Fans Comment
Neil Pearse

It's the players, stupid!
17/09/05

1. We desperately missed Arteta.  He is the only current outfield player who can put his foot on the ball, make space, and find a colleague with a creative pass.

2. Hibbert, Weir, Bent, Kilbane, McFadden, and Ferguson are AT BEST Premiership squad players rather than regular starters.  Davies and Osman unfortunately may be in this category too, but I would give Davies at least more time (is he fit?).  Cahill just needs a good rest.

3. The defence is actually NOT the problem.  They were overwhelmed on Thursday as Dinamo realised that we were NEVER going to score in open play, and so carried no threat.  Martyn, Yobo, Ferrari, Krøldrup, Valente (when he settles in), and Neville are a potentially decent (and mobile) defensive unit.

4. With Beattie and Vaughan unfit, we simply have no strikeforce (and Beattie and Vaughan are of course unproven, but I would argue of much higher potential than Bent and Ferguson).  I wonder whether Moyes was secretly relying on Vaughan to get him through to January?

5. It is now obvious that Moyes failed BADLY by not securing another midfield player and a striker in the close season (just imagine Thursday with Scott Parker instead of Davies, and Andy Johnson or Robbie Keane instead of Bent).  We have to pray that AvdM is the real deal as an attacking force (to put together with Cahill and Arteta).

6. 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 is utterly irrelevant.  We do not have the quality players to make EITHER system work well. (If 4-5-1 is such a problem, how come Chelsea are top of the league?  Because they have abundant quality in Duff and Robben and Drogba et al.)

We will now struggle until January.  If Moyes, supported by the Board, does not 'buy big' in January, we will at best become a lower table relegation fight club again.

Until then, unfortunately we simply do not have the players so there is not much we can do. We have to revert I suspect to a 'dogs of war' defensive mentality until then, because that is the only thing our current squad is capable of (bring in Ferrari immediately as a quality defender, welcome back Carsley as soon as possible to fight in midfield).

As the saying goes: you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. With our current players, that is where Everton are now.

Neil Pearse

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