We knew Liverpool have a great, pacy, forward line, with a world class player (Suarez), a kid on form and who is not exactly a mug either (Sturridge) and a very good central midfield of Gerrard and Coutinho.

We also know we have a small squad, with key injuries, a core of lads working back from injury and a back four that can be troubled by pace when not at its best.

To me, it hurts badly to lose to them even when its 1-0, but its life. A more important thing will be whether we react, not how bad was the actual suffering of a beating by your neighbours but whether we can put it to bed quickly. It will be mostly forgotten until we go there next year if we manage to put together a good run and push for 4th/5th for the rest of the season.

Right I'm drained of optimism now and I'm off to have a lie down as it took a lot of effort!

Typical of being an Evertonian — the worst defensive performance I can recall for quite sometime was in a fucking Derby!

Fingers crossed we can move on quickly and a win Saturday against Villa.

COYB

Not easy being a blue and it is a remarkable achievement to be where we are in the league given the budget, or should I say lack of a budget. The budget is down to the board and they have failed us again and again over the past 5 years,

Hopefully, some of the wounded will be strip fitter on Saturday, we have just ran out of players at this point in time. When was the last time we completed 90 minutes without sustaining an injury:

West Brom - Coleman
Stevenage - Oviedo
Liverpool - Lukaku
Norwich - Peanuts
QPR - Barkley

We need a boost ahead of the weekend and we need a reaction in line with the FA Cup defeat to Wigan last year!

Compare that to the 3-3 at Goodison, I went through every emotion that day, and I even believed we had won...and then we know what happened. That took me ages to get over, because I couldn't believe they had got out of jail again.

They may have battered us last night, but they didn't beat us at our best. We were under strength and played shite on top of that. Under Martinez and at full strength, we will give anyone a game, and they know that.

But their 2nd looked to me like Barry and McCarthy went AWOL, after all it is their job to hold the middle, and the 3rd was a Sunday league ball that should be meat and drink to centre backs and once the 3rd went in it was damage limitation time.

But the RS were playing almost in away mode by hitting us on the break, and Martinez should have made the team play 10 yards back to stop the runs.

Apparently we had over 60% of possession which just goes ti show that the only worthwhile stat is the score.

Tactically a shambles. We got done good and proper. Stones was always left with space and possession, with Liverpool knowing he could do fuck all with it.

Our last few games are against the top teams but now we have a run of games against lesser sides so we need to get back on track. I just hope that Gomis is a genuine target as Liverpool, Man Utd and Spurs were all interested in him. He is a frequent scorer and is also good in the air. Our board need to dig deep and release the purse strings so that Roberto can use some of the profits accumulated of late otherwise our campaign is in danger of petering out.

We need Distin and Jags back together and our defensive midfield need to protect the back four more efficiently.

Prime example, Lukaku goes off, Naismith comes on. Liverpool could have easily lost a striker and a wide player and still have more attacking threat than our starting line up in its current state.

That doesn't defend the defensive issues. I think that just boiled down to misadventure. Take the game to them. In hindsight not a great move, but in fairness it is what we have been asking for.

Hopefully a couple of the players will be in better shape for Villa. Barkley will have had some time, Pienaar and Jags too. The Rock could sit this one out and bring Hibbert back in on the right if Coleman is not ready. Is it time for Vellios to get a chance? Big young land up front seems a better option to Nais to me? Or have Nais out wide with Super Kev up top?

What struck me was how much arguing went on amongst the Liverpool players and manager (as reported and printed in the press, plus the interviews on BT Sport after the match). Liverpool were 4-0 up when this happened, and Rodgers immediately took Sturridge off, who said some cross words to his manager coming off the pitch.

Now if a team can fall out that much when they are winning 4-0 then they must have a very strong winning mentality, especially against us. Our players are not like this; if we were winning 2-0 and Barkley missed a chance instead of giving it to Lukaku to tap in for another goal, our players would just accept it. We need stronger characters, winners like it kills me to say it Liverpool.

Maybe Moyes did leave a legacy, a knife to a gunfight, and it affects how they think in derby matches. Because, let's face it, they always let our supporters down in the must-win games! 15 years is too long.

Just to expand on that, Rodgers came out in the media and said Liverpool should always beat Everton as, in his words, "they are the bigger club".

I won't go into the wrongs of what he said, but it reinforces the winning mentality and to an extent put pressure on his own players to live up to expectations and perform. RM's media sound bites by comparison were something along the lines of not going to Anfield feeling inferior. Now that's a helluva improvement on the "knife to a gunfight" remarks from the previous regime, but still it hardly installs belief in the players that they can go there and win; and using the word inferior obviously infers we weren't good enough previously.

I can't help but feel we seem to go to Anfield these days "hoping" for a result; Liverpool expect to win.

It's going to take RM a little while, unfortunately, to change our players mindset from the previous manager that we actually are good enough to compete and defeat any side, anywhere in the Premier League.

On a side note I'm sure if we were 1-0 up against them they'd put relentless pressure on us and end up winning. We did the same and end up getting battered. Maybe we weren't disciplined enough going forward and at the back.

I don't think steel is the issue as Barry and McCarthy have that. At the moment, the big issue for us is squad depth. Our first team is bordering on top 4 quality when fit. Our wider squad dilutes the quality we have and is mediocre unfortunately.

I'm hoping that RM can bring in one addition (striker) by tomorrow though it looks unlikely. I also hope he's got a few bargain aces up his sleeve in the summer via his European network.

My RS nephew often says that Gerrard takes their corners because he is bloody useless at heading a ball. Another case of someone scoring a wonder goal against us that never before and never again repeat.

Having said that, mindset is a concern. When LFC slipped up against Villa, Everton could have gone 4th with a win against WBA. But even after going a goal up the belief didn't seem to be there and you allowed them back in it. Same again on Tuesday night. Passing the ball with confidence and creating openings but it didn't feel like the belief was there to go on and win. Compare that to the game at the Emirates and Swansea recently. The belief was there to get the result despite going a goal down near the end (Arsenal) and being pegged back (Swansea).

I do think under RM that will change. Gradually. Time will tell.