The Premier League Owl
David Moyes has been discussing the goalless draw at Southampton on Monday night, as well as the return to first-team action from Kevin Mirallas and the chance Nikica Jelavic passed-up in the second-half on Monday night.
Courtesy of Evertonfc.com:
“We have Kevin Mirallas back and he made an impact when he came on,” he said. “So did Victor Anichebe and I can see the goals coming with the players we have available.
Jela’s was a real big chance. But we are a little bit like that at the moment. We are doing okay but this time last year we were maybe nicking the goals and at the moment we are just not doing that. But it will come.
We were fortunate to go into half time at 0-0. But then I thought we were a bit unfortunate not to get a goal or two in the second period.”
Moyes is right, and actually may be being a little harsh on his own players: Everton aren’t quite as efficient as they were earlier in the season, but they still look a very impressive side. The draws against Swansea at Goodison Park – an extremely one-sided game against a defensively-resilient side, and against Southampton – who are vastly improved recently, are slightly false economies. Aside from the narrow loss to Chelsea at the end of December, it’s over two months since Everton lost. Yes, there are efficiency issues at the moment, but that shouldn’t detract from the momentum which has been built this season.
The return of Kevin Mirallas is extremely important, because he gives this side much more balance. When the Belgian is played wide on the right, he evens out the attacking threat and stretches the width of the pitch – and that makes Everton far harder to defend against. Without trying to over-play Mirallas’ ability, Everton really aren’t the same side without him.
Give him a couple of games to rebuild his sharpness, and Everton will start scoring goals again.
