[RedIke]

A win is a win is a win.

Blind MotM.

TFM looks the goods.

Herrera made all the difference in the world.

The kids are alright.

 

[Nogbadthebad]

Mata should play in the middle or not at all.

Blind's best game for us since he arrived, and I really like Martial/Rashford up front. They will fade in and out of games as they learn, but I want to see our team built around that pacy front line.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

What a miserable bunch. We've been playing with a much better tempo and fluidity ever since we started going with the younger set of attackers. We're not going to sweep teams aside but let's not pretend it's the same gruelling stuff we were watching a few months back.

More importantly great result. Fans feeling 'conflicted' when we get an important win I'll never understand. Need to beat Spurs though. Hard to see us doing it but if we can pull that off I'd fancy us for 4th big time.

 

[Tosicsleftpeg]

Solid win, I'll take it but we were fortunate to get that chance to go ahead as we were very stale in the attack as always.

Good performances from Martial, Mensah, Blind and Rashford. Herrera did well when he came on too.

 

[Zoo]

Everton are a good team particularly away from home but apart from a few setpieces we marshalled them well and got the 3 points we needed. The Sky commentary was disgraceful, as if we should be rolling them over four or five nil.

 

[kouroux]

I don't get this attitude that "3 points is all that matters" - we continue in this vein and we are humiliated in the champions league group stages again. We are very close to becoming a very poor version of Arsenal (at least they usually get to the knockout stages). There's no point being in the champions league if were just making up the numbers.

So, so boring

At this stage of the season, there is absolutely zero chance of seeing a nice and positive change in terms of display and performances. Therefore you can always be angry at something that won't get solved anytime soon or you can accept it for what it is and try to see the most positive aspect of things.

 

[cyberman]

Someone needs to go into the Sky studio and tell them we won.
Drop Rashford? Feck me

 

[ants7]

3 points in the bag. Kids doing great. Lukaku along with the rest of the Everton team kept fairly quiet. Not even bothered about not being attacking enough etc. Just get them points.

I'm happy.

 

[marlowe78]

Glad to get the points, though I am skeptical that we're going to be anywhere near 4th by season's end. 1st half at home was irritating as usual where we looked clueless going forward. 2nd half we had somewhat more intent but our attack was sloppy and we wasted a few good chances to put the game out of reach.

Smalling and Blind IMO were both impressive today in dealing with Lukaku and breaking up Everton's counters. I thought we would be sunk either by Smalling getting sent off or Blind being dressed down by Lukaku on a close-quarters play but neither happened. Darmian looked pretty decent to me, as well. Rojo was diabolic and I welcomed him coming off. Fosu-Mensah made a superb last-ditch play to keep it out of the net. He is shaky with the ball but to slot into CB and deliver at his age is quite impressive.

Up front, though, I thought we were once again awful. Martial won the game for us but I am getting sick of him eating dirt every time he gets taken on and not making efforts to win back the ball. He also holds onto the ball for far too long, including when he is trying to get us out of our own end of the pitch. I really thought in the last minutes of the game he was a liability for us.

I'm also sick of watching Mata shirk backwards when confronted and offering nothing defensively. He needs to be replaced by a big, sturdy winger/CF who moves through the central third with authority and can go 1 v 1 in deep positions. We also need to stop expecting Scheniderlin to play in Herrera's role when he offers more of a laid-back defensive game.

So overall, I would give us a 6. It was a pretty average performance but gets bumped up from a 5 because we won.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Looking
very
Good
for another season … HOW?
He's not managing this team to do anything more than keep his contract alive!

 

[Paul the Wolf]

Solid performance without creating too much.
Blind Martial and Fosu-Mensah best of the players
As Everton had only lost one away league match all season before today, we were very solid at the back and never looked in much danger except at the beginning of the second half

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Got the win, top 4 is very important to getting the right players in the summer and getting the squad right (I think it's close)

good win vs a team in form away from home. We could easily win all 4 of our remaining home games, have to put up a fight in the 3 away games then and we have a shout

 

[cyberman]

Looking
very
Good
for another season … HOW?
He's not managing this team to do anything more than keep his contract alive!

Hes gone ffs. Stop believeing the press dragging this out. Top 4 and a cup win and he can point to some success as he leaves.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Viz called it …

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Anyone looking at our 1000?

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

This Everton team doesn't have an ounce of fight in them. The team takes after their manager I guess.

 

[Red Stone]

One step closer to playing in the CL next season, but I refuse to get my hopes up. A win against Spurs next week will be huge, though.

 

[brewlio]

Everton are more about white boots than substance.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Is LvG morphing into Donald Trump or is it just me?

 

[mu4c_20le]

LVG saying we were the lucky team... and Everton could have scored two goals.

 

[prath92]

Everton has lost 4-0 to us over the two PL fixtures this season. Ill take that.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Their fans are classless cnuts for trying to drain out the applause for Sir Bobby at the beginning.

They can enjoy a nice trip back with another defeat.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Looking at those last 7 games we'd take them all day long in a normal season but we've struggled against what we perceive as "lower league" opposition lately and I make Peter right in what he's saying in his post match analysis!

 

[BennyBlanco]

LVG saying we were the lucky team... and Everton could have scored two goals.

He said at half time to the players, after we'd had zero shots, they needed to be more patient..
I don't even..

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Starting to like this Fosu-Mensah kid.

Also starting to like my strategy of predicting 1-nil every match.

 

[Sweet Square]

Good win.

 

[manichester]

Carrick set the snails pace in the first half much better when Ander came on also Rojo looked gassed from the beginning FM looks a very good prospect. Big Dave excellent.

 

[Offside]

What a shite way to win a game. Van Gaal is a disgrace. Top 4 can happen with this tripe but a title is out the question, ever.

But a decent win all the same

 

[amolbhatia50k]

What a shite way to win a game. Van Gaal is a disgrace. Top 4 can happen with this tripe but a title is out the question, ever.

 

[Offside]

1,000 in the league at OT. Must be a good 10 years after our 1000th in the PL which I remember well.

 

[marlowe78]

Post-match interview with Mata and Smalling. I was taken by Mata's answer after Smalling talked about their approach to the 2nd half, even though I may be reading into it too much:

 

[Tarrou]

Did anyone watch that Fergie interview that came on sky after the game? He kept calling Pep Peppy

 

[DeafMUFC]

Terrible first half, decent for 20 mins of second half where we scored with the one shot we had then after that back the normal shyte.

 

[clarkydaz]

mata looks wiped out there

 

[Winrar]

Everton has lost 4-0 to us over the two PL fixtures this season. Ill take that.

first double over everton since when?

 

[Raw]

first double over everton since when?

2007/08! 1-0 away and 2-1 at home.

Since then:
08/09 - 1-1 D away, 2-1 W home (also lost to them on penalties in the FA Cup)
09/10 - 3-0 W home, 3-1 L away
10/11 - 3-3 D away, 1-0 W home
11/12 - 1-0 W away, 4-4 D home ()
12/13 - 1-0 L away, 2-0 W home
13/14 - 1-0 L home, 2-0 L away
14/15 - 2-1 W home, 3-0 L away

 

[Livewire1974]

Good 3 points, awful performance. Our counter attacking is awful.

 

[Acole9]

Not the most exciting of games but a wins a win. We were well disciplined at the back which is good to see.

 

[foolsgold]

It's not perfect but we have clear attacking intent from Lingard, Rashford & Martial. I enjoyed watching them play together, seemingly free of the fear that infected the team early season.

Blind had a stormer, really happy with him. Carrick, not so much but its the kind of game you get at the end of a career.

TFM seems to have everything to be a star.

More positives than negatives

 

[SalfordRed1960]

Pretty consistent Utd vs Everton game. Very closely matched performance. Never really felt we were threatened by any Everton attack as our Defence had their attack in our pocket.

Carrick is worrying as he doesn't seem to recognize the need to speed up play.

Youngsters did well, but some very poor decisions or passes in last third.

Still do not believe we are that far off being a very good side. Looking forward to next season with a few new buys.

The foundation is there