It was a ridiculously busy day for us yesterday, so our usual match day routine went out of the window. The lad played at lunch time and then Mrs Rangercol took us to the ground (en route to Westfield!!). During the journey me and the lad were in good spirits and even started singing "we're the finest football team...etc" to which Mrs Rangercol responded, "what on earth are you singing that for"? Seemed fair enough comment!! Then we got the team news through and we were both very pleased with the selections. We mused as to what the formation may be (yes, he's a formation freak too!!). We thought it could be 4-2-3-1, but it turned out to be a fluid version of a kind of 4-1-3-1-1 (4-4-1-1 basically). The game began and Rangers were immediately on the back foot, conceding two corners in quick succession. However, from the second corner the ball was cleared and Hoilett did well to get the ball away from Neville. He then ran.....and ran.....and ran!! Taarabt made a great run to the left, creating space for Hoilett to continue running, whilst the whole ground seemed to be pleading with him to pass to Adel! He chose to shoot. It was a weak effort which looked to be heading straight to Howard before a wicked deflection saw the ball change direction and loop into the net. A fantastic start for a change.....was this to be our day? As you would expect, Everton came on hard and M'bia, who looks a very good player to me, was possibly lucky not to concede a penalty when he stood on Jellyrich's foot. Would have been harsh in my opinion, as the jelly man seemed to be off balance already. Rangers were playing some good stuff at times, in a 4-1-3-1-1 formation that saw Diakite holding most of the time, but Grenaro dropping in to cover whenever Diakite went on one of his marauding runs forward (there were to be a good few of those!). Hoilett was playing off Zamora and looked very lively and carried the biggest forward threat. He must learn to drop into the "hole" when we lose the ball though, as we still got out-numbered at times in the middle. Zamora linked play well on a couple of occasions, but on the whole he looked way off the pace and hardly won a single header, even though he towered over Jagielka! To compound Zamora's poor display, he completely lost Distin, after having given away a free kick for a late lunge. In truth, he never looked like marking Distin and was never, ever goal side of him. Zamora simply let Distin drift away to put in a completely free header. The good luck that had allowed Rangers to take the lead now deserted us as the header struck the post and then rebounded into the goal off Cesar. Nothing the keeper could do about that. For me, Zamora is looking more and more like Bothroyd....not a good thing!! A couple of minutes later, Zamora was at it again!! This time he allowed Jagielka to get ahead of him to head against the bar. We could so easily have been behind!! Granero was playing very well and controlled things in the middle whilst Diakite was everywhere, getting in (mostly well timed...thankfully) tackles and making some great forward runs. Granero would always sit and cover when Diakite made these runs. The half ended with some good possession from Rangers, ending with a blaze over the bar from Taarabt from the corner of the 18 yard box. The second half shaped up in a similar way to the first. Everton are a very solid, well organised team who play the ball around well. However, yesterday they were also fairly niggly, committing a lot of fouls. Pienaar slid in late on Hoilett and picked up a deserved yellow card. A couple of minutes later he charged into Park quite late and would probably have been booked for that if he wasn't already on a yellow card. Instead, Mr Moss the incompetent, called Pienaar and skipper Neville over and issued a clear last chance warning. Two minutes later Pienaar accidentally clipped Bosingwa from behind and he was gone!! A harsh 2nd yellow, but he could have gone for the Park challenge. I hoped we could now push on and take all three points. Cisse came on for the awful Zamora and Hughes was forced into a couple of defensive subs, with Nelsen and Traore struggling. Could he have replaced one of them with Mackie and gone with 3 at the back against the 10 men? Possibly, but Everton were still looking dangerous, even with 10 men and Hughes would never have been forgiven if he'd taken that risk and lost all the points. Hoilett, still looking dangerous cut in from the left on two separate occasions and forced two very good saves from Howard. Earlier, MOTM Jagielka blocked a Park shot superbly after more good work from Diakite. All in all though, we looked pretty toothless up front with little cutting edge and with our defensive frailties it is looking like a long, hard slog and I'll be pleasantly surprised if we are ever out of the bottom 6!! Granero played well without ever really creating much, whilst Diakite did create some threat with some great forward runs. Taarabt played quite well but he also never carried much goal threat and therein lies our biggest problem. We are so toothless up front. Zamora looks disinterested and slow and Cisse needs games to try to regain last year's form. Perhaps a 4-1-3-2 formation would allow both Zamora and Cisse to play together which would allow Cisse to play off a target man? Although I'd play 4-2-3-1 at the Emirates. Hughes got his selection right, with Park, whilst still not fantastic having his best game. No coincidence that he played on the right, his preferred position. This also did the job of keeping Baines very quiet!! I came away from the ground pretty down and very concerned at our lack of goal scoring threat. We simply couldn't make our extra man pay and that was very disappointing. Player ratings and comments: Cesar - 7 - Some good saves and unlucky with the goal Bosingwa - 7 - Looked good and did well going forward Traore - 7 - Same as Bosingwa Nelsen - 6 - Did ok, but never looked like winning a header M'Bia - 7 - Very composed on the ball and covered well (The defence all have decent marks individually, but collectively I would give them 5) Park - 6 - Better and kept Baines busy. Unlucky with a blocked shot Granero - 7 - Very good on the ball and kept possession well. Didn't create much in the final third though Diakite - 8 - Very good display and, although he got booked, timed most of his challenges well. Great going forward Taarabt - 6 - Some nice touches and passes, but nothing spectacular unfortunately Hoilett - 8 - Always a threat and unlucky not to score more than the one goal Zamora - 4 - Pretty awful and at fault for the goal. Doesn't look bothered to me!! Subs: Onouha N/A Ferdinand N/A Cisse - 5 - Made some good runs but needs games! Thoughts?
Morning Col, Thanks for that. I went away a bit more encouraged after the game on the basis that we played good football and at least got the point against the team who are deservedly 4th in the Permier League. However, having read your report, I am inclined to agree about the goal scoring problem. There may be factors we do not know. Perhaps Bobby was fighting a minor virus etc but decided he had to play?? I was a lot happier with the defence though their goal was probably preventable. If we can play like that next week and if the out of sorts Gunners turn up then a point is not impossible at all. It was an important point because it means that one win still takes us out of the drop zone (pending other results) ie we are not quite adrift as yet. Southampton and Reading are now 'must win' games at home. Good report and thank you for writing it.
I do agree with the cutting edge up front....would much prefer to start Cissé, he comes and and has more shots zomora has in triple the tim. We badly need a pacey forward who isn't afraid to shoot...or if we play Bobby play him with a second striker so he can hold up the ball (which he did an awful job at doing yest)
I agree... I would play Mackie behinf=d the big man.....especially in the later part of yesterdays match...a poacher...if he had been where Park was he would have scored. But now I cannot see a place for Mackie to start...Yesterdays starting formatipon was great
I disagree that Zamora didn't look bothered. He was poor yesterday but has been one of our better players this season overall. Not many big centre-forwards will get much change out of Jagielka and Distin this season.
Great informative read for the likes of me, not having been there. A couple of things struck me 1. Zamora; in the earlier games (which is not that long ago!) he was getting good reviews and looked very sharp and more than a handful for defences. Suddenly he is seemingly playing without interest now and apparently not even trying. Can there be more to this, possibly a fitness issue? 2. Where did our great home form of the second half of last season go? Maybe it won't kick in until later in the year but we really need it to happen now! 3. Only one clean sheet in eight games, goals hard to come by, no surprise we're in the quagmire now. 4. Once a team gets out of the habit of winning, self-belief can be a problem. Does the team have a mental block where they seem to think it's not possible to actually win a game now?
Good report as usual col. Its all a bit of a catch 22 at the moment. If zamora hadn't played we would be saying we needed someone to hold the ball up! I understood the tactics and formation and whether they worked or not is a matter of opinion. To start both cisse and zamora then someone has to be dropped. I personally would like to see hoillet and adel on the wings with that combination up front or even a zamora/ mackie line up.
Good point. They were a Zamorra sandwich every time Bobby got anywhere near the ball! Our defenders take note!!
Good report as normal Col. I haven't had the benefit of watching the Everton goal on TV but looked to me as if Zamora was marking the man behind and Nelsen the one if front and nobody picked up Distin, Bobby was the only one that made a move towards him which made it look like his fault, was this Zonal defending, not sure perhaps TV or your kind selves will help clear up for me. For me the substitution was poor, against 10 men he should have been more aggressive, personally I would have put Cisse on instead of Park and played 3 up front. I thought Jagielka was outstanding and without him would have have won the game and we should have had a penalty. Overall improvement but then we seem to play well against the better teams but like Col I walk away disappointed.
I have to say that I was not among those giving good reviews for BZ in earlier games. For a striker, being top scorer in a side losing most of their games and with an abysmal scoring record is not exactly a claim to being in good form as some seem to think. Yesterday I think he turned in exactly the same kind of performance that we have seem from him since the start of the season: sluggish, slow to react and totally overwhelmed in the air. He does normally have the knack of being johnny-on-the-spot for half chances but even that has deserted him in recent games. I thought it was a real shame that Cisse's cameo did not coincide with the Adel's purple patch as it looked way more likely to be latching on to intelligent balls. Jamie Mackie could have worked well also IMO. Hughes can see that he desperately needs height in some situations but that alone is not a good enough reason to pick Bobby I'm afraid.
Thanks for the great write Col. As usual I agree with most of it. As usual I disagree only on Park who I thought did very little, lost the ball and slipped a lot, and his passing was mainly sideways or back. But Baines was quiet, either he had a bad day or perhaps Park was somehow containing him off camera!
Good, well balanced report as usual, Col. Now that the dust has settled, I'm not too disappointed about a point against a good Everton team. Diakite looked really lively and Hoilett is settling. Zamora had a poor game but all players do occasionally. Another battling performance by Nelson who was a 7 for me. If we continue where we left off, on Saturday, I think we can squeeze a point at The Emirates, then we must look for wins in the next three home games against Reading, Southampton and Villa. If he's still with us then, those games will either be Mark Hughes' salvation - or his Waterloo
Good report Col. Very similar to my own take. The main difference was that whilst not euphoric, I didn't find the result depressing. Everton were a very good side all game long. Their league position accurately reflects their quality, organisation and industry. I think a few of us are seeing our predicament and its causes similarly. As AAAAAGH said before the match, Hughes' mistakes were made in the summer (failing to balance the defence and get another goal scoring front man in). All he can do now is make the best of what we have. Well he did that yesterday. Picked pretty much the right sort of team other than Zamora over Cisse - and they played with heart and passion. If he can keep that going (and score points), he'll no doubt keep his job for the time being. He's done well to attract some of the players we now have to a club like ours - but will have to sharpen the potential scorers (both front men and midfielders) to ensure a lot more end product if we're to clamber up the table before too long.
Good read as usual Col, for those of us miles away it kind of makes us feel part of it, if you get my drift. Have to say that some of the negativity shown on some of the threads is a little OTT IMO, I'm going all DTish here....I actually thought we played some really good football yesterday, kept hold of it, knocked it around with confidence and looked like a balanced side...how many times last season did we complain that we could not keep hold of the ball? Well compare that to yesterday, there's a huge improvement because we now have players who know what to do with it...i still marvel at the way we managed to get Granero here, he gave a masterclass in ball retention. Some are moaning that we could not break down 10 men in the last 30 minutes......how long did it take City to break us down in the last game last season.....it's not easy when the side reduced to 10 re-organises to defend en-mass and counter attack in 1's or 2's.....just think back to Barca/Chelsea etc. Some are saying Park was anonymous etc, well IMO he and Bossingwa did one hell of a job in keeping Baines & Pennar in check. Remember Everton are a bloody good side and will be top 6 come May, they are not going to roll over for anyone, on balance we may have deserved 3 points, but in all honesty how many would have taken a point prior to ko? Sure we had 1 or 2 defensive scares but so did Everton....all in all the positives far outway the negatives.... Keep the faith. Up the R's
I was just pondering this myself. Derry ( remember him? ) and Ephraim don't look like getting a seat on the bench anytime soon, let alone any game time. Once Hughes realised he couldn't or wouldn't get in another defender or striker surely he should of put Luke Young and Helguson in the twenty five man squad. A fit Young would of been a useful option when we had those defensive injuries, and Heidar is still banging them in down the M4.
Some very good, sensible posts on here. Before kick off I was talking to the guy who sits behind me. He said we must win and I said a draw would be a good score providing there was a performance with it. I am actually very encouraged with what I saw yesterday because I felt we have started playing more as a team/unit. Park seemed to be more effective especially in the first half and I agree with the poster who said it was his best game so far. At times we played some good stuff. We had a couple of horror periods but on the whole defended better. We are not scoring enough goals be we are at least scoring some. Once we are more confident in our defence, more goals will follow.
I agree. Our all round play is quit good and getting better. The defence played well and will improve especially if we can start with the same unit every game. Only two mistakes yesterday, one resulted in a goal and the other against the bar. A lot of people are frustrated at the lack of chances created or 'cutting edge' but with the good possession we're having in midfield of late that will also come. Especially as we have the quality of Granero as well as Adel and David Hoilett to craft goalscoring oppotunities for us. Someone will get a spanking from us before too long.
