Everton vs Sunderland

Incidentally we are the only PL club not to have scored from a set piece this season.

I watched them last week, against Newcastle, and they were awful. They might show a bit more fight tomorrow but they are still crap.

Also, your statement on gaining points against Chelski and Southampton were unexpected bonuses. Again, says it all really. Fortress Goodison would have at least guaranteed us a point against the Chavs and although we don't have a great record down at Southampton I always thought we should be going there with expectation.

Spurs I thought we were lucky to come away with a point in my opinion, thought we were awful that day. Martinez has managed to lower expectations of what we are capable of when somebody like yourself suggests the season starts here.

I don't wish to start complaining bitterly about the manager but this season is starting to look a but like de javu from last season. I really want to be wrong and the team go on a splendid winning run and to make my words look foolish. Being made to look foolish would be heaven to me as it would mean we are successful.

However, more than just results, the performances for most part this season have been awful. Worse is the fact that we know the team can play, re Chelski and Southampton, yet they don't on a regular basis. You can forgive a limited team being rubbish,but what you can't forgive is a talented team being rubbish for most of the time with occasional flashes of excellence. The last few games have been terrible to watch with pretty terrible results to go with it, Norwich excepted as we won on penalties, really Norwich should have won in regulation time.

As for tomorrow's game. Really, Sunderland at home should be a gimme. Awful team with an awful record... looking like an away win then! Hopefully we can turn up and play some energetic football that we know we can play.

If Martinez can let the players off the leash then we are capable if beating not only Sunderland but most in the league, especially at Goodison. However, the shackles stay on for whatever reason, and we are reduced to turgid dire football with few or no chances. That is not entertainment for me.

No wonder Lukaku's agent is muckspreading again, may as well not be there if we are not creating anything again. We are reduced to statements starting with "hopefully", "maybe" and "could do" sad really. Hopefully we can get a win tomorrow and maybe sneak a goal from somewhere.
Up the blues

"From a set piece".... In a Premier League game.

Young Geri scored a free kick in the League Cup.

Hopefully Roberto can fire the team up for victory, that's got to be his mission.

Robles

Coleman
Galloway
Funes Mori
Stones

Gibson
McCarthy

Deulofeu
Barkley
Mirallas

Lukaku

We do have some very good players and some of them will be back from injury soon. We have a strange manager (though anyone who can identify two talents like Besic and Funes Mori is no fool), but sometimes things just click in the right way when you least expect it.

I like your back 5 but it is very young. Who gets the armband in your team?

I honestly don't give a shit who gets the armband. Give it to Howard and let him revel in his newfound status on the bench.

Let's be honest: we are playing very poor, regardless of results, and if we can't beat this very ordinary Sunderland team, we are in trouble.

Play on the front foot from the off and attack them. I for one have had enough of this tippy-tappy nonsense; attack and entertain us or we will be playing in the library again — and that doesn't help anyone.

I'd be tempted to give Pennington a game at right back; I think he offers more going forward than Browning and he's better in the air. Same wide players as on Tuesday.

This isn't the most constructive next comment, Martinez Out, and to those who say it's knee jerk, take a look at the last 18 months of cack and take a moment.

However, the next 10 will have to be more productive with a minimum of 18 to see us have any real chance of worrying the top third. Starting with three points on Sunday.

Tomorrow will be the same, Sunderland will play for a draw and some no mark like Borini will pop up and score the winner. Everton have become boring and stale under Martinez. Three seasons of Martinez in charge is enough. A change must be made in the summer.

Same old Martinez faults are beginning to emerge: clean sheets a rarity with a high shot-per-conceded-goal percentage, and then we have Our Tim. There's little doubt that The Arse changed their team and tactics and attacked Howard (Big Centre Forward? Crosses into the Box? Arsenal?) and it paid handsome dividends against old Concrete Boots.

Now Big Sam doesn't have to change his tactics, and he's obviously noticed that we don't stop crosses coming in (which was a problem even in the Moyes era) and we don't defend them when they do come in. All-in-all a lethal combination. Oh for an Ashley Williams or Ryan Shawcross because, even though the spotlight has rightly been on Our Tim, Stones defensively leaves a lot to be desired.

I suppose it's ridiculous describing tomorrow's game as 'must win' but, if we lose to relegation fodder and heaven forbid it's a close-range header or any other howler from Howard's box of tricks, the Goodison faithful will turn decidedly nasty, because it'll turn into last season. Start off playing some decent stuff, only to be undone by schoolboy errors (with the stats to prove it) that sapped the confidence out of the team.

There's a great new series started on BBC 1 called The Class of '92 and it's a fly-on-the-wall documentary of Gary & Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt & Paul Scholes who have bought Salford City, a club in the Northern Premier League. And after a decent start, the performances start to bomb, and almost immediately all of the owners, who remember were phenomenally (had to get the word in) successful footballers, all observed that with the players they've got out against the teams they were up against, they should be winning – an unforgiving attitude and the manager was sacked, even though it didn't come easy because, as Giggs remarked, he only played under one manager.

So I ask the same question: left back excepted, for the first time in the illustrious history of our club, we can field a team of internationals, and yet we find clean sheets impossible to keep, and this is a continuation from last season, in which a team built on rock solid defence became sieve-like... or, more to the point, Wigan-like.

Football is like hotels: clean sheets are everything. And anything other than 3 points and a clean sheet tomorrow is a failure.

I can't believe Martinez is the same man we enjoyed having here in his first season. It's surely a mental breakdown that has transformed the winning mentality Martinez had into this Terminal Loser we now see. I hope to God we don't get through to Wembley this season and meet Man City in the final of the Capital One Cup, as my mate is predicting. That wouldn't be a day out I would want any part of...

Although RM can be very frustrating, and it is very easy to make an argument for his termination. I don't share the opinion that we have a squad who should be doing far better than they currently are.

I believe we have a young squad who, if kept together, will be ready to push for top 4 in a couple of seasons time. Too many of the players that we are relying on to put in big performances, week-in & week-out, are still very young and don't yet have the maturity.

Barkley, Deulofeu, Lukaku, Stones can become huge players in time. But right now, they carry too much responsibility for players so young. They will be in their primes at 27. That's 5-6 years away. What RM has done incredibly well is keep them all together. If he can continue to do this, then we will all reap the rewards.

RM will also become a better manager in the next couple of seasons. It's hard to visualise and believe it right now, but I believe patience with RM will be rewarded. There are going to be frustrating times ahead, no doubt about it, but we are on the right track.

The 4 players I mentioned above could all become world class. The chances are that they won't all progress to those heights, but if they get close, and all stay with us... who knows how good we could become?

Such is the level of competition in today's Premier League, no manager can hope to get in the top quartile with almost half his squad of such limited quality. And, clever as Roberto may be, he will soon have to recognise that reality and do something about it.

Meanwhile, we should still have the beating of Sam's lot!

Their defenders are awful and I believe the pace of our expected front four will be too much for their old defence.

I would like us to once go for it straight from the whistle rather than waiting for a wake-up call (goal conceded, fans venting frustration etc).

I'm going for 2-0 with Big Rom picking up a brace!

COYB

Please, RM and you Blue Boys, prove me wrong and make my Christmas and New Year.

We should be kicking off tomorrow with a win but I predict a dour draw, coming from behind.

I like the look of that line-up, Ian (#7) but we'll just be getting more of the same, I fear.

It took him an eternity to turn things around last season. October... November and December last season, Martinez was clueless. The Thursday night Europa League games were blamed... What's the excuse this season?

We have been poor through October (look at our results); not great. The Sunderland game will be a test: we are expected to beat them. But the fact is that we must beat them: no ifs, no buts. We have to be beating Sunderland.

And when did Big Sam become a manager to be feared? Squeaky bum time at Goodison Park. Those renowned world beaters Sunderland are in town. Come on people. We will beat them... I think.

Fine margins this season; we win, and we could reach the giddy heights of 7th. We lose, and we could be 14th. Fine margins. Should we lose, then it could be a long winter... 'cause, as stated, Martinez takes an age to iron out mistakes. A bloody eternity. And only by accident does he stumble upon a winning setup (eg. his favourites getting injured).

Pointless trying to select a team... but, for what it is worth I would play Robles (never going to happen). I would play Browning instead of a misfiring Coleman. And I would play Kone instead of Lennon (not too much to have two right wingers trying to slot into RB). And I don't like two DMFs (never have) but that is unlikely to change.

We need to press high up the pitch tomorrow and try for once to get the first goal; then, they will have to try and get back into the game... and we can exploit gaps. We can open them up. But they score first, then expect to play something like 8-1-1. Watch and see. That's Big Sam's notion of football: do a job on Martinez, thank you very much. Go back to London happy. As I said... fine margins.

But I expect Everton to win. I always do. And please, Mr Martinez, no silly formations. Mensa are still trying to work out what you were trying at Reading. And the Norwich game was no better. COYBs. Three points tomorrow. No nonsense. Time that we started to climb the league, and put some distance between ourselves and the midtable teams.

After watching 45 minutes of utter dross served up by Chelsea and Liverpool, with a combined worth of about 𧽴m, I still think we perform miracles to still be in or around the top 10.

I’m not making excuses for our poor performances but, when you look at the investment, or lack of, in the team over the years, then it puts things into more perspective.

Sunderland were absolutely dire against a 10-man Newcastle last week. We should absolutely batter this lot.

My only concern is we start slow (again) and the crowd turn against the team. It is essential we get an early goal.

If Coleman is unfit, I would start Lennon at RB in this game.

We never put teams under that sort of pressure (apart from Deulofeu's efforts against WBA). So how did we manage to win a few games? Simple, we went narrow; we played through the middle with no wingers and Kone helping Lukaku.

Not to everybody's taste, I know. But, as soon as something worked, Martinez changed things. I just don't get our manager. I try... but he makes it hard work to actually see what he is trying to do.

On the Howard v Robles debate, yes, Robles makes mistakes (understandable, as he never has time to settle into the team). But would we have scrambled past Norwich with Tim Howard in goal? I wonder...

How to remonstrate with a referee? How to insult American tourists? How to knob your teammate's bird?

Seriously poor down at Chelski also. The players are not doing it for the manager.

I find myself ageeing with you all the way on that particular post. What is the world coming to?

And please, please score first. I'm getting pretty tiresome going a goal behind every bloody game. That is one hell of a sinking feeling.

As usual, here is my rallying cry... Get out of the blocks quickly. Put Sunderland on the back foot... and not just on or around the 80th minute. Thank you very much, Mr. Martinez.

I remember some of them posts last season when we played Hull and Stoke and even the most tolerant Martinez supporters were going to give him until November to Christmas this season. So, while we've not had the complete turnaround we'd have hoped, it's not been a bad as many would have predicted at our lowest last season. We're mid-table after playing a very daunting fixture list.

The biggest positive for me that we've sped play up a little more. We still like to pass the ball around a little needlessly at times. But we've definitely moved on from last season.

So, while I'm optimistic about the fixtures ahead, my only fear is that the lower teams will just sit back and we won't be able to break them down like we saw last season. As the more competitive teams allow us to play our style of football and we've now played them all in our opening fixtures.

So could we do worse against the lower sides?!?

I don't think we will but there's that fear at the back of my mind. I think we've moved on and things have been learnt from last season. I don't think the teams deemed to be lower will give us the same level of respect this time round. When we're seen as one of the big teams not to lose to.

Tomorrow's going to be the acid test for me; Big Sam will set that side up as a defensive unit and they'll be the embodiment of negative football with the onus on getting something from set-pieces. So, if we win convincingly, I see it as a good omen for the way the rest of the coming 8-9 fixtures play out.

If it happens at the top of Fifa, it sure as hell happens at the bottom of the food chain.

Coming back to EFC, I see a poll on Royal Blue Mersey shows only 13% think Martinez is doing OK.

That is terrific news, cheers!

To be honest whenever I post I always have that little niggle in the back of my mind - 'what will Dean Adams think?'

So brilliant to get your seal of approval on that.

(I was going to stay in tonight but you know what, fuck it, I'm going out!)

Many.games thus far should have been a walk in the park for us but became a struggle because of Howard's shortcomings.

When was the last time Howard had a three-in-a-row clean sheet? Robbles had one last season before he was dropped.

He then stated he expected to see a reaction from the players ahead of the Arsenal game, only to see us come out second to every ball and lacklustre until we went two-down against an Arsenal team who'd played in mid-week.

So can Roberto motivate his players? ... as they sure can't do it themselves.

I can take being beaten by a better team if we give everything, but I can't take lack of effort or fight. Get into them and fire them up, once we win the battle our class will tell.

The record this season, as we all know, is not good despite beating Chelski which is no great feat seeing how RS gave them a goal start and a beating today on their own pitch. They survived big scares at Soton and Albion before getting all the points and generally play, at least defensively, with too much trepidation always looking like they will concede with every opponent's attack, just like Norwich during the week. Everton still lack that bite in the middle of the park as the tackling is poor and the passing is too shoddy, frequently setting up attacks for the opposition.

So another home game and against another team that on paper they should beat but they need to be up for it and show some real fighting spirit from the start. I would like to see Deulofeu start and get him running at them down the flanks. I would also like to see Kone given another start even if it means Lukaku on the bench.

Galloway can also play as a defensive midfielder as well as LB and CB. I think he could make a cracking defensive midfielder who also has the ability to surge forward. Something neither Barry or Gibson can do.

It will be important to have tempo from the beginning and not start in a slumber, as in previous games.

Ss John Lennon said, just give youth a chance...

It's alright fans pointing out winnable games but this fixture has been winnable for the last two season and we have lost both. Do or die time, Roberto.

Everyone will be on edge for every corner conceded. The organisation for corners is as bad as ever. We really need to get rid of Lawrence and get a proper defensive coach, such as Keown, maybe.

The main thing is, we desperately need to score first. Chelsea is the only game at home where we've scored the first goal. A lot of this is down to bad decisions from Howard. If he plays, we'll probably end up chasing the game once again and we all know how ugly those games are.

Stones has not played well the last few games... and Lennon said 'peace', not 'youth'.

So much for the optimism of a new season. We are descending down to the level I predicted during pre-season. I hoped that our over-rated manager and players would somehow get it right, but alas, this is reality.

Incidentally, does anyone else wonder that if Martinez wasn't Spanish, and British, say Pardew, Pearson, Allerdyce or Lennon, that he may have been sacked by now?

We have not had a team this good since Kendall's FA Cup winning team. So what is the problem? It has to be the manager. He seems to only have a Plan A and only chance changes his mind. You think we would have won against Chelsea if not for an injury causing Naismith to come on early when we all know Naismith would not have come on until the 82nd minute or later.

Players are playing well and he leaves them out of the team the next week. Other players play badly and he leaves them in, so they can get their confidence back. How logical is that? They should be back at the stadium doing heading and doing shooting practise — not on the field missing sitters.

Klopp is going to change the way the Premier League plays this season and if we continue with this madness we will be playing for 17th place. Why?

We have already seen Liverpool run, hustle and attack more and the players are starting to get the pattern and the fans are seeing players really earn their money on the field. The results are coming and so will the confidence very quickly.

The other teams I mentioned at the beginning are also doing something similar; you only have to look at Leicester the same 8 players in the team and they are currently 9 points above us. Can you name any two of their defenders? Most people know all our regular back four and are envious of us.

So the team I would choose this week would be as follows:

Robles

Browning
Funes Mori
Stones
Galloway

McCarthy
Barkley (Cleverley 83)
Oviedo (Besic 75)
Mirallas

Deulofeu
Naismith (Osman 75)

Subs
Howard
Holgate
Osman
Cleverley
Besic

Totally rested for two games at least.
Lukaku (missed at least one sitter in the last game and more before that )
Kone (similar reasons )
After the Watford game with two missed sitters (headers) by Lukaku and Kone they improved probably due to practise and have missed quite a few since.

You are not in the team unless you give 100% for the full game.

Playing non-defenders as defenders is usually a recipe for disaster. Defenders are taught from day one about keeping the line, stepping up together to play offside. Unfortunately, non-defenders tend not to have a clue.

Our defenders are bad enough without putting a winger as a full back. If Coleman is out, we have enough natural defenders to cover.

You would think even if Sunderland start with Fletcher and Defoe, we should have enough to sort them out.

We need someone on the pitch that will display a sense of urgency and intensity. We need someone on the pitch who is capable of cajoling his teammates into putting in 100% if things are going against us.

It may give us an insight into Martinez's future plans for the team - depending on who chooses. For me, there are only two candidates: Barry or Stones.

Doesn't matter how much you hate the lot from the other side of Stanley Park... but they act; they have acted every pre-season for the last 3-4 years to get 3-4 decent/quality players, spending 㿨m, and finally they acted to get the best manager out there.

Us... we get a freebie, and two wingers for a total of ٦m and what looks like a decent centre-half for ٧.5m, and even worse, we'll keep Martinez until we are desperate relegation trouble, then probably get Royle back as interim manager whilst we wait for Moyes to come back.

It's all too much, lack of fight, passion, will to work, crap at defending, crap at supporting Lukaku. I even noticed today that in the latest stats we are 19th in league for miles players run in a game – only kept out of bottom by Aston Villa – surprise, surprise they are also bottom of the Premier League.

Klopp, in his 2 weeks, has Liverpool up from about 13th to 3rd and no matter how you feel, they completely destroyed Chelsea today.

Us – we'll be lucky to score tomorrow. Sorry I've lost the faith; it's gone... we are a poor poor outfit.

It's back to the same crap that was being played last season. If they think the Chelsea players aren't playing for Jose, well our lot look like they're at Martinez's leaving party.

Also, I'd like to see Oviedo back in the team. As much as Galloway is a good defender, I think Oviedo offers a lot more going forward; if Coleman is out, I'd play Galloway right back before Browning.

Another point is set-pieces. Allardyce is not daft; he will know how shite Howard is at crosses and play on it. Communication and bravery has to be the key for, if we concede because of another Howard flap, he has to be dropped!

Personally I would get Barry straight back in and play Mirallas and Deulofeu on the wings with Barkley behind Lukaku. That should be good enough to beat these.

I'm a bit gutted about Coleman. I don't think we get enough going forward from Browning.

There's a power vacuum on the Board, an Innovation and Inspiration vacuum in the coaching staff and a confidence vacuum in the Players.

And, as I keep saying, baring a major Board shake-up or a Mike Walker-esque Meltdown, Martinez, just like Moyes before him, has the job as long as he wishes.

So on reflection the season does not start here, that's well gone. But the Job of getting the Club back playing decent football in a proper manner does. That's your mission Roberto. Not that you'll accept it, or in fact accept the need to change, you've said too many times 'No Change'

I thought Martinez had finally realised Barkley is not a Number 10 and the 4-2-3-1 shape at home was a load of shite after the terrible season last time and the first game of this season, which only improved when Kone came on the pitch and we went two up top.

I'd even be happy if he benched Barkley in order to have two up top. Lukaku on his own is useless!

I don't think Sunderland will be easily beaten tomorrow irrespective of what side our manager decides to put out. How many players do you think we have who are on form?

At present, the team is not playing well at all. Howard has come under fire but the team as a whole must work harder. More tackles, stop the crosses, more energy. Let's really surprise Sunderland and up the tempo from the kick-off. I expect a win tomorrow... but we are Everton!

He'll make all those who supported him last season and this, look stupid if we descend into last season's form, by pissing around passing the ball amongst ourselves, when we should be ripping the back out of a poor Sunderland team.

We do nothing well. We don't close the ball down. We don't get players into the box. We have a crap keeper. Our players don't talk to each other. There is no leader on the pitch.

Our home record is now bordering on dire. If he doesn't win, and win handsomely tomorrow, it's times to start looking. And believe me, Martinez is probably the 18th best manager in the Premier League. Certainly the most fucking stubborn.

If I read you correctly, the points that you make can – I think – be summed-up in one word: 'culture' – the way we do things around here.

The culture, outlook & expectations of any organisation affect everything: in our case – who is recruited at all levels throughout the club; who are our commercial partners etc; how we train; what songs we sing at the ground; where we think it is acceptable to finish in the league etc.

A positive aspect of Everton's culture was highlighted this week in the way we conducted everything regarding Howard Kendall's sad demise. We are class. (No kopite-style attention-seeking banners, embroidered scarfs, grown men wearing badges etc.)

But, on the flipside, we are effectively also-rans in a league that is massively influenced by revenue streams, marketing, media and so on. To a large degree, we have missed the boat and it's a long swim from here.

The one potential chink of light is what happens on the pitch. That is hugely influenced by the manager and, in turn, the players. Turning points – like 1984 for HK Mk 1 – can happen. The manager makes a couple of under-the-radar signings (Reid, Gray) and imprints his culture on the team & club. Clearly not as simple as all that but we heard some stories about such an outlook in the eulogies this week.

That is what gives me hope that we can still get back to the top in time. If the manager gets things right – and the players do – then it's still 11 versus 11. People seem to accept that anyone can beat anyone else on their day in the Premier League.

Only a few weeks ago, Mark Lawrensen commented prior to the Merseyside derby that man-for-man Everton appeared to have the stronger team for the first time in many years. But we still failed to beat them at home and most subsequent performances and results have been poor.

Is RM the man to get it right? To me – and I genuinely hope I am wrong – the bloke is stuck in the shallow end and is a little uneasy venturing much further.

The most recent evidence for this is that many of us are going into a game against a bottom 3 side in Sunderland without complete conviction that we will stuff them.

Tonight is Halloween so I'm sure to be hungover and in no mood tomorrow so we'll just friggin see what happens.

Also – I'll keep bringing this "stat" up until the pattern changes as I think that it is relevant: Everton have now played 13 matches in all competitions and have scored the first goal... juist TWICE. Twice in 13 matches we have scored first. What the FUCK, DUDE!!!

Sure we have bounced back against crap in the League Cup games but keep that up in the League and we will be right back in Hell by January.

Why can't Brown Shoes see it !??! Try to score! There is no other point to the entire sport but GOALS. IDIOT.

I think we are about par for the first 10 games, but are also still in the last 8 of the League Cup. So I do think the doom and gloom is about as misplaced as claims of a top 4 finish were just three games ago.

Tim Greeley, I am happy for you to consider me deluded because I expect three points today. However, I still won't expect a Top 4 finish; in the words of Walling it's looking very seventhish.

We should handle them easily, but you never know. The Norwich game midweek didn't inspire a lot of confidence in our form. Still too much east/west, and not enough north/south.

Tim and the back 4 had better be on their game, because they are going to bombard the box with crosses.

We have to be much more clinical in the final third. Whoever Martinez selects up front have to create more chances and put those shots on net.

Still, like I said above, we should get three points. Santa wouldn't let me down....would he?

Everton 2-0 Sunderland

Incidentally, all those who are certain we'll lose can make some decent coin. A certainty in a three horse race paying 6/1.

Come 12:30, when teamsheets go in, and Robles is in goal, Fat Sam's tactics fucked, with no Plan B. 4-0 to the mighty blues.

He waits for the ball to come to him. Even his decision-making is awful many a times. Many of his goals have come through penalties and the less said about his first touch, the better.

I feel he can't score more than 1 goal like Yakubu or Saha or Cahill or Jelavic even against the mid-table or smaller teams.

Mourinho has made many bad decisions with Mata, De Bruyne and Cech but I feel Lukaku was right one. I hope he proves me wrong today by scoring a hattrick against leaky Sunderland defence.

It's not like it's a long shot call or even 50/50. An Everton manager achieving better than 5th and having 'success' is a long shot.

I could cry "fail" constantly and never be disappointed. But I'm not sure what kind of supporter that would make me. It's the hope that keeps you going (and kills you)... right?

When we defend a corner, can we have at least one defender on the post? When we are in the opponent's half, can Ross be closer to Lukaku rather than 20 yards adrift of him?

Can we let Deulofeu go outside the fullback as he used to in his first spell here? As at present he gets to the edge of the box and tries to cross from there.

I would also love to see somebody run past Lukaku as nobody makes these runs. Could we, for this game at least, release one of our central defensive midfield players to join the attack sometimes, to give us some options.

Finally, when we get around the edge of our opponents' penalty area, can we have more than one player willing to run into the box to receive a pass.

"It's the hope that keeps you going (and kills you)... right?"

Dead right.

NSNO

In normal times this should be a routine win (OK what's a routine win) but, player for player, we are better in every department – except of course GK.

Love your subterfuge theory, let's just hope there is many a true word spoken in jest.

COYB

Why? Just look at our recent performances. They're getting worse every game. We never dominate games, we always look vulnerable and quite frankly our squad isn't good enough.

Three points any old way against an Allardyce team.

Sadly, in the modern game, every player has to defend and that's why he may only be used sparingly and alternating with Lennon or, dare I say, a lacklustre Mirallas.

Sunderland are a poor team generally and they may finally go down this season, so let's hope the Blues can help them on their way.