Everton V MFK Ružomberok

Slow. DCL lively, as are Klaassen and Keanu. Williams looks overweight. Rooney decent. Ref shite.

Sandro will obviously come on, for Mirallas maybe. Then Davies for DCL at 60. Leave the rest, they need the fitness.

Think we should offer £120m for Lukaku

Off the bar, sort it out Blues.

Sandro coming on

DCL off. He's played well. Sandro on

BAINES!!!!

Armchair wrote:DCL off. He's played well. Sandro on

Pretty clear Rooney can't play up top. Not mobile enough to trouble big defenders. Crowd getting excited with Sandros appearance. He looks lively anyway. Might more a threat in final third. Martino done ok tonight

Healthy deflection but you get that sort of luck when you pressing further up

Kev off. Lookman on

Klaassen off, Davies on.

They nearly score

Armchair wrote:Klaassen off, Davies on.

They nearly score

Team that finishing is stronger then one that started. A lot of pace coming of the bench.

FT. Pretty turgid.

Davies was the best player

A lot for Koeman to think about after this. Felt like a Monday night game again dogged West Brom. Can't say we deserved more then a one nil win but another weeks fitness will help. Sandro looks technically good if a little raw in decision making. Some decent debuts also from Keane (far more composed then Williams) and Klassen. Rooney worked hard but needs support of a big man beside or ahead of him. If I was judging further transfer targets based on this performance we diffo need an experienced front man as Rooney is too old and Sandro too raw. A new centre half as Williams look error prone and some pacey width. And Sigi just cas I want him.
Opposition worked hard all night. Won't make it easy for us in return.

Still in mid-preseason,but couldn't get going until Ramirez came on ,Martina and mirallas very poor ,would have liked to seen Jojo Kenny start and Tom Davies both better options.

What did we learn tonight?

Southampton clearly knew what they were doing when they didn't offer Martina a contract.
Keane should be fine if he has better defenders around him.
I was really willing Rooney on before tonight's game, but I have a bad feeling about him now.
Gana still looks a terrier, but Schnide has become Mr Sideways.
Klassen has an eye for the 1-2-an even 3.
Sandro should have started.
The Stek's save in the second half spared a load of blushes.
We miss Seamus, Big Luke's pace and presence, and dare I say, the mystery card called Ross.

its a transition season I'm afraid, we should start concentrating on the league at the off, to make sure we get 40 points.

Last night was disappointing, but we saw flashes of brilliance in most of the new players - the big thing that I saw was that they didn't really know each other yet, lots of nice little passes went wayward because they were not in tune with each other for the 1-2s, that will get better, but we need to get their confidence right up there otherwise we could turn into sunderland

other points to note:

DCL is not a winger, got down the wing loads of times and didn't cross it, same for Martina when he went forward.

We looked tired and disorganised in midfield, Ruzemberok were chasing us down in 2's and 3's whenever we had the ball, and were each picking up a man near the ball, and tracking runners, our midfield was strolling around when they came forward and we were leaving lots of space for them to run into, or even just to stand there in front of our defence with no-one on them. They couldn't defend for toffee.,... (see what I did there).

And we need a creative midfielder. Pay the money for Sigurdsson

But the most positive thing I took out of last night was that we were not playing a decent side.... otherwise we would have been hammered. Might have a tenner on Stoke in the opening game.

Really? One game and we're writing them off?

It's late July, the players are still getting to know each other. Let's at least wait until the return leg!

Sack the Juggler wrote:its a transition season I'm afraid, we should start concentrating on the league at the off, to make sure we get 40 points.

Last night was disappointing, but we saw flashes of brilliance in most of the new players - the big thing that I saw was that they didn't really know each other yet, lots of nice little passes went wayward because they were not in tune with each other for the 1-2s, that will get better, but we need to get their confidence right up there otherwise we could turn into sunderland

other points to note:

DCL is not a winger, got down the wing loads of times and didn't cross it, same for Martina when he went forward.

We looked tired and disorganised in midfield, Ruzemberok were chasing us down in 2's and 3's whenever we had the ball, and were each picking up a man near the ball, and tracking runners, our midfield was strolling around when they came forward and we were leaving lots of space for them to run into, or even just to stand there in front of our defence with no-one on them.  They couldn't defend for toffee.,... (see what I did there).

And we need a creative midfielder.  Pay the money for Sigurdsson

But the most positive thing I took out of last night was that we were not playing a decent side.... otherwise we would have been hammered.  Might have a tenner on Stoke in the opening game.

Weakness last night was game came to early during Pre-season plus? Martina and DCL both on the right looked clueless,we looked toothless up-front Mirallas was poor,Ramirez came on did a few runs livened the game, Tom Davies should have started for me,Rooney looked punch drunk totally unfit,certainly needs to step-up ,Everton looked toothless up front seriously require a target man.

hairy cataract wrote:

Yankthattoffee wrote:What did we learn tonight?

Southampton clearly knew what they were doing when they didn't offer Martina a contract.
Keane should be fine if he has better defenders around him.
I was really willing Rooney on before tonight's game, but I have a bad feeling about him now.
Gana still looks a terrier, but Schnide has become Mr Sideways.
Klassen has an eye for the 1-2-an even 3.
Sandro should have started.
The Stek's save in the second half spared a load of blushes.
We miss Seamus, Big Luke's pace and presence, and dare I say, the mystery card called Ross.

Aye. At least three more players needed in the next week, and Kenny to start at right back. Sandro and Klaasen positives, Keane too, but Rooney worrying and Martina was like a throwback to the bad old days of Everton signings.  Early days I know, but we're miles off breaking into the top six with this team.  In all honesty, with two holding midfielders, we need full backs who can bomb up the wings like Coleman does and Baines used to.  My ideal team would look like this by the end of August:

Pickford
Kenny
New centre half
Keane
New left back
Gana
Schneid
New attacking midfield
Davy K
Sandro
New Striker

But it won't happen.

We'll more likely get as the starting line up:

Pickford
Martina
Williams
Keane
Baines
Gana
Schneid
Davies
Davy K
Rooney
Sandro

Two very erudite, frank and definitely apposite posts. Along with Jay's. Any PL team last night we would expect to get stuffed. Then again if we were playing a PL team in July would they too not be working up fitness. Only relieving bit of context is that this was the opposition's FIFTH competitive match just in this competition already this season.

I was over in the Upper Bullens at the Park End so nowhere near the proximity I am usually at to the Everton bench during the season - so could not see how animated RK was during the match.

My take was that we were too stodgy - sideways not forwards. I am surprised that Pickford did not start (but not I guess as surprised as Pickford might be himself) - that said Stekelenburg made a monumental contribution in keeping a clean sheet. Martina started badly and that crumbled his confidence I think.... he is a stopgap for Coleman's return for sure - and perhaps in hindsight Kenny/Holgate might have been better.

One of my biggest oo-err's was related to Baines who I generally think had a poor game, he has certainly lost a bit of zip and I think he obviously knows it and is hedging in order to have a chance to get back. In my mind we are in serious need to recruit a solid replacement. As regards the two CB's - Keane played very well generally, Williams just did enough but the two were much wider apart then I remember our pairing (whichever combo) last year.

Schneiderlin and Gana both had strong performances in my mind - although I can see why the epithet of "Mr Sideways" came from. Klaassen flattered to deceive in some way He has the potential to be very good - but will need time to grow into the new partnership for flicks and runs (very intelligent some of them) to bear fruit. Which leaves us with the front three. DCL - I think was guilty of believing the hype... some of his flicks were the direct opposite of what he should have done. Simple is often best (not sexy - but somehow more effective). There was a chance in the first half when he got to the byline and tackled defender to pass to Rooney only for him to fluff the obvious opportunity. My beef was that he was slow off the mark and had to put in a tackle to win the ball..... if he is not coming off his heels he has the pace to beat the man to the ball and create an even better opportunity.

Mirallas was generally a mixed bag - he did not gel with Baines at all and often they crowded the same space when LB advanced. Some of his runs were not the right ones - there were times when he eschewed the chance to get in behind... instead stayed anchored to the touchline and then meandered inside across the defensive formation. Not good enough IMHO.

All of which leaves Wayne. Yes he is n someways still light years ahead - but that perhaps is going to be an issue. Certainly going through the season his best use will be that he might attract more than one man coverage and thus creates the extra man - but my fear is that such is his personality and aura we as a club will become beguiled that we have to play through him all the time and that will be fatal - I am harking back to the days of Big Dunc towards the end.

In retrospect Sandro/Rooney/Lookman might have been a better front three from the off.

What would we do different - well this year let's not finish 7th. 5th is so much more predictable as a European adventure. We do need to recruit coverage at left back (assuming Kenny is still too young). Funes Mori is back after Coleman and we have released Pennington on loan (and Browning) - so we perhaps need a solid cover (younger than Jags). Do we need to have more MF. Well Schneiderlin/Barry as DM - Gana/Besic as the terriers and Davies/Klaassen/Barkley (assuming we do mean we want £50m - means he will still be around) as the strike support. For width we have Lookman/Mirallas - which does therefore need strengthening and up front we can perm to from Rooney/Sandro/Calvert-Lewin/Dowell - given the pre-season I would gone with Dowell ahead of DCL.

I am not yet ready to write the season off as an expectation of transition... we are certainly ring rusty and do have a difficult trip PLUS another two legs before we can say we are at the right entry point for EL. I do think we are better than when we applied pace however all that said was £75m enough to compensate the memory of a beast in blue who given some of the chances we saw last night would have truly burst the onion bag. We will (like him and the antics of Raiola/father or not) we are going to miss him!

I thought Baines played ok last night. Not sure I'd write him off just yet. He isn't as effective without Pienaar next to him but that partnership won't be getting back together any time soon.

The rest of them ran around lots to little effect. Sandro looks exciting but has a poor first touch (a direct replacement for Luka).

Armchair wrote:I thought Baines played ok last night. Not sure I'd write him off just yet. He isn't as effective without Pienaar next to him but that partnership won't be getting back together any time soon.

The rest of them ran around lots to little effect. Sandro looks exciting but has a poor first touch (a direct replacement for Luka).

Agreed. Baines was possibly the most isolated player on the field as we have had no natural width in front of him for a few years now. Every player ahead of him cuts inside to midfield leaving him with no one ahead of him to play off. He doesn't have the pace of Coleman to burn up and down the line but so his effectiveness suffers accordingly. While we can over analyse what was basically a small step up from pre-season friendly pace last night, the player who disappointed me most last night was Schneiderlin. He had little or no impact on the game and lacked any of the urgency of Davies when he came on. But early days.