[Archived] Everton - the "Prestige Friendly"

[Salgado Is A Hero]

I'd rather King up front then on the wing for sure. I'm sure he'll have his good games but today and other times, he's looked like a slightly better Marcus Olsson.

Judge looks good though, I think that will turn out to be an astute signing.

Best was pretty effective also. You can forget that Rhodes is even on the pitch. In away games against the better teams in the league, I wouldn't want to have him as a lone striker.

[T.J.Newton]

Judge is so tiny and easy to shrug of the ball(it was actually quite cute!) wasn't terrible though, I wont judge him to much from this game, Taylor should have scored with an header early on and didn't really do much, but neither did anybody else in the team really, so cant really hold that against him alone.

[Hekla]

Kean

Kane Hanley Kilgallon Morris

Marrow Bannan

Judge Rochina Rosado

Rhodes

Try that.

[Hanks]

Hmmm.... Fulham, NUFC or Blackburn.... In that case it's a straightforward toss up!

Do you mean Heads - Fulham, Tails- Newcastle, Lands on its side and stays there- Rovers

[T.J.Newton]

To be fair, if we sign bannan then he is better than Dave Jones so we'd actually have a better CM that last season.

Very impressed with Judge again. He's been our best player in pre-season. Could be a really important player for us next season.

Wasn't good today but there are reasons to be hopeful as was proved with the substitutions we made.

I don't think Bannan alone would have improved this team much, we need a midfielder with physical presence as well as footballing ability, David Jones would be more effective all around in my opinion(Bannan and Jones would be good, but then i'm not sure you could have 2 out and out left footers alongside each other)

[Blue Cabbage]

Kean

Kane Hanley Kilgallon Morris

Marrow Bannan

Judge Rochina Rosado

Rhodes

Try that.

Cabbage likes.

[patrickvalery]

It's all well and good making noises about playing 3 attacking midfielders behind Rhodes ala a poor mans Chelsea (and on paper it looks like we actually do have the players to do that) but Bowyer has played 442 all summer. To change it now would be very difficult. The decision to change the formation should have been made weeks ago if it was going to happen. IMO of course.

[Tom]

Wasn't the goal off a Pedersen corner?

I wish more players did nothing and got assists

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Kean

Kane Hanley Kilgallon Morris

Marrow Bannan

Judge Rochina Rosado

Rhodes

Try that.

I'd swap Morris for Henley and Rosado for Taylor/Nunes.

[RevidgeBlue]

Surprised that some posters seem to be of the view that Best did well. I didn't think he showed anything worthwhile at all. That said, it was probably Rhodes' worst run out in a Rovers shirt.

You've still got to play to Rhodes goals when he's scoring, and get the best you possibly can out of him and accomodate Rochina's creativity for me. Most of the rest of the outfield players look a very ordinary bunch and Im not sure if you couldn't play any of them in any sort of formation and it wouldn't make a great deal of difference. The result would still be fairly average. I will make an exception to that and say that pairing Lowe and Marrow together in midfield goes way beyond average in the wrong direction.

On the evidence of today you wouldn't pick Lowe Marrow or King for a pub team so I hope the likes of Nunes and Rosado who in my view show a lot of potential are given a fair chance.

[RockinRover]

Oh yeah well there's that but to be honest we can't rely on Pedersen's corners or throw ins if we can't even get up the pitch for them to happen.

Everton were quite open with us today but when we're facing Championship teams who are in our face we need a centre midfield to bring us forwards and Pedersen has no place in any of the midfield, he does nothing bar set pieces.

[rovers11]

I don't think Bannan alone would have improved this team much, we need a midfielder with physical presence as well as footballing ability, David Jones would be more effective all around in my opinion(Bannan and Jones would be good, but then i'm not sure you could have 2 out and out left footers alongside each other)

I disagree. I think a player of Bannan`s quality will make a huge difference to our team. Him and Williamson in central midfield would be good.

When a technically gifted player like Dunn played in midfield for us last season it made a huge difference and think bannan would do the same.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Good support from the Everton fans today.

https://twitter.com/Northern_Rover/status/361149985431117824/photo/1

[roverandout]

words like 'excellent' and 'magnificent' have already been carted out by bowyer so far, sounds more and more like steve kean everyday.

[Hekla]

I'd swap Morris for Henley and Rosado for Taylor/Nunes.

Henley yes but he isn't fit yet. Taylor is ok and Nunes does deserve a chance too. But Rosado looks useful so I would give him a try.

[Sparky Marky]

Marrow is @#/?

Lowe is @#/?

Hanley is @#/?

Morris is @#/?

Rhodes was @#/? today

King is @#/?

O'Sullivan - this lad is different class to Marrow & Lowe

Rochina - top notch

Best - Our only Premier League standard forward

Killgallon - could turn out ok

[blueboy3333]

Bowyer on todays game:-

http://www.rovers.co.uk/news/article/an-excellent-exercise-948536.aspx

[RussP]

Wow! The usual over reaction from people who have seen nothing of pre season other than today.

Chris Taylor was the best midfielder on the park at Wrexham & Crewe so don't judge him on half a game. To me, he's probably better in the middle of the park. Judge continues to improve but needs to move wide to make way for Rochina. I saw plenty to be encouraged about at Preston but, admittedly, we were outclassed today.

For the first 20 minutes & the last 20 minutes, we competed well. Other than the obvious comments re Lowe & Marrow, the problems were 3-fold:

• You cannot carry players against this quality (ie, King). You need 11 on the pitch all trying their best.
• When Martinez went to 3-5-2, we were all over the place. Our wingers & full backs had zero idea & we were marking space. That disappointed me from a tactical perspective.
• We sat back too much. When we press high up the pitch, we look much better & 2 or 3 of our better chances came when the front players hassled their backline.

Still looking forward to Derby. Need Rochina to start & a new central midfield.

[AggyBlue]

Henley yes but he isn't fit yet. Taylor is ok and Nunes does deserve a chance too. But Rosado looks useful so I would give him a try.

That's the trouble with our squad. Too many 'useful' or 'deserve a chance' players and not enough 'shoe in's'

[Roverthechimp]

words like 'excellent' and 'magnificent' have already been carted out by bowyer so far, sounds more and more like steve kean everyday.

Referring to the opposition

He also said that our fitness looked ok (which it did compared to what i saw last season) and "We know that we have got a lot of work to do in terms of readdressing the squad..."

Read more at http://www.rovers.co.uk/news/article/an-excellent-exercise-948536.aspx#Fl46mzWdvCdsJZqi.99

Not quite steve kean

...the problems were 3-fold:

• You cannot carry players against this quality (ie, King). You need 11 on the pitch all trying their best.
• When Martinez went to 3-5-2, we were all over the place. Our wingers & full backs had zero idea & we were marking space. That disappointed me from a tactical perspective.
• We sat back too much. When we press high up the pitch, we look much better & 2 or 3 of our better chances came when the front players hassled their backline.

Pretty much this with a little bit of a reminder about defending corners...

[JAL]

His crosses were decent but we only had Rhodes in the box most of the time so they were easily cleared by Everton. I'd have him on the wing over king, Olsson, Formica and Pedersen.

Reminds me a little of Jason Wilcox. Think he'll turn out to be a fans fave.

What crosses and if its only Jordan Rhodes in the area then its him that the ball should reach. Taylor is nothing like Jason Wilcox but more as someone else pointed out Kevin Stonehouse.

[miqaayil]

Three things missed tdy and all last season

No leader in the team

No creative midfielder to string game plan

No wide man to cross to save his life

But honestly its gonna take 3 years at least to get any where near PL ....AND venkys where there watching .....

[ABBEY]

3 years ? Won't happen in my lifetime .

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Season by season as we stagnate in this league it will become nigh on impossible for a club our size to return to the Premier as the money totally dries up.

It's a depressing thought as regards our future.

[JAL]

Wow! The usual over reaction from people who have seen nothing of pre season other than today.

Chris Taylor was the best midfielder on the park at Wrexham & Crewe so don't judge him on half a game. To me, he's probably better in the middle of the park. Judge continues to improve but needs to move wide to make way for Rochina. I saw plenty to be encouraged about at Preston but, admittedly, we were outclassed today.

For the first 20 minutes & the last 20 minutes, we competed well. Other than the obvious comments re Lowe & Marrow, the problems were 3-fold:

• You cannot carry players against this quality (ie, King). You need 11 on the pitch all trying their best.
• When Martinez went to 3-5-2, we were all over the place. Our wingers & full backs had zero idea & we were marking space. That disappointed me from a tactical perspective.
• We sat back too much. When we press high up the pitch, we look much better & 2 or 3 of our better chances came when the front players hassled their backline.

Still looking forward to Derby. Need Rochina to start & a new central midfield.

Chris Taylor was the best player at Crewe and Wrexham that says it all Crewe and Wrexham .