THE Derby

[natsdad]

There's only one and this is it. Everton v Liverpool, a chance for the Blues to kickstart their season. A chance for the Reds to rub our noses in it. Reds are pretty resounding favourites for this one. Gerrard needs 1 goal for 100, Keane is due to break his duck, Torres only has 1 so far... looks bad for Everton. Will Flibs be flinging cracks about lemons at me in a few hours..? Time will tell. I have to believe in my boys. 2-1 to Everton. Come on you Blueboys!!!!

[stepgen]

Originally Posted by natsdad

There's only one and this is it. Everton v Liverpool, a chance for the Blues to kickstart their season. A chance for the Reds to rub our noses in it. Reds are pretty resounding favourites for this one. Gerrard needs 1 goal for 100, Keane is due to break his duck, Torres only has 1 so far... looks bad for Everton. Will Flibs be flinging cracks about lemons at me in a few hours..? Time will tell. I have to believe in my boys. 2-1 to Everton. Come on you Blueboys!!!!

Oh i thought you were going to talk about Derby County or the horse race, not a agme against two 2nd place teams

[natsdad]

I was gonna come on and post after 10 minutes when it was already obvious what sort of performance we were going to get from Mike Riley. A referee with no bollocks. Maybe if he'd had the stones to give a penalty for Skrtel's 'challenge' on Yakubu inside the first 10 we would've seen a different game. But we probably would've missed a penalty anyway. What was just as telling was as the ball was cleared upfield by Reina after that challenge Mr Riley gave a freekick against Torres for backing in. A total joke, a safe freekick to give.
I'm not complaining about the result. Liverpool were better than Everton in every department and deserved to win. But in future if Riley is given another derby to officiate i may not even bother to watch, such was his impact on the game. And as someone who lives and breathes football, has lived in Liverpool all my life and am named after 3 former Everton players that admission shows how disgracefully inadequate Mike Riley is as a referee. He killed this game. Even the 'strong' decision to send off Cahill (rightly or wrongly but after a few viewings it looks another bad decision) came at a safe time when the game was already over. Surely the Premiership can appoint a referee with a modicum of insight into the game? A referee prepared to let silly infringements go and thus allow the game to flow. I suppose Riley was an improvement on 'I'll do yer family' Clattenburg, but only marginally.

Anyway, congrats to Liverpool and Torres in particular. A player i've always admired for not deserting his beloved Atletico at the first sniff of a few quid, who earned his move to a more successful club by paying his dues to his boyhood heroes. I'm sure Liverpool will eventually find the right striker to play alongside him but i don't think it's Keane, Kuyt looks better than him. Gerrard also seemed strangely subdued today but didn't need to perform any Captain Marvel feats. Maybe this finally is the season that the Reds challenge for the title again, i don't know. I still think they're too inconsistent but you never know.
I'm off to the park with my kids to score the winner for the Blues.

[blacksun]

I agree with u completely Mike Riley was shocking in the Utd V Chelsea game last weekend so is rewarded with this huge game, thankfully liverpool didnt allow his terrible performance to stop us winning a game we deserved with 2 great finishes by Torres but denied him a perfectly good hatrick when kuyt did no more than stand his ground against Lescott.

As for Gerrard I thought he was excellent in midfield today without as U say needing to perform his captain marvel goalscoring feats, he dominated the midfield where he and Alonso were outnumbered until Riley made another shocking decision sending off Cahill for a yellow card offence.

[FlibbleS]

A lesson in football for the Blue half of merseyside, as you've all said already we were deserved winners and there was only one team who looked capable of creating goalscoring chances.

Completely agree with the assessment of Mike Riley, he had a shocker and doesn't look Premiership standard (and never has). I thought 'the Yak' ran into Skrtel although he did flick out his shoulder which one week will see him come unstuck, but the rate at which Everton players where falling to the ground was a joke, and this after Johnson has left lol. After seeing Cahills tackle it wasn't a straight red, a yellow would have sufficed.

Everton don't look good enough for a top 8 at the moment and they should start a shake up by getting rid of dead wood such as Neville and Hibbert. Osman was anonymous, Cahill like a headless chicken and the Yak spending half his time on the floor.

Liverpool still look short of a serious title challenge, the only thing missing for me is a winger like Ashley Young who can consistently beat players and deliver a good ball into the box, although Riera has impressed so far. As for Gerrard, I actual;ly thought he had a good game taking into consideration the fact he usually goes missing in the big Prem games, I thought he was the standout player in the midfield for either team.

So after seeing the Gooners humbled by the mighty Hull, it's looking like it may be a slightly more open Premiership this season, here's hoping

[natsdad]

Can't disagree with either of those assessments apart from my view of the Skrtel/Yak collision being a bit more blue than Flibs. I'll look again tonight but i thought he went completely out of his way to make contact. But Yak definitely took his theme for the rest of the game from that and as you say fell over all afternoon. The way we (and every other premiership team) fall over to win freekicks is down to the poor standard of refereeing in general. They know what they have to do to win freekicks and they do it. I actually think Arteta is the worst we have. He has a crafty knack of anticipating a challenge and putting himself between tackler and ball to win fouls. It's crap but it's todays game sadly. I think AJ was very badly done to by the press, he got the reputation and refs allowed some ridiculous fouls on him over the last two years because of that. Gerrard is no angel either, throwing the Robert Pires copywritten leg out as he goes down making sure of good contact.
It looks like a long season for bluenoses, Thursday night could either make or break us. We still have basically a decent side and when Pienaar returns (please god soon)and the new signings bed in we should be okay but if we can't turn it round on Thursday in Liege i think our battered confidence will take some repairing. If we do get the result we need, and i honestly believe we're good enough to win there, it might just give us the lift and the time we need to mount another serious assault on the UEFA Cup we should've won last year.
Onwards and Upwards..?

[FlibbleS]

Liege should b a close game for yous on Thurs, I'd have them as favourites as they have home advantage and have two away goals, so the variables are in their favour. Should be a good game though, I enjoyed watching the last encounter and it was just a shame Everton had to ruin it by snatching a draw

One last thing to be mentioned from yesterdays action would be Rob Styles' bizarre yet predictable decision to award the mancs a penatly when a Ronaldo went down in the box after a great tackle by J Lloyd Samuel. On first viewing it looks another poxy decision to go their way (and is) but Styles should now be dropped from the Prem as this is just one of his catalogue of high-profile gaffes. The fact he always has a smug look on his face doesnt help the situations either.

[fryd]

If anyone is following Everton and knows how the players who are not in te starting lineup are doing in the club I am very interested in knowing how Lars Jacobsen are doing in the club - is he anywhere near the the starting lineup?

[natsdad]

Originally Posted by fryd

If anyone is following Everton and knows how the players who are not in te starting lineup are doing in the club I am very interested in knowing how Lars Jacobsen are doing in the club - is he anywhere near the the starting lineup?

He injured his shoulder badly in a pre-season friendly, will be out til Christmas at least i think.

[welshy77]

Originally Posted by natsdad

He injured his shoulder badly in a pre-season friendly, will be out til Christmas at least i think.

And by judging evertons form they will be in the relegation zone