Pretty much the line up expected then. Down to AVB to make it work. If we continue playing possession football pushing high up then I'd expect Everton to punish us but given that there are other options that would arguably be better for us to play, it's all on AVB to show us why this is the best option for us. I'm hoping he's planning on having us sit a bit deeper and countering though.
I for one am hoping/assuming that as Everton will surely come at us at home then we might find a little more space in attack. We shall see I guess
Just in case anyone's forgotten: Lloris; Walker, Chiriches, Dawson, Vertonghen; Paulinho, Sandro; Lennon, Holtby, Townsend; Soldado. Subs: Friedel, Kaboul, Lamela, Defoe, Dembele, Sigurdsson, Eriksen. And Everton. Howard, Coleman, Baines, Jagielka, Distin, McCarthy, Barry, Osman, Pienaar, Mirallas, Lukaku. Subs: Robles, Jelavic, Oviedo, Deulofeu, Naismith, Barkley, Stones.
Not so sure they will, Osman, McCarthy and Barry makes a hard working midifeld that are all happy playing deep if needed. I think primarily they will want to counter us. Vertonghen will have to keep a close eye on his fellow countryman, Mirallas as I think he'll be their main outlet unless we're naive we give Lukaku the space to get in behind.
Could be because Martinez is worried about our midfield? I'll give AVB credit for giving Holtby a run of games, now Holtby has no excuses if he doesn't start to perform.
Yeah theres plenty of graft in there of course but of those 3 you'd think Barry would sit and the other two would seek to get forward a bit more. I certainly wouldn't expect Everton to sit as deep as Hull did a week ago. Martinez may set up to counter which is probably a smart move but if they come at us and we can weather the storm then Holtby and the rest of the gang should find a bit more joy than in the last few weeks I hope. Mirallas against Verts is a dangerous one, he's going to have to get his positioning spot on but with Lennon there working hard on the tracking back at least Verts will have some assistance with dealing with the pace of his compatriot.
Lennon on the left again? He is sooooo less effective there! Especially as we don't play fast football anymore so I would prefer giving Lamella a chance and bringing on Lennon as sub for Townsend. Just a thought.
I agree. He's had some decent prem time recently, and IMO we're yet to see anything productive from him. (besides His 1 or 2 decent Europa performances against weak opposition.)
I'm afraid we may see why Jan doesn't want to play fullback. Though he's very dangerous and an excellent all-around player, he doesn't have the pace to deal with a fast winger. I'd be very surprised to see us do anything but what we always do, which is to try to possess, press and keep the game in their end, which in theory will play into their hands. It's true they won't sit back as much as Hull, but to hit them on the counter after they have the ball we'd have to move the ball down the field quickly, which it seems we never try to do. What a pessimistic bastard I become before many if not most games...
He definitely gets bogged down in the early build up and harrying players too often but he's doing pretty well. Townsend looked it pain during the warm up. Not sure it's a wise choice to play him, he's going to get tackled and land on his hand at somepoint during the game.
I don't think AVB hasn't beaten a Martinez team ... I think he drew with wigan as Chelsea manager and last year he drew and lost to martinez's wigan team
