Las7

What pisses me off when I watch Everton is how when they don't have Baines playing full back - their full backs rarely cross. Why - simple it's a higher probability if your fullback crosses that you would surrender possession especially when your only aerial threat is Lukaku - so the safer option is to play the ball out of the flank into either the center or towards the corner so you either win a set piece or keep possession as opposed to allowing the opposition to regain the ball and counter attack. In the meantime every time Ivanovic gets the ball he attempts a cross - at who? We haven't even got a single aerial thread inside the box most of the time. We are a side that has players with great close control - Ivanovic/Cole/Cesar should never be attempting crosses if there are other options. The fact that it's December and Ivanovic is still doing the same idiotic cross time and time again seems to mean that this is something he is instructed to do(or not instructed not to do) and it just leads to us losing the ball.

It's fairly obvious that during big matches there are a few things Martinez instructs his players to do: 1) Full backs don't cross towards Lukaku in fear of loosing the ball and allowing big teams to counter attack(unless Baines is playing he is allowed to cross). 2) Lukaku plays the ball back into midfield with the back of the goal in cases where there is more than one defender on him. 3) Lukaku is allowed to try and beat defenders when there is only one player closing him down. Lukaku is basically used to get more space for other Attacking midfielders when they play against big clubs as opposed to the team being focused on creating chances for him. Yesterday and against United there were several instances of Lukaku playing the simple pass into Barkley or Pienaar when there were two players on his back while he tried to beat his man when they were one on one. Martinez has done a good job at Everton and they play possession based football with little risk when facing top clubs hence he is able to get better results than Moyes ever was. You also have to account the fact Lukaku is more closely marked than a player like Kone or Jelavic would be hence allowing more space for the attacking midfielders. I'd expect more from Lukaku after a few more months in the club in this big matches - since I believe he is still getting used to this tactical scheme because that's not how he was used at West Brom, In fact I feel this is how we would utilize him if he was at the club in such matches. Everton are starting to out play their top 4 rivals as they did in the first 40 minutes against Arsenal. What I don't agree with is that he would not get the service at the club I feel that despite everything we have the best attacking midfielders in the League(possibly only Ozil is a better creating midfielder than what we have available). The problem is that our strikers aren't mobile enough or exert confidence in our attacking midfielders thus instead of looking for Torres/Ba/Eto'o the likes of Ramires/Hazard/Schurrle/Mata/Lampard feel like they need to do it all themselves. Imagine if we had someone like RvP demanding the ball do you honestly feel any of our attacking midfielders will look for goal every time instead of playing it into a player demanding the ball every time it's around the box and making himself available. Last year largely the same United side ended up being comfortable title winners simply because RvP's form - thats the difference between us being in the top four and challenging for the title. I'm not saying Lukaku is that player but he has more chances into turning into a player like that than the likes of Torres/Ba/Eto'o and he could have just as easily developed playing here considering we didn't end up signing a World Class striker. At the moment we just need a consistant Goal Scorer in the League our strikers haven scored an away goal in the EPL in the year of 2013; they have 4 goals between them in the EPL and it's fucking December.

Keep defending Jose, the fact he felt Torres was ahead of Lukaku in the pecking order means he hadn't watched Torres play in the last 2 years It's inexcusable to start Ba or Torres ahead of Lukaku as Jose did at the start of the season instead of allowing Lukaku a run in the team before signing Eto'o.

Did nothing after coming on today - we have the worst strikers in the League

Our "strikers" haven't scored a goal away from home in the EPL the entire year(READ IT AGAIN 11 MONTHS). Lukaku should be here playing regularly - it's the most deluded decision Jose has made since returning - thinking Torres; Ba and Eto'o are better when it's bloody obvious they would be lucky to make the bench in Everton at the moment ahead of Kone and Jelavic with their current form. If he scores tomorrow he would have won more points for CFC in the EPL while not playing for Chelsea than Torres has won for us in 3 years

Please if Lukaku was up top instead of Torres in the first half those two passes by Hazard for which Torres decided not to run for - would have been at the very least shots ! There were plenty of chances which our midfielders were forced to take because our strikers weren't in the box especially in the first half.

We definitely don't need a lad like Lukaku here, he would never start ahead of such juggernauts like Eto'o; Ba and Torres Just watch how well Eto'o keeps the ball - Lukaku could never hold up the ball like that. How well Torres links up play and passes. How strong Demba Ba is. Besides we never create any chances or provide service Lukaku could thrive on, we never score from counter attacks; never score from set pieces; never really need a speedy striker with Lukaku's physical presence. We also don't want to scare opposition defenses - what we prefer is our strikers to lure them into a false sense of security Poor Lukaku having such fantastic strikers ahead of him in the team - should be loaned again next season so he doesn't waste his time on the bench watching our brilliant strikers.

We definetly don't need a lad like Lukaku here, he would never start ahead of such juggernauts like Eto'o; Ba and Torres

This ref is not giving us anything - what a prick

Schurrle bloody brilliant - keeping us in this match

Schurrle bloody brilliant - keeping us in this match

It's not about speed, Torres stopped running during the first chance setup by Hazard - HE STOPPED RUNNING!

Ramires's finishing and decision making cost us, Torres also doesn't time his runs correctly inside the box and once against set piece defending is bloody awful. Still Stoke are drawing against the run of play, if we play like this in the second half we should still win this match - but I think it's time to bring on Ba, Torres hasn't reacted the way he should to his awful display midweek. We don't need someone to be passing the ball - we need a poacher to be in the right place to finish off the chances we create.

If Rambo had the finishing instinct of Lampard he would be the best midfielder in the Prem

Torres just stopped running - seriously what the fuck dude

Torres + 50 million for Falcao - yes please!

No the reaction to the Tottenham game was out overstated, if Sir Frank had setup two glorious chances; missed a sitter; got send off and his mistake had lead to a Tottenham's goal he would never get voted MOTM by 117 votes on this site or have people talking about what a glorious 20 minutes he had. Torres gets judged by different standards - what he should be judged on is goals and he is a Championship level striker if he is judged on those. So people choose to judge on his blond hair; how hard he works; how he cares etc

Not complaining I don't mind people complaining - I'm saying people are using "service" as a way to excuse how poor Torres has been. I'm sorry but if anyone feels Lukaku; Sturridge; Suarez; RvP; Rooney; Kun; etc would score 2 goals in the EPL for a calendar year they better get their head checked.

One Ba didn't miss two clear cut chances Two his one clear cut chance lead to goal Three he wasn't disposed off the ball a single time as we were trying to keep a result while Torres was our most disposed player loosing the ball 4 times under little pressure Ba might not be good enough but at least he didn't cost the club 50 million and isn't on 175k p/w wages, I'm sure if he was given as many chances as Torres over 3 years he would have scored more goals.

His passing was brilliant tonight, definetly a great performance but remained in the shadows due to Hazard being in a different solar system compared to the rest of our squad tonight.

You are saying Ba wasn't much better, do you actually watch the match or just your Torres poster?

It's cause we don't provide him service - any striker would struggle to score two goals in a year in the EPL for Chelsea

Lukaku and Everton edge closer to us, our big man got a big assist even though he was trying to shoot - lucky lad Also he made Vidic his bitch on several occasions - just completely out muscled him First win by Everton away at United since 1988 He will perform better than what we have starting up top for us currently - Everton are a big club

He is just not good enough to be playing at a club of our stature and earning 175k p/w in wages - I've been saying it for 2 years just get rid so we at least don't need to pay his wages

+infinity !