Errors by Howard gift key goals to Palace

As a manager, he has fundamental flaws in thinking football is purely possession-based... well RM, you are mistaken!!! As soon as the opposition team get the ball, we donÂ’t know what to do!!!

ItÂ’s becoming a joke and we will now be a mid-table team who entertain.

Last season was a transition from the Moyes unit and, now the transition is complete, we have Wigan Mk II. I watched the Europa League game and thought that, if we had been playing a Premier League side and given them that much space and that many chances, we would draw at best.

For me, Martinez is an incredibly naïve and stubborn manager and just a very poor version of Arsene Wenger.The number of goals we are conceding will see us finish in the bottom 6 NOT the top 6!! The pre-season was poor and appeared I lack any effort or thought, maybe he was too busy in Brazil?

The players look unfit and as a defensive unit we look totally clueless, the back four and in particular the centre backs look hesitant and donÂ’t know what to do because we donÂ’t close down in the centre of the park and they get dragged out I podium as a consequence, and thatÂ’s despite playing with two very good holding midfielders!!!!

IÂ’m sorry but a Sunday league manager would be able to identify our problems and rectify them, and I donÂ’t think Martinez canÂ’t, he just insists on continuing to do it "his way" despite already getting one team relegated from the premiership doing this.

We have Ossie Ardiles for a manager. Fucking Phenomenal.

Two week break for me. I wonÂ’t be watching next Saturday.

So pissed off, what is the point having a so-called best squad if you canÂ’t beat the likes of Palace.

We should have realised from the second Leicester scored that equaliser that once again this group of players does not have the stones to achieve anything of note. They only ever win when the pressure is off.

Bobby, if you rate Robles, please give him his chance against Swansea; if he keeps a clean sheet, play him in the next game. Otherwise, loan him out or get rid and buy a keeper in January, cos we need some proper competition for the goalkeeping jersey.

RMÂ’s selection and game plan was spot on. 1-0 up and in total control. Then Tim Howard today decides to hand them 2 goals.

Because of TimÂ’s errors we had to chase the game hence being wide open at the back. Exactly the same v Chelsea.

Individual shit errors have let us down badly in the opening games, not RM!

I just don’t get this Europe hangover thing. We had a great opportunity against a, let’s be honest, very average Palace side yet we blew it. We gifted them 2 goals – when is Roberto going to coach them to stop giving away these type of goals?
John Stones isnÂ’t a right back, gets caught out of position too much for me when he plays there.

The stats said we had 76% possession yet we went in at half time 2-1 down. Again, unbelievable.

IÂ’m a Howard fan but that was as bad as it gets.

Totally gutted.

After the first 20 minutes, I though this would be a stroll in the park, perhaps the players did too. Was WarnockÂ’s plan to lull us into a false sense of security? Intentional or not, it worked!

On a more positive note, good to see Gibson back and Atsu needs a few more games. Ossie was okay for 20 minutes then disappeared.

LetÂ’s get this defence sorted and leave Stones in the middle. I would have preferred Hibbo in for Coleman but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Tim Howard should be ashamed of himself, his decision-making is comical, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an outfield player out-jump a goalkeeper in my life?!? — especially a looping cross like that.

As for Osman? he setÂ’s up the first goal with a brilliant pass, then proceeds to give the ball away the next 15 times he touches the ball. HeÂ’s in his 30s now and still hasnÂ’t learned how to shield the ball from the opposition using his body, embarrassing!

As for Howard, he does have these days where he looks like an absolute clown.

At one point we had 85% of possession and did nothing with it!

Lukaku blew hot and cold, IÂ’m sure McGeady could have caused them problems, unless heÂ’s injured? These are must win games, three points lost again to a mediocre side that took their chances.

Players in their prime like Naismith and Mirallas are getting rested whilst Jags and Howard are playing every game. Liverpool and Manchester United away next. Wonder which side in disarray will be up for it more next week? I’ll put my mortgage on it not being us. Could very easily be 5 points after 7 games. Relegation form with ¾ of England’s back four and Lukaku and Eto’o in your squad.

Embarassing.

Ossie keeps getting picked. HeÂ’s not going to refuse to play. Blame the man who keeps picking him.

Liverpool must be licking their lips in anticipation. Having said that, Crystal Palace got lucky on the 2nd goal, the ball just hits Campbell’s head and rolls over the line. And we had 3-4 good attempts on goal – either the ball was hit straight at Speroni (Osman twice, Mirallas in the dying moments) or straight at their defender (Mirallas).

With today’s results, we are 2 points off relegation. Having said that, results have been all over the place – you would expect things to ’settle down’ once the initial flurry of games is over.

After the heights of Wolfsburg, IÂ’m inclined to call this an off night. ThereÂ’s not a lot of positive movement in the second half. Tired legs or off night? Rotation is needed regardless.

Forget about the Carling Cup game on Tuesday. Field a bunch of reserves – if we win so be it; if we lose, who gives a fuck!! We need to concentrate on the Premier League, and if that means not progressing in Europe so be it. We don’t have the squad to do both.

He went up for that ball to get a free kick against him, not to win it with any authority. He was great Thursday and a joke today.

I always used to say there was two reasons we would never win anything. One was Moyes, the other Howard, We got rid of one!

I didnÂ’t think the first was a pen even though the defence messed up and Howard gifted them the second but, after Thursday, I would cut him some slack.

My main concern is the players are all gung ho with no discipline which comes back to BarcelonaÂ’s future manager!!

John Stones is not a right back. Then McCarthy is moved to right back and Osman miraculously stays on the pitch. We eventually end up with a back 3 consisting of two midfielders and a center half in jags, McCarthy and Barry. There was no balance or cohesion at all.

Far far too naïve Roberto. I wait in vain to see Tuesday’s set-up, if you had to prioritise today or Tuesday, surely it was today?

Angry and gutted!

Yes, you could blame the players but I think the fundamental flaw is the manager and his system of play. Get ready for a hiding; itÂ’s coming, get back to the basics ...again... Martinez.

Embarrassing Everton.

What possessed him to pay 㿈 million for that clown? Yes, he scored but his overall game is shocking. You donÂ’t need a crystal ball to know, if we keep defending like that, we are in for a season of struggle. Thanks, Roberto, for nothing!

I guess "same tactics" made me think you were talking about Everton and Martinez — I didn’t think Warnock was their manager back then, was he? But I guess their tactics could have been the same...

Same result — no ambiguity there, unfortunately!

We and Martinez were unlucky in the sense that we started brilliantly and an individual error gave Palace a gift to equalise. Likewise HowardÂ’s gift - that was shocking their second goal.

However, IÂ’m sick of us playing two pedestrian midfielders that offer little creatively.

IÂ’m told its because they give the side balance and protect th back four but they donÂ’t as the 3rd goal showed - the gap between our difference between the defence and our midfield was massive with nobody there.

One of them should constantly be sat there to sweep anything up.

He also starts with Osman another slow player who doesnÂ’t have the legs for 90 anymore yet he plays the full 90.

Then he brings on Gibson another pedestrian slow CM. I despair.

When Martinez came in I expected us to be signing the kind of players that Palace had today that are so threatening, like Boliase with real pace and skill.

HeÂ’s that kind of manager, so how come 5 mins at Goodison has turned him into a manger that loves slow pedestrian midfielders, and more than that, ones donÂ’t defend or protect the back four.

IÂ’ve said it all pre-season we donÂ’t have enough genuine scary pace - players like Bolaise, Nathan Redmond others that terrify opposition with their pace like Palace did today on the break.

One of the pedestrian midfielders should be enough if the buggers do their job properly and sit in front of the back 4.

We have 2 of these players and not between them can they do it.

By the end of the game we had 4 pedestrian, slow CMÂ’s while Palace were breaking with real skill and pace.

All four are good players, one, two maximum at the same time, but you never play them all together.

The way heÂ’s blooding Besic is Moyes esc and makes me wonder why he bothered buying him if he seeÂ’s Osman and Gibson starting before him.

We are also still missing a no:10 type with real creativity, skill, vision - to sit in the whole and play through Lukaku and others through, we saw the damage he can do when played through like that for the first goal and how much we struggled to break palace down. Someone like Nolito would be ideal.

Am I being harsh - yes, probably because two goals were down to individual mistakes and without those I think we would have strolled the game.

However, they happened and these things have bothered me for a while, its difficult to vent when youÂ’re winning or doing ok , but today has got to me and its exactly the reason I donÂ’t see us taking anything from the derby.

Squad/team still isnÂ’t good enough to get a result there (with so many pedestrian players that canÂ’t protect the back four) no matter how shit they are now.

I just donÂ’t know where these dynamic, pacy & skilful players I expected to see when Martinez became manager are, the finishing team was like watching a side that Moyes had picked.

Yep, worryingly Wiganesque. I think itÂ’s what RM does during this period of bad form that will define his tenure. Can he turn it around, especially given that he didnÂ’t shore up his defence after the Chelsea game? I hope so because playing Europa is going to be a big distraction if weÂ’re struggling to challenge for Europe, forget UCL.

Tuesday is a chance to blood some youngsters and letÂ’s hope they win. It is always a gamble. No doubt Joel will play which at one level is good as he needs games, but he should be out on loan to get them.

We should really be getting worried with this sequence. It is the ease with which we throw away points that really concerns me. If we ignore the Chelski game as we could easily have lost that on a good day, the other draws and this defeat have all been gutting. We should have at least double the number of points and I have started to look down rather than up the table. We could easily be looking at a relegation type struggle after the next three games and I donÂ’t think the squad is cut out for that.

At least Lukaku scored again.

I can not understand the manager if he is aware of our defensive problems why something is not done about it, nor his reluctance to play players for 90 min whose performance drops after 30-40 mins.

IÂ’m at a loss of how to put a stop to our defensive problems, other than bring new players in. But that wonÂ’t be until January and who knows where we will be by then.

What getÂ’s me is Roberto doesnÂ’t seem to learn from past mistakes. The plus in todayÂ’s game I could see was how much of a class act Eto is. As for the other shower, well weÂ’re used to them letting us down... whatÂ’s new there?

I hate to say this as it feels wrong but I donÂ’t see Martinez changing his style of management and so for me the quicker we get rid of him the better. I know this wonÂ’t happen and I know Kenwright wonÂ’t do it. We have an excellent team and decent squad and even that is despite Martinez (Kone, Alcaraz and Robles have been terrible signings and we payed 㾺 million for McCarthy who is a ٤-8 million player)

I know IÂ’m gonna get a hammering now :-)

But RobertoÂ’s decisions - made in a very difficult 6 days- didnÂ’t look convincing. For example, and IÂ’m a long term Ossie fan, there is no way he should be on for more than an hour given the squad we have.

A waste of three points, which we were capable of taking.

IÂ’m far from happy with the result but I would rather lose the odd game trying to play good football than grind out boring results just to end up 7th every season. This is still a work in progress! We have made great strides but there is still a lot of work to do. Come the end of the season we will once again be in or around the European spots after we hit some solid form and hopefully we can have a proper go at one or two of the cups.

Jagielka, Osman, Distin and Howard are all coming to the end of their top flight careers and need to be replaced over the next few windows. Unfortunately we donÂ’t have the cash to just go out and buy a top quality centre-back pairing and goalkeeper in one window, Our priority this time around was getting in a goalscorer and we did. In the next window we need to find a partner for Stones who is the future despite his occasional nievety.

That was stomach-churning horrible horrible sickening.

Was I the only one who thought that the team selection was somewhat odd? Anyway it worked well for one-ninth of the game and then....

Odd selection and then three subs that I am still trying to get my head round! He kept Osman on the pitch! IÂ’m gonna say that again because I still donÂ’t believe it: he kept Osman on the pitch!!!

IÂ’m not going to scream Blobby Bobby blue murder here. He is still the right one for us, I believe. But he needs to take a long and hard look at himself as well as individual players.

At its highest we had 81% possession and what exactly did we get out of the match at the end of the day? We pass it around to ourselves; the other lot read us like a book and get all the time in the world to change shape and formation accordingly from one minute to the next.

The substitutions were simply baffling today. Atsu is taken off! Gibson comes on and gives the ball away three times in front of their box in how many minutes! Osman, Osman, Osman! Every blue lad and lass in the world knows he has at most 56 minutes and 35 seconds in him except for the gaffer. For the 147th time, it is utterly incomprehensible to me that he starts a Premier League match for us, utterly incomprehensible.

Bobby must know that today revealed a score of weakspots in his play and philosophy and I hope and trust that he has the guts – not to admit it publicly, that’s not something to expect and it’s unsettling – but chat about it with the gang at Finch Farm. He has to think and rethink his approach(es) but at this point in time I don’t think he will change a great deal – and others will point out that it worked so well in 2013-14, fair enough.

There are some cherished essential elements in that team who/that ironically were more than effective last season but this one! I have in mind Barry/McCarthy, possession footie, the clowns in central defence, the liability lump between the sticks.

Luckily there are blue skies over the horizon. But Bobby needs to have the strength if he can to change things. Some things do look sorted to me: Coleman, Stones in the middle, Baines, Mirallas, Barkley, Lukaku (although he has so much more work to do). IÂ’m sorry to say this but, although I recognize that Naismith has had a great season so far, I am not as convinced as others but will be very happy to be proved wrong in the long run.

We have thankfully some options: Besic, Atsu, a couple of young defenders who might come on leaps and bounds with a couple of games under their belts. Robles must start on Tuesday and we have to see if there is any chance at all – a big ask, I know – that he can build up some confidence. If Robles is world-beating on Tuesday Howard will still start at the shite. But inmost other teams Howard would be dropped for conceding 14 goals in 5 matches.

Refocus, Bobby, please. DonÂ’t be so narrowly focused; think outside the possession box, PLEASE!

Howard (God help us! I pray for the day when we get a replacement), Coleman, Stones, ?, Baines, Besic, McCarthy, Atsu, Mirallas, EtoÂ’o, Lukaku.

We can still have one hell of a season but Bobby has to have the humility, integrity, self-awareness to change a few things and one or two of them – the possession obsession – are so in his DNA I wonder if he will be able to.

Hopefully he will play the youngsters (Besic, Atsu) and maybe tinker a bit with his formation for the next game against Swansea. Cup games are now proving a distraction IMO. And if they play well, play them next weekend. We got young players in and weÂ’re not really blooding them in.

The reason Ferguson got rid of Howard is because he has always been prone to these mistakes, a great goalkeeper on his day but always likely to have a day like today.

Martinez made a big mistake in taking off Stones and replacing him with McCarthy who was way out of position for their third goal, and why was Osman playing for so long? Easily pushed off the ball, like for the third goal and ineffective for 70 minutes of the game. Osman, Distin and Hibbert have been great servants of the club but time to move on and donÂ’t get me started about Alcaraz.

Martinez has to start addressing out defensive frailties otherwise his dream of both getting us silverware and longer term managing Barcelona are going down the drain.

I stand by that comment and IÂ’ll say it again.

" thatÂ’s why Wigan where relegated "

ThatÂ’s the problem we are two pedestrian with two holding midfielders.

You could forgive it if they were sitting in front of the back four protecting, supporting and sweeping up.

TheyÂ’re not so what is the benefit - theyÂ’re all over the place on the pitch and in the midfield meaning thereÂ’s always a gap to be exposed and they offer v little creatively.

One maybe two is fine if they sit in front of the back four protecting it and let the other players do the attacking, however they just seem to operate all over the place with no structure.

Bill 55

IÂ’m hoping he addresses the no:10 and another CB either in Jan or summer window.

Agreed - re defensive problems has to be looked at as it keeps reoccurring.

Our goals conceded is horrendous this season but it would probably be even more eye opening to see chances conceded. Howard had a stinker today, but how many saves did he make and how many has he made this season, I donÂ’t have the stats but I would be surprised if it wasnÂ’t very high !

We have problems.

We are way to easy to play against. There players look unsure and the defensive cohesion has gone.

There is no discipline and a lack of emphasis on being tight, in shape and organised.

If this carries on we are going to be in trouble.

You are joking, right Bobby? We battered Wolfsburg 1st half, and the only reason why they started getting more of the ball 2nd half was because we sat deeper hoping to catch them on the break, at the end of the day we didnÂ’t have to chase the game, Wolfsburg did. Also, if our final ball had been better on the few occasions we did break away the score line would have been more.

Spending 28 million on Lukaku? Can he control the ball?

Jags, Distin and Howard? How many perm games between them? Woefully inept. That today is the sort of performance that makes me think are we really in the right hands?

The 2nd goal was humiliating for a goalkeeper of his ability and surely a a player of EtooÂ’s standing need to be up front rather than on the wing/midfield as he seems to be playing

Martinez tactics were woeful today and iÂ’m hating this season

We will be lucky to finish in the top 8 if this carryÂ’s on

When is Roberto going to learn to show some respect to the oppositionÂ’s attacking threat? Bolaise was a menace all game yet we sub the only player who is qualified to mark him and sure enough he pops up in acres of space to score their third. Moyes based his game around a strong defence, you can weaken that when you are chasing a game, you canÂ’t when it is paper thin in the first place.

Those people knocking Rom today seem to miss what he brings us, he was put through once and he scored once, 100% completion. I donÂ’t remember many knocking Lineker when that was the basis of his game.

Atsu was interesting, poor first touch and a bit lost infield but looked dangerous when he came running in from the byline. Reminds me of Deulofeu when he first arrived.

Yes, I would have played an unchanged side, I said that before the game, but the defeat is down to Howard, we should never have been behind in the game but for 2 bad errors from him.
Their 3rd is down to us having to chase the game and pressing too high at 2-1.
WeÂ’ve lost by 1 goal and have given them 3.

It is galling because shite, Utd and Spurs have all got beat, so it could have been a good step forward in the League.

As for as Besic is concerned, it seems to me, that thereÂ’s things off the field gone on by him that Martinez has took exception to, and that is the reason heÂ’s not been getting playing time, thatÂ’s the likeliest explanation I can come up with!

Two centre backs who concede 10 goals should not play together for a very very long time, yet today we got to see them in action again. Stones at right back, EtoÂ’o on the wing? Sorry Roberto IÂ’m one of your biggest fans but what the fucking hell was that?

Guaranteed Howard plays next week... as will Distin... as will Jags. Different manager and style, same old boring favourites. Two of those favourites made the mistakes today and I guess it wonÂ’t be the last they make In an Everton shirt! How many times does Osman lose possession and get knocked off the ball?

I thought RobertoÂ’s philosophy was to keep the white round thing? How many points does Howard cost us a season?

Typical Everton, fucking disgusted by that!

My head is burnt out by Everton, cut out the errors and we would be up near the top but lack of concentration, communication bad decision making has us listing.

James, Howard was a world beater on Thursday and you want to replace him today with Robles...come on!

3 individual errors today cost us a game that was a walk in the park early on due to RMÂ’s spot on game plant.
Howard cost us 3 points today end of!

Most of us know Howard is a good shot stopper and that is all he has. He was the main reason we lost the game.

And that is exactly why people like myself were excoriated on here for suggesting that appointing Martinez might be a gamble on account of WiganÂ’s defensive record. I was absolutely fucking slaughtered on here for that. I still hope to be proven wrong but the writing is on the wall, in my opinion. The derby is going to be like the seventh circle of hell.

The game just felt like a deja vu of the game in April, but it seems to be a bigger symptom of how we give away stupid goals then spend the rest of the game trying chasing the game. ItÂ’s either that or we canÂ’t hold a lead. The 4-1 against Wolfsburg flattered us. I donÂ’t buy it that it was part of some master plan to sit back and let the other team have 24 shots at goal.

The other grumble apart from HowardÂ’s horror show was to take Stones off and keep Distin on..what was all that about?! As well as letting Osman play a whole 90 minutes. As others have said we need to really look at the defence because no one on here can deny itÂ’s not a problem now

Personally I donÂ’t blame the system, I blame the personnel. But who has the job of making these dozy fuckers get over whatever is making them ovulate? Phenomenal Roberto.

Shite result but can at least take some comfort that all of spurs, manu and lpool lost, missed out on gaining points on them but at least we didnÂ’t lose any ground.. Bit desperate to get anything positive I know....

These errors are happening all too regularly now, RM needs to take a long hard look at the back 4 and if needs make some tough decisions.

Even if we drop the whole Wigan debate, what happened since April, or even over the summer that now, weÂ’re conceding a whooping 13 goals over 5 games? Did Distin and Jags just lose so much form over the course of a few months?

We canÂ’t move forward if we improve well in one area (offense) and digress hugely in another (defense). As it is right now, weÂ’re letting in more than 2x we did the whole of last year. WeÂ’re in a run of bad form defense wise, and like I said, RM needs to turn this around to make this season meaningful.

Of course, we are without Barkley but it is very concerning that we are so short in that area when Ross wonÂ’t be back match fit much before November/December. Very, very disappointing but a win next weekend will help a great deal.

None of this excuses the booing of Osman after his mistake. Only a minority of the crowd were responsible but it was a significant minority and does not help the team one jot. Absolutely disgraceful.

That was then and this is now. Opposition coaches are sussing us out. Cast your mind back to the away game against Palace. We were bloody lucky to get away with 0-0 in that game. That happened quite a few times. There were games last season in which the opposition should have buried us, but poor finishing saved us.

This season the defence has been utter shite from first to last and we are geing pubished in almost every game. Even in our one clean sheet against West Brom it was panic stations during the first half, as evinced by the ToffeeWeb live forum.

Apart from that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs Lincoln.....?

The Wolfsburg game didn’t have any bearing today, but poor individual decisions did. However, the Europa League could be an unwelcome distraction that could cost us more points in the Premier League in the future. Considering the points we have dropped so far, I’m concerned. Let’s hope Barkley & Oviedo come back soon – I need some hope.

Second-season syndrome for RM? Most definitely!! IÂ’m not concerned about the derby game. The RS are even worse than us.

It is difficult to legislate for individual errors but Howard and Ossie will need to hold their hands up. (Perhaps if Howard had lifted his up a bit more, we wouldnÂ’t have conceded the 3rd!!)

I donÂ’t see, however, how MartinezÂ’s system of play can be responsible for these individual errors nor why some people would want to take us back in time to the sterile play of old.

Blame the manager for Howard all you want. The buck always stops with the man in charge, I agree. Southampton have made the best signing of the summer, Fraser Forster. He should have the plums to get rid ASAP. If he doesnÂ’t bring someone in to replace Howard - thatÂ’s his fault, and he lives or dies by his choices.

Address the weaknesses, and weÂ’ll be fine. Show too much loyalty, and heÂ’ll be out of a job.

The other matches weÂ’ve played this season, take a look at their form, Leicester, beat Man Utd- drawn with Arsenal, Chelsea 4 from 4 top of Prem, Arsenal unbeaten and in 4th place, WBA just beat Spurs at White Hart Lane, so our form is there to be seen, thereÂ’s nothing wrong with it.

MartinezÂ’s tactics seem to consist of "canÂ’t defend, wonÂ’t defend"...

If all the bulk of our goals conceded comes from 1 game like the Chelsea game, weÂ’ll be fine. We have been conceding at least 2 goals a game bar WBA. IÂ’m not accounting Wolfsburg because they did force Howard into 12 saves and they did get one in because of a good free kick and what I see as a Howard mistake.

Even the passing is off today. I was like "Holy cow, did we move the ball like that last year?" Dominating 20 mins wonÂ’t get us anywhere if we donÂ’t have a plan for the rest of the game...Arsenal got 3 in 5 mins but they did well enough to not concede for 85.

ThatÂ’s twice against Palace we have taken them lightly and paid for it. Bad mistakes from Howard and Osman gifted them goals but it just wasnÂ’t our day.

Some scary fixtures coming up, although four straight away games may take some of the pressure off the team. The positives are that Spurs and Liverpool are only one point ahead of us and we are level on points with Man Utd! We wouldÂ’ve taken that at the start of the season, wouldnÂ’t we?!

The back 4 selection made no sense. Stones has played two games at center back. We conceded one goal in those games, and that was a free kick on the last kick of the second game. HeÂ’s played right back or sat on the bench in the 4 other games. WeÂ’ve conceded TWELVE in those. What. The. Fuck. Why tinker with that, given how fragile our confidence is defensively? The team was finally getting its swagger back because Stones was in there handling business and then Martinez decides to throw in the pair that fucked everything up? Not to mention that Stones is crap at right back! He doesnÂ’t have the pace to recover against the counter. ItÂ’s not his fault. HeÂ’s a center half. Besic played right back in the past and there is also Browning to fill in if Coleman is hurt. But no, letÂ’s give our opposition a lifeline and play people out of position for entertainmentÂ’s sake!

As for Howard and Jagielka, they have to be dropped temporarily. If we truly are a top team, then we need to start acting like one and drop underperforming players! Jags has been the poorest defender by a mile and Howard has made at least 4 schoolboy errors that have cost us goals. So drop them. TheyÂ’ll get another chance. But you have to be firm and let them know this shit is unacceptable.

Leon Osman giveth and Leon Osman taketh away. He still can’t protect the ball in his own half? Really? Still? But I thought he had so much "experience?" Fuck your experience. If you still make errors like that at this age, it’s never gonna change. Yet we persist. Loyal servant, academy product, blah blah blah blah….

Can we stop running Barry into the ground? If heÂ’s gonna be here another 2 years, how is he going to make it if he has to play 90 mins every damn game at 34? WeÂ’ve got all these options supposedly, but Martinez is afraid to use them, and that will take a toll on all the old men weÂ’ve got running this team into the ground.

Goddamnit. We are the most infuriating team in the free world. This squad is more than good enough for top 4 and we just keep on fucking it up. Stop toying with our emotions and get your shit together!

The man doesnt know what he is doing, he doesnÂ’t know the basic rules of football management!

Number 1 Golden Rule: do not change a winning team, unless absolutely necessary.

Number 2 Golden Rule: do not change a defense that is not conceding goals, unless absolutely necessary.

Number 3 Golden Rule: play your best players in their best positions, ie, avoid square pegs in round holes or trying to accommodate players, unless absolutely necessary.

Anyone who has watched Everton on a regular basis over the last 2 years knows that Osman can no longer start games or play for more than 30 minutes. And Stones cannot play at right back. Virtually every time he plays there, he is directly involved in us conceding goals. It was almost guaranteed that those two decisions alone were going to cost us 2 goals.

Did Martinez not learn lessons last season when playing the likes of Sunderland and Crystal Palace? Why play Stones at right back where he is clearly uncomfortable and inexperienced? And why also play Atsu, a player that is new to the league and the squad, who has never started before? Surely there needs to be some continuity or experience in there?

I cannot believe the game ended with Gibson at centre-back who has only just come back from a long-term injury and McCarthy at right back. The team was completely unbalanced with 4 or 5 strikers playing and only 2 defenders. This is Sunday league management.

The blame cannot go completely to Martinez though. I have said it before and I will say it again: Is Tim Howard throwing games for illegal betting? One day he will put in a MotM performance and the next make errors that you would not see in an amateur pub league. I would get rid... only for the fact that Martinez has somehow managed to bring in an even worse keeper as back up!

Something is most definitely wrong.

Naismith is the only forward who consistently moves intelligently up front, offering himself for a pass, but even he went down to the level of the rest. None of them, including the manager, earned even the pay Jimmy Gabriel would have been paid in his day, never mind what they get today.

Your post should branded on MartinezÂ’s soul in letters of fire.

Playing EtoÂ’o and Osman off the front from the off was never going to be a good idea. We could have played Atsu, Naisy and Kev off Lukaku today and things would have been pretty straight forward. Then let Osman, EtoÂ’o, etc play on Tuesday. We tried altering our line up against them last season and that back fired too. I know that hindsight is faultless but I was asking myself at the time why we were not making subs much earlier on Thursday.

Regardless, we were pretty comfortable until Howard made TWO Sunday league style howlers. IÂ’ve never been his biggest fan.

Why did we not go after Yannick Bolasie??
Twice now he has totally banged our asses, looks big strong and has an eye for goal.

Who takes any responsibility in our midfield to actually do something, anything with the ball??

DonÂ’t even start me on that keeper and defence..being a good shot stopper is not enough, Howard makes way way too many judgemental errors that prove costly.

I wonÂ’t be listening or watching next weekÂ’s derby, whatÂ’s the point?
It will only be same old same old, we will make an average Liverpool team look great again and restore their lost confidence.

I said at the start of the season this year was MartinezÂ’s first big test.

So far heÂ’s failing it.

His mistake as with Moyes is trusting experience over petformance. If Distin and Jags start together at Anfield it will be my angriest moment as an Evertonian. They are a tried and tested failure as a partnership. Martinez has to make Stones first choice.

I guess my perception of RM is a more gutsy, try the youngsters type. If weÂ’re to tinker because Coleman was injured, throw in Besic or some youngster weÂ’ve so much high hopes of.

Distin and Jags played in those games we conceded lots in. Stones didnÂ’t and Besic, well, we didnÂ’t see much at all. And valid mentions of Hibbert or whoever else we left out from the teamsheet. Howard defined our loss today but we canÂ’t have a problem of the moment and lose/draw the game every week.

I think the move to play Stones more in the CB role is a good one, looks good so far at least. That should not open us up to have to depend on Howard as much as we did over the past 2 games. Then shore up the defense on the right with Hibbert (or the untried youth) and Besic alongside McCarthy and Barry in the middle of the park. Then build from the left with our only known foraging fullback in Baines. I present Italy England as exhibit A. England was awful sure, and Italy got knocked out by the surprising Costa Rica, but during the game, ItalyÂ’s formation was one sided. And they attacked from it. And won.

Again, speculative. I donÂ’t know what RM sees during training but I think weÂ’re way too lenient in saying "we lost due to individual errors". At this stage, they are professionals that should always be pouncing on individual errors and while we should allow youngsters to make some, we should have a plan to reduce the errors to non-lethal ones.

ItÂ’s still early in the season but if we were to lose our next 2 games we will be in the bottom 3 and when your down there is so hard to get out so todayÂ’s game was 3 point a must even if it was ugly to watch.

Palace we never going to be a threat going forward unless the caught us on the break so why go with Lusaka and EtoÂ’o up front stick to what we know best the defence has had a shaky start but last 2 games would be giving them some confidence now after today thatÂ’s been shattered. We go to Anfield on Saturday and after last seasons display defensively am really worried it could be deja vu.

Martinez and the team fucked up big time, they have to stand up and take the blame, but please stop the hindsight team selection - it does my head in!!

We cannot sustain playing in 5 competitions with a tiny squad and a Gobshite potless chairman and expect to do any good.

Then again, some might say a piss-up in France and Germany is worth the sacrifice. LetÂ’s go out of the Carling Cup at Swansea on Tuesday, FFS. Last thing we need before we get smashed at Anfield is extra time and pens in South Wales.

Small squad and too many games equals what we saw today... I wish our fans would learn whatÂ’s important. Fuck the Europa League and fuck the League Cup... Time to realise what we are and what we have, which isnÂ’t 3 players in every position. Thanks to the Europa League no Coleman for the Derby.

Defending needs to start from the front and for me, when I see the very best sides play, what impresses me most is their high pressing up front and their sheer work ethic, Borussia Dortmund are the masters of it.

We are too slow and lethargic, always look like weÂ’re playing a pre-season friendly.

That is why Liverpool will beat us again next week.

They will pressure us and suffocate us and thatÂ’s how every opponent now knows what is needed to stop us.

Will we go to Anfield and do the same to them??
Very much doubt it.

The Jags/Distin partnership is dead and either should only be played alongside Stones now.

I said earlier in the thread Robles should be given his chance at Swansea and if he keeps a clean sheet play him in the league. If not, sell or loan him out and get someone else in. A lot of TÂ’webbers have mentioned Cech, It seemed kinda unrealistic to me because I wouldnÂ’t envisage Roberto buying an established keeper who would likely only sign for us, if he was first choice. After todayÂ’s game and say it would be a bold and positive decision to buy a ready for the first team keeper. Before IÂ’d have said go for a young up and coming keeper (that Robles was meanÂ’t to be) like Butland, but someone like Cech would be a signing IÂ’d welcome now. Howard is a great shot stopper but is inconsistent in other areas of his game. WeÂ’ve always known this but it seems to becoming more pronounced since the WC.

This brings me to certain players being favourites and not being dropped when warranted. What would a manager like Fergie do when a keeper made a number of howlers, heÂ’d make a bold decision! I cant see Roberto having this ruthless side to him

WhatÂ’s the point in trying to qualify for Europe if all people are going to do is moan about it? You might as well tell a player donÂ’t play for your country midweek because it might affect your league performance the following weekend. These are young super fit (well most are) athletes who should be able to easily play 2 games each week.

They are fucking pro footballers who earn more in a week than I do in a year, they train for it for christ sake.

Poor little souls would have had to work 180 minutes in a week bless them, with a 3 day rest in between games.

I fucking hate football tonight...

Tim Howard is a great Evertonian, nice man and all that but I’ve always said it he just isn’t good enough, he’s a pudding head. He’s just like Bruce Grobbelaar – a good shot stopper (making that look spectacular as well) but is shit at everything else. I know I’m comparing him to the best but I never saw Southall make two mistakes in nearly 20 years like Howard made today.

I thought Roberto was doing what needed to be done when he first came in replacing Howard with a good keeper. Give Robles the rest of the season and, if he does not cut the mustard, replace them both as you will never win sweet FA with a dodgy keeper who undoes all the hard work of his team mates and makes the defence in front of him feel shaky when they are trying to play out from back in the first place.

Unfortunately he is the 6 point difference between 5th place and that elusive Champions League spot.

Kevin, while I have my version of what should have happened, agree with not double guessing RMÂ’s decision. I guess weÂ’ll learn more at Swansea. Hopefully he do much better than this one over the next 2 games.

For ChristÂ’s sake itÂ’s only September how can they even claim to be tired??

We played in the Europa League in 2007-08 and had a wonderful run just before Christmas that year which included a 13 match unbeaten run, half of them were in Europe and we also had a run to the Carling Cup semi-finals.

No we are losing games because we are playing shite and conceding shite schoolboy goals.

Howard is a shit keeper and always has been. That pile of garbage today was simply unacceptable. He needs to be dropped ASAP!

You can take figures and make form look as good as you want but for me our defensive form has been shite every game this season and I mean every game.

Distin may have been good last season but this season heÂ’s playing somewhere between fucking shite and a total liability. For me this will be his last season at GP. Osman. How the fuck Osman gets in the starting 11 baffles me and I donÂ’t understand people who say "Osman canÂ’t play for 90 minutes" - for fuck sake he canÂ’t play at all.

So, when you have Distin & Osman on the field and Howard playing in "turrets" mode then itÂ’s only a matter of time before a howler is unleashed. Fuck me, today it was like "youÂ’ve been framed" doing a live show at Goodison Park.

Form can be lost as quick as itÂ’s found and really, what was good last season can be totally fucking gob shite this season. Everton have a major, major problem and that is with their defensive unit - we are conceding goals for fun and it has got to be stopped.

John, I for one is for rotation, especially when it comes to handling injuries. Coleman is out, so we definitely canÂ’t play the exact same lineup. And as weÂ’ve seen the past few games, we might be more willing to rest defensive personnel than offense. At least, thatÂ’s my thought given weÂ’re thin on defense right now. Something I couldnÂ’t believe will happen a few years back...

No im not joking. The keeper was possibly man of the match, we couldnÂ’t keep the ball, managed the game poorly and the scoreline was extremely flattering.

If you were pleased with that performance, fair enough. I wasnÂ’t convinced and I saw no reason today to be anything other than increasingly concerned. At the moment we are all show no tell and flatter to deceive.

WeÂ’re great on the eye but we have a soft centre and the emphasis is wrong. We are conceding goals all over the show.

We clearly have problems, weÂ’ve shipped something like 17 in the last 6 home league matches. I would suggest everything is not rosey and felt no reason to join in the wankfest that followed midweek as I didnt think we were that good. At times in the second half I thought we were abysmal.

I saw nothing today which made me think I was wrong.

In addition, just who do we think we are? Do we seriously think that we are anywhere near a position to treat opponents with degrees of disrespect as to consider leaving out so-and-so because they "need a rest"? Well letÂ’s get real - we are not.

Everton need to play their strongest eleven against every opponent they wish to defeat unless they are forced to by injuries/loss of form etc and not to "rest" players -especially after 5 games of a season! Are we seriously going to accept this nonesense? After 5 games of a season? It is nonesense and should be condemned as such. Why on earth should Miralles, Naismith etc need to be "rested" with the consequent disruption to the cohesion of a settled XI?

I feel sorry for young Stones who seemingly is given little chance by his club manager or the ludicrous England manager to bed into the role of a central defender before he is moved at a whim to the completely different perspective of a full-back when he is at the earliest stages of learning the game at the higher levels. What on earth is the experienced Hibbert doing? Or is he too nursing a hamstring tweak from not having actually played for what seems to be ten years or so now? It is a farce.
Amongst the usual banal claptrap emanating from the likes of Reid and Strachan after the Europa game last week they did at least have one sensible point to make which most common-sense viewpoints would agree with, namely "that what most players want above all else is to be playing" so do not use European games as excuses to be "resting" players. I am just saddened that Mr Martinez seems to have succumbed to this mindset that is perpetuated by self-indulgent "professional-speak".

We treated Palace with contempt after we scored, became complacent and arrogant and deservedly paid the price,

Lukaku cannot control the ball and was constantly dispossessed and the new boys fared little better against big defenders which has been another major problem when the visitors park the bus,we rarely raided down the wings until we were two behind but too little and too late.

IÂ’m afraid Howard has to be Â’restedÂ’,one blunder is bad enough but to balls up a simple catch is unforgiveable at this level,

It is vital we get our act together v Swansea, and if,as expected, we come away from Anfield empty handed, our season could be on the rocks big time.

Sounds like other mistakes let us down but really this isnÂ’t good enough weÂ’ve thrown away 7 points now in the first 5 games, so if we rally but end up the same distance off Arsenal weÂ’ll know why.

We don’t have the excuses that Man Utd, Liverpool and even Spurs had of rebuilding – it’s the same team but playing worse. We need to defend leads sometimes... Moyes back as No 2?

But I agree with most of the comments on here and that is Martinez should not change a winning side to rest the important players, they get paid to play football, for godÂ’s sake, and they should be fit enough to play every week.

Everton were lethargic, couldnÂ’t pass or control the ball, passed up several glorious chances to score and just never got going.

I would remind our manager and players: you earn the fucking right to play this game with a swagger/arrogance after you have put your balls on the line every minute of every game for years — not for 10 minutes here and there!

Beaten again by decent, not great opposition who thought "LetÂ’s get into these fuckers now,they reckon theyÂ’ve won this after 20 minutes!" Play the fucking game like you mean it and stop poncing around Everton!

Yeh ,we are moaning at you , but you now have the chance to shut us all up by putting it right on Tuesday and Saturday – I include the manager in that too. Aarrgghh!

You can blame the manager for changing the team, yes I agree with that, keeping an unchanged side would have been the safe option. But we lost the game in the end because of HowardÂ’s blunders, we canÂ’t give any team 2 goals start and hope to do well.

We were 1 up and had them where we wanted them, they then had to come out and attempt to score which should have suited us. Then what happens, our keeper presents them with 2 gifts, thereÂ’s no way we would have lost this game otherwise.

To start blaming the manager for the defeat is harsh for me, Howard and Stones have been doing okay recently so IÂ’ve no complaints selection wise there, to make.

Yes, there will come a time when rotation is needed but not 6 games into a new season, and not before two tough away games. The old adage of "always play your best team" is still as valid today as it has always been, but too many managers outsmart themselves with their changes.

After we scored the first goal, we seemed to lack any interest of going for the jugular and putting the game to bed; instead, we stuck with the tried and trusted style of pass and pass with nobody wanting to make runs into the box, no desire at all.

So is this second season syndrome? Time for RM to not be so predictable, and the leaky defence is becoming the norm; even in the 4-1 win against Wolfsburg, they had a number of opportunities to score.

When McCarthy went to fullback (has Martinez got a sub right yet this season) it left us with the two slowest players at the club in the engine room?

Modern football is more pace than skill, I think Palace proved that today. We was cruising but never really went for the jugular and individual mistakes cost us so badly again.

We were very disjointed second half and, as much as I think EtoÂ’o has a lot to offer, I donÂ’t think itÂ’s as a winger. I think thatÂ’s a position players go and play in training when theyÂ’re shattered, so I was surprised he played the full 90 minutes to be honest.

IÂ’ve got to disagree with anyone who says the League is the most important this year, because I personally would prefer to see Everton win a trophy. If the long term plan is Champions Lge football, then surely itÂ’s only right we learn our trade for Europe in the Europa League?

I still think we can fuck Liverpool next week, but I would think it a lot more if we could just find ourselves a real leader out on the pitch

Make no mistake this is not the well drilled Palace of last year under Pulis who notched up several impressive results this team were bottom of the league today before they were gifted 3 goals and 3 points.

Simply put Jagielka and Distin must not play together for Everton again, it has to be Stones in the centre plus one as James Martin points out those two together have let in 9 goals in just 2 games and that is utterly diabolical!

No, you don’t. You get the message that Howard is marvellous at certain things during a match, and an absolute fucking meff of astounding merit at other times.

That defeat can’t really be laid at the door of the manager.

Team selection, or methodical ’back passing’, had fuck all to do with any of the goals conceded. They were all down to individual errors, pure and simple. We were well on top and coasting to a win until Tim decided to don his calamity cap.

Howard has always possessed the cock up chromosome that costs you points.

Yeah, he might be a good shot stopper but, Jesus Christ, you can never bank on him being the type of keeper to command his area, claim crosses, clear his lines swiftly and decisively, or provide the sort of calming presence capable of telling a defence to settle the fuck down.

He switches off at crucial moments and inspires panic in the players in front of him when he himself acts perturbed. Always has done. an arbitrary byproduct of his Tourette’s, it’s a particularly persistent turtle headed turd that pokes it’s head out of his bald-but bearded-bumhole way too often for a top team to persist with, without it costing them points at crucial stages of the season.

Shit happens, but with Howard it seems to stick stubbornly to the pan and refuse to flush just when you’re wanting to keep things sparkling clean and fresh.

--> He fucks up on occasion, and today he was on overtime.

There was a section of your post that made me mildly ill.

I think you may know which!

I followed the live forum today and was dismayed at the abuse some posters were levelling at players and in particular some nasty, snide references to TimÂ’s medical condition from people who have previously come across as reasonable and intelligent. This is out of order in my opinion and it should be possible to get a point across without resorting to these depths. I wonder whether the same comments would be made if the poster was face-to-face with Tim?

All threads are to encourage healthy debate but surely the stuff today was not becoming of the supporters of our club.

Apart from the 80s teams at their very best, and one or two flarings since, we have never had what Martinez now calls, too readily and inaccurately, "arrogance". I donÂ’t know why, maybe itÂ’s because our whole culture has been affected by the historic triumphs of the RS but itÂ’s there always, you can feel it in the fans and in the players, in the very fabric as it were.

I think RM may yet do it for us but today was very sobering indeed because it was a typical Everton collapse. My first suggestion would be to replace Jagielka as captain, he is too bland and has no nastiness, a quality many have said we lack. I would choose Coleman as the best option we have. We need some bastards who are dying to win; there wasnÂ’t a single one out there today and the man on the touchline needs to become a nasty bastard too before itÂ’s too late.

It’s not rocket science...

All three goals were absolute clangers - where the fk are these coming from? You expect a few but this is ridiculous.

So take those goals away and we don’t lose... but it still doesn’t disguise the fact that we were pretty disfunctional.

It did cross my mind after the joy of Wolfsburg that you can’t laud a man for playing his strongest team in Europe and then criticise him for subsequently making changes. It has to work both ways and you can’t expect everyone to play 7 in 3 weeks or whatever our schedule is. The disappointment is that we don’t have the depth to our squad that we thought we did. Atsu had a great opportunity to show his ability but ended up looking like a kid. Clearly got pace and had a couple of exciting breaks but he’s not yet a footballer. At the other end of the age spectrum, Osman is well and truly gone now - good servant, clever little footballer, but so far off the pace it’s unreal. The ball picked off his foot for the third goal wasn’t the first time in that game.

Still can’t fathom JMcC to right back.

I would expect the emphasis to be on ball retention through passing and movement, until there is a clear chance to play the ball purposefully in an attacking move.

That doesn’t mean a defender can’t at any time opt to do the safe thing and clear it from the danger area as quickly as possible (no matter who may have called for it), or that they are being trained to allow attackers get their shots off by not closing them down quickly enough, or that the keepers aren’t practising catching balls crossed into the box, or that defenders are encouraged to step up when the opposition player has had ample time to select a measured ball through.

To not expect teams like Palace to offer any attacking threat at all against us is ludicrous and insulting, to expect professional footballers to deal with situations they have prepared for ever since they signed schoolboy forms is perfectly reasonable.

So, Martinez instructed Howard that, instead of simply coming and catching the ball, he should instead concentrate on shouting ’eeeeeyyyyy!’ whilst doing an insane, thumbs up, mid-air impersonation of the Fonz above Frazier Cambell’s fucking head?

He ordered Osman to suffer a frenzied twenty minute spell spent sending the ball spiralling to anyone in a different coloured shirt with his shitty first touch?

McCarthy - It wasn’t until we scored that I realised he was playing. Thereafter the only time I noticed him was whe he moved to RB and his part in our penalty. In his role is he not expected to pick the ball up from the defence and move it quickly into attack ? what is he actually doing at the moment, he’s not even a reliable first line of defence or midfield enforcer (which is the least we should be expecting from him). His problem is a lot more than chronic blisters.

Osman - if selected shouldn’t start. He’s got 20 minutes in him at best after which he becomes a liability. I thought he’d been substituted until his part in their 3rd. goal. If we have to use him then he should be no more than a late sub.

Martinez is certainly guilty of poor management of resources. For example current form players should have been substituted after 60 minutes against Wolfsburg and started against Palace. We started this match without our 2 form goalscorers, where is the sense in that ? why not play them until they tire then bring in Osman, Atsu, Etoo etc.

Because Palace sat so deep, Barry and McCarthy sat higher up the pitch which meant Jagielka and Distin had to carry (and pass) the ball out of defence. They are not very good at this, they look embarrassingly uncomfortable doing this. Wise up Roberto and resolve these problems.

FOr me the situation screams out for the introduction of Besic

Enough said. Maybe if he did take responsibility he’d be more inclined to work on his inclination to make the same kind of fuck-ups on a regular basis. Last season it was Sunderland.

And Goodison Park should be renamed to Goodison Retirement Home. Roberto’s simply too much of a nice guy to tell players they are finished. Will he ever ask himself whether Distin, Barry, Osman and Howard are past it, not to mention perpetual bench-warmer Hibbert?

Does anyone remember when OFM put a weakened side out against Leeds in the League Cup? Or Shrewsbury in the FA Cup? We lost both games badly.

It appears to have become a feature of the modern game for managers to make wholesale changes against allegedly "weaker" sides and still expect to get results. They are almost always wrong and almost always lose.

Warnock is an experienced manager. I’ll bet as soon as he saw our team he told his players we think they are rubbish because we showed them no respect and picked a much weakened side against them. Not to mention he no doubt looked at a video of their victory here last season and seen how much trouble Bolassie gave us.

We have two tough away games coming up so this was a game we needed to win and a side with four changes including three, what I would call luxury players in Osman, Eto’o, and Atsu, was not what was needed, especially with no Coleman and a dicey defense against their quick forwards. What was needed was the strongest side we could put out arranged in a sensible formation and not these weird formations they tend to go for today.

Now of course it could be that Martinez doesn’t really think we can finish in the top four, or even the top six, so he has decided to pick his strongest sides in the cups in the hope of winning some silverware. If he does this against Swansea on Tuesday it could well be an indicator of his thinking. If this does turn out to be the case then fine. I would sooner win a cup than get knocked out of all of them and still end up nowhere in the league. After all, winning cups gets you into Europe just as much as high finishes in the PL and you don’t have to win as many games to do it so it could be a sensible tactic.

We are pretty average in the league for past 25 years, yet, every year we are reading how we should go out from the League Cup, or rare European adventures because "the League is our priority". Nobody knows why is being 6th, 7th, 15th or 17th more important than to win Cup competition, but we are always singing the same song.

If we want to be at the top, we must go out and compete in all competitions and believe that we can win every game, just like big clubs do.

Super. And we can do that because we have a large, fit squad of blokes physically capable of playing multiple matches in a short space of time.

Oh, thatÂ’s right. We donÂ’t. And because we donÂ’t, we prioritise. Our status derives from our league position where the truest test is. Not from cup competitions nice though it would be to win one.

Many of our players are of an age where Horlicks is more suitable than champagne. They donÂ’t have the oomph to do it across the piece.

When Martinez joined us there was a lot of talk around...’I’m not sure I like this 3 at the back thing’, not that we’ve seen a lot of it ( maybe it’s what we need??)

I said then, I hope we haven’t swapped one set if inflexible principles for another and not to throw the defensive baby out with the Moyes bathwater ( or gist thereof )...For me, this still applies

The only way we will qualify for the CL is ( assuming Roberto won’t/can’t change ) if he is able to bring in players better equipped to play his system, this takes either time or money, and then we will only (IMO) scrape in at 4th, 3rd if we are lucky... yes we may win a Cup, which is not the end of the world, but it won’t be the Europa, we don’t defend well enough for the later rounds

Yes, for any finish around the 5th, 6th or 7th place trophy, the wins may be a bit more high scoring, but the losses will still give us 0 pts, just like a 5-0 win or a 5-4 win only gets you 3 pts and again all this is not the end of the world... the point that does my crust in is that for a bit of defensive tweaking we can do better.

This tweaking won’t take years of baby steps, or cost millions, just admitting that the tweak is required and the emphasis shifted

This next fortnight is going to be pivotal to the future of Roberto Martinez’s experiment – which, judging by the last 10 league games, is going terribly wrong – a team that has conceded an average of 2.1 goals a game in that period is not going to be winning or challenging at the top end of the table unless of course they are scoring four or five every week. Admittedly the Blues have scored 19 times in those games but the evidence is clear to see and this is not now a blip but a run which exposes those defensive deficiencies which have in all truth pre-dated Roberto’s tenure, however, he is the man who is currently in charge and so far he has failed to address the elephant in the room.

Optimism is fine, denial of evidence is intolerable and if Sylvain Distin honestly believes this is just a run of bad luck then the stats say otherwise, forget about formations, tactics and all the rest of the peripheral stuff which occupies the minds of many. It is the attitude of the players and their desire to be hard to beat which is what in the main is wrong – it is something that previous Everton managers would have nipped in the bud pretty sharpish and the foundations relaid but Roberto and his team seem incapable of doing so and also appear to believe that they are on the right track. I’m not too sure they are because as confidence slips away more mistakes will be made and more goals will be conceded which creates the very cycle which we are currently in.

So for me it is important that the team is sent to Swansea to get a result and the away games at the other place and OT are going to need people who will run their socks off to get a result and most importantly to refuse to be beaten. Now I understand that some will see this as surrendering to the old style Everton but, if that is what is needed to get our season back, on track so be it... because while the new style offers a lot of rewards if it succeeds it also risks everything that has been built within the squad over the past few years. Hold on tight: it’s going to be an interesting few weeks.

Martinez once again tried to be too clever yesterday by making changes to a side who had played some blistering football on Thursday but also succumbed to a second-half meltdown which on another day could have been very embarrassing.

The makers of Viagra have made a fortune from this sad fact of existence.

Roberto dropped a big one by making too many changes to the team. No need to rest players when we can rest them on Tuesday. If they needed a rest after 5 games, then they are not fecking sportsmen.

Also why not start them then bring them off?

Howard, Baines, Stones, McCarthy, Barry, Jags and Lukaku didn’t need a rest and Lukaku looks goosed, so why did the others?

Why change formation so drastically? Did he learn absolutely nothing from trying to be clever last season with the same team?

As soon as we saw the team sheet it was like Deja Vu...... have I said that before?

Ossie can’t last more than 60 mins so why did he stay on the pitch.

Stones struggles at right back and did not put in one cross all game and was just as to blame as Howard for the first. He is not strong enough to hold off the man and the exact same thing happened again just near to half time, tried to hold off his man and lost.

Howard had a stinker, why was he going for the ball for the penalty? There were 3 Everton players around the ball, which was going away from goal, so why did he choose this occasion to remember that he isn’t glued to the line to come out and play silly beggars?

Stones should have put it into Row Z, you can’t score when the ball is whizzing to the top tier.

Trying to be too clever mixed with the Howard Horror Show was excruciatingly painful to watch, particularly when the defence is playing tippy tappy keep ball at a snail’s pace for about 20 minutes, boring, ineffective ball retention, the same as the first half against Wolfsburg but we were fortunate enough to get two goals then.

Atsu was gash and McCarthy wasn’t much better. I can imagine that he will be off in January and looks like he is already thinking this himself.

Criminal tactics, daft substitutions and fecking awful goalkeeping......but it’s okay though, apparently it was "just one of those days", even though these "days" are occurring with scary frequency at the moment.

To be fair, I think the whole team needs a kick up the arse and told that our performances are not acceptable and will not be tolerated; if certain players don’t perform then they’ll be dropped.

We’re too soft and looking through the team I don’t see any winners – no-one that will not take any prisoners. When we were 1-0 up we played as if we were 5-0 up with five mins left. No urgency and no determination. Then we lost concentration and conceded shit goals.

In our last 6 home league games, we have won one, drawn one and lost four. We have scored 13 goals which is pretty good going but we have also conceded 17. Sometimes I long for a dull 1-0 win.

Raymond Fox #107 : "so our form is there to be seen, there’s nothing wrong with it."

Paul Hewitt ~148: "You can blame Martinez all you want but it’s the players making stupid mistakes to blame — not Roberto.

Where to start on these two snippets...

Raymond, quite how you can say that there’s nothing wrong with our form is staggering. We have won once in the league this season from five games. That there is poor form. We have won once out the last six home league games. That there is poor form. We have conceded more goals than anyone else in the league this season. That there is something wrong with our form.

Paul, when those mistakes are happening week-in and week-out then, quite rightly, the manager has to take a share of the blame. If he can’t influence the players to eradicate stupid mistakes then what on earth is the point of having a manager?

The system he is playing is partly responsible for some of the mistakes. Our short passing game means that teams who press us will force mistakes. If they do this higher up the pitch towards our goal then those mistakes will lead to goals. That is happening but the manager has instructed the players to look for short passes and not to hoof it clear.

The 7-0 game was an anomaly, simply because most of the players were still hung over from the Sunday night after Arsenal beat Liverpool and were guaranteed 4th.

The 6-1 game was when Lescott was moping about and left soon after.

The 7-0 game was almost excusable simply because they were probably still pissed.

Admittedly in that season we then went on our typical 2nd half of the season run. Interestingly that same season was also when we got tonked 5-1 by Dynamo Bucharest in Europe.

I agree that we need to sort it out.

Let’s focus on the now. We are shipping goals at an alarming rate every game.

We change the Jags/Distin axis (forced due to dead leg) and we keep a clean sheet and concede with the last kick of the game.

Lose Coleman and place Stones in the position he has looked the least comfortable and bring back the Jags/Distin axis..... and what do you know? we ship 3 goals again.

Surely we have another competent right back, as he cannot put in a lesser performance than Stones.

If I win the Over 60Â’s Open Invitation Huyton Sack Race, I might be very pleased with myself and so might a couple of very close relatives. Noone else would give a toss.

Think we have only conceded 13 in 5 league games. Not 17. But still not good. Plenty to improve on. As said earlier we have scored the third most goals so if we can find a way of scoring more than we let in then it wouldn’t be too bad.

What I am alluding to is we have with the exception of Palace we have played teams that have since proved that their good sides Chelsea and Arsenal obviously, Leicester, WBA turned over Spurs as I have already said.

You might agree that results can be influenced by who you play, is that correct, that’s my point. The first 3 teams above are very much in form, we beat WBA and lost against Palace due to cock ups by our keeper ably abetted by Stones for their 1st.

It was a tough start to the season on paper and that’s how its turning out. Hardly panic stations yet.