Not used to doing a match preview on a Thurs but we enter Europe for 1st time in a few years. I would treat this competition as an opportunity to blood youngsters and fringe players. So with that in mind my team would be Robles, Coleman, Stones, Alcarez, Garbutt, Besic, Gibson (is he fit?), McGeady, Mirallas, Ossie, Eto'o (if fit otherwise Naismith) Be a tough game & we are not playing well so will go for a narrow 2-1 defeat
I'm hoping Martinez fields a strong team for our Europa League matches. It would be great to qualify for the Champions League again some day. And because finishing in the Top 4 looks quite unlikely, winning the Europa League may be our best shot at doing so. The best I can see Everton doing this season is to qualify for a Europa league spot again. So I figure since we're in the Europa League right now, it's best to fight as hard as we can for wins in Europe this season. Otherwise why work so hard to qualify for Europe if you're not going to play all out if you manage to qualify.
Because we worked hard for the champion league and failed. This is simply a by product of that. Our team isn't strong enough to win the competition so we should rest our 1st 11 and give other a chance. Spurs got to the qrters employing such a policy
First let's gets the good points out of they way, they are ultimately the be all of what we are trying to achieve. We won convincingly, we scored 4 goals & Naismith continued (sort of!) his great start to the season. Now I have purged myself of that stuff let's get onto other matters, the performance! It was a Europa League match for real wasn't it? Was played at testimonial pace, the players were laboured, the build up was turgid, Coleman still can't pass to a blue shirt for Toffee (no pun intended!) although he scored another so that will satisfy the Irish Mafia. Some musings, Why is 33yr Barry subjected to 3 games in a week when we have 22yr Messi blocking wonder star (no i couldnt keep straight face either!) on the bench. Why if Eto'o was fit enough for bench was he not played from start and give Rom a break. Is Atsu the new Kone, talked about and whispered in the mass ranks "you remember that lad Atsu, he was brilliant" when in reality he never plays? Is Gibson suddenly not good enough for us? Has Ossie become Martinez bitch, is this why he never plays despite the continued absence of Barkley. This and other ramblings will be found in our next episode of Everton - The Shite Spanish Manager era