Gazza fairly assured, couple of good stops near the end, Seaborne did enough considering he was out of position, didn't give De rid much support, Yoshida very assured, Hoover just his usual solid performance, Richardson not as adventurous as usual but did well, Cork solid until picking up the knock, JWP a mature performance, Chaplow not great, seemed to lack enthusiasm, Guly, a curates egg, good at times, De Ridder probably the busiest player, lots of good stuff but poor final ball decision, Rodriguez much better in the middle and his first goal was worthy of the entrance fee, the three subs all put in a good shift for the time that they were on. My opinion of course others may have seen it a little differently.
Just back after running for the 10 o'clock ferry...otherwise I'd still be there getting on the 11 o'clock. Hope no one had a camera to see me running with the young lads and showing a clean pair of heels to the old fogies Very much a second string tonight, but still miles better than Wednesday. Seems that all our players are well trained in passing and ball control. Gazza looks assured, did some good stuff and a couple of fumbles collected at 2nd attempt. Probably keep SKD out, but may be replaced by Boruc. Shows great promise for such a young keeper. de Ridder very busy tonight, causing lots of problems for Wednesday. Rodriguez tried hard and scored great first goal. JWP looks so assured for a youngster playing great passes all over the pitch. In the draw tomorrow, so let's hope for an easy game at SMS.
I am wondering if Davis will start for us next game & this was a way of stiring up competition. Plenty of positives with Rodriguez scoring, Guly back into things as well as players returning to match fitness & youth getting a chance. Another win too & Everton are not invincible!!
Yeah, I think it was just really slippery out there. Players from both sides were sliding all over the place as well. At one point he caught the ball cleanly but it still slipped *upwards* out of his hands. As said, he dealt with it well though & I'm inclined to put the fumbles down to it being soaking out there rather than bad goalkeeping.
Have you ever tried catching a large bar of soap when it is wet! The ball was a bit slippery and a couple of times in the second half he punched it out rather than trying catch it.
I'd like to see Gazza get a good run in the side. Obviously, this depends on some good form from himself, but I'd also like Nigel not to bring in SKD or Boruc at the first drop of a hat [or ball]. I think the lad deserves a little time between the sticks. Obviously, if he has an absolute nightmare of a game, then perhaps he'd need to be spared. But at the moment, he's going very well indeed, in my opinion.
With City and Everton going out last night and at least another 3 Premier teams leaving the competition tonight we must have a good chance of going a long way in this competition. Another win and we're in the quarter finals!
This Cup often gives a lower PL club a chance to get to Wembley, but does depend on the draw. JRod seemed confident we could beat anyone....good lad.
No I expect NA is on his way to Liverpool, Crosby will take over until Benitez is ready. Conspiracy theorists, have a field day!
I'm going for a sore throat if that's not too boring Or he has noticed that top managers often don't deign to talk to the press
I have it on good authority that NA's diary shows he has a very important appointment in Liverpool on Saturday, read into that what you will.
