Steven Pienaar is in the form of his life, insists David Moyes

, Liverpool Echo , 9 February, 11comments | Jump to most recent

"I think Steven has been excellent ever since we got him back from Tottenham. You see a bit more of a mature player now, and it’s benefiting the team. He takes ownership and is trying to help the team get better. He has done a really good job for us."

» Read the full article at Liverpool Echo

Reader Comments (11)

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

Craig Mills
1 Posted 09/02/2013 at 17:46:14

Great link-up player who gives 100%, I would just love it if he could add a few more goals to his game...

Trevor Lynes
2 Posted 09/02/2013 at 20:12:07

Yes Steven is always giving of his best but that last pass is often wrong and the likes of Man Utd can take advantage. He will need to cover even more ground than usual to keep us competitive.

Brian Waring
3 Posted 09/02/2013 at 20:23:59

Agree with Trevor, it's his decision making in the final third that lets him down for me.

Paul Jones
4 Posted 09/02/2013 at 20:29:21

It's a little bit odd but the headline here and in the Echo post doesn't actually reflect the narrative behind it. Few Evertonians could look at the Pienaar today and compare him with the Pienaar of 12 months ago and believe he is better now.

He seems to have fallen victim to a crisis of confidence, although the fact that opposition teams now effectively double up on our left flank may be the overriding factor in all this.

Perhaps a sustained run from Kevin Mirallas on the opposite flank will give him the time and space to get his groove back...

Michael Kenrick
5 Posted 09/02/2013 at 20:42:33

Paul, you're exactly right... and for me it is so typical of the abysmal journalistic standards promoted in the local press.

The opening paragraph crows "Steven Pienaar is in the form of his career... says David Moyes." — Errr... no he doesn't — at least not in terms of what your dreadful paper actually quotes from the man himself (if true). The headline is obviously completely made up, as if it wasn't obvious to anyone actually watching him play to what is, at best, mediocre form.

Someone a few years back explained that the journo writing the story does not get to pen the headline — that being below his pay grade . Some sub-editor has the responsibility to presumably execute the journalistic equivalent of 'link-bait' in writing an attention grabber to suck the punters in. (Although it doesn't quite fit here, perhaps he wrote the first para as well...)

And why do they persist with this bizarre habit of writing the opening words of the article in ALL CAPS? What does that actually achieve?

Dominic Bobadilla
6 Posted 09/02/2013 at 20:58:25

873: The aim of the online articles is to attract as much traffic as possible.
Yahoo are by far the worst in this regard. Their headlines are virtually always
in disconformity with the the actual content of the articles.

James Martin
7 Posted 10/02/2013 at 13:12:57

Great player unfairly judged by the ridiculous amount of work load the structure of the team places on him. Cover Baines, put pressure on their centre mids whilst also defending his flank, take the ball in ridiculously tight situations and try and come up with some wonder ball either to Baines or through a packed defense to Jelavic. meanwhile every opposition player knows that if you kick him out the game we basically have nothing left as a team. The first half of the merseyside derby is the only time really in the past two seasons that we've played well without him in the team.

For some players in this team if you bring down a few high balls and lay them off to a player 2 yards away that is deemed a world class performance. For some completely abandoning all defensive responsibilities to hit a succession of over hit crosses into the box is deemed world class. Pienaar meanwhile constantly has to turn men, dribble and assist goals, he's got a good return of goals this season and should have more yet he constantly gets stick for a lack of end product depsite finishng with good assists most seasons. top player, and one of the best in our team without a doubt.

Dominic Bobadilla
8 Posted 10/02/2013 at 13:51:31

Interesting perspective, James. I personally think that Pienaar tends to hold on to the ball for far too long. There are times when the orthodox solution is the best. Pienaar always has to try something fancy and this seems to backfire too frequently. Every single game I see him play, he has me pulling my hair out.

Al Reddish
9 Posted 10/02/2013 at 13:56:41

It's like the two stories on the Everton Sky text page. One says Fellaini is happy at Everton and no one from Chelsea has ever spoke to so they can piss off unless they put their money where their mouth is........even then he might see out his contract with us and he has no release clause. The next page down they are saying Fellaini is begging Chelsea to activate his clause in a 'come and get me' plea.

John Crawley
10 Posted 10/02/2013 at 14:33:47

Don't think he's played well this season apart from the odd game. His final ball and decision making has been poor, as has his shooting. He should be scoring and creating more goals for me, as he did when he came back on loan. Same criticism of Osman as well, doesn't create and score as many goals as he should.

James Martin
11 Posted 10/02/2013 at 14:58:25

John Pienaar and Osman have often won games for us by themselves this season, I particularly remember West ham away were we were playing poorly and those two just took over and ran the show. Fellaini is often on the end of a lot of their good work but with Mirallas out and Jelavic off form a lot of onus has been place don those two. Occasionally they look a bit mentally fatigued but over the course of the season they've been in my opinion two of our best players. Take them out the team and you get what happened at Leeds, no one being able to control the game and no creativity. Everton ould play without Baines and Fellaini but I'm not sure we could play without Pienaar and Osman.

Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

» Log in now

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 Talking Points submissions across the site.

About these ads