From My Seat: Leicester City (A)

I, like many, question the pre-season training regimen; why our players were already developing injuries and seem to lack match fitness and sharpness. But I take heart in how well we played in the first half as a sign of things to come.

Lukaku will get match fit over time, Mirallas will be more involved in the next few games, Coleman will be back and help balance our attack on both flanks, Pienaar and Baines looked sharp again, and Naismith was indefatigable. The backline is a bit of a worry, but I think problems can and will be ironed out.

The worry is Barkley and how bad his injury is. I just hope Osman, Pienaar, and Gibson can operate as a kind of attacking midfield by committee. I wonder if this will prompt a change in formation and/or tactics?

IÂ’ve actually posted on the JA606 Everton board and also found your fans to be very down to earth, proper football fans. IÂ’ve also always had a slight soft spot for you guys since you stole Gary off us so IÂ’m hoping you can break into the top four.

You looked class going forward in the first half with Baines and Pienaar causing us all sorts of problems but defensively you were very suspect. BainesÂ’s and PienaarÂ’s quality lead to a bit of a backlash for de Laet, who I thought in truth, did a pretty good job with little support from Mahrez, against two top quality players. The two finishes were sublime.

Second half went pretty much as I predicted with Everton running out of steam and our superior fitness paying dividends once again. I think this in a interesting fact, Albrighton was second fittest player at Villa but the eleventh at City. I think this speaks volumes for the shape our players are in and IÂ’m sure this will win us plenty of points throughout the season.

This has been a key factor of our success over the last couple of seasons because we just donÂ’t give up and possess the quality to punish teams, as we proved once again with a very satisfactory performance against a very good side.

We know we can perform better than that too and have Drinky (our best player), Albrighton and Vardy to come back from injury and Cambiasso coming in so I think we can be feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

On a side note, the tackle from Konchesky was perfect and it was him that kicked the ball out of play too 😉

Good luck for the rest of the season.

All-in-all, great to be back following Everton!

Grip it now: Barkley is out for most of this season. That means Gibson and Besic become attackers or we need to get back into the market.

(Also.... their uniforms looked too much like our home kits... it took awhile to get acclimated.)

Pretty much spot-on, as per usual, Ken. In no particular order, a couple of things worry me.

Barkley obviously, but I suppose we must file that under Â’shit happens / this is Everton, what do you expect?Â’

This whole post World Cup Lukaku thing. I seem to remember there was an officially mandated one-month stand down and, at aged 21, I donÂ’t see that the time since his last game (5 July 2014) is enough for him to lose all his fitness, given that he was reported before his transfer as Â’training in BelgiumÂ’ ... or was it just another of his Â’Ho-HumÂ’ days? I always fear the worst when I see him, as I did yesterday, drifting deeper and deeper, still with his back to the goal. He is like Baines: use him like he should be used to get full value.

Without going all knee-jerky, last season he did have his fair share of Â’Ho-HumÂ’ days... all IÂ’ll say is IÂ’m glad we didnÂ’t fork out 㿈M all in one go.

Jags and Distin: I remember a few seasons ago (three or four?) when Arteta had not long signed his mega deal, us getting done over at Villa, by balls played down the space between the the two of them. It might be said that OFMÂ’s all-around more, shall we say, Â’carefulÂ’ methods offered them more protection back then and they still got found out. Add to this time and injuries and the lack of a Cahill, Jelavic or even Fellaini to help clear high balls in the box... short version, they are getting found out more and more.

Subs, Bobby, subs... too little, too late, like buses, none for 80 mins then 2 in a couple of mins. Subs need time to bed in, they can even disrupt the whole team dynamic. Moyes got found out by this more than once; donÂ’t you start doing it as well!

We, the collective we, both on and off the field, will have to dig deep on a number of fronts, maybe even financially, to get things right against Arsenal, Chelsea and the rest of the games to come.

Whilst disappointed to drop two points to a late scrappy goal I think I would've taken a point before the game given that we were playing a decent, newly promoted side away from home on the opening day. Not to mention our fitness issues!

I just want to say I've been trying to fight it and I get hammered by LFC and United 'fans' when I say this but I think that Naismith is such a good little player for us... But I just can't put my finger on what he's actually good at (in the nicest possible way).

Also did anyone notice the almost mirror image of the opening day from last season against Norwich? 2-2 after a ball breaks loose to an un-intended target... Everton that! Ah well, 4 points from our next two home games and I'll be happy... COYB!

I think I remember that Villa game only too well. Wasn't that the one where Joleon Lescott equalised in the last minute only for Ashley Young to score an injury time winner from the kick after Jags got caught out massively by a ball over the top?

Either way I remember my laundry basket getting stomped like Billy Batts in Goodfellas! Haha.

Welcome back, Ken.

It’s a concern re our second half.... one of our strong points last season was indeed our fitness, and our ability to dig deep and score late on in the last 15 of games. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe we scored more than any other PL side last season in the final third of the second half?

Having read the rest of the views, IÂ’m finding myself completely agreeing, which is rare for two sets of fans to have the same opinion on a game.

Your lack of fitness cost you today, I donÂ’t think thereÂ’s any doubt about that but that was understandable and of course that will improve.

I could say youÂ’re very lucky that Vardy wasnÂ’t available didnÂ’t because he is rapid (as you found out in Thailand) and can finish, unlike the boy Schlupp bless him.

Vardy would have terrorised your tired defence and would have made a huge difference to our attack but that’s football and you got away with being unfit this time 😉

I have a slight confession however, on paper I didnÂ’t think you were all that much of a threat and I completely underestimated the quality of Pienaar, McGeady, Naismith and Baines in particular.

I thought we handled the rest of the team very well but those four were outstanding and I really didnÂ’t expect them to be but I was definitely wrong.

All the best in Europe this season and best of luck trying to break into the top four. Martinez is a quality manager and IÂ’ve watched a few of his interviews before and after the game and I like him a lot.

Also Steve 6, good to hear/see your comments on the game, again like Ken spot on I'd say. I think you'll do okay this season, and stay up... it's a big ask though, because there's not a lot of difference in quality when the usual top 7 or 8 are excluded. I like your manager, he comes across as a steady no nonsense sort of a person.

As far as Everton's concerned I too am puzzled why in defence we are poor when the balls in the air, I'm not blaming Martinez, Jags and Distin are the two most experienced in the league by far surely they know what there doing at corners and other crosses.

No doubt the matches are reviewed and weaknesses are highlighted. Last years record in defence points to us being strong, but I get the jitters every time a cross comes over.

Craig (12) you are correct about the last 15 minutes stat from last year. Hopefully from here on out we so more play like the first half not the second.

Last but not least, good luck to you Barkley you poor snake-bitten footballer. Please come back healthy, do not rush – your health is more important than the team results.

In fairness, I think we can both be disappointed with the way we retained the ball at times because IÂ’m sure youÂ’ll be disappointed with the second half and we can definitely play better than we did. You made it very hard for us but weÂ’re better than that and IÂ’m sure weÂ’ll settle in.

CouldnÂ’t believe some the ultra negative comments on the live forum yesterday. Please think before acting so quickly, it was the first game of the season.

Not the easiest start to the season – maybe Roberto should complain about a conspiracy!

Steve (#6), good post, welcome to the best footy fans' website in the world! Hope you guys stuff our loveable neighbours when you meet them...:-)

The defence has been caught napping umpteen times, they need to learn to concentrate for the full game. I think Jags is a bit over-rated and a lot of the miraculous last-gasp interventions he occasionally makes shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Steve #6, thanks for dropping in and sharing your perspective. Welcome to the PL and best wishes to stay.

And Brian #11, all I can do is laugh. The "scorer's body language"??? Really? Not sure what's in your cookies, but they ain't chocolate chips, son.

I don't think we will play as badly again. I don't remember that many sluggish or tired performances last season.

When Leicester scored its second, I concede that Stones was mainly to blame for not covering his zone at the back post but where was Mirallas and more importantly where was Coleman? At that stage of the game with three points almost in the bag, our tiring defence urgently required bolstering with fresh legs. The last thing we needed was another goal.

Had we hung on to the lead for those last few minutes Roberto would have been hailed as brilliant; as it was, if his orders were to play an open game, it was a mistake on his part.

We were obviously delighted to get a point in the end but if we had been level for the last twenty, I’m pretty sure we would have been disappointed with a draw. We would have been in a great position to go on and win it and as you’ve seen, we do have the quality to punish teams. It’s funny how the timing of goals can change our perceptions of the same result.

Thanks for your comments regarding Mahrez and Pearson. Mahrez is very exciting and has so many tricks that he ghosts past players at times. He’s still young and finding his feet but he definitely needs to help out more defensively now we’ve stepped up a league, that was very evident on Saturday. Pearson gets us playing honest football, our discipline is excellent, we don’t appeal and get in the refs faces, we just get on with it when fouled hence why Mahrez just got up. This was another huge factor towards our success last season and it’s refreshing to see in this day and age.

It was reported that Liam Moore was arrested after the game for stealing 㿈m but was later released when the police realised it was Lukaku in his pockets. Sorry couldn’t resist 😉

Thanks for your balanced view of the game. I hope Leicester stay up as youÂ’re the Red ShiteÂ’s bogey team!

Coleman came on and didnÂ’t have a scooby where to play, Besic was the go-to man to tighten up the midfield area and Atsu should have been the sub for McGeady.

Also, If I where a Leicester fan, IÂ’d have been disappointed not to see Barry get a second yellow, but the tackle on McCarthy wasnÂ’t very nice too.

Stonesy just doesnÂ’t look much cop at right back, not his fault, but he was miles out of position for the second goal (much like the centre half he is).

I loved seeing Baines and Pienaar back to their creative best, but Stevey should be given 70 minutes max from now on.

I've knocked young Stones many times in the past but he had no chance with their 2nd goal. Jags looked beaten and the lad had to make an effort to block the striker. Coleman should have been covering him but was ball watching. As was McCarthy, who had let himself be drawn away from his normal position. Believe me, Mirallas, Baines and Barry were also not too clever before the ball got anywhere near Stones.

The subs were also the wrong choices and too late. Atsu and Besic would have had more energy and kept us on top.