ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Defensive Frailties

On the back of 6 excellent results (I count a point at Stamford Bridge as an excellent result), it seems somewhat churlish to look at any negative aspects of Everton's play. But what does worry me is the number of goals they are conceding from corners. To date I can recall:

Ledley King (Spurs A) ? won so no impact.
Vidic (Man Utd H) ? lost; minus 1 point at least.
Capo (Birmingham H) won so no impact.
Drogba (Chelaea A) - drew - minus 2 points.

Add to this the throw-in at Reading which lost us the game and we are some 4 points down on where we could be. With Lescott, Stubbs and Yobo we have big defenders who should be dealing with such crosses but it looks like no work is done on this on the training pitch. A concern that I hope we rectify!
Steve Rimmer, Crosby Posted 12/11/2007 at 12:04:18

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Juan Roman
1 Posted 12/11/2007 at 14:02:26

Yes I thought of that too. And the ironic thing about it is that Lescott was to blame for both the Drogba & Gardner goals. I guess it’s down to concentration but at the same time he was dealing with an exceptional set-piece player in Vidic. Hopefully Moyes has noticed this (could he miss it?) and will deal with it.

Steve Rimmer
2 Posted 12/11/2007 at 14:23:26

Juan you are correct it was Anthony Gardner who scored for Spurs not Ledley King. I am sure you are right that Moyes has noticed this but it is still happening....!

Dan Mckie
3 Posted 12/11/2007 at 14:34:38

Situations like for the Chelsea goal are all about seconds and inches and on that occasion Drogba (who aint a bad player) stole a couple of seconds and jumped that extra couple of inches higher than his marker..thats football..im sure when Yobo and Lescott beat Drogba to the ball that Chelsea fans were thinkin that Drogba should be on the end of it and not losing out to the defenders!

David Barks
4 Posted 12/11/2007 at 16:03:50

While I agree it is disappointing to give up goals from set pieces, it does happen to every team. That is why they are considered good goal scoring opportunities. We deal with a hell of a lot of them without giving up goals, but in any game if you give up 10 or more corners chances are there will be either a goal or a very good save by the keeper. The delivery for Drogba’s goal yesterday was perfect, as was the delivery for Vidic’s goal, and both players timed their runs perfectly. Carsley could have gotten out quicker or Lescott could have tracked him better, I agree. But goals from set pieces do happen to everyone. If our defense can play as well as they did yesterday, and that includes Hibbert, in the following games then I will be very happy.

Tim Lowe
5 Posted 12/11/2007 at 17:05:01

We’ve conceded far too many goals from set pieces, I’d throw in the one that we let in at newcastle as well where yobo lost owen. As moyes was a centre back, I would’ve thought we would spend a fair bit of time on this in training.

With the goal yesterday, I actually think cars was a bit unlucky. Lescott should’ve gone with Drogba. I guess we must be doing zonal marking from set pieces. Not a big fan of this, I’d much prefer it if every defender had their man and stick to them like glue

Mick Simo
6 Posted 12/11/2007 at 17:13:15

Carsley was to blame, it looked to me that Carsley was marking that zone, thats why I think Lescott never went with him. It looks like this zone marking as crept into Moyes coaching.

Allan Hobbs
7 Posted 12/11/2007 at 17:31:27

It was Carsley not Lescott who was beaten to the ball, in exactly the same way Hibbo was by Vidic - we’re susceptable to the near-post corner its true, but other than that we’re not too bad from corners generally.

There’s always areas to be improved and if thats our biggest gripe at the moment, I’m pretty happy.

We’re playing well and scoring goals, not conceding too many either so all in all I reckon we’re in good shape currently.

Neil Pearse
8 Posted 12/11/2007 at 18:12:23

The problem I think with us at set pieces is that - against the big guys - we are almost totally reliant on Yobo / Lescott / Stubbs. Most of the rest of our players are, as we all know, on the small side. We used to have the likes of the defensively excellent Big Dunc and Beattie doing defensive duties, but no longer. And I think the Yak and Victor are not particularly good in defence, though Cahill isn’t bad.

Not sure what we can do about it given out current best eleven. May strengthen the case for playing Jagielka at right back, since he is a lot better in the air then Hibbert or Neville.

Nick Wall
9 Posted 12/11/2007 at 19:03:00

The Vidic goal and the Drogba goal were very similar - what impressed me were the lightning quick darting runs by Vidic and Drogba to get nearside of the defender and connect with the ball. Maybe our men should have been more alert, but those were both top quality goals in my book.