The Mail Bag
Pace
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Having watched last night's attempt to restore pride to EFC, I have to say that I am bemused by many of the comments on here: firstly their two goals came from a combination of poor defending and luck, the first a rebounded pass and the second from an official who clearly hasn't read the offside law.
Nevertheless, criticism of Fellaini seems to me to be unwarranted — some of his passing was shoddy and he tended to not follow through towards the end but he worked tirelessly — and much more so than many of the team. To my mind the defending was the big let down... but I digress.
Watching the match last night the one key point which struck me was that EFC have absolutely no pace whatsoever... none, not a scrap, not a jot, not a dickie bird (in fact Dickie Bird would probably add to the team for pace).
The only player with any turn of speed out there was Baines; Everton were slow in defence — not helped by poor positioning — but they couldn't have caught a sodding cold, and up front they looked laboured and heavy.
I think Bilyaletdinov looks like a good player, but he has no pace, Gosling looks keen and has a bit of potential but no pace, the Yak looks like he is walking home from the pub when he runs and Jo just looks plain lost.
The net result..? Their players won every 50-50 ball, snaffled up balls into (or at least close to) the box and their wingers/ attackers creamed the back four — in fact on that note, about the only defender of any note was Tony Hibbert, good positioning, good tackling and should never have been carded.
Oh what I wouldn't give for the team to have a nippy midfielder who can run with the ball for a bloody change...
Rupert Sullivan, Posted 06/11/2009 at 16:15:28
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1. Pienaar. For me, over 10 yards, he’s as quick as anyone (injured as he is now is...); I’d say he’s the only player in our team who can really beat a man, but to try and justify other players’ pace.
2. Yakubu. Over the first 2/3 yards, he is very quick to the ball. He may not be lighning quick over 50 yards, but turns defenders and gets past very well.
3. Rodwell, is very quick, and runs well.
4. Yobo is quick, and I think this helps for the mistakes he makes.
5. Hibbert. He does have pace, he never gets done by wingers for pace.
6. Baines. As above.
7. Saha. Still quick.
8. Jagielka is quick in my view too.
However, Distin, Bily, Osman, Cahill, Anichebe, Jo, Gosling are all slow by Premier League Standards.
And I’d say that although we have "quick" players, we have no-one (other than Pienaar perhaps) who can put a ball past someone and then run round them.
Bily should be much faster as an inside forward; he’s not a left winger.
Sadly, the longer that anyone of those is out we are going to struggle unless in January we actually buy someone who could offer us something a little bit different. it would help the whole team out if we had someone who could pass the ball well and create opportunities. The Yak and Saha would thrive off some decent service. Sadly Cahill, Fellaini, Rodwell & Gosling are not those types of players. Good as they are.
Cahill needs to be playing further up the field trying to play off someone and at the moment, due to injury problems he is having to play further back and he's just ineffective there.
Should we write off Europe (ie, we are likely to qualify still — but should we bother?), and focus on getting someone with some imagination into the team in January that with Pienaar & Osman could help to make us a better proposition?
Could help to make up for the fact that Arteta is realistically not going to help us until the tail end of the season as he is out until Xmas — and no-one knows what form or ability he will have when he gets back in.
There was an earlier post about a lack of pace, which I also agree we could do with, but in fairness we've always had a lack of pace in our team since the days of probably Kanchelskis. And at points last year (prior to the Arteta injury in January) we were playing some of the best football I'd seen in ages. So more important would be to get someone with the ability to actually play creative, attacking football.
Pace would be a bonus — but someone, anyone, who could "play a bit" would be useful. As unfortunately our team is full of workers at the moment and it's not working.
Also on a seperate note — just seen the news on Jags as well. You really don't get any luck at all do you when things aren't going right!
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1 Posted 07/11/2009 at 05:33:38
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