The Mail Bag
You Are David Moyes - in Athens
Comments (21)
With the traveling squad announced, much of the team had picked itself. Might he protect Pienaar? Gosling at right back? Hibbert in the centre? and so on...
But now the OS has thrown a boulder into the pond. Rodwell unlikely, and Distin a doubt. So what would could the likely starting line-up from this squad be?
Everton: Howard, Nash, Hibbert, Coleman, Duffy, Distin, Mustafi, Baines, Gosling, Cahill, Pienaar, Fellaini, Bilyaletdinov, Rodwell, Akpan, Baxter, Agard, Jo, Yakubu, Saha.
Time to play YADM again. And as Tiny Tim said, God Bless Us All.
Keith Glazzard, Posted 01/12/2009 at 17:03:46
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Howard
Gosling Hibbert Rodwell Baines
Cahill Pienaar Fellaini Bilyaletdinov
Yakubu Jo
Bench: Nash, Saha, Mustafi, Duffy, Baxter, Wallace, Agard
If Distin is fit I’d prefer to see Duffy or Mustafi play alongside him than Hibbo.
When we qualify for the final 32 will Neill be legible to play?
Howard
Hibbo, Mustafi, Rodwell, Baines
Pienaar, Felli, Cahill, Bily
Yak and Saha
I really don’t like the looks of that side, but its about as good as we can muster. It should be ok in attack at least with Jo to come of to replace the strickers.
I think Neil is able to play in the new year
Why Jo?
I would take the loss and send him back to city. Actually, I would play a toffee lady before Jo.
On the footy side he has no understanding of offside and on the physical side he looks like a big girl at an all night girlie party.
Thats a sure way of aggrevating the injury and fast-tracking him back to the treatment room.
If the likes of Mustafi, Baxter et all are not good enough to play, they why are they even in the squad? They need games as this is an ideal one to gain experience.
Pienaar is back and has said that he wants to play as much as he can after his injury (OS the other day) so don’t worry about him.
Mustafi and Baxter and the like are in the squad as they have potential for the future. Throwing kids in can destroy them if things go badly. We can qualify for the last 32 tonight so I would hardly call it a "ideal game to gain experience". That said if they are good enough then play them.
If and when we make it through Neill and Heitinga will be available.
As much as I think it would be good for the club to progress into the last 32, it should not be to the detriment of one of our best players.
Footballers like Pienaar want to play, but in my opinion he needs to be protected as we need him long term, not just for this game.
Baxters a good player with a lot of potential and needs games, which he’s not going to get in the Premier League at the moment.
Cahill Felli Bily
Jo Yak Saha
Attack, attack, attack!!!
I personally feel we should not be too bothered about Europe, we earn fuck all money for it and wear our over-paid under-achieving players out. I cannot even be arsed watching tonight, I will continue decorating, it's far more exciting.
Hibbert, Coleman, Duffy, Mustafi, Baines, Gosling.
One would assume that Baines, Hibbert & Gosling will definitely start with the remaining place up for grabs... Duffy is a specialist centre-half so I would hope it is he who is given the nod.
If so, would it or would it not be good to put a recognised CB pair (emphasis on pair!) in rather than Hibbo out of position looking after a debutant and an out-of-position Gosling?
However, just to point out Hibbo played at CB in BATE and had a stormer, played at CB in Benfica and had a shocker....
If we have him at RB and Baines at LB then hopefully we can stop the crosses coming in and with Rodwell in CM with Felli then hopefully we can stop them getting at the CB pair too much.
Still this is all a moo point really as we know that moyes will play goose ar RB and hibbo at CB with Duffy or Mustafi. Mustafi having played for Hamburg and is a dependable german, or Duffy who as been called up for the Northern Ireland full squad... hmm...
As for the lineup - well Distin, Rodwell and Yobo are not playing so it looks like we’ll have one of Duffy or Akpan playing with Hibbo, Gosling (who incidentally is the worst Everton player in recent memory) and Baines on the left.
Midfield will pick itself, Cahill, Pienaar, Fellaini and Bilyetdinov, with (hopefully) Yakubu & Saha up front.
I suspect Moyes will be forced to play 442, purely down to the lack of bodies available tonight.
A draw would be a great result.
Lets fuckin have em blues
We are already short of numbers and this could be a problem in a survival fight if we are in one.
Thanks all for your thoughts. YADM attempts to forecast what the starting line-up will be, not the one that you or some of our more strident posters might wish to see. I think it makes us start from where we are, rather than we wish we were. And that means assessing our players more realistically.
If the editors let me, I look forward to the YADM game next weekend.
ps - I couldn’t join in myself because, as I’m sure Shankly would have agreed, now and then some things are more important than football. At least I got back for a decent result, and will now have a glass to thank the lads.
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1 Posted 01/12/2009 at 21:41:54
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Don’t be surprised to see someone like Cahill or Fellaini come into centre back though... we all know how DM prefers to play senior players out of position ahead of chancing the youngsters.