Blues' Attack Frozen Out Again

Agree entirely with Lyndon's last point. The squad needs freshening even if it's a couple of loans. Pienaar has been poor the last few games and even Ossie had a poor game tonight. We need to be able to change things around and there is not enough options on the bench. As others have noted teams are starting to learn how to close our left side down. A midfielder and attacker would be my priority.

One key player promptly takes his place at the treatment table.

FFS!!!

This was dire stuff really. The better second half shouldn't kid anyone. We need to beat teams like Southampton if those expectations are to be even remotely satisfied. I know its hard. We have done brilliantly to get into this position. Great work by Moyes and the players, superb support. But what's the point if its all going to drift away into nothing, again? Take the bloody gamble EFC. Spend that £22m Felli money now, or at least half of it. Take the risk, he's off in the summer if no CL so give it a go. It's simplistic isn't it ?

Typical footy fan amateur view of life? Maybe so but somehow it just feels like a managed risk not a mad gamble. Sell JH and Gueye if at all poss. Shake it all up and give Moyes this chance to get us into the top four. Bill, I can't see u doing it but I'm asking and I'm pretty sure I won't be the only one after tonight's pathetic first half as frankly a bit more of that and its a season of what could have been.

Why oh why did I have to be born an Evertonian? At least I wasn't manufactured!

Biggest disappointment for me this season has got to be Jelavic. I honestly thought he would get 30 goals this season. I can't believe the ass has fallen out of his game so completely.

I felt sorry for any neutrals watching that display tonight, never mind the 3,000 who made the trip south. The players should be ashamed of themselves after serving up such a lacklustre performance.

WBA next under the Goodison lights, then the Villa at home. Surely 6 points is achievable from these two games, and then the belief that 4th is still possible will return.

My own feeling is that the squad is not remotely capable of finishing 4th and that Moyes realises this and has now gone to his trusted strategy of not losing rather than going for wins at all costs. This is not a criticism btw because I feel that given our resources we still do incredibly well.

As you can also see, as time goes on, we are not going to get outward investment... so what we see now is what we have to live with. All-in-all, it was still a decent point at a place where we typically don't shine. Fabulous support for a Monday night in winter.

Second half I thought we improved with Anichebe coming on.

Another clean sheet... but we need an urgent replacement for Jelavic. We cannot keep on relying on him with this current form of his.

It's okay to say he will get better. In the here and right now, we need someone to step up and take his place or at least play alongside him.

Can we risk not playing him? Think of it this way, would playing young Vellios up front really be any worse with the state of confidence Jelly is already in?

We need to urgently win matches. Anichebe has proven he is a great impact sub and that's about all he is. Vellios has to be given a chance... maybe it might make Jelly buck his ideas up.

If Jelavic needs competition for his place, and I think if we can't bring anyone in, then it has to go to Vellios; we have nothing to loose but more to gain if he starts scoring... We are in this business to win matches, forwards score goals; if a forward is not performing, we need to bench and replace him until he proves he is back in form again.

Really tired and exhausted from these lack-lustre performances and the large amount of draws. Unable to finish games off... why can't the midfield chip in and score?

We are absolutely inept at the moment in front of goal. The manager needs to take action now... not keep on relying on a forward who couldn't hit a barn door.

Best 11 fit every week, we'd be right up there but that obviously will never happen and we just don't have the depth of others.

I won't over-analyse last night, no escaping that it was a poor performance by this team's standards BUT (time for glass half full moment), we didn't lose, which is something we seem to have acquired this season. Tottenham drew, Arsenal lost so no real change in league position. Although an opportunity missed against so called lower opposition, this is the time of year the teams at the bottom come out fighting.

Southampton worked incredibly hard to close down space quickly, have not lost in 6, drawn 4 of the last 5 and were emotionally charged given the week's events. Excuses, excuses I know, but perhaps some perspective as well. Cue barrage of counter-arguments and abuse!!!!

I don't buy the idea that Moyes gets all his strikers to just work the channels instead of concentrating on scoring. At the start of the season I believe Mirallas was getting in his way or not passing to him enough and the chances didn't come and after a while of not scoring it's affected him.

In all honesty, we either need to bring in another striker, midfield playmaker or just drop him.

It's all well and good pointing the finger at Jelavic but if we're leaving him isolated up front because we're playing an 8-1-1 formation, he's feeding off scraps. Like strikers who have gone before him, Moyes is ruining Jelavic.

We're struggling for goals all season and what type of players is Moyes looking at this transfer window? Another fucking defensive midfielder and a central defender! Fuck me and people moan about the lack of respect and press coverage we get.

At least everyone can stop panicking about Moyes leaving. There's no way he's going to a 'top club'.

Now we can all call Jelavic and start praising Anichebe. It was Anichebe's 150th game last night - he is averaging 2 games per season. But of course lets get rid of Jelavic.

Last night was disgraceful. I have argued consistently that Moyes is not a psychological manager. He does not seem to push the players when other results have an affect on us and in many games this season we have looked frightened - sadly against poor teams, QPR, and we looked terrified last night.
But the main thing is that we attack one player and leave others, who have played for many years, alone.

The midfield was dreadful last night. Osman and Piennar were woeful.Could not pass except to Southampton players. I have never seen a player fall over as often as Osman.
Moyes continues, seemingly forever, with his favourites but long term sticks to his safe 4 or 5 players. We do not seem to be a club that know how to move on, to develop.

Their full back last night, Shaw, looked positive, exciting. He is 17. Could you honestly see him doing so well under Moyes.

We got off to a good start this season playing exciting football. I said early on "I wonder how long Moyes will put up with this".
Not long?

We have to beat West Brom now but I'm sure they will be thinking they could pinch something at our place. Still, we are fifth and I would have taken that after 23 games with only 3 losses and 4 points in front of Arsenal and the Shite.

Look at our midfield of Neville, Osman Pienaar & Naismith - they must have the worst goals to games ratio of any midfield at a top ten club.

We have reverted to type I'm afraid, and the going gets very tough after West Brom and Villa at home.

Bolton will fancy their chances on Saturday, but a cup run may give us our confidence back.

We are now desperate for a couple of new faces, and a bit of competition for starting places. There are too many players who's place in the side is guaranteed, that's half the problem.

Last night was poor, Pienaar and Baines were out of sorts, our central midfield was weak, and Fellaini was trying to address 2 or 3 positions. Despite that, the defence played well to keep another clean sheet, and we had at least 4 very good chances in the second half. The next 3 games are even more important now, it has to be a good cup win and 6 points.

There is no excuse for missing that sitter last night and a few others this season but if he had someone to share the burden and make space for him I would expect his confidence and goals to return.

The season is long, and this is the time for some of our youngsters to shine, but they have to be given a fair chance. Moyes blew this game because he sent Barkley out on loan, and left Vellios out of the squad.

It is against lesser teams that we need to be testing our youngsters, while giving players such as Osman and Jelavic some competition. Junior could have been on the bench tonight instead of Hitz.

Long term, I am not at all surprised we are running out of steam because, with Moyes and his unwillingness to play ANY of his best youngsters, the axe will fall where it falls.

Adkins has got it right by playing his best youngsters, it was a game where the youngsters wanted to shine, Southampton's youngsters, because we had NONE of ours out there.

We are heading for a downfall, Moyes needs to step up and change things around for our long-term well being!

I would have liked to see more of Barkley, Junior, Vellios and McaAleny. I have faith they are the best youngsters we have and that they will come good once they are given a fair chance to shine like Jelavic has thus far.

and there, in a nutshell, you have it! That is not even a top 8 midfield!

Not knee-jerking but last night was the final nail in the coffin of my belief that we could overcome the financial odds and break the top four. We have hit our glass ceiling and without significant cash injection, even with Moyes who I think we are lucky to have, we will never again mix it with the big boys on a consistant basis.
Cup final and 2-1 defeat in that is our realistic highpoint I fear.

Form is temporary...Class is Permanent.

I believe the guy is class, people say he cost us 2 points last night by getting his feet in a tangle.... but what about the Spurs game where he turnt a draw into a win with a great poachers mentality strike?

Maybe a rest is what is needed, but I'm not about to get on the guys back...He is still better than AJ, Beattie, Saha etc

Naismith should not be anywhere near the first team. Neville should never play midfield again, and what has happened to Osman? — he lost the ball on the edge of their box at least three times and they marauded forward unopposed each time.

I thought Coleman looked good and perhaps big Vic in his cameo. The rest just went through the motions...

Oviedo must be wondering why he came here and Jelavic needs a month out to help him think about his game.

Then again, Mirallas is back, Gibson will be back soon and one impressive signing this month could see us at least 'having a go' again...

There is no doubt that the form he showed at the back end of last season was that of a top class striker and he improved the team no end, but this season he hasn't just looked out of sorts he looks completely out of place. He has been given plenty of opportunity to play himself back into form but it just isn't happening.

If Anichebe had played up front as often and in as many games as Jelavic would so many fans have been as patient with him?

We never seem able to find the ideal forward to play in our team, Saha and Cahill were great in the air but lacked pace, Andy Johnson was similar to Jelavic but lacked the ability to hold the ball up and bring the midfielders onto the ball. The rest were just not good enough to play at high end PL level.

I don't think that its the case that Moyes' over-trains or that his emphasis on work rate spoils the strikers, I just believe that Moyes doesn't have a plan when it comes down to attacking strategies. Of course the financial situation isn't helping him as buying strikers is the most risky part of the business and DM can't afford to gamble with the money he has at his disposal.

How many games have we seen in the past five years in particular that are similar to last night?

If we want Jelavic to have more opportunities and to rediscover his goal scoring form we have to revert to a 4-4-2 in all matches and the second striker has to be just that a striker and not a make-shift forward like Felliani. As we can't afford to buy anyone, it will have to be either Anichebe or Velios. If we do revert to 442 then Mirallas has to be told to stay on the wing and stay outside the box and leave the strikers to get on with their job.

It may lead to us conceding more goals - last night we could have been 3-0 down in the first half - but it might just lead to us scoring more as well. It might be a gamble and cost us a European spot but not as risky as playing like we did last night where too few opportunities were carved out.

I nearly cried when Ossie had the ball taken from him for the 3rd time like he was 14 years of age. (Mainly 'cos that draw cost me a weeks wages!)

I still don't think Anichebe is a player, despite 20 mins of him looking good last night. Maybe start him in the next couple of games and bring Jelavic on for the last 20 mis when defenders are tired. It's unlikely we'll get another stiker in and so we need to make the best of what we have.

I would normally cringe at the idea of Fellaini in the middle of the park, he loses his marker to often and is a bit rash defensively, but we need to mix things up a bit and he played well there when dropped back last night. He says he sees himself as a midfielder, lets let him prove it. It might encourage the defenders not to hoof it as much, which has been creaping back into our play recently.

Everyone in the league has got onto Baines and Peinaar. I think we need to mix that up as well. Move Peinaar on to the right and let's see if he links up well with Coleman. Put Oveido on the left and give him a run in the team and see what he can do. He can't be worse than Naismith, who is terrible.

We don't have the luxury of rotating the playing squad to keep it fresh, we can make some changes to the style though. Managers look at hours of footage in the build up to match. We need to keep them guessing.

We need to win the FA cup game, 4th is going to be difficult without reinforcements and they're looking increasingly unlikely. It's going to be tough getting sixth with Arsenal and Liverpool hot on our tails. Europe via the FA Cup is as good a route as in the league.

The familiar "under duress" look that eventually overtakes all our forward players has set in.

There is a fundamental lack of spark about the Everton set up and saying the cure is simply more players is a sop. It's like painting over rust, just covering the problem not dealing with it.

With Jelavic coming on for Anichebe to try and work the defenders when they are tired and get his confidence back.

Howard

Coleman ( if injured then Neville as theres no one else )
Jag
Distin
Baines

Mirallas
Fellaini
Pienaar/Hitz ( i'm undecided )
Oviedo

Anichebe ( can not believe i've actually put him in a starting 11 )
Jelavic

Post of the week that, mate. Brilliant.

Howard and Jags must have launched 25 diagonal balls into the Southampton half, all in the general direction of Fellaini. Are we trying to be the new Stoke?

Of course it all stems from a lack of a central midfield, we don't have midfield players who want the ball, who will come deep and take the ball off the back four and start the play.

Our centre forward needs a rest, his confidence is low at the moment. Of course the service and support he is getting is not up to much.

I hope Coleman is not out for long as he starting to improve the defensive side of his game. Still, if he does not make the weekend then Neville will be moved from his midfield birth.

Surely the positive to take from last night was, even though we were woeful in the first half, we managed not to concede, and the key is if you are playing bad then don't concede.

The other big positive is that Kevin Mirallas got some game time and Anichebe looked a threat, so don't give up on finishing 4th just yet.

Jelavic has needed a few games rest for some time and now is the time to let him him have a break on the bench. He hasn't turned into a useless player overnight, but he has been getting far less chances and yes he looks a bit shell shocked so give him some bench time.

If Mirallas can keep fit then its a real option to play him alongside Victor, or wide right in front of Coleman or as seems likely for a bit, Neville.

It's obvious teams are getting better at handling Piennar/Baines partnership. Inevitable really. Have to mix it up and that right sided approach with a hopefully fit Mirallas can do just that. I would have given Oviedo a chance but then I'm crazy, I'd play him at LB and put Baines at left wing, it worked for Spurs with Bale so why is it we won't try it ?

There are some things you just can't do much about. If Gibson isn't fit, as he isn't most of the time, then that's our lot in midfield. Osman really has had some cracking games but he's not the ball winning centre mid player you need when struggling and that's why earlier I whiffed about the obvious inability of the club to gamble in this window and shell out for some strong creative playmaker in that crucial midfield position. But in the meantime and whilst he's still here I think dropping Felli back has to be done. It leaves us a bit short up top though which is why Moyes needs to try something different in attack.

I'm more frustrated than ever watching Everton right now and most seem to feel the same way. We genuinely are not far off that fourth spot if the club wants it enough. We are closer than I thought we could be and have performed no worse than Spurs or Arsenal. Better in many games. But to push on we need to gamble, and like I said, take a managed risk. I'm not asking to bring down the club for gods sake, just to take the risk and spend the £15m or so that might make the difference between fourth and seventh. The money comes back in the summer via Fellis inevitable sale and that of two or three others plus some of the new TV money. It's a measured risk, and if we don't take it what's the point? This is a football team, it's about results and success on the field. Forget all the other valid arguments about the Board, Kirkby, KD, shops in the Park End etc. This is a moment in time. It's about the football. Take the bloody risk.

Jelavic has come in for some stick but other teams that play with one up front have an attacking midfielder that makes forward runs to support the striker. We are playing Fellaini whose natural game is to drop into midfield rather than make forward runs. I would expect to see a turnaround in Jelavic's from if we played with Mirallas as attacking midfielder to give him some support.

Since Mirallas has been injured, Everton have been much easier to defend against due to the reduction in pace and movement. Defenders have had more time to concentrate on Jelavic who has essentially been ploughing a lone trough for two months. This makes it more astounding that Moyes does not use Oviedo on the right.

I have written before that it wold mirror our left wing where we have a left-footed defender with a right footed midfielder infront of him. Oviedo has pace and skill and would occupy opponents a lot more than Naismith who makes runs knowing he cannot be passed to.

Gueye does not look the part so the alternative being switch Pienaar to the right. This should and is done during games in order to open up space on the left for Baines to overlap. So why not do the same on the right wing? This would fully occupy any opposing defence and midfield. Besides. How many defences in the PL could cope with two wingers? It works for Man Utd

Logic?

Additionally, Southampton made us look tired and listless, particularly in the 1st half. Osman had a horror of a game. I can hardly recall him making a decent pass and he was also being caught on the ball regularly. We appear to be becoming more static with every game.

Jela isn't even looking like scoring. I'd either give him a spell off the bench, a rest or a few games in the reserves, while giving some games to Velios. EWe do need to see what the lads made of and camios at the end of games don't really give him a chance. Oviedo certainly looks like he is up to PL standard, so use him. Naismith is predictable, has a poor first touch and has not been providing to players like Jela.

Also, we should do what we can to bring in a couple of players.

Part of me thinks we should have more points than we currently have (home games against Newcastle and Norwich, aways at Fulham, Reading and Stoke spring to mind); however, at the same time, we have perhaps been a little fortunate to win games against Spurs and Sunderland and arguably a little lucky to escape from Monday night with a point so in many respects things have more or less started to even themselves out.

Whilst I feel that Jelavic will come good again with a goal or two and a fit Mirallas is going to be absolutely key to us, it is the centre of midfield which worries me. I am one of Phil Neville's biggest fans. I like his professionalism and leadership on the pitch and to be fair, he's put in a fair amount of decent performances this season for a man of his age. I just don't see though how a team going for the top 4 can continue to consistently play a 36-year-old in the centre of midfield. Granted, I'd still have him in at right back if we are short, but the legs just aren't there anymore for the midfield area. We need a ball winner ideally with a bit of pace in there. I like Gibson, but we could do with someone else to compensate for the time he is out injured.

If we were to make a signing, I'd like to see someone like a Mo Diame from West Ham come in. I was a bit disappointed we didn't pick him up on a free in the summer. The lad N'Diaye who Sunderland have just snapped up also looks a steal and someone in the mould that we could do with. If there were to be no signing, then I'd consider sticking Fellaini back in there (particularly taking into account big Vic's improvement up top).

Anyway, plenty of points to play for (and the FA Cup of course) and if we get right behind the lads, I think we have every chance of nicking that final Champions League qualifying spot.

COYB

All the midfield permutations come out with above, other than Gibson. It's no surprise we look a better side with him in it. A bit of pace would nice too.