ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Wingers

Why, when we are crying out for some width in our team, are two recognised wingers in Martin Petrov (who is joining City for £4.7M) and Wilhelmsson (who looks like he will join Bolton on loan for a season) not on our radar?

Moyes must have scouts and agents talking to him about these players and they are within our tight financial criteria. Why have we need been involved, we are a bigger team than both City and Bolton and we have Europe to offer them. I really believe we have no money to sign anyone. It is making our once proud club a total and utter embarrassment.
Mike Kenendy, London Posted 26/07/2007 at 13:04:57

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Richard
1 Posted 26/07/2007 at 14:55:01

Pienaar, Van Der Meyde, Arteta, McFadden & Osman can all play on the wing.... how many more do you want?

Also we don’t play with an out and out target man so a lot of the benefit of playing with flying wingers hitting the byline would be null and void.

Moyes style is to keep it tight across the middle and use pressue to create and then pace up front to exploit any opportunities

Ben Chambers
2 Posted 26/07/2007 at 15:07:00

Here Here,

couldnt have put it better myself Richard!

Pienaar is a Winger and I assume when Vogel signs (See skysports.com) Arteta will deffo be staying outwide at his devestating best! (I FUCKIN LOVE HIM, HE’A A GENIUS!!!)

plus shandy and Mcfadden, I’d say we are ok for width!

Get smithy in and Baines along with Vogel and it is agreat summers work by Moyesey!!

COYB!!!!!!

Steve Claringbold
3 Posted 26/07/2007 at 15:16:35

Back to the same desperation of people wanting to sign players for the club.

Maybe Moyes has looked at them, maybe he didn’t see them fitting into the squad, maybe he thinks this is an area that he doesn’t need to fill at the moment.

We don’t know what he’s thinking so we shouldn’t even try to presume.

Ray Hughes
4 Posted 26/07/2007 at 15:28:17

McFadden and Osman are not wide players and never will be. McFadden is a striker, he has admitted so himself even though he will probably never establish himself there at Everton..Osman has been played on the wide right of midfield and it was that sole reason that Moyes kept up the pursuit of Simon Davies for so long if you remember..Ossie is neat and tidy but he will never be a winger or wide midfielder as they say..Van Der Meyder?. Well I think I will leave that one with the question mark next to it.. That to me leaves only Arteta and Pienaar.. That makes only TWO.. Maybe it depends if you want to play square pegs in round holes but havent we done that enough in years gone by?

Steve Claringbold
5 Posted 26/07/2007 at 15:41:05

The reason Pienaar has been brought in is to bring the best out of AVDM, the two have linked up together a few times now and know each others style of play.

So it really will be a case of wait and see if they click and gel like they have before.

BLUE SHAUN COOK
6 Posted 26/07/2007 at 15:56:48

MANNY MANNY MANNY MANNY

Andy
7 Posted 26/07/2007 at 16:01:07

I agree with Ben C - get in Smith(get rid of Beattie) & Baines, seal the Vogel deal and Moyes has had a really good summer.
I know we’ve been quite slow to get going this summer and a few people on this website started to bitch & moan but I don’t honestly feel we’ve missed out on anybody who could have done really well for us barring Fernandes and he is still at Benfica so fingers crossed he still might one day be a Toffeeman again.

Dan Mckie
8 Posted 26/07/2007 at 16:52:34

I too dont think we need to add wingers to what we have and I also think that Beattie and VDM should be given a chance to prove themselves from the beginning of the season (dont laugh),I think both their heads went down last season but have shown real desire to drag themselves back which must have been especially hard for Beattie having been taken over by a couple of kids! COYB

Connor Rohrer
9 Posted 26/07/2007 at 16:59:49

I have heard that Man city could be signing Manuel Fernandes. The same person who said they where going to get Petrov told me.

Dominic Fitzpatrick
10 Posted 26/07/2007 at 17:08:13

You all have valid points, but I will have to side with Richard here.

Leon Osman is not a winger, neither is James McFadden. The only natural out and out winger at the club is Andy van der Meyde and even he is played out of position on the left.

I trust David Moyes, don’t get me wrong, but you can’t help but wonder why he has never invested in a out and out left sided winger, it makes for very narrow play and hardly any width. With the likes of James Beattie crying out for decent service from both flanks, its a tad frustrating.

Paul Rowlands
11 Posted 26/07/2007 at 17:24:43

I agree with mike, i rate both players, particularly petrov, if moyes was to play with wingers it would be players like him we need and not the likes of osman and mcfadden.

Franny Porter
12 Posted 26/07/2007 at 17:48:03

I have to agrre with Mike Im afraid.

I hear Maradona is off his life support machine and is available on a Bosman, also Pele has got over his erection problems and is rumoured to be making a comeback!

Come on Moyes get a fucking grip! Where is your scouting setup right now? Legoland? World of Leather? Middle Earth?

John Holmes
13 Posted 26/07/2007 at 18:34:26

Mike, what’s going on? I mean you missed plenty of wingers that have been signed this summer that "should have been on Everton’s radar". As others have said, has it not crossed your mind that Moyes looked at them, decided they weren’t right for the job or the price and turned away>

George
14 Posted 26/07/2007 at 18:22:58

C’mon guys, I think too many of you have been re-reading your "Roy of th Rovers" comics circa 1978. It now seems appropiate to call for a winger(or two) just as it was appropiate six-months previously to call for a midfield enforcer(justifiable, and somewhat pacified by the loaning of Fernandes) as it was six months previously to that to call for a natural goalscorer (also justified and addressed by the signature of Johnson).

However, don’t get any illusions that suggest that the purchase of a winger will add another missing peice to the jigsaw-it won’t.

All we really need to do is to attenuate such requirements from LW to LM- preferably of the ilk of Arteta, but naturally left footed and Hopefully we’ve found that with Pienaar.

As I’ve mentioned before, in this prozone day and age the traditional winger is becoming dangerously out of fashion (just look a Chelsea’s predicament). Where every player is expected to make collective offensive and defensive contribution to the game, wingers who very rarely track back due to the very nature of their position are often found lacking.

Place two wingers in a four man-field and unless you have two superb CM’s-like Viera (in his peak) and Essien, then any competent premiership team is going to overun your midfield. Good wingers can be like trump cards, players that can shift the entire direction of the game when things need chaging-their no the staple of any team as you could say a decent CM would be.

That is why there has been an emergence in the 4-3-3 formation as of late. It allows wingers to virtually act as second-strikers, the offensive tendecies un-inhibited by defensive duties. But, that also requires a good three-man midfield to operate effectively.(but when was the last time Moyes was advetourous enough to use such formation...the 4-3 victory over Derby County 2001/02)

I know alot of you have fond memories of the hycion day’s of the 80’s where Sharp used to feed off the service of Sheedy and Steven,somewhat dissatisfied by some of our performances last season, you would hope that such case scenario could be duplicated by Mssrs. Beattie and Van der Meyde this season. It may well happen, but not often.

What is more pressing is to aleviate the creative burden on Arteta. Sometimes it is embarrassing how unimaginative we look in the absence of Mikel and someone with the same creative presence needed (FERNANDES!!!) far more than a winger.

Ben Chambers
15 Posted 26/07/2007 at 19:56:51

I agree with Blue Shaun now.

He put plain and simple.

MANNY MANNY MANNY GET FUCKING MANNY!!!!!

albert velthuijsen
16 Posted 26/07/2007 at 20:11:35

MANNY MANNY MANNY GET FUCKING MANNY AND DO IT RIGHT NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Nick Veitch
17 Posted 26/07/2007 at 23:04:52

"All we really need to do is to attenuate such requirements from LW to LM- preferably of the ilk of Arteta, but naturally left footed and Hopefully we?ve found that with Pienaar."

From what I read, Pienaar is right-footed. Can anyone clarify this? If this is the case, I still believe we are in desparate need of a left-footed midfielder. We’ve been quite weak down that side for a while now. (when it becomes apparent during a match, Moyes tends to change Arteta to the left. It’s obvious though that his best work is done down the right.)

Nick Whitham
18 Posted 26/07/2007 at 23:51:43

Pienaar is a right sided midfielder. That is his preffable position.

Ste
19 Posted 26/07/2007 at 23:54:02

Nick Pienaar is indeed right footed and i think his preferred pos is centre mid and i will give Manny £50 a fortnight outta me giro if he comes back! anybody else wanna contribute?

George
20 Posted 26/07/2007 at 23:56:11

My apologies, I originally had the impression that he was left-footed. In such case that does still leaves a bit of a predicament. We haven’t had a predominantly left-footed MF since Kilbane left. Arteta can play on the left but as mentioned by Nick Veitch he’s best suited on the right. Osman also spent a large portion on the left-with mixed results. I guess what Moyes is aiming for is to have a midfield that are inter-changable with one another. Though, for the overall balance of the team it would be preferable to have a natural left footer on the left.

JoeF
21 Posted 27/07/2007 at 01:39:04

We dont need wingers, Duncan Ferguson has left the pitch.

Paul Lowrie
22 Posted 27/07/2007 at 12:52:56

I think our scouts did a good job as far as Petrov is concerned. He?s really quick and plays one or two exceptionally good games a season but he also shoots from ridiculously tight angles when strikers are free in the box and runs head down to the corner flag without realising that the white lines mean you cant play beyond them. I quite like him as it goes, but mainly cos he doesn’t play for my team, so watching him scorch down the wing beating two or three defenders before wasting a good chance is quite enjoyable. The main reason not to risk signing him though is that he missed the majority of last season with torn crucial ligament and there?s a good chance he?ll never get back to what he was two or three years ago.