Everton vs FK Krasnodar

I'd have to say, I didn't really see any astonishing talent elsewhere either, nor in the game against Celtic.

Thankfully we don't have too many players as "unique" as him or we would struggle to field a team...

I'd start with Galloway at CB along with Alcaraz who can guide Galloway through the game in the same way he did a raw John Stones last season.

I'd start with Ledson alongside Barry in midfield as Barry is suspended for the next PL game. Again, it will be good experience for Ledson to play alongside a experienced veteran like Barry.

I'd like to see McAleny play alongside Kone in a 442 formation. This game should offer the likes of Kone, Oviedo and Alcaraz good fitness rehabilitation and the youngters vital experience for their development.

I would play:

Robles
Browning Galloway Alcaraz Garbutt
Astu Ledson Barry Oviedo
McAleny Kone

Here's hoping the night goes well for the lads on the fringes or returning from injury.

RM should be experienced enough to know that changing the whole side will be chaotic especially while preparing the first team for QPR on Monday.

We need to ensure a confidence inspiring win tomorrow night to get the crowd and the squad up.

I personally would like to play more of the first team in this one to help the kids out.

Me too. It's not as if the lad chose to be injured. He's had terrible luck with injuries, and gets kicked in the balls for it.

After all his time off with injuries and looking at how long it is taking Mirallas and Barkley to get up to match fitness, I think this game will just be an exercise to ease him back and will be surprised if he lasts more than 45-55 mins.

Hope he comes through the game okay as, with the injury he had, and the length of time he was out, and considering his type of game is speed on and off the ball, he may find it difficult to get back to the form he was in.

I reckon the coaches must take the blame for not instilling work rate into these youngsters who are supposed to be the future of the club. Sunderland were the better team and the outstanding youngster on the pitch was Whatmore who ran both Jones and Browning ragged until he went off with an injury. We did improve after Whatmore went off but while he was on we struggled to contain him.

Kone would have had a hat-trick against our defence, that’s how poor they were collectively. In possession they looked fairly good but without the ball they gave Sunderland too much room. I hope that the players selected to play against Krasnodar play much better as this is a fine opportunity which they should do their utmost to take.

Seriously.

Mainly due to the few times when he made it on to the field, he looked pedestrian and uninterested. We had the, "It was ramadan and he was suffering", well I work in catering and I know plenty of people who can observe this and still pull a 12-hour shift effectively.

But yes, you are right, a bad injury and I hope he recovers fully, gets on the pitch and scores for fun.

Come on, Kone, get your boots on, son!!!

Robles
Browning Hibbert Alcaraz Garbutt
Ledson Barry
Atsu Barkley Oviedo
Kone

SUBS: Howard, Baines, Jagielka, McGeady, Osman, McAleney, Eto'o

He has indicated that there are 3 young players who could come into the first team. Assuming that they are Browning, Garbutt and Ledson, I would play all 3 from the start and tell them that they will play for the full 90 minutes (barring injury or fatigue).

He should say the same thing to Atsu, encouraging him to express himself.

Defensively there is a gap in the central defence, so why not play Besic there (as this is supposed to be one of his positions) alongside Alcaraz.

Up front I would like to see McAleny and Long both have 45 minutes alongside Kone.

If Naismith and McCarthy are approaching full fitness I would have them as substitutes and bring them on after 70 minutes (for Kone and Pienaar). The rest of the bench should be composed of players that will not start on monday.

We can all relax knowing that the result is not as important as the performance of certain players in this unusual match.

i, get Oviedo and Kone back to match fitness so they can play a regular part for the rest of the season. Hopefully they can both get through at least an hour if not the full 90.

ii, give Garbutt, Birdman and Bless you a full 90 minutes to keep them match fit and ready to help out when needed in the coming weeks.

iii, give a few of the youngsters senior game time to see if they can handle it. (Although I doubt the Russians are going to send over a strong team as the game is meaningless for them too.)

I’d play

Robles
Hibbert, Browning, Bridman, Garbutt
Atsu, Barry, Barkley, Oviedo
McAleny, Kone

Barry and Barkley just to get a run out and some confidence back as this will be like a training match. Hibbert in just to stay match fit as Coleman will play on the weekend..

Also amusing me is the "Kone brings something unique" – yes, Roberto, sick notes are hard to extract from your doctor nowadays. Ian Duncan-Smith has made them rarer than Unicorn shit.

And Sean Kelly (32), while Alcaraz and Gibson were injured at their previous clubs, Kone's ordeal seems to have been consigned to Everton alone as he played more than 30 league games in each of his two seasons before signing.
He's just been unlucky. The "other clubs' crocks" tags hardly applies to Stones and Barkley, for example, does it?

Kone must be dying to play again, the same for Oviedo. Kone is 31 which is still young in the grand scheme of things. Everyone seems to think you hit 30 and suddenly you're and old man. Well I hit 30 nearly 12 years ago and it feels like a lifetime away now!

On a separate note, I was surprised that Kone had not used his time away from football to improve his English. I have noticed improvements in that respect with other players, notably Mirallas and Oviedo.

People seem to enjoy slating Kone because he had a near career ending injury and now he should have used the time away from the game improving his English

What a failure of a man this player is

Maybe he should throw himself off a bridge and have done

though if that happened he might get slagged off for jumping incorrectly

Get a grip FFS

I hope he’s the star man in a team of boys and gives us more options up front.

Maybe he'll come off the bench. I'd like to see all these guys mentioned get at least some time tonight.

I would like to see:

Robles,
Hibbert, Browning, Galloway, Garbutt,
Besic, Ledson,
Barkley,
McAleny, Kone, Long.

I'm going for 1 legged tightrope walker...

My worry is if the game goes ahead it will be spoiled by the heavy winds. I hope the fans will make allowances for the younger players making their first appearance if this is the case.

By the way, I imagine there's less chance of a cancellation tonight.

It's one thing to tell Palace to piss off back to London, another to tell a side who've just flown in from Russia "Erm... look, there's no easy way to say this... so not to beat around the bush... to be completely frank and... um... all things being considered... when all's said and done... not to put too fine a point... "

Etc.

These instructions are to be continued throughout the remainder of the season.

I Liked Garbutt when he came on at ht against Leyton Orient, never put a foot wrong second half, then in the next round against Leeds didnt even make the bench,talk about knocking a youngsters confidence.

Heres hoping to a good game tonight and a bright future to Everton Football Club and its supporters.

The whole exercise is a waste of time.

I'd go for Riejka if they can get past Sevilla, top place for an away trip on the Croatian coast. But there are some other top destinations such as Bilbao and Lisbon.

However there's not many that appeal in Eastern Europe!

Anyone ever mentioned you are one miserable get?

Oh , and the 8th "youngster" was Seamus Coleman at 21 .

So maybe not all meaningless.

Like it Brent.

A lot has been made of the increased attendances this year, fans rolled up in the hope of seeing Robbie deliver on his promises of a brave new approach, but he hasnt been able to has he? our approach has been anything but brave.

I felt the mood was changing last week not only did Goodison turn hostile at the end of the Hull game but I
noticed huge gaps in the stands during the game. Has he lost them already, the next few home games will tell us a lot

Here's a thought Darren, the attendance tonight may be down because we're already through, it's on the tele, we have a more important game on Monday and money is tight, weather is shite.

Let’s do something really phenomenal and get rid of Kone, alcaraz, Robles and Cretinez and get someone in that wants to play effective winning football not pass the ball sideways and backwards in our own half possession football

Robles

Browning, Alcaraz, Barry, Garbutt

Oviedo, Ledson, Pienaar, Atsu

Kone, McAleny

SUBS: Dowell, Grant, Jones, Kenny, Long, Williams and Griffiths (G)

You do realise we are obliged by the rules of the competition to play tonight?

As the result of the game is meaningless, it does give us an opportunity to give a few players returning from injury such as Kone and Oviedo a competitive game. Also he can let a few of the kids get some first team experience.

Your missus is very insightful by the way.

I completely agree with the first three words of your post.

BTW we were'nt "through" against Hull, the game WAS important, the weather wasn't " shite " and money was tight last week too. . .wanna offer excus ..I mean reasons for that ?

What WILL be interesting is whether tonight's side will follow the style laid down by St. Martin and embrace the principles of PAATB with a different goalie between the posts.

OPTA note books at the ready, class !

Who won the sweep?

Sadly he and his back room staff now have their footballing blueprint firmly embedded on our team. It is slow, lumbering, painful and almost completely ineffective in the premier league as just 4 wins in 14 games will testify too. Our excellent defence has been all but destroyed leaving solid defenders confidence in tatters. We leak goals like a sieve DESPITE having two very good holding midfielders and an above average keeper. He has not brought youth players through as he promised at the start of the season, I realise this may be due to them not being good enough but garbutt has looked good and browning has acquitted himself well.

He just seems to be in a world of his own where everything is, dare I say it, "phenomenal" ! For me he is a very poor mans Arsene Wenger and I think he lacks the discipline, steel and mean streak to take us anywhere

In 2007 we sent out a comedy team with kids, Mad Dog and Jimmy Mac with lots out of position or looking like they’d never even met. It was an exciting (3-2?) victory against the current Man Utd manager’s Alkmaar.

In 2009 we watched the kids play at Goodison (sadly all of whom don’t seem to have made it bar Coleman who wasn’t really a kid then anyway) marshalled by Tony Hibbert at centre half. We lost but it made for interesting watching.

It’s a bit random, a bit crazy but we can rest key players, give some players some much needed experience and it is panto season after all!

The importance and value of doing this was summed up in pre-match ITV4 footage of one of the kids (Browning?) He looked extremely nervous. The next few hours will teach him lot.

Anything around the 20,000 mark would be a good attendance.

Armchair critics of my stance against supporter exploitation need not reply.

How so Phil?
Apologies if I am disturbing you at Goodison :-)

hope they 'll be rewarded with a decent performance

I'm in Senegal this week so the decision was made for me. You say it is a "cynical abuse of supporters goodwill".

Absolute tosh even by your standards. It is a dead rubber because we have done outstandingly well in the first five games. Yes read it and weep Phil, in the Europa Cup we have done really well which I know doesn't quite square with your anti-Martinez agenda. But the game has to be played

The club have done the right thing by reducing prices. It's £5 for kids tonight. The manager has done the right thing by not playing first team players.

But don't let the facts of the situation get in the way of your titty lipped ( my mother's phrase) negativity and continual sniping.

I get your frustration Gary but there are some puzzlingly positive aspects to this season. Everyone has been raving about West Ham. Their one recent defeat was to us. Another anomaly was that Spurs fans are agreed they played their best against us. We were screwed by the ref at City and should have definitely beaten Arsenal. While I agree we should be doing better, we look like we can get points anywhere. I certainly don't write off matches against the cash rich clubs anymore.

And to make it all the more puzzling, we've walked the Europa League thus far. In a group that was meant to be hard.

I'm not sure we have been sussed out. I think it's a case of several players out of form all over the pitch and at different stages in their returns from injury. If we can get Coleman, Baines, Mirallas, Barkley and McCarthy playing together for a few months (without injuries to Jags, Naismith or Lukaku), we will finish much higher than we currently are and go on some cup runs.

It doesn't make you any less of an Evertonian but don't encourage UEFA in their greed for gawd's sake.

Are you suggesting that Euefa should change the rules of the competition and not play the game tonight?

I assume you are watching Masterchef and not bothering with the game?

There were just under 35,000 at the Hull City game and Hull brought a mini bus and a taxi so, with that in mind, not a bad turnout.