Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Unlock Osman

By James   Martin  ::  06/12/2011   49 Comments (»Last) Leon Osman was anonymous against Stoke. It wasn't because he's lightweight, rubbish, goes hiding, too slow or whatever else the hate brigade comes up with. It's due to a serious tactical deficiency that is costing us games and is the root of our attacking impotence.

In the last few games there's been countless times when Fellaini has picked the ball up from the defence and Osman has moved into space offering a forward pass. Fellaini never takes it, he is seen to be keeping possession by passing out wide too early to Coleman or Bilyaletdinov who are practically on top of their own full back. Osman then offers them a ball infield but they never take up that option, it's either back to the defence for a hoof up the pitch or back to Fellaini and the whole thing starts again. Lots of possession football, lots of nice passing... zero penetration, zero supply for Osman or Cahill, and the widemen barely ever being played into good positions.

The odd time we did play bilyaletdinov in further up the field we looked threatening and Baines could make a legitimate run beyond him allowing him to get the cross in. How many crosses a game do Coleman or Bilyaletdinov get into the box? (Not rubbish hopeful ones from the halfway line.) They are not bad players (okay, in Bily's case, he's not a bad crosser) yet they never get the opportunity. Our sole attacking threat comes from Baines going on solo runs to get the supply in (by which time the whole defence is back and in shape) and this leaves our defence unbalanced.

Fellaini's obsession with picking up the ball off the centre-backs then looking to make all the play himself is just negating any attacking intent we have. There is an obsession in keeping the ball around the back six, letting the other team retreat before thinking about a forward pass. Through trying to monopolise possession, Fellaini is robbing us of goalscoring threat. I like the player: strong on the ball, good in the air, and good in possession... there's just no speed of thought, it's either a monotonous pass sideways or backwards, or a forward laser blasted at Cahill or Saha with their back to goal that usually results in them coming back inside their own half to control it.

When Rodwell plays with him, it's even worse because he doesn't even offer the forward ball, he just sits in deep with Fellaini always offering the sideways pass, keeping the ball until we run out of ideas and it goes back to Jags to hoof it up or Baines to take on all 11 men.

Heitinga was actually trying to play the ball out of defence against Stoke yet, as he ran forward, Fellaini would just run straight towards him to take possession. Heitinga is good on the ball; if Fellaini made a forward run, he'd create space and take men away with him. That's why it's so easy for teams to close us down... because no-one runs beyond people, because they've got to filter back to see any of the ball. They're always receiving it facing their own goal with an opposition player right on their coat-tails. Why does Fellaini have to head every one of their goal kicks too? The centreback does this for every other club and they head it funnily enough into the central mdfield area for a battle for possession. Fellaini heads it into the area he should be standing, where instead the opposition have a two-on-one and are immediately in at our back four.

We are short of strikers but that alone doesn't explain why our forwards are pretty much anonymous in all the games we play. Saha is a good player, we know this, as is Cahill, and Vellios. They can all score, yet how many times did the last two touch the ball against Stoke? Unless we had Drogba in his prime taking down 40-yard raking balls on his head, beating two men, then lashing it in from 30 yards, who could Everton have playing up front? The problem is in the supply ? not the strikers. If they were missing chance after chance like that donkey Carroll then fine, blame them... but how many do they get a game? When was the last time Saha got played through one-on-one with the keeper, when Cahill got a header or a tap-in in the 6-yard box? It's not because they're on the decline... the supply just isn't there at the moment.

Moving to 4-4-2 would solve this if we then went Route One, get the ball up and try and keep it up there, but with the players we have we should be better than that, and if the midfield can't function as a five, how can it as a four? Perhaps it's due to a lack of confidence, people not wanting to play the more difficult ball, maybe not trusting Osman's or Cahill's touch. The point is the formation and players have worked in the past. Cahill and Saha had great goal scoring records, Bilyaletdinov didn't have any problems before he came here, Coleman was more penetrative at right back than he is at right mid. The problem lies in the shape of a ?15M lump of negativity in the heart of the midfield. Moyes's greatest failing is being unable to admit that Everton's best form was before he came and when he was injured. Admitting Fellaini's negative influence on the team would be an admittance that he wasted ?15M.

Of course its not the only problem in the team... but, for ?15M and £70k a week, we should have a midfielder that can find a forwards pass a bit quicker than he does at the moment, the rare times he even looks forward. Players like Osman and Bilyaletdinov would actually have the space to play like they have shown in the past if Fellaini would do this. The front five are all taking the blame for our poor form, but they've all got goals in them and have proven it throughout their careers, apart from when Fellaini (and recently Rodwell who seems to be emulating him rather than being the driving force of old) is playing with them.

It comes to the point where I'd rather have Neville and Osman playing centre-mid than Fellaini and Rodwell. It will get shouted down by most people but the two of them have played there in their careers and have been successful. They wouldn't set the world on fire but they know what their jobs are, we'd be better defensively and have more about us going forward. Rodwell and Fellaini are like watching paint dry, their record in the team is absolutely atrocious. Instead of buying another striker who'll just be starved in January, sell Fellaini and buy someone who can really play holding midfield by themselves... magically, the goal scoring from that we always show when Fellaini isn't in the team would come flowing back.

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