The Mail Bag
Tough decisions ahead
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One of the biggest problems the England team have had in recent years is the tendency of coaches to pick their best players and then try to fit them into a formation. Lampard and Gerrard do not work in the same side.
Many years ago, Wales had a glut of decent strikers. Too many times they all played.
With a fully fit, squad David Moyes faces the same problem: To be a big team one must be able to keep decent players happy on the bench. How can this be done?
Firstly there is the money option. Pay them a huge amount. Some players will be ok with that. This is an option not obviously open to Everton.
Secondly, look like winning something. In this case the players on the bench have the hope of injury offering them a medal. Not an option immediately available to Everton.
Finally have reasonably well players on the bench who can believe that if one of the first eleven is consistently poor then their chance will come. This should be Everton.
My point is that an average player in the right spot is more effective than a better player in the wrong place.
At Everton the first decision is in goal. In my view, Tim Howard is a decent goalkeeper prone to the odd error. If he was consistently poor then we should see what Mucha can do.
At right back, if Hibbert plays, which in my opinion he should, then Neville plays holding midfield or sits on the bench. As the proper club man he is, then I think he is a good player who will accept that.
Centre back? At the moment it seems to me that it should be Jagielka and Distin. That leaves Hetinga out of position in holding midfield or a quality player on the bench. Would he accept that for any of the reasons I have named? I doubt it very much.
Right midfield we have Vic or Seamus. Seamus nicks it for me and I feel for the immediate future future Vic will accept that.
Pienaar and Arteta must start so that leaves Fellaini or Rodwell for holding midfield; I'd go for Fellaini which leaves DM trying to keep one of the best prospects in the Premier League happy as sub. Will he accept that? Not if United and Chelsea make overtures.
Behind the striker? Cahill or Bily? A tough one but right now it's Cahill. Will Bily accept that? Maybe, at present, for the money.
Up front Yakubu or Saha. Not a problem at the moment. I think fitness will decide that Saha will accept limited games.
So, if Neville never plays gain in central midfield, the same for Heitinga. If Arteta and Osman never play wide right. If Fellaini never plays as a striker. Then, with a fit squad, David Moyes must restrict his often admirable loyalty and make some tough decisions.
Andy Crooks, Posted 01/11/2010 at 19:30:58
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Good assessment from Andy, again it's in a world of fully fit players.
Agree, best players in the right positions.
John's side i guess has Arteta on the right.
All this leads us back to our pre-season comments about having a bloody good squad and now Moyes hopefully learning from some positional selection errors made early doors this season.
Don't fret. This is Everton mate - there will be an injury crisis just around the corner which will solve our selection issues.
So I wouldn't mind playing a central midfield 3 with Rodwell, Arteta and Fellaini. Only problem is Cahill is in such a good form, we can't afford to drop him at the moment, even if it affects the long term of our team.
Defence speaks for itself, I would name the same defence every time at the moment. Heitinga will have trouble once Fellaini is fit.
Right wing at the moment is a tough one, but Seamus will do until Jan. Vic can play there, but it really needs to be sorted in Jan or at least the summer.
Left Pienaar is obviously gonna play there. Just hope he doesn't leave. If he does then Billy could prove his worth or maybe Gueye can push up.
Striker is Yakubu no doubt. Said it all along, because even if he doesn't play well, he's still the guy with the best attributes to play as a lone striker. I'm hoping James Vaughan or Vic can succeed him there. They certainly have the talent and attributes, but James Vaughan is still too raw and keeps on getting injured, whilst Vic is as strong as hell and great in the air, does not have the cutting edge and finishing skills like the Yak does.
Keeper is obviously Howard
Looking at the squad now, we certainly have a good spine - especially in centre backs and centre midfield. Just need strengthening on the wings.
Sorry if it's a bit off topic!
Howard in goal, Neville right back (because we are better when he plays, fact). Distin gets my vote alongside Jags at centre back, partly because Heitinga is a tosser who will be gone as soon as a better offer comes along, but mainly because he has probably been our best player this season since his nightmare against Man U.
Left back nailed on for Baines. Holding mid Fellaini with Arteta in the middle alongside. Pienaar left and either Vic or Seamus on the right (or please God Landon in a couple of months).
Cahill is playing as well as he has for a few years and has to start as the second striker and the Yak is, as others have said, our best striker at the moment.
There you go, easy. Problem for Moyes is where are Hibbert, Osman and Johnny ? Shit, think I'll have to play a few players out of position to accomodate them ......
I don't think we can let Heitinger go without a good replacement. What if one of the CB's comes up lame?
Mix and match with Rodwell. Sub him for 45 mins. with whoever is weakest at the time.
He might even fill in for Pienaar. He's the only one with the confidence to shoot from the edge of the box.
If we could only get ahead a few goals we could give Gueye some PL time. I have a feeling about him.
Is there still no real cover for LB? Hard to believe.
Is there a reason it has been removed.
Would you then play an out of form player in his correct position instead of an inform player out of position?
Howard in goal.
Neville right back
Jagielka and Disitn centre half
Baines at left back
A two of Fellaini and Rodwell
A three in front of these of Arteta, Cahill and Pienaar.
The Yak up front on his jack.
Keep this formation and when injuries occur bring in the squad players to suit but keep it constant dont move players out of position i.e Fellaini up front, Neville in midfield, Heitinga in mifdfield.
I don't get it so could someone explain what Hibbert offers? He is by far our worst player so is it just that he is a local lad? Would there be such loyalty towards him if he was from another part of the country?
The other thing it does is allow the three behind the striker to interchange and when one of those is out i think Bily might come into his own.
Rodwell is supposedly part of the future of our national team so he wont be happy if kept bench warming.
He will only improve if given a regular run and I fully agree with Tom in item 12.....unfortunately Moyes is not a chance taker and will probably only use Rodwell as a sub or forced to by injury or suspension....
He is always overlapping well and he will always give the simple ball and go.
However people seem to think because he is gash going forward he is our "worst player" I can name on one hand, or in fact one finger a full back who is as good going forward as he is defending, Ashley Cole. there is no other full back I know in the premier league who gets forward and puts in decent crosses.
Our own wingers and midfielders can't even do it and they are the supposed specialists at it but because our defender cannot do what our midfielders are also failing to do he is lambasted on here.
Here is an FB who is great going forward (since you asked). Leighton Baines.
GK - Howard
DF - Neville (until Coleman improves defensively) Distin, Jagielka and Baines.
MF - Arteta (RM), Rodwell, Fellaini, Cahill (CM's) and Pienaar (LM)
FW - The Yak
subs - Mucha, Heitinga, Saha, Osman, Bily, Coleman, Anichebe
left out - Hibbert, Beckford, Gueye
Obviously Cahill at top of CM triangle just behind the Yak and this would all change depending on Donovan and Pienaar situations. I know Arteta at RM may be a little off but hoping that he could limit the need for Neville to cross the ball seeing as he isn't the best at that!
We'll never have a fully fit squad altogether but i'd rather not see Hibbert play despite how loyal he is... I think that Heitinga has played RB befroe joining Everton too.
1 we have a very poor inept and tactically clueless ginger minger in charge..seriously, we'll never ever win anything under this man. Perhaps we might win the championship when we go down..thats gonna be a fuckin cert with no money.
2 No money equates to going down. face facts once we can't compete against the bottom feeders there is only way we are going.
3 The board need kicking straight out. No ifs and buts. The apologists are one the reasons this club as been mediocre for decades...it doesn't matter we are playing shit, hey were in the prem league..meh
4 I mean seriously..its time to clean house and that means removing the filth and shit that has kept this great club down all these years...starts with the board and ends with Moyse sacking..its simple..but if your british you might want to sit on your arse until its too late.
If theres a lot of people wanting him back in the side then maybe he's better than you think. I think he's our best riight back. I do however acknowledge that results are generally better when Nev is in the side.
A new chairman with money would be nice but you are 100% wrong about Moyes who has snapped up some absolute bargains in Arteta, Cahill, Howard, Jagielka, Lescott, Baines & Pienaar.
We were going nowhere before he joined us and have had a been consistently at the top end of the table when in the 1990's we looked dead certs for relegation.
You dont think Moyes is widely tipped as the replacement for Fergie because he's a crap manager do you?
Well in Ernie, clean house and replace everyone with?.......ermmm.........go on then! Enlighten us.
Ernie (post 21).
Your on the wrong site matey, I know LFC have issues and chatting about relegation is something new, but you sound more than capable of starting a thread about winning the league or something similar. Anyway we know you lot hate the ginger minger but he's ours so stick with woy of the rovers.
With a fully fit squad it is the only formation that gets Jack & Fellaini in the starting11.
We should be building our team around these 2.
Ian@13. You have got your tactics spot on there mate.It does exactly what you described.
But as far as them being a template for EFC to follow, I'd have to watch them thru a 38 game EPL schedule, plus play English football's various national tournaments, plus play Champions League, before I see them as a template.
La Liga, they have to exert full effort for 2 games; Real Madrid. The rest of that league is target practice.
Again, wonderful team to watch, but don't think their 12 OLE passes on the way down the pitch would last long in England before someone got his ankle broken.
Hibbert sometimes looks good when last ditch tackling but that's only because his positional play is so poor that players get round him in the first place.
If you remember Hibbert gave away the penalty in the last minute against Spurs last season. In the Clattenburg derby game, Hibbert's poor positioning allowed Liverpool to break which led to him fouling Gerrard for their equaliser. He effectively lost us the Cup Final. So yes Tony Williams, I suppose he is our best defender. Why don't you try watching a game next time he plays. He makes a lot of people inside Goodison very nervous.
He played for 45 minutes and the game was 1-1 when he went off, or are you suggesting that he should have closed down Lampard for their second from the bench.
Such ingrained hatred doesn't half make people talk rubbish.
Oh No! two penalties in 10 years, get shut quick. I mean no-one else on the team has ever done that have they?
Tell you what Alan, next time when I am at Goodison I promise to watch the game with some faux pas hatred and you watch the game with a neutral view and judge him on the actual game not one or two incidents that you cling to like a scared child to his parent's leg.
See what happens.
I am just putting my view across that I simply don't like the this manager.
I actually want us to win stuff, to be competitive, but lets look at what happened this summer.
Moyse says that this is the best squad he has had at Evertion, yet despite this and knowing we've got problems up front, he then proceeds to bring in a League One player who is clearly not up to the job for which he is signed for?
You can't for one minute think that the man has no faults. One of them is not recognizing the problem up front, the other is demanding to play in places like Australia and the US season after season, instead of trying to get friendlies against the bigger European elite.
I want what is right for Everton Football Club, not second best for which we've had to put up with for decades now.
NSNO used to mean something. I know we'll probably never win the league again until someone comes in and buys us out and tries to do a Man Shitteh... but just paddling water just isn't enough for me. We pay thousands of pounds each new campaign on season tickets at Goodison for the family, and it's hard telling the little ones, who ask me "do you think we'll ever be as big as Man U or Chelsea?" and I tell them we are bigger because we have fabulous history... then they proceed to play like terribly after telling him this.
Once a blue, always a blue ? I just want what is best for our club.
Yes he has plenty of faults but not being able to get that elusive £30m striker to put chances away is something that cannot be placed on his doorstep. That freebie was the only player we could afford.
Pre-Season has no bearing on the season itself, look at the redshite, they play quite a number of "big" teams and have only just gotten out of the bottom three.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum - Great phrase but means nowt if you don't have the "best" playing at your club.
I want a multi million pound house and Lucy Pinder, Kelly Brook and Sophie Howard as my three wives but just because I want it so bad doesn't mean that quoting a latin phrase at someone will make it happen.
Ahhhh, if only we had XI John Collinses in the team, what a great gut busting, loyal team that would be.
Yes, he is not the best right back around but he has something as it proves every time he is in that back four we look tight and secure and since he came back Distin has turned into one of the in-form centre-halves in the country.
Great teams are not necessarily teams of great players, although a sprinkling of greatness may be required to make it to the top of the heap. Indeed, it's not unknown for a team wholly made up of 'stars' to prove itself to be less than the sum of it's parts. The players are important, but no more than the manager & the sort of team he turns them into.
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1 Posted 01/11/2010 at 21:54:44
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