The Mail Bag
A series of lacking events....
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I was going to use the word unfortunate in the title but I think lacking is more apt. There were a few areas I think Everton were lacking in last night.
Number 1 being a killer Instinct: we always seemed like we were trying to walk it in, even when stood on the edge of the area no-one had a shot.
Number 2 was the lack of game expirience from Manny: I know he hasn't had a lot of first team football at Valencia (that's why he's back) but the amount of time he passed to a player in BRIGHT YELLOW was ridiculous. I think Moysey should have subbed him at half-time ? it's not like it wasn't an important game and he wasn't doing any harm! Also, the times Manny did go on a run, he was trying to be to fancy.
I think Moysey lacked ideas too and needed to change formation when he saw it wasn't working, Tim looked well confused most of the game rendering him unaffective for most of it. I really think we missed the Yak and Penuts last night. I persoanlly thought that Lescott looked more of a striker than AJ.
As Arteta pointed out, we needed to keep tha ball down, we were firing in high to 4ft AJ when there was a 7ft Cech waiting to catch, parry or punch it away. (The lacking here is footballing nouse!)
I know this seems like a long winge, and I know im going to have the MOD (Moyes' Obligatory Defence) on my ass but it's only because i was dreaming (as im sure we all were) of Wembley.
Craig Ashford, Posted 24/01/2008 at 08:45:48
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1 Posted 24/01/2008 at 15:01:12
I like Moyes and I think some of the criticism of him is silly. However you might be surprised I agree with almost everything you say.
Firstly I think you?re right about Manny, he was off the pace and for every couple of decent passes there was a silly one. I also agree with you that Cahill wasn?t at his best and we missed Yak and Pienaar, Yak more than Pienaar in this instance.
However there?s the rub. With resources as stretched as they were I?m wondering what Moyes could have done tactically to work. He did change to 4-4-2 and you could argue it was too late as it came after the goal. But whether it came before or after Chelsea suddenly had a shedload of space in midfield whereas before they were being harried by Carsley and co. If anyone was going to score at that point it wasn?t us.
I do think Moyes could have sacrificed AJ for Victor much sooner - half-time, even, to give Tim a target man to work off and, as you say above, make sense of the long balls, but stick with 4-51 (I don?t understand people who are saying that?s a defensive line-up as we?ve scored so many goals this season with it). It?s a shame he didn?t try that, so I agree he didn?t do what he could - only I see as a personnel change as much as a tactical one.
But though it pains me to say it (cos I hate Chelsea) no matter how we review the game the better team won.