COLUMNIST JOHN HOLMES

So far, so Moyes

By John Holmes :  16/09/2007 :  Comments (9) :

With the preliminaries finished with, first international break behind us, and transfer window closed, we are now entering the season proper. A glance at the league table suggests we go into it from a solid base; 6th place, 10 points. A second glance will highlight, that given three of our closet rivals from last season (Spurs, Bolton and Reading) populate the bottom six, this is nothing to be sniffed at after a summer which could have seen some power shifts in football or, more likely, a series of false dawns for the ever-hopeful/delusional fans of City, Liverpool and Newcastle. In fact, for anyone wanting to stereotype teams, yesterday?s results were ample firepower: Liverpool ? too much rotation; Spurs ? classy but can?t defend; Arsenal ? very classy but waste too many chances to win the league; and Everton ? effective but prone to being painfully average

It might be unfair to assess Everton on yesterday?s performance. After all, we were playing the champions and, despite what some would have you believe, the lack of a predator does not mean they are ?there for the taking?; it just means you?ve got a better chance of stopping them scoring from open play, which we did. They still have a miserly defence and a world-class midfield. Yet, the characteristics of Everton were there for all to see. Combative, tight, solid as a unit and quick to close-down as individuals, the defensive aspects were as resolute as ever (barring Hibbert?s increasingly consistent poor positioning). Up-front Johnson and Yakubu were full of movement, kept the defenders on their toes but looked starved of chances to put the ball in the net. That of course brings you to Everton?s Achilles heel ? the midfield.

The stadium debate rumbles on in the background, the FA continues to tacitly condone Ronaldo?s persistent diving, Spurs ponder where a summer?s spending went and Everton still lack creativity, pace and drive in their midfield. You?d be forgiven for wondering whether we were still in September 2006. Those three missing qualities will torment us for as long as they are insufficiently supplied. We cannot counter-attack without someone to carry the ball out, we cannot outplay teams if the only player who can trouble a well-organised defence is Arteta and we cannot break out of over-crowded midfields without someone to act as a human battering ram. The greatest frustration is that, in some measure, Fernandes embodied these qualities but slipped away.

So Moyes?s game-plan will continue ? keep it tight, bypass the midfield and let the strikers hold it up for runners to come into play as they see fit. If all else fails, bank on grabbing something from a set-piece. In his defence, it?s the game-plan which has taken us forward over the past 5 years. Perhaps the return of Cahill and Gravesen from their differing exiles will be the catalyst to a new brand of Moyes-ball. Certainly the presence of Baines down the left and, one can only hope, restoration of Neville to right-back would give us ample full-back support should the manager see fit to play a midfield of Arteta, Cahill, Carsley/Jagielka and Gravesen/Pineaar. Whilst the team would still lack pace there would at least be a driving force and creativity to the midfield and a will to load the penalty area with more than just the strikers.

It?s the lack of an effective 2007-08 game-plan which scars Everton?s team at the moment. Pineaar comes in, looks impressive, but then departs, presumably due to defensive considerations, for the terminally average Osman. Jagielka, Neville, Carsley and Hibbert rotate the right-back and defensive midfield roles, yet effectiveness in the position seemingly offers little guidance for who will be picked next. Thankfully Moyes seems to have settled on a strike partnership and agreed with every sane Evertonian that Lescott and Yobo are by far the best centre-back pairing at the club. With Baines looking like he?s been prowling the Everton left for years, that?s three defenders out of four sorted at least.

All is certainly not dark at Goodison. It?s been a mixed start but we are witnessing what is very much a prototype 2007-08 Everton at this time. Partly through injuries to key players, partly due to sluggish activity in the transfer market, Moyes has not really got his team to click into gear this season nor has he cleared in his own mind what his best team is, where his men perform best or how to mould his new signings into a coherent unit, but they?re performing well enough to keep the points counter ticking over. With the Uefa Cup campaign beginning on Thursday, the hope is that the prototype?s weaknesses can be papered over for just a little longer whilst the decisions are made and returns from injury enforce a certain structure to the team as Cahill demands selection.

A quick word on the midweek star. McFadden is capable of moments of magic but sadly he is also capable, far more consistently, of 89 minutes of headless chickening, blind-alley running and anonymity. He is not the answer to Everton?s midfield worries, nor is he an adequate replacement for the off-form Johnson. In my opinion, he is barely Premier League quality. That is not to say he wouldn?t have a successful, even glittering, career in a less frenetic and physical league, but the Premier League is simply too fast, too strong and too close for his particular brand of football. Those who point to his classy finish against Blackburn are missing the fact that for the remainder of the game he was utterly ineffectual; a hindrance to the team who repeatedly gave the ball away and indulged his blinkered footballing mentality ad finitum.

One day he may mature and stop trying to out-dribble every man on the pitch without beating the first, he may learn to look up and read the game like the skilful forward he promised to be, but until then he deserves little more than a bit-part role; thrown on when the chips are down in the hope that it?ll be one of his special days. He?s a man for the moment not for the match.

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