Mick

To be fair, Ashley has put in £20 million a year so indirectly we've had more than it will be worth.

No Jonas or Routledge? How Everton play with midfielders running into the box I think we are best lining up with a defence minded midfield. They might not be the best, but give them a tracking back job and they will do it without question. Then let Ben Arfa provide the width in a free role, Nolan is needed because we can't have Carroll as the only goal threat, there has to be a secondary threat. That is possibly the worst line up I could think of.

But if Ben Arfa replaces Nolan, you're talking about sticking with the same system anyway. Kevin Nolan may get 8 goals and assist 3 or 4. Gutierrez will typically get 1 or 2 goals and 3 or 4 assists in a decent league. So who would Ben Arfa most beneficially replace? Someone who scores goals, or someone who "creates space" and "relieves pressure"? By my count Ben Arfa has 18 careerer assists over 6 seasons and 170 appearances btw, so I don't know but perhaps hoping he's going to get 15 this season is maybe expecting a little too much? I guess as long as Ben Arfa adapts quickly to a new position, team, country and league, hits the form of his life, maintains it, stays fit, can create his own chances, doesn't let his head drop when we're losing, when he's not getting the ball, or when he's targeted by the opposition, and has the typical strong gaelic mentality and maturity to handle the pressure of carrying the rest of the team, we'll be fine. On the other hand, I hope we haven't put our single egg in a basket and counted it as a chicken already. So much of our hope for this season seems to be pinned on this lad. Thank goodness no-one wanted to buy him. Playing our current system isn't the problem, the problem is that the personnel being used isn't up to it. At least that's the case when Nolan is plodding around trying to back up Carroll. Nolan might get 8 goals although I can't see that happening based on his performances so far. I think we’ll gain more from ditching him than we will by keep playing him as he’s very limited. He got away with it last season in the Championship but he was just as limited when he wasn’t scoring and I think he holds our game back by living with his limited ability. He must realise that he’s too slow because on Saturday he kept trying to get ahead of the defenders by constantly running off-side and he needs to do that because of his lack of pace. As for Ben Arfa having something like 18 career assists, he’s 23 years old and has only started 91 games. Nolan is 5 years older and only has 27 career assists in 309 starts so he’s assisted 9 more in over 3 times the number of games started. Nolan has scored 58 league goals in that time, last season was his best and he scored almost double that of his best total in the Premiership. Ben Arfa has scored 17 league goals so far which is on a par with Nolan although it has to be said in a weaker league than the Premiership, I wouldn’t say it’s weaker than the Championship where Nolan was at his best. I can see little between the two sets of stat’s but in one I can see a player who is on the way up and offers something more than possibly being able to be in the right place at the right time, I see a player who can contribute to our game off and on for 90 minutes.

What position was Nolan playing once Jonas went off?

Opinions are exactly that, opinions. I don't really feel the need to change my view just because hundreds of others on a football forum feel differently, it's all about how each person reads the game and applies that information to the bigger picture. My view on Nolan/Blackpool loss: - was as poor as anyone else on Saturday, can't see a particular reason to single him out for "being s***" and hoping he dies - was part of the same starting XI that did reasonably well in the first 3 matches so it would have been poor management to drop anyone for the Blackpool game - the same midfield that were overrun in the first half began to make inroads in the second half before the subs were made, so the argument that Nolan/Smith were the cause for our defeat seems a bit too simplistic - as a few of the sharper posters have pointed out, we made a similar number of chances against Villa but took those, whereas we failed to against Blackpool and paid for it by conceding on the break at the end. Can anyone honestly say that the Villa and Blackpool results couldn't have gone either way depending on the penalty miss/score? I recognise Nolan's influence in the change of attitude amongst the squad over the past 18months, he's been appointed club captain by Hughton - a man who's judgement I trust and believe in far more readily than the majority on here - and that helps to support the view that he provides a much-needed link between the playing staff and management team. However, having said that, if his performances continue to dip (Villa = good, Wolves = OK, Blackpool = poor) in contrast to other players in the team then his place will be under threat. I don't think chopping and changing every week will help the team or any individual to maintain form and I'm still happy to believe that Blackpool was a collective "bad day at the office"; however, if Everton turns into a hangover, then changes would be on the cards. Nolan wasn't very good against Villa but his goals disguised his performance.

If Hughton plays Nolan then I fear this will be a tougher season than it needs to be.

You've got an excellent flash on you camera.

Let's see if he does against Everton.

Which bit do you disagree with or was it all of the post?

The only options I could see being used are Lovenkrands, Shola and Best (when fit) and I don't think they'll give us and more than playing 5 in midfield with one of the five playing off Carroll.

Do we have more than one to play up front?

I'm more worried that he was deemed good enough to get 90 minutes.

Trying to exploit Perch is a bit pointlees when they can just walk straight through the centre of midfield.

I thought that it was my hearing and asked my brother if he'd actually said that.

Up until yesterday I would have said Smith has played better than Nolan and unlike Nolan I had no problem with him starting. Having said that, he should have been off in the first half when he was chasing shadows and contributing absolutely nothing to the game. The team spirit didn't do us much good against Blackpool; it's worthless if the players perform the way they did yesterday.

You're more than welcome to contribute and defend Smith if you think he deserves defending.

I thought that Ben Arfa had been training for a couple of weeks.

It was, he only expected 5-0.

I agree but it wasn't another day and we didn't put them away.

He made one earlier, I'm not sure if he did later.

I thought that Harpers double save on 12 minutes was the best save of the game.

Did the Blackpool keeper have to dive to save anything or did the shots hit him? I'll give you the point about injuries unless the injuries were to Nolan or Smith.

If we had scored two we wouldn't have won, we'd have drawn. Also giving 3 points to one of our rivals at the bottom is just about as bad as it gets over 90 minutes at home.

Nolan offers nothing when he doesn't score and he's not going to score many in this league. He was poor in the Championship when he didn't score and he's more of a liability in this league against better players. 6-0 against Villa was a massive fluke and we scored with almost every shot we had. Against Wolves he missed chances and he's done the same again today.

I would, he's still shit even when he gets goals.