The Mail Bag
Stand up to Bullies!!!
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Now I seem to remember my mum telling me to stand up to bullies at school. Easy to say but a lot harder to do!!!!
Is it my imagination or my biased view on teams that have played the Blues in past 3 matches that they have all tried to bully us around the park? Blackburn, Middlesborough and most recently Stoke all seem to have had a selection policy that before you can play against the Blues you have to be a minimum of 6 feet tall.
Now admittedly we have not played anywhere near our true potential in these matches but we have stood up to the very vigorous and often illegal play of the opposition. Middlesborough had Huth, Wheater and Pogatetz(?); Blackburn had Samba and Nelsen; Stoke came with Shawcross, Higginbotham and Beattie; all attempted to beat us with a very physical approach.
It is to our credit and development that we can stand up to these tactics, even with Osman, Pienaar and Baines in the team. It speaks volumes to the efforts Cahill, Lescott, Jagielka, Neville and Yobo and when required Fellaini and Rodwell that they have made us the most physically resilient team in the Premier division.
It may also explain Moyes?s continued selection of Yobo though why at centre back and not right back baffles me. It may well be a relief to play Aston Villa, Chelsea and Man Utd in the coming weeks!!!!
COYBs
David Cooper, Posted 15/03/2009 at 21:59:16
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I think we did this reference the ridiculous denying of Andy Johnson's too numerous to count denied penalty shouts when he was with us. This particularly gets on my nerves when you see the likes of $tevieMe leaving his leg behind (see Manure game ? would he have gone down like that in the playground ie on a hard surface?) or just plainly diving as he does within a 20-25 yard radius of the penalty. (Okay, I accept the Vidic foul is not a good example of this but there are many others!!)
I accept and admire Moysey's dignity in not whinging on camera straight after the game but I hope this does not stop him doing his bit behind the scenes.
Pulis, Brown and Allardyce have given Everton the ?compliment? of having a team that is physical in its approach to justify their own highly agricultural style.Having said that, how Diouf got away with only a yellow card for his ?challenge? on the Arsenal keeper I will never know.
Everton will find the last couple of months difficult because more teams at both ends of the table will take a more physical approach, we wil just have to deal with it.
Who’d have thought it?
The size and physical approach of other teams should have no effect on us whatsoever - we have enough big lads at the back to deal with it. Outright dirty play is another matter - but that should be dealt with by the refs. Where we really miss a trick is that too often DM goes all political instead of telling it the way it is.
Either way we can’t influence someone kicking lumps out of us - we just need to play better than them and we’ll be ok.
War.
Pot.
Kettle.
Black.
(a) fourteen years ago;
(b) Joe’s Dogs hassled opponents, they didn’t mutilate them. Name me one opposition player who had his season ended by a member of that team.
However, I also think that it?s fair to say that many posters on this forum (including me) have fond memories of Joe Royle?s team, if only because they were the last Everton side that actually won anything. At the time the majority of us (again, including me) were only too happy to overlook the fact that their combative approach was arguably a more important factor in their success than their skill levels were.
Bearing that in mind, I personally feel hypocritical in criticising teams who adopt tactics similar to those that stood us in such good stead.
As Marco pointed out, who from our team has ended someone's season? Royle's Dogs of War included. [Great quote:- "a crisp packet blew across the pitch and we tackled it"!]
a) the bullying tactics of our three most recent opponents, Blackburn, Middlesboro and Stoke ? not Newcastle - and
b) was interested in team selection and tactics, rather than individual stupidity
?you?re not entirely relevant either.
As Moyes recently said, he?s in the business of getting results. Don?t think for one moment that he wouldn?t send a team out to outmuscle & intimidate the opposition if he thought that was what it took.
My comments were in praise of the Blues who overcame these tactics (questionable or not), picked up points and showed that we can match any team we play who think that "bullying" us might work.
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1 Posted 16/03/2009 at 08:06:41
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The bad is that I think we miss out on many a free kick because our players don?t go down. And for those who think Ossie is lightweight ? just look at the free kick he got just before half time, the Stoke player was trying to pull him back for ages before he went down