Bottoms up
Only one direction to go after Toffees' derby destruction
Obviously you can’t change Wednesday night, you can’t change history. The players have to pick themselves up. They’ve let the fans down, they’ve let the club down and the people of Everton deserve a good performance now. Losing 4-0 to Liverpool, from the start of the game to the end, was a complete shambles. Whoever pulls a shirt on at Wembley for the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United people don’t care who it is, as long as they try.
The fans will travel to London on Saturday and get behind the team but they want to see the players give everything. Unfortunately you can’t say they gave everything against Liverpool midweek or against Southampton last Saturday
You’ve got to be prepared to get hurt for the team and getting hurt for the team means putting the effort in, putting your body in the way, winning headers, running after people. The Everton players weren’t running after people because the movement of Liverpool did us all the time. Just like movement did us against Southampton. It’s not good enough.
You need three things. Yes, you need talent and fitness, and you also need a bloody good attitude.
Wednesday night they started off for the first 10 minutes really, really bright and that was it. After that Liverpool could have won the game six or seven nil. That’s the shambles of it.
Bob A Job?
A lot does hinge on the game on Saturday, an awful lot. The board will wait until Saturday night and then sit down and decide what do they do now as far as Roberto Martinez’ position is concerned.
It’s a funny feeling because even if he wins an FA Cup the majority of the fans will want him out the door. What you don’t want at a club like ours is a knee-jerk reaction to anything. If they lose Saturday they need to be sensible about it.
If we win the FA Cup that’s great but it’s only going to paper over cracks.
We’ll be going in to the semi-final as underdogs. I want to see the players come out and think Wednesday was absolutely disgraceful and we’re going to take it out on Man United. We’re going to put all our hurt, all our anger, all our embarrassment in this performance and we’re going to go out there and take this team apart. You need to show pride, passion but also with a cool head.
Luk’s On Our Side
You know that Lukaku will get a chance, on a good day he’ll get a goal. He might not do much else sometimes but he’s a goalscorer. When you’ve got him in the team you’ve always got a chance.
We’ve got players like Barkley, Delufeu and Lennon who can create something out of nothing. For us it will be about keeping it really, really tight and trying to get a result. If it goes to extra-time I don’t care as long as we win.
The fans who turn up on Saturday will be cheering on the team regardless.
We reached bottom at Anfield in lots of people’s eyes. There’s only way to go from rock bottom.
Keeper Our Heads Up
The worst that can happen on Saturday is that we get beat but we have a great chance of going through. United aren’t Barcelona, they’re not the United of old. They’re defence isn’t great, they’re getting better and they’re quite solid and they have players up front who can score goals.
The game is going to be really, really tight and I have a feeling we’re going to win 2-1 because we can never win 1-0.
Our goalie has to play well, our back four has to be decent and our service to the frontman has to be better. We have as many match winners as they do if not more. I expect United to have chances but I also expect us to have chances. The one thing no one can determine is how good the referee is going to be.
The one thing both teams have is a decent goalie. De Gea has probably been United’s best player this season so he’s been in good form. Hopefully he has a bad day and Robles has a good one.