Aquilani

[cream]

Not heard any moaning about Aquilani not being used today. It's obvious the midweek bollocks was knee-jerk reactions to us being dumped out of the champs league, fueled by Skysports and in particular Andy Gray. Some of our clueless fans are our worst enemy.

[javier_monsterano]

Should have gave him 30mins,replacing gerrard.

[Exiled_red]

We've got to give him time to get fit, after being out injured for so long, he's not ready to start yet and certainly isn't ready to start in a game as tough as the derby.

[Tatterdemalion]

he should have had more than 30 mins by now though.

[Bender]

he needs match time nothing more nothing less

[CJ]

i wonder if rafe ideally wants to introduce him to a winning team?

surely as a player who has to settle into our way of playing it would be better if we where in top form?

[-V-]

Not heard any moaning about Aquilani not being used today. It's obvious the midweek bollocks was knee-jerk reactions to us being dumped out of the champs league, fueled by Skysports and in particular Andy Gray. Some of our clueless fans are our worst enemy.

We created very little today. In an ideal world we would have given Aquilani a lot more minutes over the past month than what he has had and then we would have had the option to use him today.

I knew he had no chance of playing in a derby if he's only played about 20 minutes ffs. He should have got on the pitch for atleast half an hour against Debrecen as we were absolutely ****e

[Molby]

he needs match time nothing more nothing less

How else can you get match fit if you're not playing matches??

He needs to play.....maybe Rafa didn't want to pit him in front of Felani?

[Nicey]

i wonder if rafe ideally wants to introduce him to a winning team?

surely as a player who has to settle into our way of playing it would be better if we where in top form?

This could be a the true turning point ... Reira, Benny, Johnson, Gerrard all coming back from injury ...and fair play to Ngog hes been impressive perhaps need to release the ball a little earlier but did extremely well today I thought

[andrewces38]

We created very little today. In an ideal world we would have given Aquilani a lot more minutes over the past month than what he has had and then we would have had the option to use him today.

I knew he had no chance of playing in a derby if he's only played about 20 minutes ffs. He should have got on the pitch for atleast half an hour against Debrecen as we were absolutely ****e

That comment there puts this thread to bed I think
I think it was pretty obvious that he wasn't going to get much of a look in today ,being a rough and tumble derby I mean

[Jas]

This could be a the true turning point ... Reira, Benny, Johnson, Gerrard all coming back from injury ...and fair play to Ngog hes been impressive perhaps need to release the ball a little earlier but did extremely well today I thought

Thought Ngog did well in patches but also thought at times he looked a little lightweight to be leading the line on his own. We looked better once Dirk went up front but that could just have been a combination of getting Benni on, someone who could actually run with the ball with control and also the fact that Everton players were probably tiring. Even so regardless of the performance that was a very important 3 points today.

[Pablo]

Should have gave him 30mins,replacing gerrard.

I'm still a little annoyed he didn't replace Gerrard once we went 2 up, as he was clearly shattered.

[spanky]

i think he'll play against fiorentina and have his full debut against arsenal.

[bonzai]

I think that people are missing the point that, in addition to his many injuries, the fella has to adjust to a totally new league at the same time. I think Rafa knows that bringing an Italian, who is used to a much slower paced game, into a struggling team, could have an effect on the lad's confidence.

Lets call a spade a spade, Rafa is not going to spend the guts of £20M on a player and keep him on the bench cos he feels like it. He's playing the slow game so that when he does come in, he'll have an impact and he'll perform in the way we all want him to.

[Exiled_red]

I think that people are missing the point that, in addition to his many injuries, the fella has to adjust to a totally new league at the same time. I think Rafa knows that bringing an Italian, who is used to a much slower paced game, into a struggling team, could have an effect on the lad's confidence.

Lets call a spade a spade, Rafa is not going to spend the guts of £20M on a player and keep him on the bench cos he feels like it. He's playing the slow game so that when he does come in, he'll have an impact and he'll perform in the way we all want him to.