Gaston looked lively at the beginning. Hope his injury wasonly cramp (he was pulling at his feet)...if not, he's turning into a bit of a chocolate soldier.
Our high tempo pressing in the first half made them look poor, we tired second half which brought them into the game.
My stream is STILL going. I'm taking pounds off Murdoch. I'm easily in credit because I've never parted with a penny to SKY.
Hope people are understanding why Adkins had started to start Rodriguez and bring Lambert on at 60 mins. Rickie was shattered at the end of the first half and was even more so for the last half hour. He is better when he can go flat out for 40 minutes rather than do all the running first half and go missing in the second.
Did you see the Argentinian fan with his flag in the crowd? The Japanese probably had to shuffle up a bit. Norwegian journalists were there hoping Forren would play, but no luck for them.
Adkins said that Lambert struggles to play all out for 90 min....he'd probably disagree, but big men do tire more. Good effort from him...for any doubters he is a real PL player.
Ramirez did hang on to the ball too long today on several ocassions but he also made some excellent passes. So I'm going to chalk it up to mistake rather than selfishness. The whole high line thing was working perfectly in the first half and Ramirez was finally getting the ball where he wanted. Also happy to see Saints spray the ball around the pitch and just make Everton chase. Cork and Schneiderlin have insane motors, but I think sometimes that causes them not to slow it down sometimes when they should. Schneiderlin was fantastic the whole game. Really, really fantastic. Cork also played well most of the game but someone needs to have a word with him about not getting sloppy towards the end of the game. Overall a very good start to the Pochettino era and I'm really happy. Lambert had a bit of an off-day otherwise Saints would have won, but it happens. Only player I was slightly disappointed in was Jay Rodriguez. He just seems lost when he doesn't get the ball where he wants. He was effective at banging balls into people for corners, which I guess is pretty good. But he has to be a little more comfortable in situations other than looking to sprint behind defenders.
Decent result was very impressed with Yoshida's heading. Didn't think Shaw had his best game but was still good, same for clyne and cork. The only thing I thought Pochettino did wrong was not putting forren on the bench as we didn't have a centreback to replace Hooiveld who played alright but seemed to be testing out his groin in the second half. The whole team played well. There always seems to be an inertia at 0-0, one goal in the first half would have changed the whole complexion of the match. Boruc was outstanding, I think Nigel made a mistake in dropping him after 2 games. Perhaps Boruc needed to be dedicated solely to training for a while, anyway he has played well enough to keep his spot in the team for the rest of the season imo.
He did a prematch interview via his interpreter, but when thanked he said, 'You're welcome.' His interpreter smiled and patted him on the back...presumably he's his language teacher as well.
Guly was great first half. I don't think we have put in many 90 minutes performances this season perhaps due to not quite being fit enough, but I think if we had have taken our chances in the first half we would have not needed to play with the same counterattacking intensity in the 2nd
Great stream, great game, invaluable point putting us 4 above the drop zone. And a clean sheet! Next game we will see some more of Pochettino's influence I would guess. If they are going to play for 90 minutes like they did in the first half they all need to get even fitter than they already are. And we need someone to get in behind the defence. At the moment the only candidates are Shaw and Clyne, and possibly Rodriguez. I wonder what the window will bring?
I suspect Forren had things to sort out. After all he came down to sign a contract and now they are off to Barcelona. He's probably had to go home and pick up some things. I don't think Poch was interested in taking risks today.
Think we need another wide player for that reason...getting Lallana back (and, hopefully, Mayuka getting an opportunity) will help, but we were too lacking in quality subs tonight to exploit the fact that both teams were exhausted by the 70th minute.
Gary Neville is not only a good analyst...he's a fair one and gives considered responses with no knee jerks.
