gjeess

Thanks to all who have provided valuable comments to my post. From what I gather our Toffee boys do have the capability to play quality possession football, however, we lack depth when injuries hit the team - which we have gone through recently. Hopefully the January window will provide us with some quality players, albiet, I haven't heard anything yet other than there is a lack of quality players available. Again thank you for your replies. P.S. Sorry Toffee supporters, but we need Tim Cahill back in Australia for our clash with Qatar on Feb 6 (they have just nationalised 3 or 4 Brazilians into their team). regards gjeess

No offence taken, and thank you for your valued contribution to the discussion. I would like to provide some feedback on your comments. Having been a Tim Cahill fan for a number of years I have watched numerous Everton games. Yes, they can play some good quality football on their day, however, generally, against the higher quality teams they tend to struggle and kick long (as per my Chelsea example) rather than play the possession game. I appreciate that Moyes has a number of players who are injured and has had to call up reserves, however, these reserves (who are professional footballers) train day-in day-out as a full squad and should be fully aware of how Moyes wants football to be played. With this being the case, then why did they continually kick long against Chelsea, and do so in many other games? Personally I believe that if these reserves can't play the type of football Moyes requires they should swap their boots for a trowel and lay bricks for a career - but that's not up to me to tell them! I believe that if the squad regularly or continually plays long we will never match it with the likes of Man U, Gunners, Chelsea etc. We need to ensure that we make their mid field and defence tired during the game so that opportunities open up later in the match (that does not mean we don't try to score early goals). I'm from Australia, and we probably only have 3 or 4 players who would be considered world class (Cahill, Kewell, Viduka, Neill), however, at the WC 2006 (only our 2nd ever appearance) Guus Hiddink taught our Socceroos team to play the possession game and ensure the opposition don't control the ball. The socceroos made the second round and came within minutes of a penalty shootout with Italy. The Toffee's have the players, they just need the actions regards gjeess

Hi, I'd like to voice my opinion on why I believe the Everton first team struggles against top teams from the EPL and Europe, and even lower table teams. What I have noticed in their style of play is they give up possession too easily, then put themselves under pressure with constant defending. Constant defending tires players (especially in the final 20 minutes of matches) and makes them vunerable to defensive lapses. I'm not sure whether it's the style Moyes administers to his team, or the defence lacks the skills to bring the ball out of from their own box, but what I notice is they (the defence and goal keeper) constantly play the long ball forward to one on two, or two on three/four scenarios. The chances of this being successful is about 5% as there are very few players in the world who can regularly pin point a long pass, therefore, possession of the ball is immediately given to the opposition and our defence is put under the pump. The Everton first team needs to learn to hold the ball, passing it back, forth and across, waiting for an opportunity to open up. This tires the opposition because they are constantly chasing the ball trying to defend (I refer to my comment in the 2nd paragraph). If nothing is opening up, just keep passing the ball back and forth, dont rush. Our team has a bad habit of stringing 3 or 4 passes then crossing the ball to very slim opportunities, rather than working the ball into the oppositions box. Possession wins matches. If the opposition doesn't have the ball they can't score goals (except own goals). Extremely rarely does an team win a match where they have held the ball for less than 40% of a match. Watching the Chelsea game the other day was a perfect example of constantly putting our defence under the pump. Too often the ball was kicked long (poor percentage options) only to be returned by Chelsea immediately. Personally I believe our team is a very good one, and could fight for a premiership next season (this season is over for them in the EPL), however, they need to learn to hold onto the ball. Yes, they may lose a few games practicing this style of play (and now is a great time to start before next season), however, once they have learned to master the possession game they will match the likes of the top four on a regular basis and fight for the title. Happy to listen/read others comments regards gjeess