ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Parity

Three games in... how do we look at the six points? Is it a triumph? Four points ahead of the current champs, Man Utd! Or so-so... just behind Wigan on goal difference and three full points behind Sven's lot!

I was hoping for 10 points ahead of the Bolton game so that's now impossible but what went wrong yesterday? We lost a hard game to a team that is similarly stuffy to Everton of 2006-07 but with one important difference: Reading has a much more intelligent manager in Coppell than we have in Moyes. Anybody who saw Reading hold Man Utd easily at Old Trafford to 0-0 knew there would not be many chances for either side yesterday and neither keeper had a single save to make! Two Everton defenders contributed to the same bad mistake that led to the goal and neither will be in Moyes's first picks soon.

McFadden was unlucky with a chip that set up an easy chance for AJ but both shots came back off the post. We were just that much off stealing a point in a weekend that will be more important for signings if rumours of the arrival of Fernandes and Yakubu are true. Saturday was no disaster but it is the kind of game that we will need to win if we are to push on.

Fourteeen Premier League teams finished under Everton last season and when we play these teams at Goodison this time there will be 52 points available before we even think about away games or matches with the top 4/5 clubs from last time. The message ? same as it ever was ? win your home games and take what you can on your trips!

We have a better side than last time and if we can avoid the distraction of cup ties (no problem for the Blues in recent years, sadly), there is no reason we cannot finish high in a Premier League where an awful lot of teams are set to draw with each other week-in, week-out.

An interesting week ahead for Everton ? with rumours of players in and out ? and a big chance for the new men already signed to make an instant mark in a hard TV game against Blackburn. Like it or lump it, Moyes will always be conservative; that's how he is. Don't look for fantastic set-pieces or even throw-ins to our own players (totally agree with Michael Kenrick on that) but Moyes is certainly a solid if stodgy coach who loves good defence!

This Everton squad looks sloppy in its coaching on all the set-piece work where a smarter man like Coppell quietly takes care of these things. No matter; three points on Saturday and we are right back in the mix!
Glen Strachan, Oaxaca , Mexico Posted 19/08/2007 at 15:59:40

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Ray Robinson
1 Posted 19/08/2007 at 19:16:55

Glen, some sweeping statements in your piece there, weren’ there? Coppell a more intelligent manager than Moyes? On what basis? Has Coppell been a success everywhere he has been? Isn’t Moyes also adept at getting the best out of limited resources? We have also drawn twice at Old Trafford under Moyes remember. Oh, I forgot, Coppell’s got a university degree? Not always directly related to football intelligence, though it must help.

Also, Everton’s coaching looks sloppy at set pieces. Well, we haven’t excelled recently, I admit but didn’t we go the longest last season in terms of conceding a goal from a corner? It’s not always tactics at fault, it’s sometimes just down to the players’ concentration, ability and intelligence.

I do agree that Moyes is conservative by nature. I detect some signs though that he is changing, albeit slowly. Maybe again, that’s down to the personnel available to him.

Gavin Ramejkis
2 Posted 19/08/2007 at 21:03:25

Two birds with one stone; a post I agree with many points on, sloppy defending and predictable plays again led to the win but from what I saw of the match on MOTD highlights I don’t think we deserved more than a draw tops, second "bird" is my old mate Terry - I have been away in the Lakes with my Mrs and son and look not a misery guts or slagging or calling for DM’s head, not the end of the world but would have obviously been happier if we would have finished at least one of the chances we had and got a point. Onwards to Blackburn, it’s pointless thinking about Reading it’s been and gone. Let’s hope we get to see Fernandes by then maybe even Yakubu and Pienaar too.

Glen Strachan
3 Posted 19/08/2007 at 20:59:38

Hi Ray
Yes there were sweeping statements in that piece (with all the problems of misunderstanding they can bring) but to try to keep these comments to a reasonable length that is ofetn the only way.

Let me be very clear that I was speaking about football intelligence rather than any abstract form that University degrees might introduce.

Dowie has a very good degree and yet what a mess he has made of his life in football and beyond.

The biggest waste of space I can ever recall in the English Leagues was a guy who called himself Doctor Joseph Venglos who ruined Aston Villa until they saw through him.

I recall a quote that ?the three greatest football managers of the 20th century were Jock Stein and Bill Shankley from the coal-mines of Lanarkshire and Alex Ferguson from Clydeside.?

No Uni. degrees there , Ray and the man who gave that quote...........a bloke called Divid Moyes talking about three fellow Scots.

OK , I said that Moyes was outsmarted.....I stick to that as we couldn?t manage a shot at goal until Moyes brought on his fellow-Scot McFadden at the end.

You rightly speak of Moyes doing well on limited resources and while not everybody would agree with that sweeping statement , Everton even these days ,has resources that dwarf anything that little Reading can offer Coppell.

We might be no Chelsea , no Liverpool , no Man U in the spending stakes but check out Coppell?s spending in building Saturday?s side.

One thing that Moyes can offer over Coppell is ?bottle? as you would expect from a Glaswegian who grew up at Celtic under Jock Stein and had before that been coached by his own father Moyes , Senior being a well-known youth coach in Glasgow?s tough leagues.

Coppell on the other hand was an English college boy.

No comparison there eh ?

Probably it all evens out in the end but on Saturday , I still think it cost us at least a point.

Anyway folks .......keep your fingers well-crossed that the Yakubu rumour soon becomes fact...............that is another tough Nigerian scrapper who has the Yobo mixture of brilliant skills and big toughness.

Thanks for your comment guys..........does anybody disagree that would help us build our best squad in over 15 years?

Happy Days , Blues !

Thommo
4 Posted 20/08/2007 at 07:51:37

Steve Coppell went to Quarry Bank as did Joe Royle, John Lennon, Derrick Nimmo and...well, modesty forbids