Who needs Freddie Kruger for nightmares when we have Davey Moyes?

I would go for a 3-5-2, and push Fellaini a little further back as a defensive destroyer in midfield. They ran all over Newcastle, so we need some strength in the middle, and Osman isn't going to give us anything in the tackle.

Coleman & Mirallas can get some joy down their right hand side, and hopefully Jelavic can snap out of his season long slumber.

The simple fact is we need win the battle first, as in every Derby, and they will be desperate to finish above us.

The law of averages must be in our favour surely to god Moyes cannot leave not having won at Anfield in 11 years?

If he really is undecided about his contract he must realise this could be his last chance to redeem himself...or is it?

If its anything like the Goodison derby the first instruction from their manager will be "knobble that Mirallas fella". I reckon their Captain will be more than happy to take the job in Suraez's absence.

We need to be ready for those dirty tactics and "the battle" as you correctly point out.

I fucking hate derbies!!!

They will cheat & moan at every decision, we need to do the same.

I couldn't stand yet another surrender against that deluded shower.

TM I implore you to pen a no holes barred team talk for the players as if you we're right there in the away dressing room on Sunday 5 minutes before kick off. Hair on the back of the neck stuff...anyone else feel free to try too.

I sadly share the pessimistic view myself. Have the choice of working on Sunday. Never dreamed of working on Derby Day until I realised that we'd never win over there with Moyes in charge (as much as I like the man) so gave up on it and resigned to making myself a bit richer in defeat. Just can't bear the Derby's under Moyes' stewardship.

Times like this we could do with Big Joe Royle being around the training ground this week and doing the pre game speech.

It'll be the same old story and i'll be annoyed as ever come Sunday dinner time. When will Moyes and his team ever get / learn what this means to us fans, I mean they've no problem being up for it against Man City these days, why can't they be up for it like that for the Derby?

Kendall's and Royles teams never surrendered, I mean even Walter lead us to victory at Anfield at one point. What we lacked in ability was made up for heart, pride and determination. Even the crisp bags stopped coming onto the pitch such was the tenacity of the tackles from Everton players!!!

All that Suarez stuff made me proud to be an Evertonian in comparsion to the lack of dignity and class that lot showed defending him.

Why for the love of God can't we go after them like we do against Man City? Why? Why? Why?

Fast paced start, some tasty tackles, put them on the back foot, and win the right to play football and we might, just might have a chance.....

They're still shite. We're Everton.

Too excited. It's only fuckin' Monday, fer christs sake.

I expect at least a good effort from the lads this weekend. I'd be very disappointed if we don't come away with at least a draw.
I'm hoping that we can get over our annual Anfield hoodoo, could this year be it? Gibson needs to be back.

I'm not looking forward to it, the only game of the year I regularly feel the shits coming along, but hopefully I'll be able to see the first win at Anfield in my support of Everton.

[Goes away to hide in darkened room for fortnight...]

It was a joke! A joke....! :)

The thing is, if you start off with agony, the only way is up –- a win is a wonderful bonus. But if you start with ecstasy and then it all goes wrong then it's an awfully long way down – you fall for miles and miles and then suddenly the ground seems to rise up out of nowhere and you meet it with an excruciating thud. If you know what I mean...

Oh, and by the way, it's "ecstasy" not (as in the title of this thread) "esctasy". Wakey, wakey, Mr Kenrick, Sir!

Prove me wrong Moyes, prove me wrong players, get out there and twat these feckless, shameless bastards

Sturridge is a selfish prima donna who hates physical contact so let's give him some. This guy didn't play for Chelsea, he doesn't play for Liverpool. Sturridge plays for Sturridge. No-one else. Bruise his ego and he disappears.

They have a superior attack but we definitely have a better all round team and can win this one. Of course, we will need fair officials who refuse to be intimidated by Gerrard and will penalise Carragher for holding in the box but maybe that's asking too much. We'll just have to beat them the hard way. They were flattered by a weak, tired Newcastle outfit and we are about to give them a big surprise. COYB.!!!!!

Do I have to tell you who won? You KNOW who won, even before I tell you who won. Yeah, that's right, she won. I was leading right from the start, for 95% of the game, then she overtook me at the death.

Bloody omens, I've never believed in them....

Unlike Newcastle, we do have excellent centre-backs and the majority of our other main guys love a big match. That said, Mirallis disappeared at Old Trafford and we'll need him to be at his best, especially if Moyes puts him up against the spanish beast Enrique.

Last week every move involving Anichebe and Jelavic broke down and they are both due a good performance. Let's hope it's next weekend.

I'm damn sure that would work !!

Harold but Gerrard in the referees face or Carragher getting away with murder are not the reasons we have not won there during Moyes' 11 year reign are they? The real reason is that we go there thinking we can't possibly win, it's a lack of belief.

I can't say I blame him if he approaches it this way on this occasion. It does annoy me though that, when we have had the chance to have a go at them in the past, we have paid them too much respect and bottled it.

I don't know what to say really. Here we are back on our home soil.
Three minutes
to the biggest battle of our professional lives
all comes down to today.
Either
we heal
as a team
or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch
play by play
till we're finished.
We are in this tin mine hell right now, gentlemen
believe me
and
we can stay here
and get the shit kicked out of us by Stevie G and Jamie C
or
we can fight our way
back into the light of the Royal Blue Mersey.
We can climb out of this mine, this flag wavin' tin mine.
One inch, at a time.

Now I can't do it for you.
I'm too old.
I look around and I see these young faces
and I think
I mean
I made every wrong choice a middle age Scouser could make.
I uh....
I pissed away all my money on away matches and in the Darkhouse
believe it or not.
I chased off
anyone who has ever loved me.
And lately,
I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know when you get old in life
things get taken from you. And when you're young too - ask Clive Thomas.
That's, that's part of life.
But,
you only learn that when you start losing stuff, like when Alan Handball cheats at Wembley.
You find out that life is just a game of inches
So is football.
Because in either game
life or football
the margin for error is so small.
I mean
one half step too late or to early
you don't quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast
and you get caught offside.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They are in ever break of the game
every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know
when we add up all those inches
that's going to make the fucking difference
between WINNING and LOSING
between LIVING and DYING.
between 5TH PLACE and 6TH PLACE.
between finishing ABOVE or BELOW that shower.

I'll tell you this
in any fight against the red shite
it is the guy who is willing to die
who is going to win that inch.
And I know
if I am going to have any life anymore in this City
it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch
because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face.

Now I can't make you do it.
You gotta look at the Eveton player next to you.
Look into his eyes.
Now I think you are going to see an Evertonian who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a guy
who will sacrifice himself for this team
because he knows when it comes down to it,
you are gonna do the same thing for him.

That's a team, gentlemen
and either we heal now, as a team,
or we will die as individuals.
That's football guys.
That's all it is.
Now, whattaya gonna do?

I really fancied him coming on for a bit of a Danny Cadamarteri moment.

Even so, the opposition is vastly over-rated and we can beat them.

Just to point out to some that they don't always beat us over there. The most likely result based on past results is a draw. Just because we haven't won over there doesn't mean they've won 12 on the bounce. From their point of view they actually have quite a poor home record against us in the Moyes era. Lets not dip into the inferiority complex ourselves, last season was horrendous but there's been seasons when they've been far better and couldn't beat us. They had a great team in 2009 yet we played them twice at their place and once at ours and din't lose any of them. We've shown decent ocnsistency all season, no reaosn why we should fear a heavy defeat.

Quite agree Ross. This is not an ideal match for a young ref wearing L plates. On the plus side , he had a brilliant game last week and appears not to miss much, The Atkinson factor doesn't bother me. Despite the history he is actually a top class ref.

What does bother me is the powerful left foot shooting of Downing, Sturridge and Johnson if Baines and Distin allow them to cut inside a la Robben or Bale. It's a weak spot for us. Has been all season. Our two lads are the most one-sided tacklers I've ever come across and what's more.......Everyone is wise to it.

Just realised. I've gone from positive to negative in a matter of minutes. These derby games should be banned. They are a serious health risk.

If they win because they're better - then painful as it is - at least dignity is maintained.

Not holding my breath though with the cowardly lion still bluffing his way to 4 million a year.

I don't blame Moyes for this because it has always been the way. Three cup finals at in the 80's and 3 wins for them. The first Derby after we won the 1984/5 championship and we are 3--0 down at Goodison inside 20 minutes. The shite win the league by 2 points from us. The Clive Thomas FA Cup Semi and last season's one, the 5-0 home thrashing and most Derby's when it ends 3-1 to them.

We've had a few notable exceptions - Andy King, Charity Shield and the Grobelaar own goal, that Graeme Sharp goal at Anfield, Wayne Clarke to stop them beating Leeds record, Kevin Campbell at Anfield, the Andy Johnson 3-0 but these are few and far between and that's the point.

I for one will be going for a long walk on Sunday, phone switched off and in a foul mood.

Were that to happen and, as is more than likely, Everton were offered the place, should our club accept the place?

Now I know there are those amongst us who yearn for liquid nights on the Continent just as there are many who see that particular competition as an unwanted diversion.

My own feeling is that, whilst qualification by Premier League place MUST see us take up the challenge, a place at the gift of our patronising neighbours is another thing altogether.

5th is Southampton so if the RS turn it down and Arsenal and Spuds get the CL, Southampton will get it.

It's just ironic that the Shite always seem to come up smelling of roses. Remember when we got Champions League and they cried like fuck that they had to defend it and were given it by Uefa. The rest is history because then Uefa wanted us out of its as quick as possible.

Let's just go out there on Sunday and fuck them in the derby. Moyes, don't be negative; show some balls and attack them from the start and they will shit themselves and crumble.

They're a sick horrible club with no dignity or the rest... look at their unwavering support of a racist buck-teeth biting cheating diving fucker. If I was Moyes, I'd be telling the team to shove their "We're always the victims" shit down their throats.

I feel sick. This world is very, very wrong, in many ways.

The fair play table and how points are awarded is here:

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/fair-play-calculation.html
In particular surely this one must be taken into account:

Players should respect the Laws of the Game and abide by the spirit of Fair Play.

The Fair Play delegate’s assessment will not double count items already covered in the ‘Red and Yellow cards’ category, but the seriousness of the offences punished by cards may be considered. This category will also include offences overlooked by the referee.

Any single major incident between players may have a significant bearing on the final score.

To be honest, it makes it difficult for me to justify how to follow top flight football anymore. I will always of course love EFC, but I'm not sure I want to be around stuff like that. The system is broken.

Have to say how much I pissed myself when I heard Gerrard say "Let's win it for Jamie" seems we're their Cup Final now. I can just see that prick Rodgers now planning to take Pienaar and Mirallas out the game like he did at Goodison. He knows that either of them will turn that paceless defence apart.

Let's hope they do because for the sake of failing in the league but on the other hand let hope they don't because I'm sick of their fickle fucking supporters gloating and the effect it will have on global warming and pollution flying all their supporters in for the games. Don't you just fucking hate kopite Gobshites.

Tairy hesticles.