The Prophet

Gah just had to turn down a ticket in the away end, gutted.

----------------Schmeichel------------------- ---Neville--- Adams---McGrath---Cole--- ---------------Vieira----Keane--------------- ---Zola---------Bergkamp---------Henry--- --------------------Shearer--------------------

Fucking hell.

Ryan Taylor is decent from the dead ball but bar that he has nothing to his game.

Gah, this will teach me to impulse bet.

To answer the initial question no. Jonas game is all about taking on players and linking up with the full back, he doesn't have te passing range nor the know how in and around the box to command a central role. Secondly that formation wouldn't work on so many levels: The back four lacks pace and would be vulnarable to any form of ball of the top. Jonas proved in the world cup he is a hopeless full back. The initiative to create things through the centre would rely on Barton who has had a mixed bag to say the least this season. Carroll would be isolated.

Inter Bremen Cardiff Sheffield United

Arteta doesn't play on the right. And although Hibbert is an easy target, defensively he's relatively solid actually. It's just getting forward he shows he has such little talent. Just depends if it's one of those days. If so we'll dominate yet again and then draw 1-1. If we however attain a two-goal lead with more than half an hour to go, I can see it being 3 or 4* *now that Geremi won't be given the freedom of Liverpool. Did Arteta not start on the right? Pretty sure he started there and just floated around as he usually does with Osman filling his position when needs be. Arteta hasn't played on the right for a long time. Best part of two years. On Saturday he was playing in a fairly deep central position with Fellaini advanced and Cahill up front. In the second half Fellaini & Arteta swapped roles. Osman was on the right all game (but often went missing by drifting inside). Arteta usually plays as a central play maker now rather than his early years with us when he was on the wing all the time. Fair enough, it's why I asked. I just assumed that was the case because Heitinga and Osman appeared to the central pairing early on. Either way he's definelty your much dangerous player along with Pinaar. Whether it's Osman or Arteta on the right Hibbert seemed to be exposed by them cutting inside and I think the left is our best chance of posing a threat.

Arteta doesn't play on the right. And although Hibbert is an easy target, defensively he's relatively solid actually. It's just getting forward he shows he has such little talent. Just depends if it's one of those days. If so we'll dominate yet again and then draw 1-1. If we however attain a two-goal lead with more than half an hour to go, I can see it being 3 or 4* *now that Geremi won't be given the freedom of Liverpool. Did Arteta not start on the right? Pretty sure he started there and just floated around as he usually does with Osman filling his position when needs be.

He's scored a couple of penalties but bar that and the mackems seem quite disappointed with him thus far.

Granted he probably deserves it for keeping them out of bother last season.

It's difficult to tell how Everton will line up as they'll obviously see us an entirely different beast to Man United. By far their most dangerous players are Arteta and Pinaar. It's not as simple as marking them out the game because they tend to float all over the place, particularly Arteta. Having said that Cahill has got into a rather annoying habit of notching against us however his movement and role in the team is far more predictable than the latter two. I wouldn't surprised to see Fellani dropped back into midfield and Heitinga dropped back into defence to replace the suspect Distin, that would most likely see Yakubu up front with Cahill, who caused the Mancs all kinds of problems. If he's up for it we really need to stick Big Mike on him because there's no way Colo will be able to handle is physical presence. However Moyes does seem somewhat reluctant to play him due to his lack of effort which will see us breath a little easier. For me there's no way we can compete in that midfield, not many can. Everton have dominated most this season and they are where they are due to a failure to convert dominance into goals, we need to hope for the same. However we need to think about weaknesses on the counter. The first is Hibbert. Arteta who seems to play on the right tends to drift inside a lot exposing Hibbert who although competent isn't great. If we can get Jonas and Jose to have a go down the flank I think we can get a bit of joy down that left hand side. Similarly Distin does not look confident at all. He's usually better than his Manc performance suggests but he's still more vulnerable than Jagielka. I have a feeling Moyes will drop Heitinga back into defence to replace him but that remains to be seen. If this isn't the case we need Carroll to be as aggressive as possible, he didn't look up for it at all against Man United. The biggest worry for me is our right hand side, frankly I can see Baines and Pinaar having a field day against Perch and I can see them targeting it as a particular weakness. Overall I think they will have far too much quality in the middle, we need to work our socks off and hope their recent trend of failing to capitalise on their possession continues.

Do we? Really? Get ready for disappointment.

...and we're off.

It's not like Nolan is standing there while the rest of the team plays this high energy attacking football around him. We simply don't have the squad to play like that, and one new player will not magically turn the rest of them into a team that can play like that. We have to live with that fact for this season at least, and Hughton has to try and put together a team that works effectively week in week out with what he has. Nolan is playing as a forward. His job is to get into positions to get chances, to score goals and set up others. He did it all last season and he's been doing it this season. As long as he keeps doing that, and as long as he keeps putting some of them away, then he's doing his job. If there's someone in the squad who can do that better than Nolan then fine - Shola? Lovenkrands? Ranger? - but I'm not sure why everyone is so keen to shoe-horn Ben Arfa into that position when he's been a midfielder most of his career. You say "we looked far more threatening after his introduction". Well he replaced Gutierrez, not Nolan. Perhaps that's why we looked better. The Nolan/Ben Arfa argued is born out of the fact they both play off the forward and my argument is Ben Arfa will more likely be more effective in that position and will contribute to us being a greater attacking threat. Of course I'm merely speculating but as you say we don't have the squad to root up trees and we have to work with what we've got. Again the argument is Ben Arfa is a better footballer to be playing in the position behind the front man. Fact is Nolan hasn't really been pulling his weight all season, even if we drop him and it turns out the alternative is poor at least it sends a clear message he needs to up his game and hopefully get into shape. I honestly can't see how he contributed to us looking more dangerous on Saturday, he was flagging around the sixty minute mark.

The primary job of a full back is being able to defend, Ryan Taylor is hopeless at it.

Stu, I can see what you’re saying but I think a majority of the unrest comes not just from the Blackpool defeat but from general observations made last season. It's easy to forget to positives Nolan has brought to the side on and off the field the obvious one being goals. Last season in particular he brought a much needed stream of goals from midfield. He's at his most effective playing off the front man where he can get into the box and make a nuisance of himself. Then there's his contribution off the field and most likely why he was made captain. By all accounts we have a fantastic team spirit and Nolan is one of the major reasons behind this. However for me, and many others, the negatives of his game outweigh this. Like I mentioned Nolan is decent in and around the box but this is because he thrives on direct, long ball football where he can attack any knock ons or loose balls. He is counterproductive to any attempt to play high energy attacking football. His fitness is absolutely awful, this was particularly evident yesterday there's no way he should have finished the game, this essentially makes him a passenger in a four man midfield. His short passing is decent when he has time and space on the ball but he looks absolutely lost when the opposition are in his face which will happen more often than not this season. These factors alone make him far too easy to mark out of a Premier League game. I agree with the point he was as bad as anyone yesterday. People seem to of overlooked how poor Barton was. It's interesting when Barton has performed it has lifted the team this season but yesterday he was completely off the pace, the whole midfield was. However I think the calls for Nolan to be dropped have come from the reasons mentioned above and the fact we now have a quality alternative. It's too early to predict just how influential Ben Arfa will be but it was evident from fifteen minutes of football yesterday he will provide far more quality than Nolan. He's fitter, has better technique, vision and distribution, I don't think it’s a coincidence we looked far more threatening after his introduction. The only dimension it appears Nolan will provide over Ben Arfa is that direct threat in the box, you won't see the Frenchman being in the right place at the right time to tap it in after a brutal goal mouth scramble. On the field for me I'd drop Nolan but it remains to be seen what affect that would have off the field in terms of how the captain and influential player in the dressing room reacts and responds to his mangers decision. For me we can't worry about that. Of course a team spirit is important and we'd not be where we are without it but quality on the park is just as, if not more important and I think Ben Arfa will provide much more of it than Nolan.

Ryan Taylor is an abortion of a full back.

Barton didn't help either. He looked way off the pace. A lot of our play in previous games went through him, he gave the ball away countless times yesterday. When your midfield is being as ineffective as it was it will encourage the long ball game but for me it wasn't partiuclarly evident yesterday.

...but they weren't belting it up to Carroll all game they were just shite.

There's a difference between playing 4-5-1/4-4-1 and playing long ball football though.

I'm pretty sure this is a wind up, absolutely pointless stat.

Having finally got round to watching the game yesterday I'm now in a better position to comment. We weren't 'unlucky' we 'wouldn't of won on another day' we got everything we deserved. Absolutely nothing. The first half performance was completely unacceptable. The midfield trio of Smith, Barton and Nolan were dominated by Adam, when we got the ball the wingers were ineffective and Carroll looked completely isolated. Frankly Blackpool thoroughly deserved their lead. It was an unmotivated, effortless half that I've come to accept under previous regimes. You get in at half time the manager needs to react, change the game, give those dilly dallying a kick up the arse. However second half more of the same, another lacklustre display. It was evident it wasn't working but Hughton just waited and waited. When he finally made the changes it was too late. We bossed the final periods of the game and squandered a couple of fine chances as well as forcing a decent save out of Gilkes but where was this pressure and flair from the start? On the whole Blackpool deserved their win. This should be Smiths final game for us and in an ideal world Nolan will be axed too, whether Hughton would be in favour of dropping his newly appointed captain remains to be seen. I was expecting defeat at Everton before Saturday but I still want to see a reaction: a bit of fight and flair. Hughton will earn his money this week because those involved in the spineless display of the first seventy minutes need a serious kick up the arse.

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

No matter which way you look at it this is a poor result. It's all about how we react at Goodison, if we bend over and take a hammering I'll start to worry.