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Gutting
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Just got back from the pub watching it surrounded by fans of ’the other lot’. At least they had the good grace to say they didn’t deserve the win.
That was, so, so gutting. Our best performance in a long time, especially the second half. A lucky deflection and an individual error were what undid us.
I sent a text to my mate in the first half saying Yobo was giving me the jitters. Aside from this game, his clearances are routinely skewed and he gives me no confidence that he won’t put us onto the back foot.
Harsh on folk giving Hibbo grief, thought he had a decent game.
Take the positives though, our midfield looked pretty damn good today. Play like that consistently and we will be ok. Bit worried about Saha though, he looked well off colour and not fully fit when he came on. None of our other forwards can hit a barndoor from a yard at the moment...
Andy Morden, Posted 29/11/2009 at 13:04:42
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If we cant score then we must not conceed so many goals...its fucking simple. God Jags please hurry up and get back instead of them 2 clowns...Think about it...Why are we 16th? conceeding 3 at Hull...Fuck me...Its DISTIN and YOBO. who can disagree with that???
We cannot play the pair together. But what choices !!!!
If it wasn’t for him we’d won or drawn today - end of story.
Onwards and upwards, bring on Athens!!
The main problem was the outlet - Jo. Right from the off it was clear he wasn’t going to get a goal. More composure from Bily and he may have had two.
Fellaini and Cahill both looked pretty ok although something is still missing in the middle. Pienaar takes my man of the match award.
The sooner Jagielka is back the better!!
Worrying thing is Moyes has already stated that he will be looking at loan deals in January because we haven't got any money. Pisses me off the way Billy useless Kenwright gets away with it, Peter Johnson was a better chairman than this prick.
Tottenham then Chelsea next, frankly it's not looking good.
If I was allowed just a small grizzle it would be that half way through the second half when Pienaar switched wings, I wished Moyes would use Neil to replace Bily who had clearly run out of steam.
The whole team battled for everything but I wonder if Fellaini’s critics can bring themselves to acknowledge that by a country mile he was the best player on the field.
No-one played bad today but, given the chances we had, if we cant finish, we are in a relegation battle. I'd take 17th place right now. I have always been a fan of Yobo but that's one mistake too many today. In my opinion play Heitinga with Distin — Heitinga held really well today but he is a centre-half and Dutch international, so get him in there at least when Neville is back and until Jagielka is fit.
But oh shit, it's Europa on Wednesday; Heitinga is out and so is Neill and now Heitinga is suspended for Spurs next week, so that means Yobo has to play. I'm just sick of the injustice now!!!
There’s been far too much rubbish written about him. He always gives 100% and most of the time is fighting a lone battle to make us play on the deck. With a fit Pienaar, Rodwell we should be able to play some decent stuff.
Must use Heitinga in place of Yobo.
On Dick’s point about Billy/Moyes — how many times have you watched a game where we are crying out for a substitution whether for tiredness or tactical reasons, and yet Moyes can’t do it.
It’s the same with bringing on another attacker with 10 mins left when we’re 2-0 down. Pienaar is way off match fitness and should have been replaced. Bily was nigh on invisible after the break. Cahill has been treading water all season.
The injuries are horrible and would hurt ANY manager. BUT... the poor quality of EVERYTHING right now has gone beyond the bounds of acceptability. It is not working, it’s all very badly broken and, sadly, I don't see any way that Moyes can fix it.
No satisfaction in that, it’s just how it is. I don’t imagine I’m the only Evertonian who is really nervous today. And zero points from the next 2 games (highly probable) will just exacerbate things. Thing is, even when the injured players return, they will need over a month of playing to get anywhere near full effect. There is a risk of anti-climax and too much pressure on them.
I am convinced the only thing that will save us this season, now, is change.
Commitment and good football from us, and we didn’t deserve that... though, as someone previously alluded to, it was depressingly predictable that we would run out of puff, and that the shite would get a second.
Worrying times, yet renewed pride...
Great to see Peanuts back and he had a great 1st half, so did Fellaini throughout; Hibbert done well on the right - we just lack the confidence to carry the ball to goal with too many crosses.
As for Yobo; despite this game I can honestly state that I have NEVER been a fan of this kid - he doesn’t have 90 minutes in him, his distribution is awful and almost always puts us under pressure; he has no football brain at all!
Although we played OK we have a very difficult few weeks ahead and it doesn’t look at all good unless we get some extra quality in January or we will be fighting for survival.
Just like the stadium move it is a load of shite and it will not get better while people accept second-rate football.
Worst Gobshite team in living memory and they still turn us over in our back garden.
Can’t blame Yobo for the deflection... and I thought he was generally good — didn’t seem like there was much he could do about the sliced clearance that led to their second.
Better all round and finally some balance... not so sure Bily and Pienaar should switch... Bily seems lost on the right.
This has been a bad bad week, but if you look really closely you might just see that little flicker of light at the end of the tunnel.
And much more David Moyes's comments after the match when he said he is happy with the performance (if he said with some giving their heart out would be better!!!).
I start with the performance of Cahill and Yobo and this was going nearly wrong for the games that they played this season. Does somebody remember how Yobo used to tackle and Cahill used to be our beloved lion?!
WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM???
BillKenwright and David Moyes express pleasure at Everton’s 0-2 defeat by Liverpool today.
Just exactly which side are these idiots on???
Probably the best I’ve seen Everton play this season — in the first half especially — and thought that Pienaar was absolutely outstanding. I’m not a huge admirer of Fellaini but he too had a great game.
What let us down was a combination of bad luck, poor finishing and dreadful quality of crossing. Liverpool are awful at defending crosses yet too often we over- or under-hit them.
I wasn’t too despondent though — the crowd played its part by offering positive and loud encouragement to the team instead of making those stupid offensive chants against opposition players, the players seemed to have rediscovered their fight and pride and there were some good individual performances.
On the down side, have you seen our fixtures from now to the end of February? Now that’s really worrying!
Strange... the game I watched, he did score but it was ruled marginally offside. I thought he did ok today, and thought DM should have substituted Cahill instead.
Why was Neill left out after the Hull game to play Hibbert who continues to mark poorly and pass even worse? Okay let’s not just pick on Hibbert but wasn’t Neill brought in to replace him? Moyes is unbelievable.
Why select Jo ahead of Yakubu? Another hairbrained decision! We looked a little better only because of Pienaar but he is the only one with any zip. The clock is ticking and now we have Spurs to face without Heitinga.
How anyone can have a go at Hibbert for today's performance is beyond me. I thought he was superb... linked up well and passed well... especially with Pienaar on the right, and even delivered a couple of good crosses.
How about keeping the criticism for whenever he actually does something wrong?
Fellaini would be much more consistent and effective with propper midfielders who are on his wavelength and prepared to pass it about.
Again, people criticise Hibbert, why? He was very good today.
I thought Fellaini and Heitinga were the best players today, Heitinga seems to have nailed that holding midfield spot, I think he’s a lot better than Neville there. Fellaini finally looked the midfield enforcer we thought we bought, just need to see him do that consistently.
I think criticism on Jo was a bit harsh, he played a lot better than Yakubu and Saha today, he certainly looked more threatening.
Just hopefully we can push on. And it’s obvious to me that we have missed Pienaar and Bily, the team looked a lot more comfortable with them two playing.
One idiot playing centre half is a joke but two takes the piss, need to change this soon if we are going to start picking up results.
The centre backs are getting criticism quite rightly. Distin looked a great player when he joined us initially but I think playing alongside Yobo has drained his confidence.
Bily’s miss seemed to play on him for the rest of the game and he was a passenger. I thought Jo was okay and when he was taken off we seemed to lose momentum.
At least today we had a bit of pride in our performance. Let’s hope we can regroup and beat Spurs next week.
Negatives - Last years STAR has come crashing down - looks slow and is turning into lead weight, which this sinking ship cannot carry, Tim Cahill better find some form - put simply when Arteta is back he needs to be benced. Yobo is continually HOOOFing and slicing the ball, lets hope the injury that saw him go off is a blessing in disguise. Yobo’s poor form has made Distin look bad - Would we put Rodwell at the back with Distin??
We had 3 players return to the starting 11 today - Jo, Bily and Pienaar. They were never going to last the full 90 and Moyes didn’t have real options to change much - In my opinion at 1- 0 down the second half was only ever going to be a shadow of the first.
Overall we did pretty well today and there were significant positives. Jo made some good runs (and some bad) but I think with a decent run would be useful. Fellaini, passed the ball about with Pienaar and Bily in a way that must have left every Everton fan wanting to see much much more of this 3 with Rodwell / Arteta. We are in a relegation fight right now, but we look equiped to do well.
I hope with all my heart that today was a kickstart for the rest of the season - we need to pull our socks up.
To me Moyes last year was epitimised by the substitution — 1-0 down to a bad team... an attacker ready on the side-track, suit off ready... an attacker... Moyes dithered... didn’t know who to take off... unsure.
Then while being indecisive, they scored — 2-0 down... then he brings on the attacker. I am sick of Mr Moyes... sick of him. Never mind money, board, transfers... just really bad tactics. I'm fed up — also bored shitless with our play.
Depressing to lose, but I definitely thought we were robbed and looked like a really quality Premier League side. For lots of the game, we passed well and tried some creative moves just outside the box. We also looked passionate. Particularly, Fellaini. For most of the match, we looked a lot better than them.
We have a central defense that is extremely low on confidence and our main goalscorer was carrying an injury. These factors made all the difference. Going forward, however, I am concerned that reliable goalscorers like Fellaini and Cahill have really dried up. Louis Saha cannot be the only regular source of goals.
And obviously, we need to stop conceding goals. I’d imagine every team in the league reckons they can get a result against us... even at home. Is this simply a problem with our defense or is our midfield not defensively minded enough?
It is frustrating that such as they can so quickly see a major fault that many on this site have banged on about for ages. With so many of our own bodies blocking his view I feel sorry for Howard. How long this will go on before Moyes and Round see the light?
John, well said, Joey would not want to go off.
Garry, "maybe crap" - grow up! "crap" for Gods sake.
Carl, blimey, what would you do instead? Come on, cards on the table, right now what would you do? "taking the piss"? Make a decision that you and your career have to do, like Mr Moyes. Given the choices, tell us, what would YOU do?
We are supposed to support the club.
Can’t blame Yobo for the deflection either. Was shit for the 2nd goal though. Jo was decent enough to get the ball in the net, and set up one of Bily’s two great chances — don’t understand slagging him off. Not like he’s match fit either.
DM did pick the right side from what was available, and we did have a go. Won the midfield battle. Had their defence worried. If we’d gone ahead we’d have won that game — can’t legislate for deflections.
They brought two wingers off the bench when 1-0 up. We had Yakubu and Saha (both unfit) Neill (defensive) Gosling (off form) and a few untested teenagers. Who says injuries don’t matter?
Howard
Neville, Jagielka, Distin, Baines
Rodwell, Heitinga
Pienaar, Arteta, Bily
Saha
Nash, Neill, Hibbert, Fellaini, Cahill, Jo, Yakubu
I would bet on five successive wins after the Chelsea game.
Rodwell and Heitinga both get in each other's way so it's just a waste. There is more chance of Rodwell getting bullied in matches than Heitinga and Rodwell is not yet good enough to play the Arteta role. Where as Fellaini offers more attacking threat.
Quite possibly the worst Liverpool team since the early 90s and they still come and take three points in our own back yard.
"But we tried hard and gave a good performance"
Aren’t they paid £20-50k a week to "have a go"?
The truth is and it's a depressing truth like someone above said, that was indeed, possibly our best performance of the season against, and make no mistake, a poor Liverpool team, yet were now looking back on another defeat and the embarassing run continues.
Has anyone even realised that we have Spurs and Chelsea next?
Embarassing might be a word used frequently over the next few weeks.
We are shipping goals, we couldn't beat Hull, Wolves, Stoke or Burnley... I wish people would get back to reality. Be optimistic by all means, but getting safe is our only priority!!
Billy was the only one who I thought was not having a great game during the half-time debate down in the Park End.
I also thought we always look vunerable with Yobo, he just has not progressed at all and is the weak link in my eyes and I wonder if he is having an effect on Distin who, after a great start, is looking a bag of nerves too.
Did Jo score? When was the last time Jo scored? And what the hell was he doing standing in front of the keeper blatently in an offside position where he was always going to get flagged?
I also thought we looked better without Rodwell.
Sadly I have now begun to accept that we are simply second best to them and a long way off the top teams. I’ve never felt so adrift since Moyes joined and I think he’s hit his ceiling now. We need a fresh start with fresh personnel. Hungry, young players rather than mercenarys who fall just under the CL radar.
Dejected.
We were very unlucky to not take a point from the game and Liverpool were very lucky to take any, let alone all three points!
What we are missing this season and, to a point in previous seasons, is luck. Rarely have we had the run of the ball or big decisions go Everton’s way.
Moyes is most likely feeling disillusioned and uncertain like the rest of us.
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1 Posted 29/11/2009 at 15:31:55
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