Everton (A) 3pm Saturday 2nd March (not on TV)

Lukerz

A lot is made of Areola doing his job, making saves. The reason of course we bought him & play him as our number 1.

A lot of the saves he makes are long-range efforts, I’d call that good defending too.

A good penalty save (not crucial, as we went 1-0 down anyway) & a key save at 1-0 were the main moments in the game. I didn’t think they had any other obvious chances other than those (plus the goal).

buffybegood

Lukerz said:

A lot is made of Areola doing his job, making saves. The reason of course we bought him & play him as our number 1.

A lot of the saves he makes are long-range efforts, I’d call that good defending too.

A good penalty save (not crucial, as we went 1-0 down anyway) & a key save at 1-0 were the main moments in the game. I didn’t think they had any other obvious chances other than those (plus the goal).

Off the top of my head (gonna watch the highlights shortly) he also made a decent save early on from well inside the box when Beto was slipped in (Zouma gave him way too much room). Not sure you can dismiss the penalty save "as we went 1-0 down anyway".

But yes, a valid point that the defending was restricting a lot of their shots to long range efforts.

Slacker

Pretty much a Moyes classic performance I thought. Soak it up and catch ‘em napping.

IronHerb

Lukerz said:

A lot is made of Areola doing his job, making saves. The reason of course we bought him & play him as our number 1.

A lot of the saves he makes are long-range efforts, I’d call that good defending too.

A good penalty save (not crucial, as we went 1-0 down anyway) & a key save at 1-0 were the main moments in the game. I didn’t think they had any other obvious chances other than those (plus the goal).

5 saves from inside the penalty area yesterday.

thornburyiron

One point blank which he held

buffybegood

Having watched the highlights I've got to say that Mavropanos really didn't look great. I know he shouldn't be seen as a first choice starter, but he doesn't exactly inspire confidence. He gave Beto far too much room for their goal, and gave the ball away cheaply a few times.

Zouma could easily have been responsible for 2 goals for Everton yesterday, and can in no way be relied on next season given the way his mobility has deteriorated, and Ogbonna is past his sell by date as well; he's just too slow, especially if we expect Emerson to provide width high up on the left.

That only leaves Aguerd, who is basically too weak in the air for a Moyes side although might be good enough under another manager.

For an ex-CB, and given the way he sets us up, I'm amazed that Moyes allowed us to reach a situation where we could do with 4 new CBs this summer, especially as we've bought a CB in each of the last 3 summer transfer windows. Mavropanos, despite his performances, will stay as an expensive 4th choice, and we should at least get enough money back on Aguerd, should he go, to fund a replacement, but surely we have to trump up for 2 new CBs even if he stays.

Bazshuayi

Aeola's save from ONeill point blank basically was totaally impressive. I for one was grateful for the 13points he got too. FPL say he made 9 saves, thats pretty high and obviously some of them were tougher than others. The ONeill one definitely the stand out (and the pen save from admittedly a pretty poor pen effort)

PrestonHammer

The save from O'Neill was quite outrageous, I had to rewind it a couple of times. He seemed to anticipate it and smother it at the same.

chicagohammer

I was impressed with the one that he tipped over the bar at full stretch following a wicked deflection,

buffybegood

chicagohammer said:

I was impressed with the one that he tipped over the bar at full stretch following a wicked deflection,

Must admit I was sure that was going in.

IronHerb

After watching the highlights I was very impressed how quickly Areola got to the corner to join the Soucek goal celebration and how close the ball was to going in when Soucek cleared off the line.

Very impressive.

Lukerz

The worry for us now is that, as we’ve seen, Paqueta is so crucial to our side that we need to now be thinking how we replace him. We know he was wanted by City last summer, we know he now has an active release clause this summer. I am not sure who is the best option to replace him but hopeful the club have identified a few options.

Not winning a single game since he was injured v two wins out of two & 7 goals since his return.

claretandbluesky

I had not heard about the release clause, do we know what it states?

PrestonHammer

I think it was reported last summer as £85 million pounds.

MunichHammer

But all that means is that he may talk to a team that offers at least those 85m. If there were more teams interested in signing him, then we could possibly have a bidding war 😏

IronHerb

He certainly is an influence but he was pretty average on Saturday so I don’t put the win down to him.

claretandbluesky

If he refused to stay I would consider 85m a very reasonable sum for him.

Bazshuayi

It is a decent profit for him. However, it'll be be a case of us scouting someone with potential at a low cost or finding someone of a similar calibre for I'd assume a lot of money. Also, persuading someone in thst bracket to actually come to us may be the hardest task (so it could be emphasis on the former option)

Slacker

I would’ve thought him moving to City could turn out all wrong for him, unless Pep is planning a big shake up this summer. Currently I can’t see how how he would get anywhere near playing in that side.

Oh yeah, money.
Silly me.

IronHerb

Slacker said:

I would’ve thought him moving to City could turn out all wrong for him, unless Pep is planning a big shake up this summer. Currently I can’t see how how he would get anywhere near playing in that side.

Oh yeah, money.
Silly me.

He'll replace Bernardo Silva.

ASLEFshrugged

IronHerb said:

Slacker said:

I would’ve thought him moving to City could turn out all wrong for him, unless Pep is planning a big shake up this summer. Currently I can’t see how how he would get anywhere near playing in that side.

Oh yeah, money.
Silly me.

He'll replace Bernardo Silva.

Silva signed a 3-year contract extension in the summer with a £50m release clause despite offers from PSG, Barcelona and Saudi Arabia

In December he said he'd like to return to Benfica but their record transfer was £38m for Enzo Fernandez in 2022 and they're not if the best financial condition so he might have to wait until his contract expires

Bazshuayi

He could also play when KDB gets injured again