[Archived] Everton - the "Prestige Friendly"

[Jimmy612]

Went to the game on Saturday. Few observations, most of which I think will have already have been discussed above;

What a difference 3 years makes.... two teams that were on an equal footing when Kalinic scored that winner on the opening day of the season. On Saturday we were so far behind them it was untrue.

As has been discussed on here, 'friendlies don't matter.' We've been to Preston and Rochdale and had very close games against opposition that are way below our level. So surely we can play Everton and expect to give them a good game? Carve out a few opportunities, make them work for it.

Imo what I saw on Saturday was an Everton side never really get out of first gear and absolutely murder a side that lacks quality in every single department. But for an excellent opportunity for Taylor heading wide, we never really troubled Everton until Rochina came on.

I saw the same problems as last year. A stranded and ineffectual Rhodes having to battle Jagielka and Distin for every long ball punted forward. A hard working Alan Judge dropping deeper all the time to get a touch, unable to pose any problems for Everton in the final third. Fair play to him though - he has good delivery and a real work ethic - think he's a decent signing.

Two midfielders who appear incapable of offering the simple pass. Marrow was completely missing in that midfield, Lowe too struggled to make any impact. Desperate for a ball playing midfielder who wants to dictate a game.

As was my belief last season, King is not good enough. Defensively he offers very little, and then when he has an opportunity to run at the opposition he does exactly that, unfortunately straight into them with very little plan or thought of what to do next. He'd be the first i'd drop. Mention here for Bryan Oviedo, left back for Everton. Thought he was terrific for them. Links up very well with Pienaar and CM's and extremely attack minded. Keep an eye on him to see how he does if he has any sort of opponent up against him.

Morris is not a left back. He got absolutely mullered by a much quicker than originally anticipated Seamus Coleman. Kilgallon generally kept Mirallas quiet i thought. Certainly start with him at LB imo.

I know i'm being critical here but I must admit with a week left that I expected us to create a few more opportunities. Felt that we were chasing shadows for probably 65 - 70 minutes of the game.

Rochina is frustrating but is our best player by quite a margin. He's the only one with an ounce of creativity. Drop King, push Judge out wide and play Rochina through the middle. If we can say anything we do have a hard working, fairly mobile midfield. Therefore we must afford to play our one luxury, the only who one who could make something.

Little mention for Best too. Thought he came on and gave their defence more to think about than Rhodes did in 70mins. We have a big problem imo, in that as much as Rhodes is a goalscorer, he is absolutely nothing else. No hold up play, no running the channels. I said this last year but as 4-4-2 continues to be outstripped by the 4-5-1/4-2-3-1, the more call there is for Strikers to be more than just goals. They need to be an outlet, Rhodes simply isn't one of those. The big problem we have is that we massively overpaid for him - and I can't see us recouping that money unless he leaves before August 31st 2013.

For Everton. Very impressed with Ross Barkley, what a talent he looks. Sat in that hole brilliantly, and exposed the gap between our Midfield and Defence. Oviedo as mentioned above looks a good player to me.

Ultimately we were outclassed by far superior opposition.

So 6 days left - imo a squad that is extremely short of quality - a LB/2 x CM's /CB needed.

We won't go up. We shouldn't go down.

[adopted scouser]

Waste of time. Everybody knows that rules don't apply to scousers

What load of nonsense, the landlord didn't want all that business did he ? He obviously thought they were all from Chorley with their Everton shirts and scouse accents ??

[alexanders]

Just read Jimmy's sentiments and just watched the whole game on youtube.

Here are my sentiments: We have a good and balanced squad with two defensive midfielders who did it simple and broke up a few attacks. Lowe also had one or two quality balls forward. However they are not creating enough and as JImmy said this led to Judge falling too deep and Rhodes becoming stranded.

I am looking forward to the game against Derby and liked the look of our new signings; Judge, Kilgallon, Marrow and Taylor. Think they will provide something different in the team.

Massively dissapointed with my fellow norwegian Josh King. Thought he didnt do one single thing correct, but there is no doubt that the player has blistering pace and he has performed well for the norwegian national team both senior squad and u21s.

[TBTF]

Went to the game on Saturday. Few observations, most of which I think will have already have been discussed above;

What a difference 3 years makes.... two teams that were on an equal footing when Kalinic scored that winner on the opening day of the season. On Saturday we were so far behind them it was untrue.

As has been discussed on here, 'friendlies don't matter.' We've been to Preston and Rochdale and had very close games against opposition that are way below our level. So surely we can play Everton and expect to give them a good game? Carve out a few opportunities, make them work for it.

Imo what I saw on Saturday was an Everton side never really get out of first gear and absolutely murder a side that lacks quality in every single department. But for an excellent opportunity for Taylor heading wide, we never really troubled Everton until Rochina came on.

I saw the same problems as last year. A stranded and ineffectual Rhodes having to battle Jagielka and Distin for every long ball punted forward. A hard working Alan Judge dropping deeper all the time to get a touch, unable to pose any problems for Everton in the final third. Fair play to him though - he has good delivery and a real work ethic - think he's a decent signing.

Two midfielders who appear incapable of offering the simple pass. Marrow was completely missing in that midfield, Lowe too struggled to make any impact. Desperate for a ball playing midfielder who wants to dictate a game.

As was my belief last season, King is not good enough. Defensively he offers very little, and then when he has an opportunity to run at the opposition he does exactly that, unfortunately straight into them with very little plan or thought of what to do next. He'd be the first i'd drop. Mention here for Bryan Oviedo, left back for Everton. Thought he was terrific for them. Links up very well with Pienaar and CM's and extremely attack minded. Keep an eye on him to see how he does if he has any sort of opponent up against him.

Morris is not a left back. He got absolutely mullered by a much quicker than originally anticipated Seamus Coleman. Kilgallon generally kept Mirallas quiet i thought. Certainly start with him at LB imo.

I know i'm being critical here but I must admit with a week left that I expected us to create a few more opportunities. Felt that we were chasing shadows for probably 65 - 70 minutes of the game.

Rochina is frustrating but is our best player by quite a margin. He's the only one with an ounce of creativity. Drop King, push Judge out wide and play Rochina through the middle. If we can say anything we do have a hard working, fairly mobile midfield. Therefore we must afford to play our one luxury, the only who one who could make something.

Little mention for Best too. Thought he came on and gave their defence more to think about than Rhodes did in 70mins. We have a big problem imo, in that as much as Rhodes is a goalscorer, he is absolutely nothing else. No hold up play, no running the channels. I said this last year but as 4-4-2 continues to be outstripped by the 4-5-1/4-2-3-1, the more call there is for Strikers to be more than just goals. They need to be an outlet, Rhodes simply isn't one of those. The big problem we have is that we massively overpaid for him - and I can't see us recouping that money unless he leaves before August 31st 2013.

For Everton. Very impressed with Ross Barkley, what a talent he looks. Sat in that hole brilliantly, and exposed the gap between our Midfield and Defence. Oviedo as mentioned above looks a good player to me.

Ultimately we were outclassed by far superior opposition.

So 6 days left - imo a squad that is extremely short of quality - a LB/2 x CM's /CB needed.

We won't go up. We shouldn't go down.

Yep hard to argue with that Jimmy.

Like you Rhodes worries me.He has barely had a kick in pre season and has looked pretty ordnary to say the least.I thought we might be a bit fitter and faster at this point in our pre season given we have our first game next week yet they are still 3 weeks away.How wrong could i be??!!

Barkley ran the show for Sheff Weds at Ewood last season when on loan and simply our versions (Lowe , Marrow) are nowhere near that standard and having spoken to a number of Everton fans after in the pub, they could not beleive how much inferior we are to what they always envisaged was a tough trip 3 yrs ago.

They all know what Venkys have done to us as do many proper fans up and down.

But back to the point Jimmy- totally agree we are a team of ordinarys going the square root of nowhere but with a wage bill that would make even Everton squeal.

The downward spiral for our once great club might be arrested at some point but its impossible to see it being reversed.Financial armageddon remains a real issue the minute Balaji starts getting bored and the lower reaches of the Championship is about where that will start to happen for a publicity seeking nutjob.

[wolfie]

btw they've had Chang as shirt sponsors for a hell of a long time haven't they? Dunno how one would find this out but I'd wager they are the longest Prem club shirt sponsor.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=everton%20football%20kits%20history&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.historicalkits.co.uk%2FEverton%2FEverton.htm&ei=r7b2UcSrDtGX7QaU7oDADQ&usg=AFQjCNFTlM0X3uIJJxOhJEAt34BeFXmp9A

[K-Hod]

Going on for a testimonial with Chang!

[thenodrog]

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=everton%20football%20kits%20history&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.historicalkits.co.uk%2FEverton%2FEverton.htm&ei=r7b2UcSrDtGX7QaU7oDADQ&usg=AFQjCNFTlM0X3uIJJxOhJEAt34BeFXmp9A

Interesting site wolfie. It's got BRFC at the top (outside the East Lancs clubhouse at a guess). Anyway 10 seasons for Chang. It's a good effort considering Chang don't seem to have a major presence in the UK.

[adsfortheblues]

Apologies if this has already been answered but why did Kilgallon go off when Everton ran rings round Josh Morris second half.

Because he wanted to see who was the shittest, Morris just won that one, kilgallon still on the verge of shitness though

[wolfie]

Interesting site wolfie. It's got BRFC at the top (outside the East Lancs clubhouse at a guess). Anyway 10 seasons for Chang. It's a good effort considering Chang don't seem to have a major presence in the UK.

Good spot, hadn't noticed that. Anyone know what the letters represent, next to the years the kits were worn?

[cn174]

Good spot, hadn't noticed that. Anyone know what the letters represent, next to the years the kits were worn?

I think it is just the sources of information, if you scroll down to the bottom of a teams page, it lists all the sources

[alexanders]

I suggest you take a look at::

Sublime pass: 31:47

MarrLowe breaking up Everton attack: 31: 55

Lowe in great scoring position: 38 min

The problem is he is way too unstable and these sort of things happen too seldom.

He did get into a couple of other good scoring positions though and almost scored with a long shot.

[West Yorks Rover]

I suggest you take a look at::

Sublime pass: 31:47

MarrLowe breaking up Everton attack: 31: 55

Lowe in great scoring position: 38 min

The problem is he is way too unstable and these sort of things happen too seldom.

He did get into a couple of other good scoring positions though and almost scored with a long shot.

Did'nt lowe put a shot over the stand against Rochdale or was that someone else ?

[Amo]

I suggest you take a look at::

Sublime pass: 31:47

MarrLowe breaking up Everton attack: 31: 55

Lowe in great scoring position: 38 min

The problem is he is way too unstable and these sort of things happen too seldom.

He did get into a couple of other good scoring positions though and almost scored with a long shot.

Is it me or are those timestamps off?

[Stuart]

Is it me or are those timestamps off?

Nope sounds about right.

Lowe makes pass.

8 seconds later, needs to prevent an opposition attack.

[Amo]

Nope sounds about right.

Lowe makes pass.

8 seconds later, needs to prevent an opposition attack.

Everton's free kick takes up 31:47 - 31: 55.

[Stuart]

Ah, I thought you were playing the straight man.

Oh well.

[Amo]

Oooh, jokes!

[alexanders]

Amarillo: I might mean 31:47 on the matchclock and you mean 31-47 in the video or oppsite.