Barkley heads out on loan

I think this is a good idea, help him gain match experience and help Moyes learn that he should be starting for us (if he is as good as we hope). Reminds me of sending Osman out on loan before he broke into the first team. So the omens are good, a successful loan spell and Moyes will be building the team around him for the next decade.

Foreign acquisitions?! They come over here, stealing people's first team selection!

Reminds me of my handyman a few days ago.
'The plumber's coming over tomorrow. He's Iraqi, but he's very nice and very well educated'.

Just as well he said that as for a moment I thought the plumber would set up an al-qaeda cell in me broom cupboard.

One month? Hopefully it's more than one month. I guess Moyes wants to ability to bring him back if we get hit with injuries.

He definitely needs more playing time and he's apparently not going to get it here.

So Gibson confirmed to be out for another 2-3 weeks. Let's hope that means Miralles and Naismith sharing the right wing and forward slots with Fellaini dropping back behind Osman in midfield. But don't you just know that that won't happen.

Shane you would think that would be the obvious thing to do, but I would imagine that Moyes is more likely to slot Neville or Johnny into Gibbos position.

So we have Stirling, a 17-year-old in the Liverpool first team and selected for England with less experience than Barkley. Seems he's good enough and Barkley at 18 shipped out to Wednesday. Seems he's not good enough despite many fans believing the opposite.

Think we will miss Gibson ALOT. He is our only central midfielder who seems to really dictate play. Don't think fella does the same job.

I know it's a bit crazy but any value putting pienaar there instead? It breaks up the bainaar combo but mirallas can take over and would give us a proper intelligent footballer in the middle of the park instead of Neville or heitinga.

I can hear the groan around Goodison already as Neville AND Hibbo are both on the team sheet.

Surely, SURELY, he will use Felli in his natural position and bring in Miralles.

Surely.

Sam I think thats a nice thought, but pretty unrealistic. It would be crazy to break up that partnership, its without doubt our most productive area on the pitch. it has to be Felli, but lets be honest, we all know deep down whats going to happen!!! I think sometimes it can be hard to second guess what Moyes will do, but on this occasion if I was a betting man, it would be Neville all the way.

Nick #219 unless you watch South Park you might not get it but the phrase I believe you are looking for is "they tirrrkk errrr JERRRBBSS!!"

Barkley needs to be playing so good luck to the lad

Moyes will go for Neville in midfield as certain as bears shit in the woods

Except for Kenny's dad Chris He doesn't have one so his weekends are essentially meaningless.

DAYTOOKIZJARRRRRRRB!!!!

Gavin rather...

Chris, no doubt that Neville will start. Wish we had got ofoe on loan, definitely short on defensive midfielders.

Just have to hope the loan move achieves the player development we are hoping for. Think that will take longer than a month though. Is it acceptable to just keep renewing a one month loan?

Don't mind Neville starting, don't mind Ossie starting, just don't want the two of them together as our defensive midfielders!

Alright David Moyes, transfer wizard. Please do the right thing tactically. Fellaini back to Gibson's spot. Mirallas on the right wing. Seamus Coleman to overlap at right back. Naismith to re-unite with Jelavic. It makes absolute perfect sense in every way.

Howard

Coleman Jags Distin Baines

Fellaini Osman

Mirallas Naismith Pienaar

Jelavic

You know it's what has to be done.

Easy now Peter. I was with you right up to Coleman. Ben Arfa would tear us a new arse.

Anyone know if he's likely to play for them tonight? They play Brighton away at 7:45.

@Gavin

You're probably right there and I find it thoroughly depressing. Neville is a very average at best fullback. Putting him in Midfield is pointless; he can barely hit a team-mate with a throw-in let alone a pass.

Shane. Ben Arfa tears EVERYONE a new one lol. He's a world class player. All I know is speed kills and is to be respected. Coleman has a whole lot more of that than Hibbo. Coleman will make mistakes because he's young. He will learn. Hibbert will struggle everytime there is excess speed on the wing. He's a great tackler and solid positionally, but he provides nothing going forward because he's slow and poor technically. That isn't going to change. Coleman at least will give them something to think about down the right with Mirallas. Hibbert will not.

'Hibbert will struggle everytime there's excess speed on the wing?' This statement is ridiculous. If his right midfielder goes Awol and he's physically unfit like against West Brom then he'll get done, any RB would. If he's fit in a balanced team he can keep any winger int he world at bay as we've seen over ten years the countless times he's shackled whoever has come up against him. Obviously Nani, Valencia, Young and Evra weren't fast enough for him. Fellaini and Pienaar played together in CM a few times against City with much reward a few seasons back, that could be a possibility with our increased wide options. Its a sad state of affairs though that Moyes can't trust any of the midfielders in Gibson's absence apart from neville to play the holding role with any discipline. Why do you think he keeps putting Neville in there? Yes he's rubbish on the ball, but he only has to give it to someone better with a simple forward pass. What you can't have from someone as your midfield anchor is someone good on the ball with no positional sense for that role ie Rodwell/Fellaini, fortunately for us Gobson combines the two which is why he is such a valued payer

James (#695), what role did Fellaini take when partnered so successfully with Pienaar?

Because he is a little unorthodox in his style, some people constantly overlook the defensive work that Fellaini does. We lose something with Gibson not being available, but Fellaini can fill in until he returns.

Spot on, Peter Jones. Lets hope it happens...

I'll bet you it doesn't, though.

James whats up. Like I said, Hibbert is solid defensively and a great tackler. That isn't the issue. It's the fact that if we don't score first and we have tp open the game up to get an equalizer, Hibbert will not provide the recovery speed and support in attack Coleman will. The Man Utd. game was a textbook 1-0 Moyes victory. Score first. Then defend with everything in front of you to seal the victory. However, when it doesn't go our way at the outset, Hibbert isn't going to be of much help. Is Hibbert just so good that our defense will crumble without him? Of our back four, he's clearly the least talented. I doubt adding Coleman puts our back line at risk. If there is one thing a Moyes team does, it's defend. But defending doesn't get you into the top 4, otherwise we'd be there every year. Goals do. And if Coleman is the first choice right back behind Mirallas on the wing, we will score more goals. As a result we will win more games we'd typically draw and draw a few we'd typically lose because we can attack from both the left and right.

Coleman should be starting as many games as possible at home, the Newcastle game should be one of them. I judge Hibbert as too slow to ever deal with Ben Arfa, so Coleman should get the nod here. When will Coleman get to play in his natural position again in the Premier League?

I guess it depends on form, but Hibbert has not been that great plus Coleman can adapt easy when going forward. That cannot be said about Hibbert.

I think we will need Coleman, he is potent coming from behind and getting in crosses/shots. Hibbert is more of aN ultra-defensive approach type like against United and City.

We need to shock Newcastle early on, we need to score the first goal early, then our team will gel, but only then. Looking at the WBA game where we were chasing the lead we looked unfit for that all troughout the second half. Gibson going out had an effect, but still we lack in the 'go chase a goal' department.

Our best bet is to get the first goal and then punish them when they break down after creating chances.

Problem overall is going to be Neville. He will destroy the pace and rhythm of play like he always does and we will suffer from it.

Can Moyes have the balls not to go for Neville in midfield then we have a good chance, but as usual Moyes sticks by his oldies & goldies so Neville will play until he is injured and only then will he come off. We have seen Moyes likes to stick by his old favourites before, last season it was Cahill while he did fuck all for us.

Peter the logic of Coleman is better offensively than Hibbert therefore we would win more games does not hold up. Everyone takes Everton's defensive solidity for granted, Hibbert's been a vital part of that. If anything because of our reliance on Baines its good for the solidity of the back four that we do have a RB that knows how to cover positionally. If we had two flying full backs both of whom seem unsure when to get forward (ie both doing it all the time) then we really would be exposed at the back. Winning games is also about keeping goals out you know. The defensive unit owuld absolutely be altered if one member was replaced by another. As for Hibbert offering nothing going forward I would argue to the contrary. I think he may have even had more assists than Baines last season and his deep crosses have been capitalised on by Fellaini with several knockdowns. It depends how you judge talent Peter. If you judge it with ability on the ball then Baines is the most talented of our back four, if its judged by pace and strength then its Distin, if you're judging our defenders on who is the most talented defender then its Hibbert, but as I've said many times on here, defensive qualities seem to be overlooked on toffeeweb in favour of championship manager teams with absolutely no balance whatsoever.

Barkley got a 45 min debut tonight as second half sub. Doesn't sound he did much but early days. Hopefully a sign that he will get playing time.

How about this for an idea: Play Coleman but to play "defensively" - meaning he focus 75% of his attention to the marking and really only shoots forward when there is a REAL opportunity.

How about this for a gem, TEACH the lad how to defend. It has to be easier to defend than to go forward - TEACH him how to play defensively and then let him wreak havoc going forwards. What's so hard about that??

Ok fair enough James, but I can't agree with Hibbert arguably contributing more or as much as Baines going forward because of one year he has more assists, considering that is the only year. Baines has created something like 100 more chances than any other full back in the prem in the last 8 years and is also statistically the most accurate crosser. Not to mention set pieces.

Considering Hibbert normally has 1 or 0 assists each year, I'm going to assume that is an anomaly. But am I really taking our defense for granted? We conceded 40 goals last year and haven't conceded more than 49 since 03' when we almost got relegated.

Moyes is a fantastic defensive coach. One player moving out of the lineup at the position most people think we are weakest at anyway (besides center mid) shouldn't make that big of a difference defensively. We finished 7th because we only scored 50, not because we concede too often.

We are the last team to score less than 57 (46 goals) and make the CL and that was way back in 2004 when we somehow made it conceding more goals than we scored. Considering that it's unlikely that will ever happen again in the near future given the offensive firepower of all of the teams ahead of us, we are going to have to score more goals if we want to improve our standing.

Defense is important and I am not in anyway discounting its relevance to the game. But the numbers don't lie. Look at every team that has been in the CL in the past decade. Most score around 70 to get there. I think we finally have a team that is capable of doing just that. Hibbert and Neville at right back is not gonna help the cause.

Coleman actually poses a threat to other teams' defenses. If we have to concede a few more to give our side a balanced attack, I don't see why that's such a crazy idea. Every team that consistently finishes ahead of us does precisely that.

Christopher #769
Couldn't agree more...absolute fucking "gem"!!!!

Christopher #769
That's a crazy idea, surely we don't have enough defensive coaches for that............

Absolutely pointless move.

Barkley — talented, but may make the odd mistake.

Neville — makes mistakes and is crap.

No-brainer.

Right??!!!! I mean we act as if this 23-year-old is brain deficient...

We've been hearing that "he can't defend" for at least 2 years...

For crying out loud, it's so depressing to watch that right flank after the 6 years that we've been calling out for a good tandem (minus when Landon Donovan's been here) ... I really wonder what goes on sometimes at Finch Farm when a player can't learn how to "defend properly" after its been a known problem. Get it together Moyes and get that lad a start... Ok, moving on.