Martinez pleased with resilient Blues

I don't feel we really supported Lukaku enough tonight, my fear when I saw the team.

Deulofeu flatters to deceive too much, Barkley just doesn't get forward enough, we definitely need more central midfield attacking options.

Besic was fantastic, the defence was admirable and Howard (for once), but for Christ sake, will John Stones stop going to ground in the penalty area when there's no need, I must be the only one who feels he's an accident waiting to happen.

Whither John Stones?

Tough, gritty point today from a team that most of us thought was too soft to get that job done. Jagielka, Besic and Howard were all terrific. POSITIVE.

And no Jim, Stones going to ground in the area now sends my blood pressure up 5 points. He must feel a very lucky boy tonight.

The problem is, though, a draw against anyone right now is useless as we have drawn far too many already so the only way we can make up the ground on the front runners is by winning matches.

Howard did better tonight, Barry and Mo Besic looked good too, as did Ross .

Can anyone please explain why our 21-year-old Spanish wonder boy is not fit enough to last the game out. He is blowing for tugs five minutes into the second half of ever game. Boot camp time I think.

Also Bobby has to be taking the piss – how can he put Pienaar on the pitch in that state, the lad was goosed within 10 minutes; what must Mirallas be thinking?

Stones looked the best I've seen him in a right back roll, but it was certainly a penalty by him on Sterling.

Hopefully we can take the same result when we meet next week and go on to Wembley to give us our European experience next season.

That all said, he deserves some credit. He proved me wrong. And I'm happy to eat more humble pie if he can play like that in a run of games.

I still expect Howard to fluff crosses whenever he plays. Last night he didn't have too much to worry about. But I think that also had much to do with Jags and Funes Mori fitting together as much as City not being a side that relies heavily on scoring from set-pieces. Had it been a Stoke or Palace would we have conceded on a set-piece?! Who knows?!

I'm a massive Stones fan and he's as good as any one I've seen play in an Everton shirt. For all his talent he's still quite raw in some areas, particularly attacking the ball from crosses and he has a habit of switching off and losing the man he's marking.

I think this will definitely improve and he could be as good as Bobby Moore or Alan Hansen. I think he's that good. I also think he's a luxury we could afford to sacrifice if we get a £50m offer in the summer.

I don't understand the criticism in the 2nd half. I think much of it was by design and we wanted to sit with men behind the ball and hit them on the break. In many ways it was a very David Moyes type performance where we looked to put not conceding before anything else.

Howard deserves credit, I hope he continues in that kind of performance.

Top four was lost before the new year. What would be nice is to win more than we lose or draw from now until the end of the season.

It's only January and I'm already thinking of next season, that is down to poor management and he will still be here then.

Barry had another good game, Ross was a bit infective in the 2nd half as too was Rom but we got what we have craved for which was a decent defensive display with a clean sheet.

Perhaps, just perhaps, he was told to control things at the back. If so, he certainly reverted to Moyes-like tactics which were supremely effective although must have offended the purist philosophy of his manager.

I bet tonight's central paring with FM is not long on show.

COYB

So what about John Stones? As Jim and Dave have rightly pointed out, he's an accident, (or a penalty) waiting to happen. Maybe he needs a rest, or perhaps he should be moved into the right back position or even in a midfield position where his skills at carrying the ball forward can be put to better use. We'll see if Martinez abides by his own words re picking the form players in each position. The one good thing about the situation is that I'm no longer quite so worried about Stones being sold as we have an able replacement in Funes Mori.

Last night, Besic again showed us what we've been missing, and Howard for once got through a game without any major blunders. One match however, does not a season make. Can he continue to perform as well? We'll soon find out. Overall it was a great team performance though draws are really not what we need right now. Let's so a few wins in the coming weeks and the fans will really have something to cheer about.

As good as Besic is he makes me nervous with some of his passes in dangerous positions. I much prefer him than McCarthy and he seems to bring out the best in Barry too.

I think Pienaa'sr inclusion over Mirallas was down to trying to control the game, maybe Martinez was happy to play for a nil nil and can shit or bust in the 2nd leg using super Kev.

It's hard second-guessing Roberto – I don't think he knows what he is doing himself half the time

Unless we make a significant purchase in this window, I think this will be the starting 11 for league games, if all are fit, until the end of the season.

It was really good to see Pienaar and Baines linking up again. It's amazing how players develop an almost telepathic relationship and we saw a few glimpses of that last night. Besic has to stay in the team. If Martinez really trusted his squad he wouldn't have rushed McCarthy back and forced him to miss a lot more time than he needed to.

My biggest issue with RM is that he never 'finds' his best 11. It's always forced on him through injuries. Moyes had his favourites but Martinez is taking it to a whole new level. Hopefully the Besic situation also teaches him and provides a 'lesson' that he can learn from.

No doubting it was an excellent result, though. January is turning out much better than we feared.

Whatever it is, I'm not sure but Gerry seems to really struggle with his stamina and fitness in the second half of games, he gets to the point we are almost down to 10 men, he just loses it completely.

Start Lennon, get him to do a shift for an hour then throw Deulofeu on to run at them, Chelsea are as clear as day there for the taking but we need to offer more in attack on Saturday, more support of Rom, let's not go back to isolating him, I was looking for Barkley last night arriving in the box but he didn't do it.

Great result last night but we are woefully short of wins again, need to win some games.

I think he did pretty well. He looked decisive and in control of his 6-yard box for the first time in a long time.

One cross in particular stood out, the one he kicked away late on. Stopped a certain goal IMO. It was a low one which hasn't really been a weak area for him but still pleased that he saved us a point last night.

I have absolutely no words for Stones at the end there. He needs to work on his decision-making.

It frustrates the life out of me that we can't break with any sort of tempo, and when we do break on the counter, it doesn't result with an attempt on goal! Instead, we give the ball away with a poor pass or get so far up the pitch turn back, pass back, keeper!! Arrrrggghhh !

It's partly down to a lack of willingness from our attacking midfielders to get close to Rom.

I said before yesterday's match, I want to see Barkley take one of these games by the scuff of the neck but he just seems in a comfort zone at times.

Deulofeu is too wide too really support Lukaku with anything other than crosses.

Osman did okay and at least went closest to hurting them but the future he is not.

We need to be bolder at Chelsea and commit more men in our attacks, watching the highlights of Leicester's win at Spurs, the amount of men they have in the opposition's penalty box is admirable, they at least attempt to support the striker.

While last night was a really pleasing result, two wins since November 1st, that's poor going.

It is something in the second half of the season we must drastically improve on.

Stones has this habit of stretching out a leg in a last ditch effort, and we have already suffered the consequences this season. Obviously he should stop doing this, as I nearly had a coronary last night.

The ridiculous thing is that if the ball is going out, then there is not a scoring opportunity, so the defender (Stones) even by catching the forward's leg, is not stopping a cross or shot, so how can a penalty be given?

Over the years, a striker running to the touchline gets tripped almost on the whitewash, and the ref gives a pen! Why? The player on the run would not be able to stop and shoot or cross – surely the refs should look at this "letter of the law"?

Stones is a centre half in my opinion. If he was moved to midfield it would have to be in place of Barry which is not going to happen any time soon.

I asked the question on another thread earlier in the week what was the manager going to do with Jagielka now that he was fit. Well I got my answer last night – he will play him with Funes Mori – a left footed centre back who can head the ball. It makes sense when you think about it. So when Coleman is fit the manager has a hard decision to make.

I don't think he'll drop Besic for McCarthy. The only way McCarthy gets back in the team is at Cleverley's expense. That's another hard decision for him to make.

Deulofeu does seem to run out of steam in the second half but you can guarantee that two or three times each game he will either get in behind the oppositions defence or put Lukaku in with a killer pass. I really rate Deulofeu but like Jim Bennings (#18), I would start games with Lennon until his stamina builds up.

It's good having choices.

I can't see Martinez wanting to rush back Coleman in case he has a setback so going for Byram, an England U-21 despite being 22, would be a shrewd move.

Unfortunately for them, we stood in the way. Howard made two decent saves but his blocking with arms and feet was absolutely superb. I lost count of the numerous Funes Mori blocks. A brave lad indeed. I love the way he can clear the ball with both feet.

Mo Besic is a wonderful all round player. Intelligent, skilful and tough. Not sure he'll lose his place when McCarthy returns. Martinez scouted and signed this boy and will have big plans for him.

Good to have Jags keeping things organised at the back but Barry was the one filling all the holes. Constantly looking foe weaknesses in our defensive shield as younger players flew here there and everywhere, he slotted into the gaps and kept us solid. An old pro with vast experience.

I'm a big fan of Barkley but the lad is still not getting it right. Like Scholes and Alan Ball, he should be looking to pass the ball in his first two strides instead of running into trouble. He does it for England where he dare not run and lose it, but he doesn't do it for us. One particular moment when he could have sent Deulofeu in on goal made me scream.

As for the subs. Without knowing what the manager is planning for certain players, it's impossible to comment.

Stones filled in as well as he could but a tall, slow turning fullback against a quick winger with a low centre of gravity is not always a pretty sight.

A well earned point but I'm not filled with confidence for the Chelsea game or Cup 2nd leg.

You miss the point! Perhaps the Law is an ass is this case.

Look at this:

Link

At 40 seconds in, there is a clip of a Pauletta goal. By your reckoning if the goalkeeper had brought him down as he ran away from goal it shouldn't be a penalty because he wasn't in a position to score a goal. Who is to say that Sterling couldn't have done something similar?

That said, and holding my hands up as a huge fan of Ross, I'll back his judgement from his vantage point. It's easy for us to disagree with 100% of the passes he doesn't play, because that reality wasn't lived out. He could have a pass away in two touches every time as I'm sure he sees them but chooses the ones he wants to play, and the way he wants to dictate our play. Again, he's proving his judgement better than mine. (At least recently – I think I had the edge over him previously!)

In comparison, Deulofeu plays whatever he sees... if the whole team did that, we'd hardly see the ball!

Seemed like a bit of a Poll/Hutch decision to me. i.e. the ref decided a draw was a fair result.

Not complaining, but I would if that happened to us.

City we much the more dominant in the second half though I put much of this down to Besic not wishing to risk a second booking, plus the disappearance of Osman.

BTW, apologies – when I re-read my post, it did sound somewhat snotty and I didn't mean it to.

Martinez is quick to applaud his players, which one expects from the manager, but does he really believe they can get a winning run going, even if it's only 3 or 4 games???

Despite some good play yesterday by the Blues, and they have shown they can play with the big teams, they seem not to have the belief they can elevate themselves to the next level, results-wise. Until Martinez can instill this in the team, then sadly things will not change.

I just wish this resilience had been there earlier in the season, and it might have been us in Leicester's position.

I would hope that John Stones learns the lesson of not going to ground in his own box, he did it against Stoke and was penalised when he shouldn't have been, and maybe last night he got away with it. When you go to ground in your own box you are giving the ref a chance to penalise you.

It does seem that the trend is for penalties to be given for very slight contact, when often the attacker could easily stay on his feet to continue, but decides, due to the angle, or whatever, that it would be better to go down in a heap.

Ironically these "slight contact" instances occur one minute, but when a striker is being bear-hugged at a corner, nothing is given! Surely this also "contact" – and not so slight!

When we were young(!), we used play a lot of two-touch football in training and even one-touch sometimes. Makes you run more to support the player on the ball, but you also need to focus on what's on around you, before you receive a ball. Increases awareness. I expect Barcelona play a lot of this, Gareth Barry too.

Conor (#36),

I noticed that last night a few times where Ross seemed to leave players run by him rather than just shuffle across to cover. Who knows, maybe he is instructed to hold his position. Maybe we were instructed to allow Fernando or the centre backs have the ball in space as they were unlikely to hurt us, whilst closing down on others like Toure or De Bruyne or Silva when he came on, who were very likely to hurt us. If you think back, was Ross more exercised in defensive mode when Toure was on the ball? All part of the cunning master plan perhaps?

Barkley seems to have most opportunities on the ball and one would have thought his percentage of completed passes would be much higher. He, like Cleverley, all too often screws up when it seems easier to find a team mate.

I am sure these things are worked on in training but, in today's game, when most teams park the bus when not in possession, it just takes a few seconds more patience before releasing the ball, which some of the modern players don't have.

He's had loads of time to learn and shows no sign of doing so. Alli of Spurs looks far more effective. Way over-rated for me, rumours re large bids for him have evaporated – Neil Warnock was spot on. He's a gifted lad, but shows no sign of fulfilling his potential. His bad injury is years behind him, so that should no longer affect him.

I'd defo play Lennon & Mirallas for Deulofeu & Osman in the semi-final, maybe bring Deulofeu on later if the situation justifies it. Like someone else said above, for all his talent, he flatters to deceive and in spite of his assists, his crosses are very poor – like Barkley, he contributes very little defensively; top teams attack and DEFEND as a team.

There are criticisms still to be made, certainly, but dropping him now would be extremely unwise.

As an American who loves this team but probably has a bit more distance from this team than you, here's what I saw.

A bunch of 20-22-year-olds with not much experience, players coming off injury and players playing out of position because of injury, stood up to one of the top teams in Europe.

It's amazing to me that Everton held Man City scoreless at home for the first time in a year and people are not happy. Going into the season, which one of you would not have been happy with a point at The Etihad? Even Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea would be fine with a point at The Etihad.

Yes, we were on back foot in the second half. Guess what? Many teams are going to be on the back foot when they're playing one of the biggest teams in Europe at their home ground. Remember, they have a squad too... and it just happens to be filled with world-class international everywhere.

The team was set up well and the defenders, midfielders and 'keeper did not buckle against veteran, high-priced mercenaries that almost score for fun.

Two games against City – a win at home and a draw on the road. Yep. I see a lot to rip here.

We may not have been beaten much in a while but we've only managed one win in 7... still, a good result.

Pienaar also helps out at the back; Mirallas is a liability anywhere near our own box. I think Martinez's problem is where to fit Mirallas into the team, we can't have Mirallas and Deulofeu in the same 11, our full backs would be knackered!

You can take it as read that we all have great pride in OUR team, that most of us have been following for many years, 54-ish in my case. It's all part of football that we comment on how things might improve, on how players might improve etc. This shouldn't be construed as criticism. I made a couple of comments about Ross above.

I am a huge supporter of Ross, delighted he's an Evertonian and hope he will be for a long time to come, but unless he is Messi, some of us are going to point out flaws, some out of ignorance on our part, but most as part of the general ToffeeWeb banter. All together now "We've got a diamond called Ross Barkley"

I agree that it was a great performance to hold out against players who have been hand-picked from the best in the world. The clubs are miles apart off the pitch but we have shown that on our day, we can match them.

City wage bill in year-to-end May 2014 was £204M compared to our £69M. Some of their players demand birthday cakes from the club. We arrange birthday greetings for our most deserving supporters. So a point away to them is a great boost.

Please don't get disheartened, Michael. Great to have you on board our topsy turvey blue machine.

I wonder about our stamina in the second half, as we stood toe-to-toe with City in the first half, but tailed-off worryingly in the second.

In the Semi final second leg, I would keep Del for introduction in the second half, so he can have a go at some tired legs. I would have Lennon on from the start.

It took me a while but I can now understand why he failed at Wigan. The next manager can't come quick enough for me.

What I cannot fathom is the apparent lack of fitness throughout the squad. As the season progresses and we have only played 20-odd games, we look jaded, none more so than Deulofeu.

As important, I cannot remember a match where our first half performance has mirrored the second half and vice versa.

Is there a reason why we can't play a full 90 minutes?

With respect, as a relative newbie to all things Mersey Blue, you seem to buy into the "plucky little Everton" thing. While it may be a practical viewpoint, us older timers don't like this at all. Not one little bit.

Especially when compared against Manchester City; a joke of a club and a team for virtually my entire football watching life who were languishing in the third tier not so long ago and have been relegated numerous times. Amazing how a couple of billion dollars injected can change people's perceptions overnight, eh?

Just a bit of information to get perspective on how people comment on this site. Go easy on us will you?

I thought we went toe to toe with City, as we did at Goodison, and that has to be good for confidence. Howard played well, as did Jags. Criticism of Stones is valid but some of his play was sublime. Besic is really shaping up, Ross was frustrating. Geri just can't last beyond 60 minutes, but he's good for that hour.