Dammit. I'd imagine a midfield 4 of Arteta, Pienaar, Donovan, Bilyaletdinov would not have enough defensive bite to hold off ManU. Really curious as to who Moyes puts out there. EDIT: Wait a minute....isn't Pienaar serving a suspension?
Served against Chelsea. It wasn't a straight red, rather a pair of yellows so it was just a one game suspension. Everton need to attack or die. I'm conflicted in this match because of my liking of Sir Alex and his club But what I can do is predict that this is going to be a fairly open match, and should be entertaining. Utd aren't the type to simply eat up possession. When they have the ball, they're going to go at goal - in waves. Everton, with Donovan, Pienaar, and Saha - are going to have the pace to bite back. Without either first choice center half and no real destroyer on the pitch Everton should find it easier to carve out chances than they did against Chelsea - even without Tim Cahill. In that regard, I don't think they'll really feel the loss of the Aussie, they have enough attacking talent to overcome his loss. what they will horribly feel is the loss of the BelFro. Fletch and Carrick and Scholes are all excellent passers, with Carrick especially is in fine form. IMO he'll be the key to Utd merely creating good chances, and Utd completely dominating. Whoever is in the middle for Everton is going to not only have to do his work defensively, but is going to have to be notch in getting the ball out to Pienaar and Donovan on the break. Those two are going to be the key to Everton getting anything out of this. If they prove to be dangerous on the fly, they'll force Sir Alex to pull back. That of course is the issue with playing Utd. They don't want to scrape a win. They want to put 5 goals past you.
It's great for Donovan that he's getting to play all the big guns during his spell at Goodison. No one can then say 'He hasn't done it against the best teams'. Even if he goes back to LA, what a loan move it's been! Rooney is absolutely on fire this season. After Cristiano left, he needed to step up, and he has. Please, please, don't let him burn out before the WC! Everton fans despise him! Lousy ingrate Toffees! (I mean that in jest!)
With the form Man Utd and particualrly Rooney are in if this was at old Trafford I'd give Evrton no chance, as it as they're still very much the underdogs. Then again I said EXACTLY the same thing about Chelsea, so what do I know.
I don't believe we have a chance anyway. They have won more PL games versus us than any other team, simply they beat us routinely. One time we were 2 nil up with a half hour to go and ended up losing 4-2. It's just that much of a run of the mill thing for them.
This sentence should not be allowed to exist in the English language. On topic, tough game for Everton, compounded by the injuries. 100% healthy, I think Everton could make it a match; now I'm not so sure. I know for most people, the derby match was against Liverpool, but my hate for Man U knows no bounds. *This* is the match I'm nervous as hell for. If Landon does something special in this game and Everton get a result, it will make my year.
Thanks, would rep you if I could. I would love to see TH stuff a couple of Rooney shots but he is so good at avoiding the keeper, scary. Hoping for a good game to watch in HD!
I think when Rooney's got his shooting boots on his shots are pretty much unsavaeable. Even when he hasn't his shots tend to beat the keeper, but go just wide He almsot scored one of the goals of the season against Tim Howard with a wickedly dipping shot earlier in the season, but it hit the cross bar. Of course Everton is Rooney's former club and the club he supported as a child, to add the interest factor
Anyone pulling an all nighter? I wasn't planning on it but I'm not asleep yet so it's heading in that direction.
It will be very interesting the player selection for Moyes down both first choice central midfielders. It would be surprising - but not beyond the realm of possibility -- for Moyes to insert Landon centrally and let him play a true attacking central midfield role. Of course that seems rather unlikely based on (a) Moyes does not typically have on CAM but generally uses twin two way midfielders (b) Landon has had such success on the outside Moyes may be reticent to move him out of a position where he has shown well and Moyes may be concerned about handing the keys over to a player on loan -- especially against the Red Devils. Ok, so, logically, it ain't gonna happen but it would be awesome if it did. I would love to see Landon granted such an opportunity but, realistically, you have to assume it will be Arteta and someone else (Bilyaletdinov, I guess) centrally with Donovan and Pinaar on the wings. Looking forward to it!!
With this being a U.S.-centric site and all, as well as this being the Yanks Abroad forum, it does make sense in that regard. Even me being on Australian eastern time (in Melbourne) for the last eight-plus years, one gets used to it. Squads and Team News -- sportinglife.com With all the aforementioned injuries and suspensions, wouldn't (as a move of necessity more than anything else) a move of Donovan into the central midfield, and maybe giving him more of a free role, make a bit of sense here?
Because the whole U.S. is on the east coast? okay, whatever, I recognize lost battle when I see it, but even *in* the U.S. only about a third are on the east coast, and even the U.S. Military -- which is pretty "U.S.-centric" -- uses UTC as their standard time when communicating times to people in different timezones.