My thoughts on the Everton game - Feckin goal by Raylor!!!

First off - I met NUFC4LIFE, I sit next to a badger and nufctomw before the game. Nufc4life has a wicked afro sort of hair style lol. Great crack before the game. Feckin cheeky **** nufc4life calling me a fat ****! **** u son!

Anyway, I was very happy for many reasons. One because we don't have to play very well to win, unlike last season, we can win ugly. We also had 3 of our strongest mids out for the game. It's a good sign that we can still win without our strongest side, which shows that a few injuries wont **** up our season.

Raylor's goal was ****ing epic. The lad just randomly pops up with fantastic goals. Brilliant.

I think it was a tale of 3 thirds. I thought for the first 30 mins we were the better side, for the next 30 mins it was about even, and the last 30 mins Everton battered us.

Drenthe looks like a little machine, and it's not like he only dribbles and has no final product. He scores the odd goal and puts in some decent deliveries. Perhaps we should look at getting him on loan or perhaps buying him? He'll only cost around 2 mill i reckon, since he's probably like 10th in the pecking order at Real Madrid.

Ratings -

Krul - 8 - Some fantastic reaction saves again. Good performance.

Raylor - 8 - Good at the back, and put in some phenomenal deliveries into the box. Amazing goal as well....

Saylor - 8 - Pretty much solid

Colo - 8.5 - Excellent.

Simmo - 7 - Good performance.

Jonas - 8 - Fantastic defending, good attacking.

Guthrie - 8.5 - Brilliant performance. He has a brilliant pair of feet on him, his sharpness and ball control is excellent. He's got the qualities of both a creative mid and a holding mid. If i wanted anyone as a DM sitting in front of our defense, after Tiote it would be Guthrie. He rarely loses the ball and can hold on to it well.

Cabaye - N/A - I can tell he's been carrying a knock for a few games now, and the stoke game aggravated it. Some decent passing but he had to go off.

Marv - 7.5 - A little bit frustrating at times, but good overall play. Some great deliveries into the box, some decent passing. However, i can see why Pardew wants to keep on playing Ober. Ober's pace is fantastic and if Ober could just be more consistent with his deliveries, he'd be fantastic.

Ba - 7 - Good work rate, good performance, not one of his best. He looked a bit tired today.

Best - 7.5 - Pissed me off at how many times he got caught offside, but great work rate and good performance.

Gosling - 6 - Meh, he did some good defending, but didn't really do it for me when going forward. Decent performance.

Sammeh - 7 - A lot of clumbsy moments, but some fantastic runs and a couple of threatening crosses into the box. Promising signs.

HBA - 6 - He's trying to do it all himself and is no where near up to speed to this league. He's got fantastic ability, but his decision making needs work. He seems to make some great runs then all he'd need to do is pass it and he'd get a lot more praise. Frustrating but we should all stick behind him.

Overall - Quite frustrating at times. Ba and Best would be making a run and we seemed to hesitate a lot and confuse ourselves. We missed Cabaye for the last 60 mins. The sort of through balls we needed are his specialty. When Cabaye doesn't play we see what we miss in him.

Overall, good signs. The performance mostly wasn't that great, but good teams can win well and also win ugly and grind out points.

MOTM - Has to be Guthrie for me. Great performance. Hope he signs a 2/3 year contract.

 

Harsh on Ben Arfa. His holding play was good towards the end when we were wanting to see the game out. I'd have given him a 7.

 

I actually agree with everything you say Tash the win ugly thing is true, last season we'd have threw away points like we did at the Stadium of ****e and Spuds at home.

 

No raping today?

 

did he look like this

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Nah

 

For me - first half we attacked well and got the goals. second half we defended better and ground out the result. Make sure we get the goals, and then we're like NO! You're not having any goals, only us. Go away. Our win. No.

 

Fat ****.

Jonas was outstanding today. Brilliant defending.

Best game I've seen Simmo play in Black and White.

Best needs to learn offside rule!

Ba's workrate is sensational.

Ryan Taylor has unbelievable tekkers.

Saylor is a beast! (Got hit in the face, looked to be in real pain with mask and broken nose and shook it off and continued)

Drenthe is a better Ben Arfa.

 

Arfa's play was one of the main reasons we won near the end. He held the ball perfectly and stopped Everton getting it, tricking them with his fine ability. He didn't make many decent runs mind, and his decision making was off, but I think he definitely deserves a 7. Not a 6.

 

How come Cabaye (37 mins) doesn't get a score but Ben Arfa (18 mins) does?

I though Cabaye was good before his injury, fantastic play for the first goal.

 

this.

 

Ability wise Ben Arfa is better, but current form Drenthe is better

 

Marveaux was very poor IMO.

Ba deserves and 8, he was everywhere today, dropping off into the midfield to contain possession and even defending, he was top drawer.

 

Obviously Drenthe hasn't just come back from a serious injury Ben Arfa needs a good run in the side and should have started today Marveaux did nothing.

 

You having a laugh? Drenthe skinned about 4 of our players before playing a decent pass at one point. He got an assist. He constantly looked dangerous. He's faster than Ben Arfa. And he tracks back unlike Ben Arfa. I know HBA will come good, but on recent form I'd rather have Drenthe!

And Jonas didn't do too badly in attack, he was good in first half. Not many of the team attacked in the 2nd half so not gonna have a dig at him for that.

 

Can't stop liking Moyes. The guy is a great manager and he is honest and gracious in his post match interview, sidestepping the obvious attempts by the interviewer to dig up an interesting and bitter sounding headline.

 

Drenthe wasn't linking up with Baines very well down the left and didn't do much but as soon as he moved to the right he got a bit more freedom and linked up a bit better. In terms of your ratings I sort of agree, I think Sammy Ameobi looked a bit lost at times but when he got on the ball at least he had a go at them. Ben Arfa skins 4 players and then allows them to get back at him when he could play a simple ball across the field. Some guy behind me kept shouting at Jonas saying that he hadn't done anything, his defending was superb!

The second half seemed to last forever, but what a goal to win it! Whoosh!

Overall it was like the Stoke game last week, got the goals and then took a bit of a beating but the defence was a rock, and the midfield, and the attackers.

 

Drenthe did nothing today.

Ben Arfa was taking the whole Everton team on for fun last year when he was confident, needs a good run in the side then you will see he is alot better then Drenthe.

 

What is with all the Ben Arfa bashing? For **** sake he is still getting used to the league and getting match sharp and is having to do this with a few 15 mins cameos. Have some ****ing context will you. He was decent today only lost the ball once if I recall correctly, made some good runs, held the ball up well, and even came back and helped defend. And for the people trying to compare him to Drenthe, Drenthe has played twice the amount of matches than Ben Arfa has this season and is getting starts not sub appearences unlike Ben Arfa so of course he is going to be more sharp and on form than Ben Arfa is. Does not mean he is a better player though.