I thought it was a fascinating game.
Ancellotti said beforehand that when he was manager at Real, he never mentioned Messi before the El Classico as he didn't want to frighten his players. yesterday though he must have mentioned our wide players because they were doubled up on every time they received the ball. It also meant though that Coleman and Digne rarely got forward which meant the lump up top hardly got any service as it often comes from there full backs.
I thought Ancelloti's plan was good, although turning Everton into a kind of Wimbledon would not have gone done well with the Everton faithful. They never really threatened us though, a couple of half chances and that was it and like all the best teams we found a way to win. What a season Gundogan is having, I think only two players have scored 20 goals from midfield in a season, Lampard and Yaya, Gundo is in with a chance with matching those two, that would be POTY stuff that.
Everton did look physically out on there feet in the last 10 minutes, we let the ball do the work, there players did the work. It has to be so tiring to be constantly moving across and then back and then across again as we pass it looking for an opportunity. The introductions of the subs were spot on because we had tired them out.
How i wish we had a 24 year old Fernandinho, he is a magnificent footballer, obviously at his age he cant play every game and Rodri is proving to be a good replacement, but Fernandinho has an edge to him, he enjoys doing the dirty work, the water carrier role as it was called when Deschamps did it for that brilliant French team.
We weren't at our very best, but we still had more than enough and now we are i think 11 wins from winning the lot. No doubt we will fuck it up though :))