It's never us

And you thought it was a good time for Martinez to come on and show his appreciation of the Everton fans?!? Really, Paul, with all his faults, I very much doubt being a masochist is one of them.

Anyway, thanks for your report and I'm glad you got home safe and sound.

Despite missing a couple of golden chances I thought Cleverley had one of his better games and was one of the few to show for the ball and look positive during that woeful first half.

Says it all for me about Martinez's reign when one injury to a full-back (Coleman) and one suspension result in a midfield player having to fill in at right-back, a nowhere near fit Jagielka having to start, and a never fit Darron Gibson having to turn out for just his 4th appearance. Add to that Hibbitt on the bench alongside a lad who'd had to be recalled from loan at Walsall. Can't think of that happening at any other Premier league club

I thought Baines, Barkley, Lukaku, Cleverley, Besic were all awful yesterday, McCarthy ineffective, Stones one of his better games, and Jagielka made one crucial decision to rush out of the back line which cost us the match allowing Martial the space, that blotted a solid game from him.

I've watched the match back again this morning and we really were unlucky! I can't think of many other teams who have a 25 goal striker who is coveted by the worlds richest clubs, deciding to save his worst performance for the biggest game of his career?

He never misses that many chances in one game without scoring at least once!

Only us. Btw, Clev is a much better player than I gave him credit for.

Gibson cant be relied upon so that's not even up for discussion.

Baines is so one footed it's unbelievable and he's still never looked close to being the player he once was when he and Pienaar struck up that fantastic partnership, but agreed he needs to get back to penalty duties and start acting like a leader and senior player, should have demanded that ball from Lukaku yesterday

Cleverley is so so out of place on the left, it's just what Moyes did with Osman, square peg in a round hole and offers limited threat.

Hopefully all the idiotic calls for Besic to fill in defence will also now end once and for all, the guy is a relatively competent defensive midfielder nothing more.

But these decisions should all be made before the game.

Hopefully it is all academic now with a new manager coming in, but if not the senior players really need to step up and sort things out on the pitch if it's not off it.

Must disagree about Barkley though. Unfit, lazy, overweight and just stood in no mans land for most of the game. Pretty much lost or made the wrong pass when he did go forward and missed opportunity to shoot when he should.

I've been saying this for months now but I can't wait for a decent manager to get hold of him to get rid of all these awful habits he has developed under Martinez. A shadow of the player he could be and he may as well not have been there in light of such little effort he put in.

Managers and players come and go, but True Blues live forever. Well done, boys, you're the best .... NSNO

Cleverley's second-half performance I think warranted a 7 as at least he influences the game going forward, unlike McCarthy who gets worse with every game.

I hope Koeman comes in and uses his credentials to keep Stones and make him the world class centre-half we know he can be as he won't indulge his mistakes like Bobby Brown Shoes has...

I feel sorry for my 13-year-old son, and his mates, and others just a bit older, and lads in their 20s who have seen nothing at all but heartache. At least the likes of myself have seen title- and cup-winning sides. The way I feel at the moment, I doubt if I'll ever see another trophy while this current board of amateurs runs our club.

So please, Paul, save your sympathy for those who watch us week-in & week-out, and spend hard-earned money – not multi-millionaire players, regardless of service and allegiance to the club.

Anyways to the game, all I think Barkley needs is a decent manager – one who gets him to track back, put a tackle in now and then, release the ball sooner, you know I think it's called a coach! Martinez is ruining him.

Besic was average at best, Connolly should've played against the RS and then been ready for yesterday; again, bad management.

Beyond that, he played the strongest team available, but then forgot to coach them. No cohesion in the first half, just sleepwalking to defeat really, as if putting out a team was the only thing he could concentrate on for two days; no game plan or tactics.

Second half, players just said "Fuck him and his philosophy, let's play football," and they almost pulled it off... DESPITE the manager.

He's got to go. Kenwright needs to do his duty if he really is an Evertonian.

Good report, Paul, by the way.

On your ratings, I have to say that Barkley was poor for most of the game, but did put a few good touches in towards the end. I thought Cleverley did well, hitting first time passes and showing a bit of fight.

Like many others, I can't see why Besic was played at right back. He was exposed continuously, so why wasn't Connolly given the role?

I thought that Lukaku really battled well, winning balls from two or three defenders at times, it was just his clumsiness that let him down. He went up for a header and skied it, and seemed to blame Besic, who was coming in behind him, in a better position. Besic didn't bump Rom till after his poor header had whizzed over the bar, but Rom took out his frustration on the innocent Mo.

The knackered Jags seemed to stumble as Martial and Herrera engineered the late goal. It was an all too typical scene, in the last seconds.

Stones was my MotM , but I wonder just what might now happen over the summer, will we see him and Rom in the blue next season?

In my opinion, only Stones played to his full potential in the semi, but it does infuriate me that we try to drag our best players down at any given chance.

On the penalty decision, it would have been seen as a foul outside the box so for the media to say it wasn't a penalty is ludicrous.

Two players stood up in the second half and for me it was Stones and Cleverley, they were instrumental in getting the team fired up. Was this a Martinez directive or player power? All I see is Martinez taking credit for it.

As for Lukaku and the penalty miss, this is just bad team management. If Baines is the designated penalty taker then allowing anyone else to take it is reckless. If Baines misses, so be it... but with his record and how he takes them, you would back him to score every time. These things are what separates the really good managers from the likes of a Martinez.

When the going gets tough, we need "tougher" midfielders or at least one that links play much better, and not lose the ball so easily. Just take a look at Bojan, or Payet. It's so hard to get the ball from them because it's either already with another team mate, or they already made space for themselves to take the ball forward.

He is also predictable with his right leg, I think the opposing team has absolutely no problem ensuring he's in their back-pocket.

He has started so many games irrespective of how poor some of his performances have been. Surely our next manager will expect more than potential and idleness.

I was at the match so was able to see what he was doing, and where he was, when he didn't have the ball and he really was just as bad without it as he was with it.

The only Everton player who came close to being as bad as Barkley yesterday was Aaron Lennon. Again, nothing he tried came off. Poor decision making and so many misplaced simple five yard passes. What I will say for Lennon is that, particularly in the first half, he was one of the few players to put in a shift.

After having a chance to reflect on the game over the weekend, I would say Stones was our Man of the Match. Rom is in the team to score goals, he had seven chances to do his job and failed. Over the past 10 years, Baines has been our penalty taker up until the Mirallas (madness) moment last year at Goodison. When Rom missed against West Ham, Baines should have been back on penalties.

Against Man Utd, most of our big opportunities still had Ross involved. He carried most of our threat. He usually does.

A new manager might have different ideas about what Ross should be doing for us, but his career will outlast individual manager appointments so ultimately it's up to him to decide what he wants to be... and where he needs to be for that to happen.

Garry, I think you're a bit too touchy.

"I'm not keen on the insinuation that Ross is 'first player I'm blaming.'"

Nowhere have you been mentioned . My remark was about TW in general, not this specific article.

I imagine the Sunday Times journalist also "calls it as he sees it" and he makes a decent living at it, too, so maybe that's an avenue that you may also consider, writing for a national newspaper...;-)

Shame about Lennon, he didn't get much service and fell short of his previous performances. The one who really struggled was Besic, who was repeatedly taken to the cleaners by Martial.

Maybe it's just chemistry...

I'm afraid Lukaku's poor finishing was the deciding factor – just not clinical enough. A "Champions League" quality striker would not have fluffed them all, but that's the standard that he's set himself and he came up short.

The performance first half was all Martinez. The second half was down to the players realising that they had nowt to lose.

Ross, in recent games has found it difficult to turn quickly and track back after someone, which makes me think he has poor conditioning for a young guy or does he suffer from the Martinez malaise like a few others?

Second half he was different class and I thought drove us on. Maybe being a blue he felt the passion from the terraces more than most.

The score that is wrong is Lukaku – no better than a 3 for me. If he is as good as he thinks he is, he should be doing much better. He was awful, truly dreadful in the first half, his control as bad as it has ever been and he missed 2 gilt edged chances; second half he improved slightly but missed a glorious chance and of course a penalty.

Absolutely appalling performance for a striker of his supposed quality.

The reason the fans moan at him is his attitude and body language. He jogs while players get away from him. It's all well and good doing that when you are Ibrahimovic or Yaya Toure but he isn't. If you have a bad game then people will pick at that.

One of our biggest problems as a team is that we carry 2 players up front who aren't interested in doing the graft and that puts us under a lot of pressure and doesn't allow us to press higher up.

Anyway, I thought Stones, Jags, and Cleverley were outstanding.

He did better in the second half, but he couldn't have been as poor as he was in the first.

By the way, how did you rate him?

But then again the whole fitness regime needs a revamp, you can have all the talent you like, but if you can't get up and down the field to use it...

The case of Israel Folau is and example, went from League to AFL to Union and changed his body mass/shape to suit...well they changed it for him.

I thought Stones had a decent game, but Besic and McCarthy were woeful.

Really interesting that not long after he missed the pen, Lukaku chased down a ball and really got in De Gea's face, it went for a goal kick but the whole end gave him an ovation.

Unfortunately that commitment has been all too rare this season.

No balance, no shape, players who appear unsure what they're meant to be doing. Why don't these journalists ask Roberto why the same squad could do all this two seasons ago but not now. What has that got to do with 'investment'?

Robles 7 good game and is getting better more he plays
Besic 5 poor positionally but not a full back
Stones 8 my Man of the Match; very good, especially 2nd half
Jagielka 8 herculean effort on 1 leg
Baines 6 poor 1st half but a lot better 2nd
Lennon 6 his poorest game for a while
Gibson 6 too deep in 1st half but quicker passing is what's needed
McCarthy 6 poor 1st half got better 2nd when pressed higher
Cleverley 6 not seen 1st half better 2nd missed a good chance
Barkley 6 flashes of good but plenty of bad should of been replaced with 20 to go by Mirallas
Lukaku 7 had a great battle with Smalling, had plenty of chances which he would normally taken, touch let him down at important times and didn't fancy him with pen. Thought he worked harder than usual
Deulofeu 7 made good impact when he come on; I think this is his best role until he is fit enough to last 90 mins.

The tactics by ther manager were wrong again, sitting too deep and no pressure on the ball, but what's new? I feel the players took more control 2nd half, pressing a bit and winning ball higher up the pitch and breaking. If we started the match as we finished, we would of won but surely that's the last nail in RM coffin... I hope so. HEARTBREAKING AGAIN.

He is definitely a much better player than he is looking at the moment.

For some reason Ross is allowed to do no tackling, wander round when we don't have the ball in no mans land, never closes down and makes sure he jogs to a player as opposed to really harrying him in a 50/50 challenge. Now maybe these instructions come from Martinez, maybe it's Ross's decision and Martinez lets him get away with it, who knows. What is known is that Ross maybe contributes for perhaps 10 minutes a game, if that. Lukaku doesn't get away with this, Stones neither, why should Ross?

We are just not good enough to carry a luxury player. The position Ross plays is just too important for him to do nothing. Just closing down and being in the defenders face would be a start. At the moment there is just a great big hole where Ross should be and it's letting defenders just glide the ball out without any pressure.

Allied to that, he often tries to overplay and doesn't see the correct ball to play and also has stopped shooting in sight. Ross is not a kid anymore,he has been around the first team for 5 seasons now; he should be maturing now, not regressing and being overweight.

Now I realise its easy to sit in the stands and criticise and I take absolutely no pleasure in saying what I see; however, his lacklustre attitude is why the likes of Deli Alle is streets ahead of him at the moment. He is not putting the effort in and his scoring rate and assists should be so much higher considering he is the sole provider/foil for Lukaku.

I guess we all see things differently but in my opinion Ross hasn't really put it in for a full game for quite some considerable time and Im just desperate for a proper coach to get hold of him and turn him into proper midfielder and not just a player who plays for a brief period of time. He has all the attributes to be a top top player but is being wasted by his lazy demeanour.

I was watching Mahrez how he puts in some really hard work. If you work as little as Barkley you should be as good as Maradona. And although I like Barkley, he is nowhere near to be of that league.

I frankly don't understand why he is playing like that. I get the feeling it must be so much against his basic instincts just to let Carrick walk past him with the ball.

To compare look at Rooneys instincts. Even in a testimonial Rooney would make a sliding tackle against a 50-year one.

Whether it is down to the fact that Barkley is just like that, if it is the manager who instructs him or he just need a Roy Keane type of captain to get him going I don't know. But Barkley is so frustrating to watch. You think it could be so good if just...

Well I know a bit more now. About his instinctive talent. His great control , good passing and pretty decent shooting. But thick he is and it will always stop him from being the really top class player he's sometimes mistaken for.

Say what you like about Moyes, we never saw players taking the ball off Baines, when he was in charge, very rare we let a lead slip or players breathless after 75 minutes.

Moyes had his favourites, he was also too cautious, relied on has beens rather than youth.

I would not want the guy back, we need to aim higher and more ambitious plans n going for a top manager.

If Moyes was given til the rest of the season, I would take that over another game in charge by Bobby.

Ross is from Wavertree, not Woolton.

Paul Gascoigne, Diego Maradona, Peter Red, and only God knows how many other top class midfielders were think as shit.

I don't think this is what will stop Ross going to the very top, it's more likely to be that either his talent won't allow it, or his career choices won't.

His career path will be down to more than himself, he has family, friends and an agent who will guide his future to his managers, all of these people will affect Ross career, his IQ won't have shit to do with it.

Nothing personal mate, just a point I felt worth sharing ;-)