some of you think we’ve got problems and we’re a " shit team " ???? OMG , try giving this to Mark Hughes , Sammy Lee , Steve Bruce or even Fat Sam or Martin O Neill , they’d bite your hand off , Enjoy it while we can , you never know it could get even better !!!!

Paul Smith
15 Posted 05/10/2007 at 08:08:48

Who cares - we did it!!!

patty blue
16 Posted 05/10/2007 at 10:00:00

Well said Arthur Jones- you summed up exactly how I feel and doesn’t it feel great!!

Lee Spargo
17 Posted 05/10/2007 at 12:44:43

Tony Gee - Nothing to do with luck. We scored three goals away from home and deserved to go through. If you want to talk about luck, then consider the referre’s antics at Goodison with the penalty that never was and then the two missed efforts after that. Lets talk about their second goal when the ball hits the post and eludes the five or six blue shirts in and around the box and falls to the only yellow shirt in sight.

No? thought not - luck my arse.

Dont get me wrong, Everton were poor - especially first half, and Metalist played well. But that has nothing to do with ’luck’. It’s called coming up against a tricky opponent. Anf that’s exactly what they were - tricky. Anybody could see that they can play a bit. Just because they’re unheard of in this country doesn’t mean they cant play football!

And, like i’ve said on another thread, we’ve just played 3 games in 8 days. We won all 3, scored 8 goals and conceded 2.

What do you want to moan about next, Moyes choice of toothpaste?

Ged
18 Posted 05/10/2007 at 19:48:11

Glad to see the sensible posts.

Bottom line is that we turned it around and got through, it was Moyes changes in the second half that pulled it off.

We were gash for long periods of the game but if we didnt miss two penalties in the first leg then it would have been smoother.

It was a bit like Rocky IV though.