Everton find no substitute for Lady Luck

Arsenal had a period where they were shipping in goals and Wenger had to bite the bullet and bring in a defensive coach in Boulder and things improved significantly for them. Martinez should consider this as a priority or waste the chance of finishing high in a very poor and open season.

With his insistence on concentrating on goals from open play rather than set-pieces as statistics predominate and his apparent indifference to practise set-pieces, we show not only naivety but at times suicide.

Yes, we could have scored a few last night – but so could have Palace.

The recruitment of Jack Butland, if not in January then the summer, should be a priority.

Yes, Lady Luck deserted us last night and good old hard graft got us back into the game. A game we should've won. If we can't get into Europe, he will deffo go and what a shame that will be.

Our lack of defending at corners and set pieces is the difference between this season being a good season and a great season.... Over to you, Roberto, to earn your your defensive badges.

It was one of those nights, when we could have had 5 or 6 and not been accused of the scoreline flattering us at all. Luck deserted us again at the Old Lady.

I didn't actually go to the match, but I think Craig Bellamy (as Sky Sports commentator) summed it up by saying that they came with the whole intention of defending at all costs, and then as the game progressed, hitting us on the break.

While Tim Howard didn't have an awful lot to do, I felt he had a mixture of some good, mixed with the bad again. I think we should be looking to strengthen in that department, sooner, rather than later, but until then, why not give Joel a chance to prove himself? (Although I have been a critic of him in the past.)

I still feel that we missed an opportunity to cement a base from which to climb even higher, as January poses a few hard games.

For the goal, he was not dominant or challenging. If any opposition player stands next to him, he goes to pieces. I believe he is the main cause for our defensive frailties – especially from set pieces. Because of his lack of authority in the box, our defence are uncertain of his decision-making, which causes confusion.

Robles may not be the answer, but he is certainly a better proposition than Howard. He holds onto to the ball and you will be guaranteed more clean sheets.

As for the rest of the game – some good build up play, but then the intricate stuff let us down. We carried on, with no Plan B. Players should have been shooting more – as Cleverly did. It's another 2 points lost to a team that are above us.

The manager's use of the bench was atrocious. We were crying out for a change in the last 20 minutes – Mirallas or even Naismith for Kone. The manager will not change his selection policy and, for that reason, we will be mid-table again. Martinez must go – and take that clown Howard with him!

Most of our play last night was great: fast purposeful and forward-thinking football, only just too many little flicks and backheels. We need somebody on the left, otherwise a lot better.

I was disappointed with the draw but our play was faster and we could have had 5 goals. Don't go back to the dull passing game, RM.

We are rapidly using up all those "winnable" games and still mid-table. A cup win is our best route into Europe but I can't see a Europa League campaign convincing Lukaku et al to stay.

However, this was not a repeat of past patterns. This was a dynamic, exciting display over two halves and showed a real improvement and against a very good, well organised side. It was a good game to watch as the comments on the BBC website showed (and we got a lot of positive comments on the quality of our football this season). So, I'm heartened rather than disheartened.

Now if Martinez and the coaching staff could just put a bit more effort into those set-pieces at either end!!!!

He may not have been directly at fault for the goal but if he comes clearing everything in front of him to get to that ball; even if he fails he'll most likely win a free kick.

We need a new keeper; but, with RM talking about him as a core member of the team after the match, we can all forget about that dream.

We have always drawn too many games, not just under Martinez but Moyes's last season too was addled with frustrating draws.

There are good draws and bad draws and last night's, plus the Bournemouth one, felt more like losses.

Yes, it was partly down to bad fortune, you can't do anything about that, but we would have still won that game last night despite the bad luck, if we cut out our schoolboy defending from any type of high ball into the box.

It's getting beyond a joke really now, our ineptitude in coping with crosses, set-pieces.

I believe we are a good team that sadly lacks a truly domineering commanding central defender next to the ball playing John Stones.
Neither Stones, Funes Mori or even Jagielka when he's played have so far shown themselves capable meeting enough headers.

A solid central defender and a more consistent braver keeper and we just might go somewhere.

I thought Barry, Cleverley and Barkley dominated midfield and Lukaku was immense. Slightly behind was Deulofeu who didn't quite deliver the goodies. Coleman was just majestic, snuffing out Bolasie, Puncheon and anyone else who came down his side, whilst also finding the time to get forward.

Stones is returning to his early season form and, to be fair, he needed to last night as Funes Mori had his worst game since he arrived – poor passing, bullied and lucky not to be dismissed.

We'll never attain a Top 4 position with the mission of us scoring more than the other side; there will be games when one goal is all we'll get and we need to be able to defend that slender advantage.

We have two major weaknesses to be addressed: the obvious is how to defend set-pieces – we're not the tallest team, with only Stones, Funes Mori, Barry and Kone competing against some giants (for some reason, Martinez keeps Lukaku up the pitch at corners), and Stones is not great in the air. I dread the day we play Stoke!

The second weakness is that we need a left-sided attacker who'll get us 6-10 goals a season and will make chances for Lukaku. Kone is not the answer and Martinez has obviously given up on Mirallas. I don't think we have an out-and-out attacker in the squad and the best we can hope for is someday to get Baines & Pienaar together again.

Oh sorry, our third weakness will be the day when Lukaku gets injured!!

He made three really good saves. And he couldn't have done anything for the goal.

The defence justifies criticism, we dealt with the dangerous Bolasie in the crosses in the first half, but gutted because their goal was soft and could have been avoided.

Attacking wise I thought we were excellent. It was just a mixture of bad luck and good Palace defending we didn't win. Barkley improved remarkably and I was impressed with Cleverley in the second half where he does go forward more, and doesn't loose the ball very often. We'll beat lots of teams like that, even in the top 4, but Palace proved they're a good side.

Funes Mori has been good so far, but I so wish we were in for Scott Dann.

Their goal wasn't half as badly defended as people think. Barry tracked Dann all the way but his only crime was not jumping for the ball and allowing the Kopite to get his header in.

Secondly, I think we looked worse and even more one-dimensional when Baines came ON. Galloway tracked back more than Leighton and was getting more space in behind on the left, partly due to his better pace, of which I think Baines has lost a yard. Everything in the last half-hour came through the right-hand channel where Deulofeu was giving Soare the run around.

I'd maybe look at putting Baines left wing with Galloway supporting and overlapping at left back as this would give us more balance while still having Baines's threat from set-pieces on the field.

He needs to grow some balls and start clearing out everything in front of him at set-pieces or win the fouls if he gets blocked; but standing rooted to his line is costing us dearly.

The stats don't lie; almost 1 in 2 shots inside the area are goals. Worst in the league.

You should read that second paragraph back. 'His only crime was not jumping for the ball and allowing the Kopite to get his header in.'

That feels like a fairly substantial part of defending a corner to me. Barry has been very good this season; however, I can't believe he won't have come off last night and thought he could've done better in that situation.

As for Baines having 'lost a yard'. He's returning after two serious injuries, give him a chance. I think he has earned better than to be judged after two sub appearances.

'1 in 2 shots in the area are goals'

Where's that stat from?

Yes they were good saves, but couldn't have done anything for the goal?

How about coming off his line, jumping and punching the fucking ball?

Seriously, how many of these goals do we have to watch before some realise there is a problem?

Crosses into the box (unless they're right on the edge of the box, miles from the keeper) should be about 70/30 in favour of the defending team as you should have the ball being attacked by your centre-halves and/or keeper.

Now with us, with soft ollies in goal, it seems more like 50/50.

If I was a coach at any other club and looking at tapes to find the best way to get goals against Everton, I undoubtedly would be saying 'let's get plenty of crosses in as their keeper is rooted to his goal-line.'

I am not Tim Howard's biggest fan, but he made some saves last night and I felt that the goal was down to an awful bit of marking, or lack of, from Gaz Baz.

I also felt that ,for the second game running, Kone tired and left us exposed at times. Mirallas being brought on seemed the obvious call, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I know a lot of managers use this zonal system, but for me it's a get-out for poor defending. Also, with zonal, the defenders are standing still in one particular area they have been given to defend, while the attacker has a run on the defender. But surely either Stones or Funes Mori should have been marking their most prolific header from corners.

But despite all that, I have to say, for most parts, it was a pleasure to watch; some of the football was really great. You can see the link-up play between the forwards is getting better and better as the weeks go by.

But you have to wonder if these two consecutive draws will cost us dearly come the end of the season. Not only where we finish but in keeping hold of our crop of youngsters. Who may decide that, if we can't get top 4 with Chelsea having a nightmare season, then will we ever be able to challenge for a top 4 place?

Maybe getting into the top 6 may convince them to give it one more season? I sincerely hope so, as with these youngsters they can only get better.

I guess we are 7th-ish material still.

Lukaku has every right to be frustrated he is on fire and could have easily had a hat trick on another night. Defensive frailties continue to undermine all the good attacking play. The more I see of Funes Mori the more concerned I am: he lacks concentration, dives in, and was lucky not to lose us the game and get himself sent off.

Mirallas should have been brought on. Kone's shooting was wild and reckless; had Mirallas been in those positions, he would at least be hitting the target. We rely too much on Lukaku for goals, no-one else scores regularly; at least Mirallas would help in that area.

These are the games we were supposed to be picking up 3 points from, yet so far have failed twice now in the most frustrating way.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/15134/10088333/tim-howard-is-under-pressure-at-Everton-as-his-form-suffers-a-dip

"Howard's save percentage inside the box dipped as low as 50.65 per cent; again, the lowest in his position and a ratio that meant, alarmingly, opponents were scoring from one in two shots on target inside the Toffees' area"

That's just criminal and he should not be starting.

As I posted earlier, where were our two centre-backs? Who made the decision for neither Stones nor Funes Mori to not attempt to pick up Scott Dann? It wasn't a particularly brilliantly whipped in corner, it was just standard delivery, but still not one of our two central defender's bothered trying to meet the header.

I've said for a while, we need a powerhouse next to John Stones. Stones is simply outstanding with anything that's along the ground but aerially he isn't the best and so far, although it's early days, Funes Mori has yet to convince me he's that great at commanding aerial duels, since the short time he's been here he's been out-jumped by a number of opponents.

Looking back maybe the result wasn't so awful, Palace are no mugs, in fact away from home they are one of the league's better teams – so says the table.

I think the frustration came from yet another draw for us and yet another sloppy goal, the type we keep conceding way too often, and it's starting to feel like it is seriously going to hold us back again this season.

Read the article, obviously the stats relate to last season, which were undoubtedly poor. Even the author ( an Evertonian) concedes that the stats have improved this year but doesn't quote them because they don't support his argument.

Instead he talks about crosses not claimed where he is one worse than Petr Cech and then uses team stats about crosses made and headers allowed and scored to try to keep making his point. It's hard to blame a goalkeeper for the number of crosses made, not sure he can massively affect this though of course the accusation is teams are crossing the ball more because he is not comfortable.

The guy is obviously not popular with many, fair enough you pays your money. But in my view some of the criticism is just way over the top. I saw someone criticising him for Bournemouth's first last week saying it was not hit with any 'velocity'. Didn't seem to stop it being voted Goal of the Month though.

I've even seen normally sensible and reasoned contributors claiming he

A) should have come out and punched the corner away last night. Really?

B) made a comfortable save from the resultant header.

As I've said I guess we all see it different ways but I thought he had a very good game last night and actually on a different night could have been 3-0 down before the goal.

I also think that he is a strong minded individual, which is probably good job considering some of the dogs he got last night.

As far as the defending was concerned, they're all international players but, perhaps with the exception of Funes Mori, none of them inspire you when the ball is in the air.

We can argue the merits of zonal or man marking, I'd prefer man marking because it seems nowadays that you can get away with wrestling attackers in the box, we don't do enough of it.

Another tactic that all/most teams do is to put one or more players in front of the goalie to prevent them from coming out for the crosses. I'm not sure what the answer is to that one, perhaps Howard should knock hell out of the blocker or at the very least make the ref more aware that he's being impeded.

Not to mention the poor forward passing that was all too often cut out and the crosses into empty space.

True, Howard didn't have a poor game last night and I agree, he can do nothing to stop crosses coming in. He can venture off his line occasionally, though. His area hasn't been mined by the Taliban.

The real problem is allowing the opposition to get crosses in. Galloway is frequently left marking two men and is constantly getting dragged inside, and, as a centre-back, this is probably where he drifts to anyway. It MUST be addressed by Martinez. I mentioned a couple of days ago that only Spurs have drawn more games than us.

When you think of two points dropped against Watford, Bournemouth, Swansea, Spurs, the RS, and last night, just turning four of those draws into wins and we'd be third. And we SHOULD have won at least four of those games.

Agree with all of that. It would be interesting to see what proportion of crosses are coming right and left. My suspicion is we are seeing more crosses from Galloway's side because despite his admirable efforts he is not the full back Seamus is and he doesn't have a natural wide player in front of him most of the time.

However it is our ability to deal with the crosses that is worrying and Howard is not absolved of responsibility for this. Arsenal being a classic example.

We have now conceded three goals directly from corners and the defence has to work better as a unit to stop this. In all three cases, a free header was allowed.

Last night, v the Rs, two headers v Arsenal,...all headers. It felt like Bournemouth to me last night, just like a defeat, a game we should have won.

I can recall goals against us direct from corners against RS, WBA and last night. Maybe there's been others. It's for sure that opposition managers know this exactly. Interesting that we now have gone from all back for corners to two up (Rom and Geri).

I enjoyed the game last night. We played very good football against a packed defence that deserved to win. But we work sooooooo hard for our beautiful goals that to give away one to a simple free header from a corner is insane and dispiriting. Martinez will not keep the side together if we don't win more games.

This time my gut feeling was we were just downright unlucky and I posted as such. However, today I feel angry.

We have turned too many wins into draws and, after reading the admirable Paul Trail, I agree that the performance of the coach with regard to subs was indeed poor.

So, that's just less than evens...

I think this will take a while, and patience.

I hate to say it but Everton are fragile in defence – particularly at corners. Our centre-backs are flashy rather than commanding and Howard has been trusted for a season too long.

On the other hand, I have enjoyed the stuff the team have dished up this season and will settle for the inevitable 7th/8th place it will result in. Martinez is looking very much 'a one-eyed' manager who sees nothing but good in his favourites whilst ignoring the alternative talent at his disposal. But he's an improvement on Moyes who never dished up an attacking display like last night.

Guess we'll just have to learn to be grateful for 'best of the rest' status!

He shows for the ball when we have possession so much better than McCarthy, links better, opens his body better for a pass and has a better engine; all-in-all a more motivated player to my eyes.

Kone has had a good season so far in my opinion but should have made way for Kevin Mirallas to come on last night, the game was a 6-pointer really and we again fell short of executing.

It looks like a bit of nothing to me. Stand around and hope for the best... Something has to be done.

Last night's game was crying out for some impact from the left flank; if Mirallas couldn't get some game time last night then he never will.

If that is the case, hopefully it will be swiftly resolved and Roberto will invest the money in a suitable replacement. Having bought so successfully with Deulofeu, we can have confidence he would find a good addition.

I have never been a Pardew fan but he has won my admiration for backing himself last season and taking the Palace job when they were really struggling. Since then, he has put together a good squad who are really playing for him.

No wonder Lukaku was so disappointed at the end – he was very unlucky – on another night he would have had a hat-trick.

I thought he had a great game and is really starting to look like a 㿉m striker. I love eating humble pie served by an Everton player.

I thought we played well and were a bit unlucky but the signs are encouraging. We look like we will always score, and we have also learnt how to come from behind.

On their goal, Barry did track him but Dan prevented him from jumping by putting his left hand on Barry's right shoulder – old fashioned but effective when the referee (who I thought had a good game) doesn't spot it.

I would love to see Mirallas in front of Galloway but it is not going to happen so I will file that one.

All-in-all, a disappointing result but not completely indigestible – we should have beaten a very good side.

If only we could defend corners... we would could go all the way.

Then we are further disadvantaged by the ineptness of Martinez's substitutions or lack of them.

These problems have occurred the entirety of his tenure and will never change so why are fans surprised.

The team played well for most of the game and was unlucky to not come away with the 3 points. Why are so many being (dare I say it?) so critical?

Ian (#2) says Lukaku's doing his job only to see our defence ruining it for him. That's just not right, is it? Lukaku got one goal on Monday, a real poacher's goal he couldn't miss if he tried! But he should've and could've added a couple more.

Our defence was stable and robust throughout, except for that corner, which is a goal you're always gonna concede, really. That goal from Dann doesn't really mean much, other than that OF COURSE our boys are gonna lose some duels and some 50-50s. All teams do. Bayern Munich and Barcelona are conceding goals, too!

Anyway, cracking game. The second half, the whole match probably, is the best football I've seen from Everton in a lot of years. I felt we were in total control, and played around their box like hockey players, swinging it from side to side. I loved that second half!

COYB!