Lukaku still eyeing a top four spot

I don't for the life of me understand the enthusiasm amongst some supporters on another thread to get rid of Naisy. Okay, he's no Messi, but in some ways he reminds me of Alan 'Sniffer' Clarke, the former Leeds striker, who always appeared rather clumsy on the ball, but had a great nose for goals, especially in the box, close in to goal, very much like Naisy. How many players can quite a hat trick against Chelsea on their CV? Naismith is perfect backup in the striking department and will be needed in the coming months if we have injuries to Lukaku or Kone or Deulofeu.

I'm still not convinced by Kone. He blows hot and cold too much for my liking. Keep the squad together and we might have a chance, maybe release McGeady and replace him with a faster carthorse, and maybe we could mount at least a top-six challenge.

Just my private thoughts, folks. Happy Christmas to all Toffee Webbers!!!

This all started back in the day with Captain Pip. After every poor performance he promised us a response only to lose or draw the following game.

I've said it a hundred times, shut yer traps and do the talking on the pitch. Don't they listen?

I'm predicting a 2-0 win tomorrow and a Lukaku brace.

Personally I don't think we will manage 72 but we might get in because the benchmark is lower. The matches remaining with my predictions.

Leicester - draw
Newcastle - loss
Stoke - win
Tottenham - draw
Man City - draw
Chelsea - loss
Swansea - win
Newcastle - win
Stoke - win
West brom - win
Liverpool - draw
Villa - win
West Ham - win
Sunderland - win
Arsenal- draw
Man Utd - loss
Watford - draw
Southampton - win
Crystal place - loss
Bournemouth - win
Leicester - win
Norwich - win

Total points 42 so finish the season with 65.

Man Utd have looked woeful recently and are suffering from quite an injury curse. Perhaps they will buy big in January but currently they are struggling.

Leicester can surely not keep it up though I'd be delighted for them if they do.

RS are Jekyl and Hyde, hopefully to their increasing detriment. They still have a lot of mediocre players.

Spurs look decent but prone to too many draws like us. They are solid at the back though which is helpful and I think they could well be one of the gatecrashers.

And of course Everton. A month ago things were looking pretty rosy but missed opportunities against Bournemouth, Norwich and even Palace who we carved out some great chances against have really slowed momentum and frustrated us. We have real firepower and creativity in us but will get nowhere while we continue to concede soft goals. Hopefully that will be addressed though I wouldn't bet on it.

Much will rest on getting more wins over the busy Xmas period where we failed so dismally last season. A lot will rest on the manager's selections and tactics and that I fear may be the undoing of us but I hope I'm wrong....

Now that the Jose the clown has gone, hopefully that will put an end to that, or will it. Will the next man in Chelsea resurrect this pursuit of Stones? With his sacking, I think it's gone and Lukaku's dream and ours is looking a whole lot better.

Things are very different now and we arguably have 3 players (can't include Del Boy because of his buy-back clause) worth £40-50 million each and a team built around them should have at least a chance of top 4.

The dark side of this is that they will inevitably walk if the club can't secure top tier European Football.

To reply to
"some think we are having a good season", I think we are underachieving big time. My question is, are our top 4 ambitions better now he's gone?

I believe we're playing decent football that has potential but we're not ruthless enough in closing out games.

We can only hope those other clubs and those already in the top four drop points while we don't. Pretty unlikely given our penchant for missing chances and giving away sloppy goals.

Our best chance for success this season is the cups. Win one or both of those and hopefully it will convince our stars to stay for another season and another crack at the top four. If we don't win anything and no top four it's arrivederci Stones. Rom, Geri.

That may be the players perspective but, as a supporter, I would say without hesitation that I'd take a first trophy in 20 years over scraping the chance to play in a Champions League qualifier. That would be the case even if we currently looked capable of capatalising on the erratic fortunes of others this league campaign, which we don't.

If you're in a Semi-Final of a competition, the focus and ambition should surely have narrowed to winning the damn thing rather than just 'doing well' in it?

The last 38 league games home and away have produced just a dozen victories, 13 draws and 13 defeats, the team have scored 50 goals and conceded 47 with a total of just 49 points put on the board in that period.

If you compare that to Leicester City's last 38 games, they have acquired 66 points and won half of their games. The top 4 over the last 38 matches would have consisted of Arsenal, Man United, Man City and Leicester City with the European League contenders being Spurs and Liverpool with Chelsea in 7th place.

It is perhaps the form at 'fortress' Goodison which is the real cause for concern as the previous 19 league games have produced just seven victories and seven draws with five defeats, the team have scored 28 times and conceded 19 goals gaining 28 points.

Given those statistics and the probability that Everton are perhaps not quite ready for playing in the Champions League, I would have to agree with John Daley, put a trophy in the cabinet and try and make a better fist of it next season. It's not impossible to achieve both, but the odds are that we won't even make Europa League via the league but a cup win would do wonders for the fans and the club and put us back into Europe.

You are wondering why players talk in the press? It’s the modern world, you had better get used to it. We are all desperate for sound bites – it’s the reason why this website exists, for example!

I think it’s nice to see some player confidence. I don’t necessarily agree. The cynic in me says we will win one, lose one and draw one every 3 games – which will give us an additional 30 ish points, meaning we will be way short of the 60 points mark.

BUT! You never know. Something might just click in the 2nd half of the season. Who’s to say Mirallas won’t replace Koné and have a blinding 2nd half of the season? Coupled with Del Boy’s threat on the right, we might start taking teams apart on both flanks and snatch 4th spot!

It’s the hope that kills you! We’ll see.

I hope like that because I am not sure that a Capital Cup win would keep the side intact and that we could end up like Swansea and that it could give us false hope that RM is the messiah when he really isn't.

Oh dear. Let's just get a win against Leicester.

This for me has been the best I have seen Everton play since the glorious days of the 80s. We are quite some way off that with our present players but are we not loving how we are playing at the moment?

Sadly we are not winning when we should be... very frustrating. Tomorrow's game could be / maybe our turning point in this season.

COYB

I was listening to TalkSport this evening. Did you know that we have not beaten anyone in the top half of the league this season?

I personally think CL a bit of a stretch, but what the hell, set your goals high, and you never know.

Like John says, a cup's more realistic. We can't give the top 4 up, but it's unlikely I'd say.

As far as our results are concerned, I think the results every week show that practically any team can spring a surprise and what appeared to be bad results on our part, now don't look quite so bad, if that makes any sense!

Champions League? He's having a laugh at our expense.

I know Lukaku is doing his bit at scoring, but they have to work as a solid unit.

CL. You joking? Let's get through the league cup first. And start winning games.

The dogs of war attitude we need. Grit and determination and some balls.

The passing attacking football is superb to watch, but we aint no Arsenal. And that's the difference between CL footy and Europa league footy and were more Europa. But I think our only chance is through a cup success. I'm sad to said. With RBs defensive weaknesses. Which he don't seem to learn from.

@Tim: 72 pts might win the title this time. 65 will secure 4th.

Approaching nearly the half-way point of the season and we won't even have hit the 30-point barrier. We will finish the season with around 50-55 points.

In my head, it should be 9 points against 3 teams which should be below us, now and at the end of the season. Guess that's football... sells you hope and delivers disappointment.

However, you say something at the end which many say: "Over to you RM to give them a reason to stay". While I completely agree RM needs to up his game in many areas, I also believe these 'young, ambitious players' need to as well.

Lukaku of late has been scoring a goal a game for fun. But nothing to stop him scoring twice, particularly when he has so many chances. A goal a game is a good return for any striker but even then complacency could creep in.

I think RM's main deficiencies are his defensive frailties and his refusal to sort out the Howard debacle. But these ambitious young players need to tighten up as well and consistently be the success stories we're given the occasional tantalising glimpse of.

Great for him – even better for us! Show him who's the best today, Rom. Slam dunk them.

A bit melodramatic Don don't you think! Martinez in his first season played a blinder and we came 5th in Premier League! The second season we dropped to 11th.

I, along with plenty of ex-footballers who have played in European competitions, believe playing in Europe has a detrimental effect on League form and therefore (I would guess) would cost us 3 or 4 places. Admittedly that's guesswork but it's bound to affect the team in a negative way through tiredness and injuries.

This season, we are 3 points away from 5th place after 16 games, and would be in 5th place at least if our strikers had scored a goal or two more from a load of chances that have been created. 'If' is a big word, I know.

The defenders have let in some soft goals, there's no doubt, but with the chances the strikers have had it shouldn't have mattered.

Martinez is undoubtedly proud to be our manager, Don, but I think he is also be proud to be an FA Cup Winner.