It was a ridiculously busy day for us yesterday, so our usual match day routine went out of the window. The lad played at lunch time and then Mrs Rangercol took us to the ground (en route to Westfield!!).
During the journey me and the lad were in good spirits and even started singing "we're the finest football team...etc" to which Mrs Rangercol responded, "what on earth are you singing that for"? Seemed fair enough comment!!
Then we got the team news through and we were both very pleased with the selections. We mused as to what the formation may be (yes, he's a formation freak too!!). We thought it could be 4-2-3-1, but it turned out to be a fluid version of a kind of 4-1-3-1-1 (4-4-1-1 basically).
The game began and Rangers were immediately on the back foot, conceding two corners in quick succession. However, from the second corner the ball was cleared and Hoilett did well to get the ball away from Neville. He then ran.....and ran.....and ran!! Taarabt made a great run to the left, creating space for Hoilett to continue running, whilst the whole ground seemed to be pleading with him to pass to Adel! He chose to shoot. It was a weak effort which looked to be heading straight to Howard before a wicked deflection saw the ball change direction and loop into the net. A fantastic start for a change.....was this to be our day?
As you would expect, Everton came on hard and M'bia, who looks a very good player to me, was possibly lucky not to concede a penalty when he stood on Jellyrich's foot. Would have been harsh in my opinion, as the jelly man seemed to be off balance already.
Rangers were playing some good stuff at times, in a 4-1-3-1-1 formation that saw Diakite holding most of the time, but Grenaro dropping in to cover whenever Diakite went on one of his marauding runs forward (there were to be a good few of those!). Hoilett was playing off Zamora and looked very lively and carried the biggest forward threat. He must learn to drop into the "hole" when we lose the ball though, as we still got out-numbered at times in the middle.
Zamora linked play well on a couple of occasions, but on the whole he looked way off the pace and hardly won a single header, even though he towered over Jagielka!
To compound Zamora's poor display, he completely lost Distin, after having given away a free kick for a late lunge. In truth, he never looked like marking Distin and was never, ever goal side of him. Zamora simply let Distin drift away to put in a completely free header. The good luck that had allowed Rangers to take the lead now deserted us as the header struck the post and then rebounded into the goal off Cesar. Nothing the keeper could do about that. For me, Zamora is looking more and more like Bothroyd....not a good thing!!
A couple of minutes later, Zamora was at it again!! This time he allowed Jagielka to get ahead of him to head against the bar. We could so easily have been behind!!
Granero was playing very well and controlled things in the middle whilst Diakite was everywhere, getting in (mostly well timed...thankfully) tackles and making some great forward runs. Granero would always sit and cover when Diakite made these runs. The half ended with some good possession from Rangers, ending with a blaze over the bar from Taarabt from the corner of the 18 yard box.
The second half shaped up in a similar way to the first. Everton are a very solid, well organised team who play the ball around well. However, yesterday they were also fairly niggly, committing a lot of fouls. Pienaar slid in late on Hoilett and picked up a deserved yellow card. A couple of minutes later he charged into Park quite late and would probably have been booked for that if he wasn't already on a yellow card. Instead, Mr Moss the incompetent, called Pienaar and skipper Neville over and issued a clear last chance warning. Two minutes later Pienaar accidentally clipped Bosingwa from behind and he was gone!! A harsh 2nd yellow, but he could have gone for the Park challenge.
I hoped we could now push on and take all three points. Cisse came on for the awful Zamora and Hughes was forced into a couple of defensive subs, with Nelsen and Traore struggling. Could he have replaced one of them with Mackie and gone with 3 at the back against the 10 men? Possibly, but Everton were still looking dangerous, even with 10 men and Hughes would never have been forgiven if he'd taken that risk and lost all the points.
Hoilett, still looking dangerous cut in from the left on two separate occasions and forced two very good saves from Howard. Earlier, MOTM Jagielka blocked a Park shot superbly after more good work from Diakite.
All in all though, we looked pretty toothless up front with little cutting edge and with our defensive frailties it is looking like a long, hard slog and I'll be pleasantly surprised if we are ever out of the bottom 6!! Granero played well without ever really creating much, whilst Diakite did create some threat with some great forward runs. Taarabt played quite well but he also never carried much goal threat and therein lies our biggest problem. We are so toothless up front. Zamora looks disinterested and slow and Cisse needs games to try to regain last year's form.
Perhaps a 4-1-3-2 formation would allow both Zamora and Cisse to play together which would allow Cisse to play off a target man? Although I'd play 4-2-3-1 at the Emirates.
Hughes got his selection right, with Park, whilst still not fantastic having his best game. No coincidence that he played on the right, his preferred position. This also did the job of keeping Baines very quiet!!
I came away from the ground pretty down and very concerned at our lack of goal scoring threat. We simply couldn't make our extra man pay and that was very disappointing.
Player ratings and comments:
Cesar - 7 - Some good saves and unlucky with the goal
Bosingwa - 7 - Looked good and did well going forward
Traore - 7 - Same as Bosingwa
Nelsen - 6 - Did ok, but never looked like winning a header
M'Bia - 7 - Very composed on the ball and covered well
(The defence all have decent marks individually, but collectively I would give them 5)
Park - 6 - Better and kept Baines busy. Unlucky with a blocked shot
Granero - 7 - Very good on the ball and kept possession well. Didn't create much in the final third though
Diakite - 8 - Very good display and, although he got booked, timed most of his challenges well. Great going forward
Taarabt - 6 - Some nice touches and passes, but nothing spectacular unfortunately
Hoilett - 8 - Always a threat and unlucky not to score more than the one goal
Zamora - 4 - Pretty awful and at fault for the goal. Doesn't look bothered to me!!
Subs:
Onouha N/A
Ferdinand N/A
Cisse - 5 - Made some good runs but needs games!
Thoughts?
During the journey me and the lad were in good spirits and even started singing "we're the finest football team...etc" to which Mrs Rangercol responded, "what on earth are you singing that for"? Seemed fair enough comment!!
Then we got the team news through and we were both very pleased with the selections. We mused as to what the formation may be (yes, he's a formation freak too!!). We thought it could be 4-2-3-1, but it turned out to be a fluid version of a kind of 4-1-3-1-1 (4-4-1-1 basically).
The game began and Rangers were immediately on the back foot, conceding two corners in quick succession. However, from the second corner the ball was cleared and Hoilett did well to get the ball away from Neville. He then ran.....and ran.....and ran!! Taarabt made a great run to the left, creating space for Hoilett to continue running, whilst the whole ground seemed to be pleading with him to pass to Adel! He chose to shoot. It was a weak effort which looked to be heading straight to Howard before a wicked deflection saw the ball change direction and loop into the net. A fantastic start for a change.....was this to be our day?
As you would expect, Everton came on hard and M'bia, who looks a very good player to me, was possibly lucky not to concede a penalty when he stood on Jellyrich's foot. Would have been harsh in my opinion, as the jelly man seemed to be off balance already.
Rangers were playing some good stuff at times, in a 4-1-3-1-1 formation that saw Diakite holding most of the time, but Grenaro dropping in to cover whenever Diakite went on one of his marauding runs forward (there were to be a good few of those!). Hoilett was playing off Zamora and looked very lively and carried the biggest forward threat. He must learn to drop into the "hole" when we lose the ball though, as we still got out-numbered at times in the middle.
Zamora linked play well on a couple of occasions, but on the whole he looked way off the pace and hardly won a single header, even though he towered over Jagielka!
To compound Zamora's poor display, he completely lost Distin, after having given away a free kick for a late lunge. In truth, he never looked like marking Distin and was never, ever goal side of him. Zamora simply let Distin drift away to put in a completely free header. The good luck that had allowed Rangers to take the lead now deserted us as the header struck the post and then rebounded into the goal off Cesar. Nothing the keeper could do about that. For me, Zamora is looking more and more like Bothroyd....not a good thing!!
A couple of minutes later, Zamora was at it again!! This time he allowed Jagielka to get ahead of him to head against the bar. We could so easily have been behind!!
Granero was playing very well and controlled things in the middle whilst Diakite was everywhere, getting in (mostly well timed...thankfully) tackles and making some great forward runs. Granero would always sit and cover when Diakite made these runs. The half ended with some good possession from Rangers, ending with a blaze over the bar from Taarabt from the corner of the 18 yard box.
The second half shaped up in a similar way to the first. Everton are a very solid, well organised team who play the ball around well. However, yesterday they were also fairly niggly, committing a lot of fouls. Pienaar slid in late on Hoilett and picked up a deserved yellow card. A couple of minutes later he charged into Park quite late and would probably have been booked for that if he wasn't already on a yellow card. Instead, Mr Moss the incompetent, called Pienaar and skipper Neville over and issued a clear last chance warning. Two minutes later Pienaar accidentally clipped Bosingwa from behind and he was gone!! A harsh 2nd yellow, but he could have gone for the Park challenge.
I hoped we could now push on and take all three points. Cisse came on for the awful Zamora and Hughes was forced into a couple of defensive subs, with Nelsen and Traore struggling. Could he have replaced one of them with Mackie and gone with 3 at the back against the 10 men? Possibly, but Everton were still looking dangerous, even with 10 men and Hughes would never have been forgiven if he'd taken that risk and lost all the points.
Hoilett, still looking dangerous cut in from the left on two separate occasions and forced two very good saves from Howard. Earlier, MOTM Jagielka blocked a Park shot superbly after more good work from Diakite.
All in all though, we looked pretty toothless up front with little cutting edge and with our defensive frailties it is looking like a long, hard slog and I'll be pleasantly surprised if we are ever out of the bottom 6!! Granero played well without ever really creating much, whilst Diakite did create some threat with some great forward runs. Taarabt played quite well but he also never carried much goal threat and therein lies our biggest problem. We are so toothless up front. Zamora looks disinterested and slow and Cisse needs games to try to regain last year's form.
Perhaps a 4-1-3-2 formation would allow both Zamora and Cisse to play together which would allow Cisse to play off a target man? Although I'd play 4-2-3-1 at the Emirates.
Hughes got his selection right, with Park, whilst still not fantastic having his best game. No coincidence that he played on the right, his preferred position. This also did the job of keeping Baines very quiet!!
I came away from the ground pretty down and very concerned at our lack of goal scoring threat. We simply couldn't make our extra man pay and that was very disappointing.
Player ratings and comments:
Cesar - 7 - Some good saves and unlucky with the goal
Bosingwa - 7 - Looked good and did well going forward
Traore - 7 - Same as Bosingwa
Nelsen - 6 - Did ok, but never looked like winning a header
M'Bia - 7 - Very composed on the ball and covered well
(The defence all have decent marks individually, but collectively I would give them 5)
Park - 6 - Better and kept Baines busy. Unlucky with a blocked shot
Granero - 7 - Very good on the ball and kept possession well. Didn't create much in the final third though
Diakite - 8 - Very good display and, although he got booked, timed most of his challenges well. Great going forward
Taarabt - 6 - Some nice touches and passes, but nothing spectacular unfortunately
Hoilett - 8 - Always a threat and unlucky not to score more than the one goal
Zamora - 4 - Pretty awful and at fault for the goal. Doesn't look bothered to me!!
Subs:
Onouha N/A
Ferdinand N/A
Cisse - 5 - Made some good runs but needs games!
Thoughts?
