Thread: Opposition View - Everton FC

We hope to make this a regular feature on the forums, if anyone wants to help with this please let us know, suggestions for questions are always welcome

For this weeks opposition view I popped over to the blue half of Merseyside and found myself on http://www.toffeetalk.com. I asked them a few questions about them, us and our upcoming game and here's what they had to say

Bill (Billyblue)

1. How do you think Everton have done so far this season, and where do you think you will finish in the table ?
The usual slow start plus we've played a lot of the top teams, but we usually pull it around in the second half of the season. Cant see us getting any higher than 7th-8th

2. Who is your star man at the moment ? anyone we should watch out for ?#
We havent had a star man as yet, most have been playing below their usual standards so Probably Fellaini and Baines are the best of a bad bunch at the moment.

3. What do you think about the current situation Everton find themselves in ? An obvious lack of investment and a stadium that isn't adequate for your needs ??
Yeah you've said it all

4. What are your views on Stoke City ?
Like ourselves you seem to punch above your weight, your manager is similar to ours in that he gets the best from his players, hard work makes up for lack of skill.

5. Which Stoke player(s) would have at Everton
Etherington and Shawcross

6. What is your score prediction ?
Its never easy against a Stoke side, i cant see us keeping a clean sheet so i'm hoping for a hard fought 2-1 win.

Best of luck for the rest of the season Shawn.

Matt

1. How do you think Everton have done so far this season, and where do you think you will finish in the table ?
Again, another slow start following a very positive end to last season. I was really hoping we would shake this hoodoo of sleepy starts but I dont think Artetas last minute departure helped. That said, dont think weve missed him on the field, just think it caused a little distruption.

2. Who is your star man at the moment ? anyone we should watch out for ?
Felli is in form at the mo and can dominate most midfields on his own. Rodwell might be back too so the 2 of them could cause some issues. Never write of Baines either, hes not been his usual self of late but hes still very dangerous.

3. What do you think about the current situation Everton find themselves in ? An obvious lack of investment and a stadium that isn't adequate for your needs ??
This is not a short answer! I'd have a look in the General Everton Discussion forum to see all the topics and debates going on about that!

4. What are your views on Stoke City ?
Hard working and very difficult to play against. Physical team which dont shirk from challenges so will be an interesting battle as usual (interesting doesnt necessary mean exciting though!). Im hoping your dodgy run of forms is extended at least til our game before you find your winning ways again

5. Which Stoke player(s) would have at Everton
Etherington is quite a tricksy player when hes on form and Walters seems quite a decent player too.

6. What is your score prediction ?
Im really hoping we continue our new found winning streak, maybe 1-0 to us (going to be hard getting more than that) but could see this being a draw.

Tenaciousj

• How do you think Everton have done so far this season, and where do you think you will finish in the table ?

Everton are living up to their ‘slow starters’ tag quite admirably but as you may have heard, we have already played the ‘big’ teams, so we weren’t expecting many points in and around the October fixtures. Problems that I have had with the start though, aren’t a result of our current league position but the way in which we have played. Some games this season have been incredibly painful and frustrating to watch and some substitutions/tactical/formation based decisions have left a lot to be desired. I think we’ll finish anywhere between 12^th and 8^th (at a push) Top 5 if I’ve mistakenly smoked something incredibly powerful.

• Who is your star man at the moment ? anyone we should watch out for ?

Fellaini. He’s an absolute monster in the middle. This “clumsy”, “elbowy”, “nasty” impression that people have of him, couldn’t be any further from the truth. On his day (and I genuinely believe so), Fellaini could walk into any of the big teams within the league. He has deceptively good feet for a big man, he has an engine that keeps him running well beyond the 90 minutes, he has an inhuman ability to ‘pluck’ the ball out of the air with any part of his body…give Fellaini too much room to move and he’ll punish you (see goal against Bolton).
Honorable mentions – Drenthe if he’s fit. Vellios if he comes off the bench, Baines dependant who's in front of him

• What do you think about the current situation Everton find themselves in ? An obvious lack of investment and a stadium that isn't adequate for your needs ??

It’s not great. I think it’s well documented. We have a renegade group trying their best to sort something out (credit where credits due) but they’re a bunch of tools (and certainly not the sharpest in the toolbox) so we’ll probably just stagnate for a while. Goodison is in desperate need of updating, not just aesthetically but for corporate, financial reasons.
And as you’ve pointed out, we have no funds, so it’s a time to build on what we currently have and for Everton’s future, that’s our young players and squad. I’d like DM to give more time to actual, promising players to get them ready for a time when we’ll be dependent on them. His inability to drop favorites’ and playing ‘injured’ members of the squad before these kids is unbelievably frustrating but if there is one major plus in the Everton camp, it’s that our current academy crop is full of (not just promising) VERY promising youngsters.

• What are your views on Stoke City ?

The team or place? I live not far from the A500, so I have a few stories about nights out in Hanley…don’t do the ‘Liquid’ scene sorry, I’m more of an ‘Underground’ sort of guy. Genuinely I was a bit upset when I thought the new Tesco at Hanley had taken it away!!...but I’m guessing you mean the team? I have a fair few mates who are Stoke City fans, so I hear a fair amount of moans and groans but generally, they’re pretty happy with what the team’s achieved. I don’t mind Stoke, honest team, can play hard but also play some good stuff. You’ve got good bunch of lads there, they seem like they’ll work hard for one another too which is important. It’s nice to see a team initiate in Movember as well, it shows community and squad bonding, and it was nice to see. Also, you’re in Europe and not doing too badly! Not far from qualification either. Stoke are an unknown entity in Europe and that helps, keep it up and you’ll do well.

• Which Stoke player(s) would have at Everton

Begovic, Shawcross and Palacios for me. Really like Begovic, still really young for a keeper, looks like he’ll only improve with experience! Shawcross….need I say more? Palacios was unfairly ousted at Spurs IMO, and thought when you bought him that Everton had missed a trick…also he lives opposite my folks’ so if he moved to Everton, I could say that they live opposite an Everton player

• What is your score prediction ?

As you’ve pointed out, your current away record looks…not that good. So I hope we can knick it. If you fancy having someone sent off, then that’ll help us and we’ll be ok, it’ll especially help with our starting strike partnership of Tim ’11 months shy’ Cahill and Louis ‘If I can be arsed’ Saha, not being able to actually attack. If we start with Vellios, I hope he brings the power of Zeus and scores a brace but I’m not the manager
But if we start with Drenthe, Vellios and Rodwell…I think we’ll be fine. Jags has had his fair share of runnings with Crouch and he usually does ok. So I only see a clean sheet (sorry) and a dirty dirty goal (not Emily Scott dirty, just an own goal or something similar) from us…so I’ll go for;
Everton 1-0 Stoke

FairWooney

1. How do you think Everton have done so far this season, and where do you think you will finish in the table ?
Our start to the season hasn't been good as much for the lack of optimism as the results. While we had a tough run of games the fans have been at a real low seeing little sign that things will improve at the club any time soon.

Results wise if you look at the games it's not so bad considering who we played and our tendancy to start bad every season. Were now on 2 wins in a row on what we'd say is a much easier run of games and are already into 8th place.

2. Who is your star man at the moment ? anyone we should watch out for ?
Fellaini for me, underrated by many, when you actually watch him around the pitch you realise how much ground he covers despite his lazy looking de meaner. He wins the ball all over the park and will always play a good simple pass.

Drenthe if he's fit is a man to watch out for, popular with fans already he looks to have a decent attitude. He's keen to impress, has pace and skills and with his one goal has shown he's no mug in front of goal. If he can continue to improve in the side he could be one of our key threats in attack this season.

3. What do you think about the current situation Everton find themselves in ? An obvious lack of investment and a stadium that isn't adequate for your needs ??
I think it's a sad situation that all of our forums and discussions now are unfortunately concerned with the business of the club more than what they do on the pitch. It's a disappointing situation that we are no longer able to challenge where we feel we should be and with the money coming in at some other clubs it becomes much harder to even hold the previous seasons position. Were now in 8th and not many would say that we will finish any more than 1 place higher than that despite what's been a poor start.

We can but hope for investment, be it big investment or enough investment to aid us in getting a new stadium and wipe/reduce debts so as to get us in the right direction, apparently people are interested but until I see something concrete and real I won't really believe it will happen. Our chairman has best intentions at heart but needs to relinquish his grasp on the club if he is to make investment from outside likely in the near future.

4. What are your views on Stoke City ?
A pretty decent side who can trouble anyone at home making the ground a real fortress (barring a bad run of games this season). They're well known for their long ball and set piece tactics but they've shown plenty of times that they are more than capable of some decent football at times.

They've got a decent sold squad of players and I've been surprised to see the defence leaking so many goals this season, something that's not been a problem in the past and even with injuries they appear to have plenty of backup in defence.

5. Which Stoke player(s) would have at Everton
Etherington and Shawcross maybe.

6. What is your score prediction ?
I think we'll win 2-1. Clean sheets have been few and far between and Stoke have enough of a threat that they could get a goal but I feel we can continue to improve our form with another win here. I'll call Etherington for you and Bily and Vellios for us. (Drenthe instead of Bily if he's fit).

A huge thanks to all the Evertonians that took part, a great start to our Opposition View feature. Good luck to you for the rest of the season, apart from when we meet of course

To view the thread : http://www.toffeetalk.com/index.php?...otters-online/

a really good feature that enjoyed reading that.

I have a couple more replies to add when I get home from work later