It is because we havent had anyone to take his place on the left, and Moyes seems to prefer a Cahill/Fellaini type player behind the striker. That may change if Bily proves to be any good out there, it will at least give another option.

Probably because he’s very effective out wide and we lack options; if Pienaar moved into the middle, we’d have no-one who can replace his creativity out wide. Would people trust Gosling and Osman on the right? I suppose if Bilyaletdinov adapts quickly we’ll be fine.

Moyes has mentioned moving him centrally so who knows? I wouldn’t be against it.

When Arteta returns he should be in the middle ahead of everyone though, Pienaar included. He’s the best centre midfielder we have at the club.

Agree with Connor, I’d rather have Arteta out there in the middle. I think Pienaar is excellent outside on the left and should play out wide as he is creative there as well as very good at defensive duties. Perhaps we could move him to the right with Heitinga if Bily can do the bizz on the left.

Why be so rigid in our thinking?

Some top sides play a flexibile 4-3-3 using triangles all over the pitch to get round lack of width (and to keep possession). These include Chelsea and Barcelona.

We can do the same:

Pienaar-Arteta-Bily
Fellaini-Arteta-Bily
Baines-Pienaar-Arteta

and so on...

In the latter stages of last season, even without Arteta, Everton started to play some very nice, joined up progressive stuff. Mainly against teams from 6th - 20th admittedly, but that’s a start. I’d like us to focus on keeping the ball and confusing the opposition. I can’t stand the predictability that characterised much of Moyes’s earlier stewardship.

Onwards & upwards via triangles :)

Spot on Connor, our left wing is a very effective part of our attacking play. Pienaar and Baines have a great understanding and I can't see Moyes splitting them two up, even to accommodate Bily who I think will play on the right. The only thing I can see happening is Pienaar and Bily swapping wings as the game goes on to give the opposition full backs somethink different to think about and not let them settle.

As for the middle of the park, I see Arteta as our best player and I’d like to see Fellaini play alongside him. Playing with someone who is actually on the same wavelength in footballing terms could bring the best out of Fellaini. I’d have Cahill playing in front of them just behind the striker to get the best out of him once again.

Spot on about Arteta. When he is fit, he is the player to pull the strings from the middle bar none, with the freedom to roam, especially if we have five in midfield. Bily on the left and Pienaar on the right.

I would have Rodwell as first choice defensive midfielder, to break up opposition attacks and pass it to Arteta, Neville second in that position (can’t pass as well as Rodwell, but gives us leadership in the middle — such as telling Felliani to get back in position!).

Assuming Moyes plays five I would have have Rodwell and Neville with Arteta. Cahill or Fellaini aren’t good enough at the minute for me — I would have them both on the bench as impact players.

I am copping out deciding who is first between them. Usually I would go for Cahill, for sheer goal threat and keeping the opposition wary of committing too many forward, but he has been really poor for me so far this season. Fellaini is still quite erratic, but I do hope that he can emerge as an automatic first-teamer ahead of Neville.

I think with the creativity and movement of Pienaar, Bily and Arteta we can actually consider players switching positions, playing total football... no wait, sorry, getting into dream world there! I do think with those players fit and Saha and Yakubu banging them in we are right up there challenging for fourth... bloody hell, I’m being optimistic considering how we have started!

I do look at the league and think those who have lately talked about success being 8th are falling hook & line for Premier League hype and media crap — and settling for underachievement.

Take Tottenham — great start, good set of strikers. They have just lost their playmaker (like losing Arteta), they’re best defender is made of glass and their keeper is a liability.

Villa — lost their key player; good wingers, but no devastating strikers (they blow hot and cold) and a bit soft at centre half (£5M for Collins is as mad as £24M for Lescott!).

Man City — lots of money spent, will steamroll quite a few teams, but they have hardly got a tactical genius for a manager; it will be hard to balance all their striking options and keep them happy, and how many times do Robinho, Wright-Phillips, Adebayor go missing during the Great British winter?!

Liverpool — ok, almost blindly biased, but take out Gerrard and Torres (like Arteta and Jags like we have had for months) and who is there to fear? In the media rush to worship all Gerrard does (including battering DJs!) everyone seemed to miss how Alonso was key to knitting all of their play together and letting Gerrard roam forward to grab some headlines. Kuyt, Babel, Lucas, Dossena, Carragher etc. are all overrated and painfully average. If they got the equivalent injuries we got last year they would have been nowhere near United.

The only teams that are clearly beyond us are Chelsea, Arsenal and United (in that order). Let’s stop settling for mediocrity, get our players fit and lets start playing some decent bloody football! COYB

Although we haven’t seen any major changes to the squad this summer, I think the adjustments compared to last season could have a significant effect. Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and John Heitinga have been bought to be first choice players asap, and Jack Rodwell is establishing himself in his midfield role. Plus, how far off might El Mikel be now?

So, changes are going to come, and I think Alan Kirwin will see quite a lot of the midfield fluidity he wants. Pienaar is better than good enough to roam around from left to right and centre. Cahill, similarly, knows how to be where he should be. And Baines plays just as well going forward with, for example, Fellaini. Let’s see how Distin and Baines hold the line at the back. A natural left footer in Diniyar may help that out a lot.

So - Steven Pienaar? I really hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of him, left, right and centre.

Following my earlier post about our central midfield, I was just wondering what people thought about Fellaini partnering Arteta (when fit) in the centre?

I’m sure we bought him to play in this position and he has said himself that he is a central/holding midfielder. He has been played as an attacking midfielder or second striker mainly and this has had a bad effect on the team as too many players take the easy option and hit long balls up to him because of his height. This then has a bad effect on his own performances as the service he receives is terrible.

I see Fellaini as a good footballer with a touch of class about him when he’s playing well. Maybe Arteta is the man to bring the best out of him in the centre and maybe Moyes knows this hence the reason he hasn’t played him there since Arteta’s injury.

Yes.

Not for me, we have better options than Fellaini. I’d actually say Fellaini was one of our worst options as a centre-midfielder, he just doesn’t offer anything in there.

He’s not creative, he doesn’t protect the back four and he’s not even a jack of all trades, he just strolls around and gets bypassed by quicker, more tenacious midfielders. He's neat and tidy when he's got his back to goal and doesn't have to think about what he's doing. When midfielders are biting at his ankles and harrying him all game, he continually gives the ball away, like hid did in the first leg against Sigma.

For me, as a centre-midfielder, you've got to fulfill a role and Fellaini doesn't do that. I don't mind him further forward, the role suits him and doesn't leave him exposed. He's good there for us.

Jack Rodwell is the better footballer and the superior athlete; he's still a kid but with Arteta out he's the best option we have in the middle. He'll take the ball off the back four and he looks to play; that's what we need. His positioning needs work but he does have the pace and athleticism to make up for his mistakes, Fellaini doesn't have that.

He certainly needs to start producing more goals for Everton. He is a fantastic talent but needs to deliver more. I would try and make the middle of midfield suit him — I've been impressed with a number of his SA performances.

One thing not mentioned here is, when Arteta is back, an option is to play both of them in the centre: Heitinga as the holding player and one up top. This as an option, mind, and would certainly (at home) give us the opportunity to have players who can hold and pass the ball. Imagine no hoofball but playing it through the middle and keeping it. This would give us time to allow the full-backs to join the attack and Micky and Peanuts to have options. Real football.

Wouldn’t do it away from home or against the top 3... we’d get twatted.

Guys, I understand where your coming from, but hear me out for a few seconds?

I know a lot of you probably know the game better than me, and some of you have made some good points about why Pienaar should only play wide; my only question is the following:

How can you guys make the assumption that Pienaar's best position isn’t in the middle for us when he has never been given the central attacking role? Mikel has been given all the midfield positions, thats why it’s easy to see what his best position is... and Pienaar?

Keep in mind this is the same player that kept guys like Van de Vaart out of Ronald Koeman’s team. In the RSA squad, Stevie is surrounded by a few less than average players and he still performs wonders in that position.

Fine, the guy is doing great for us wide, but — and let me say this again — he has not been given the chance to show what he can do in the creative attacking position!!

I think that we currently have options; it has been a while since we have been able to say that with any real conviction.

While some will no doubt wish for the simplicity and continuity of having strong players in established positions, David Moyes is obviously trying to attract players who have diversity — and mobility.

Look at Heitinga: a right back/centre back/holding midfielder. Or Bilyaletdinov: a player comfortable playing anywhere across the attacking midfield. Even Distin can double up as an emergency left back.

I know it’s a bit mid-1990s but Heitinga even gives us a wingback option should that ever prove tempting — Portsmouth deployed it very well on an occasional basis last season, including turning us over at Goodison. So it’s good to know it’s there if needed.

Pienaar, Arteta and (seemingly) Bilyaletdinov have the potential to rotate. Keeping a Pienaar/Baines left side axis might appeal to some, but I would suggest that there is more to come from both those players — and restricting Pienaar to the left flank may well end up shackling both of them. Who knows how Baines may respond to Arteta in front of him, or Bilyaletdinov. If Heitinga plays right back then perhaps Pienaar in front of him would prove most fruitful. Only time will tell.

But, when it comes to cast-iron "best positions", I think Pienaar should play centrally. Same for Leon Osman — he is a central midfielder; as has regularly been said on here, he lacks the pace to ever play wide — and the strength to play in the big games — but against lesser teams he has the creativity to play the central midfield role.

It may be wishful thinking but, if Arteta, Pienaar and Bilyaletdinov can float around the midfield and interchange like Iniesta, Xavi and Silva/Fabregas do for Spain, then we may be bringing out the best in these players - and bringing better football into the bargain.

This thread proves we do have options, for the first time in a while... but the problem is none of us — not even Moyes — knows the best first 11. If the financial situation means you are limited to a small squad, the type of players Moyes brings in are the right ones, but if they are only brought in at the end of August, you don’t get a true idea of the best combinations/shape until October probably. How do we find out if Pienaar should play in the middle? Get the players in in July and try it in pre-season!

You're spot on, Dan, the situation that Moyes finds himself in is not ideal for proper team bonding. The ideal way is for him to pick up players on the opening days of the window, not in the closing hours.

I always thought that going to foreign lands with the team, besides making some money, was to get new players bedded in, before the real season starts. Instead, we have already started a European competition, and have new players away on international duty... no wonder Moyes does not really know his best team.

To be honest, Ricardo, I do think his best position is the central attacking midfield role, but there’s three points to why I don’t think he should play there for us:

1. We have Cahill and Fellaini in that position, who are good enough;

2. Pienaar benefits the team better once he plays at the left... if he plays in the middle, then we’ll have Billy and Osman as our wingers... too risky in my opinion;

3. It is a question whether he can adapt in that position against the toughness and strength of modern day EPL centre backs and defensive midfielder, I don’t think that’s much of a problem of him though, as he does have enough experience in the EPL.

Once all our players are fit, I’d rather Pienaar on the right and Bily on the left. I also think, and what people have forgotten, is that if Heitinga plays right back, and I think he definitely should, him and Pienaar are hopefully likely to have the same chemistry as Pienaar and Baines do. Pienaar and Heitinga played at Ajax together for a number of years, and Heitinga is good with the ball, so hopefully a right side can be a strength instead of a weakness for us now.