Timmy and Donovan don't walk alone: Merseyside Derby 2/6, 7:45am

With a pre season under his belt with us, I can see him being first choice on right midfield/wing easily. It's been so harsh on the guy just throwing him in at the deep end, without the team getting used to him and him getting used to the team. If we can get it to 'click', he could be totally awesome here.

 

Yes, always.

 

Enjoyed when he just did that touch-and-go right past the defender. In space, Donovan is a holy terror.

 

Just wanted to concur with this. Howard was really distracted and seemed to completely lose concentration. He's better than that and needs to keep his head clear -- or just grab two fistfulls of shirt and shove Kuyt ten yards out of his area well before the kick.

 

Very pleased with the result and with the performance of the YAs. It was unfortunate that Timmy took it on the chin with the goal, but I thought he made other plays look easy and thought that LD was probably the best player for Everton going forward, which is not saying much. That was an absolute CRAP performance by Everton as a whole. No answers, low desire. I expected more out of them, especially up a man. They couldn't even possess in the 2nd half.

Liverpool just ground it out. It was a gutty performance to say the least, but this is what happens when you have a defensive minded lineup on the field.

 

Can't say I agree with that. Thought we possessed a lot, just did absolutely eff all with it.

 

No. It was a fairly weak attempt that skimmed 6 yards wide of goal. As far as Donovan's overall performance goes, he did a few things very well, but then found himself out of the game for long stretches. Could, perhaps should, have been more assertive on occasions, but tidy as always.

 

I think this is compounded by wanting to fit into the scheme. But it's true it's not the strongest part of his game.

 

Food for thought FWIW, despite all the hand-wringing over the performance in general, LD received his highest match rating thus far in England by Sky.

 

All great points. I am very impressed with how fearless and tough Pienaar plays for a dude his size. L-pool was laying into him everytime he touched the ball. The ref let too much go early in the match in my opinion starting with Carragher taking out Pienaar early on, as you mentioned.

I agree that Howard seemed overly interested in shoving Kuyt which kept him from getting to the corner. That, coupled with a wicked inswinger made TH look not very good on that play.

I thought LD played well although 8 from Sky might be a little generous.
He did play hard, made some good runs, created some chances and pressured the ball on defense.

 

He had his worst spell of the game just before Pool's goal, but overall did well. His passing was neat and crisp. A few nice dangerous runs.

He wasn't used enough by Everton IMO. He stayed wide but they didn't get him the ball enough. He was fine, but fine wasn't good enough today for Everton.

 

A pound of what?

Sorry, the joke was there...

As for the player ratings of our guys on skysports.com, definitely a mixed bag.

Howard got a 5, with the comment, "At fault for the goal", which concurs with the consensus here. So the majority of us aren't that off base when compared to the experts that actually cover and rate these matches.

Donovan, meanwhile, rated an 8, as "Everton's best player".

 

I'd be happy to oblige, but after checking the conversion charts right now £1 = $35,000. I don't have that kind of cash on me.

 

I'm on board with those ratings. This was a match where both sides gave each other very little time on the ball, hence the high number of contensious challenges. Donovan was clever when he could be and made the least errors of any of the Blues (dammitTimmy!). It's obvious he has not earned the complete respect of some on his side though. He was overlooked (or is it underlooked) on quite a few good runs he made. Hopefully that will come quickly.

 

I don't think it's a lack of respect. I think it's still getting used to his style of play, and him getting used to our style of play. It takes a heck of a time to settle. This team has played together for a good few years now, you can't expect someone to come in and just start demanding the ball from guys who know each others game inside out.

I've said elsewhere, given a pre season and getting used to the style of play, he could be a huge player for us in the future, if we could get him permanently...

 

Shame to lose to 10. Thought LD was dangerous,winning 2 FKs and 2 corners by my count. Pity they never look to play him through.

He even tried to tell Arteta(who was poor, IMO, too many bloody square balls and no searching ones) to play him on the diagonal but I never saw him try it. Saha was horrid and should have been off sooner.

They might have lost more by taking Felliani out than they gained by going a man up.I don't know what everyone was blathering about on the Felliani tackle,he was two footed,but was only going in with one as far as I saw, showed some studs but if the guy
had not slid into him, they would have been on top of the ball.


Howard was awful on the goal, but Neville was neither goalside of Kuyt nor did he even try to jump.

 

Definitely, but it is annoying though. The viewers see it, that's why Donovan continues to get 7s and 8s in the ratings, because he is always making himself dangerous. However, the players either aren't seeing him or choosing more comfortable options.

 

There's a little bit of truth in Donovan being underutilized in almost every game so far for Everton, hes done well in all (in my opinion) but in the early going people made jokes about Neville actually knowing if Donovan was on the field or not. Maybe Nevile hasn't used him enough, maybe Everton didn't use him enough today and there could be different reasons behind it; trust, familiarity, timing, whatever. Bottom line is Everton couldnt find the open man having the advantage and that's everybody's fault.

All things considered I think Donovan did well. I agree that an 8 is too high but he did have a nice little "vintage Donavon" run out of the midfield to win the free kick in the early going. Tracked back and covered well. Never really disappeared.

Goal on Tim Howard, he was never set. Too much of a busy body and never focused. Complete concentration for the full 90 is taken to another level in games like these, everything is so much quicker.

I thought Arteta did well when he came on. You could see he was a little frustrated. At one point I watched Donovan pass him the ball near the touchline and Arteta proceeded to dribble straight across towards the opposite side just looking for someone to make a cutting run into the center, It never came and Arteta found himself with the ball just a few feet away from the opposite touchline gesturing to (I think it was) Pienaar as if to say "why didnt you make a run"? Seemed to me that Everton could only play side to side….

 

I've watched about 3 of LD's games in front of Neville, and Neville has not played one through ball to him.

The only space he looks for is at the far post.

 

Looked to me like Kuyt got a good push off in going to the ball, and Howard never got his legs under him enough to move out, so he was left flailing with just his upper body.

I dont know enough about what Howard and Neville are supposed to be doing with the player right in front of the keeper, but whatever it was, it wasn't done.

 

I thought this too, but it's hard when you are playing against a team that just sits back and absorbs your pressure and won't move out. That means it was upto us to change our game, change the tempo (when we moved faster we looked so much more dangerous), and be more inventive with our movement off the ball, and variation with our style - mixing it up a bit.

We did none of this. We paid the price.

 

Guys: What's the code for the highlite to reveal thing??

 

The text is in white, so just left click, hold it down, and drag your mouse over the space as if you were copying or cutting.

Try here:See...easy as pie.

 

That part I know!

How do you set your text to white as you did?