Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Pressure From The Front

By Matthew   Lovekin  ::  12/02/2012   6 Comments (»Last) After Everton?s recent ?success? of a six-match unbeaten run, which includes victories over the nation?s two biggest spending clubs, David Moyes should be looking at what has changed from earlier in the season.

Personally, there are a number of points that Moyes should be looking at and trying to keep stable.

1. Landon Donovan?s return. Donovan has started in all nine games since his return and despite not yet scoring, he has created seven goals out of the total eleven goals that Everton have scored in that time. That?s an astonishing total of 63% of Everton?s goals have been made by Donovan since his return. In those nine games, Everton have won four, drawn three and lost twice. That?s an average points total of 1.66 points per game which would put Everton 7th in the Premier League table, above Liverpool over the course of the whole season. Unfortunately, I can?t see any way that Donovan will stay or return to Everton once this loan has finished. If Landon Donovan is the defining factor in Everton?s upturned fortune, we will certainly find out sooner rather than later.

2. Steven Pienaar?s return. A number of Evertonians will surely look at Everton?s improvement and point at Pienaar coming back on loan. As much as I like Pienaar, he has only been back for two games and Everton were starting to improve before, particularly with the win over Man City when Pienaar was still at Spurs. He has certainly improved the team, but not the main factor behind Everton?s improvement.

3. Moyes?s mentality. After watching some pretty dour and awful defensive football, perhaps David Moyes finally realised something needed to change. He even came out in an interview not long before the Man City game where he apologised to the fans for some of the tripe served up this season.

When the biggest spenders and league leaders came to Goodison, we finally saw what I had been eagerly awaiting: Donovan and Drenthe starting together on opposite wings. Pace, power and an eye for goal from both sides of the pitch gave us a double pronged attack that not many sides are used to playing against in this modern era. Unfortunately, Drenthe got benched again the next game but Pienaar has come in to have a similar impact.

Perhaps Moyes has finally realised that he needs wingers on the wing rather than central midfielders or full-backs. However, do any fans believe that Moyes can change his long term mentality?

4. Moyes?s tactics. Has David Moyes also realised that he needs players playing their correct positions all over the park or has he just stumbled across a winning formula? No more defenders in midfield, midfielders in attack, full-backs as wingers in 2012. All formations can be interpreted differently, but if Moyes persists with his favoured 4-5-1, he needs attacking support and creativity from midfield along with a lone striker that will run all day and hold up the ball. For the majority of this season, fans have witnessed none of that and the 4-5-1 formation has looked outdated. The 4-4-2 can still work as shown by Man Utd and Spurs, but you need the right players in the right position whatever formation you play. This depends on whether Moyes has any money in the summer to buy the correct players when the loan players go back to their clubs. 5. Denis Stracqualursi. The big Argentine has taken a long while to settle in England. He finally got a decent chance when he started against Man City after Moyes finally appeared to lose faith in Louis Saha. Personally, I think Denis was Man of the Match against City and also got a goal to beat Chelsea. In fairness to Stracqualursi, it?s not his quality that has changed Everton?s fortunes as he is certainly no Messi or Tevez. However, he brings something that is priceless: energy and enthusiasm. He never stops running and chasing the opposition?s entire defence, putting them under constant pressure.

This enthusiasm is infectious. Cahill seems to have upped his game slightly playing behind Denis. We all now Cahill works hard, but he is more likely to do it if he see?s a lone striker working hard in front of him. If the midfield see a front pairing chasing the opposition, then they are likely to pressurise as well, and therefore Denis has created a knock on effect.

Denis has nowhere near the ability that Saha has, but he works a hell of a lot harder. Denis can also hold the ball up really well which enables the attacking support of Donovan, Pienaar, Cahill and even Gibson to arrive from midfield and Everton to start an attack in the opposition?s half.

For all Barcelona?s quality play over the last three years, their success has been attributed to their hard work and pressuring the opposition to win the ball back. I?m not saying Everton are going to turn into Barcelona, but it?s certainly a good place to start; pressure from the front.

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