Swansea City 3-0 Everton
(Dyer 28, Sigurdsson 64, Emnes 87)
20,397
Ive given up on this competition. I was right the first time, we will never win the League Cup, because we are far too big and important and successful a club to be bothering ourselves with the likes of this rubbish, so I for one am glad we are out and was actually made up when Swansea got their 3rd.
Yep, thats bullshit isnt it? The only bit thats true was that I as made up when Swansea scored their 3rd as it meant I could finally let go of any lingering childlike optimism we were going to come back and just go home. Missing the traffic was a waste of time though when both the M5 AND M6 had closures resulting in it taking five and a half hours to get home. But then what do Everton care? Ive seen some awful spineless defeats, some of them to much worse sides than Swansea, but last night was truly the first time I actually felt the team were playing to lose. Leeds 2 years ago was pretty bad, but it was more the team selection that told me the manager didnt want to win. This was both. We started the better side, had a couple of half chances, Alcaraz was unlucky not to score with Tremmel coming out to block him at a set piece. But it was Swansea who broke the deadlock, Montero making Hibbert look like crocked hasbeen I think he probably is now, tying him in knots before sending a low cross all the way across the box for Dyer to poke pretty meekly goalwards, and Howard just rolling over it. No worries, we've played alright so far, no reason this is over. Oh no wait, obviously I wasnt privy to teamtalks, but what followed that Swansea game was a team who looked like they had been told that this was a game that didnt matter, give it a go, but if we go behind, dont bother breaking a sweat to try and rescue it. It was one of the worst, going through the motions performance Ive ever seen from an Everton side, it was an all round fucking disrespectful charade of a performance that basically took a flying shit all over the idiots in the away end who went through hell just to get there, only to be served up with that shit.
Sometimes in a perverse kind of way, when we're playing this badly I actually want us to get the twatting we deserve, because you can ignore and talk your way around a terrible performance that can look like an unlucky 1-0 defeat. There can be absolutely no delusions over a 3-0 like that. Or so I thought anyway, at least until I saw Martinez' comments...Distin did a bang up job of making the scoreline more reflective of our performance, trying to clear a pretty awful Shelvey cross by diverting it onto his own bar with a header about an inch off the ground, and with him and Howard flailing around, Sigurdsson strolls in and puts the loose ball into the net, an absolute gift. I suppose we can only be grateful that Swansea clearly had one eye on the weekend so eased off at 2-0, and just treated it as a nice little training exercise. We were obviously treating it the same, bringing on two of the most pointless subs in football history, when any side who actually wanted to get back in this game would have considered the likes of Mirallas and Kone, rather than McCarthy and Osman. Marvin Emnes obviously had to impress though given the chance off the bench and when he fired in a long range third, it finally let me go home.
So its amazing how quickly your mood can change in a week, and the majority of this was totally self inflicted, through shit team selections, players who arent good enough any more, and a general malaise around the team.The only players at the moment who I would say are playing at their absolute best are Mirallas, Coleman and Naismith, none of them played the last two games, Mirallas came on as a late sub on Sunday too late to really change anything. I would include Stones as well, who also didnt play tonight, and was played out of position on Sunday. Nobody else is anywhere near their best, and the only way you get that back is by playing well. The changes on Sunday totally disrupted all the momentum we had picked up in the wins over West Brom and Wolfsburg, and last night just made that worse. Considering Joel always plays domestic cup games, I believe Howard only played to give him a chance to redeem himself and get his confidence back up after those costly mistakes against Palace. Yeah, that worked. Shuffling your squad, letting in 6 more goals and losing back to back games is just the kind of preparation you need for the Derby! Even as bad as Liverpool are playing themselves, they will walk all over us. Everton have a lot of making up to do on Saturday.
Yep, thats bullshit isnt it? The only bit thats true was that I as made up when Swansea scored their 3rd as it meant I could finally let go of any lingering childlike optimism we were going to come back and just go home. Missing the traffic was a waste of time though when both the M5 AND M6 had closures resulting in it taking five and a half hours to get home. But then what do Everton care? Ive seen some awful spineless defeats, some of them to much worse sides than Swansea, but last night was truly the first time I actually felt the team were playing to lose. Leeds 2 years ago was pretty bad, but it was more the team selection that told me the manager didnt want to win. This was both. We started the better side, had a couple of half chances, Alcaraz was unlucky not to score with Tremmel coming out to block him at a set piece. But it was Swansea who broke the deadlock, Montero making Hibbert look like crocked hasbeen I think he probably is now, tying him in knots before sending a low cross all the way across the box for Dyer to poke pretty meekly goalwards, and Howard just rolling over it. No worries, we've played alright so far, no reason this is over. Oh no wait, obviously I wasnt privy to teamtalks, but what followed that Swansea game was a team who looked like they had been told that this was a game that didnt matter, give it a go, but if we go behind, dont bother breaking a sweat to try and rescue it. It was one of the worst, going through the motions performance Ive ever seen from an Everton side, it was an all round fucking disrespectful charade of a performance that basically took a flying shit all over the idiots in the away end who went through hell just to get there, only to be served up with that shit.
Sometimes in a perverse kind of way, when we're playing this badly I actually want us to get the twatting we deserve, because you can ignore and talk your way around a terrible performance that can look like an unlucky 1-0 defeat. There can be absolutely no delusions over a 3-0 like that. Or so I thought anyway, at least until I saw Martinez' comments...Distin did a bang up job of making the scoreline more reflective of our performance, trying to clear a pretty awful Shelvey cross by diverting it onto his own bar with a header about an inch off the ground, and with him and Howard flailing around, Sigurdsson strolls in and puts the loose ball into the net, an absolute gift. I suppose we can only be grateful that Swansea clearly had one eye on the weekend so eased off at 2-0, and just treated it as a nice little training exercise. We were obviously treating it the same, bringing on two of the most pointless subs in football history, when any side who actually wanted to get back in this game would have considered the likes of Mirallas and Kone, rather than McCarthy and Osman. Marvin Emnes obviously had to impress though given the chance off the bench and when he fired in a long range third, it finally let me go home.
So its amazing how quickly your mood can change in a week, and the majority of this was totally self inflicted, through shit team selections, players who arent good enough any more, and a general malaise around the team.The only players at the moment who I would say are playing at their absolute best are Mirallas, Coleman and Naismith, none of them played the last two games, Mirallas came on as a late sub on Sunday too late to really change anything. I would include Stones as well, who also didnt play tonight, and was played out of position on Sunday. Nobody else is anywhere near their best, and the only way you get that back is by playing well. The changes on Sunday totally disrupted all the momentum we had picked up in the wins over West Brom and Wolfsburg, and last night just made that worse. Considering Joel always plays domestic cup games, I believe Howard only played to give him a chance to redeem himself and get his confidence back up after those costly mistakes against Palace. Yeah, that worked. Shuffling your squad, letting in 6 more goals and losing back to back games is just the kind of preparation you need for the Derby! Even as bad as Liverpool are playing themselves, they will walk all over us. Everton have a lot of making up to do on Saturday.
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