COLUMNIST KEN BUCKLEY
From my seat: Blackburn (H)
Comments (38) : On taking stock of our opening line-up, it filled me with dread to note that we started with one keeper, one right-back, two left-backs, four centre-backs, two lightweight midfielders and a striker, with the strength of the bench being drawn from the youth team. This from a team that last season finished fifth in the prem, semi-final of the Carling cup and quarter-final of Uefa Cup. Everyone seemed to agree that last season's haul could and should have been better with a greater depth of squad in quality players and that included both manager and board.
Now what happens? We let players go from an almost threadbare yet talented and quality squad and end up at the opening fixture unable to put out a balanced full team of experienced pro's and adequate bench. We have had three months to bring in the players so obviously needed yet ended up with none and putting out a makeshift team.
Now I know there have been distractions but am I alone in thinking that some thought should have been given to team building as, no matter what happens in other directions, the on-pitch strength of the club is paramount to what happens in all directions; in my view, this seems an abrogation of duty by the club as a whole.
Is the club skint? Did the manager set his sights on players that were really ungettable for our club as it stands? Or, heaven forbid, are we seeing the decline of a great club? The next 15 days will be crucial in determining the season that lies ahead for I fear that without the introduction of (at the very least) five players of sufficient quality to ensure a season-long midfield presence plus a striker, then I think we may be in for a long hard season.
As far as today's game goes, we lost it with three individual errors: Rodwell giving the ball away; Lescott switching off in most uncharacterisic way; and a frustrated Yak giving away a needless free-kick.
I also thought we operated with NO central midfield and I don't blame Jags or Rodwell, who tried tirelessly throughout, but they are just not Premier League quality midfielders that make a difference to both team and result for a team with ambitions of moving on. In consequence, the back four were under more pressure than usual and in the end this was going to play a part. In fact I thought our midfield today made Carsley look world class.
There were positives in today's game such as our goal that made it 2-1 with a move of quality that saw Ossie feed the Yak who produced a weighted pass to Arteta who gave just enough time to the Yak to hare into the box and get his head onto Arteta's pinpoint cross.
The introduction of Jose Baxter for Nuno Valente, who had played in two positions after he swopped with Baines at the interval, saw the lad give this fan hope that we have got a good-un in the near future. It was almost a dream debut when the Jag's cross was about two inches too high and he headed just over. Rodwell looks to be the business too but not just yet as he needs a little more nurturing and easing in in less stressful situations.
Not all doom and gloom yet but, without significant reinforcements, the defeats against very ordinary sides like Blackburn may well become commonplace and woe betide us against the big boys. The gauntlet is thrown down to Manager and Board.
I have to say that, in many years of following this great club, I just cant remember such a mess on Opening Day, even when we were signing donkeys, we were at least signing the right donkey in the right position ? unlike this season, where we start off looking as balanced as an ice skater on a tightrope.
Over to you, decision-making suits; please make my season. I am paying a fortune that I can hardly afford on the back of the expectations you have given us that at the moment seem to have been cruelly thrown completely away. Still fifteen days is time enough... isn't it, Ladies and Gentlemen??? UP THE BLUES
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Actually not true. We lost because of poor defending from our player of the season (for last 2 seasons) Lescott. Very unlike him. Let?s hope this serves as a wake up call for him otherwise Jags will be back there soon.
Very disappointing performance and result and I can only hope Moyes actually saw the lack of squad depth we have. 7 defenders on the pitch - a disgusting situation that we should not be in considering our standings last season.
When players like Yak and Arteta get in the groove(see 2nd goal) I know we can mix it with the best of them but we need more players like them.
1st game of the season, not an ideal start but it?s early days. WBA, Pompey, Stoke and Hull to come. At least 9 points needed from these games.
For me Carsley’s contributions were paramount to our success and the fact that we have bought noone to fill his role is the real disapointment.
The board should be ashamed of themselves to allow this to happen. Lies after lies and no transfers even looking likely. Are we balancing the books for a sale or are we truly skint. The new ground saga cannot be blamed for this performance or lack of senior players - only BK and his fellow board members. When you have the top 4 supposedly within reach then why have they got no ambition to continue where we left off last season?
It is going to be a long hard season and the prediction of 10th or 12th position is a dream at the moment - that is the reality and ambition shown by the club - OUR CLUB - THE PEOPLE'S CLUB. A sad blue in Australia.
Watching from the Park end and Jack Rodwell?s poor pass in the first 5 minutes should have been one nil to them. Long balls from Phil Neville and most of the back four, showed the lack of creativity in the midfield, basically bypassing it! Lescott is a class player, was a bad mistake for their second goal but I think the back four never had a chance with the poor midfield.
I admit there was some good moves from the boys in blue but Blackburn did out play us on the day but they are a mid table side at the end of the day, we should be beating teams like them. Dread to think what will happen if we played any of the top four with the current squad.
I am a firm believer of giving youth players a chance but 8 players and like Tommy Shaw said 8 defenders in the first team. I think it is worrying. The club has to pull the finger out to sign new players for depth otherwise kiss goodbye to Europe and the progress we made from last year! We could end up bottom half the table this season if it stays as it is.
This may sound daft but whether he has had the funds to do so is, in my opinion, irrelevant. I believe it is now time for Moyes to decide whether he wants to remain at Everton Football Club or not.
Our midfield was dreadful in the 1st half - Jagielka has not suddenly got better and Rodwell is composed but lacking in experience. Things got better in the 2nd, but we threw away a lead.
The defending was shocking - only Yobo was at the races and Lescott played far too casually. If he wants to plays in his favourite position, he has to play with absolute concentration.
As for playing seven defenders etc., that’s all down to the current predicament of the club. I’ve always thought BK, being a theatrical impresario, lives in cloud cuckoo land and is not the right person either bright or rich enough to be running the club.
As for Moyes, he probably needed to settle on deciding earlier on what he wanted from his very limited budget. Quality or numbers? Of course, I understand the need to bring in the right sort of player and how difficult it is in the inflated market, but here we are - start of the season, we have neither quality nor numbers. Our main priority should have been a replacement for Carsley - and it must be now.
It promises to be an interesting season, if nothing else.
If by invective you mean criticism of Kenwrong and Moyes for enabling EFC to become the paragon of crapness, then you are missing the point - like a lot of people on this site. Still, it’s only a game eh???
Highlights below for those who can bear to put themselves through it!
http://www.ifutbal.com/videos/11811/everton-vs-blackburn-full-highlights
Lescott a square peg?? yes! well not exactly Sq. he has lost his ’centrehalf shape’ and is still ’leftback shaped’ or in his case today no shape at all.
It’s all too easy to blame the lack of proper midfield for putting him (and yobo) under pressure. When a player misses it and puts his hand up for offside, it’s a subconsious admission of error, please sir, it was me sir, waiting for the saving whistle that will never come, ar ay sir school boy comments for school boy mistakes. 4/10 must try harder.
What of young master Rodwell 7/10 considering the circumstances. Well into their half he had a ball fired across to him, at pace from Baines (?) he skillfully killed it down to Jagielka a few yds away, who, being the sq. peg centrehalf he is made a hash of it and down they went and scored.
Players almost always revert to type, passers pass, shooters shoot and dribblers dribble, that why both our LB’s got in each others way, they can’t help themselves.
Even at his early age Rodwell is showing his type, the number of times he was popping up infront of the back line in the ’Carsley’ speck, thats his true position.
Do you know what a footballer looks like??
Leon Osman?? Another pudding.
Thank fuck i never renewed my season ticket coz the shite getting dished out season after season is laughable.
Mugs.
The lack of depth was shocking but what we all expected after the disappointment of the summer’s lies and hollow promises. I fear we will see far more games worse than that one yesterday unless we get at least four quality additions to the squad right now and that doesn’t include useless additions like Alan Smith who would add nothing whatsoever to the squad. I think the final result was deserved, oh and if we were looking at paying £15m for Love why not offer about the same for Santa Cruz who in my mind is the player Man U should be going for instead of Berbatov.
I cannot believe how much we have self-destructed as a club this summer. What an opportunity for better players to come to Goodison - 5th best team in England (the table doesn?t lie), Euro footie secured again, a great young manger with ambition; however, players have decided not to join our great club and go elsewhere ? Why?
Questions all Blues need answering. No doubt a very heated EGM coming up early next month.
The main difference between us and the so called ?big four? last season was pace and movement and the ability to turn defence into attack in the matter of a few passes but he hasn?t done anything in the summer to address this. Surely the likes of Wright-Phillips and Lennon should of been his likely targets and why allow Andy Johnson to leave when you haven?t got a suitabie replacement lined up? The club proudly proclaim to be "The People's Club" so I think they ought to start telling the fans exactly what?s going on and why this summer has been such a fiasco.
Wasting his time chasing Moutino and M’bia etc, why didn’t he sign Gera ? Bullard is up for grabs, I’m sure Benni McCarthy and Scharner would have joined us ? and Fernandez probably just got fed up waiting for the phone to ring .......... like some great conspiracy to wreck the Club the whole thing is rotten to the core, if Moyes couldn’t see this happening then he’s more of a fool than I think he is already !!!!!!
I walked out of that ground yesterday and alls I could think of was certain fools telling us Billy the fucking lying gobshite will sort it.
I was fuming and felt worse than the times we were close to relegation because we had such a great chance to challenge the top four and it has been blown, it does not matter if we sign twenty players this week the damage has still been done, it?s only one game but players need to gel and spirit takes time and at this moment our squad spirit looks shite and I fear for next week big time.
I would love to hear from Billys apologist but it looks like they are in hiding for fear of posting on here and reading the backlash.
It is embarrassing when 38,000 blues are standing up cheering the introduction of a 16 year old we have never seen, hoping he is the new saviour, could you imagine such a reaction to a similar introduction at old trafford or the shite?
Our club is the laughing stock AGAIN and you sit there with your smug and carefree attitude, well I am fucking gutted and so are thousands more.
David Moyes and Bill Kenwright are the men I’m talking about, the fact that they couldn’t buy one player is a joke. It was quite obvious that when Pienaar got injured our team would be unable to beat Blackburn and they have failed to act, there’s no exuses really.
Carsley left on the last day of the season, the fact that we’ve failed to replace him is disagracful.
And lets no overdo his contribution to the team, he was a decent player who done a job but he’s not a world beater nor is he that hard to replace. Any half decent defensive midfielder who could do the basics would be able to replace Lee, the problem is we have tried to replace him with a centre back and a 17 year old learning his trade. Hopefully we do get this Stephane M’Bia in as we need someone who is actually a defensive midfielder, at the moment we don’t have one at the club.
The boos yesterday was aimed at the club from top to bottom, we have been let down and they where fully desererved. The players are least to blame, they all trying to do jobs in unfamilar positions and that is hard. The management of the club is to blame in my opinion.
1. Which decent player would want to sign for a club where the manager had not extended his contract. I agree with the earlier poster who said the manager MUST make a decision and either sign now or walk. Remember, this will also affect the existing players such as Arteta, Yak and Cahill who are arguably now our most important assets.
2. If the failure to sign players and hence the manager’s reticence to sign a contract is due to a lack of investment then a vicious spiral has begun. The investment must materialise for the dead-lock to break or the manager will need to be replaced by someone willing to work without cash for transfers.
3. As a heavily indebted club with operating cash flows which barely cover the operating costs and the interest bill, we will have to sell players eventually to repay the debt unless we produce consistent top 6 finishes and extended runs in the the cups. Either the vice like grip of the club’s debt is broken or we have a manager willing to commit himself to the club with the aim of producing such results without significant investment.
4. Signing any old players is not the answer, even if they are signed early. Financially, we cannot afford further mistakes in the transfer market. This is partly because cash has been wasted by manager’s past and present and no investment from the club’s owners over the last 10 years has been forthcoming.
5. We signed some truly horrendous donkeys early on in the summer of 2005 and only finished 11th partly because of the goals from a certain Tim Cahill returning from injury propelled us on a decent run (remember 1-0 away to Sunderland).
5. I think it is inevitable we will have to rely on the young players this season and in the seasons to follow. We cannot compete with the top 6 consistently with the current ownership set up. Our peers - Tottenham, Aston Villa and Portsmouth - are well supported by their owners.
If given less monies (as we all know now or suspect)his utmost priority was to bring in the 5-7 players that we need to finish in the 5/6th position. He has done neither . A total dereliction of duty.
We all knew that new big signings and any investment in the club was dependent of destination Kirkby and since this has been called in we will have niether as we are so far away now as being an attractive proposition to any potential investors.
So for all those fans out there moaning that we are going nowhere please shoulder some of the blame for this as you are now as much responsible for this shambles as the shite board we have who at least were trying to take the club forward with the best option they may have had.
David Moyes and the players we have at our current disposal were probably looking forward to new investment and stadium but this has now been taken away albeit possibly temporary but probably permanent.
The demise of Everton football club has probably started as soon as this statdium debate was called in I hope not!! But at the moment I can't see any new signings on the horizon, a manager who is probably one of the best young British managers in years not signing a new contract, and a team made up off so many defenders it's not funny and we still concede 3 and at Goodison to!!
I just hope we don't get slaughtered at the weekend away and can sign some half decent players before the deadline as, if not, we would surely start to look like a possible relegation team and then I am afraid everyone including the fans should shoulder some of the blame.
Oh and yes I was a yes voter and I know it was not the Ideal solution but it was the only one feasible and not just crap made up by a useless city council that fails Everton for wearing blue and not some shitty red colour.
The squad is clearly under manned but at least there is that sprinkling of quality - we just need a bit more of it (unlike in the Walter Smith days when we had no quality anywhere in the squad).
I for one did not miss Carsley. I thought Rodwell did a lot of things that Cars could not do. He has great touch, makes himself available and had the confidence to pass the ball forwards. His pace and aerial ability looked good as well. He also has the technique to shoot and volley from distance. Looks a real gem to me (despite a couple of nervy errors early on).
Of course we need 3 new centre midfield players but I would hope that Rodwell now sits in the pecking order comfortably above Jags or Neville.
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1 Posted 16/08/2008 at 22:48:21
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