nyblue23

Agree with both of those premises. Especially in our system with Schneiderlin and Gana fully capable of covering a lot of the defensive duties of our wingbacks, I'd like to think of ours more as the modernized version. But we'll see how it goes in practice today.

Even though Williams and Jags have both looked shaky over the last year, I think with Keane shoring up the backline I might be happy to see three at the back a little more often this season.

That's a lineup I can get behind. Curious to see how Davies does. Have a feeling he'll be our spark-plug.

Son really is superb. I would go as far as to say probably the most underrated player in the league.

https://royalbluemersey.sbnation.com/2017/8/1/16075266/derek-mcgovern-liverpool-echo-rb-leipzig-nazi-ss-rant-racist-bigotry-everton-bias

On the whole, his supporters don't use logic or reason in their evaluations of him, so while I think it would be the logical conclusion, I don't think they'll start to view him any differently. I think the rest of us see him too much as a buffoon to see him as a dangerous traitor, though I think most of us already see him as a traitor to the American people.

I believe he'll see the term out. Despite his complete and utter idiocy, he's avoided any real legal trouble despite seriously shady business dealings for decades. I don't think anything particularly damaging will be uncovered with the Russia investigation that hasn't already been uncovered; collusion is not a crime, anyway, and with his willingness to go as far as pardoning himself, I think his legal advisors will do everything in their power to keep him president. If he's elected again, I'm getting the hell out of this country.

I blame hafnia. His negativity towards Lukaku drove Barkley away.

Dope. Proud to be a fan of the People's Club.

I watched season 20... didn't see season 19. Season 20 was about the election though. Either way, it'd be hard to parody shit like this (too unreal already): https://www.google.com/amp/www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/anthony-scaramucci-called-me-to-unload-about-white-house-leakers-reince-priebus-and-steve-bannon/amp

Not gonna keep harping because I do believe that would be excessive after one match for us, but I have no faith that he'll prove me wrong, but I stand by everything I've said so far in this thread and if he does prove me wrong, great. I don't want him to fail because he's an Everton player and I can't have anything against him (shit, I'd take a contract if I was offered one), but I'm pretty confident he will fail if he keeps seeing significant time on the pitch.

Fair enough, there. Would still have rather seen Lennon and Baines as wingbacks with a back three, even against an inferior opponent like Ruzomberok, than see Martina start. Point is, we never really needed to sign him in the first place given our options, and now he'll get game time just because we did.

He played against us once in 2016 and I've watched one or two Southampton matches against other Prem sides. Regardless, my opinion is not the only one. Southampton fans were pretty shocked by Everton's interest, too, and remember him only by his wonder goal against Arsenal: https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?58540-Martina-to-Everton-on-freebie#.WXpzO9MrKgQ

Probably the most impressive thing I saw from him was his recovery from a poor first-touch. He's so quick that even with two players around him, he was able to retain possession despite initially looking like he had no chance. Very excited about his potential as it's already easy to forget how young he is.

Schneiderlin's just so quietly good that it's hard to give him man of the match, even though you probably could 90% of the games he's played for us.

We already have Holgate to fill that role. If we're still playing with two fullbacks, amounting to one-fifth of our outfield players, it seems important that they at least offer some promise of getting better.

Just disappointing that we brought in a player who is clearly not good enough. Stek bothers me, too, though less because Pickford will definitely come good. If Koeman sees Martina as the number one replacement for Coleman, that worries me to no end, because we have no idea when and if Coleman will be back to his 100% best.

I really don't see what I said that's so controversial. All you need to do is look on Twitter to see that Everton fans and neutrals alike seem to be in agreement on this one. What Bailey said above holds true, and I'd go further and say his defending was below average the way that a Slovakian side was able to dominate him in possession. He did put in one, maybe two, good crosses, but saw Coleman-like time on the ball, and did absolutely nothing else with it. Made poor giveaways and looked clueless as to what to do when in possession. I get that Koeman doesn't have to explain the system to him, but in other threads several of you have argued that we shouldn't care who we're replacing if we bring in players; we need to always be aiming for the top and not squad fillers. I'd love to support him now that he's an Everton player, but he's simply not good enough to wear the badge. And for those of you that say it's one match; it's not. He's been in the Premier League for two seasons previously, managing only 24 appearances for Southhampton in the league, and by all accounts looked shit in those, too.

Wasn't happy about the signing to begin with. Wasn't good enough for Southhampton and isn't good enough for Everton. Not showed any promise at 27 years old, almost 28.There's a reason he was released by Southhampton, and I don't at all like that he's stealing time from our youth players who could stand to improve a lot from Coleman's injury. The one complaint I have with Koeman is his loyalty to a couple of former players who have never been good enough. Stek and now Martina have no business in being in a squad which just spent 100m pounds on improving. It's different when you have a player who came through the youth team like Barkley. Barkley was never bad. His talent has always been there and I've never slagged him off. He's always been young and needed to grow. There's a massive difference between the two. Calm your shit.

Yep. Can also just tell by his movements. Very distinct. Regardless, kind of silly and moot argument, but I like to be correct.

Sounds pretty unlucky to me.

Happy with that lineup.

Gana. One bad giveaway but otherwise lively, all over the pitch cutting out passes and opening up play. Honorable mentions to Klaassen and Sandro, though Sandro frustrated as much as he impressed, if only because he was too eager to score. Keane and Baines both better than solid.

That said, Martina was awful and I'd be happy to never see him in a blue shirt again. Below replacement-level quality; much rather give Holgate and Kenny matches.

For the record, around 6:38, 99% sure that's Gana. Martina's off further along the side making a run down the pitch like he did the whole game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twfAz9MV4ao Edit: Correction, 100% sure that's Gana.