The Mail Bag
Things are looking up!
Comments (12)
I reckon things are looking up. According to my calculations this is potentially our first team squad:
Goalkeepers: Howard & Nash;
Fullbacks: Hibbert, Baines, Neville, Neill;
CentreBacks: Jagielka, Yobo, Distin;
Midfielders: Arteta, Pienaar, Bilyaletdinov, Heitinga, Fellaini, Cahill, Rodwell, Osman, Gosling;
Strikers: Yakubu, Saha, Jo, Anichebe.
Based on watching the Villa game from start to finish “on the box”, after Howard, the first player on my team sheet picking from the full squad would undoubtedly be Heitinga. He gives us what we haven’t had since Lee Carsey left. Plenty of choice elsewhere except for goalkeeper and left back.
My formation = 4-1*-3-1-1. Heitinga is 1*. Fill in the blanks
Laurie Hartley, Posted 02/11/2009 at 06:58:39
Comments
Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer
After a crap season, the likes of Rodwell and Arteta will leave for ’bigger’ clubs and the downward spiral will start.
Howard; Neville, Jagielka, Distin, Baines; Pienaar, Heitinga, Arteta, Bily; Yakubu, Saha.
Rodwell would be groomed to replace Distin and we could, with a fearless approach, challenge any side.
The problem is the coach, who cannot see beyond Osman, Fellaini, Hibbert and Cahill... who are collectively favoured by him through misplaced loyalty or an inability to admit that, in the case of Fellaini, he bought the the right player for the wrong job.
You have forgotten that Cahill is our talisman and in previous years has given great service, scored goals, and other stuff. Oh, yes, he upsets the other teams.
Neville has to play when he fit, well, because he has too. He is our captain and leader and there is always a place for him, and wasn’t that some tackle on Ronaldo - it ignited our season!
Osman has to start when fit, or almost fit, because he is our best dribbler. He should have been playing for England by now, but some don’t appreciate his ball skills. He scored against Fulham too! At Fulham!!
I know that Hibbert has his ups and downs, but he is a local lad, and is made of the blue stuff. He might not be great in the air or that good at passing, but he is the best, or maybe second best, tackler at Everton. Most wingers don’t always get past him.
So, that changes your line-up a tad to something like this:
Howard
Hibbert, Yobo, Jagielka, Baines
Neville
Osman, Arteta, Peinaar
Cahill
Yakubu
The rest on the bench.
That’s the team. Expect to see that line-up MORE THAN ONCE!!!
Be afraid, be very afraid!!!!
Is he about to have for him what will amount to a major sea-change and go from a tight but IN-flexible 4-5-1 to a still tight but more flexible ( not too much mind ) 3-3-3-1 which will / could go to 6-3-1 via 5-4-1 onto 3-3-3-1 then 3-2-5. Which is in my mind how 4-5-1 should be played and in effect doing away with the numbers fixation.
Reasons, going back to the ’a’ and the ’b’ up top... c) He, Moyes, has in my mind, a tendency to not know just what his best 11 is OR how to play them and...d) sometimes stumbles on to a semi viable system, but only when he has to due to nowt else left to him, 4-6-0 Vs the rs.
The key to this is Heitinga and Rodwell, fulfilling ’a’ and ’b’ with the bonus of being able to pass a bit. so not a return to the Carsley Neville (very) rocky horror show in MF.
Baines as the wingback, one WB only as per ’a’ giving...
Howard
Jags, Yobo, Distin.
Heitinga, Rodwell, Baines.
Pienaar, Arteta, Bily.
Yak or Saha
And the possibilities for endless application of ’b’ Heitinga to cover defensive wide right, Baines to push up, Rodwell to hold 4-1-4-1
Well you can hope, hope for Dour Davey to see the light and even a return to the Halogen days (intended) of proper, flexible, joined-up, along-the-ground, pass-and-move footie.
And no I don’t know what would happen if we had have injuries, maybe some of the highly paid prima donna’s on the bench would have the gall to actually EARN their £30k or £40k and put in a controlled self sacrificing disciplined 90-odd mins for the good of the team, formation and squad.
’Yes I know it’s not your natural game but go out and put a shift in your over paid lazy twat’.
Mathew - the fat lady hasn’t sung yet. The point is even if we did lose Arteta and Rodwell that still leaves us with 7 midfielders to pick from. Also, as Harry Catterick said to Alan Ball when he sold him to Arsenal (broke my heart) "thats football son". What I will be really interested to see is whether David Moyes can get this group of players playing to their full potential - same question as Derek Thomas is posing.
I’m puzzled. Not by your formations, although for a horrible minute I thought I was back at school doing algebra again, but just what is a ’Halogen day’?
Please enlighten me....
Add Your Comments
In order to post a comment to the MailBag, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.
Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and MailBag submissions across the site.
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
1 Posted 02/11/2009 at 15:29:01
Report abuse