VIEW FROM THE BLUE

Frustration with toothless Blues mounts

Frustration is the theme at Goodison Park these days as Everton clocked up their seventh game without a win with a goalless draw at home to Wigan Athletic, one of those "should win, must win" fixtures that are slipping by week by week and with them the Blues' European hopes.

That David Moyes's side deserved to win this game by a wide margin is beyond debate and yet, having controlled long periods of the match and passed up a number of chances to do just that, they were rescued in the dying minutes by Tim Howard who pulled off a crucial save to deny Ronnie Stam what would have been a cruel winner.

Everton should havebeen out of sight by then but a combination of over-elaborate approach play, poor finishing, fortunate defending and good goalkeeping conspired to keep the scoresheet blank and see the players booed off at the final whistle.

More worrying was the manner in which all their impetus seemed to vanish after Steven Pienaar went off with a recurrence of the anke injury that forced him off against Chelsea last weekend. With the South African almost certain to leave and Mikel Arteta a shadow of his former self right now, it's hard to see where the creative spark is going to come from without him.

No doubt buouyed by the second-half showing at Stamford Bridge, Moyes persisted with his time-worn 4-4-1-1 formation but kept faith with Louis Saha despite many predictions that Jermaine Beckford, the scorer of the equaliser against Chelsea, might get the nod to start.

And Everton set about their task in the manner in which their expectant home faithful would expect, Tim Cahill bringing down Phil Jagielka's raking ball forward in the first minute but just failing to get a true connection to guide it past the on-rushing Ali Al Habsi.

Seamus Coleman smashed a half-volley over the bar from 25 yards and Saha came within inches of getting a toe to Steven Pienaar's cross before the first stunning miss of the game arrived in the 11th minute. Leighton Baines swung a free kick in from the left and Marouane Fellaini was left all alone to meet it. Unfortunately, he planted his free header over the bar when he really should have buried it.

20 minutes later, Jack Rodwell found the target with a header and the ball was destined for the back of the net until Ben Watson's instinctive back header diverted it over the crossbar and Fellaini's tempting low cross across the face of goal just eluded Cahill shortly afterwards.

Though the Blues had played well enough in the first half, there was still a tendency to "over-egg the pudding", and there was growing frustration emanating from the stands as move after move foundered as the players tried to play one pass to many in and around the penalty area.

Pienaar had clearly got the message early in the second half and when a chance opened up to unload from the 25 yards. the South African seized it, his arrow-like drive producing a diving, two-handed parry by Al Habsi. That sparked a 15-minute spell of incessant pressure from the home side that perfectly illustrated their inability to put the ball in the net and summed up much of their season thus far.

A flurry of corners ensued, one of which Cahill just couldn't toe past the 'keeper after it was taken short and Pienaar had whipped the ball into the near post. From another, Jagielka tried to flick home Baines' cross but it ended up in Al Habsi's arms.

A beautiful move, arguably Everton's best of the match, in the 52nd minute ended with Saha backheeling into the path of Cahill but he blasted a right-foot shot wide before Pienaar split the defence with a pass to the Frenchman and he was denied by the 'keeper with a shot with the outside of his boot.

A minute later, Cahill's towering header bounced agonisingly off the post; a minute after that, Coleman found himself in acres of space but shot straight at Al Habsi and Pienaar skied the rebound into the stand behind the goal, passing up a great opportunity to finally break the deadlock.

With an hour gone, Moyes made the expected change of removing Saha in favour of Beckford but then found himself having to make a second switch within five minutes when Pienaar pulled up lame and Victor Anichebe took the field to a chorus of boos. (The Nigerian had reportedly rejected a bumper contract extension earlier in the week.)

And from that point on, the Blues' attacking unit looked to have been badly compromised because they were visibly worse from that point on. Fellaini should have been the obvious candidate to step up and assume "playmaker" responsibilites but he didn't offer nearly as much inspiration as a player of his calibre should. Nevertheless, Beckford actually had the ball in the net within four minutes of coming on but his "goal" was disallowed for a very tight offside decision.

With 20 minutes to go and their game-plan to that point just about intact, the visitors started to come into the game more and Diame could have put them ahead when he found himself with just Tim Howard to beat but with Jagielka breathing down his neck, he scuffed his shot badly and the Blues survived. Another suicide pass by Phil Neville across the front of his own defence then let Hugo Rodellega in but his effort was saved.

At the other end, Rodwell flashed a left-footed effort a yard wide from 25 yards and Beckford's attempted curler was easily gathered, but Everton's best chance in the last few minutes would have fallen to the former Leeds striker had he not completely failed to control Baines' cross. That would have left him with a clear shot on goal and a chance to become the late hero again but he took his eye off the ball.

Instead, that honour looked destined to fall to Stam in stoppage time as Wigan broke quickly when a Baines free kick was blocked at the Wigan end. Though Coleman was clearly fouled in the build-up, the referee took no action and Stam was in, but Howard's reflex save tipped the ball past the far post to preserve parity.

Things are clearly not right in the Everton camp right now and the boos that accompanied the manager and players down the tunnel will have delivered the fans' verdict on a record of three paltry wins from 17 games. Sure, had one of that handful of gilt-edged chances gone, the picture would be looking a little rosier but a 1-0 win over a team in the bottom three would have merely papered over the increasingly large cracks.

Moyes will point to his side's profligacy in front of goal as a means to apportioning the bulk of the blame to his players but what is either the manager's intransigence or his lack of imagination appears to these eyes to be the biggest problem.

Faced with a striking problem from the get-go, he has shunned virtually every opportunity to try something different with his starting line-ups. None of Saha, Beckford or Yakubu have really looked comfortable leading the line as the lone striker, but the Yak has done it better than anyone so far and yet he is watching helpeless from the bench these days while Beckford struggles to adapt to the top flight and Saha continues to look well short of his best.

Beckford's running and movement would make him the ideal foil in a two-striker formation with the right partner but Anichebe, once he'd moved inside from the left, was clearly not that man. That's left Cahill to shoulder the main goalscoring burden but his upcoming absence from the team will force Moyes to mix things up because the Australian is the reason why he sticks so doggedly to the one-man-up-front strategy.

Moyes admitted in his post-match interview that the shape of the team was all wrong after Pienaar went off, and yet the man he himself dubbed his "secret weapon", Magaye Gueye, a player who looked really promising as a wide man in pre-season and in the League Cup, remains frozen out of the first-team picture, and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov is similarly stagnating on the bench.

There comes a time when it becomes obvious that sticking to the same tired tactics and formations just isn't working. Moyes should have worked that out in September but the October purple patch gave the illusion that all was well again when results since have demonstrated otherwise. Whether he will respond or just plow on remains to be seen but his team is stuck in a rut right now and needs some inspiration.

Player Ratings:
Howard 7, Neville 5, Jagielka 7, Distin 7, Baines 8, Fellaini 7, Rodwell 6, Coleman 7, Pienaar 8 (Anichebe 5), Cahill 7, Saha 6 (Beckford 6)

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