And so the Premier League is back, up and running and I thought it was a thoroughly enjoyable opening day at Carrow Road. Having seen the team sheets before kick off I think it's fair to say we were severely weakened whilst Everton were at full strength, so a point was always going to be a good result but come full time it proved to be an excellent draw. The visitors played extremely well, only let down slightly by a lack of a killer ball. We did well to nullify their big name talents. Baines was kept remarkably quiet by Bennett and Whittaker, the latter managing to get himself on the score sheet in spectacular style as his rampaging, and slightly fortuitous run ended with the full back pouncing on his own rebound. I felt Redmond did well down the left. His decision making will often be questioned this season as he's still learning but overall he did very well and often came looking for the ball. A good start by him. Up front van Wolfswinkel added a touch of class to our side. His movement specifically is superb, great awareness. A bit unlucky on a one-on-one to be tightly flagged offside. His header was outstanding, using the pace on the cross to guide the ball into the top corner. He's definitely going to be a hit but his job should be made easier once we get some of our better players back. In goal, Ruddy made two brilliant saves and was perhaps a little unlucky that Garrido didn't react quick enough on the second goal after he parried Jelavic's shot. He certainly had no chance for Barkley's strike. At the back Martin was at his best, making one block to keep the scores level. Turner didn't look match fit to me and was sloppy at times but grew into the match. Garrido played quite well but was pegged back by the ever dangerous Coleman while Whittaker, as stated above attacked well, although he did get caught out a couple of times at the back to allow crosses into the box. In midfield we looked a much better side when Hoolahan was replaced by Tettey and Howson pushed further forward. Wes had a disappointing game, often dallying on the ball. Needs to be a bit sharper or he'll struggle to get much game time when Fer comes into the midfield. We were a little slow to close at times but we did a good job of limiting Everton to mainly long range shots for much of the game. Johnson was sluggish and was the main culprit in losing possession, another who didn't look match fit. Howson got better as the game went on. Bennett delivered two or three good set pieces and worked hard, didn't have a bad game at all and as mentioned, Redmond was lively. I was hugely impressed by Everton. I thought they played much, much better than they did last time they were at Carrow Road and will feel hard done by that they didn't go away with all three points. However, from our point of view, there was a lot to build on and I sincerely hope nobody has been moaning about Saturday. We were depleted yet managed to fight back from a goal down against a better side. (And there is no shame in being second best to Everton). Once again our passing was sloppy at times but there wasn't too much long ball which was pleasing, despite being put under a lot of pressure from our opponents, we tried to play our way out of trouble when possible. We looked a threat on the counter. Both new signings played well. No goal music! A few negatives as you'd expect but plenty of positives. I think that could prove a very valuable point. There's certainly a lot to work on but we effectively have five new players to come back into the side. Always pleasing to fight back when going behind and should be a good confidence boost. It was a really good match overall, very entertaining especially in the 2nd half. The star of the show was undoubtedly Ross Barkley who on the evidence of Saturday will be going to the World Cup next summer. Having watched Liverpool being lauded over by commentators during their match against Stoke prior to our game, I'd argue Everton still look the more accomplished of the two Merseyside clubs. It was a good way to start the season. Ratings: Ruddy 7 Whittaker 7 Turner 6 Martin 7.5 Garrido 6.5 Johnson 6 Howson 6.5 Bennett 6.5 Redmond 7.5 Hoolahan 5 van Wolfswinkel 7 Tettey 7 Olsson too late to rate Man of the Match: Ross Barkley (Everton) 9 - outstanding display from the 19 year old. Massive future.
good read supers, thanks assuming hooper, bassong and snod are availiable next week, what would your team be?
Supers - I was at the game and have to say my glass is much more than 'half full!!!!' I was a bit gutted that ManUre hadn't succeeded in luring Fellaini and Baines away from Everton and I'm sure its only a meatter of time before they do go, but as you say Barkley was the MoM, by some considerable distance. When you consider that we were without 3 or 4 key players, I was heartened by the performanceand was more than happy with a point against very good Everton side. I'm sure we will only improve once we get our injured players back and the new signings blend into the team more. Hugely impressed by Redmond and RvW and looking forward to seing Fer and GH come into the reckoning. The game against Hull on Sat is going to be massive and hope we get all 3 points!!!
I would agree with most of that, particularly about looking stronger when Hoolahan left the pitch. He wanted one touch too many on a number of occasions and a couple of times counter attacks broke down because he held onto the ball too long instead of playing a first time ball to Redmond. The only two points I'd disagree with would be Bennett's set pieces and Garrido's performance. Bennett took all six of our corners and put in a couple of free kicks and as far as I can remember, not a single one beat the first defender. His overall play was good and he made the most of his opportunity in the side, but his set plays, in my opinion, let him down. As for Garrido, I felt he was in trouble for most of the game when up against Coleman and Mirallas down the right and was left for dead a number of times. A Canary Caller made an observation that he made one fantastic last ditch tackle but failed to pick up on the fact that he had to make the last ditch tackle because he'd made a complete hash of a clearance that allowed Jelavic (I think) to get through in the first place. That being said, it was a great performance especially with Bassong, Snodgrass, Fer, Hooper and Pilkington all missing.
in the first half, bennett put in two corners in a row where fouls were given (one correctly, one incorrectly), both nearly resulted in goals. he also slung in a good free kick which was superbly defended. i'd say half his set pieces were excellent, less convincing delivery in open play. if we get a few players back for hull, pilks excluded as he's more long term i think, then i'd set us up like this: ruddy whittaker martin bassong olssen snodgrass tettey fer redmond howson van wolfswinkel NB: just a note about the set pieces - on match of the day they said we had three corners. baring in mind we had SIX in the first half an hour, i do wonder who makes their stats up
I thought Everton looked a very clasy outfit and in retrospect it was a very good point for us against a strong side at (Gibson apart) full strength. Considering two of our normal automatic starters (Bassong and Snoddy) were out as well as Pilks, Hooper and Fer we did well to gain a point in a game we could easily have lost. I was impressed with Whittaker in particular who kept Baines away from his normal rampaging and, considering he'd played a full International during the week (something someone somewhere else says affected Wes' performance) he was full of energy and running. He was my MOTM for City. I thought Garrido looked slovenly at times and I'd like to see Olsson start against Hull. Fer for Wes and Snoddy for Bennett would be the only other changes I'd make (unless Bassong is fit again and I'd put him in instead of Anthea). Good point against a good team on Saturday so a from me !!
Yes, I like that line up and hope we see something quite close to that next Sat. I'd also like to see CH bring on subs a little earlier, as Redmond was tiring before he was subbed, but that's only to be expected!!! I thought it odd re the corners count as well. Maybe they need a new calculator at the Beeb!!
mind you, the beeb also believe that wilfried zaha is white, at least according to his little picture on the line ups!
Yup, Gary Lineker tweeted that there had been some 'graphical errors' that had been sorted for the repeat. I'm pretty sure they used the same picture for three of the Arsenal subs as well
it's going to be a battle vs Hull i think, especially in midfield. Huddlestone came off the bench vs chelsea and improved their performance, so we need to somehow keep him quiet assuming he starts on saturday
Hull will be a very tough game. They will be looking to get off the mark and will make it very difficult for us. I was very impressed with Everton as well to be fair, they kept the ball well and although their end product was not always the best they will grow as a team and I think will do well this season IF they can keep their best players. The best thing about Saturday is you can see the DNA of the team emerging and it was very encouraging. Bassong is a big loss to our defence and snodgrass/pilks to the attack but with the added competition brought in by Hughton we didn't completely fall to pieces, if you look at the team ruddy is the only one with no-one breathing right down his neck and that's a very good situation to be in.
some people won't like this comment, but i think we will approach the hull match with a 'don't get beaten' attitude and i think that is completely the correct way to go. as beefy says, they will be bang up for it, first home game since returning to the top flight, it'll be a decent atmosphere and their fans will be expecting three points in what is, for them, a veery winnable game in their eyes. that's not to say we can't win the game! we could cause them no end of problems on the counter.
Hull will be looking at this as a game they can take three points from so I see us setting up more defensively and adopting a "must not lose mentality". With that in mind we might see Olsson on the left side of midfield with Redmond dropping to the bench with the line-up (assuming fitness) of: Ruddy Whittaker Rusty Bassong Garrido Snoddy Fer Johnson Olsson Howson RVW This will be a toughie and we'll do well to come away with a point I reckon.
Give Hull respect but we need to go out there and annihilate them, we can't go out there and play for draws against newly promoted teams. I'll give Hull some credit they didn't exactly look dreadful considering the onslaught they faced yesterday, however we do not want to have the same run we had last season as our last couple of games this season are going to be far from forgiving.
I think going in to any premier league game thinking "we have to annihilate them" is only going to leave you disappointed. The aim should be to win though of course.
I'm not suggesting trying to win by 6 goals I'm talking about dominating possession and creating chances. It's a question of who wants it more, quality in the team helps but you need to have that desire to win.
Whilst I'd love to see us having a go and trying to annihilate teams, I think simply having a positive mind set and going there to win is the order of the day. That said I think we may be should start to view ourselves in a positive light. Everton are step up on us and they clearly came to CR looking for the win. I would like to think that in our 3rd PL season and with the squad developing nicely that we would perhaps be a step up on hull and also go there looking to win. I think vs Everton we can see that things may not change a great deal and the added quality just means we should be better equiped to not lose but pinch goals. i may be wrong but I though on Saturday that it was only after we scored that Everton really started to stretch us. They played a lot of football infront of us uptil then and i wonder if we actually allowed them more space when we scored because we gained confidence and attacked a bit more leaving things a little to open (ironic given my critisims of the negative football CH plays) I think against lesser sides than Everton and when we are at full strength thats great but may be saturday was not one of those days to open up. Bah!
I agree, I think we should have a balanced approach, defend our half and take chances when they come. If we go in with the attitude of this is Hull we can "annihilate them" we will come unstuck, overconfidence can be a serious weakness.
