Every week, the ECHO gets the views of an Everton FC fan to gauge the feeling among supporters of the week that’s been and the week ahead.
This week, we speak to Peter McPartland of The Everton Podcast about the Blues’ disappointment against Tottenham and Hull, as well as Manchester City and the Europa League.
The Blues have taken one point from a possible six this week. Where has it gone wrong?
It’s been a couple of things of for me. Having older players in key areas has really hurt us especially with us missing James McCarthy’s energy. The other is Roberto Martinez’s inability to change style and be a little more flexible when it’s needed. Sometimes we need to be more defensive and at others we need to go long, especially as that’s how we scored against Hull.
Do you agree with Roberto Martinez when he says the race for fourth is still on?
The league is wide open but if it’s going to happen it needs to happen now otherwise we will just get stuck in mid table mediocrity, which isn’t fun for anyone especially the club as attendances will start to drop off.
How would you set the team up v Man City? And how on earth do you stop Sergio Aguero?
With limited resources I’d set up similar to the Hull game but hopefully if we have either McCarthy or Steven Naismith back that could add some much needed energy and aggression in the midfield. If we set up as open as we’ve been we’ll be turned over so I’d like to see us play on the break especially with Romelu Lukaku and Kevin Mirallas in such good form together.
Aguero? God knows, just got to hope he has an off day.
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Prediction time. How do you see the game at City going?
It’s going to be a very tough game and with a fully fit squad I’d fancy us to get something but I think this will be another disappointing day for the Blues.
Any other business?
Against Krasnodar, I’d pretty much start the U21 team that started this week against Sunderland with the added additions of Luke Garbutt and Christian Atsu.
With so many games on the horizon it could be a key game for the likes of Arouna Kone, Bryan Oviedo and definitely Joel Robles!