Deulofeu blames poor first half for Swans loss

I'm tired and sick of watching this shower!!

Firstly Howard is a lability and should be out the team, but the blame is solely on Stones for that backpass.

First of all, he should have put the ball down the line but didn't, and then he played a short back pass to Howard. Ayew read it like any footballer worth his salt would do when Stones is in possession, as everyone knows know he always tries to play no matter where he is on the pitch.

No way did Howard have any time to react to it. Not that Howard needs much help, but Stones made him look a right tit.

I've just seen another angle of it and Howard sees the back pass and actually takes 2 steps back to kick it whilst Ayew is trying to intercept it... the fucking dickhead!

More quality than most, I keep hoping to see him play behind Lukaku, and think he would be a very effective sub, playing in this role once a game has become stretched.

Good on the lad for calling a spade a spade, unlike our manipulative manager preferring to call a shovel a fucking garden hose.

He is limited to two, at best three, consecutive runs. After that, he looks like he will need a defibrillator soon. He has been like that all season.

It is right to observe that his comments demonstrate a degree of candour often missing in other quarters at the club but some self-analysis wouldn’t go amiss either.

He was absolutely gone by that time again today. Just stopped, left our RB to pick things up on his own while he regained his breath and started again. Something very wrong there. Any ideas?

Simple answer I'm afraid.

Martinez has neglected the physical fitness side of things, if you look closely, it's one of the reasons why his first season was quite successful, the players were still fine tuned with the Moyes era, it's well known that Moyes was a stickler for physical fitness.

Two years on, the fitness side evaporated, we can't play two halves of football, and as pointed out, Gerry always looks wrecked by the hour mark.

I agree, however, that his own fitness is suspect at times and needs to be looked at and improved by the training staff.

Having virtually ruled out a Wembley appearance, if we get nothing from Newcastle this weekend, Martinez should be on his bike.

Deulofeu really needs to do something about that. He needs to accept responsibility for his own standards. Too often, one good cross is followed by ill-advised and fruitless dribbling across the box or a passage of play that has him standing still as he watches the right back in front of him.

I am convinced that if fitter Deulofeu could become a quality player. However, his fitness levels if left in their current state will be his undoing.

All that said, I thought his gesture to the young boy (on at half time) and his family was laudable. Looking at that boy who is the same age as one of my boys and thinking about it tonight put a lot of things in perspective for me at least anyway. I expect his parents’ anxieties go way beyond concern over next Wednesday. Wondering why my son was suffering from that cruel illness would get me angrier than anything RM could do. On that note I wish all Evertonians well; many of us luckier than we know.

Rom has improved his game, but is still guilty of ball watching. I have seen Rom many times collect the ball by the wing pass it and then just stand there admiring his pass.

Stones is becoming a liability we can’t afford and Martinez still defends him, basically blaming the whole team for Stones’s error (!). He should be dropped until he learns to cut out his antics on the area and learns to clear his lines, another fault of Howard’s by the,way, who rarely punts the ball upfield, preferring to roll it to the nearest defender, putting us back on the defensive as we try to work the ball forward. I noticed how often Fabianski initiated attacking play by kicking the ball at least to the halfway line, setting his team up for attacking play. Instead we pussy foot around in front of our box looking for options to pass until we somehow reach halfway and the opposition are by the all.in defensive formation. Great coaching, Roberto.

Pienaar impressed me. For his age he was damn good and showed glimpses of what we’ve missed without him. Baines too played well, but was unsupported on the wing once Kev went off. Funes Mori again showed he’s the only defender we have who is comfortable heading the ball, and gets better every week. You could see determination in his face, and he looked disgusted at Howard and Stones after the penalty incident. Barry did well as usual but. Cleverley was ineffective beside him. Geri put in some great crosses but faded as usual around the hour mark. He did continue to try though.

It’s clear that most of the team actually did ok as individuals but Martinez seems incapable of moulding those individuals into a coherent team with both attacking and defensive tactics instilled into their game play. That is a big part of a manager/coach’s job and one he is incapable of doing as is proved every week. How far does our slide down the table have to go before action is taken to get rid of this inept ’snake oil salesman ’ whose promises mean nothing and who has been found out as a charlatan and fraud. If we were in the old wild west he’d have been run out of time by his irate paying customers, (that’s us by the way), long before now. Other managers with much better records have been sacked this season but Martinez seems fireproof. It’s surely time the press got on his case.

BK might not read TW or social media but surely reads the Guardian, Telegraph, Times etc so couldn’t fail to realise the growing discontent if it was splashed across the sports pages every day. Many respected pundits across the media were beginning to question Martinez’s suitability for the job last night. We can only hope it grows into a clamour until our lethargic board and chairman wake up and realise he is taking us in only one direction, and that, sadly is DOWN, DOWN, DOWN. Forget the League Cup. One trip to Wembley won’t make up for us losing most of our best players in the summer as will surely happen if we finish in the bottom half yet again.

Say what you like about Moyes, but at least we were always perceived as a top 8 team in his time, now we’re a soft touch that nobody fears, and are looking more like relegation contenders than European wanabees. Nobody sees us as a ’bug’ club any more thanks to the joker in charge. BK obviously heard Martinez wrong. He didn’t say he’d get us in the Champions League in four years, he really said The Championship in four years and next season is year four guys.

’Why didn’t he try to fall on the ball, use his body and hands, (you can use your hands Tim you’re the keeper), instead of going feet first? As a former goalkeeper’

It was a backpass. Surely kicking it was his best option. He just took an age to do it!

To salvage the season, let Unsie and Big Dunc take over to try and salvage some respect and get the fans back on side. Drop Howard and Stones and reorganise the back four. Play players in their right position and try and keep a team together to gel more.

Yes, it was Howard's fault. The game we play involves being able to use the keeper to keep the ball moving. Howard offered himself, he was there in line with play waiting for the ball. When the ball came he dithered and was unaware of Ayew which gave him time to press the self destruct button... yet again.

We had enough chances to bury Swansea. Coleman a couple of chances many of us would've scored. Lukaku also of course seemed to have his head elsewhere.

It was nice to see Pienaar play again.

"Jim Hardin, instead of going all around the world, with great detail, just read Brian’s post @28. If not take Darren Hind's advice!! "

Are we continuing a discussion from another thread or are you just choosing to attack my opinions on threads I am not on? Clever and cowardly in one master stroke. For the record though, Sri Lanka, Australia, Egypt, Belgium, Wales, Georgia, Peru, Ghana, Cuba and Mexico... because I felt like it.

Delboy is right about the first half but from the offensive standpoint, losing two players throws the best laid plans to the wind. Yes, the outcome of the game could have been very different had Mirallas and Besic not been forced off. Delboy delivered several good crosses but at times seemed to stand there pissed off instead of trying to do extra.

Delboy still needs to get his physical fitness level up and his attitude level down and just play a full 90 minutes and remember that perhaps his attitude and me first approach to the game is the reason Barca didn’t keep him in the first place. He clearly had the talent to be better than Pedro last season.

Lest anyone take offense, he has improved but a few shovels of dirt does not a mountain make so hope he continues as he could be a leader on the team.