A frightening insight into life without Lukaku

Niasse gets a run, takes 20 minutes to find his feet, and then gets subbed. I thought he has good feet and close control, has a bit of pace. He needs games for match fitness and a role in the team. Let's not be to hasty in making judgements just yet.

Tony Hibbert... what can you say? He didn't really put a foot wrong, was tidy and should have scored. Dowell, hard to say as the game was over.

If Chelsea can sack Mourhino after securing the title, why is it we still have Martinez?

This signing is a mystery and the scouts/agents involved want their arses kicking out of the Club. Not the only ones of course !

Niasse played alright, had a few good touches and passes, creates a few chances. Again, Lukaku added nothing, and you give him a higher rating? What game were you watching?

Dowell getting a higher rating than him, and again he didn't do anything - is that based on his potential? Because he didn't have a chance to do much in this game! I hope he gets a chance in the last few to get a decent amount of time in.

Niasse puts in 1000% more effort than Lukaku does, and for me that is a huge plus.

Paul - to be honest with you, your ratings are horrible! Less emotion mate, more watching the game.

I think you were spot on with Pennington who had a very good debut and will learn from Bournemouths goal, also Tony Hibbert who proved the value of a good tackling full back, but I think it is too late to give him another contract.

Take the 㿞 million and offer 㿀 million for Benteke.

Im in the Park End so Niasse was attacking towards us, and although I do agree with the fact he barely touched the ball for 20 minutes, I don't agree he didn't want it.

Niasse moved left and right, making sharp runs every time Gibson picked up the ball from deep. Gibson didn't pick his runs out, instead he chose the easier glory wide ball.

After the first 20 Niasse went searching, clearly noting that no one was getting it to him. This tells me he does want the ball.

Also I don't think it helped Niasse when our own fans shamefully cheered his first few touches, mocking him, not supporting him, there was a clearly distinctive difference.

Niasse grew into the game, he started having a few quality touches here and there, despite Lennon, Barkley and Cleverly playing poorly, therefore providing him with no support or service.

Im not saying Niasse was outstanding by any stretch, but I am saying he done no worse than any other Everton player v Bournemouth.

Id also like to rimind our fans that a lot of you wrote Rom off after his first season dispite his already proven EPL record.

Niasse needs a hat trick of over head kicks to win some of the blues over already, all through no fault of his own.

99% of fans had already made there minds up months ago v West Ham, even though he is only just returning to fitness, 8 weeks later.

Martinez bought Niasse, he's also fucked him, I for one am rooting for him to turn it around.

Both deserved no more than the 6 Ross got, as although he was poor, he also got an assist.

Niasse was also a 6 IMO, simply for effort and the fact it was his first ever start in the EPL.

I think Niasse wasn't outstanding, but he wasn't any worse than Lukaku has been in a long time.

Craig #7: "Zoid, it's certainly about opinions and you clearly have yours on Niasse" - you've got it wrong mate, I don't have an opinion on Niasse, simply because I haven't had enough time to judge him as a player, and he hasn't had enough time to prove himself.

How can you say he is shit off one 60 minute performance and a few 5 minute cameos?? That is a little naive, to say the least.

So many Everton supporters on here are so pessimistic😔

Give the man a chance & support the players!

#COYB

"Niasse was poor. From my seat in the park end I was watching his runs ( or lack of them ) closely"

"Lukaku made a huge difference. You don't have to run and run like a hapless chicken to add value"

A bit contradictory...

What exactly did Lukaku do, other than walk and throw his hands up every now and then??

Rom was heavily criticised before becoming valued at £65m. Joe Royle was ripped to bits in his early days by some fans who sat near to me in the goodison road stand. Niasse worked hard and should be given a decent chance- if ultimately he doesn't make the grade then have a go at the guy who recommended that we should spend £13 m on him- all the player can do is give his best and from what I saw yesterday he did that.

There were a few things I noticed during his hour on the pitch.

One of his first touches was to push the ball out to our left wing - then he took off straight away for the back post. I am old fashioned so I like that.

On at least three occasions he came back from the edge of their box to tackle one of there players and regain possession.

He tried to play Barkley in on at least three occasions - they look like they could form a partnership.

The ball doesn't seem to bounce off him.

I like the way he moves across the pitch - he is built for speed and may be very good on the break.

Let's give him a go.

The club needs to be very careful or it will create a wedge between itself and the fans. Those who protested on Saturday did so in a dignified manner, there was no running on to the pitch or attacking members of management or playing staff.

Are we no longer "The peoples club" Bill?

As I say, this may not be a true reflection of his performance due to the medium I watched on.

Has he gone yet?

Don't 'give the guy a chance' type players cost a lot less than £13m?

He did two critical things.

Firstly he gave the back 4 and midfield the confidence to play a longish ball forward to him and subsequently held it up well and brought others into the game. Whilst Niasse was on the field I don't think we retained possession once from any such pass.
The second thing he did was work the left channel well. This allowed Baines to get far further forward and join in the attacks. It gave us so much more balance and as such helped create some space on the right which we subsequently exploited for the goal.
I'm not slagging off Niasse per se , I'm just commenting that his performance was poor. He may well be a decent impact sub next year if he learns and improves his fitness. He doesn't look like a £13m player and to be fair to him, he didn't set the price tag either. Lukaku is a monster and is physically not built to chase and harry for 90 mins al la Vardy, Long. We will regret the day he leaves.

I'd echo Phil's point about getting a Championship striker for the fraction of the price. January signings are about immediate impact, especially when they're a replacement.

Pennington looked good, as if he'd benefitted from playing elsewhere. At a time when we've had injuries and are drifting in midtable, why haven't these young players been given a proper run? At least Martinez could then talk about giving a young team some experience!

But come the summer, IF he goes, then so be it. Get me a new manager, a winner that can bring in a striker or 2 and also some goals and creativity to midfield and have us up the top challenging for the European spots, and that will do me. I'd rather have that than have a team with Lukaku that languishes in the bottom half of the table any day!

He's a good goal scorer, an handful on his day (which are few and far between, and when he fancies it), but generally has a footballer I don't rate him all that much.

I'm certain a new manager, the right manager, would find the right replacement, get other, better players into the team to make us better has an whole and have us sharing the goals out and covering the loss of Lukaku's and adding more and having us do better, which is what we all want.

So please people, stop shitting yourselves at the proposition of losing Lukaku!

The special one at Chelsea was a genius at getting the lead and shutting up shop. Chelsea would be up by 2-0 after 30 minutes and that was it.

If Lukaku goes and Martinez stays, I fear for our Premier League status. He does not understand the art of defending. Training is designed to work on set-pieces and drills. The past two seasons have shown a complete lack of respect to defending as a team.

A slow tempo appears to go against Lukaku. He is isolated up front and looks frustrated. Interesting summer coming up.

We won the Title the year after we sold Lineker. We didn't miss his 30 goals ,as everyone chipped-in.

But if you do want to judge a player on a snapshot... when Cleverley opened the scoring for us, where was Oumar? Perfectly placed, in a yard of space, on the six-yard line bearing down on the keeper, ready to snaffle-up a second chance if one was offered. In other words, he was exactly where you'd expect to see an efficient striker who was doing his job.

Please don't just beat him because you're fed up with RM.

But a week on the naughty step must be the reward for whoever it was who compared Niasse's full debut with that of Joe Royle at Blackpool in 1966.

Yes, Joe got some stick early in the game but those of us who were there know that was very much aimed at Catterick for dropping the legendary Alex Young . How dare he !

Joe was 16 and cost nowt. By the time he left us eight years later (still two years younger than the £13.5M is now )he had scored 119 goals in 273 appearances !

For all the talk of 'opinions', that was a fatuous comparison, indeed !

Ray #5 Our attack without Lukaku would look no different, in fact it may be a little more lively. Kone might not be very good but at least he has nuisance value. Morgan and Huth will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of a nice quiet evening next Saturday.

There were already some good players at Spurs and the ones that came in from the Bale money were good but struggled at first but they got Pochettino in and he's turned them right around over 2 years, brought some good, young players in and got the best out of the others and Spurs are a force these days!

Whose to say a top manager can't come in and work wonders with us?!

We fuck-up the fairytale and Bobby Bollocks keeps his job.

WTF, Spuds win the title, the neutral's choice falter, and we are stuck with the catatonic Catalan for another 12 months!

The only parallel that I can think of is when Lineker left after his only season. We managed to win the league still but had Sharp, Heath and midfielders contributing goals to make up the shortfall. Where is our current comparable goal-scoring midfield? Barkley? Mirallas? Neither compares favourably with Sheedy or Trevor Steven. No, the future without Lukaku does indeed look frightening at the moment.

Lukaku has carried the side all season up front without support.He will bring in double what we spent in getting him and I want to know who will replace him ?There is no one I have seen in our squad who can score regularly.We are absolutely toothless without Rom !!!!

Facts like Barkley being our second top scorer with 12 goals clearly don't count then?

But, guess what, he DID score all those goals. That easily makes him worth 㿈 million and if we sold him this summer at age 22 we would make a very handsome profit.

The abuse Lukaku gets on here is ridiculous. Anyone see who charged onto the pitch to celebrate the winner Saturday, literally sprinted, got there before most blues on the pitch?

The criticism on here of Lukaku is more lazy than the people who call him lazy. We will be very fortunate if Lukaku is with us in the third week of August.

Is his rating as a 22-year-old centre-forward higher than Everton's current ratings? YES!!!

But hang on, didn't we used to score goals before Lukaku joined us?

Besic 6
Stones 8
Pennington 8
Baines 8.5

McCarthy 6
Gibson 6.5

Lennon 7
Barkley 6
Cleverley 7

Niasse 6.5

Hibbert 8
Lukaku 5
Dowell N/A

The mood in the ground though was funereal. I really wanted Martinez to succeed as a manager at Everton but we are a shambles at the moment. To turn up in the most important week of our season so seriously depleted is a travesty.

I was at Wembley and that is the poorest Man Utd team I have seen since they were relegated. The game was there for the taking and we contrived to blow it. The performance at Anfield three days earlier – shameful. Some of those players would never don the Blue shirt for me again.

Too many cracks in the team for me. The balance is all wrong, we don't play for 90 minutes. We don't attack or defend collectively and we can't press because we have prima donnas who think they are beyond criticism and too big for the club.

I had to agree with my fellow season ticket holder. It's fantastic being an Evertonian, the singing, behaviour and atmosphere at Wembley was inspirational, but the football, the ownership, the management, we deserve better.

Mirallas is our only other goal threat but is out of favour so that potential goal threat is nullified. Naismith has gone!!!!!!

Our midfield do not contribute anything apart from spoiling play and none of them score either.... Barry, McCarthy, Besic, Gibson when he is sober, Oviedo, Lennon, Deulofeu and our other striker Kone.

Gibson should have been sacked ages ago and the rest are not worth ONE Lukaku money-wise put together!!

One point I would like to make though is that even IF Niasse turns out to be ok, one thing he will never be is a number 9. As mentioned above he looks like a winger or a second striker. Given that, once (not if) Lukaku goes, we need a new striker anyway.

He needs to start the remaining games to get him up to speed with the prem and Lukaku needs to be on the bench as he's off anyway.

By comparison Kane has a 64% hit rate from 30 more shots.

Barkley is only behind Mahrez, Alli and Payet in assists.

You tell me where the problem lies.

Need to learn from from Tottenham. I read an article from Dembele recently that said the players took sometime before buying into Pochettino's philosophy of extra training or gym sessions throughout pre-season and then on demand; but the players are reveling in it now.

Oh and Mirallas doesn't score anymore.

So if Lukaku goes we are going to either completely change how we play or buy a really good striker.

I'd rather see RM go and see what a new manager can achieve, otherwise we're going nowhere.