Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

What if...?

By Shaun   Sparke  ::  27/09/2011   165 Comments (»Last) Imagine if Moyes had the following squad of players at his disposal when they were all in their prime: Southall, Stevens, Ratcliffe, Mountfield, Bailey, Van den Hauwe, Harper, Richardson, Reid, Bracewell, Steven, Sheedy, Heath, Sharp, Gray. What do you think would be his first choice eleven?

Now I Know that this is pure fantasy and the realist and dogmatic will argue that this is a futile post and perhaps you have a point, but imagine what the outcry would have been from weather beaten blues such as myself if Kendall would have picked this starting eleven for a tricky away game at Old Trafford:

Southall, Stevens, Ratcliffe, Mountfield, Van Den Hauwe, Harper, Bailey, Richardson, Reid, Bracewell, Steven.

Playing Trevor Steven as a makeshift centre forward and flooding the midfield with hard-working grafters and defensive minded players. No place in this team for Sheedy, Heath, Sharp or Gray! We would have screamed the roof off and demanded Kendall?s head on a plate.

Ah, I hear the cry from the new breed of Evertonians that football has changed and has supposedly evolved. Well, the last time I checked, the goals are the still the same size, they still play eleven v eleven, there is still only one ball allowed on the pitch, they still play on grass, we still wear blue, and we are still called Everton. The only thing that has really changed is the attitude of some of the fans who think that a top ten spot is a good season!

We have no money; we are doing the best that we can... we just can?t compete ? and we are armed with knives in a gun fight. Excuses, excuses... I am sick of hearing them.

David Moyes is generally a good manager, there is no doubt about that; he gets his players to run their hearts out nearly every game and he commands enough respect from them that they follow his gameplan to the letter. They were not cowards on Saturday ? they worked extremely hard and did what was asked.

But isn?t that the problem here? They were asked to defend for their lives, to put their head in where it hurts to stop the opposition from scoring, they were asked to tackle like terriers, deny the opposition any space, close down, stop crosses, get close, win the second balls, show pride in the blue shirt. All of this they did with aplomb.

But were they asked to make overlapping runs down the wings, to attack in packs, to move the opposition defenders about with intelligent runs, to look for the attacking option, to make defence-splitting passes and to shoot on site of the goal?

The evidence suggests that they were not asked to do any of the attacking options presented here. If they were, then how come they followed his defensive instructions to the letter but not his attacking instructions?

The answer is simple: his team selection suggests that there was no attacking intent.

Is this what we have come to expect? I don?t like it, I would sooner watch Rodwell busting his lungs trying to get past Lescott and Company and shooting at the goal rather than stopping David Silva from touching the ball.

Maybe it's just me, maybe I am expecting too much. I might not have played the game at such a high level but I have watched enough games to know that if you don?t shoot then you don?t score. It is as simple as that.

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