PL: Everton h Ratings & Reactions

[Grant(aka_eddy)]

I thought we played really well at times, especially the midfield with much improved pass and move football.

Everton were difficult to break down as ever and looked dangerous on the counter.

I think the support tonight was excellent on the whole and seemed really appreciated by the players at the end of the game. Their effort was there for all to see and was also glad to hear Martin getting such vociferous backing. It really was a night deserving of a win.

The only moments that support dipped was when frustration crept in but I just dont understand this. The midfield moved the ball well and kept possession and kept probing, sometimes you do have to move backwards and sideways to change teams shape, find spaces and hit the timing on runs. As fans we will need to learn to be patient and allow the team to develop a style of possession play that can break teams down. We have forced two goals out of a very resolute defence and midfield tonight from what everyone knows is a very solid and well drilled team. Carew and Cuellar should also both have tucked away their easy chances so we certainly troubled them.

My only complaints on performance would be the quality of balls into the box really wasnt good enough on the whole, especially from Downing who after a decent first 20 minutes driving inside and taking shots on really faded out of being a threat. And that we conceded 2 very soft headed goals.

The refereeing was a joke at times.

Friedel - 5 - Not much to do, would like to see the goals again but he seemed to be nowhere and also got beaten at his near post with Ash saving him and us on the line.

Cuellar - 7 - Really decent game and got some nice passes into the area. Defended very well.

Warnock - 6 - Ok, always available for passes and didnt give away possession as much as I have seen him do recently. Looks a little lacking in confidence though.

Collins - 6 - Good game with a few crucial blocks and would have been higher mark but a few times got beaten too easily on the deck and let Everton turn and run at us.

Dunne - 8 - Thought he was exemplary tonight and really tried to force the game on top of his defensive duties.

Petrov - 8 - Superb game from our captain keeping the ball under pressure, moving it across midfield and making little passing shapes. Milner - 8 MOTM - Superb effort, great assist and won alot of battles in the middle. Would have liked to see him just get a few more shots away though in fairness to him he made a coulple of good runs that were missed.

Downing - 5 - Posed a threat early on but seemed to lose his bottle and quality as the game went on.

Ash - 6 - Assist but his delivery was generally poor as well and not only did he not beat his man he struggled to make room for crosses.

Carew - 6 - Bad miss after doing so well to fashion a chance. Movement not quite in tune with the midfield at times.

Gabby - 7 - Anonymous at times but grew into the game and a good goal. Held the ball up well at times too. Again as with Carew, didnt always really look like he knew how to play with the midfield passing it about.

Gutted we didnt get the win that the performance and support warranted.

[Chindie]

I do wonder if theres anything, with the Cuellar RB thing, if theres something in an idea I've mused about a few times. I think O'Neill views the wing as a good place to learn things from. Gabby was shoved out there for a season and learnt a lot, got games. Cuellar got shoved out there last season and seems to have benefitted a fair bit, his passing isn't great still but it was worse last season (he's now a 3 in 4 success passer) and his control has come along too. And he's gotten used to the league out there.

Maybe some of the times NRC was put out there was to make him learn...

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

I do wonder if theres anything, with the Cuellar RB thing, if theres something in an idea I've mused about a few times. I think O'Neill views the wing as a good place to learn things from. Gabby was shoved out there for a season and learnt a lot, got games. Cuellar got shoved out there last season and seems to have benefitted a fair bit, his passing isn't great still but it was worse last season (he's now a 3 in 4 success passer) and his control has come along too. And he's gotten used to the league out there.

Maybe some of the times NRC was put out there was to make him learn...

He's improved alot from earlier in the season. I thought he was very good tonight, he still can't cross and doesn't really overlap his winger enough.

A general problem with our full-backs, more so Cuellar not being natural is where they recieve the ball....they recieve the ball alot of the time in line with our CB's and quite narrow. That space should be for the CB's while the full-backs really push out wide and high but they rarely are.

[rjw63]

Come on, who went at 1-2 down? There were a few I noticed.

I know one ex-VTer who left at 2-1 :-)

[kurtsimonw]

Friedel - 6

Cuellar - 7

Collins - 7

Dunne - 8

Warnock - 6

Young - 7

Petrov - 8

Milner - 8 MotM

Downing - 6

Gabby - 7

Carew - 7

[Chindie]

Cuellar was up and down the wing a helluva lot tonight POB though. A few times he was one of the furthest forward on the right. His crossings not the best but I do think tonight he was better, he plays the ball on the ground a lot more than punt it in which more than once our forwards have spun a defender and latched onto.

I dunno what got into him tonight but he really was good imo. He looked like a much more comfortable RB than usual. Which is surprising given the fact Everton are no push over.

[Artetasgirl]

My view, which will an all likelihood get abused as it usually does on here after we play you

Draw was probably just about a fair result in my eyes, but I am angry and disappointed that we couldn't hold out again. We spurned too many good situations and it cost us in the end.

Of course, you are all moaning about our "injuries", I think they were genuinely hurt (they dont go down and stay down often you know...), as you see Heitinga had to go off with an injury (he was a huge loss) and Pienaar got a hefty whack on his nuts from Young, which from my view looked very deliberate and nasty.

Ref was bad, I'm saying no more on that because I always end up talking about them.

Thought you would of learnt to mark Cahill after the 1st goal at least, one of the best attacking headers of the ball in the game (imo) and you give him 2 gifts like that! 2 more assists from Baines, doing himself no harm for a place at the WC.

I have literally just seen the foul for the first goal again, and it's a foul, he touches the ball with his knee but he's already brought Osman down.

Yakubu was crap, when he wants to be he is a quality player but tonight...horrible...Saha looked a lot more dangerous when he came on.

You'll probably jump on me for this too but can't help feel what might have been had either Arteta or Fellaini played, 2 hugely influential players (no doutbs I will get something about Fellaini only making us "even more dirty" ) who I feel would have made a real difference for us today.

Anyways, as I say, disappointed with the draw after being up, but in the end it is probably a fair reflection of the game.

Oh and your 2 goals were poor from our point of view, very defendable if we had got our act together. Howard made some good saves though.

[Milfner]

I thought Heitinga had a very good game for you today, I was impressed seen as he was a defender playing in midfield. The two men in behind Yakuba/Saha caused us a lot of problems today (especially Osman even though he couldn't pick the final pass).

The draw was probably the fair result, and I'd say Villa and Everton are probably the most two evenly matched teams in the whole of the Premiership.

[kurtsimonw]

I have literally just seen the foul for the first goal again, and it's a foul, he touches the ball with his knee but he's already brought Osman down.

Are you as blind as the lino that gave the free-kick then? :winkold:

[Ponky]

For what it's worth I thought we were unlucky rather than lucky. Howard made several excellent saves and we created plenty of chances in the first half that didn't quite pay off. In the end our defending let us down.

It was a good point but, alas, not what we needed.

[kurtsimonw]

For what it's worth I thought we were unlucky rather than lucky. Howard made several excellent saves and we created plenty of chances in the first half that didn't quite pay off. In the end our defending let us down.

It was a good point but, alas, not what we needed.

Talking of Howard, why didn't he save our 2nd goal? It looked a fairly routine save from where I was. :?

[kiddybloke]

f course, you are all moaning about our "injuries", I think they were genuinely hurt (they dont go down and stay down often you know...), as you see Heitinga had to go off with an injury (he was a huge loss)

It was the fact he took forever to go off the first time, then came back on JUST so he could walk to the centre circle and then sit down and asked to be subbed.. taking forever to go off again.

[Artetasgirl]

I have literally just seen the foul for the first goal again, and it's a foul, he touches the ball with his knee but he's already brought Osman down.

Are you as blind as the lino that gave the free-kick then? :winkold:

Noo, I just watched it again and he fouled him. Even the commentators said so. I'm sure MON would of moaned about it if it wasn't... :winkold: (Probably has now! )

[Artetasgirl]

It was the fact he took forever to go off the first time, then came back on JUST so he could walk to the centre circle and then sit down and asked to be subbed.. taking forever to go off again.

Maybe the fact he thought he could carry on but it was too bad to?

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Cuellar was up and down the wing a helluva lot tonight POB though. A few times he was one of the furthest forward on the right. His crossings not the best but I do think tonight he was better, he plays the ball on the ground a lot more than punt it in which more than once our forwards have spun a defender and latched onto.

I dunno what got into him tonight but he really was good imo. He looked like a much more comfortable RB than usual. Which is surprising given the fact Everton are no push over.

He looked a comfortable footballer. Well apart from when he tried a step-over

Still work on his crossing and his ambition in when our winger gets the ball, sometimes you see Warnock drive 30/40 yards to get around his winger, if he can just do that then he'll be a good right back. He's improving because I thought he was poor earlier in the season, defensively good but his distrubition last year and earlier this year at times was dreadful but tonight it was really good.

[kiddybloke]

It was the fact he took forever to go off the first time, then came back on JUST so he could walk to the centre circle and then sit down and asked to be subbed.. taking forever to go off again.

Maybe the fact he thought he could carry on but it was too bad to?

Thats just it though isnt it, if he thought he was ok to carry on then im sure he could walk and not just sit down in the centre circle during open play asking for the game to be stopped. Its a insignificant gripe but it was a complete piss take.

[snowychap]

as you see Heitinga had to go off with an injury (he was a huge loss) and Pienaar got a hefty whack on his nuts from Young, which from my view looked very deliberate and nasty.

Wan't Heitinga's injury as a result of a bad tackle by him?

I think Young's challenge was cowardly (i.e. wanting to make sure that he wasn't hurt at the expense of others) rather than nasty but, as Tony knows, I may be wrong.

[snowychap]

as you see Heitinga had to go off with an injury (he was a huge loss) and Pienaar got a hefty whack on his nuts from Young, which from my view looked very deliberate and nasty.

Wan't Heitinga's injury as a result of a bad tackle by him?

I think Young's challenge was cowardly (i.e. wanting to make sure that he wasn't hurt at the expense of others) rather than nasty but, as Tony knows, I may be wrong.

[kurtsimonw]

He looked a comfortable footballer. Well apart from when he tried a step-over

He did keep the ball though to be fair! Cuellar reminds me an awful lot of Mellberg for some reason (not just because he's a CB playing RB!).

He's definitly getting better. There was a few times today i thought he was just going to smack it down the line and instead he'd play a ball along the floor to somebody. He makes a good few passes into the box from the right hand side as well.

[briny_ear]

Just been reading the match thread and I think some posters should be hanging their heads in shame. All a bit surrender-monkey territory.

"Season over" indeed. We've still got to qualify for Europe, haven't we?

Thought we were a bit unlucky in the end not to win - we had some really decent chances in the first half. But if you give away soft goals like we did, you don't really deserve any luck. I've started worrying about shambolic defending again - thought all that was behind us. :?

The real positive is that the lads kept fighting to the end and never gave up (unlike the towel-throwers-in on the match thread).

Hope our players will take heart from that and have a strong end to the season.

And do a bit of work on their defending at the training ground.