Positives: A point at Goodison is always a great point. Jan Vertonghen was awesome. Lloris' head is officially stronger than Romelu "The Beast" Lukaku. ANOTHER clean sheet. Negatives: Lewis Holtby is ****. I've tried to see the positives in him but bar the fact he seems a great guy off the pitch, on it, he does nothing, at least in the EPL anyway. Holtby started over Eriksen. Eriksen was brought on at 85 mins despite the fact we desperately craved creativity from somewhere. Harry Kane, who was immense vs Hull doesn't even get a deserved place on the bench. We never tested Tim Howard, all 3-4 shots were pretty much right at him. Paulinho looked jaded from the 120 mins vs Hull yet played the whole 90. Soldado looked lost and isolated... Again. No service from the midfield as per usual. Inverted wingers. That was our 10th league game this season and still there are no signs of the team gelling in an attacking way. With a few spells of the first half aside, it was Another Very Boring performance.
Well summarized. I agree with all this. Although I think you've been a bit easy on Roberto Soldado. If Spurs do finish up fourth this season, it will not be because of him.
Well we did not lose because we were lucky. Nor would we have been lucky to have won. The Soldado situation has to be sorted ASAP. He was visibly frustrated by no service today.
Interesting read. I'm looking forward to MOTD tonight, that's for sure. Haven't seen anything of the game yet, but it sounds like it's the same problems again.
A reasonable summary, although I do feel I want to another negative and that was the embarrassing and amateurish way our medical guys and our manager dealt with Lloris's injury. AVB has now said Lloris was briefly unconscious. If that was the case then that info should have been relayed to the touch line immediately. It wasn't and as events progressed, no one, apart from possibly Michael Dawson wanted to take responsibility and make a secision and there was clearly confusion. Freund, as always, stood around looking gormless and the physio looked bewildered. I thought it poor, however more importantly, Lloris did recover quickly.
Interesting read. I'm looking forward to MOTD tonight, that's for sure. Haven't seen anything of the game yet, but it sounds like it's the same problems again.
A much better first half performance. But the players still seem to be too scared to try and play thru the opposition masses around the box. The inverted wingers nonsense + poor service to Soldado (who is now visibly showing his frustration) has to be sorted immediately.
Apologies for all the posts, something crazy was happening with the computer or the site. Anyway apologies. I hope the 'ruined' Dawson can sleep tonight after being humbled by Lukaku ... oh wait
I thought it was a difficult situation because Lloris clearly wasn't taking "no" for an answer and was refusing to go off with the physios. The medical have got to take responsibility if they knew he'd gone unconscious but I imagine it's easy for information to be misunderstood or exagerated in that kind of situation. The real negative was Everton fans booing and Lukaku for refusing to get out of the way in the first place. I've heard pundits say that Lukaku had a right to go for the ball, and he did, but he didn't go for the ball as he wasn't close enough to, what he decided to do was continue running in the hope that he put Lloris off which is a stupid thing to do for a start and even then he made no attempt to dodge Lloris at the last moment. It was dangerous and totally preventable if he had just an ounce of commonsense but hopefully he's learnt his lesson and Lloris doesn't appear to be too hurt. Their fans totally lacked class throughout the situation from apparently appealing for a penalty to Lukaku to booing Lloris as the medical staff tried to assess him and then continuing to boo him for the rest of the game. An example of fans losing total perspective in a bid to, presumably, try to help their team.
Decent overall, though certainly no more than that. We were badly overdue for a draw, and a nil nil draw at that, and that's what we got. We looked very good in the first half, Jan was MoM, easily outshining Baines, and it didn't look like Everton would score against us if they played for years. On the other hand...where are the goals going to come from for us? Changing our set up and tactics is an obvious, and popular choice, but I still think it ain't gonna happen, not any time soon, any way. I'm hoping breaking at speed doesn't count as a change in set up and tactics, and that we can find a way to practice and get better at it. We've got the players to do it well. Other than that...well, we need Gylfi, Townsend, Eriksen, Holtby and anyone else with a decent long range shot to spend more time practicing it. Townsend is particularly frustrating since he's got good power and decent aim, but grooves almost all of them straight at the keeper. Cool. I thought Gylfi came closer to scoring, twice, in the ten minutes he was on then the other 23 players on both teams did in an hour and forty minutes. In addition to shooting, he's able to get some space at the edge of the box in a way no one else seems to manage. As strong a team as it is with Lennon and Townsend on the sides, I think we need him in for his shooting. I'll disagree about Holtby having a bad game, though. He was good as the third central player in a 4-3-3, working hard and helping us keep possession. He just did very little useful as a CAM. Gylfi on the left, Eriksen in the middle next game? We got a couple of goals last time we tried that.
The Lloris situation was shocking in my opinion. There was no way he should have been allowed back onto the pitch, somebody had to take authority and take him off. That's only a week after Townsend came back on after supposedly being unconscious against Hull. It's embarrassing for the medical staff and a totally unnecessary risk to take. Aside from this, the first half was much better display but in the main we didn't really create a clear chance again. Siggy's shots were probably the closest we came. The inverted wingers tactic is starting to get even more tiresome by putting Lennon on the left, when he doesn't suit the role. Clear example being him attempting to pass the ball right footed when he had a golden chance to hit a left footed shot in the first half. Rather than be unpredictable with the tactic with the wingers able to go on the outside and cross or inside and shoot, we have become extremely predictable in just cutting inside and shooting. Positives are the defence was solid again and seemingly Lloris was okay. Final word goes to the referee who I felt quite sorry for, with the home fans being on his back with every decision. Really is an impossible job.
I don't really want to prolong my rant over this because at the end of the day, the most important thing is that Hugo Lloris is ok and it seems as though he is. But, that was shabby and in this day and age, one would expect someone senior to step in, demand an immediate prognosis and then make a decision. That didn't happen and I remain irritated by the unprofessionalism of it.
Yeah absolutely, I even said to my Mum that Friedel should've come on, head injuries should never be overlooked. I give Hugo a huge amount of credit and respect for wanting to stay on but his health comes first, you could see Daws was doing his upmost best to get Hugo off the and rightly so, yet the management seemed somewhat content with Hugo insisting he was ok despite the medical staff seeming to indicate otherwise. Glad he got through ok, I reckon he'll be waking up to a nice shiner tomorrow morning though.
We were lucky that he was able to continue, because Friedel certainly wouldn't have had the pace or reactions to deal with some of the late Everton onslaughts.
New rules require any player suffering a concussion in the NFL or NHL to sit out the rest of the game, and, I think, one or two after that. Recent research demonstrates that any concussion is a significant health risk.
New rules require any player suffering a concussion in the NFL or NHL to sit out the rest of the game, and, I think, one or two after that. Recent research demonstrates that any concussion is a significant health risk.
New rules require any player suffering a concussion in the NFL or NHL to sit out the rest of the game, and, I think, one or two after that. Recent research demonstrates that any concussion is a significant health risk.
I have to say I was staggered at the fact I could not see who was in charge of that situation. There are basic little tests to check coherence, but tbh, it was a concussion risk which can take effect later, so Lloris should have been taken off and monitored closely. If Lloris had collapsed 5mins later I wonder what repurcussions there would have been allowing Lloris to effectively self diagnose. As for the game which pretty much mimcs the season, if can someone tell me why we have all these no.10's/creative players now, yet still can't score goals, then please do. (last 3 words are totally tongue in cheek, before I get a load replies I don't want!)
Was Lloris concussed? I thought players had to leave the field with concussion. Don't know the rule without looking it up, but I'm sure it's mandatory.
