The Mail Bag
Moutinho...
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Whenever I read anything from the mailbag 99% of the time there will be a mention of Moutinho as the missing piece of the jigsaw. This continues to amaze and annoy me in equal measure!
Firstly, take a look at our squad and identify the number of attacking central midfield players we already have: Cahill, Arteta, Fellaini, Pienaar and Osman. That is five players for a maximum of 2 positions! For those who suggest Pienaar is a wide player, let me remind you he never once played on the wing prior to Everton and continues to play in his natural position of attacking centre midfield for his country.
The same case can be made for Arteta. It was no great surprise to see a drastic improvement in his form when he resumed playing in a central role. My Point being we DO NOT need anymore attacking central midfield players when our squad is small at the best of times.
Also how many people hailing Moutinho have actually seen him play!? He offers nothing Arteta can?t better or equal lacks pace and is very lightweight. Now I am not saying he is not a good player, he is! But he plays in a position we have plenty of talent of his equal in already.
So please please, please let's stop the Moutinho talk once and for all and address the positions that do need to be strengthened! Wide Players!
For the record, I love ToffeeWeb, and this is my first post to the mailbag directly.
James Stewart, Posted 19/06/2009 at 10:22:30
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This is what it says on wikipedia about Moutniho and playing out wide. I know it's wikipedia and to be honest I haven?t seen a great deal of him.
In 2007-08, with Leandro Romagnoli (another attacking midfielder) also in the starting eleven, Moutinho, more often than not, moved from his natural behind the forwards midfielder role to right midfielder, where he still managed to deliver impressive performances. During this season, Moutinho further established himself as somewhat of a club symbol, earning plaudits as one of the league?s top players, with impressive regular and quality performances.
I would rather see us get £15m out and out winger.
Call me cynical, and I?m sure it?s already been pointed out several times on this site, but if he?s THAT good, why haven?t Manure or Chelski or Man C been in for him?
£15m will blow all our budget. By all accounts, Man C have that much as a float in their tea club.
What it is about is the fact that without Arteta we look lost with the ball, and Moutinho is a player who if, god forbid, Arteta got another injury, would come in and play a similar if not more affective role in the team.
It was a similar situation when we had Fernandes, we had a player who apart from Arteta loved the ball at his feet and took responsibility.
I agree that a wide player is the priority though.
Having said that, I don?t know much about Moutinho and with funds probably limited there are a couple of other priorities, an aggressive holding midfielder who can pass... frankly I don?t know who he is. A wide player with lots of pace; Aaron Lennon would do nicely.
We do need another creative CM, but a young lad who can be brought in and tutored by Arteta, who can fill in when needed and eventually compete for the slot. Jordi Gomez would’ve been a great signing. He fits that bill perfectly and has just gone to Wigan for about £1.5M - definately in our budget range.
What we really need is a good Premier League standard RB who can defend AND attack, and a pacey right winger. Moutihno is a great player.
We have Arteta, Cahill, Fellaini, Neville and Rodwell competing for the nomimal CM positions. We don’t need to spend most (if not all) of our budget on a player that plays in the only position where we have squad depth.
I’m guessing here, but I think David Moyes has, on more than one occasion. I think Moyes has a better grasp of how he wants us to play, and where Moutinho would fit in (if indeed he remains a target) than you, or anybody else.
I wouldn’t get too pre-occupied with how many attacking midfielders you perceive us to have. Firstly injuries happen. Secondly we can play differently. How many attacking midfielders do you believe Barcelona play at once? Are Xavi & Iniesta attacking midifelders? because in some games they send a lot of time deep. It depends where the ball is & I think that’s the key to how Moyes wants Everton to play.
Moutinho is a leader, he makes things happen. We have two midfielders who share that sobriquet, Arteta & Pienaar. One of those was injured for a large part of last season. Moutinho (again, if he is indeed still a target) is a player that makes a team buzz. Having 3 of those in our squad is about right for where we want to be.
So I trust Moyes do do the right thing for the team given the constraints he has. From what I have seen of Moutinho, he would be perfect for Everton. As indeed would M’Bia. Strength, pace & skill. We’ve moved on & long may it continue.
He?s a quality player who would work brilliantly with Arteta and Pienaar and I think Moyesy sees Moutinho as our answer to our right-hand side problems. Yeah maybe he?s not an out-&-out winger but he can play there as he as done for Sporting on numerous occasions.
I think Moyes sees a similar situation we have on our left-hand side down our right, having an attacking full back to go beyond Moutinho as Baines does with Pienaar, and having a combination work like that down our right.
I agree with you as well, Alan, that we need a ball-playing, holding midfield player who will come and take the ball off the back four and give it to the likes of Arteta, Pienaar and maybe Moutinho if we bought him ? instead of our defence bypassing the midfield and trying to hit Cahill or Fellaini early. Like you say, mate, we're moving on and these are the types of players we need to do exactly that!
I?ve seen both Moutinho and M?Bia live on numerous occassions and I can tell you that if we had a midfield of Arteta, Pienaar, M?Bia and Moutinho then we would have a midfield to propel us into the top 4 never mind scrape for it.
Flair, movement, ball control, vision leadership are just some of the things that would be on offer. Remember, Moutinho is the captain of Sporting Lisbon at such a young age.
In my opinion, these are the only two players we need this summer. Neville is an adequate right back (Hibbert/Jacobsen as cover), Baines covered by Lescott, Jags, Lescott, Yobo, Rodwell as centre backs and Rodwell dualing as a midfielder. Up front we have Yak, Cahill, Fellaini, Saha, Vaughan.
Please, Moyes, sign these two guys; break the bank, BK! Champions League revenues will pay it back next year!!
I think I read somewhere recently, on another Blue website, that not many players who suffer cruciate ligament damage return to their former glories. In fact, most are a pale shadow of their former selves. Maybe DM is thinking about our three first choice players who have all suffered recent serious injuries. Hence the talk of Moutinho (Atreta), the Russian captain (centre back-Jags) and the numerous centre forwards we have been associated with.
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1 Posted 19/06/2009 at 06:11:45
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The second half a player came on Tshabalala, he played on the left with Pienaar moving behind the strikers, brilliant football. Hopefully the Spain game on Saturday will proof once and for all where Pienaar best position.
Watch out for the diehard Toffee supporter. probably the only blue Toffee shirt in the sea of SA shirts!!