Match Review
Wayne Rooney has, of course, dominated the limelight this week with his 18th birthday on Friday. He got the present he was looking for from David Moyes with a starting role alongside Kevin Campbell at Villa Park. Elsewhere, injuries to Lee Carsley and Steve Watson forced the manager to shuffle the midfield, handing Li Tie his first start of the season and restoring Tobias Linderoth alongside Thomas Gravesen. Alan Stubbs, who returned to full training during the week, had to be content with a place on the bench as David Weir lined up alongside Joseph Yobo.
Everton's best effort of the first half came around the 20-minute mark when Kevin Campbell rose to connect with a corner but planted a great header agonisingly against the post. The Blues' striker had another close effort on the half-hour mark when he curled a left-footed effort just over the bar.
With 35 minutes gone, the home side rattled the woodwork themselves when Pete Whittingham drove a log-range shot against the base of the post and to safety as far as Everton were concerned. Indeed, Villa finished the half the stronger side but the Everton defence held firm with the help of poor finishing by Juan Pablo Angel.
0-0 at half time.
Despite Villa taking the game to them in the opening stages of the first half, Everton were rarely troubled by a series of corners and long-range shots, in particular by Thomas Hitzlsperger. However, Moyes's side were offering precious little at the other end of the pitch, with Rooney unable to create any magic at all.
Around the hour mark, Duncan Ferguson was thrown into the action at the expense of Campbell, pitting him against Dion Dublin, who was being employed in defence by David O'Leary. erhaps the pacier Francis Jeffers would have been a better option to ruffle the feathers of the largely untested Villa defence.
With Li Tie fading with 10 minutes left, Stubbs was introduced to central midfield as a substitute. However, while both sides carried their own small momentum into the closing stages, neither side showed any real signs of stealing all three points and the game petered out to a boring 0-0 final score.
Aston Villa 3-2 Everton
2003-04 Match Reports Index
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Everton's overall form coming into this match, indeed, the team's form since the beginning of 2003, has been hardly stellar, and puts us barely above the bottom three overall.
Somehow, David Moyes has to start rekindling some of the enthusiasm and never-say-die attitude mixed in hopefully with just a few more basic skill that brought the team so many marginal victories last season. Otherwise, there seems to be little that can stop Everton sinking ever more deeply into the morass of mediocrity that comprises the lower two-thirds of the Premiership.
Well, thank God this one is not on television. The live cameras have not bee kind to us so far this season, with one point from five televised games and that coming from the embarrassingly cringe-worthy display against Southampton.
Moyes clearly needs to shake things up changing the team is all he can really do in the hope of finding some combination that functions together a little better than what we have seen in recent games Leeds apart.
Rooney to start? Surely he has to be given a leading role, but how about putting him on in that deeper position, hopefully giving him some room to play and control the game. A direct swap for Gravesen would be suitably radical but, I daresay, too radical for Mr Moyes, who is starting to show just a few too many conservative celtic traits that were to prove so maddening under the previous regime.
Is Stubbs really fit enough to return? Perhaps a place on the subs bench, but how does Moyes choose between Naysmith and Unsworth for that left-back slot? Naysmith should combine better with McFadden down the left, as are Hibbert and Watson on the right combnations that should be seeing us cutting balls back into the area from deep positions. But this only seems to work for us if we play it on the ground after winning possession at the back, and we are quick on the breakaway. Can't we play Radz and Franny upfront and give our ponderous attacks some pace?
It was good at least to see Martyn throwing the ball short a couple of times last week and at least giving us the opportunity to build. I expect him to keep his place, although Davie does seem to rate Wright very highly.
Villa have dispensed with the services of Turkish Agent Provocateur, Alpay, so he won't be tormenting our Wayne... Apart from that, I don't have much idea about them.
I'm a one-team man, me!
Michael Kenrick
Report
Well, we didn't lose; Dion Bloody Dublin didn't score (all those corners near the end were making me nervous...), and it was a slight improvement on the last two games. However, it was ultimately frustrating as Villa were poor and there for the taking if only we had even the slightest cutting edge but we never really looked like scoring all day.
We were listening to 606 on the coach home. Alan Green was inviting people to phone in and tell him how much Rooney stank today (and a couple of Villa fans duly obliged). A bit harsh that as he was starved of any decent service and had to drop deep to try and make things happen. The only way we were going to score was if Rooney beat 4 defenders for a wondergoal, which he can't do every week.
Given the dearth of creativity in midfield, surely Moyes now has to experiment with pulling Wayne back into the role he plays for England for at least a game or two. He's the only one in that team with real vision and creative ability so how can we utilise him properly if he's reliant on service from a non-existent midfield sorely lacking in those departments? He came on against Boro at home last year and played that role to good effect and he's done it for England too.
Most 'disappointing' of all today was the Walter-esque substitution, when, as we all waited for McFadden or Jeffers to come on to go for the kill with 15 minutes or so, Moyes takes off Li Tie and brings on Stubbs?!?! Is a point against a lower mid-table side like Villa the sum of our ambition for the season?
Anyway, the ratings:
In short, the major plus points were another clean sheet and the performances of Yobo and Linderoth but we've got serious problems in midfield (as we all know) and this was not an away point to get excited about.
Andy Wilson
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