Baines describes injury frustrations

Over to you Roberto, try setting us up so our only truly top class player makes an impact.

On what basis are we a top side??

We almost never win any game of any weighting and have only won away at the top traditional 4 (Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea) once in 10 years.

I know you have have your blue-tinted specs on but when was the last time we had a 20-game run (never mind a 40-game run) that made you think "We’re really good, we can sustain this and we can beat the top clubs because we can withstand injuries to our first XI"

No disrespect but what are you on about?!

Those tweaks to me, being a world-class goalkeeper, and a world-class creative midfielder. Much, much easier said than done though, unfortunately, especially on Everton's budget.

Welcome back Bainesy btw.

Fair enough. I just wish we were a top side so badly and wish we would start winning consistently.

Liverpool have their worst team for years and we still can’t beat them. We DO have a mentality issue that is bigger than a few tweaks, in my opinion.

I don’t mean to piss on your parade but:

i) We don’t have a top ’keeper;
ii) We don’t have a top defence (anymore);
iii) We start every match with 7 defensive players (and still concede loads);
iv) We don’t have decent backup for Lukaku;
v) There are very few creative players in the squad.

I could go on but you get the picture. I think we need a bit more than just tweaks... but I do admire your optimism (not being sarcastic).

Looking forward to seeing his freekicks going into the back of the net.

"We don’t have a top defence (any more)".

I disagree. We have a top class defence with Jagielka, Coleman, Stones, Baines, Funes Mori, all Internationals, and Garbutt, Browning, Galloway and Holgate for the next generation. What we don’t have is a top defensive coach or a manager capable of getting the best out of them.

With a couple of additions, a new keeper and creative midfielder, we’d give ANY team a run for their money. It’s the thought process at management level that needs sorting out.

We still need a couple more players of top attacking ability before we can call ourselves a ’top’ club. Unfortunately, ever since Moore’s reign we have been a club who sells rather than thinking long term. We should have made the same conveyor belt of trophy winning when we were doing well in the past, but we have never had a forward thinking board since the late 60’s.

We really need a young, imposing goalkeeper and a proper playmaker with the skill to lift the fans and the whole team. We have had players like that in our illustrious past, players who have guile, can pick a pass, can dribble and score a few goals. Players like Collins and Ball.

Lets hope that our coach’s can develop a younger version of Pienaar to dove tail with Baines. The latest signings have been drones eg; Cleverley and Lennon. Funes Mori is a defender so none of these three are going to excite the fans. Barkley reaching his potential seems further away than ever. He is a square peg in a round hole so no one seems to know his best position in the side... he is neither filled with guile nor does he score enough! He should be taking games by the scruff of its neck, but he is fitfull in his ability.

Re the players, the likes of Howard, Coleman, Baines and Jagielka and hardly spring chickens. Each of them is an international with multiple years of top flight experience – how much extra coaching exactly do these players need in order to defend properly? Even Stones is now in his 3rd full season so he’s hardly a debutant, although a bit green still admittedly.

I can understand the coaching argument with the younger guns like Galloway, Browning and maybe Stones but I don’t buy it with the seasoned professionals – they should already know their jobs and if not should not be in the side.

If the tactics employed are however the reasons for our defensive crapness, then that’s another discussion. Not practicing corners/set pieces etc...

"seasoned professionals – they should already know their jobs and if not should not be in the side"

So, what you're saying is, any club with a first team of "seasoned professionals" does not need a first team coach, because they will all know what to do.....er... right. They probably won't need a trainer either, because they've all been trained before, haven't they? Sorry to be so flippant, Denis, but ALL clubs have a first team coach and all teams SHOULD and will be practising various defensive scenarios to combat different opposition tactics as well as set pieces, something that Martinez has declared unnecessary, God only knows why, so to say that they should all know how to defend is, well, a bit flippant.

As for spring chickens, Howard is well past his best, Coleman is slightly older than Ball was when he left, Baines is approaching 31, not a pensioner by today's standards and Jagielka has not shown a drop in form that could be put down to his age. In fact he's been frequently outstanding.

With players of that standard the poor goals against column is down to one thing. Poor defensive set up and poor defensive coaching.

The trouble with considering the merits of the team is that we tend to look at our younger lads as having "potential" and imagine that, in a year or two, they will cut out the mistakes and improve into the big contenders that we long for. Unfortunately, even if we hang onto these future stars, they don’t always develop the way we would hope.

Then we have the veterans, who, one season seem to be staving off the march of time, only to find that, months later, they are over the hill. It is a difficult balancing act for any manager.

The very best teams bed-in young players and gently ease-out old stagers, and the best managers do this relatively seamlessly. Ordinary teams, like ours also try to bring in the young lads and ease-out the old, whilst maintaining our ability to remain ordinary, but not drop too low in our league.

We may well have a good striker, and in Gerri, a good winger. We may have a seasoned, class captain, and possibly another class centre half. The current manager is attempting to move the pieces around to make us a good side. Alas, we remain an enigma.

When we thump chumps like Sunderland, we all get excited, but we will piss in our cornflakes and lose to some shit team soon. I suppose we should just enjoy the good games and resign ourselves to not challenging for the top 4, because under Roberto, we will never get there.

Kase Chow has a fair point I think, he may have sounded a bit negative but he is right in my opinion.

In order to consider ourselves a top team we need to be one of the top 4 sides in the EPL.

Judging by the past 12-18 months we are a million miles away.

We have some great players and some potentially great players but we have no winning mentality, and too many flaws.

I’ve been trying to not bring Martinez into any of my recent posts as I can’t help but be negative when commenting on him, but here it is anyways.

Sticking with Howard, Naisy, plus Barry and Mccarthy as a pairing will never allow us any major success.

Howard had to be replaced after last seasons performance, Robertos failure to do this has and will continue to cost us.

Although Naisy has been moved to the bench in recent weeks and has done ok this season, missing out on opportunities like the one Norwich presented us with (£8m bid) again proved Roberto is not capable of thinking quickly and acting decisively.

This lack of quick thinking is often brought about during matches too with his slow decisions made during substitutions.

Some of Roberto's fans will point out his wins v West Bromwich etc but we should always beat West Brom and never find ourselves 2-0 down to them anyways.

٦m for Naisy is basically robbing someone blind and Roberto failed to be ruthless enough.

Howard out with Naisy is about £10m.

Gibson, Osman, Hibbert, McGeady all off the wage bill is massive money.

There’s a top class keeper paid for and a few extra top young players brought into the club in the del boy, Besic mould.

Anyways, back to Baines.

Baines and Coleman should be vital to our attack as they were in Roberto's first season, both getting close to the opponent's goal as they are a danger.

At home play one defensive mid.

At home play 2 strikers.

Tweaks will improve us but if you look through our squad we have too much dead wood to become a top side any time soon I’m sorry to say.

1) Martinez, unlike Moyes, doesn’t play a system that has Baines as one of the main thrusts.

2) No Pienaar to play off...

3) Age.