Not hopeful at all, Chelsea have looked good, we have looked vulnerable. No Pienaar is a big blow for us, he looked to be back on form. Which means McGeady who I wanna like but all I see is a fat unfit player with a little talent who doesnt show it. Now what to do with Naismith? His best position is up top but we have a 28m striker who has to be there which means him dropping back into the fake 10 role which isn't ideal and Ossie is better in that position. If only we had a back up to Barkley! Despite Costa slight injury I can still see Chelsea being far to strong for us. The team will be, Howard, Coleman, Jag, Distin, Baines, Mirallas, McGeady, Mac, Barry, Naismith ( I prefer Ossie ) Lukaku. Efc 0 Chelsea 2
Must admit I didn't expect the deck to come tumbling down this quickly but that's Martinez for you. Defence was an absolute joke & we are fast turning into Roberto's Wigan. How can a back 4 go from the solidity of the past few years to this display of the 1st 3 games (10 goals conceded), the centre halves in particular look lost, dare he drop the captain for Stones in the next game?. Barry & McCarthy are taking it in turns to see who can be the shittest this season with the latter showing his new Nike CONCRETE boots for goals 3 & 5. Unfortunately for us Lukaku is showing Jose to be right and displaying a lack of fight and motivation currently which belies his 26m price tag. The least said about Besic 1st touch in English football (Glen Keeley anyone?) the better. Slight positive were the form of Mirallas & thankfully Naismith who is the only one who looks like scoring for us. Things need to change quickly after the international break
It was the first time Everton lost and allowed at least 6 goals in the Premier League since Everton 1:6 Arsenal on 15 August 2009. To the new members here: I'm a Manchester United fan who also likes Everton.
All the more reason to start Stones. As I mentioned on other boards, he was excellent for most of last season when he was featured at CB. If McCarthy and Barry were as bad as you say, then we have nothing to lose by dropping one of them in favor of Besic and giving him a real look. I haven't seen the match yet, but obviously, the defense was horrible if we conceded 6 goals. I have it recorded and will watch it this afternoon.
this forum is always pretty quiet. Most evertonians hang out on GOT/Toffeeweb and facebook groups. We're only 3 games in, and I too wonder how the best defense from a couple years ago is having such nightmare performances. RM needs to sit the heck down for a minute and think long and hard on how he can get them back to where they were. As I said under moyes, we won't win games by focusing on defense. under rm we won't win games focusing on offense. we need both. but it is only 3 games in. a good slap (figurative or literal, i don't care, whatever works) is in order. Maybe this loss will slap some sense into them.
My facebook Everton group has been pretty quiet today. Can you put in a GOT/Toffeeweb link so that it will be easier to find?
Watched the first half again and from what I saw, a little bit of both. Jagielka needs to be dropped in favor of Stones and Howard needs work on his stance, positioning, and being set for the shot. Other than the first 3 minutes (which were dreadful) and Jagielka's awful give away, the first half was pretty good. If you eliminate all the mistakes, we would have been up 1-0 at halftime. Gonna watch the 2nd half and and post again either later tonight or in the morning.
Here's my take on the 2nd half: Chelsea's 3rd goal was McCarthy's fault, not Coleman's. He was positioned way too high and got caught flat-footed making it way too easy for Hazard to get around him and handcuffing Coleman and Howard. Brilliant strike by Naismith with the outside of his right foot placing the ball perfectly in the bottom corner to make it 3-2. Chelsea's 4th was a well-taken strike from just outside the penalty area, leaving Howard with no chance, but we have that down faster. Eto'o's header to make it 4-3 was even better than Naismith's and Mirallas's goals, both of which were excellent. Lazy defending by McCarthy and Barry allowed Chelsea to get in for their 5th goal. I wonder if Besic's daft error in the 90th minute was really an error or if it was done on purpose. It's going to be really hard to trust him after that. In summary, our attack looked great and we controlled the match for long stretches, but we really, really, really desperately need to clean up the mess at the back. At least 80% of training should focus on fitness and defending, as we have been unbelievably poor in those 2 areas in the last 20-30 minutes of each of our first 3 matches.