Column

Frustrating Stall Through the Gears

I breathed a sigh of relief after all that frustration

I was recently away for a few days and with my better half already out of the house I locked the door and posted the keys back through letterbox…breaking the fob on my car keys in doing so. If that wasn’t frustrating enough, imagine how I felt just the other day when the car refused to start the reason being that the fob on the car key had triggered the immobilizer on the vehicle. Unbelievable.

So with the car getting fixed I was mercifully given a pool car to get around in though this has an exhaust problem which restricted me to 55 mph on the inside lane of the motorway…making for quite a frustrating drive from work to Goodison Park for “the start of our adventure in the Capital One Cup” to quote a bit of Martinez from the matchday programme.

I’d like to be able to tell you that all this frustration had been let out at the match but this wasn’t the case. Indeed more frustration followed when Kevin Stroud blew his whistle to signal an extended 30 minutes of extra time. This meant I had to listen to the fella behind me yell repeatedly at the top of his lungs for even longer, though most importantly, watch Everton toil for even longer until Marouane Fellaini saved our bacon five minutes from time to set us up for a date at Craven Cottage in four weeks.

The evening started well enough. My rickety temporary car got me to Goodison with an hour to spare. I met Sue, Gary and Gaz in the pub. It was great to see Gaz in particular who spent a lot of the summer in intensive care with a head injury following a fall down some stairs. Great to see him making a full recovery and getting back to normal.

Moving onto the ground and we had great seats directly behind the goal, my only gripe being the bloke behind who just would not stop shouting all match long but that’s the miserable git in me I suppose.

Quite a few changes for Everton. Robles debuting in goal; Oviedo getting a chance at left back; Stones debuting in the middle; Hibbert returning at right back; Hetinga given an opportunity to play midfield hard man; Deulofeu also making his debut and Naismith and Kone both given their first starts of the season (Kone his first for the club). Indeed only Jagielka, Osman and Barkley survived from the team which drew 0-0 with West Brom at the weekend.

In some ways the match was quite similar to the weekends draw with the Baggies as we offered a lot of pretty passing with no real end product. Having said that, Kone, Osman and Naismith were all guilty of missing presentable first half opportunities with Kone somehow missing from inside the six yard box twice in the first half, Osman twice fluffing his lines in the same opportunity and Naismith heading tamely towards goal. Barkley, Deulofeu and Heitinga could at least claim to be unlucky not to have scored with their more difficult openings.

As we’ve found countless times previously to our cost, if we miss our chances and leave the back door open we are susceptible to conceding soft goals. We did that again and found ourselves behind on 36 minutes when Luke Freeman scored past Robles to give Stevenage a shock lead. It was important we responded and Lord knows how crucial the timing of the goal was when Deulofeu took it upon himself to bail Everton out.

The Barcelona protégé taking on the full back, cutting inside onto his left foot and placing the ball past Chris Day. A lovely goal by the Spaniard which reminded me of Arteta in his pomp. The half time whistle blew straight away and the teams went in for half time.

You hoped Everton could build on this momentum after the break and whilst they were much improved for 10 minutes or so we soon drifted back to our in-cohesive mode of over-complicated passing and dreadful finishing with Kone again the most wasteful. The substitutions didn’t help. It seemed Martinez told Jagielka and Distin they were to get a half each and then on 66 minutes Coleman replaced Hibbert. This left just one substitute left with two used up on defenders.

Thankfully the final substitute did make the difference with Fellaini causing enough havoc in the penalty area and stabbing home after a spot of pinball in the penalty area though it was entirely preventable - a Stevenage defender inexplicably booting the ball across his own penalty box for no apparent reason to begin the pinball. Fellaini did have a couple of opportunities prior so I suppose you could say Stevenage didn’t heed their warning.

There was time for a slight scare even after this though Robles showed some safe hands to keep hold of a late effort on goal from Stevenage.

I breathed a sigh of relief after all that frustration and nipped home in the noisy motor. I was then further relieved to hear my car has been fixed and for much less cost than expected. I hope Everton’s journey improves just as swiftly as it’s certainly been a challenging one so far this term.

Player Ratings
Robles: I thought he did quite well. He was pretty helpless with the goal and kept his concentration up when he had to as was generally untested. He likes to distribute the ball quickly. Quite promising but we’ll have to see how he gets on in the more testing environment of Craven Cottage. 7

Oviedo: If we lose Baines we are snookered as we have no replacement in that position. I don’t know if Garbutt can step up but judging on this display Oviedo certainly can’t. We would have to sign someone n very quickly but left back is such a specialist position it’s hard to tell who would be available. For my money Oviedo looked very weak, lacking in confidence and rather timid. Needs to make more of his opportunities. 3

Jagielka: Did fine but only played 45 minutes. 6

Stones: Had a decent debut. Looks comfortable on the ball and seems capable of distributing well. He had a few hairy moments but overall he looks a good prospect. 6

Hibbert: Looked a little rusty perhaps but coped fine before being substituted. 6

Heitinga: He seems more suited to defensive midfield under Martinez and should Fellaini leave I would imagine he would get more opportunities there. He competed quite well and kept things ticking over tidily. Not a bad effort at all. 6

Osman: I thought he’d settle in nicely into Martinez passing style but in fact he seems to be struggling more than most. Will struggle to stay in the team when Gibson returns at this rate I imagine. 5

Naismith: Never short of endeavor but too often you feel the move breaks down when Naismith gets on the ball. Seems to be a few steps behind what other players are thinking most of the time. Where was Anichebe tonight? 5

Deulofeu: 120 minutes will have done him good in the long run but he looked exhausted by the end. He did pretty well. Scored a lovely goal and has bags of skill though his corner and free kick distribution was generally disappointing. I’d be looking to get him into the team as soon as possible, maybe replacing Pienaar on the flank and moving Pienaar in-field to replace Osman. I’m looking forward to seeing him over the course of the season. 7

Barkley: Our best player by a mile. Drifted in and out in the second half but he basically ran the show. He is so comfortable on the ball and loves to dictate play. Certainly the biggest positive of Martinez tenure so far. My man of the match. 8

Kone: Dreadful. He’ll need to improve his match sharpness and quickly. His touch was awful and he squandered plenty of chances. Looks as though attack is still our problem position. 4

Substitutes
Distin (for Jagielka): Very good. Is coping with the new passing system better than Jagielka. Very imposing at the back and keeps things moving. 7

Coleman (for Hibbert): Hardly got going. Was very surprised as I thought he might make a significant difference. 5

Fellaini (for Barkley): Certainly made the difference and highlighted just what a miss he would be if our worst fears are realized before the deadline. Will take some replacing and you certainly realized he wasn’t there during the 90 minutes and took no time a tall to show us what we were missing in extra time. If not for Barkley’s brilliance he’d have been man of the match. 8

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