Was a hell-uv-a-year mucker, ask any Englishman.
- Status
Was a hell-uv-a-year mucker, ask any Englishman.
BigBlueConk
Player Valuation: £70m
Was a bit rubbish really. Southampton looked like they wanted it far more. We were awful first half, better in the second and missed a sitter. However, point a piece was probably the fairest result.
.....lacklustre display. Never has the saying 'you're only as good as your last game' been as true as in recent times. Only a week or so folk were in raptures after the Newcastle result and now there's much doom and gloom. There are so many ups and downs in a season so I'm hoping the feel good factor returns in the next 10 days.
Negatives from yesterday were the worrying performance from Jelavic summed up with that amazing miss and how Soton managed to blunt our main playmaker in recent months, Osman, by closing him down so effectively. Positives were the performance of Anichebe who must be close to starting a game and not conceding a goal. A game we could so easily have lost, or easily have won. Move on.......
Negatives from yesterday were the worrying performance from Jelavic summed up with that amazing miss and how Soton managed to blunt our main playmaker in recent months, Osman, by closing him down so effectively. Positives were the performance of Anichebe who must be close to starting a game and not conceding a goal. A game we could so easily have lost, or easily have won. Move on.......
Why? We started like that last night, with the exceptions of Mirallas and Anichebe, and we looked awful. Do you think it was Naismith and Jelavic who were aimlessly hoofing the ball into the dark night sky?
the problem with that formation is that it relies on:
1) Gibson being fit
2) Someone playing the "Pienaar" role in front of Coleman
3) The lone striker burying every half-opportunity he gets. Because he's only going to get two a game, maximum.
Now Mr. Gibson does not appear to be overly durable and so he is absent some 30% or 40% of the time... this means that we lack a composed distributor of the ball to sit in front of the back four and take outlet passes from them. Therefore, we hoof more than we should when Gibson is out.
Mr. Mirallas is equally susceptible to injuries and so has not been available to play on the right.... Naismith, I think we all agree, is not a RW or a RM. Sadly, to utilise anyone else there means to move either Pienaar (breaking up his partnership with Baines), or Osman (who is no more effective there than Naismith IMHO).
Whilst all this malarkey has been taking place, we have placed Felli in an advanced role. The thinking here is "Gibbo's out; PN and Ossie are not comfortable bringing the ball out from the back; let's loft it up to the the big man and play the odds." - ok, it provides an alternative to simply asking Baines and Pienaar to break through repeatedly, but it does concede possession with disturbing regularity and force Jelavic to live on scrappy knock-downs, which is clearly not his forte.
All the time Gibbo is out, we need Felli back to provide an outlet for Distin and Jags, so that they don't just launch the ball whilst crossing their fingers. If Felli is to go back in order to improve the quality of possession and create more chances, why take Jelavic off, thereby removing the ability to see if moving Felli works?
We looked better last night when Anichebe came on and we switched to the 442; Mirallas was the correct sub, but not for Jelavic, because when that second change was made we went back to 4231. We left Naismith on, unable to take advantage of the space Southampton gave him as a result of them overloading their right to stop Pienaar and Baines; we left Cheebs up front alone, and we started launching balls over Mirallas' head. Unsurprisingly, it did not work.
Assuming Coleman is out, Gibson and Hibbert also, I would go with a 442:
Howard
Neville - Jags - Distin - Baines
Pienaar - Hitz - Felli - Oviedo
Jelavic - Anichebe
I'm not happy about breaking up Pienaar and Baines BUT I think that unless we do so, we are destined to remain one-dimensional and therefore easy to stop. Oviedo brings more pace to the team. As Mirallas regains and demonstrates a higher level of fitness, we can put him on the right and either restore Pienaar to the left or let him have a game off. Osman needs a break, and this way he gets it. Jelavic needs better service , and this way he may well get it. Anichebe has earned a start, and this way he gets it AND we can have Velios come on later in the game if Jelavic still isn't firing. Best of all, we get Felli back doing Gibbo's job, which we KNOW no-one else can do.
Or we can keep going as we are, but with Anichebe deprived of service instead of Jelavic.
Jamo Martinez
Player Valuation: £70m
Can't find much to argue with there. Good idea to bring Mirallas back little by little. Oviedo has looked promising and gives us pace. I would almost always prefer to see Fellaini in centre mid.
Slavan
Player Valuation: £15m
I thought Jagielka was rubbish again.
Im still not convinced he has rteturned to the form or ability he had pre his big injury, he has certainly lost some of his pace.
Phil neville had one of his better games, tidy with the ball.
Naismith is simply not a winger, Howard played well, The team is still drastically short of pace in midfield.
Im still not convinced he has rteturned to the form or ability he had pre his big injury, he has certainly lost some of his pace.
Phil neville had one of his better games, tidy with the ball.
Naismith is simply not a winger, Howard played well, The team is still drastically short of pace in midfield.
Neville was tidy with the ball? Come off it, mate.
Let's not kid ourselves he's anything other than crap with the ball. The amount of time he loses it is insane and we are simply not going to progress with him in the team.
I get it, Moyes sees him as a positive influence but I hope the only reason we're playing him is one of sheer necessity rather than actually thinking he is a really good player to have.
Compared to Naismith he was good though.
Let's not kid ourselves he's anything other than crap with the ball. The amount of time he loses it is insane and we are simply not going to progress with him in the team.
I get it, Moyes sees him as a positive influence but I hope the only reason we're playing him is one of sheer necessity rather than actually thinking he is a really good player to have.
Compared to Naismith he was good though.
The main problem I had with the game last night was that Southampton looked hungrier - and a lack of drive and desire is not something I associate with Everton whatsoever. We should have been at least a couple of goals behind at half time, let's be honest. We weren't level due to "good defending" or a "solid performance". We were all over the place at times and I was very annoyed that it was just the very basics that were beating us - i.e. the fact Southampton looked much more fired up for it. Very poor in that respect.
An improvement in the 2nd half, aided by the introduction of Anichebe and Mirallas. But the fact it took us 45 minutes to wake up is very alarming.
An improvement in the 2nd half, aided by the introduction of Anichebe and Mirallas. But the fact it took us 45 minutes to wake up is very alarming.
Slavan
Player Valuation: £15m
Im no fan of Neville, but last night he found a man more often than not with his passes.
He is not the answer and has been a passenger in the team for a while, but credit where its due.
More than can be said for Naismith, Coleman and Pienaar, who all last night gave away the ball with careless passing.
- Status