Gibson set for long-awaited return

Welcome back lad, and please stay fit.

Injuries notwithstanding, Everton can now point to Gibbo, Barry and Oviedo doing a great job this season. Strength in depth particularly in midfield is crucial especially now they will have some Europa League games on top of the usual fixtures.

Four strong options in the centre of midfield this season in Barry, McCarthy, Gibson and Besic (when he signs). ItÂ’s only a couple of years ago when we had Neville and Osman in there!

Which knee was it for Kone? The same one as before?

IÂ’ll bet if Martinez has one regret since taking over itÂ’s the ٤M he blew on Kone. What a waste.

Glad to see Gibson back though. LetÂ’s hope this season he can stay fit. Although IÂ’m not holding my breath.

As the 8th best funded club in the Prem, our signing policy smacks of Accrington Stanley!

As for Koné, what the hell is wrong with his knee that he’s still not ready a year later?? Has to be Roberto’s biggest mistake to date. All us fans just need a few signings now, not news of our walking crocks.

Perhaps you should back up your unsubstantiated claims that Kone and Traore are Â’sick notesÂ’. Kone unfortunately got a bad injury; it was nobodyÂ’s fault... just bad luck. ItÂ’s not as if heÂ’s had a career plagued by injury... and neither has Traore to my knowledge.

As for Kone, I think he will do a good job this season!

Accrington Stanley??

Exactly!!

Now drink your milk!! :)

Another concern is that I feel sure that, as he hobbled off to the sawbones, IÂ’d read that he had a "piece of floating bone" (knee somewhere I think) apart from the cruciate malarkey.

But football clubs, being what they are, want players just playing and not having surgery for "some problem that probably wonÂ’t be a problem".

My point being, given this protracted setback, surely the "floating bone", has been sorted as well?

I bloody hope so, though better still, I hope that my recollection of the "floater" is just incorrect.

What concerns me more are the comments that Kone doesnÂ’t even seem to be near ready to play in a pre season friendly just 3 weeks before the season start! I hope RM can pull a striker out of the hat before then...

Not sure youÂ’re right there. Gibson and McCarthy might prove more suitable if the opposition donÂ’t flood the midfield and if (okay a big Â’IFÂ’) Gibson can stay fit.

As others have said, his fitness is a worry, although the last injury was just very unlucky and hopefully he is over it now.

All the best Darron, COYB

Stones Jagielka Distin
Coleman Gibson Barry McCarthy Baines

Barkley
STRIKER

I donÂ’t see any scenarios where the three players start. Two or three in any combo with Barkley or another attacking player in the free role or No 10 position.

We have a busy schedule so we need all the options we can get. A welcome return, and hopefully we have a bit more luck with injuries this season (wishful thinking, I know).

Hope that changes as he can be a massive massive player for us, Barry isnÂ’t young and McCarthy is not the passer of a ball Gibson is. Gibson could be the link between the defence and attack we have been missing.

Come on Darren, widen up and become a top dog.

Howard;
Stones Jagielka Distin,
Coleman McCarthy Barry Gibson Baines,
Barkley ] Lukaku.

Subs: Besic, Pienaar, Naismith, Osman, McAleny, Alcaraz, Robles.

I notice you didnÂ’t mention Coleman; he is perfectly capable of scaring your average right-back.

I agree with you. I also think that Baines and Coleman already bomb forward enough. Playing three at the back seems to just cause uncertainty as to who is responsible for the flanks – the centre-back or the wing-back?

I personally liked us playing four at the back but with Barry dropping really deep when in possession to dictate play. Gibson could do the same job with his excellent range of passing.

Both full-backs go, the centre halves are split and Barry fills the space, and itÂ’s a bit like three centre-halves.

I like 3-5-2, very good system. Although anyone advocating having a mid three of Gibbo, Barry and McCarthy has the balance all wrong.

With three centre halves it can be argued you only need one holding, although Hoddle used to play with two for England and Gazza advanced pulling the strings for example. Depends on the mix of midfielders and types of wing back you want to play. One of the best things about it is you get control of mid, width and two strikers on the pitch:

I think it would be a good system for Naismith to play as a second striker off a main Lukaku type for example, as heÂ’s shown heÂ’s very good at picking up space and makes crafty runs.

I think Barkley would be ideal at the point of the mid three in the Gazza role.

You could have a:

Howard;
Stones Jagielka Distin;
Coleman McCarthy Barry Baines
Barkley
????? Naismith

These days, heÂ’s best sitting in the middle of the pitch where people feed him the ball and he does his Pirlo bit. Of course, Roberto will have him playing a specific role but IÂ’m not sure what it is. After his serious injury, I wouldnÂ’t want him involved in 50/50 challenges.

Think of any holding passer off the top of your head. Any of them quick, mobile? Doubt it. If they were theyÂ’d be playing somewhere else on the pitch!!

Yes, agree having a deep lying midfielder like Barry or Gibson to play close to the back four is fine. But with three CBs we would lose that player and instead have a Jagielka, Stones or Gibson playing that role. Makes no sense to me.

Terry Murphy #44,

I did mention Coleman (but only the once). HeÂ’s not a winger either. He has the speed but he does not have the overall skill set. Compare and contrast with Eden Hazard, David Silva, Deulofeu, or McGeady. Skill wise they are in a different league and can make more happen. Coleman needs space to run into which is why heÂ’s perfect as an attacking full back.

We heard so much about Martinez bringing in his "own type of player" last season, but this is his third transfer window and he still has what is essentially MoyesÂ’s team.

Kenwright is taking all the flack (deservedly so for years of ineptitude) but Martinez has had money since January, he told us so himself. If he really wants to stamp his own mark on the team, he needs to get busy.

Darren - our manager identifies the players he wants and our chairman goes after them. "Get busy"? I don’t know what more RM can do.

Now he is with us, I feel compelled to root for the player, who, I must hasten to add has been frustrating to watch in the past .

He reminds me very much of a Peter Beagrie / Milan Baros type player skilfully beating a defender with pace and trickery, and either losing the ball, or failing to look up and find a final ball to a team-mate !

In all fairness he has had to adjust, and get his fitness on par with the Prem.

Well, he’s had the time, the preseason training etc. Let’s hope he starts to deliver !

Bobby has mentioned the affects alcohol has on the body in terms of injury and recovery.

We shouldÂ’ve signed lukaku in January when he basically said heÂ’d come. IÂ’m sure Â’our friendsÂ’ at Chelsea, as Bill embarrassingly put it, wouldÂ’ve listened to what we had to say if weÂ’dÂ’ve waived 㿂M at them. HeÂ’ll only go up in price – any fool can see that.

Prediction: we will do our business on the last day of the window so we can save money or has Bill handed the deeds of the club over to Barclays Bank?!

We canÂ’t even sign a nobody from a Hungarian Sunday league team, for crying out loud, or a kid from a club three divisions below. ItÂ’s terrible what our club has become under the board and for those slagging Moyes off all the time, he bore the worst of it and still had us knocking on the CL places.

This fella won’t stick around as long as him. With this continuing there will only be one outcome long-term: Martinez gone, Barkley gone but a horribly sterile new stadium – think Pride Park next to Croxteth Park. But hey, at least we never did a Leeds, hey guys... just we never did a Liverpool, a Chelsea, a Man City, a Tottenham either....

We wonÂ’t need this system for the first three games, so we donÂ’t need to panic about squad depth at the very start of the season, but obviously it needs to be done by deadline day. If we only signed Lukaku (or even a fit Traore) by season start, weÂ’d have a decent side (although obviously with the caveat that new signings are running out of time to have a decent pre-season. ItÂ’s later on when we play two games a week every week that we need the extra men in.

For the sake of argument letÂ’s assume we make the signings weÂ’ve been most strongly linked with, weÂ’d have two XIs something like:

Howard; Coleman, Jagielka, Distin, Baines; Barry, McCarthy; Mirallas, Barkley, Pienaar; Lukaku.

Robles; Hibbert?/Pennigton/Browning (right back), Stones, Alcaraz, Oviedo/Garbutt; Gibson, Besic; McGeady, Naismith, Osman; Traore.

That’s two decent XIs with only three new signings, they don’t even include Koné or the extra winger/attacking midfielder Roberto has told us he wants to sign, and we also have the likes of Duffy, Chris Long, Lundstram and McAleny who the manager has identified as potentially being involved.

Galloway is 18 and I donÂ’t think will be used much in the first team at all. We may even see him going out on loan as I think he may behind Lundstram in the pecking order, it depends how highly Martinez rates Lundstram.

ThereÂ’s a bit of a tendency to see 18-year-olds as fully formed first teamers, because we see some who are (Rooney, Wilshere, Fabregas, Luke Shaw) but those guys are the exceptions who are ahead of the game, we shouldnÂ’t judge all the other 18-year-olds by their standards.

No mention of Mirallas - last season he was the only player who was prepared to try a speculative shot (although a lot of the time it wasnÂ’t always the best option).

I do not agree with this idea still, but returning to the point re. Gibson: He will not play at CB. He is merely a supplement to the team. If we play 3 at the back, then both the ball passing Stones and Alcaraz will play before Gibson (Two quicker defenders, probably Stones and Distin would play with Jags central). If we got injuries to two of the four cbÂ’s, then Besic, who will hopefully have arrived by then, will drop back as he has experiencing playing in central defence. Gibson is too slow in my opinion, even if a slower CB often plays in central defence. It would be a horror show given his lack of experience playing at CB. Football fans, and managers, like to play fantasy football, but how often in recent football history has a player effectively made a position change from midfielder to defender? in over 99% of cases, a defender remains a defender, a midfielder a midfielder, and a striker a striker or second striker/amc.

Maybe IÂ’m not important enough, but it feels like my fault.

WhereÂ’s the TW Agony Aunt, when you want one ?? :)

He has told us early on that it may well go to the end of the window before he can get his players; we have no reason to doubt he is telling the truth. He us a very honest man, that is obvious. The last manager has been proven to tell lies, especially re the timing of Man UtdÂ’s approach; we wonÂ’t get that with this manager.

In Don Roberto we trust!!

Darren, yes I realise you know all this. Just a reminder.

McGeady was a bit limited to appearances with young Deulofeu there as well .

One thing I have found where substitutions are made in games, last season Roberto did it too, was to maybe leave it a bit too late, to make any significant impact on the game.

This especially so,when a game seems there for the taking and the score is even with minutes to go! Maybe I am being too scathing !!

They showed all the matches for free on EvertonTV last year, but not sure this is the case this time.

Can't recall too much about substitution times but Moyes was the 89th-minute king. Tired legs, usually of the older variety, are sometimes left on too long. Hopefully, we'll have a strong bench this season.

To save you looking any further, the EFC Official Site are doing the matches @ ١.99 each or 㾺.99 for all four !

The only match not being Televised is the Testimonial at GP V Porto which is also Donny Osman's Testimonial !

Hope this helps, and good luck !

Also having 3 CBs and presumably playing Coleman and Baines on the 'wing' means we have 5 defenders starting, along with likely another two holding midfielders.....hardly going to set the pulse racing and the goals flowing. It also begins to sound like a Moyes side where we have a load of defensive players starting every game set up not to lose first as opposed to going for the win. Nevermind what do we do with the likes of Mirralas, McGeady, Pienaar, Osman, Naismith and Oviedo if Barkley presuambly also starts with a yet unnamed striker. We'll have about 6 players battling for one spot! I don't think RM would have signed the players he's already signed if he wanted to go to 3 CBs in the longer term.

Back to Gibson, my view is that RM will be glad to have an extra body in the squad but given his injury record I doubt he will rely on him as a first team regular. Unfortunatealy Gibbo being back does not really solve our CM problem as its a lottery as to how long he'll stay fit for - a supposed 'slight' thigh strain kept him out for about 3 months a couple of years ago, nevermind the ligament injury he's just coming back from. I can see RM using the Barry-McCarthy-Barkley trio as our first choice for the middle of the pitch. Having Gibbo would be great to give Barry or McCarthy a rest every now and then.

All in all the first team is looking very strong, we just need to get hold of a class striker for the final piece of the puzzle, then the rest is just padding out the squad to deal with the inevitable injuries and suspensions when they start piling up around November time.

Robles, Naismith, Distin, Barry, Lundstram, Pienaar, Browning, Garbutt, Kennedy, Duffy, McAleny

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Gibbo is the only other holding midfielder we have. Ossie played there a few times and he tries his best but he gets brushed off the ball too easily in my view and isn't really a holding midfielder. With Gibbo back, he can give the other two a rest (if fit).

I agree, the two lads put some work in last season. The ground McCarthy covers it will be difficult to play a full season in that style. Gibson, if fit, is a good option.