Everton

Everton linked with Icelandic starlet – May 26th 2012

It’s not often Everton are linked with highly sought-after youngsters, but today’s an exception.

Bjorn Bergmann Sigurdarson is Lillestrom’s Icelandic forward, and scorer of 11 goals in 11 appearances this season – and the Liverpool Echo is claiming that David Moyes is ‘leading the race to sign him’.

Because of Nikica Jelavic’s success at Goodison Park last season, the first question that has to be asked about any potential target is whether they would gel effectively with the Croatian. In the Sigurdason’s case, that’s probably a ‘yes’ – the Icelander’s capable of dropping deep and bringing others into the play, while his 6ft1 frame means that he also has the physique to lead a line by himself and be a credible goal-threat.

Most of you won’t have seen him play, but he’s got a lot of potential, and there’s a hint of Eidur Gudjohnsen about him – so worth getting excited about if there is some truth to it.

Everton players showing that they’re human – April 15th 2012

How rare is this?

Losing a Cup semi-final is devastating, but in the modern era you get the sense that defeat haunts the supporters far more than it does the players. It’s amazing how quickly the wounds of disappointment can be healed by going home to extravagant wealth.

How nice, then, to see Everton players Sylvain Distin and Seamus Coleman take to Twitter yesterday in clearly genuine displays of contrition for their part in the team’s loss to Liverpool. In all honesty, mistakes happen and as such players shouldn’t have to apologise for them – but it’s still nice to see professional athletes actually acknowledge their supporters.

It also worth mentioning how supportive the Everton fans were to both players. Really nice to see.

As a parallel, if Ashley Cole does something similar to Distin in the game with Spurs tonight, can you imagine him doing the same?

With some players, you get the sense that there’s nothing they hate more than having to interact with the people who pay their wages. Well done to David Moyes and Everton for not allowing that kind of attitude to foster at their football club.

Everton: Keys to the Semi-Final – April 14th 2012

Make set-pieces count

Leighton Baines’ delivery will be key today, because with Brad Jones in-goal, Liverpool are vulnerable to free-kicks and corners. We know about Everton’s pedigree in the air, so Baines has to supply the ammunition for Tim Cahill, Sylvain Distin, Marouane Fellaini and co to hurt their Mersey neighbours.

Subdue Luis Suarez

Obviously, but more precisely – isolate the Uruguayan. When Liverpool aren’t getting the ball to their star forward, he has a tendency to drop deeper to try to involve himself in the play. That’s an ideal scenario for Everton; keep him away from the penalty box and the areas in which he can hurt you. The more frustrated he gets, and the more gesticulating he’s doing to referees, the less effective he is.

Control the midfield

Like never before in recent memory, Liverpool’s midfield can be man-handled. To his side’s own detriment, Kenny Dalglish prefers Charlie Adam and Jay Spearing in big games – which is ludicrous, neither player is good enough for this kind of occasion. Dalglish only picks them because of their nationality. In Leon Osman, Fellaini and Cahill, Everton have seasoned Premier League performers capable of dominating that part of the pitch. Either they do it, or they don’t win this game.

Narrow the pitch

Because of their lack of width, Liverpool are easy to defend against. Unless Craig Bellamy plays, Everton won’t be facing any natural width or any real pace. Stewart Downing will always look to come in-field on to his left foot, and isn’t really capable of beating a full-back on the outside. The more narrow the pitch gets, the more it plays into Everton’s strengths; Liverpool simply don’t have the quality in the middle of the pitch to break any one down – hence their failures against lesser teams in the Premier League this season (Norwich, Blackburn, Wigan etc).

If Everton play with the same shape that they did against Tottenham, and with the same results, they progress here.

Victory over Spurs further fuels the David Moyes myth at Everton – March 11th 2012

So if Everton can play like they did yesterday, then why are they ninth in the league?

Everytime Everton are covered on television, it’s always accompanied by the same old chatter about the relative poverty at Goodison Park. Yes, David Moyes has done a good job on Merseyside, but it’s been exaggerated beyond all reasonable context.

If a team can hassle top-level sides so efficiently, and can subdue the most attackingly potent teams in the league, why are they only capable of it against the top 6? The same team that shut Tottenham down on Saturday evening was also the one that got badly outplayed last week by QPR. Really?

Manchester City, Chelsea, and now Tottenham have all been derailed at Goodison Park, but Stoke, Bolton, and Rangers have all won there, while Norwich and Blackburn have all taken a share of the points.

Isn’t this actually a failing of David Moyes’ management?

An ability to beat big teams at home is something all sides have – the crowd are in to it, the players are live on Sky, and the club is a natural underdog. It’s like a cup-tie, and a manager’s input is less important than usual. The players naturally raise their game.

But if that same team fails to break-down more mundane sides, isn’t that a failure of the manager?

David Moyes has been a stabilising influence amid the chaos of Bill Kenwright’s boardroom, but he hasn’t been more than that. A squad assembled on shoestring budget? Possibly – but wasn’t that a six million pound forward scoring the winner yesterday? Marouane Fellaini, Leighton Baines, Phil Jagielka?

It’s all relative in the Premier League, of course Everton’s spending is dwarfed by the top-6, but Moyes doesn’t own the monopoly on the ‘we’re poor so it’s ok that we sometimes lose games we should win’ market. This ‘over-achiever’ tag he has is founded on reputation rather than reality – Moyes only ever really over-achieved with the 4th-placed finish in 2005. Since then? Really, he’s just living off the back of that season.

Until this side can show the level of commitment and discipline that they do against the top sides, against the lesser teams in the division, I’m not buying into Moyes’ credentials as a miracle-worker.