Atsu hoping for a chance to impress

Browning Jags Alcaraz Garbutt
Besic Baines
Atsu Barkley Oviedo
Kone

Young keeper, Ledson, Garbutt, Galloway, McAleny, EtoÂ’o, Pienaar

By this stage last season, we were all crying out for Del Boy to be in the first 11 because his appearances showed real potential.

We donÂ’t owe Chelsea anything; if heÂ’s not impressing the manager, he should be replaced with another player with more creativity.

I'm more interested in seeing our own kids get a break than the manager keeping Maurinho sweet by playing Atsu but we can but wish him well whilst he plays in our shirt.

Robles,
Browning
Jags
Alcaraz,
Garbutt

Besic
Ledson

Oviedo
Eto'o
Atsu

Kone

Robles

Hibbert, Browning, Alcaraz, Garbutt,

Atsu, Besic, Baines, Oviedo,

Eto'o, Kone,

Justification for my prediction being that Martinez has already indicated he wants to give the likes of Robles, Browning, Alcaraz, Garbutt, Atsu, Oviedo and Kone a go. That leaves Hibbert, Besic, Baines and Eto'o as my eal guesses. Martinez has taken Baines with him to watch continental games stating he wants to start using him in a midfield role. Hibbert is suited to the defensive role required for whoever sits behind Atsu. Besic needs the games and Eto'o is made for European nights.

I wouldn't throw too many kids in together as it may destroy their confidence if they get tonked.

Maybe Garbutt and Browning and maybe bring Ledson and/or Long in later if the game permits.

Give all our best players a chance to refresh and clear any niggling injuries. Barry in there to help the youngsters as he is unavailable for QPR.

No need to play any of our best available 11 whatsoever.

Atsu and Kone are two players who, if fit, need games, I agree that I can see Atsu going back to Chelsea after the African Cup of Nations (is that seriously still going ahead despite the Ebola threat?)

Browning and Garbutt need to occupy defence with maybe Oviedo getting the second half.

Oh, and those wishing for Barry to play because he’s suspended for the QPR game need to have a word with themselves. He’s been a liability since he strolled back in the side – slow, ponderous, constantly caught in possession and constantly gives the football away. He actually looks 10 years older than he is, but no doubt he’ll be first name on the sheet next Monday night.

Barry might be off form but he should still play to help the youngsters on. We've qualified top, this is a dead rubber. Osman, Besic, Barkley and McCarthy should all have time to get fit and sharp for QPR and Gibson is still out. There's no-one else to play there.

His potential has been talked about ad nauseum and so far I have not seen him anywhere near reaching the level that can get the fans off their seats. He is as old as Sterling who looks really good and I just hope (and pray) that he is the real thing and not yet another Frannie Jeffers or Cadamarteri. The fans deserve to see a player from the academy develop into a proper goal scoring inside forward which is what he is supposed to be. He should score between 10 and 15 goals a season, lets face it, Fellaini scored 13 in a season with us.

Naismith has been a better bet so far and Mirallas is another fairly consistent scorer. But our midfield in general do not score often enough and I am including McCarthy in this group. Osman scored on his 400th appearance but he is not a regular scorer.McGeady, Barkley, Besic, McCarthy, Pienaar, Osman and Barry do not contribute enough. Our full backs actually score more often than them. Even Jags has scored a couple.

If the midfielders are scoring they will be taking some of the weight off Lukaku and Mirallas who are our only threat since Naismith got injured.

Give him a full game and lets see if he is going to be some one to hold on to, if not send him back in January.

I'm going:

Robles
Kenny Browning Alcaraz Garbutt
Ledson Barry
Atsu Pienaar Oviedo
Kone

Everton have already qualified for the knockout stages of the competition and so Martinez will use the game to "experiment"with his line-up.

Arouna Kone and Bryan Oviedo, who have been sidelined since last season with long-term injuries, are set to start the game with Christian Atsu, Steven Pienaar, Tyias Browning and Luke Garbutt also listed by Martinez.

Understudy goalkeeper Joel Robles will start in goal.

"The game is not just an opportunity for some players but it is a game that should be a celebration because we have one game left and we are top of the group," said Martinez.

"Krasnodar have not got any opportunity to get through (to the knockout stages) and so for us to experiment with the line-up a little bit is important and I don't think that devalues the competition.

"Joel Robles will play in goal. We're going to have Christian Atsu, Steven Pienaar, Arouna Kone, Bryan Oviedo, Tyias Browning and Luke Garbutt playing."

Martinez has also said that defender Antolin Alcaraz, on his way back from injury, will feature in the game as will Conor McAleny.

The Blues boss confirmed that two members of the Everton Academy will also play a part in the tie with Krasnodar but the manager would not name them.

"We are going to have a couple of our youngsters which is really, really exciting,"he said.

"We don't want to name them yet but it is really exciting to show another two diamonds of our development system."

I wonder who those two diamonds are? Where is Harold Matthews when you need him?

If I was asked to put my last ٟ on a player who will progress to the first team squad I would go for Kieran Dowell.

Only just turned 17 so it may not be his time just yet.

We all know the plan. Lots of passing round at the back , allegedly probing and putting the opponents defence off balance and a glacially slow movement to the front. We also know the counter. Teams put 3 high up the field to harry our defenders who daren't knock it long and often end up losing the ball. Meanwhile our opponents play a highish defensive line and crowd midfield leading to more passing back. Anything that does happen to get through higher up the pitch will, more often than not, get passed back anyway, such is the lack of offensive intent.

Brenda's another fan of this system and anyone who watched the match last night will see how easy it is to counter. Frankly Basel played Liverpool off the park and looked far, far more incisive and dynamic and had Liverpool looking like headless chickens at the back.

I don't buy the data that's driving this. Possession does not win football matches if it's not actionable possession, where you can actually play an offensive pass or movement. I believe that you could instead look at other data that demonstrated the ever reducing odds of actually scoring, the more passes you have in the move. The position is worsened by the fact our most likely offensive move, using our full backs high up the pitch, has been somewhat neutered by Coleman and Oviedo being injured and Baines being out of sorts. Then you just get left with the downside of having two fairly ponderous central midfielders and virtually no dynamism through the middle. On the occassion when Mirallas and Coleman don't play and Barkley is off his game, we barely have any cutting edge at all.

I watched the youth champions league football after the CL game, Atletico against Juve. The latter were pursuing tactics similar to ours. Atletico something akin to their senior team- press the ball high up, then defend in numbers and look to break quickly and directly. Juve had plenty of the ball but did little with it in the final third against a well set defence. Atletico scored twice where mistakes passing around at the back led to an opening, which were very quickly exploited- no fannying around, ball into the net within seconds- and once from a fast breakaway, coasting to a 3-0 win.

Barca may just about be able to play the Martinez way, but they have better players, better first touch and better movement and can just about make it work. But even then, Bayern crushed them last year with a game built around fast offence.

There may be occasions when playing or switching to (attempted) possession domination can work but the problem is, it's seems like it's all we have and we are rapidly becoming a one trick pony that is easy to figure out and counter.

Rant over...

Great point re Barkley.

We don't want to lose at home but the likes of Garbutt, Browning, Oviedo, Kone, Atsu and Hibbo should have enough to get a result. Even with Robles in goal.

I'd play Browning and Alcaraz at CB and see how they cope. Maybe give Barkley 60 mins between Atsu and Oviedo to give him a confidence boosting run out and hopefully a goal. Kone up front.

Only issue is DM. Besic and Ledson? Ossie and Barry should sit out.

Great post.