The match against QPR should be an easy one to call.  Everton fighting for Europe, QPR almost certainly down.  We put the teams onto paper to try and assess how the match should go.  Knowing Harry Redknapp though, it’s very unlikely to be as easy as it looks.

Julio Cesar V Tim Howard

Cesar has been keeping Rob Green out of the nets and looked to be an inspired signing from Inter Milan.  The goalie was one of the standout players earlier in the season for QPR, but has recently looked a bit shaky.  On his day though he is excellent, although QPR fans seem to have the view that he is a bit of a mercenary.  Does he really care about his club? His performance at Everton could show his true feelings and whether he wants another payday at another club.

Howard pulled off some outstanding saves against Spurs and showed what he can do when needed.  Like Cesar, he is prone to the odd error and could be classed as one of those at fault for the Spurs goal having let Adebayor’s 35 second strike go through his legs.

Cesar 8 Howard 8

Jose Bosingwa V Seamus Coleman

Speaking of mercenaries and along comes Jose Bosingwa.  When he first signed for Chelsea he looked excellent, striding down the wings at pace and providing good ammunition for the strikers.  He looks a shadow of his former self though and the fall out with Redknapp just after he joined showed what kind of footballer he is.  He is past it and he doesn’t care.  Big pay day combined with poor performances and bad attitude equals unhappy QPR fans

Coleman on the other hand gets better and better (Spurs aside).  He roams down that right hand side, head down on a mission.  He is so direct, sometimes you want to tell him to pick his head up and look at options, then he ends up getting in a much better position than you thought he ever could and produces a decent pass/cross and you are put back in your place.  Coleman is potentially our most improved player this year and it’s amazing what a run of games can do for fitness and confidence

Bosingwa 6 V Coleman 8

Christopher Samba V Sylvain Distin

Chris Samba is a best of a man.  He is a giant defender who is as strong as an Ox.  After leaving Russia in the winter, Samba has taken time to settle in to a struggling rangers team and not surprisingly he has found it tough.  He is an excellent defender, but it is probably the best time to play against him due to the apparent lack of cohesion.  In the game he could be tremendous and keep us out single handedly or he could have a shocker.  In time he will prove a very good signing (if on extraordinary money).

Distin is a man coming towards the end of his career.  At 35 he is probably still one of the fittest in the Everton team and surprisingly one of the fastest too.  He is Mr Dependable, he rarely makes a mistake and he is generally very sturdy, especially against quick attackers.

Samba (normally 8.5) this season 7.5 (or less) V Distin 8

Clint Hill v Phil Jagielka

Clint Hill is a scouser.  He gives 100% everytime and in a way he reminds me of outgoing Everton captain Phil Neville.  He isn’t the best player or the best defender, but he has the right kind of mettle to help out in QPR’s situation.  He is a battler and tries his best all the time.  He is probably surrounded by the wrong kinds of players.  If there were 11 Clint Hills in that side, then QPR probably wouldn’t be relegated.  Unfortunately for them there aren’t.

Jagielka is most likely going to be the Everton captain next year once Neville has departed Everton shores.  He is a solid defender, a good leader and a top man.  He can’t pass for toffee though and put under pressure he basically just launches it. But he’s a defender and that’s what solid defenders have always done.

Hill 6.5 Jagielka 8

Armand Traore V Leighton Baines

In his younger days at Arsenal, Armand Traore looked like a real talent.  He looked like he could trouble Gael Clichy’s place in the first team at the time.  It has never really happened for him in the Premier League though and again, he looks far from a world beater at QPR.  He will probably do fantastic in the Championship next season and try and find his feet again.

Baines has been off form of late culminating in prancing out the way of Kyle Walker for the Spurs equaliser on Sunday, that said he is top of the key passes/assists table in Europe.  Is he that good? Yes. He has everything pace, work rate, engine, passing, crossing and shooting. He wouldn’t look out of place in any team in the world but he needs to find his form again as QPR won’t be an easy match, despite league table standings.

Traore 6.5 Baines 9

Andros Townsend V Marouanne Fellaini

On-loan from Spurs, Andros Townsend has played onloan at 9 different clubs already. He looks a player though.  Maybe not good enough to be a regular at Spurs he looks to have the class that will be comfortable in the premier league and would potentially be a good signing for Everton if Spurs ever looked to cash in.  He has some skills and some pace and will be a tricky opponent.  I rate Townsend, he’s decent.

Fellaini will be hungry having missed nearly a month of first team football due to internationals and missing 2 games for reaching 10 yellow cards.  Fellaini is starting to get the acclaim that he has deserved in his time at Everton.  In his first season he scored 10 goals but picked up a bucket load of yellow cards which the media seemed to notice more than the goals.  He was only 21 and Moyes then moved him into defensive midfield which meant he went a little unnoticed.  During this season Moyes has played Fellaini as a number 10 and he is dangerous.  The big man has good strength, great footwork and he rarely loses the ball.  He is a very good player.  He should dominate this midfield.

Townsend 8 V Fellaini 9

Jermaine Jenas V Leon Osman

Jermaine Jenas was a player that has been linked with Everton for years.  Thankfully we have never bought the lad.  No offence to him, but he just isn’t very good (anymore).  Redknapp normally does well with signings, but I don’t know what he was thinking of bringing in the injury prone QPR. I feel a little sorry for their fans, overpaid prima donnas, not deserving of the badge.  Jenas should be destroyed by Fellaini.

Osman gets a lot of stick from opposing fans as they don’t think he is that good.  He isn’t amazing, but he is a very good technical player.  His England call up was well overdue and deserved.  He doesn’t have pace or strength, but he reads the game well, technically is superb and he pops up with important goals.  Provided that M’bia doesn’t snap him in two, he should do well in this match.

Jenas 4 V Osman 7.5

Stephane Mbia V Darron Gibson

Mercenary you say? M’bia you say? How can he afford to feed his family in England.  Stephane M’bia, the man that Everton fans were gutted about missing out on when he signed for Marseille.  The man who is in it for the money.  The man that QPR fans really aren’t impressed with.  Every time I have seen him he looks like a red card waiting to happen.  He doesn’t look to have a footballing brain.  QPR fans may disagree with me.  They may love him.  But I doubt it.  He should be suited to the PL, he isn’t.

Irishman Gibson is one of the most underrated players at Everton.  Very strange that; considering he is another to come from the Sir Alex Ferguson stable of Premier League players.  He is composed, he reads the game well and he can thread passes through the eye of a needle. Gibbo is the type of player that Mark Hughes should have been looking at before deciding to waste millions on overpaid hype.  Gibson is a winner. Gibson is class.

M’bia 7 Gibson 8

Junior Hoilett V Steven Pienaar

Junior Hoilett ripped us a new arsehole with Blackburn last season.  He terrorised us on the wings in a poor Blackburn team.  He looked a proper player.  Hughes got hold of him and he just doesn’t looked to have settled.  He is another of the wrong player at the wrong time type of scenarios.  Last year he looked to have almost everything. Great close control, great speed, great skill and goals.  This year on the few times I’ve seen him he looks like a slightly weaker Leon Osman. Injuries and loss of form are probably to blame and next year im sure he will come of age.  This game may be a little to early for him though.

Pienaar like Fellaini has missed the last 2 games, so he will be hungry to make amends after missing against his old club Spurs at the weekend.  He is kind of similar to Hoilett in the fact that he is slight of build, skilful and quick.  The difference is though that Pienaar has consistently performed in the Premier league and has transformed the left hand side of the Everton team.  Although quite quiet of late, I expect the Baines-Pienaar combination to rip through the QPR right side like a hot knife through butter.

Hoilett 7.5 Pienaar 8

Loic Remy V Victor Anichebe

Spurs next signing Loic Remy could have been a Hawwy Wedknapp masterstroke and single handedly saved QPR from relegation.  He has kept his side of the bargain, but unfortunately the rest of the team have been that poor that his shoulders just weren’t big enough.  He looks a goalscorer since coming in from France on big money in the winter window.  He will be playing Premier League football next season.  Not at QPR unfortunately.  He is the touch of class that could have kept the rangers up.

Anichebe put in a man of the match performance against Spurs.  The change around in his performances over the last 18 months have been remarkable.  He looks like a poor mans Drogba.  He is playing with that much strength that he could possibly make Chris Samba look like Osman too.  His target man play is coming on leaps and bounds and everything seems to be sticking or finding a blue shirt.  It’s great.  He is becoming an old fashioned number 9…… Something Everton fans love.  I expect him to score against QPR.  He is due one.

Remy 9 Anichebe 8

Adel Taraabt V Kevin Mirallas

Adel Taraabt is a puzzle, in a mystery in an enigma.  I don’t know if I would laugh or cry if he was at Everton.  He has skills to pay the bills, but he has the footballing brain of a dead chicken sometimes.  He would probably look amazing in a team that isn’t fighting relegation or a foreign team.  He can win you the game in an instant or he can lose you the game in an instant.  There probably isn’t any inbetween.  Again, QPR fans may feel different.

Super, Super Kev, Super, Super Kev, Super, Super Kev, Super Kev Mirallas.  Goodison Park has a new favourite and it comes in the guise of Kevin Mirallas.  The man with the pace and skill of a winger and the finishing of a top striker that Everton fans have craved since David Moyes took over.  If only we had looked at wingers in the first 8 seasons of his reign we could have been some team.  Mirallas is the one player that Everton fans look forward to touching the ball. The Belgium as the potential to do great things at Everton, we just have to keep him fit.  I look forward to seeing him one on one against Clint Hill.

Taraabt 7.5 Mirallas 8.5

Total

QPR – 78.5 – Everton  – 90

Although on paper this looks like a no brainer, teams under Redknapp are quite hard to predict.  Like with Taraabt, there probably isn’t any inbetween.  QPR will either dominate us or be dominated.  This is a game we should be winning to keep up our progress ahead of some tough away fixtures to Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.   If we can get Baines and Pienaar combining, I fully expect us to dominate Bosingwa aslong as M’bia doesn’t snap someone first.

As always the 12^th man at Goodison, the crowd could play their part.  Phil Neville could step into the breach for the first time since announcing he is leaving the club.  He is likely to get a great reception.  Could the shoe be back in contention after his outing with the reserves and could Jelavic find his shooting boots?