Season › 2011-12 › News

A gameplan that does not work

Manchester City 2 - 0 Everton

Match Summary

Everton made just one change from the side that beat Wigan at Goodison Park last weekend, although six of them were in action midweek in the struggle to beat West Brom in extra time.

Everton started brightly, swinging crosses in from either side with Rodwell having a rather lame poke from distance too. Baines's first free kick was poor, though and Osman lost the ball, then Baines cut inside but his shot was woeful as Everton totally dominated possession in the first 5 minutes.

A poor defensive header by Jagielka almost let Dzecko in. They inevitably had more possession but were denied space and effectively stymied by dogged defensive work from the boys in Royal blue.

Aguero's first effort on goal came on 18 mins out of very little but he screwed his shot over, as Everton's forays penetrated less and less, while Rodwell went in the book for a sliding tackle on Silva.

Neville switched with Rodwell with the same result: an incident off he ball had the Ethiad crowd screaming after Silva blatantly dived over Neville's leg yet the Everton captain went in Howard Webb's book followed by Osman who tangled with Richards before the half-hour. Yaya Toure was also booked for a late tackle.

City structured something approaching a second chance that Dzecko also screwed over as Everton were forced to stand off a little under fear of more unjust cards. Aguero got his first shot on target that Howard saved well as he was fouled by Dzecko: not given. A poor clearance let Barry have a poke too but Moyes's "keep it tight" plan was holding, just as Everton looked for half-time.

Aguero ran into Baines to more howls but this time no Blues card as Everton let City probe and poke away at a very disciplined Blues defence, with the almost entire second quarter of the game being played in Everton's half.

Everton almost fashioned a chance for Cahill but it was laboured stuff on a rare visit to Hart's goal, and a rather wild cross from Hibbbert before the half-time whistle blew with the Moyes gameplan so far on track. <:P> City attacked with more zest after and Aguero almost forced a goal at Howard's near post before normal service resumed, with Lescott, Fellaini, Coleman and Kompany getting feisty. Aguero was forced to clip one wide from distance.

Some neat work down the Everton left led to a good strike by Osman, straight at Hart, while Howard was well placed to save from a Clichy cross. Fellaini did brilliantly to win a ball that was eventually delivered to Coleman whose hard cross was just too high for Cahill, his header going over.

A gifted series of corners allowed Everton to put some pressure on Hart but Mancini kept at least two attackers up and Everton failed to make use of the space in the City area.

Balottelli was swapped in for Dzeko on the hour as City appeared to become a little frustrated at their failure to break Everton down. Fellaini tried to get a break going but Cahill injured his ankle badly tackling Kompany and he became the fourth Everton booking before Louis Saha replaced him.

Nazri was forced to strike from 20 yards that Howard saved easily and Everton broke rather lamely with Fellaini squandering a good ball from Saha and in the next City attack they finally broke through, an Aguero backheel to Balotelli was deflected wide of Howard's dive by Jagielka's desperate block.

So the gameplan worked for almost 70 minutes, Silva then hitting the post as City smelt blue blood, shots flying in from all and sundry.

Royston Drenthe came on for Phil Neville with 17 minutes left as the Blues became more aggressive in trying to win the midfield. but it was worth nothing when Webb refused to give a free-kick for a blatant Kompany block on Saha, perhaps because he did not want to give Everton a penalty..

Milner replaced Aguero as Drenthe strated to have more impact and Vellios came on in place of Coleman and Everton went full-blown 4-4-2 for the last 10 minutes. An Osman corner came out to Drenthe but he drilled a half-chance over Hart's bar.

Howard had to be alert for a low curling shot from Toure as City won a few corners that kept Everton at the wrong end of the field. Jagielka became the fifth yellow card for Everton. In the last minute, a poor Drenthe mistake allowed City to run at Everton and Milner got the ball in the net to underline the ultimate pointless of Moyes's much vaunted gameplan.

So... the brilliant gameplan, brilliantly enacted by Everton, worked for all but 10 or 15 seconds of the game... and the result? Null points. Voodoo broken.

Quotes or other material sourced from ToffeeWeb Match Report Page

• Full Match Report
• ToffeeWeb Match Page

---

---

Reader Comments (118)

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