The Mail Bag
A man and his tackle
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As I start to come down off the walls following today's great performance and atmosphere, I thought about what is lacking in our squad to enable us to compete regularly amongst the top sides.
I dont want to be negative, in fact, I treat with contempt all those ridiculous "Moyes Out" type posts but I am concerned about our inability to keep a clean sheet.
Even today, though, we were great going forward and particularly getting around the back of Utd's defence but we still lacked that vital tackle in midfield to prevent the defence from coming under pressure.
I looked at all of our MF players and with the exception of Rodwell and Fellaini neither of whom is a great tackler we are totally lacking a "ballwinner" in MF.
A lot of supporters have gone on about not having replaced Carsley and I think if we are to progress amongst the elite it is something we have to look at.
Fellaini and Rodwell are not bad at breaking the play up and are both good passers of the ball (usually!!) but I still think we need the bite of a Carsley or Neville moment to enable us to compete at the highest levels.
Jay Harris, Posted 20/02/2010 at 14:59:57
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Was perhaps interesting that he was played a lot further forward than he does normally today, maybe he is another attacking midfielder afterall??
We were right to move Carsley on when we did but only if we had a ready made replacement lined up,which we didnt.
Fellaini came in and and did the same thing as Carsley to a lesser degree, i.e. give away unneccessary free kicks.Nowadays he doesnt, therefore is a better player
I may get some stick and I know Bily scored a great goal today but the goal apart his overall his contribution was nil. He has said he is not tired etc etc so there’s no excuse now, he’s been here long enough to know what is required and is just not giving enough for the team
We are now looking at were we might end up this season with a good shout at a European slot and still people are looking what we haven’t got.
God help us. There is no such as a complete side there is always room for improvement but for gods sake enjoy the moment, give credit were due to Osman, Saha and both Centre halfs in particular were magnificent today.
His injury could be a good thing however, as I think Chelski will be looking to replace an ageing Ballack sooner rather than later. All our midfield were comfortable retaining possession today, thats the key to the midfield these days.
Why didnt Moyes play Donovan central from the beginning was my only criticism of a masterful performance.
Comparing Carsley and Fellaini is like comparing a minibus to a stretch limo, they both carry a lot but the latter has a bit of class.
Felli is/will the man to make those tackles, he was playing his best football in Everton shirt just before his injury.
Osman hasn’t done bad breaking up the play since and with Rodwell getting some game time I think we are in safe hands in that department.
I don’t think Cahill was missed too much today, sometimes I think Moyes is too loyal to Cahill, he should be giving more game time to Bily & Gosling who have a lot to offer in attack. Tactically Moyes got it right today but I would like to see him do it on a more consistent basis and rotate the squad a little more now that we have a reasonably decent bench.
Bring on Lisbon...
Hopefully DM will consider that we are now in a position to hold off a bid — unlike when Rooney went — if he is true to the statements he made in the press today...
Prick
Why think defensivly when we can at last win by attacking? Is this not the name of the game?
If you have enough about you around the pitch then defending takes second place.
4th/5th maybe out of our hands but our competiters will be taking points off eachother so why not?
I for one will be screaming untill the final second.
Joe Royle did great for a while. But it was, with respect a different game and unsustainable. Thanks to him along with alot of respect.
Walter, did well. Obviously we do not know how well as we do not know what he was working with. Thanks.
Today, I sat apart from my boys and at the end had to check the roof of Top Balcony.
Tears were welling up as I asked myself whether we are getting close to glory days.
The roof, the ground, the team, the crowd, god I love it and as long as you are screaming Brian, and I am breathing I will love our glorious Everton.
1. Defending starts with denying the opposition the ball - if you’ve got it, they can’t hurt you. With our current options in midfield (Arteta, Bily, Cahill, Fellaini, Osman, Pienaar, Rodwell) all of whom can tackle, pass and move and interchange positions, we’ve got the players to play the possession game. And they all offer a goal threat as well!
Plus, Saha, the Yak and, to a lesser degree, Vaughanie and Victor are all capable of holding up the ball and bringing midfielders into the attack.
2. Our defence has been patched up all season so far. Just having a settled CB partnership playing together regularly for more than a few games would make a huge difference to our goals against tally (I vote Jags and Heitinga). With a full back 4 playing together regularly the whole unit is much stronger.
Also, it’s a team game. You attack as a unit and defend as a unit.
We’ve got CBs who can ’ping’ inch perfect 40-50 yard passes or feed the midfield intelligently if they show for the ball. And we’ve got fullbacks who can interchange with and overlap the wide midfielders.
Up front and in midfield we’ve got players who can close down and harry the opposition, win the ball and go on a run or pick a pass.
Most importantly, we’ve got a squad of players who work hard and play for each other. If we can keep them together and keep the spirit, we can step up to the next level...and for a club that’s finished 6th, 5th and 5th in the last 3 seasons, that means only one thing ;)
Na sorry Jay, the Carsley role has passed it’s sell by date. ’Proper’ teams don’t need one and we are knocking on that door.
You only play 5 in the middle coz you haven’t got 4 good enough to do the midfield job properly, the whole box to box, attack, tackle, pass, move and defend job. Thus at any given time 1 or 2 or more will be in the carsley role. There is a case that when a player gets on in years and loses mobility and stamina that they are still worth their place in the 4 man MF, Robson and Keane come to mind, but do tend to make less of the runs that made them so feared in their youth and thus hang back
A Carsley type player says we are going to try and stop you instead of thinking this is what we are going to do to you.
I much prefer to watch us speading the ball and having a go at sides with some fluid real football.
Nice to see Osman getting support too, he’s been my MOTM in both games this week, getting everywhere, doing everything, including the covering and tackling. He’s even outplaying Arteta, who’s clearly not ’back’ yet, although all this playing time will hopefully help him.
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1 Posted 20/02/2010 at 18:20:29
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