BoroBlue

http://www.thefa.com/England/News/match-centre/2011/England-v-Wales/Match-Previews/baines-050911 Shit!

I know what you are saying about the negativity but at the moment what we do is play 5 midfielders with all of them told to get behind the ball when the opposition has it and all of them with the same defensive responsibility which completely nulifies the threat posed by our more attack minded midfield players like Bily and Ossie. If we have 2 holding midfielders this allows the likes of Bily and Ossie more of a licence to attack and hopefully makes us more positive going forward. I agree with what you said about Bily and that was the point I was trying to get across really, rather than playing him outwide as he clearly is not a winger, allowing him and Ossie to come in more central along with Barkley and allowing the 3 of them to play in the hole between the opposition defence and midfield, and allowing the full backs to provide the threat from out wide.

I hope Moyes was watching the England game last night, for me that was the best England have played in years and it was down to 2 simple things. The first thing is that we played a system that works and that suits the England team very well, the second is that no-one was playing out of positon which gave the team a good balance and fluidity to there play. England, like Everton for as long as I remember seem to have picked there best 11 players and tried to form a team out of them by playing people out of position rather than picking a formation, picking the players that fit into that formation and playing players in there favoured positions. The 4-2-3-1 formation used by England last night suits them perfectly, as it suits Everton perfectly. Our squads main strengths are the attacking full backs and the centre midfielders while out main weeknesses are lack of width in the midfield and lack of options upfront. This formation plays to our strengths as the fullbacks provide the width, the 2 holding midfielders provide defensive cover for the full backs, the remaining 3 midfield slots are allowed more of a licence to attack which puts less pressure on the lone forward to provide the goals. Using this formation I would like to see us play the following team: Howard Coleman Jagielka Distin Baines Felliani Rodwell Osman Barkley Bilyaletdinov Saha Just a few things I would mention looking at this line up. The fitness level and attacking ability of the fullbacks would cause problems for anyteam in the prem and would put the opposition on the backfoot (the old attack is the best form of defence cliche) while having 2 holding midfielders provide enough cover to prevent us getting exposed on the counter. If Rodwell gets a good run of games playing alongside Fellini I feel those 2 could control games for us in the middle. This formation would bring out the best in Osman and Bilyaletdinov as it gives them less defensive responsibility and allows them to cut in or interchange with each other and Barkley throughout the game. Your thoughts please? Are there any strengths of this formation I have not mentioned? Are there any weaknesses of this formation I have not mentioned? Which of our players do you feel this would suit the best? What formation do you think would work better than this?

Howard Coleman Jags Distin Baines Rodwell Felliani Osman Barkley Bilyaletdinov Saha Subs: Mucha, Heitinga, Neville, Cahill, Drenthe, Anichebe, Stracqualursi

I really hope 1.9m is loan fee plus 1 years wages otherwise that is crazy paying that much for someone unproven at this level for 1 year, a similar fee to what we accepted for Pienaar as we could not afford to let him run down his contract?

The way I see it we may well have just secured the future of our club without having to significantly weaken the team. Everyone knows about the escalating debts at Everton and something had to be done about it, I thought we were probaby looking at selling the likes of Baines or Felliani to balance the books which would be far worse. We have sold Arteta for 10m, Beckford for 4m Vaughan for 2.5m and Yakubu for 1.5m = 18m. Best estimates (using FM) we are also getting rid of Arteta 75k, Yakubu 55k, Beckford 20k and Vaughan 15k in wages per week =165k per week or 9m per year. So in 1 year the club are saving 27million. So how much has the team been weakened: Arteta: Approaching his twighlight years where his ability aswell as his value is on the decline. The emergance of Ross Barkley has strengthened an already strong Centre Midfield, I thought this was one area we could afford to lose someone, and purely down to age and potential I would rather it be Arteta than Felliani, Rodwell or Barkley. Yakubu - Has barely made an appearance for 12months and would be unlikely to do so if we allowed him to run down the last year of his contract. Not weakening the side at all, this one is a no-brainer for me. Beckford - The one that splits opinion the most. IMO he just isn't a premiership striker and never will be, think he is no better than what we still have ie Saha, Anichebe, Vellios. Looked dreadful playing as a lone striker which is how Moyes likes to play so I think to get 4m for him is a great bit of business, hopefully him and the Yak leaving may give some of the younger lads a chance. Vaughan - When was the last time he played? Into the last year of his contract. Not weakening the side at all, for 2.5m this one is a no-brainer for me. Like I mentioned this is all my oppinion and am sure some/most of you may disagree but I m just trying to look at things positively. Also I have not mentioned the new signings because to be honest I don't know enough about them, am reserving judgement untill I see them play a few games. However I will say I really don't like loaning players, just see it as a short term fix and abit of a waste of money to be honest. would rather see us give our own players a chance, especially when loaning players from foreign leagues, it will probably take them a season to adjust, Edin Dzeko a prime example of that.

Royston Ricky Drenthe (born 8 April 1987) is a Dutch footballer who plays for Real Madrid. Chinese whispers led fans of premier league team Everton to mistakenly think that their team had signed Drenthe on 31st Aug, 2011. It was later reported, that in fact local man Roy Stone was drenched on his way to Goodison. Just took this from Wikipedia, looks like the website may be under attack from the redshite!

In the short term you might be right but in the long term I don't think Beckford (who has probably about reached his max potential), is that much better than Vellios for example (Vellios hold-up play is leagues above Beckford), and I don't think he is close to reaching his full potential so would rather see him given a chance. I also realise I am being abit of an optimist here and in reality Moyes is more likely to play Cahill and Felli up top than to give Vellios ago. p.s. I don't think working out where we would have finished without Beckfords goals really proves anything, whos to say whoever played in his place would not have scored more goals in that playing time. Its like saying where would we have finished without Howards saves last season. Not having ago mate just really not a fan of stats like that.

Few rumours surfacing we are in talks to sign Andre-Pierre Gignac on season-long loan. Had a bad season last year at Marseille but has a pretty good scoreing record before that, also has 16 caps and 4 goals to his name for France.

Would be quite happy to see these deals go through to be honest. 4.5m is good money for a player who we got for free 12months ago and simply isn't good enough at this level. I would rather see the Yak go as Moyes isn't going to use him anyway, he would rather play Felli and Cahill up top so we may as well get what we can for him and get him off the wage bill. Even if we bring no-one in we still have Saha, Anichebe, Vellios, Gueye and Baxter who will hopefully get more of a chance if we get rid of some deadwood. I'm not saying that gives us a whole lot of firepower upfront but lets face it, keeping hold of the Yak and Beckford won't change that.

Also when Howard saved the penalty he ws straight over to Barkley giving him a pat on the head

Whos playing where in the midfield? would love to see Rodwell Felliani and Barkley in the middle but I am guessing its Rodwell and Barkley who are playing out wide?

Rather than judge him on stats I prefer to judge him on the fact that every time I watch him he looks like a championship striker at best and we would do well to get the money being mentioned for him. Its all very well saying his goals per minute stat is better than Rooney, it doesn't mean he is a better player. You could argue his return of 10 in 38 games really isn't that great for a striker. You could also argue that as almost a 3rd of all goals in the premier league are scored in the last 10 mins and most of his appearances came from the bench this would explain why his goals to minutes played ratio is so good. I'm not saying either of these points prove anything just that different stats can be used to back up different arguements. I prefer the method of watching someone play and deciding for yourself whether they are anygood, and in my opinion beckford is crap.

Completely agree with what has been said, at the moment unless we can finish top 4 our situation is not going to improve, and at the moment we just aren't good enough. What we do have though is a very strong academy and youth set up and I think we need to take advantage of that. I don't feel we would be weakening ourselves significantly if we sell some of our fringe players like Heitinga, Bilyaletdinov, Anichebe, Yakubu and Yobo and use our young players to fill the gaps. Conservative estimate that lot would bring in 15-20mil and get 150k a week (Or 8mil per year) off the wage bill. Personally I would rather see Barkley playing centre mid than Heitinga (I know he is a centre back but we only ever seem to play him centre mid) I would rather see Gueye given a chance on the left instead of Anichebe (I know he is a centre forward but Moyes seems to fancy him as a winger) or even Bily, I would rather see Duffy given a chance at Centre back than bring Yobo back in the team, and I would rather see Vellios given ago than bring back the Yak. One other worry to me at the moment is the increasing age of our squad, because we have no money I think we need to be selling players while we can still get something for them and replaceing them with younger players, if we don't do that in a few years when they are worth nothing we will have no money to replace them. For example as much as I like Jags and Arteta if we could get the reported 25-30m for the 2 of them and replace them with say Gary Cahill and Pedro Leon for the same price we would have 2 players approaching there peak years rather than 2 coming to the end of there peak.

I really wish we would stop playing players out of position, I don't remember the last time I saw an Everton team where all 11 players were playing in there favoured position. I realise we have a pretty small squad and players occasionally need to cover but it just seems to me like Moyes picks his favourite 11 players then finds a way to play them all in the same team. On saturday we had 2 Centre Mids playing on the wings, a centre back playing in centre mid, at one point we had no strikers on the pitch with 2 centre mids playing upfront, its no wonder the players look like they know what they should be playing when I am not sure the manager really does. Moyes obviously favors playing 5 in the midfield with 1 up top, wich I agree with as its clear upfront is our weakest area and centre mid is our strongest ( it makes sense to ply to your strengths ) but at the moment we just appear to have no shape and no clue. This might seem abit ideallistic but why not have a first 11 and a second 11 using the same formation so any injuries or suspensions we have a like-for-like replacement ready to step in rather than shuffle the whole team to fit the best player in. If both players for one position are injured then choose to shuffle the pack or even better give one of the youngsters a go. This is how I would see our first XI and second XI Howard Coleman Jagielka Distin Baines Felliani Arteta Cahill Rodwell Bilyaletdinov Saha Mucha Hibbert Heitnga Duffy Garbutt Neville Baxter Barkley Osman Gueye Beckford No place for Yobo, Yakubu and Anichebe as I feel all could be sold as I would rather give some of the youngsters a chance and get these lot off the wage bill.

Interesting article, good to see abit of optimsim ahead of the new season, would just point out that 11+7 does not equal 19

http://theexecutionersbong.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/tactical-season-preview-201112/ Pretty interesting tactical analysis in this article. As much as we all would love atleast one natural winger it is looking increasingly unlikely we will see one arriving in this window, this article looks at some formations that will play to our strengths with the squad as it is at the moment. I agree with using the full backs to give us width as I think we have 2 of the best attacking fullbacks in the prem in Coleman and Baines. I think the general consensus is that Coleman is not strong enough defensively yet to play right back, but I think with our defensive strength in centre mid with Felliani and Rodwell, we have the cover to give both fullbacks a licence to attack.

I personally don't have a problem with 4-5-1, i think it is the best formation for us, my problem is with us playing people out of position. Last night we had a forward playing left mid (Anichebe), 2 rightbacks playing right mid (Coleman then Neville), a centreback playing centre mid (Heitinga), a centre mid playing right mid then left mid (Barkley). I know last night was only a friendly and some players may have just needed game time but we seem to do it in competetive fixtures aswell. I appreciate we only have a small squad and some times we may need to play people out of position but how are the players going to gel and start playing as a team if we are constantly doing this. Also what message does it send to Bily or Gueye, for example, that Moyes would rather play someone out of positon than give him a game in his preferred position. I think what Moyes needs to do is be more consistent with his team selection and have a clear idea of who his first and second choice players in each postion and stick to it rather than constantly shuffleing his pack. I mentioned in another thread about Jose Mourinhos theory of picking a formation, then having 2 players for each position in this formation. To take this 1 stage further if the proposal of changing the reserve league to a competetive under-21 league go through this will allow us have a 3rd choice player in each position too who is playing regularly and in a competitve league. Another advantage of this would be if the under-21 team is playing the same formation it would be good for progression into the first team as they will be used to playing that system. I am not suggesting that we only play one formation as while our players will gell and know exactly what they are doing, they will also become very predictable to the oppostion, I am just suggesting that we have a bit more consistency with the positions that players are playing in.

http://www.clubcall.com/everton/toffees-show-winger-interest-1253260.html Can't say I have seen much of him but he is great on FM. Also seems to score plenty of goals for a winger and would add some much needed width to our team.

Would love to see Rodwell and Barkley given atleast 45mins together in the middle. Not going to happen like but would love to see it.

Davies Browning Duffy Mustafi Garbutt Lundstram Wallace Baxter Barkley Gueye Vellios

Only saw the second half and have to say we were hopeless. The only thing we did well was absorb pressure, which isn't alot of good if you can't couter quickly which on that evidence we clearly can't. Hope to see a big improvement on that against Villareal as I don't think getting beaten and outplayed in our final 2 games before the start of the season will do our hopes of a good start any good. Anyone know why Rodwell hasn't been playing? I am really hopeing he isn't about to be sold. Rodwell and Barkley in Midfield would be immense IMO.

Normal for the teams who finished below us last season maybe but the teams who finished above us (call me an optimist but thats where I think we should be looking) all had to loan players out or leave them out of there 25 man squads last year where as we only have 18 players we need to register (Rodwell does not need to be registered as 21 or younger). p.s. I have not done the necassary ground work to back up this claim and to be honest I can't be bothered but I think this was the case for most of if not all the teams who finished above us last year, I certainly remember talk of who would make it into the Tottenham, Man City and Man Utd squads, I'm just guessing with the others

In the unlikely event that our squad is fully fit I would like to see something like this: Howard Coleman Jagielka Distin Baines Felliani Rodwell Arteta Cahill Osman Saha Bench: Mucha Heitinga Neville Bilyaletdinov Anichebe Yakubu Beckford That isn't going to happen though and other than Yobo and Hibbert I don't think I have left out any established first team players so any more than one or two injuries (which is fairly inevitable at Everton) and we are reliant on youth players. Personally I am quite happy with that though as I think the likes of Barkley, Baxter, Gueye, Duffy and Vellios are all pretty close to challenging and a bigger squad would limit there opportunities to play and ultimately progress. From what I have seen and heard there a quite a few lads maybe not so close to breaking in to the first team (Hope, Lundstram, McAleny, Garbutt etc) with the potential to do so, and seeing the likes of Ross Barkley getting games and progressing will hopefully spur them on to do the same.

5 Youngsters Poised for Big Futures at Goodison Park Interesting article about 5 of our top youth prospects including Ross. Good to see on twitter he is fully fit and ready for pre-season. Hopeing to see him and Jose Baxter and maybe one or two others impress in pre-season then push on into the first team next year