Nearly forgot about this - seems strange playing on a friday night. 1-0 so far, Murphy from the spot - COYW!
Listening on 5-Live Extra - seems we backed-off after our goal conceding 5 corners and susceptable to long-ball Route 1 football and its 1-1. Let's get to half-time.
Why Jol decided to play Hughes at the back is beyond me, considering how well Senderos has played. That second goal was Hughes' fault, misjudging the cross and letting Felliani in. Donovan has been typically good.
Completely inexplicable why Hughes was played ahead of Senderos and why so late to bring BZ in. Some times can't understand how Jol's mind works! We could have got at least a replay!
awful decisions by Jol. tactics all wrong if you ask me. Senderos must surely have played - why play Hughes - who was at fault for everton second goal. He was CB not LB. Why no Zamora....sets up 3 and scores one against Newcastle but starts on the bench. Newcastle just papers over the cracks for me. We look so shaky at the back, Kelly is not prem quality. Riise's best days are long gone. Did he get forward tonight? He's up against Phil Neville. Ruiz looks so slow. caught on the ball again, lightweight and has to wake up, this is premership not the Dutch league. Not a shot on target in the second half. I now am beginning to think Jol has a problem and slowly my confidence is going because as a club we are NOT making progress. FACT.
Cottagecravens he was against Donovan who played well. Riise's best days are gone but he was ok tonight. Don't know if BZ was injured or something but when he came on we pushed them back. Dempsey was not present today. Think Davies might have been a good sub to run them in the last few minutes. Kelly was completely out of depth tonight. Should have played Baird.
2 assists for Mr. Donavon Only got to watch the first half before I had to leave for work. Your biggest downfall in the first half, was how sloppy you were with possession. Every time you started to move forward with the ball Everton would quickly get it back. Was hoping for a Dempsey equalizer, but oh well.
Ruiz was sloppy in possession and wasted a few good chances. Apart from that we seemed yet again to look incredibly shaky at the back. For some reason this season we keep having moments where they are literally passing the ball round in our box, getting loads of corners, e.t.c, such as the whole man u game, arsenal 1st half, e.t.c. Jol seems to prefer his players standing off, which is fine as long as you defend crosses well, which we don't. Also, Hangeland is looking more and more shaky. I think he really performed under Roy, with the definitive and tight structure, which Hughes resorted to 2nd half of last season. to be honest i wasnt expecting to win, but Yet again I feel my weekend has been ruined by the manner of our defeat. Why can't we play away from home? Why change the team so much that destroyed newcastle second half. his 4-2-3-1 doesn't seem to work, especially with just AJ, and no dembele. Please please please can we go back to 4-4-2, and more Royish tactics. Im not going to call for jols head, but I still don't like him. He impressed me last week, but too many times this season I have been left with bitter after tastes.
You could say no surprises craven, it was an away game after all. But you have to ask when will he learn - powderpuff in the middle; long punts to a forlorn AJ; can't keep possession; no balance. Yet again we were a rag bag of individuals. And yes, Ruiz was pathetic - he hasn't got the physical commitment for this kind of game/opposition. I tend to blame Jol though -the guy seems to have 'we can dream' attitude at times, thinking about the last game rather than this one. And never having a Plan B. What is so frustrating was the approach to the game from the outset and subsequently, the timing of the sustitutions. This was a one-off cup game for goodness sakes, 3 points weren't at stake so why play as if for a draw. We made an average team look good.
Short memory C58 - Newcastle first half, plan A 1-0 down; second half, plan B (substitutions, formation change) won 4-1. Overall 5-2 against team in 6th.
So what does he do Tosh, Everton are without their 2 main CBs and he plays AJ up front on his own. We spend most of the game punting the ball over the midfield - Stockdale was particularly guilty. Not exactly the first game when his has happened. Not sure what position Ruiz was playing - doubt if he did either - but whatever, when he did bring Bobby on (what with 12 minutes to go), left Ruiz on and took Duff off, it didn't actually change our style of play. And as for the usual bringing somebody on for the last 5 minutes .. The game was crying out for BZ (or Trotta) to come on instead of Ruiz after 50 minutes. To be fair also, I did preface the post with 'it was an away game after all'. Outside of the Arsenal and Chelsea games, both of which I was at and indeed gave Jol credit for good performances, can you point to one away game when his team selection/tactics took account of the opposition ? And in particular one when he made changes during the game that had any impact ? I really don't mind losing Tosh and will gladly eat humble pie (as I did at the Newcastle game), but I get distinctly irritated when we go out on a whimper.
The formation yesterday was 4-4-1-1 and not 4-2-3-1. Just for the record. AJ started because BZ was awful first half, or may be he is not fully fit. My only observations are: Hughes should not have started. Senderos is technically much better. Hughes looked shaky and moving forward does not exist. Second Ruiz looked out of place in the team. Dempsey did not look himself. A shadow of the second game against Newastle. If rumours are true that he is on his way or not he should have been replaced. But nothing new from an away game. We just had an opportunity to at least get a replay but ...
Ugly game ... I don't know why I get my hopes up when Fulham are playing on the road. Unless their backs are up against the wall, they play like they don't care.
