The Mail Bag
A Captain's Role
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With the arrival of Johnny Heitinga, the role of the team captain Phil Neville has suddenly become less clear. In my idea of the perfect team I envisaged Phil playing at right back for this season and possibly next before at last giving way to father time and his inevitable coaching role.
For that reason, I thought Moyes was saving his transfer budget by not bringing in a right back once the Naughton bid had failed. I cannot see Heitinga being fourth choice cover at centre back so he is more than likely going to play at right back and in all likelihood first choice with Hibbert as cover.
This means, if he wants to play in the starting 11, it has to be in midfield. With a fully fit Arteta a certainty for a central starting berth, this means Moyes is almost forced into playing Neville in the other deep-lying role and invariably then a 5-man midfield. In my opinion, he played well there last year, although I think Arteta made him look good as his performance dipped once he became injured.
One thing is for certain is that he is not good enough to be playing centre-mid against the Sky Four. With the likely removal of Osman from the flank to compete for a central spot, this makes Neville, Fellaini, Rodwell and Osman all in competition for one spot. You could make a case for all three of them potentially being better than Neville in that position. Before all the Osman critics crawl all over this I think he is very good in a five man midfield in the centre and I would love to see him providing the creativity next to Rodwell in there before Arteta returns. I think the three most Evertonians would like to see would be Rodwell and Arteta with Cahill ahead of them.
Where does this leave our captain? It would be very harsh to drop him as captain but looking forward he probably should not be in the first 11 if we wish to improve. It saddens me to say it as I think he’s a great Captain always giving his all, willing to play anywhere and never letting us down in any position. I would love to see him lift a trophy as captain of Everton hopefully this season and then progress him towards that retirement/coaching role he deserves.
James Martin, Posted 06/09/2009 at 18:01:14
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Neville is invaluable as a Captain but, as Tony Williams said, he was at his best last season when Arteta moved inside and Pip’s role was to get the ball and give it to Spud! Nobody should expect Neville to be playing the 30-yard defence-splitting passes — it has never been his game. Play Heitinga in midfield and Neville at RB.
Neville does his job there, tackles well, does simple passes to whatever players, and does what he is expected to do. Added to him being captain, he’s a good member of our squad.
The only player who’s got the potential to fill his boots is Rodwell, who can tackle and pass. But I’m not convinced he can hold the midfield with Arteta when he’s only 18, because his tactical sense and awareness won’t be as good, but it will definitely come good as he gets more experience. I say play Neville this season, and Rodwell there the next.
Howard
Neville, Heitinga, Distin, Baines
Rodwell
Bily, Cahill, Fellaini, Pienaar
Saha
By Xmas, Jags replaces Neville with Heitinga to right back; Arteta will have replaced Fellaini and the Yak will hopefully be fit to challenge Saha. It's a squad game and its good to finally have some options...
Neither Heitinga nor Bily will start at Fulham.
Moyes will be a first class idiot if he doesn’t play the new boys at the start of the Fulham game. The team has been poor so far and Craven Cottage is a bad ground for the Blues. These new signings are world class players and should be ready to start and do a job.
Don’t wait until we are losing before bringing them on. Think positive and take control of the game from the start. If you pay that kind of money and then don’t have the confidence to play them, then there is something wrong.
There are others in the team who should be burdened with creativity and do not exhibit it. I would play Rodwell in midfield, would be tempted to see Pienaar there until Arteta returns, and Neville at RB.
2. Do not see Heitinga as CM. He has rarely played there. Remember that Jags was touted as a player that could play CM. It didn’t take us too long to work out that he couldn’t.
3. Agree with Dave Wilson (at least on this occasion) that Moyes won’t play both new boys at Fulham. They are both on international duty and will not have had a chance to train sufficiently with the squad. Also, Moyes likes new players to earn their place. Distin was an exception because we only had one fit centre-back at the time he arrived. Bily may get a run out. But Hibbert has been playing well (by his standards) this season so I think he will retain his place.
4. I think Osman does OK in the centre and should act as cover for Arteta as the creative midfielder. A couple of seasons ago, we did well with Carsley, Osman and Cahill as the central 3 of our midfield and I think this should work well with Neville replacing Carsley. So, if Bily comes in on the flanks, it will be Rodwell that loses out.
5. Although Neville may be currently the best option as the defensive midfielder, he is not good enough at controlling the ball to really play there. This prevents us from counter-attacking and also causes hoof ball because we are easily put under pressure in our own half because of lack of control of the ball. Hopefully next season we will have a Banega or a Rodwell who can take on the defensive duties and control the ball and string a few passes together. That will probably be the signal for Neville to be Club Captain next season and allow Arteta to be Team Captain.
This is someone with 50 caps for the Dutch national team, who came through the Ajax academy and has also played in Spain.
I’m no expert on him, but my gut feeling is that he’ll be a damn sight better passer than Neville. Technically he’ll probably be much better and wont hide or shirk the ball.
Personally I’d play him as the holding midfielder with Rodders and Fellaini ahead, until Arteta is fit. Neville to RB, since his delivery is very good.
Based on his performances, I think Rodwell is more than capable of joining Arteta in the middle. If we choose to play a holding midfielder too, then we can hold our own against any team.
For once I think we finally have a critical mass of players who are comfortable on the ball and not liable to hoof it. With Hibbert hopefully on the bench, Yobo is about the only one left with a habit of playing it long. I was impressed with the passing of Distin against Wigan, even some of his long balls, played under pressure, seemed measured and found the feet of our players.
Fact of the matter is it’s a squad game now. Before the turn of the year we have 15 league games, 6 European games and possibly 3 carling cup games. Thats a lot of games for the same 11 players to last through. There will be injuries, suspensions, squad rotation etc to deal with.
A good 15/16 of our players will feature a lot between now and then so no need to get yourself all wound up worrying about how Moyes is gonna line out our team. Its a good thing to have options on the bench, like we did when Fellaini and Jo came on a changed the Wigan game around.
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1 Posted 07/09/2009 at 16:28:26
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Hibbert will be drop-kicked to the bench and Rodwell will be "nurtured" again.