Defensively all players move accordingly to the position of the ball. The full-backs tuck in to help the centre-backs and the wide midfielders drop back to cover the sidelines. The defensive midfielder sits just in front of the two centre-backs. There is a left-footer at left centre-half and a right-footer at right centre-half. Every player knows their place at set-pieces. Even during attacking play, the full-backs overlap the wingers, the central midfielders move accordingly to the play and the ball is passed the correct way to pull the opposition around.
Everton?s only mistakes this season seem mainly to be individual errors that are hard to compensate for. Howard has made a couple; Jagielka, Fellaini, Arteta, Pienaar have all made mistakes that have led to not just goals conceded but unfortunately points dropped.
Everton are probably playing the best football under Moyes. We are playing reasonably well, creating chances but not being clinical enough in front of goal. Surely this is just the strikers misfiring and being off form? This is again another case of individual errors. Goalkeepers and defenders making individual errors lead to goals conceded; strikers making individual errors lead to not scoring enough goals, but tactically there is not much wrong.
Unfortunately, I don?t believe this to be the case.
Perhaps Moyes has been too meticulous in his planning. The team is so well drilled that there is no margin for error, defensively or attacking except for individual errors. This margin for error is not just a good thing but also a negative. There is no individuality, no creativity, basically no skill or room for a genius.
Our main creator has been forced to play so deep as a defensive playmaker to keep the ball moving. I?m sure Arteta is happy to play the ball five yards sideways all match, but for £75k a week, he needs to be having more of an impact on our games and be forced to play further up the pitch where we know he can do some damage. Arteta playing as a defensive playmaker in Arsenal?s team might be ok where they have a luxury of attacking talent, but we can?t afford that luxury and Everton need to make the most of what we have.
Traditionally, the creativity comes from wingers in a team. This should be even more important in a 4-5-1 formation than in a 4-4-2 but Moyes plays with a full-back and a central midfielder on the wings, that?s when Osman and Anichebe aren?t fit ? another central midfielder and a striker! I know money is in short supply at Everton, but I can only remember Moyes buying one winger (Van der Meyde) in eight years of being in charge. How many central midfielders, central defenders, full-backs has he bought in that time?
Our lack of creativity in those eight years from the wings is down to Moyes alone. Even if Moyes thought that some of those potential wingers were not good enough or don?t run for 90 minutes, surely that would still be better than a full-back and central midfielder? Van der Meyde only did one good thing in his time at Everton and that was that cross for Gosling?s goal against the RS, but what a moment that was. Ok, McGeady, Etherington, Pennant, Kightly, etc may not have been good enough to grace the blue of Everton, but they might have given us more chance of winning a few more games than being concerned with not losing games as much.
Whatever happened to the likes of Gascoigne, Kanchelskis, Limpar, Sheedy, etc? Players that may have had their flaws but also a touch of genius, a piece of magic that would make spectators stand up and get excited, a touch of class that would bamboozle an average Premier League defender playing for the likes of Sunderland, Wolves and even Blackpool!
Moyes seems to have gotten so concerned with steadying the Everton ship and making us hard to beat that we have almost forgotten how to win a game, certainly against quality opposition. This is where Moyes has reached his managerial level: a manager that can make a team play above their level, do well on a shoestring and make a decent side.
However, he will never be a Champions League quality manager, he doesn?t have that spark, that touch of genius that separates the excellent from the good; he will just be a good solid manager, and Everton epitomise Moyes?s characteristics now. Everton have reached their peak under Moyes: falling just short of the big teams, just short of the Champions League, just short of a Cup win, and that?s because we need that extra bit of quality that Moyes doesn?t have because he is too busy studying his football manual.
I hate to see Spurs doing so well recently, but that?s because Redknapp has got two playmakers in the team, not one, but two!!! Van der Vaart is a world class player playing in his best position as playmaker with no restrictions, then Modric following up as an attacking midfielder! Add to that, two flying wingers in Lennon and Bale (yes he is a winger not a full-back) and you have five out and out attacking players on the pitch! Moyes's mind would explode!
Everton have one isolated strike... even if we had Drogba, he would struggle in our system. For all Cahill?s ability and superb form this season, he is not a playmaker, but is playing as the only supporting player to our lonely striker. Therefore, who is going to create our goals? Our main creator who is almost playing in the back four? Our right full-back playing right-winger or Pienaar, who for all his skill and endeavour, is being played out of position and has very little end product in terms of goals and assists. In fact our best creative attacking player this season is our left-back!
Sunderland go to Stamford Bridge playing 4-4-2 and win 3-0. Everton go to Brentford playing 4-5-1 and lose, as well as playing Blackpool, Bolton and Wolves and only getting draws. Moyes needs to be more positive and ambitious and go out and try to win games.
Credit where it?s due, Moyes has assembled a top quality squad, many of whom deserve to be playing in a top 4 side. Unfortunately football isn?t played on paper, it?s played on grass and now Moyes has got a great squad and he has spent about £90m whilst in charge, he now needs to deliver and get the best out of the players.
Heitinga is being played out of position, he is a great centre-back so play him there or sit him on the bench as third choice, if he doesn?t like it then sell him as he is one of the few sellable assets we have, being a World Cup finalist and all that. As mentioned, Arteta is being played out of position which is all Moyes?s fault. We need to get the best out of our so-called best player, so play him as a playmaker á la Van der Vaart, Sneijder, Ozil, etc ? also known as Cahill?s position.
Cahill has to stay in the team as he is one of only a few good points so far this season. Therefore, play Cahill either as a striker, as our strikers don?t know how to score a goal, or as an attacking midfielder which he was originally, á la Lampard, but we need more creativity and can get this by pushing Arteta forward.
Moyes needs to try something different, not just because we aren?t winning games, but because opponents struggle to deal with something a bit different, like a player that likes to take an opponent on and try to beat him. I think Moyes has conformed too much to the football manual and needs to input a bit of originality into Everton to get results.
Insanity: ?Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.? ? Einstein.
Genius: ?Someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight.? ? Wikipedia
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As fans we seriously need to look in the mirror and accept that we will never have a £20M-rated striker, but we do have some players capable of scoring shed loads, sooner rather than later. If we don't believe, then honestly who the hell will?
NSNO is closer now than at any time in the last 20 years.
Neither of us should prematurely get carried away in the euphoria of the moment because lurking out there are even cleverer people than us and they will no doubt enter the fray with all guns blazing.
This post of yours is as good as I have seen on this site and I am glad to say I agree with just about everything you say. As usual, not sure it will actually mean anything to those that make the decisions... but Superb!!!
What is the 5 minute sideline lecture to the sub's for? More evidence of the coaching manual. I actually feel sorry for the strikers. They don't get anywhere near as much playing time as Cahill but are possibly given instructions to make space for him!
And the constant mention of Arteta's salary is totally irrelevant. It's a requirement of the position to play forward passes, not how many pounds a week he's on!
Watching the likes of Spurs in the CL reminds me that certain managers have embraced the change in top level football, whereas we are still Luddites by comparison. Yes, we did make the CL a few years ago (somehow) but that side was quickly exposed in Europe, wasn't it? ? unlike Spurs who have progressed to the knockout stages.I feel truly indebted to Moyes for stabilising the club but we need a spark both on and off the pitch to kick on. We're now playing much better football than of recent years but it's all too SLOW. Does Moyes see this? Is he powerless to do anything about it because pacey players of genuine quality cost the Earth, or is he determined to do it his way at a much slower, less risk taking pace?
Is it just a coincidence that under David Moyes we have never had a striker banging in goals?
We need to put our chances away, end of story.
If you class the two qualification games as being 'real' Champions League matches, that still leaves Moyes record standing at played 2, lost 2. Certainly not the record of a "Champions League quality manager" is it? Unless the barometer of quality is falling flat on your face at the first hurdle.
Andy Johnson's been mainly injured with Fulham; he scored 10 from 36 in his first season and hasn't played much since. (Note: have Everton lost money on his injury ? was it not appearance related?)
Our abject failure this season is a result of, as it has been every year recently, David Moyes's summer ineptitude. He signed away his independence and to a certain degree his integrity for £3.5 Million a year.
Is it your view that without a "serious pot of money" we shouldn't bother? There are sides above us with less money and less support. Without the money excuse. which you and sadly many Evertonians are happy to give him , David Moyes is an underachieving, defensive-minded, safety-first, relegation-fighting coach. He has done a job here and he really should move on.
Numerous European trips, visits to Wembley, 4th, 5th, 7th place finishes in the Premier League. Would we have managed this under any other Manager given the financial 'backing' Moyes has had? Okay we're not winning the league, or anything else for that matter but do you honestly believe we're in THAT league? To anybody who does, please get real!!!
Everton are on a similar financial footing to the likes of Bolton, Blackburn & Wigan, and well behind teams you'd like to think should way behind us (Villa, Sunderland, dare I mention Portsmouth?).I don't deny Moyes has made mistakes & I agree the biggest at the moment is the Heitinga/Arteta midfield combination, but compare our recent performance to our financial equals in the Prem & ask yourself who's had more 'success' in the recent past? Also, where would/will be be without David Moyes?
Get used to him because, as much as I believe he (BK) is the major problem at the club, even the current Chairman knows he won't get as much 'bang for his buck' under anybody else!
We started the season a 'form team' which raised expectations of some, not me as my glass is always half empty. but I think we should ignore the media hype and remember we are Everton Football Club and we are skint. His hands are tied by financial constraints the further we fall the more difficult it will become. He needs decent money as will his replacement. Which brings me onto... #40 MatthewCoyle's Burnley team were rapidly heading for the trapdoor when he defected, the Bolton team he inherited will be mid-table come end of season which is what matters not where you are in November. As for Poyet, nah not having that for a minute.
It was similar to Villarreal's formation when they knocked us out of the Champions League qualifiers two years later where Riquelme was the playmaker with the pacey Forlan & Franco up front. If you want Arteta to do this we need two fast strikers who can finish and few ?combative? midfielders.
Do you remember who played in midfield for Villarreal aside from Riquelme? Marcos Senna and who else? Riquelme was at Barcelona before Villarreal, he didn?t get on well... there were too many other players that were similar to him there too.
Fulham too played a bit like this under Hodgson with Dempsey and Zamora staring and Danny Murphy pulling the strings. Is that what you want? That?s not Cahill territory; you would have to get rid of him. There is not so much in the way of aerial balls to strikers played in this system. And Pienaar and Osman and Bily would also have to go for being too small and/or slow.And you say Cahill can?t be removed? (don?t get me wrong: I think he should have been captain for years) ... Cahill thrives on late arrival into the box against a deep but static defence, so somebody has to be there before him occupying two centre-backs ? read the Yak, for instance (or Marcus Bent, James Beattie or Andy Johnson in the past).
Therefore they aren?t getting the ball so much in killer positions, are running into channels a lot, and don?t score as much as they could. Then the strikers get accused of playing crap, as above. I think Everton had it too good in the 80s with all those scoring centre-forwards. We had a 4-4-2 system that fed them though. The supporters are spoilt. The game is different now though too. Cahill needs a supply too in the air. That?s why Arteta looked so good on the right. I don't know why people decided he would dominate the center of the pitch. He could put it on Cahill?s head and Cahill knew when he was going to do it. Arteta never really feeds lots of killer balls to Cahill on the ground. Maybe that one day against Aston Villa, the 4-1 away game, in 2005? I haven?t seen them since.My conclusion is that you are right about Cahill ? he can?t play with Arteta as an advanced playmaker. So sell Arteta or move him back to right side? Ferguson can be this ruthless. Moyes won?t be though.Perhaps the solution is get rid of them both? Maybe Everton need to find a new balance?Arteta is no deep forward. It will have to be the diamond formation and 4-4-2 for him to have a chance to succeed as a deep playmaker.
For me, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the system we are playing. After all, it is also played by United and Chelsea. All we are lacking is a striker able to put the chances away. We are struggling, as our players that chip in with goals (Osman, Anichebe, Rodwell, Fellaini) have not been playing. Our other Talisman who chips in with goals, Arteta, needs dropping. I would hope that the next transfer target is a striker, this should be priority over the right hand side.
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