Half a Season

I posted at the beginning of September with an opinion that by then we had assembled — at admittedly high wage and transfer cost — the best squad at Goodison for twenty years.

Put mildly, not everybody agreed with that but it was telling that my request for any alternative suggestions was met with silence.

You could forgive people for wondering what was going on at Everton between our dreadful form in the away defeat at Reading and our 'frightened men' tactics in the derby match.

I will always believe that Liverpool were there for the taking that day but we could not find the bottle to take the Hyypia gift and bury the Reds.

So that was game 10 and we sat on 13 points with 4 wins , a draw and 5 defeats.

Two things seemed to happen then.

David Moyes seemed to change his tactics , finally taking the advice that many posters on this site had been offering for months and we started to play the ball on the ground.

The other vital piece in the jigsaw was the return to fitness of Tim Cahill who 'hit the ground running' and has not stopped running or scoring since that time.

Some of the comments that were made about Yakubu on this site and others were quite unbelievable but the big guy has always been able to ignore his critics and win them over by sticking the ball in the net with a regularity that we have not seen since Gary Lineker and Bob Latchford.

Now after 19 games we sit on the 33 point mark from 10 wins and 3 draws to go along with our 6 defeats.

While three came at the hands of two of the Big Four , the other three (at Reading , Villa and Newcastle) were all quite avoidable.

Since that derby debacle we have scored 15 goals for the loss of 2 in the 4 home Premier matches and the five aways have brought 6 goals for us for the loss of 3.

I believe the belief that the squad has in Yakubu and Cahill scoring goals in every game has led to a confidence that has changed the whole 'watching Everton matches ' from something close to a chore into high spectacle.

Before sitting down to write this, I took a look at the fixtures ahead and between the visit of Arsenal on Saturday and the away game at Anfield in the last week of March. I do not see a Premier game out of the eleven on offer that we cannot expect to win.

Add to that the Oldham FA Cup Tie , Brann in the UEFA , three FA Cup ties that could be anything and two more in Europe we have a fixture list that is a long way from impossible.

I hope for something in the Carling but I suspect that Chelsea will find enough to edge us out but make no mistake if they play poorly or take us lightly we could make that final.

I offer no forecasts but I like that list of fixtures and while we will miss Yobo and Yakubu badly there are signs that the fringe players so far in the season could come into their own given a decent run in the side.

My mates in Sheffield were insistent that Jagielka is a centre back and not much more and he is busy proving them right in great style.

Stubbs should soon be fit to back him up from the bench and when Leighton Baines comes back in a month or so , he might find himself playing a bit further forward.

It is often hard to judge young players but I believe James Vaughan could be a major player in the future of our club and that just might begin to become clear to the world outside Merseyside when the Yak goes to Africa in January.

You have to feel so sorry for Leon Osman who picked up his long term injury at a time when his form was close to the best that he has ever produced but the transfer window should bring much needed cover in the mid field and if Tommy Graveson can settle into the side , we should be fine , even without the rapidly emerging Pienaar.

James McFadden remains the enigma but we look set to be offered real money for his transfer so we should soon find out what David Moyes really thinks of Faddy.

If Celtic is so keen to have James, maybe we should ask for Aidan McGeady in a straight swap.

Aidan would be a good fit on the left side of our midfield.

We reach late December with a familiar look to the Premier , as the Big Four take the places that the pundits predicted — even in the order that was forecast.

I fully expect them to stay there and our pair of matches against Man City could go some way to deciding who will finish in 5th place.

Top Six is by no means easy this season but I still harbour hopes that we can achieve that although I do not believe we are ready yet to take another fourth place unless Liverpool takes its eye off the Premier as they did a couple of seasons ago and just as they did then they can go very close to winning a sixth European Cup.

On the Blue side we will continue to call them 'bad names' but when all is said and done, it is not easy to share a city with one of the biggest, strongest football clubs in the world and David Moyes is to be commended for making a huge effort to shed his inferiority complex and stop coaching 'scared hoofball' to a squad that is showing itself to be capable of better.

I like the balance we have these days and having seen Arsenal struggle at Boro and Portsmouth recently, we need not feel any inferiority facing them at Goodison at the weekend.

There have been a few wild rumours about outward transfers but they do sound far fetched even if Cahill , Yakubu and Arteta might be targets for the BIg Four and sides abroad in the Summer.

For now they are Everton players and let's enjoy them while they are with us.

Final thought for now is that by some distance the favourites to win the UEFA Cup seem to be Bayern Munich - a side who recently drew 2-2 at home to Bolton.

Now that doesn't sound too scary, does it ?

City of Manchester Stadium in May anybody ?

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