Tim Cahill in midfield
On another fans message board I read a comment by a fan talking about the need to sell players at the right time as well as clearing out the deadwood in our squad. The obvious names mentioned; Shandy VDM, Stubbs, Hibbert, Valene and Cahill. He (or she) claimed that in our squad now of Pienar, Fernandes (if signed permanently) Carsley, Arteta, Osman then Cahill would be 6th choice in a 4.Fair point in my opinion. After all who here rates Cahill as a tackler in the same breath as Carsley, or has the passing ability of Arteta, the pace and movement of Piennar or Osman. Yes the likes of Scholes can't tackle or Flamini can't hit 60 yard passes but Cahill struggles on the traditional attributs of midfielders.
The Fan's opinion was that it would be best to sell now before he loses value sitting on the bench all the time. What it didn't mention however that despite his value to the team as a midfielder has dropped his ability to play as a striker is perfect.
Whenever the so-called experts have described Cahill this season they always mention his ability to arrive in the box late so defenders do not pick him up. These same experts also claim Arteta is still our only supply of goals (Le Tissier: how many assists did Arteta get in our 7-1 drubbing of Sunderland?).
Nowdays it is Osman and Piennar who have been doing this as Cahill has been playing as a second striker, and a very good one at that too. As a strike partner for the Yak in a 4-4-2 he is the perfect foil.
He can be a good target man as he is fantastic in the air. He has a leap that enables him to beat so many top defenders in the air and his energy and work rate does go a long way to compensating for the Yak and his workrate. (Although it could improve in the future.) In the box he is a leathal predator and is a natural poacher.
He hasn't got goals by arriving in the box late, he has done it by getting in the right position in the penalty box, especially from set pieces, and having the ability to lose his marker. He has strength, fantastic airial ability and is a natural finisher - in oter words he is the perfect striker, a poacher a fox in the box. This season he could easilly get 20 goals, if next season he plays as a striker for the most part he could make 30.
The only downside of this - it still leaves us with 5 midfielders and 3 or 4 other players who will be asked to do a job there such as Cahill himself, Faddy and Neville. We may no longer need to sign strikers for a while but we sure as hell need another midfielder or 2. Maybe the funds from selling Mcfadden could help this...
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What he does have is a brilliant knack of goalscoring. Moyes moving him to what is in effect a striking role, kind of indicates that perhaps Moyes believes he is more of a striker than a midfielder.
As our squad is improving, and we are getting more well rounded players like fernandes coming in, cahills spot as a central midfielder must look shakey at best.
The only conclusion is that cahill will be competing with johnson/vaughan/anichebe for a striking berth alongside the yak. The worry is that with so many good strikers who need 1st team action Moyes will be hard-pressed to keep squad unity(cf. spurs) without moving someone on.
It doesn?t matter that he is not the best technically gifted midfielder we have, what matters is that he delivers the goods. I think our midfield has the perfect mix of Skill (Arteta, Peinaar and Fernandes), Stability(Carsley) and Attack (Cahill).
And the argument that we might receive an extra mill if we sell him now, priceless.
As someone has mentioned earlier here, he’s got the x-factor.
Tim Cahill is a proven world class goal scoring midfielder and as such is the ONLY one of that type on our books and there are few better in the premier eague.
To suggest that he step aside shows a distinct lack of football nous.
Cahill may not have twinkling feet, nor does he have Carsleys bite yet when it comes to goal scoring he has few equals.
It really amazes & confounds me when I read people’s comments or posts on here and I have to ask myself ’have they ever watched Everton play???’
Because even though the author wasnt the one who was stupid enough to suggest selling Cahill the rest of the piece doesnt add up either!!
Whats next, post about sticking Arteta right back cos of that tackle stat on sky or whereever it was!!
However, I still stand by my statement that he is not a good midfielder. He shines when we play 4-5-1 and he is allowed more prominent, attacking role.
Whenever we have played a standard 4-4-2 with cahill in the middle he has generally become anonymous. So far this season, he has effectively been playing up front and has produced the goods.
You could argue that he is our 2nd best forward, but I wouldn’t say that he is a good midfielder.
Peter Bourke is spot on with his comments. Every team needs a balance of players (skill, graft and goals) and Tim helps give us that balance in no small measure.
To sell him would be pure lunacy, he is worth more to us on the pitch than any transfer fee.
Long may the corner flags of Goodison, and everywhere else, be boxed by The Blue Kangaroo!
Why on earth would we sell one of our best 3 players?
People try to make out like he’s a limited footballer but that is far from the case. He’s a much better footballer than Carsley, Neville and Jagielka and all of them have had some decent games in our midfield. Cahill has a decent touch and his short passing range is also decent. He keeps it simple but he’s also very positive. People like Carsley will pass backwards or sideways but Cahill always looks forward.
I’d personally like to see him alongside Fernandes in a few home games this season. think he’d revel with a ball playing midfielder alongside him. I remember when we played Charlton at home in the 05/06 season and Cahill played alongside Arteta in the middle of a four man midfield and he was class. He scored two, had one unfairly disallowed, hit the bar and his general all round play was excellent.
I don’t really care if he’s playing in a 4 or a 5 as he’s our most important player. He’s a winner and he gels everything together.
Sell him? Pfffft!
I NEVER SAID SELL CAHILL - I SAID I SAW SOMEONE MENTION THAT.
I gave one hell of a reason not to sell him - he should be our first choice centre forward.
I also meant THIS SEASON he hasn’t got his goals arriving late, the article is based on this seasons performances.
My point was that as a midfielder, especially in a 4-4-2 he does go anonomous. In a 4-5-1 he effectively becomes a striker.
These comments do come from watching him play where he scores goals and is a target, a focal point of the team. It is not the same as moving Lescott to midfield or Arteta to defence. It was noting how Cahills whole game gives him the attributes of a world class striker.
When the ACON is over next month and if we have a fully fit squad and every other midfielder is on form, where would you, if in charge, pick cahill?
He would not get in a 4 man midfield with Arteta and Piennar on the flanks, Manny and Cars in the centre. As I said before when picked in a 5 he effectively becomes a second striker in a 4-4-2.
In conclusion I wasn’t saying sell him - if people read the article they would have seen that I said that they were other someone elses words - I was saying keep him now as a striker and continue to improve the midfield
Opposing teams hate playing against him, he his on your heels one moment then in the box the next. You can not keep the kangaroo down.
When it comes to cashing in at the right time, the master of this is Wenger.
No player is too big to let go, get the maximum for is transfer. Usual just before their thirteith birthday.
A few years left for our stars.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion but how quickly some forget how ordinary we look without Timmy. I cant recall exactly but i am pretty sure last year he was rated in the top 50 players in Europe, and he is only 6th choice in an Everton midfield. Get me a bucket.
I am still in shock that an EFC supporter could even suggest such nonsense.
Then again some people still think the earth is flat. :)
I’d argue he is just as important as Arteta to our team, and all this ’he does nothing but scores goals’ and ’he’s not a midfielder’ is nonsense. He’s an excellent attacking midfielder and tracks back to hassle players and put tackles in, and he CAN pass a ball. People seem to be looking too much into this. Cahill is a midfielder, and an excellent one at that. Obviously he works best in a 5 man midfield as he is better suited to attacking, but equally he can do a job when called upon to track back. He isn’t a striker.
Selling any of our (even) good players is maddness unless we have ALREADY replaced them with a better alternative.
With regards to Cahill, in his role I would be hard pushed to find a better player in the premiership if not the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
No-one on here is disputing that Cahill is immensely effective in a 4-5-1. No-one is disputing his contribution to the team when he is given an advanced role.
It's amusing to hear comparisons with Scholes however.
If you?re going to describe an attacking midfielder as class/excellent then he needs to have good vision and the passing ability to match. He needs to be able to hold on to the ball too. Scholes was class and would not have looked out of place in any team in the world. Cahill by comparison is not.
Moyes is spot on in choosing the 4-5-1 formation for the players we have. Why? Probably because any 2 of our centre midfielders are not good enough to stand up to the better teams and hold on to the ball.
The fact that our form improved when cahill came back says as much for Cahill's goals as it does for the paucity of talent we had in CM. Neville/Jags are not midfielders.
Our midfield is improving however, and with Fernandes coming in, we are finally getting to the stage where we can sucessfully play a 4-4-2 against most teams and not suffer.
If you were to play a 4-4-2 and play Cahill in CM, he would lose much of his goalscoring threat. Question is, does his remaining contribution warrant his CM place? I would argue not. I?d prefer an essien type in there. I would however use Cahill as a forward, just off the main striker where is is a nuisance and will score plenty of goals.
You say Cahill should be employed as a supporting striker? That would seem to suggest we should be playing 4-4-2 instead of the more defensive 4-1-4-1 formation?
Excuse my French but that?s complete cack. There?s no reason to ditch a 4-1-4-1 formation at all. As far as I?m concerned, out of our midfielders, Arteta, Cahill, Pienaar and Fernandes, with Carsley sitting back, would be first choice, and Osman, much as I love the guy, is the bench midfielder to come on and bamboozle opposition defences with 20 minutes to go, much like Slick Vic. 4-1-4-1 has been working a treat this season, why ditch it?
Pienaar and Arteta on the flanks almost play forward roles in much the same way Chelsea did with Robben and Duff supporting Drogba when they first won the Premiership in 2005. Cahill and Fernandes in the middle give great middle support with Carsley (or his long-term replacement as the defensive midfielder) holding back and waiting on any counter attack.
Nice idea, but also Cahill doesn?t get enough goals to be meriting a striker?s role as that?s not his natural position. However, as an attacking midfielder his goal ratio is second to none. That?s where he should be, and that?s where Moyes will put him.
Cahill is a great player, but for me he isnt effective in a four man midfield cause he gets tied down to doing to many jobs he shouldn't be doing.
He is most effective as most people have said when he is a five man midfield(with Cahill and Carsley doing thier respective jobs) or if we were to play 4-4-2 then for me he has to play further forward just off the yak.
But I think this presents us with another big problem that all of you people have missed. Johnson? McFadden (who hopefully will be sold asap) Vik and Vaughan? How long will they sit there and wait for there first team chance? I think the yak and cahill is our strongest pairing, and it is also flexible, and johnson would be next inline, but how long will he wait?
To sell Cahill would be stupid... end of.
I had to listen to people bag Hibbert after the Arsenal game when what happened was they tried switching it to his wing, got nowhere, then reverted to hitting it down the middle where Howard, Yobo and especially Jagielka gave away goals.
A lot of people are so dug in to their anti-Hibbert positions that they can’t even bring themselves to admit when he has a good game.
Cahill can hold a ball, knock it around a bit and tackle on top of his goal poaching and aerial ability so let’s put this he can’t play rubbish to bed right now.
Also Valente is a class player and lets see how true blue Stubbsy goes the rest of the season. I’d rather have him at the back than Jagielka.
Scores regularly at international level alos and and he loves the club.
Most top sides build their teams around their top players and to talk about him not been in the team is utter nonsense.
out of all our midfielders cahill is the most influential in my opinion
he actually does take people on and win the ball a lot so go get a grip on reality mate
He scores for fun, is scared of no fucker winds oponents and away fans alike up, can pass ,head and tackle and runs forever all attributes of a quality footballer.
Put it this way apart from lescott (whom we could replace ) I would say he is our most important player and one in terms of what he does we could not replace.
He scores goals for us, he absoloutley loves everton football club just like all mad evertonians do, so please explain why it would be hard for him to get into the first 11, well hes in my team for many years to come and in years to come he is gona be an EVERTON LEGEND!!!!!
Arteta, Cahill, Carsley, Fernandes, Osman & Pienaar. One of the best midfeilds in the Premiership if you ask me
Cahill would walk into any team in the laegue. Why have we put him on a long term deal? Because Utd and a few others were rumoured to be in for him.
You have probably forgotten but the game is about putting the ball in the net and he is one of the best in the world at that from a midfield position.
He is also one of the best at harrying and chasing down an opponent.
He is class .... end of
Although this certainly seems to be the general consensus I think it is incorrect to describe it as more defensive. I haven’t bothered to trawl through all our games and what formations we played but I would happily take a spot bet for a large amount of money that we average more goals per game playing 4-5-1 than 4-4-2. The simple logic that "two up front is more attacking" just doesn’t ring true. We are a much more coherent attacking unit with five midfielders, including Cahill. What matters is the way those midfielders play, and having one midfielder (Carsley) sitting allows the other four to all attack, as well as the full backs getting forward.
Our best formation is the one striker with Cahill freed up to support him. Playing a second striker forces the midfielders, and noticeably Cahill in particular, to play more negatively. Consequently we should be looking to add numbers in midfield, as at the moment we have 7 midfielders (one of whom is Gravesen) for 5 positions, but 5 strikers for 1. This is imbalanced and needs to be fixed. We need a geniune midfielder to share Carsley’s load, and a natural left sided player.
He is an old fashioned inside forward if you ask me, and a very good one at that. The thought of selling him is madness.
I see the posters point that his game is arguably better suited to a forward role rather than midfield but I think he’s found his natural role in the hole between the two.
He get’s under people’s skin during a game, he can get into the box late and he’s not worries about having to take care of the Carsley like responsibilities that he’s not so go at.
In my opinion, keep him playing in between the midfield 4 and the front man and let him work his magic!
There is no doubt either in my mind that he does better in a 5 than a 4 man midfield and the reason is he dosen?t have to curb his attacking instincts in a 5 as he does with two ahead of him. Recently, at Chelsea he was largely anonymous until his marker was sent off and suddenly we became attack minded.
I also think the reason he and Arteta are on long term contracts, much as it pains me to suggest, has more to do with maximising their value when the big boys come calling than any plan to keep them in that event.
With the players we have it suits tiny tim perfect, and would just like to say also that cahill is NOT a striker. if he was up top with yak tiny would be picked up to easly by other defenders there for arriving late he dosnt get picked up plus he gets the space
How are we going to try to get closer to the "Big 3" if you really think we only need 4 or 5 middfileders. Man utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and even the Redshite got more than 4-5 middfileders in their team.
We nead at least 6 top middfielders if we are going to get where we wan´t!!
Do you really like to see Neville or McFadden all the time out off position to cover the middfiled when somebody get injurd og suspended or sum?
I Really don´t get people who think we don´t need more then 4-5 middfileder, 6 is mininum.
You really have to be stupid if you think Osman will get in the team instead of Cahill.
Sorry for my english, it´s not that good.
Why would any manager sell one of their top scoring players?
The only person Fernandes is likely to replace is Carsley. If Moyes retains 4-5-1 the midfield is most likely Arteta, Osman,Fernandes, Cahill, Pienaar.
Any questions?
Don’t! Play 4-5-1 instead!
the bigger question is Arteta, He should be sold before is value begins to wain. If you replace Arteta for cahill in this post that should be the real discussion us Evertonians should be having
After Saturday, he again proved his worth. He was the only player on the pitch who could receive the ball and hold it. It is very rare that he loses the ball, either by moving iit or by getting fouled.
Even when he is having a quiet season, he is still one of our best players.
Why even consider selling Cahill or Arteta when they are the heartbeat of our side?
Cahill’s winning mentality is infectious for those around him and Arteta’s ball skill are second to none.
No way in Hell should we even consider selling these two
Just look at the amount of free kicks or corners that hit the first man. For me if we can 15mill plus from one of the Spanish teams that would be a great piece of business. For some reason I just think he wants to go back to Spain...
What kind of nutcase would advocate selling the most effective player we?ve had since AK in the last half of the ?95-?96 season? Like many, I truly hope that Cahill never leaves the club. COYB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To start talking of selling one of the most creative players in europe in case he loses value is ridiculous, how do you know he’s not still improving his game. Its more likely that we now have other creative outlets and mikky doesnt feel the need to try and do it all on his own.


1 Posted 16/01/2008 at 01:41:08
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