The Mail Bag
Here we go again...
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Forget the hype, forget the optimism, forget CL ? we are clearly not good enough ? end of.
Our balance is all wrong, we our lob-sided, we have got options on the left, we have options in the middle, but we have no options at all on the right hand side.
All teams know that closing down Arteta will lead to an Everton team playing hoofball from the poorest passers in the Premier League, namely Jagielka , Hibbert or Neville.
We have been sussed out very early on by the league's most physical sides who normally can't put two passes together but have shown how easy it is to outplay Everton with it's multitude of craftsmen ? wait until any of the Top 6 get to us.
Moyes still hasn?t got a clue what his best team is and, more important, what formation he needs to adopt to get the best out of them (see my Article written yesterday).
Selection dilemmas:
FB - Neville or Hibbert or Coleman
DM - Heitinga or Fellaini or Rodwell
Hole - Cahill or Bilyaletdinov or Rodwell
CF - Saha or Beckford or Yakubu
RW - Osman or Pinnear
Clearly there are so many options with so little time to sort out.
Another result like today?s or last week?s at Blackburn at Villa next week and you?ll start to hear comments about lack of confidence , players not prepared due to World Cup etc etc and bingo ? here we go again as the poorest starters in the league.
Mike Oates, Posted 21/08/2010 at 21:09:39
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Whilst I understand the frustration, I think your response is an over-reaction. Let's show a little bit of patience. Barring two daft cock-ups we would have had four points and been saying what a solid start.
In 1984-85 we lost our first two games and won the league! We do have the best squad in many years and can play some sublime stuff. The team needs our support not a hammering from us after two games.
Have you been taking drugs or are just taking the piss?
Have you ever watched Villa, Celtic or Leicester they are all fucking awful to watch. All O'Neill's teams are 'softer' versions of the stuff Sam Allardyce has his teams playing.
Tony J #1: to me there doesn't look like there's a goal in the side, we desparately need a consistant goal scorer, and a player that chips in 10+ from midfield (Donovan?) wouldn't go amiss either.
They may know all there is to know about the defensive side of the game yet sod all about the attacking side.
Who for instance could an up and coming striker look to for advice.
In my honest opinion, we are too weak were it matters, central midfield.
If you look at Chelsea with a 4 - 3 - 3 formation, Lampard, Essien and Mikel, and swap them for Heitinga, Rodwell and Fellaini, to me we look evenly matched.
With their back four including Terry and Cole, our back four including Jagielka and Coleman, again there's a common feel about it.
Substitute Drogba for Saha, then there's only the wide positions to contemplate.
Pienaar or Bily or Osman for Malouda, Anelka, doesn't seem to work.
Maybe Gueye, Anichebe, Beckford, might be nearer.
The point I'm making, and will probably get slaughtered for saying it, is we need to play without Arteta, Pienaar, Osman, Cahill, Bily, because they're not strong enough collectivelly to win us a title or trophy.
Man Utd play with Carrick and Fletcher, even the Shite when they looked like they may do something played with Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano,
Arsenal haven't looked like winning a title since they started playing with skillful but fragile midfielders.
Rodders, Felli, Johnny, is the answer ? our new holy trinity!
Build the rest of the team arround them and we won't go far wrong.
What were we thinking of? Have we got a striker that can score 25-plus goals a year? Have we got full backs that can get to the deadball line and make precision crosses? Have we got a manager who can play his best team on the day and make match-changing substitutions? Have we got a team that can counter attack with speed and accuracy?
The answer is .... No!
Can someone explain to me why Fellaini was on the bench today? He is picked for the first game although obviously still a long way off his best form and it seems like DM will play him into top form, but next game he`s on the bench.... complete madness!!
Why does one of England's best young players sit on the bench while tried and tested players (read Osman) get abundant playing time?
Why is Heitinga not playing in the back four as he does for the World Cup finalists?
No excuses now, DM, everyone is fit... SORT IT OUT FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!!!!
"Not good enough - end of."
What are we supposed to do? Give up ?
"poorest passers in the Premier League"
Slight over-reaction ? Even for the players you mention.
"wait until any of the Top 6 get to us."
So we should just be wetting ourselves in case we get caned?
"so many options with so little time to sort out."
It's the 22nd August FFS! It's hardly begun!
"the poorest starters in the league "
Ask West Ham or Wigan (GD= -10).
FFS MIke get a grip of yourself! Football is about ups and downs, but if anyone believed your sentiments they may as well give up and take their ball home.
Believe.
And Osman bollocks to you, you made a horrible backpass that almost put Hibbert into trouble AGAIN!!!
Hibbert for right back and Coleman for right wing. Osman only for central midfield role. Get your act together, Moyes.
Score goals, you youngsters. We love leaping up and down.
It's obvious (after just two games) no team can put the clamps on us.
Put it in the net sons. We'll handle the rest.
Clearly going to be a big year for EFC. Indisputedly going to be a big year. Just get the kicking it over the goal line part down. Which the boys will.
I don't think teams worry about being caught on the break against us because how often do we see a great Everton goal on the counter attack?
No money probably means no more players coming in before the window shuts although, as I'm writing, I can't think of any quick wingers available that I would want us to sign anyway.
Also, if Moyes cannot find space for some of his luvvies like Heitinga and Neville, then they should remain on the bench, not be played in midfield, especially at home against shite like them yesterday. Five in midfield can be very attack-minded if done correctly but, with Neville or Heitinga there, it becomes too defensive.
The holding role should be for Fellaini and it is about time he let Rodwell off the leash. My midfield at Villa would be Pienaar, Fellaini, Rodwell, Cahill and Arteta wide right.
I also think EFC were relying on West Ham buying the Yak to fund a new front man. If you look at our front men they are simply not up for it. Saha ? injury prone & a bit dated. Anichebe ? simply not good enough. Vaughan ? injury prone.
Yakubu ? Has never really got back to full potential since his last injury.
But we are buy into your hype? The negative one that is.
Ligthen up, it's still August.
"Fellaini is left on the bench because he is fasting".
If true, is there any chance the big topped Belgian can talk Yakubu into doing the same?
James Flynn,
"We outplayed two teams"
"It's obvious (after just two games) no team can put the clamps on us"
You been hitting the pipe hard this last week? Don't know what the results were in the prettified parallel universe you've been partying in, but back in the real world Everton have just been comfortably 'clamped' by two of the more workmanlike teams the Premier league has to offer.
I agree on all the knee jerk reaction, but it has to be asked why Moyes dropped the players he did, only to bring them on to try to change the game in our favour?
Why not try Gueye? Why not go 4-4-2 and if Cahill has to sacrificed with 20-30 mins to go then so be it.
And for all the criticism of Osman etc, and discussion on the tackle, it was categorically Saha who stupidly lost the ball when he had a pass out to the left. That let them back into the game.
Paul Gladwell (15) agree with that midfield for now, think we're also lacking a bit of pace as well so maybe give Gueye a run out at some point. Shift Heitinga back into defence and give Coleman a run out at the back. Need young hungry players in the side to shake things up at the moment
r scared of us! They know if they come to goodison open they will be made to look very poor! In the smith days teams would come to goodison thinking well get something! Now there made up with a point! Even the almighty red shite came last season and defended! Wer goin places but it takes time if u are gonna be negative then don't follow everton because you help no one!
But anyway I am not slagging Heitinga, I think he is a great player..... In the back four where he played in his World Cup final and there is no way in my eyes he should be picked in the middle ahead of Fellaini and Rodwell like yesterday, as when Fellaini plays he takes the ball off the back four preventing Jags to play hoof ball and Heitinga never did this yesterday enough and there is no need to have such a defensive minded player in the middle when you are also only playing one up front, against a team hell bent on not attacking.
Alls I am saying is Moyes has a group of players in Distin,Cahill,Neville etc who will always play even if it means them playing out of position and when their form is shite.
I have been to both games and it seems with a full strength squad he is struggling to have some balls and his two team selections have been terrible, Osman out wide was a disgrace and just fuels the boo boys on his back and breaking up our most potent weapon on the left to cater for Bily was garbage too.
We could start with one point after five games!
The point is after 2 games you can't tell what the League Table is going to be like come early May 2011. One of the great things about Football is that it is very difficult to predict exactly what is going to happen. We have made a slow start - but if we had won both games so far with goals to spare it would mean that we would have 6 points. It would not guarantee a successful season.
I used the eaxmples of 1984-85 & 1993-94 to show that. In the first of those seasons we had a very poor start, to what was one of the most successful seasons in Everton's history.In the second we won our opening 3 games and actually topped the League - but we only just avoided relegation. You can't tell after so few games, so to say that the doom mongers are over reacting would I think be an understatement.
Moyes needs his best combination and I agree about Arteta on the right for now at least, Paul Gladwell
Howard
Hibbert Jags Heitinga Baines
Rodwell Fellaini
Arteta Pienaar
Cahill
Saha
subs Beckford, Yak, Distin, Coleman, Mucha, Bily, Osman
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I was hoping that if there was one good thing to come out of our first two results...then it would be that the unbridled optimists...developed a modicum of restraint.
Clearly not.
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1 Posted 21/08/2010 at 23:41:32
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There was nothing wrong with the line-up today, only the performances.