Hodgson only used one substitution and it was in the 89th minute. Even someone who barely understands soccer could tell you that having players who aren’t tired playing against a team who are all tired is an advantage. Big Sam thinks substitutions are just opportunities to take time off the clock so you can knick a draw against some mid table side at home.
My first Everton man crush hadn’t even played for Everton yet when the crush developed. Now he’s some twat playing for a team in 10th place who everyone (especially his own supporters) dislikes.
I was sort of rooting for him the last two seasons even when I saw no potential future of him at Everton. He was supposed to slot into a midfield that was supposed to be equal to Real Madrid’s central midfield which may be the most talented ever assembled. Modric, Kroos, Isco, Casemiro, James and Kovacic. Yikes. Messi isn’t the nicest guy in the world when it comes to players not meeting his expectations and Gomes was brought in to pretty much replace one of Iniesta or Xavi and nobody could have done that. Let’s all hope that Barca sign a big name midfielder and Gomes has a happy season at Goodison and wants a permanent move.
Gylfi might have been better last season if he had been surrounded by sexy wingers like Richie and Bernie instead of being played out wide so Old man Rooney could jog around the middle of the pitch.
His rating on FIFA is like 77. That is criminal. It is just barely higher than Bolasie and Sandro. It only took Richarlison a matter of minutes to eclipse their combined Everton career goal tallies. The starting lineup we played today seems like the first time in my days as a Evertonian that there isn’t a single player in the starting XI that could be considered a weak link. It’s rare that I feel like I can name something positive that each member of the starting XI contributed in a single game.
Love the Gomes - Gana midfield pairing. So much more threatening than those early games with Davies and schneiderlin
Wasn’t able to watch but I’ll take the result. Saw just one SOG for us. Otherwise how’d the match go?
Best defensive performance I’ve seen since City on the road last year. Richarlison played with a tweaked groin for 30 minutes. So that was impressive. Any of their goals scored would have been wonderstrikes.
Solid performance it’s great to see our back line healthy and able to hold the big boys. I’ll take that road point all day
Mina looked pretty good. I wonder who Silva will go with next match since Zouma won’t be facing his parent club.
Two of our new signings got caps for France and Brazil. Digne started in their loss and Richarlison came on for Douglas Costa. Whoever was marking them might not have lungs anymore.
Our fans (more so the ones on Merseyside than on here) always have to have one player to nag about and they’ve been going hard on Theo lately. He hasn’t played well in five games or so but even his poor games are improvements on what Bolasie, Lennon and DCL out of position on the flank were giving us. And I’ve never heard them gush about any player quite like they’ve been doing with Gomes. And he hasn’t he even scored yet. All it takes is being able to keep possession and being devilishly handsome I suppose.
Problem is Theo isn’t even involved he’s a ghost out there and can’t keep possession.....even on his clear shot he couldn’t finish........Lookman recently has been more creative out there and same with Gomes he is creating out there and carrying play and involved most of the game where as Theo is *poof* gone most of this stretch lately so I can see why fans are hard on him for now
It may have been lucky as hell but you can’t really say he was invisible because that terrible shot he took basically ended up being an assist for Gylfi. If we had only drawn against Cardiff, the overall mood of the club going into the Derby would be pretty gloomy. I want Lookman to start too because mainly because I don’t want to risk him getting pissed off and demanding a transfer. I’m confident that if Lookman was the hands down better option, Silva would start him because thats what he did with Baines/Digne. Baines is probably the most respected player among the fans so it took a bit of guts to do that. I had forgotten just how chaotic things got with Koeman with the players he just decided he didn’t like anymore.
I disagree with this. Theo the past 2-3 games has been our most effective person in getting in the right place in the final third and has really improved in his relationship with Seamus. It does suck that he is missing these perfect chances he's getting each game, but no one else is even getting in that position to make a good shot. He's also been left in the cold on a couple of occasions where a simple square ball to him would result in it being a goal. Bernard is struggling more than Theo, but he honestly gets a pass because he is still adjusting to the league.
He’s got some legal shit to deal with now involving his move from Brazil to Shakhtar. Probably has something to do with those awful people in South American that seek out really young players with promise and do everything they can to extract money both the clubs and the young players.
Yeah maybe I’m too hard on Theo? I just don’t see him finishing like we need him too and when he’s on the ball not like he’s much of a creator......but maybe it’s just bias against him and wanting to see more Lookman
I was underwhelmed just by the signing because he wasn’t cheap, a bit injury prone, and couldn’t get playing time on one of the worst Arsenal teams in more than a decade. But looking back now, it was silly to think we could attract great players in January. There wasn’t anything to play for because we weren’t going down and we sure as hell weren’t going to make a run for a European spot thanks to who was the manager. Only players like Lee Cattermole would want to play for Fat Sam.
We knew it would be. If we are gonna make a change, do it on Wednesday. For this game we need everyone on same page.