VIEW FROM THE BLUE

Everton's Attacking Struggles Continue

By Lyndon Lloyd   ::  06/11/2011

Newcastle United 2 - 1 Everton

Everton fell to a sixth defeat in seven games in all competitions as Newcastle United continued their impressive start to the season with what was their seventh win of the campaign so far. That they could afford David Moyes's incohesive outfit the majority of the possession in the second half as they searched in vain for an equaliser and still hold onto all three points owed much to the Blues' lack of attacking threat but they also profited from typically poor refereeing by Andre Marriner.

Everton were a goal down early in the second half when Dan Gosling, a one-time hero on the Blue side of Merseyside, diverted Louis Saha's goalbound shot past the post with his arm, apparently out of the sight of both the referee and his assistant because no action was taken for denying the French striker the equaliser.

Had that shot crept inside Tim Krul's left-hand post or the Blues scored from a penalty, it would simultaneously have flattered them and been just reward for assuming the upper hand for long periods of this game against an unbeaten team lying third in the table at the start of play.

Moyes's side were constantly undone, however, by slack passing, a frustrating lack of movement, poor individual performances and that now achingly familiar combined lack of creativity and firepower in the final third of the field.

Of course, the real damage had been done before they'd really even settled into the game. A scrappy opening 12 minutes in which neither side seemed capable of taking charge of proceedings had seen Seamus Coleman squander the only clear chance when he bobbled Saha's flick-on across Krul's goal and well wide of the far post before calamity struck at the other end.

Danny Simpson whipped a wicked cross in from the Magpies' right flank, Tim Howard advanced off his line to claim it but apparently without giving John Heitinga a shout and the Dutch defender stuck out a leg to try and divert the ball behind but could only steer it into his own net. Given his lack of resources, keeping it tight and being hard to beat is a central tenet of Moyes's strategy these days but his team had shot themselves in the foot.

Everton's response was slow but, after another 12 minutes had elapsed, they did start to ask some questions at the right end of the field with Royston Drenthe, back in the starting line-up after missing the Manchester United defeat through suspension, finding Jack Rodwell with a left-footed cross and the young midfielder forcing the first meaningful save from Krul with a glancing header.

A minute later, Drenthe's trickery took him to the byline where he pulled the ball back to Leon Osman but he shot straight at the goalkeeper when the Dutchman's great work really deserved a better finish. And Saha had a couple of chances to improve on his recent scoring success, first when Phil Jagielka picked him out perfectly with a long ball over the top that left the striker in acres of space but he ballooned over with his weaker foot, and then when he dragged a poor shot wide from 20+ yards.

The Blues' hill became a mountain just before the half-hour mark when a wonder strike by Ryan Taylor doubled Newcastle's advantage. Rodwell's clearing header off a corner went only as far as Taylor on the Magpies' left and, with Drenthe slow to react and close him down, he had all the time he needed to unleash a dipping shot from the corner of the box that flew over Howard and into the far corner by way of the underside of the crossbar.

2-0 was so nearly 2-1, though, just three minutes later. Terrific work by Coleman, who had temporarily switched flanks with Drenthe, set up a shot for Phil Neville but when the captain's scuffed effort fell to Saha, he smacked a left-footer off the base of the post. Coleman collected the rebound and crossed low across the six-yard box for Drenthe but he drilled a shot into the side-netting.

Everton changed the complexion of the game significantly, though, in first-half stoppage time when Tony Hibbert's attempted cross was deflected behind for a corner. Drenthe swung his kick into the danger zone where Rodwell had the fairly simple task of powering a header inside the post to make it 2-1 going into the interval.

The second half was set up, therefore, for the Blues to complete their comeback if they could just create something meaningful from the possession they were enjoying. Indeed, the home side barely had a shot on goal to trouble Howard in the entire second 45 minutes, which left Everton huffing, puffing, squandering possession and generally failing to carve open enough chances aside from Gosling's hand-of-God intervention in the 54th minute.

The absence of Marouane Fellaini, suspended for one game after picking up his fifth booking of the season last weekend, was keenly felt in the Everton midfield which looked a much poorer outfit without him there. Heitinga was mostly awful after moving out of defence five minutes before half-time because of a reoccurrence of Neville's hamstring injury that and saw Sylvain Distin come into central defence and the Dutch international was rightly withdrawn after he was booked for a foul on Marveaux.

Tim Cahill replaced him and instantly gave Moyes's side a more potent look with some nice movement and decent passing and he forced a low save from Krul with his first shot on the hour mark. But there were too many players in Blue putting in sub-par performances, with passes going astray all over the place and individual players making far too many poor decisions.

With no consistent partner down the left, Leighton Baines's form is visibly suffering and he had as bad a game as any this season. Rarely venturing forward and now regularly failing to beat the first man with his set-pieces, he is a depressingly diminished attacking threat.

Osman again offered next to nothing, improving slightly when he dropped back into central midfield later in the game, Coleman betrayed his lack of technical ability on the ball on a number of occasions and Drenthe was his now usual mix of offensive catalyst ? but unable to carry the team on his own ? and defensive liability.

Chasing the game with increasing desperation, Moyes had the option of throwing on Denis Stracqualursi, Ross Barkley or Diniyar Bilyaletdinov but instead he chose James McFadden, a player he sold four years ago for half as much as he paid for the Russian because he wasn't deemed good enough. It was no surprise that the Scot made no impact on the game at all save for a poorly-executed cross with four minutes to go that drifted harmlessly beyond the back post.

If this performance confirmed anything it was just how toothless this Everton side is. Most of it is now the legacy of the failings of the Bill Kenwright Board and the asset-stripping that the mounting debt has necessitated. But the manager's own tactics and player selection choices must also be factored in to any analysis of the malaise that is gripping this team.

A victory for Wolves tomorrow over Wigan would leave the Blues one place above the relegation zone and deepen the anxiety. Moyes will have a fortnight to ponder his next move before the home game against the Wanderers but, unless it involves some significant changes in approach or some shuffling of personnel, it's hard to see where the goals and the points are going to come from.

Player Ratings: Howard 5, Hibbert 6 (McFadden 5), Jagielka 6, Heitinga 4 (Cahill 7), Baines 5, Coleman 5, Rodwell 6, Neville 5 (Distin 6), Drenthe 6, Osman 5, Saha 6

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