FA Premier League

Everton 2:2 Manchester United

Goodison Park

Kick-off
Sat, 22 February 2025 @ 12:30pm GMT
Status

Finished

Discussion Your Lineup Prediction

  • Red Royal said:
    2 young keepers on the bench seems odd, would have rather another midfield option
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    He’s giving the board a message, that the squad is so threadbare, interestingly we have 9 players on the sick list which is identical to this time last year.

    To compete on 4 fronts you need a squad of 27/28 now Chelsea was too big at 30 but look now with loans and injuries they are struggling as well. Mudryk suspended, Felix on loan, Madwueke and Jackson injured.
    So they have Palmer, Neto, Ncunku and Sancho available.

    To compete even in 45/50 games, next season with no European Football United , the club would need 5 wing back options, one like Dalot who can play both sides and then two left and two right, Currently we have 2/3 for this position and you need 6/7 for the front three and we currently have 4 fit, we are so naive in letting 2 go out and none come in.

    Mason Mount time is up to, get him fit sell him for £30m to someone in Europe.
     
    No Garnacho, which makes sense after his terrible finishing display. He can come off the bench.

    ZZ looked good, so he plays. Can hold up the ball and do filthy things with his feet.
     
    Superunknown said:
    This is how I feel about him, too. He's a good/great sub to have when there's around 20/30 minutes to go and we need to change the dynamic of our attack.

    I feel a little bit the same way about Hojlund, too. We have problems with our starting 11 with the attacking player just not being good enough. I'd love an entire new front three.
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    Yeh. We just need to be solid in first half, then go all for it on 2nd. I'm not sure about Hojlund as "impact player" though.

    Our attacking 3 as a whole is just reflecting our current position. A struggling bottom 5 teams.

    Gabriel Djemba-Bebe said:
    I'd like him as an impact sub if we had 2019 Rashford, 2020 Cavani and Amad starting. With this current lineup, I'd prefer Garnacho starting so we can see us have a few shots in the first 60 minutes.
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    Then we have zero player to make any impact later. But ideally, I agreed with you.
    My main point was, it may not be Amorim punishing Garnacho by not starting him. There could be other reasonable reason.
     
    2 man midfield said:
    I wouldn’t mind us being defensive if we were actually solid and well drilled, but we always concede first every game :lol:
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    Maguire and MDL do not have the pace to play RA System, watch today as Everton Two CB’s outshine our 3 man Defence.
     
    Pronewbie said:
    Having 2 DMs in this system gives the wingbacks more license to go forward. It's why I like Amad as RWB.
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    The theory behind this is sound. Having Dorgu on the pitch means we have a better attacking outlet on his side. I think this current lineup hinges around a few things. One of those is Casemiro's mobility, decision making, and how he links up with Ugarte. Another factor is Bruno's ball-retention and whether his passes come off today or not. The final part is down to Hojlund and Zirkzee, with both of them getting into the game, getting into good positions, and finishing chances. Zirkzee doesn't get into the box enough and Hojlund also has a major issue with being invisible in a lot of games.

    We can win with this lineup, but it hinges around each of those three or four parts. I feel that if Bruno plays well today, we'll win. If his passes don't come off, we have very little creativity elsewhere.
     
    Casemiro is a worry for me. I think he was a fantastic player and I believe he still can be. I don't buy the age and legs argument, although acknowledging this can be a case with players as they get older.

    With Casemiro I don't see the effort. He seems to be lackadaisical with his play. Almost like he isn't interested anymore, doing the bare minimum.

    Just to be clear I don't expect him to be able run back at high speeds and challenge but I do expect him to be able to receive the ball and play it to our player. Not receive and pass to the opposition or play it at a pace that doesn't reach the intended player.
     
    NLunited said:
    No Garnacho, which makes sense after his terrible finishing display. He can come off the bench.

    ZZ looked good, so he plays. Can hold up the ball and do filthy things with his feet.
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    At least somebody is getting into positions to put the ball in the net. Let's see how many do it in this first half.
     
    RedMarcus said:
    Garnacho is the only player in our team that isn't ridiculously predictable. So angry he is on the bench. He's a highly talented player and we are forcing him out the club. Amorim and INEOS should hang their heads in shame.
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    It seems that way, they’ve clearly made the decision to sell him in the summer to the highest bidder?
     
    Roane said:
    Casemiro is a worry for me. I think he was a fantastic player and I believe he still can be. I don't buy the age and legs argument, although acknowledging this can be a case with players as they get older.

    With Casemiro I don't see the effort. He seems to be lackadaisical with his play. Almost like he isn't interested anymore, doing the bare minimum.

    Just to be clear I don't expect him to be able run back at high speeds and challenge but I do expect him to be able to receive the ball and play it to our player. Not receive and pass to the opposition or play it at a pace that doesn't reach the intended player.
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    Against Spurs he made 7 tackles and 2 interceptions. You'll be hard pressed to find someone putting in more effort than that.

    Problem is Spurs had 3 CMs and we had 2, and Bruno was going out wide to our right to press because Zirkzee wasnt bothering. Casemiro had no chance against the other 2 CMs and all that space. Its a miracle he managed to win the ball as much as he did
     
    justsomebloke said:
    Oh come on, that is way too simplistic to make any kind of meaningful argument. "Defensive midfielder" is a role Casemiro often plays, not something he IS. Generally one of our 8s is heavily involved offensively, as I am sure will be the case tiday too. Hopefully that's Casemiro - at this stage he has much more to offer in that role than as a defensive anchor. And the WBs play an offensive role whether or not the players are nominally FBs or whatever. Dorgu also has played wing quite a lot, I gather.
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    We've seen Casemrio's skillset at the highest level. It's that of a defensive midfielder. His skillset doesn't change just because you put him in a different role.

    If he's our best option at #8, that's indicative of the problems and lack of balance & quality in our side. Because it means we're playing a player who fundamentally doesn't fit the profile of a #8 in that position. And worse, it may well be the case that we're poor enough that this player who would be a DM in an actual top side is our best option in that role.

    But it's still nonsense to try and pretend an Ugarte/Casemiro isn't obviously more defensive than ideal in any side. These are two players whose careers have been built on what they do defensively, with obvious deficiencies in what they do in possession relative to other less defensive midfielders.
     
    I know I shouldn’t read into this. But Utd players didn’t look too confident at all in the tunnel
     
    RedMarcus said:
    Garnacho is the only player in our team that isn't ridiculously predictable. So angry he is on the bench. He's a highly talented player and we are forcing him out the club. Amorim and INEOS should hang their heads in shame.
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    I don't see that as being the case at all with this game. We've had to move Bruno out of the CM spot to tighten up with the midfield, so Casemiro is in. Garnacho is the impact player to come off the bench when we need something a bit different later on. We had very poor bench options in the last game when we needed to change things, so this improves on that already.

    This looks like a typical "keep things very tight for the first half and go for it in the second" type of game. Everton will be trying to start quick so going tight in the midfield is a way of nullifying that.
     
    I'll hope for the best but Everton have 4 wins and a draw from their last 6 in the league. Been in very good form since Garner returned as a starting CM

    A draw isnt what we need but its what I'll expect if we have a decent day
     
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Post-match discussion

Man of the Match

Provisional results
Bruno Fernandes image Bruno Fernandes 37% of 172 votes

Runners-up

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Player Ratings

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4.7 Total Average Rating

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Compiled from 169 ratings.
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Score Predictions

44,101,25
  • Man Utd win
  • Everton win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 29% Everton 2:0 Man Utd
  • 12% Everton 1:1 Man Utd
  • 12% Everton 1:2 Man Utd
  • 11% Everton 2:1 Man Utd
  • 8% Everton 3:0 Man Utd
  • 5% Everton 0:2 Man Utd
  • 4% Everton 3:1 Man Utd
  • 4% Everton 1:0 Man Utd
  • 4% Everton 0:1 Man Utd
  • 2% Everton 1:3 Man Utd
  • 2% Everton 2:2 Man Utd
  • 1% Everton 4:0 Man Utd
  • 1% Everton 0:4 Man Utd
  • 1% Everton 9:0 Man Utd
  • 1% Everton 0:9 Man Utd
  • 1% Everton 0:0 Man Utd
  • 1% Everton 0:3 Man Utd
  • 1% Everton 4:2 Man Utd
Compiled from 170 predictions.
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