I haven't had a chance to read the rest of this thread, but here's my 2 cents worth.
That is probably the best Everton team I have seen us face in the Premier League. Admittedly not the biggest sample size, but they were very balanced and could play too. I thought before the game that a point would have been a decent result, away to a rival, and I'll take it even more after the game, considering we were down with a few minutes to go. Still can't get over how good the game was, it had everything as has & will be mentioned a lot.
Before the game, we all thought that like before, that Everton would attack predominantly down the left and in particular through Baines. I must say I thought that Baines was quite enough while he was on the pitch and that was mainly down to Henderson's defensive game. He has helped us so much in the defensive side & pressing this season, getting many plaudits. Needs to keep this at a constant level now and add that extra attacking level aswell to really show his top level potential.
It wasen't until Baines went off tho that Everton showed their best play. Credit to Martinez, he went for it. He could have brought on a defender for Baines, but bringing on a forward was very ballsy. Delefou's pace certainly stretched us and thus allowed to bring Lukaku into the game more. Lukakuy didn't do much apart from miss a 1 on 1 until the 2nd half where he really took control of the game by scoring the 2 goals. Their pace on the counter really hit us.
Another factor to add to this was that Allen went off. Now as poor as he was on the ball during the game, very poor in fact from what I can remember (as I don't remmeber him even passing much to be honest, I could be proved wrong tho), but off the ball, Allen actually helped a good bit. He pressed Everton and that extra body in centre midfield certainly helped. In the 2nd half, we started to get overrun in midfield, even more so when Allen went off tho. That miss was atrocious and certainly one of a very unconfident player, any confidence he had certainly is gone now after that miss & being subbed off. Needs a game quick, perhaps against Norwich, just to even make a few passes to get some confidence back.
Mirallas - knacker! I read today (not sure how true) that he said to Suarez that he remembered the tackle from last year. If it is true, it only adds to my assumption that he meant to do Suarez. Should get a retrospective ban if possible the dick.
Our subs were poor tbh. We changed the shape completely and it ruined us. We should have kept 3 in midfield. Moses didn't do much and maybe Sterling would have been the better option up against Barry. We could & should have ran at Barry more to expose his pace. Martinez's subs were proactive, while Rodgers were to counteract Martinez. Now I do commend bring on a striker to try win the game, but you have to say balanced at the same time.
Flanagan had a good game, surprisingly! It sounds disrespecting but after the glut of performances under Kenny (most notably Blackburn) we couldn't expect much could we. We needed his desire & passion in the derby too.
Just a small note on Gerrard. Some fantastic deliveries again and it is interesting to see that he had more passes, more passes completed, more forward passes & crucially more assists & chances created that Barkley had. Now Barkley had a fantastic game, mainly due to his running at our defence, but Gerrard quietly had a great game too, and sometimes gets taken for granted what he does.
All in all, take the point, easier games will come for us.
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