Injured duo out of cup semi-final at the Etihad

So much for learning lessons eh Roberto?
Another game, another self destruct goal.

We snubbed 38 million for a guy who just walks the ball about or does Cruyff turns in his own box.
If Stones wants to learn how to defend he could do worse than watch the performance of Swansea captain Ashley Williams, always vocal and organizing his team.

The least said about Barkley the better, simply in 12 months time we'll be talking about his career heading the same way of Jack Rodwell.

Martinez is a comedy, a naive comedy joke.

We will get smashed on Wednesday, scrape past Carlisle and probably draw at home to Newcastle a week on Wednesday, if we are lucky!

What's the point?.

I really did wish that Barkley would've turned out to be our version of S Gerrard but unfortunately he doesn't have that desire to control games, be dominant from box to box, or have that passion that a local young lad should have.

He doesn't defend, costs us a corners ball watching, and doesn't track his man; he's only interested if we are in an open game with space for him to run into and look good so, 9 times out of 10, he's completely ineffective.

At least he doesn't go hiding and isn't scored of putting his foot in which is more than you can say of a few of these so-called fantastic young talents we have.

What were John Stones & Howard playing at?!!! They were both fucking useless again.

Martinez really has turned Everton into the old Wigan. Everton are going nowhere under Martinez,

Things are not looking good for us this season; we are fading fast...

Whilst I am not a fan of Martinez and some of his decisions and tactics, the players have to take responsibility for the way they play as well.

Also, I don't know what to make of all the Stones bashing. Yes, he's not playing well at all right now, but did anyone really expect him not to have some downs as he continues to develop? He was better at the beginning of the season with his quick decisive passing out of the back, allowing us to spring deadly counters.

As his confidence has grown he's allowed himself to begin holding the ball longer and acting more nonchalant. I'm confident he'll find his way back into a good rhythm. That said, I do wish he would position himself better off the ball. (I could say this about a lot of our guys when we're playing defense.)

Never mind, Jagielka, Kone and Lennon might be in the team on Wednesday. Although Kone takes a lot of flak he does help Lukaku to be a more effective player. With Seamus also returning the side should have a more solid look.

Eliminating the defensive howlers should be easy if players are given clear instructions to clear the ball up the field or out of play. It is not complicated.

The players play the way Martinez instructs them to play, hence the pissfarting around in defence rather than knowing when to clear your lines and this is one of the reasons we were hearing on the grapevine why Distin had run-ins with him last season.

I agree that the players do have to take responsibility to some point though, we are clearly a team sorely, woefully lacking in big characters, big vocal men who are willing to be leaders and stand up and take some responsibility. I look at the the likes of Barkley and Stones, two of these much lauded younger players, and I question, do we really see enough fire in their belly, do we see two guys that want to put their bodies on the line, do either of them want to stand up and be a leader?

Rooney was a leader, a vocal man at 17-years old, by the time Gerrard was 22 so was he, same for the likes of Frank Lampard, David Beckham.

Do I see enough desire in our young players? Who looks hurt when we concede a goal? If they are hurt then show emotion, shout, bark orders, finger point, but I never see a man in outbreak wanting to take this mantle on.

Every week it's just the same old goals conceded followed by the same old excuses from Martinez followed by more over the top superlatives.

Wednesday night will be the same, have we gotten bottle to reach the Final, we deep down all know the answer to that.

Its predictable.

With our best or strongest team at The Etihad there is and was always a good chance that we'd concede a couple but my hope was that we could grab one or two goals of our own to ease our way through, after today I'm not at all confident of it happening – ah well there's always the FA Cup and Premier League survival to look forward to.

Even if we went to Man City on Wednesday night with our strongest line up, we could score THREE goals on the night and still lose the tie.

We could concede 5 or 6 the way we just gift chances to our opponents, even a few minutes into that second half today Swansea find themselves one on one with Howard to make it 3-1, but Howard smothered it.
As it was, that turned out to be the clearest chance of the second period for either team.

We are just an accident waiting to happen.

I'm so pissed of with today that I'm now getting pissed off with errors in speeling.

Coleman
Jagielka
Funes Mori
Baines

Stones
Barry

Lennon
Barkley
Cleverley

Lukaku

Look, this is just an excuse for me talk about anything other than today's game. As I'm back on the game, missed Macca today – I thought the game passed by Cleverley quite a lot.

A disaster today but Pienaar looked to be getting back to his best. I thought he, Barry and Deulofeu were the only positives from today...

Funes Mori has done well enough to have earnt a starting place alongside Jags.

Jim, do you really think Martinez tells Stones to play out of every situation even when he has no time or space? Come on, honestly!!

Robles
Coleman
Jagielka
Funes Mori
Baines
Barry
McCarthy
Cleverley
Barkley
Lennon
Lukaku

I can't see him starting Deulofeu. If McCarthy's not fit then one of Osman or Kone will play ahead of Barry with Cleverley dropping back deeper.

Which two centre-backs to pick is what RM gets paid for. I honestly don't know what I'd do.

The Darron Gibson goal against Man City was 4 years ago. Since his debut on 14 January 2012, he has made a total of 48 full appearances, with 15 as substitute and scored 2 goals. Obviously the main factor in his sporadic appearance record is the number of injuries he has endured.

Apparently, the manager was hoping to get him a loan move during this January, but with the injuries to McCarthy and Besic, this may be his chance to remind us of what he was/is capable of.