Newcastle United vs Everton

Howard;
Neville, Distin, Jags, Baines;
Coleman, Fellaini, Osman, Pineaar;
Jelavic, Anichebe

Hitz and Naismith have been blowing for tugs after 60 mins in the last 2 matches.

And despite all the talk of better Everton football, our defence cannot shut-out, and teams will know that. We need two Jags and a Butland. If we don't, you'd better start showing it Howard, Heitinga et al. Surely Neville will have to go RB, as the others are out. But would that mean Hitz in the middle? I'd even consider Anichebe upfront with Jela, will Felli at defensive CM, but that ain't gonna happen.

Two Fellis wouldn't go amiss, one at CM, the other upfront. Can but dream. The lads should be confident of getting three points based on our last home games v Newcastle. Here's hoping.

This round of fixtures has again seen dropped points by rivals - Arsenal and WBA. Spurs winning a simple home game shouldn't surprise us. String 3 or 4 wins together and we'll have the rest worrying. COYB!

It will be a tough game tonight and though there are plenty games left you have to feel that if the top 4 opens up a gap to us then we may struggle to close it.

Difficult team to pick but (assuming no-one is back from injury) I think I might actually give Jelavic a rest and go:

Howard
Jagielka Heitinga Distin Baines
Pienaar Hitzlsperger Osman Oviedo
Fellaini
Anichebe

Controversial, I know, putting in Big Vic but he has been playing okay and Jelavic could do with a little rest perhaps before coming on in the last 30 to grab the winner.

Howard
Jagielka Heitinga Distin Oviedo
Naismith Fellaini Hitzlsperger Osman
Jelavic Anichebe

Subs: Mucha, Duffy, Vellios, Gueye, Barkley, xxx, yyy

Grim ..:-(

3 points tonight means we are only 3 points behind Spurs, with Swansea (h), Southampton (a) and West Brom (h) up next.

Spurs look good at the moment, whilst Arsenal are wobbling by their standards. The Cup game will give us a chance to rest a few players, and go again the week after.

9 points from a possible 12 will be a great return for the festive fixtures, but losing to a poor Newcastle may do a lot of harm to our confidence.

I think it is important to realise that strikers, save for a very select few, go through form periods....I wonder if some on here expected Jelavic to score at the rate he did from January to May for us? In the process becoming one of the most efficient strikers in world football....

Jelavic, over the course of his career, will be a 1-in-2 man for us I expect. This season he is clearly suffering from tiredness... and needs a break, but unfortunately we don't really have anyone as good as him. He is off form now... but he will come back, and given the FA Cup tie at the weekend, he will get over a week off (I hope). If I was Moyes, I'd give him a few days off of training as well. Jelavic has made 79 appearances for club and country since the start of last season... and I think he looks to be suffering from it.

I am a little concerned over the fact that Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea have all hit such good form, just when we have an injury crisis. I appreciate how defeatist this makes me sound but right now I would be as happy to see us nail down a fifth or sixth place finish as early as possible as I would be to see us nail down a CL place.

If you are including the saves made against him and the great free kick and header that both hit the woodwork then your idea of misses and most others are at odds.

I watched Van Persie and Chicarito both miss chances yet each scored a brace against Wigan. Every striker misses chances and let's face it, Jelly deserved to have at least one goal against Chelsea.

The lad does not need a rest and will come good sooner rather than later. He never shirks and puts lots of effort in.

Its injuries which are now biting hard and some of the players are tired as we do not have the amount of players to give us the luxury of rotation. Just looked with envy at Fergie's bench with Valencia and Co, all of whom would be playing every game for us.

Osman, Pienaar and Baines in particular have been immense this season when you look at the amount of ground they cover. This team for my money is one to be proud of and I would not swap Jags and Distin for any other centre back partnership in the league.

So although we may have to be lucky, if we can grind out a few wins during this month we may well still be in the mix come the start of February. It will still be a tough ask, but it is not impossible.

Tonight is a very important game, a win would do the confidence so much good and settle the nerves of all of us Evertonians.

Howard
Heitinga Jagielka Distin Baines
Pienaar Fellaini Hitzlsperger Oviedo
Vellios Jelavic

Jelavic to score two and Everton to score three!

Hopefully Neville can play at RB, but Jagielka had a decent game at the weekend.

Fellaini back in his usual place I expect meaning that Anichebe drops to the bench.

Hard game tonight... But most definitely winnable, and winnable by a decent margin. I would love nothing more than a 2-0 win with Jelavic bagging both, as the goals would do him good and the clean sheet even more so for Howard's confidence.

Come on blue boys.

We are 6th in the premier league. We gave the Champions of Europe a run for their money. Torres cost them £50 Million! He's only netted one more than Jela this season. Give the guy a break!

He proved he was a quality player when he arrived. Let's give him a season before we start saying he can't put chances away! Think about what position we were in this time last season. We're doing very well! Let's get behind the team and stop being so negative.

No Ba for them.

Neville says he's 'rested' on Twitter.

It'll come for Jelavic.

If we do have all the injuries that have been suggested tonight this is what I'd start with:

Howard;
Jagielka, Heitinga, Distin, Oviedo;
Naismith, Barkley, Fellaini, Osman;
Anichebe;
Jelavic.

Then pray they all last 90 mins...

Meanwhile Chelsea , Spurs and Arsenal have been blitzing teams with bags of goals. I still hope for a win tonight but a score draw is more likely and more points dropped. I'd expect a 5th place finish this season, at best.

Lay off Jelavić. Lay into everyone else.

I would keep Ossie central for his creativity. If we are missing a load of regulars what about starting Anichebe, Vellios and Jelavic to try to physically dominate their defence?

If he is not tired and is performing in training then the manager has to assume that every game he starts he stands a chance of finding his scoring touch again. If we had another proven regular goalscorer I would go along with you, but at the moment Jelavic still represents our best chance of scoring simply because of his record.

We are having a great season all considered and just played Chelsea off the park with a scratch side.

We all know Bill is totally useless so the no money argument is superfluous until we get new owners.

The manager and players are pulling their tripes out for the cause and I just hope they are not reading some of the tripe on here.

If you get behind the lads instead of constant moaning and deluded "football manager" syndrome we might just get a few better results.

COYB.

There are no guarantees whatever you do Andy. You could play him in the reserves (now under-21s) and watch him wreak havoc, then put him back in the first team and watch him continue to have problems against the better quality of the oppositions first team players. You 'talk' as if it is guaranteed to work and would have definitely earned us more points in the games he has played in, but the reality is you are just guessing and have no idea what conversations he has had with the manager nor what his team-mates think of the situation.

It is easy to theorise remedies, but you have nothing concrete to prove you are more correct than those supposedly wearing rose-tinted glasses, so don't be so condescending.

In those fixtures we had Spurs(H), Stoke(A) and Chelsea(H) hardly a bad return, unless some people expect us to be sweeping all before us.

If we could average the same for the next 18 games that would give us a total of 69 points.

At first blush this looks like a match that we are destined to lose. We are decimated by injuries, struggling for form up front, for basic competence at the back and are going to a place where we never seem to play well, and rarely get results. Moreover, Newcastle, a team with talent that is nevertheless in free fall, have scored SIX goals in their last two outings: at Old Trafford and Arsenal, no less, and will be confident of picking up three points today.

Having said that, I am a firm believer that this is the best Blues team since the glory days. There has barely been a match this season that we haven't utterly dominated for a significant period, creating a hatful of chances time and again....and usually scoring a couple of goals in the process. In Leighton Baines we must have one of the three or four best full-backs currently on the planet. How many clubs would NOT want Bainesy in their team? Not many, I imagine. With our most creative forward players, Osman and Pienaar, both generally playing well most days, we are always likely to score, and sooner or later this year we are gonna put 5 or 6 past an outfit or three.

I don't have a very good feeling about this one, but I sure hope my instinct is off. Recently, the media seems to have turned away from us; it suddenly seems to be being taken for granted by scribes that Arsenal and Spurs are going to compete with Chelsea for 3rd and 4th place, and we don't even appear to be in the conversation any more. Anyway, even if we do lose tonight, I won't take much discouragement from the result. For once, we've got ourselves into a decent position when the calendar turns. It's winter, it's cold, and as everybody knows, this is fucking Moyes Time.

Who knows? Maybe our squad is just simply too small. Maybe we will inexplicably go into the tank. But I'll tell you this: I'll take Moyesie's record in the back half of the season over AVB's any day of the week.

Home on holiday. A rare treat to get to watch a weeknight match live. Come on you Blues, don't disappoint me!

He generally puts it in, playing on his own until recently. I thought he was great against Chelsea. He put a massive shift in and was tremendously unlucky.

Thing is, he has to go again tonight in all likelihood and retaining your sharpness across a whole season is tricky. Well it's more that that: it's physically impossible.

Theres is a case for giving him a break mentally and physically at some point. Even just not starting a game or two if Vic is fit and Fella can play off him.

Ultimately, as most people acknowledge, this is symptomatic of small squads and a lack of depth if even one or two injuries bite. My big fear is that this season will mirror Moyes's first when we died at the end; we need a couple of loans badly.

Utter nonsense.