Everton vs West Ham - Player Ratings

At long last we have a big of fight! A little bit of spirit and desire to score. I wanted to see this at Hull, against Stoke and against Southampton. Yes, okay I'll concede we still didn't win and certain things need to improve but we brought the losing run to a halt and we have given ourselves a way out. It's now where we will see if the players are willing to fight their form on a weekly basis and with that there is no bigger test than Saturday's game against Man.City.

Joel Robles- 6.5- Better performance from Joel, he controlled his area fairly well perhaps could have organised his defenders for their goal but certainly an improvement from previous games. He also looked a little more confident in himself. The passion he shown when Lukaku scored was good to see, he wants to play and wants to do well we can see that now. He still has a way to go to be our number one keeper.

Seamus Coleman- 6.5 - Another slightly better performance from Coleman. His runs were more assertive and he tried to be more positive. I still believe that with Naismith and Mirallas acting as attacking forwards and not right and left midfielders respectively, it makes it difficult for Coleman to make that link as he did last season.

Phil Jagielka- 5.5- Jags is still one of the players that played with his head firmly on the floor, his whole body language was down beat and negative, even his post match interview he was looking at his feet as he answered the questions. As much as it might be tough on the captain he has to set the standards and lead the way. Anything he does its a sure thing that other players will pick up on it. Jagielka's overall performance against West Hame didn't set the world alight but he did ok and certainly had a better game than he did at hull. Still that's an improvement.

Sylvain Distin- 5.5- Distin didn't do anything considerably different to what Jagielka did, his position in play had improved considerably to previous weeks but I'd have thought it should have been him marking James Collins who scored the Hammers goal. He looked refreshed but still slow to turn and reacted to situations instead of being proactive.

Bryan Oviedo- 6.5- Honestly I think Bryan's determination has been massively refreshing to both the fans and his team. He has given us pace, natural width and some fight - he just wants to do well. He is positive on the ball and looks to take us forward. Oviedo had a decent game and I think he was one of few that gave his all against Hull the week previous. For me Baines has to be under serious pressure to keep his place in the side, both from Oviedo and Garbutt. Credit to Oviedo for continuing his efforts and setting up Lukaku's equaliser.

Muhamed Besic- 6.5-That's the most positive 6.5 I've given. Mo is another one of our players that will to fight until the game is done. He has a natural fight within him and that will go a long way and is recieved well by us fans. His technical game was much improved against West Ham as he looked to play more cutting passes into Lukaku and through gaps in their defence. Besic keeps improving and he has potential to be a future captain at Everton if he learns the English game correctly.

Gareth Barry- 5.5- I've been critical of Barry and rightly so, I think he went hiding against West Ham and in a way that isn't a bad thing for the team. He was a lot less relied upon on the ball by the team. I personally feel Barry could do with a rest from the team and the replay next Tuesday could be an ideal opportunity for that.

Ross Barkley- 6- Not a bad performance by Barkley, but I just want him to lift his head up and pass the ball. Ross makes these driving runs at the oppositions defence and gets us to where we need to be, unfortunately when he gets to that point his decision making isn't quite there. I feel instead of going on to beat 1 or 2 more players he could make a through pass or play it wide to the wing, instead he often gets caught on the ball and that hard work he did to get us up the pitch comes to nothing. It sounds a simple solution, but one I feel will benefit him massively as and all round footballer.

Steven Naismith- 6.5- I can't praise Naismith's commitment enough. Through all these bad performances he has been Mr.consistent and given everything he can to the game. Although his efforts have been so far in vain, when the team do become good (hopefully sooner rather than later) he'll still be doing what he has so far. Another good effort from Naismith and his runs around the box helped Lukaku get into the game as much as he did.

Kevin Mirallas- 6.5- I seen glimpses of Kev's form on its way back against the Hammers on Tuesday, he made driving runs and is similar to Naismith in that he gives everything to the cause. I feel he ran his wing for most of the games and tried to aid Coleman in getting forward as much as he could, obviously without going missing up front. He works very hard for little credit at times and he is starting to run into some form i'm sure.

Romelu Lukaku- 7- Nobody has been a bigger critic of Lukaku's than myself, I've said he isn't worth his £28mil that we paid and even compared him of later to Yakubu. For all that, if Lukaku can play like he did against West Ham and gives us the effort he did, he's worth every penny we paid and Yakubu isn't a scratch on him! He never gave up and we've missed that for weeks. We haven't seen that Lukaku since Wolfsburg away. Hopefully he can carry it in for us now.

Let's not get carried away we drew, but all we asked as fans during the Hull game was a sign our players where up for the fight and yesterday gave us a small indication they were and are capable of getting themselves through this tough run. We CAN get something against City.