It's Time To Drop The Wobbly Jelly For Anichebe

Jelly will be back but at the moment Big Vic looks sharper, faster, stronger and more likely to both create and score goals. He deserves a shot in the central birth while Jelly has a rest and re-focus. Or perhaps they could play together?

Moyes will either think of Jely and his big miss as reason to stick or reason to twist. Me? I'd go with... no, can't even bring my self to say it.

Jelavic is struggling with confidence but still has 18 goals from 36 starts in Prem and FA Cup with Everton.

Unlucky against Chelsea hitting the post and bar with a header that would have been a wonder goal against the European Champions.

Very thin line between success and misery for strikers. Had either of them goals gone in, he would be flying now.

Bet he scores more than Michu by end of the season.

The guy has just one single goal in his last 15 Premiership games.

If Jelavic fails to score in the next three games then half a Premiership season will have passed with only one goal to show for it.

Forget what he did during the honeymoon period last season. Judge him on this season and one goal in 15 games is simply not good enough.

Its time to rest him up and give Anichebe or Vellios a chance. Moyes could even be daring and give Conor McAleny a chance. McAleny is 20 now and needs an opportunity.

Hallam Hope is another youngster who seems to be highly regarded and always score regulary at youth level for Everton and England. Hope turns 19 in a few weeks so it wouldn't be that crazy for Moyes to give him a run out.

Young players like Vellios, McAleny and Hope need games to further their development otherwise they stagnate and then one day they are in their mid-20's with very little experience.

Thats what happened to John Ruddy who eventually had to go elsewhere to find first team football and is now one of the best goalkeepers in the Premiership. Which is ironic because Moyes now finds himself searching for a decent goalkeeper.

Anyway point is there are young players needing a chance and Jelavic has had more than enough chances over the last 15 games.

Moyes is the problem — as he is with all our strikers. He does it, doesn't he — turns great strikers into ordinary players.

Jeli is an instinctive finisher who should be prowling the six-yard box, linking up play and ghosting into the box, scoring goals. Not running the channels playing the winger. He needs Vic to do the donkey work and the goals will come.

But the problem here is not that Jelavic is no longer gettings chances but that he's failing to convert those chances. If Jelavic's goal scoring rate was being diminished because no chances were coming his way then yes I'd agree Moyes is the problem.

But that is not the case. Over the last few televised games Jelavic has had serveral clear cut opportunities to score goals and each and every chance he has fluffed.

Moyes may have asked Jelavic to work the channels more then he's used to but chances are still falling Jelavic's way and he's missing those chances which is costing Everton valuable points.

Rickie Lambert played for Southampton last night and he's the type of player who does loads of donkey work and endless running and yet he's still found the net 10 times this season which is more than Jelavic's six.

No I'm sorry I wont buy the idea that Moyes is asking too much of Jelavic. The simple fact is Jelavic is failing to convert the chances which come his way.

I'm not saying that is right, but he does look knackered out there half the time.

His record is comparable with the misfiring Jelavic and he takes free kicks. You need to factor this in when comparing apples to oranges. The same goes for comparing Andy Johnson's great Palace record against his Everton record. His Palace record had about 8 penalties.

It bugs me that people maintain Jelavic is a natural goalscorer. What are you basing that on? Sure he scored a lot of goals in the Scotish Premier League but so did Kenny Miller and he was a very average Championship player. And yes Jelavic scored a lot of goals when he first joined Everton but have you people ever heard the term Honeymoon Period.

For me personally this is Jelavic's first full season at Everton and the first chance we have had to truely rate him. And so far he is not a natural goalscorer. Not at all.

Remarkably, Jelavic plunders almost all his goals with first-time strikes. He has taken just 47 touches to net 44 goals for Rangers and Everton since May 2011 – and his last 27 have all been one-touch finishes.

Read more: Liverpool Echo http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/everton-fc/everton-fc-news/2012/04/26/the-revealing-statistics-behind-ice-man-jelavic-s-everton-fc-goal-glut-100252-30842179/#ixzz2IkEJHeK4

I think people (me included) still see Jelavic as a goal scorer despite this seasons form cos if he isn't and last season was a fluke then we're fucked. It was a strange feeling last season, going into games confident our striker would score and we could beat anyone. If it turns out the real Jelavic is a 10- to 12-goals-a-season striker then we're back to what we always have been: a good side who frustrate and struggle to score goals.

Play Mirallas instead of Naismith and just watch the goals come.

The problem right now is teams have sussed out Baines and Pienaar and lumping the ball up to Felli so we need to change things around.

Obviously he is not isolated for these one-touch goals. Someone must plonk the ball into his path when he makes a run. The missed sitters we all know about. His hit or miss left foot is giving us all nightmares.

Watching the live game I thought he was knackered but another glance at the recorded match suggested that he still had plenty left. Even so, he was not making runs....Peeling off the last defender or whatever. Why I don't know. We certainly didn't have a Scholes or a Wilshire to slip the ball through. Not in this match anyway. The midfield maestros had a night off. In fact, there were times when the middle of the pitch looked like an empty prairie.

As for an extra striker. Vellios deserves a chance but he is a tall lad and Jags would whack long balls for the full 90 minutes. Mirallis it will have to be. He's pretty sharp and is always a threat.

The team now is seriously out of balance. What ever the question is in midfield Phil Neville is not the answer, nor sadly is he the answer at RB.

When Coleman went off he did the ' give thing ' but the ' Go'....forget it.

Jelavic; Moyes finally got the message, not long after his' miss' he was given the hook. As I said the team is out of Balance, Jelli keeps drifting out left, Pienaar keeps going inside, it was only when Anichebe came on ( never in my life did I think I would ever say that ! ) were the triangles working and even then Jelli buggered it up. Cue hook.

What to do with him now is the question, back in the day he would have a run in the reserves, but now the only ( none ) option is the bench.

Miralles looked what he is, not 100% and will be the better for a few more runs.

How do we cope in a post scoring Jelli world. I would go with Vellios or Vic as targetman and Miralles in the ' just behind role ' and Fellaini in the Gibbson role sod his CL aspirations.

The team seems to be TOO Fellaini / lump / it into the box centric out of balance.

Teams don't need to shut down the Baines A.N. Other axis we are doing this our selves.

Gibbson is the key, serial sick note Gibbson, if he can't do it for 3/4's of a season we need some one who can.

Do I have hope for the window?? I remain unconvinced.

Jelavic is getting his chances and fluffing them, no matter how tired to perceive a person to me, there is no excuse for completely missing a ball crossed into you..... it wasn't fired in but crossed in.

The youth thing.......if they are good enough, they will play....it really is that simple. Name me a youth player that Moyes has apparently held back that has gone on to bite us in the arse?

Ruddy couldn't replace Howard so had to move on for his own good and the lad who states Rooney never played much, have a look at his stats and you will find that he played plenty of games the season before he left.

We have a small squad and no money, we need the youngsters to freshen things up with their energy and enthusiasm.

Are you saying one of the fringe/young players couldn't do better than that useless dime bar Naismith?

"We" don't need to know whether these youngsters can "cut the mustard", and the way to discover the reality of the situation is certainly not by experimenting with them in the Premier League; and definately not when we're looking for fourth place.

The Moysiah and his coaching staff will make the judgement on the basis of the fact that they see them every time they train; and our opinion of their merits has no relevance to anything or anybody except ourselves.

Whether we think the staff are properly qualified, or their opinions are valid is a completely different argument.

Steavey, players don't always have to go on loan first, many do graduate straight to the first team. Ideally, we would have a number of experienced players coming in ready to play, but we don't, which is why I'm advocating more game time for the youngsters.

But ask any Villa fans are they happy seeing kids being beaten every week, and what is that doing to the confidence of these kids. Oh I forgot some of the posters on here were telling us some months back that Lambert was the ideal man to replace Moyes. Maybe if you want to see a bunch of kids get beaten every week he is the man to replace Moyes if he leaves

Sam, that's a ludicrous suggestion!

They have been released and nearly all of them have went to lower league clubs or even packed in footy altogether. Remember that young lad with a massive mop of hair being touted as more skillful as Rooney......where is he now, anyone even remember his name?

If they are good enough, they will get into the team.

Besides Vellios and in part Barkley I can not say that I am pleased with how Moyes has handled our best youth players.

The myth that Moyes and Everton give youth a chance is crap, there is simply nothing to look back and point at.

Early on Moyes did blood Rooney, Rodwell, Vaughan, Anichebe.

But my point is that these last years have yielded nothing when it comes to youngsters.

How can any true Everton fan defend the fact that our best youth players are not given a fair chance to make it in the first team?

Though Aston Villa and Paul Lambert are forced into using most of their youngsters, at least their fans can be proud of the fact that their best youngsters are given a fair chance.

Look at Southampton and how they have done good with their young players.
Ultimately playing young talents is a long term commitment that will at some time pay off.
So why are Everton not doing what they should be doing with regards to their best youngsters, Moyes is in charge of Everton and I think it is time this clubs fans start asking why Moyes does not give youth a chance here!

Some of our youth players are not up to it and I get that, but I want players such as Vellios, Barkley, Junior and Mcaleny to be included in the first team for real.

We simply can not afford to let them rot away in the reserves.