Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

The half-way point of the Season

By Michael   Kidd  ::  05/01/2012   9 Comments (»Last) I?m writing this after the Bolton debacle but this is not a mach report ? you can get one of those from a newspaper or Ken Buckley. This is just some thoughts on our first nineteen games of the season (nineteen to go ? exactly halfway), in the context of several seasons of relative underperformance and the well-catalogued financial woes that seemingly make us unable to compete at the top of the table. These comments are also partially influenced by a lot of what I have seen posted on Toffeeweb, both by columnists and regular readers who respond to columns and match reports.

The first aspect that warrants comment is the ?hoofball? aspect of our play, that is sometimes exaggerated but is often evident and was particularly so last night against Bolton. I think everyone will acknowledge that creative football requires the person making the pass to have creative attributes like vision and technique but it is also necessary to have a teammate in place to receive the pass. That requires creative movement off the ball.

It struck me watching Jagielka playing for England a few months ago that he always passed the ball to another white shirt and yet, for Everton, more often than not he is hoofing it down the pitch. That suggests that his Everton teammates are not showing for him and that was evident often in the Bolton game. At one stage both Saha and Straq were standing stationary in the centre circle with one of our players on the ball further back. Many of the dreadful balls out of the back last night (one thinks of Neville and Hibbert in particular, but this was also the case for Howard?s poor clearance that almost let Ngog in) were due to the fact that there was nobody in a good position to pass to.

When Arteta was sold I was one of many who thought that it wasn?t a bad piece of business ? he had been below par for some time and was playing competently but not unlocking the door. Now I?m told by an Arsenal-supporting friend of mine that he is one of their star performers and, in his words, is almost as good as Fabregas. Even allowing for hyperbole, how much of that is due to the fact that Arteta?s new teammates are allowing him to look good? Now is movement off the ball something that is innate to a good footballer or is it coached? Or is it something that is innate that is coached out of players because they are required to station themselves unnecessarily defensively?

The second comment concerns the defence. There seems to be endless debate about the relative merits of Jags, Heitinga and Distin. The majority viewpoint is that Heitinga is not very good and should be shipped off. This is someone who played for a decent, defensively-tight Holland team that got to a World Cup Final. Granted, he might not be as good at last-ditch blocking etc as others, but he is good on the ball and, for the most part, finds his man. (For Holland, he almost invariably found a teammate when I watched him in the World Cup, less so for Everton, but see my comments above!) I think they are all decent defenders and I rate Heitinga.

I think that many of our defensive problems this year (and in recent years) have been down to the defensive shortcomings of the midfield. However good your defence is, if too many people are running at you without being closed down or tackled (this was happening last night), it is going to be difficult containing the opponents. Despite having two ?defenders? in front of the defence last night (one when Heitinga went back), Bolton had far too much space and time in front of the back four which enabled them to get behind us almost at will. Had it not been for some poor finishing and good saves from Howard, we could have lost that one by four or five. There have been numerous other examples of this in other games this season. Fellaini can?t get back from injury soon enough because, in my view, he does a good job of this. Neville, for all his stalwart service in the past, is not the answer.

My third point is about Leon Osman. This guy really gets a hard deal from ToffeeWebbers but I think he has been our best player this season by some way. It was a major blow for him to go off last night and I hope he is not hurt for long. I will be the first to acknowledge that he has his faults ? the main one being how easy it is to muscle him off the ball ? but he would get into most teams in the Premiership on current form and is, at the moment, our main creative force, without doubt (excepting Donovan, who has not done enough yet to warrant comment).

5-4-1 or 4-4-2? Please put this tired debate to bed, people. It?s just a formation and one is not inherently more attacking than the other. What is more important is that square pegs not be put into round holes (Heitinga and Neville are NOT midfielders) and that the mindset is more important than the position that one is playing in. Also, if you have six strikers standing still waiting for service from clumsy midfielders you are going to wait a long time for goals. Limited creativity from the midfield, but also not enough movement off the ball (see above) and (seemingly) an overly-defensive mindset. Whose fault is this?

Strikers. This is stating the obvious but ours are not good enough. I have little to add to what others have said but it still sticks in my throat to see how well the Yak is doing for a poorer team. Talk about his attitude all you want and apparent breakdown between him and Moyes but that is man-management and that is the job of the manager. If the relationship broke down, fingers should not only be pointed at the player.

My final two points are not obviously interrelated but they are to some degree. We are (and have been for some while) short of pace and just so tedious and dull to watch. This season we have someone with pace and the ability to do something special in Drenthe but we hardly see him. Why? Perhaps Donovan will help for a while, but he is not that quick.

Not only is there an absence of pace in respect of players? speed on their feet, but the play is so slow and turgid that I think this is why we have so much difficulty breaking teams down. Against West Brom, even though we won, our build-up play was dire. There were flashes last night of better stuff from Osman and Donovan, but the final touch was not there. If the players are not quick enough there is not too much that one can do, but surely the predictability and slowness of the general play is down to coaching?

That?s enough for now, I think. No doubt there are other things that could be said but this is what springs to mind for now. Hope it is food for thought.

Reader Comments (9)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

About these ads