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Fellaini's Absence — A Blessing in Disguise
Comments (35) : Yet, despite this instruction, Fellaini goes right out and plays like how he always does, that is, puts himself about and gives the referee every reason to book him. In fact, I was watching the game on TV and was shocked to see him elbow (or try to elbow) a Hull player in the face when jostling for an in-coming Everton corner kick. If the referee had seen this, it would have been a red card for him. And this coming from a player who?s been told to behave and who must known what was at stake.
Having Fellaini on the pitch for the Merseyside derbies would have had me on nerves end. If he can?t control himself for the Hull game, it doesn?t give me any confidence that he will be able to do so for the Liverpool game. Yes, he may score a goal, but it is also likely that he?d get himself red carded, which would leave us with 10 men against a Liverpool side who will most surely exploit the gaps that this sending off will cause. Not to mention the obvious morale-wretching effect that such a sending off would on the Everton team.
So, with Fellaini now out for both the derby games, where does that leave us. In a much better position if you ask me. I would keep the same team that beat Hull, but bring in Jack Rodwell to replace Fellaini. Rodwell may only be 18yrs old, but he has a good head on his shoulders. In the games that we?ve seen him play, he?s looked comfortable on the ball, distributes it well, and doesn?t get booked for petty, niggling fouls. Rodwell also acquits himself well in front of goal. He may not have scored a goal for Everton yet, but he?s come close a number of times. He?s good in the air and will help provide the height that we?ll miss with Fellaini?s absence.
Rodwell will also be a perfect partner for Neville. Both of them will play as defensive midfielders and will guard against the deep runs of Torres and Gerard. This will allow Arteta to call the shots from the middle of the pitch. Osman and Pienaar will provide the width and thrust down the flanks and through the middle, supported by the full-backs Hibbert and Baines. Cahill will continue to do what he does best, hold the line and attack from deep.
If we harry, pressurize and out-work Liverpool, we will have them on the back-foot. Liverpool like to pass the ball around. Stop them from doing this and give them little or no time to settle on the ball, and we?ll be in with a chance.
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Most sensible comment I heard regarding the elbow was Andy Townsend who basically said if a defender wants to grab a forward then he gets what he?s asking for.
Don?t think you can blame Fellaini?s lack of maturity on the actual booking ? don?t think it was even worth a free kick. You just knew that Atkinson would book him for something.
This is getting ridiculous...has Moyes created some fascination with playing players out of position!
Neville is midfield is bad enough.
Liverpool are a lucky,over-rated side with a coach whose freedom from abuse from the terraces is a perfect example of blind cretinous admiration.
We will knock them out of the cup,luck or no luck.
My starting eleven - Howard, Baines, Hibbert, Jags, Lescott, Pienaar, Arteta, Neville, Osman, Gosling with Cahil playing upfront.
I would have Castillo in for the last 20-30 minutes.
God help us if we get injuries.
At least Anichebe has some experience and offers some physical presence in what is a small squad height wise. He just needs to get a rocket up his arse and put the centre-halves under more pressure.
If we can keep a clean sheet, we have a chance; if not, I don't think we have the options on the bench to get back into a game.
I will be on the point of nervous exhaustion as it is against the RS without having to worry about Screech taking the long walk. If we are to beat them, we need 11 players on the pitch. Our recent record, even allowing for Twatenburg, is not good
Play a midfiled player in midfield. Full stop.
Personally I’d love to see Gosling get a start. He was Immense v Boro and although this is an entirely different kettle of fish I would hope he could be just as good.
Castillo to do the job too though.
In my opinion Anichebe is simply not good enough up front and alone so I’d like to see Moyes carry on with Cahill leading the way.
Whatever he chooses,I really fancy us to take them. Come On!
Fellinis card was already marked but seeing as he is not there I guess the fall guy will be Hibbo, Tiny or Pip.
On the off chance that our 10 men might still be in with a chance we can expect Stevie La’ to use his powers of persuasion to get a penno.
If just this once or even twice we get an unbiased Ref these games have the makings of remarkable boil overs.
Keep Cahill up front as that is what is working. That leaves Gosling or Rodwell to come in as the only real options with Arteta pushing forward and taking up Fellaini’s role.
I’d personally go for Rodwell. Ok, he hasn’t got much experience, but what he has got is more experience than Gosling. Rodwell also seems to have a very good temprement and looks a player who steps up for the big occasion. He is also better in the air than Gosling and therefore more similar to Fellaini.
Howard: Hibbert, Baines, Jagielka, Lescott: Osman, Neville, Rodwell, Pienaar: Arteta: Cahill.
C..........O..........Y..........B
Take Gosling for example. A couple of weeks ago, nobody knew anything about him and no-one would have him in their predicted first team line. Then, when Moyes gave him a couple of run outs, many people here on the forum call for him to start against the shite. I have nothing against Gosling. From what I have seen, he is a more than capable player, but based on what we supporters see from our Everton players we should all want to see AvdM instead of all Goslings, Rodwells, Anichebes and the list goes on.
I have seen most of the matches AvdM have played for us and I have never seen him play badly. Actually, from my perspective, I believe he has been good when playing. About that time, every supporter wanted him in the first team, and then when he had his bust-ups with Moyes and didn?t feature in the team anymore, people seemed to more and more believe he was a bad footballer.
Same thing about Hibbert. When he burst through the ranks many years ago, fans shouted "Hibbo for England". Then when Neville made first team appearances for Hibbo rare, more and more fans just remembered Hibbo's bad sides, just like AvdM. Now when Hibbo is back in the team, fans on this site are having Hibbert in their favoured team selection for the recent matches.
People want to see Jutkiewicz instead of Baxter on the subs bench, just because that has been the case recently, and vice versa a couple of months ago. All of your predicted first team line-ups are so equal to that of Moyes?s, so most of you can not criticize him for his decisions.
This phenomenon also reflects on most fans favoured team formation. Even when we had all of our strikers fit, most fans opted for the 4-5-1 formation. And from what I have seen Everton play in recent years, that is the best formation, that gives us balance to the team. But if Moyes hadn?t come up with this idea, people would still field a 4-4-2 side if they were to pick the team.
I also believe Everton should improve their tactics. Other teams know what to expect from Everton. They have learned how to handle Arteta's corners. They also know Arteta is taking all of our free-kicks too. If it hadn?t been for his new style of striking the ball through the wall, everyone knew what would come from his freekicks.
Back in the days when we had that useless David Burrows playing leftback, nobody could have guessed that our second, sometimes third choice leftback, Hinchcliffe, bought from Man City many years earlier, would become a favourite and earning England call-ups, when playing by his abilities, by having a good header of the ball up front in big Dunc. In these days, when we have both Fellaini and Cahill, running from behind and the Yak (when fit), all with very good heading abilities. Saha, also for that sake...
We could very much benefit by playing a pacy winger that can cross the ball, like AvdM. Until I see a better winger at this club, or AvdM gets a couple of matches and show if Moyes is being right by not selecting him for a couple of years, I will not say "play Mr X" or "play Mr Y", just because Moyes does so. By doing that, that gives me no right to criticize him. That would be like criticizing myself.
A lot of people have very short memory. If a good player is not playing for a while, then people start saying we should get rid of that player, bla bla bla.... Like when Cahill was out. And now everyone talks of Cahill like a legend. BUT, I know what I expect from Moyes, and he has been good for this club, compared to many other managers during recent years. But he can still do one or two things better I think...
his approach to the derby games , as usual against any of the big 4 will be not to lose , thereby lessening our chance of winning.
I know we’ve been playing well and winning recently and it’s hard to criticise the managers decisions but If I’m right Yobo will be back in the side with Neville in the middle and we will struggle to create scoring chances.
I really think that the Polish lad Jutewhatsisname deserves a chance to show what he can do , it wouldn’t do any harm to play him before Anichebe and Liverpool would have an unknown quantity to contend with instead of the predictable Everton side they’re already expecting.
I dont think this will happen however, as Moyes really does seem to handle our youngsters with ’kid gloves’ (pardon the pun). I dont reckon Moyes would feel the time is right to throw Gosling or for that matter Jutkewicz in at the deep end in a Merseyside derby.
I dont rate Anichebe one bit, in my opinion, he dosnt put enough effort in, and seems to go to ground a bit too easy (like another Nigerian striker I know).
However, saying all this, I reckon the biggest mistake Moyes could make this week would be sacrifice Baines for Yobo. I fear this may happen so as to get the team average height back up. This would be a disaster in my opinion as I really like what Baines brings to the side.
Saying all this, whatever team he puts out is capable of beating those lot, this is a team who have struggled against lesser teams than us. Its not all doom and gloom is it?
Now I?m not suggesting that David Moyes plays me in that role but I do know just how effective it can be. Let me be clear, when I say man-mark, I literally mean follow the guy all over the pitch and make sure you're never more than a yard or two away from him. No matter how good the player is, it is extremely frustrating for him. You find that other players are reluctant to pass to them due to the close proximity of the marker and when they do, the tackle goes in straight away. It seems to be something that has gone out of fashion in recent years. Just the fact that you're so close to them means they don?t get the ball anywhere near as much.
Now we know what Gerrard mean to the shite. Stop him and the job's half done. The player who does the marking has to be very disciplined and it has to be clear to other team members that the sole job of the marker is to stop their main man. Every time I watch the shite I can?t believe teams just let him go and do what he wants.
With Everton having the extra man in midfield, one of them, probably Neville, could be delegated to do this job... as I say I can?t remember anyone ever doing a proper man-marking job on him. David Moyes take note!
He has performed reasonably in CM without having an opposing midfield to deal with. We all know that Liverpool has one with its center being paticulally effective. So move Nev and in with Castillo with Gosling replacing Felli.
The reason I remember this so clearly is because the commentators made such a big deal of it during the second half and after the game. They where saying they couldn't understand why Megson took him off because, even though they where losing, they where still in the game and the shite's main threat was doing nothing.
I suppose it's a thought that we could do it but I think it would have to be Neville and I can't see him having the legs to run after Gerrard for 90 minutes. Alternatively, you could just tell Neville to go out and put him up in the air a couple of times in the first 10 minutes and get his mind on revenge instead of playing football. As they say, "There?s more than one way to skin a cat".
If you try to analyse his game, he likes to receive the ball in space and then drive into the space in front of him... denying him the initial space makes his game nowhere near as effective.... You can tell I?ve thought a lot about this can?t you? Anyway I know what I would do if I were managering Everton.
Fellaini, after a shaky start, has become the attacking focal point of our team. The current formation depends massively on the roles he and Arteta perform. I would suggest his loss is catastrophic and Moyes will be privately devastated about it. I still think we will run them close in both games but I genuinely felt the games were ours with Fellaini playing.
As for his bookings, early on this season he didn?t help himself much but I agree with Moyes and Round that in recent games he has become an easy target for referees. How many times did Turner practically maul him at set plays and other balls up to Felli? Was he booked for ?persistent? fouling. Disgraceful decision and probably one purely to appease Benitez after he his comments about the same referee the day before. I find that coincidence a little too convenient.
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1 Posted 12/01/2009 at 15:27:56
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Perhaps Gosling? Perhaps Anichebe up front with Cahill in an advanced midfield role...also, I haven’t been keeping an eye on it, but there’s no possibility of a shock return for the Yak this w/e....???