The Mail Bag
Going for broke?
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After the bitter disappointment of defeat in Lisbon ended our Europa dreams, Evertonians’ thoughts have inevitably turned to the remaining league fixtures and what can be achieved between now and the end of the season.
At first glance, the league table doesn’t make encouraging reading – the Blues are in 10th place and 11 points off an automatic Europa spot in 5th. However, with the Carling Cup meaning 6th place guarantees a Europa spot and an FA Cup win for either Spurs, Villa or Chelsea opening the door to the team who finishes 7th, then all is obviously not lost.
Everton have 11 games left and a possible 33 points up for grabs. Nine wins from the last 11 may mean a European place is ours again. Moreover, there are away games at teams in the European mix (City, Birmingham and Villa). From the team point of view, we have Jagielka back, Arteta moving into form, and Cahill retuning soon. Obviously losing Fellaini is a big blow and it may be necessary to move Heitinga into the holding midfield position now, rather than rely on Jack Rodwell.
My main point is that there’s nothing now to lose for Moyes — it’s time to be positive and go on the offensive Clearly draws are going to be no good — we need wins from most if not all of our games. Better to lose 3-2 by going for it than draw 0-0 with no adventure.
The question is: Will Moyes adopt a positive approach and go for broke? – Or will he settle back and play it tight and hope to nick the odd goal to win games? I hope the experience in Lisbon will make him wary of sending out the team to contain the opposition and instead adopt a more positive approach. We can but hope...
Colin O'Keeffe, Posted 05/03/2010 at 10:48:57
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We go for it, lose as many as we win and finnish a couple of points off of Europe. ’If only we could have turned a couple loses into draws’ we will say.
We don’t go for it and finnish many points off of Europe. ’Why didn’t we go for it?’ we will say.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t; the Everton way...
By the way, I’m optimistically pessimistic about our chances next season.
It’s simply not going to materialise as they are both right-sided fullbacks (unless itis an emergency).
It will be either/ or with Distin; and probably Heitinga in the holding role.
Talk up attack and goalscoring all you like (there must be a place for it in the game I suppose) but in my time from Labone, Lyons, Ratty, Watson and many a more, there were very few more important members of our teams. And they heaped abuse on any of their fellow professionals that let the side down by inferior defending.
I would love to see Coleman blossom before our eyes - maybe he will - but DM isn’t going to put his captain on the bench for that purpose.
We won’t just go for broke - experiment and never mind the consequences - because, quite rightly, the manager regards every game as an important game|*. I wish he would use the last half hour as a lab, rather than the 15 minutes he tends to - but wishing isn’t going to change him.
*The BATE game was the only one I know where he put ’the kids’ out. And he announced to us, more or less, if you haven’t bought your ticket yet, you don’t have to.
As a left-footer myself, I am acutely aware of the one-sided bias of the English game (and many another nation to boot - if you see what I mean).
But given that most people are right-sided, Jagielka and Heitinga are masters in the art of reading the play. They are unlikely to be caught out by someone switching from right to left - as Bily can with ease - and leaving them for dead. There are class players in the world who can do this, but both of them are class defenders. The heart of our dream team.
Fellaini or Rodwell in front of them creates a wonderful triangle that only the very best can pass or dribble through.
Fans do prefer that, and especially with our season the way it is, it's got to be the way to go now.
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1 Posted 05/03/2010 at 12:17:20
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For me this means Coleman for Neville for the rest of the season, and it also means Rodwell as a direct replacement for Fellaini allowing the Heitinga-Jagielka axis to develop.
Even if we don’t achieve European qualification with this this season it stands us in much better stead for next season, at no real loss or risk.
I’m not sure Moyes sees it this way though, I wish he’d realise that fans are much more forgiving of an attacking team than a defensive one.
"Better to lose 3-2 by going for it than draw 0-0 with no adventure."
This isn’t technically true of course (in terms of points) but over two games if we win one 3-2 and lose one 2-3 then we are better off points wise and far better off in terms of morale, excitement etc. This is what Moyes needs to realise above all else.