First step back on the road to improvement - My thoughts on the Everton game

For the most part, I thought both sides defended well, not letting the opposition much space. But sides provided a good attacking threat, and caused panic for each other.

1-1 would have been a fairer result, but the Baines goal was basically the one that separated us, and it shouldn't have been a freekick.

I was very disappointed with Santon today. Very greedy, and he could have easily played Cisse through for a goal, but decided to shoot, then he turned away like it was nothing.

Tiote was poor.

Anita, Marv and Obertan were impressive.

Ratings -

Krul - 7.5 - He made some great saves to keep us in the game. He continues to make these saves, and he made some great claims in the air under great pressure.

Perch - 5.5 - Caught out a few times. So close to scoring. Some good play, but not his usual standard. We need a new RB desperate.

Willo - 7 - Some sloppy moments, but I thought he did well overall.

Colo - 7.5 - Very calm and composed and challenged Fellaini well at times.

Santon - 4 - Some good runs, but poor defending. The worst I've seen him in ages. All he had to do was play a ball across the box and Cisse would have had a tap in. Too much wasting of possession with stupid shots. Despite his good runs up, he seems to have let the frustration at the start of the season get to him. He wants to do it himself. Some people may think I'm being harsh, but I hope he gets a bollocking. We don't need this kind of attitude, and we don't need poor defending.

Anita - 7.5 - Very good runs, good defensive work, nice passing up top. This lad is class.

Marv - 7.5 - Some fantastic passes, and I can't believe Shola didn't score from that lovely chip pass Marv made.

Tiote - 4 - Disappointing.

Obertan - 7 - He plays well when his confidence is up, and I have no idea why he was taken off. It should have been Bigi on, Tiote off. Obertan was offering us a threat down that side, and if that chance had fell to Obertan, not Santon, Obertan would have found Cisse, or at least had a much better shot on goal. I take my hat off to him. No complaints from me. Great runs, decent passing.

Shola - 6.5 - Should have scored. Some stupid wasting of possession with **** shots. But did a good job. Good flick ons, really threatened Everton and caused problems.

Cisse - 7.5 - Great goal. Worked very hard, good performance. He would have had a 2nd if Santon had have squared it.

Bigi - 6 - Decent. Good passing. Sometimes he did get bullied about, but he's only young. Canny good.

Sammy - 6 - Made good impact. Some sexual skills, good runs, and a couple of decent lay offs.

Ranger - n/a - He should get a sub chance more often, he makes good impact. Good pace, strength and touches.

MOTM - Anita - It doesn't matter where you play him, he's nearly always the furthest up the pitch, and he gets back with his pace and works hard. He's a fantastic box-box mid, and when he's not in the center, he drifts out to the wing and puts some decent balls in.

Summary - Unlucky not to have a point, but I'm happy with how we played. We defended well for most of the game. We shouldn't have had that freekick against us. We dealt with Fellaini well. The only bit of disgraceful defending for me was Santon just completely losing Anichibe for the goal. He had no clue where he was. He should have got ahead of him.

Still, at least it was only one goal we can put down to questionable defending, instead of 7.

It's a step forward to better things. I'm quite happy, and can take positives from that.

 

I still can't believe we are where we are after last last season. The run of form since November is shocking ! I can see Chris hughton rubbing our noses in it next game and Brighton proved they love too beat us !

 

Injuries have played a huge part.

We wont go down. We'll probably finish between 10-13th, and hopefully we'll only lose 1-2 big players in the summer, and push on next season.

 

A little higher than mine but yours always are but here's mine

Krul - 6 - Average, good saves early on

Santon - 4 - Rubbish defending and should've squared to Cisse

Colo - 5.5 - average

Willo - 6 - battled well vs MF and NJ but what was he doing for ther 2nd goal. Ran nowhere!!

Perch - 6 - average and nearly scored from a set-piece

Tiote - 4 - ****e, poor tackling, passing and was took out of the game with one pass nearly every Everton attack

Anita - 6.5 - good 1st half, bypassed on 2nd half with the increased long ball game, not a RB

Marveaux - 7 - bright spark on our team until he was also bypassed by the longer and longer game we played

Obertan - 6.5 - really don't understand why he was taken off, played well

Cisse - 6 - looked lively early on but then kept running offside and didn't get much change from their CB's in the 2nd half

Shola - 4.5 - did ok for the 1st 15 mins and then went missing

Ranger - looked lively, shame he didn't get longer on the pitch

Sammy - must have a really heavy head, never once looked up when making a decent run with the ball

Bigiramana - not his best cameo

Overall - Lacklustre performance, didn't appear to be a genuine desire to actually win. I actually thought we had the better chances and the refereeing decisions didn't go our way and some terrible ones went against us!!

Pardew - what are you doing, played well 1st half with good unselfish build up play and then went for the long game in the 2nd, cutting out our 3 best players in the process (Marv, Anita and Obertan. Bigi on for Obertan, I didn't see the logic in that one!!

Roll on February when we SHOULD look and be stronger.

 

Our defence were all gash. Colo 7.5 is literally mental

 

I think you've put the decimal point one place too far to the right for Colocinni's rating

 

Krul - 7 -

Santon - 6

Colo - 6

Willo - 5

Perch - 6

Tiote - 4

Anita - 7

Marveaux - 7

Obertan - 6

Cisse - 7

Shola - 5

Ranger 5

Sammy 5

Bigiramana 5

 

2 things i learnt today, Marv is Class & If i could speak to the me of before the start of the season i'd tell me to put money on relegation! We do have quality players but im just really not confident of us winning any game ATM! We have less points then when we did when we got relegated and we might have a better team but in our relegation season there was a few teams with alot worse players then us! I'm not saying we are getting relegated but we couldnt even beat aston villa (possibly the worst team in all levels of football of all time)! A few more level headed posters then me will have good reasons to not to panic but i really cant help it! When a team scores early on at home we should really be winning those matches (Everton are a good team but there hardly a Manchester club) Sorry for my negativity but I'd be lieing to myself if i said there's not a chance we will be relegated

 

We are having a bad time with injuries, we've felt it more because our squad is too small, let's not panic until we come out of this transfer window, I will be surprised if we end up in the relegation battle in May.

 

Last time we were relegated if you remember we knew we had a lot of hard games in the second half of the season for some reason and with not lot of points at this stage we were in trouble but still only just went down. This time we have a decent mix of games to come and with top players to return from injury and a few signings we should be ok. Not great but ok. We do have a lot of work to do in the market in summer though. Hopefully this time they will have the sense to produce.

 

Everybody keeps saying we'll be fine once we get all our players fit... really?

Steven Taylor could possibly oust Williamson in defence and we have a new right back en route.

Cabaye & Ben Arfa are a huge miss but who's to say they can stay fit/hit form in this team?

We're really poor and i'm actually starting to worry about our future.

 

Another fault for a goal, he is racking up a canny collection.

On the flipside Tash's marks help me in the doom game which is obviously just as important as our league position.