The Mail Bag
Give youth a chance
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For a club in Everton's financial situation, the development of young players must be a priority. One of the attractions of joining Everton should be the fair chance of someday playing first-team football. Frankly, they would seem to have more of a chance at Old Trafford.
In Seamus Coleman and Shane Duffy, we have two good young players who have the potential to become very fine players. What they lack at the moment is Premier League experience. Well, it seems that they won't be getting it under David Moyes. His preference seems to be to pay high wages to rejects from other clubs.
One can only imagine the effect on the morale of Turner and Ruddy that the signing of Carlo Nash had. Much as I admire Phil Neville, I cannot believe that he is playing well enough to keep Coleman out of the side. I would suggest that, had Duffy and Coleman played last night, the result would have been better.
The treatment of young players at Everton is a symbol of the tenure of David Moyes: safety first... second, and third.
Andy Crooks, Posted 17/02/2010 at 05:22:32
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Maybe next time he’ll give the captaincy to someone who is likely to deserve a starting place week in week out...
As for Coleman, well why does everybody thing he is some kind of world superstar all of a sudden.
Ok he had a good game v Spurs when we were chasing the game.
He looked all at see against Benfica (I Know he was at lb not rb, but his defensive positioning was all over the place)
My opinion is that Davey gets to see him far more than we have and he knows what he is capable of and whether he is the best option or not. I therefore will take his opinion on the subject, as he’s not let me down yet!
Saha may be in his 30’s but I would rather see him take on Man Utd then Vaughan or Anichebe.
As for Coleman, dire against Benfica but great against Spurs. Too early to tell which is the real Coleman. All I know is I don’t want to face Wayne Rooney with a youngster from the Irish leagues in defence.
Moyes gave youth a chance against last night, Rodwell had 10 mins and cost Everton dearly with his stupid back pass.
It’s a debatable point to say the least.
In my opinion Neville has been poor all season - by your logic we wouldn’t have been any better if we’d replaced him with a better player - that’s an analysis I don’t buy for a second.
However, he brings a lot on to the pitch that other people don’t in terms of his organisation of the defence and general leadership.
Most would have assumed Cahill could bring some good leadership abilities but we often seemed bereft of inspiration under his captaincy. I think we have a leadership problem in th squad currently and Neville is the one player we do have who can bring that.
That said, Arteta has captained us before and we’ve looked decent. However, he’s never held the captaincy long enough to make a proper assessment.
Hull 3 - 2 Everton
No Neville in this game.
Everton 0 - 2 Liverpool
No Neville in this game.
Benfica 5 - 0 Everton
No Neville in this game. Coleman played.
Bolton 3 - 2 Everton
No Neville in this game.
Spurs 2 - 0 Everton
No Neville in this game.
Everton 1 - 1 Wolves
No Neville in this game.
Everton 1 - 1 Stoke
No Neville in this game.
Man Utd 3 - 0 Everton
No Neville in this game.
Of course we also lose with Neville in the side but we definately went through an awful spell (Oct-Nov) when Everton just couldn’t get a result.
Was it coincedence that this terrible run happened at the same time as Neville was missing through injury?
Is it coincedence that Everton’s recent good form all started when Neville returned? Beating Man City, drawing at Arsenal, beating Chelsea and beating Sporting all happened with Neville in the side.
I’m not saying he’s a great player. In fact he’s very limited but don’t underestimate his influence on the team as Captain. He is a complete professional and has the Man Utd winning mentality.
Both sets of stats - ultimately prove nothing - other than we had a bad result and Neville was in/out of the team...
An honest analysis of his actual performance would indicate he’s been terrible for most of the games he’s played this season...
I would it’s common ground that you accept that terrible performances are not for the greater good...
The OP is wrong though, Everton actually do have a reputation for using youngsters, and being a place where they’ll get a chance, in fact we’ve signed prospects ahead of other clubs because of this reputation. I haven’t seen a right lot of the reserve centre backs, but from what I have seen they don’t look outstanding, exceptional cases. Therefore to expect 17/18 year olds to step into a team and out perform experienced Premier League and international players is bizarre. They’ll still be promising young defenders in three years time, over exposure now could do more harm than good.
As for Neville Ciaran is right. A captain not only should have leadership qualities but also the ability to command a starting place on merit week in week out. He has been shit in midfield and is now shit in defense. No surprise there though really as he is just a very poor player. Deserves to be dropped.
The games you list the big loss was Pienaar not Neville. In the games against Stoke and Wolves we struggled to create chances, I think the teams return to form can be traced to when Pienaar returned to the side in December ,
this is the most ridiculous and ill thought out post i have read in , well, a few days. Moyes and everton dont play youngsters!? Where have you been....oh sorry...i misread it. Its moyes and everton dont play irish youngsters is it? specifically ’our seamus’. I hope when your seamus does break into the team hes fucking mustard because so far quite a few people have him down as the new stuart pearce/roberto carlos/ paulo maldini rolled into one...based on about three games. I reaaly hope he is....but I might not want to throw him in against united / spurs / chelsea to find out
Andy, it is relevant when you post from belfast...you didnt mention anyone else except the two irish lads and I for one would not be throwing them into the team during our defining games of the saeson ’cos ’they deserve a chance’...
Its absolute make bekieve to think Moyes is going to drop two experienced, Premier League, full international footballers to satisfy the whims of a few Seaumus lovers. I can just see the posts on here if he did do such a thing and we got tonked.
I also watched Coleman look slightly suspect against Bate, where Duffy was also fairly inconsistent.
both of them are ok and may be good prospects, but I certainly wouldn’t consider picking either of them over the current player in their positions.
As for Ciaran, well if we had a better player to replace Neville with, then I would be fine with it, I don’t think we have, and as such I would much rather have him in my team than someone else who I wouldn’t be confident about
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1 Posted 17/02/2010 at 13:53:38
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Moreover, last night’s results was nothing to do with any of the players you criticise, it was due to an error by Rodwell being compounded by Distin. So, actually, the problem was due to inexperience by a young player.
Other than that, the performance was excellent and we can count ourselves unfortunate not to be going to Lisbon with a 3 goal advantage.
Oh and let’s conveniently ignore all the players Moyes has brought into the team as teenagers (Rooney, Anichebe, Vaughan, Rodwell, Gosling and they’re just the ones who have gone on to ’make it’.)