Thursday, January 6, 2011
Relocation Time
With the Christmas break from school for the past 3 weeks I have had time to flesh out my vision for this site. Part of this vision has included a real domain name for the site as opposed to being hosted by blogspot. Because of this I have started up a new website at firstnumber9.com , I hope you will all join me there for some snarky 9th rate articles on all things Everton. Until next time, COYB!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Everton v. Spurs: A Recap
Today we finally saw a fairly complete game from Everton from the first time since October. In addition we had a striker sighting in the form of Louis Saha and Jermaine Beckford also put together an impressive game until he was subbed off.
The Good:
With the departure of Tim Cahill for the month, Everton's main question was who would score goals, and today Seamus Coleman and Louis Saha responded in a positive fashion. Saha had a beautiful strike from just outside the box in the 3rd minute, and he helped out on the second goal when his blistering shot forced Gomes to parry right at Coleman who was able to head the ball home. An important thing about Saha's performance was that he looked dangerous the entire game, and had an absolute laser of a volley that was deflected from a certain goal by Hutton.
Additionally Jermaine Beckford got his first start since September, and although he did not put any real chances on goal, he did have some excellent hold up play and did well to feed Saha during the build up to the second goal. One thing this game did show is that Beckford may have much more potential for Everton if Moyes is willing to use 2 strikers and gives Beckford another striker he can link up well with.
The final highlight of the Spurs match was the amount of possession Everton was able to have throughout this game. This was a huge contrast from the Manchester City game where even before Anichebe got sent off Everton were willing to concede possession for almost 70 minutes of that game. This time around ball movement was much better, and in the second half Everton seemed to have much more consistent possession than Spurs did, and certainly did deserve to win which is nice to see.
The Bad
Thankfully this time around the bad was fairly small and some of it may be nitpicky, but the one player that has been consistently bad this season has been Pienaar. For whatever reason, maybe it is fatigue from the World Cup, or maybe his head is already with the next team he will be playing with, but Pienaar once again turned in a poor outing with a lot of passes that were shockingly off the mark. The one positive from his play is that although Pienaar has been losing the ball a lot, he does work to get the ball back by running all over the pitch, but a player of his quality should be doing better with his passing
The second player on this list arrives here in part because of a slight mistake on his part this game, but also from a lower level of from than he is capable of, and that is the Everton number one keeper, Tim Howard. Now while I have always been a huge fan of Howard's, this season his form has been lower than Evertonian's have come to expect. While Tim has certainly had some excellent saves this season, two of which he made against Spurs to help preserve the win, he has also had a lot of small mistakes in his mechanics, which have led to a few goals that in previous seasons he would not normally give up. An example of this was today where before the ball was even heading towards goal, Howard was already falling over. Had Howard been able to stand up tall as the ball was headed, he probably would have been able to prevent the goal. Hopefully Tim's form will return to a much higher level for the stretch run.
Next up for Everton is an FA Cup Third Round match against Scunthorpe at 10 am, the question will be what side gets run out for this match, especially with the second Merseyside Derby of the season being played on the following Sunday and the number of fixtures the squad has played in over the past 2 weeks. Currently we sit 11th in table on goal differential, so until next time COYB!
The Good:
With the departure of Tim Cahill for the month, Everton's main question was who would score goals, and today Seamus Coleman and Louis Saha responded in a positive fashion. Saha had a beautiful strike from just outside the box in the 3rd minute, and he helped out on the second goal when his blistering shot forced Gomes to parry right at Coleman who was able to head the ball home. An important thing about Saha's performance was that he looked dangerous the entire game, and had an absolute laser of a volley that was deflected from a certain goal by Hutton.
Additionally Jermaine Beckford got his first start since September, and although he did not put any real chances on goal, he did have some excellent hold up play and did well to feed Saha during the build up to the second goal. One thing this game did show is that Beckford may have much more potential for Everton if Moyes is willing to use 2 strikers and gives Beckford another striker he can link up well with.
The final highlight of the Spurs match was the amount of possession Everton was able to have throughout this game. This was a huge contrast from the Manchester City game where even before Anichebe got sent off Everton were willing to concede possession for almost 70 minutes of that game. This time around ball movement was much better, and in the second half Everton seemed to have much more consistent possession than Spurs did, and certainly did deserve to win which is nice to see.
The Bad
Thankfully this time around the bad was fairly small and some of it may be nitpicky, but the one player that has been consistently bad this season has been Pienaar. For whatever reason, maybe it is fatigue from the World Cup, or maybe his head is already with the next team he will be playing with, but Pienaar once again turned in a poor outing with a lot of passes that were shockingly off the mark. The one positive from his play is that although Pienaar has been losing the ball a lot, he does work to get the ball back by running all over the pitch, but a player of his quality should be doing better with his passing
The second player on this list arrives here in part because of a slight mistake on his part this game, but also from a lower level of from than he is capable of, and that is the Everton number one keeper, Tim Howard. Now while I have always been a huge fan of Howard's, this season his form has been lower than Evertonian's have come to expect. While Tim has certainly had some excellent saves this season, two of which he made against Spurs to help preserve the win, he has also had a lot of small mistakes in his mechanics, which have led to a few goals that in previous seasons he would not normally give up. An example of this was today where before the ball was even heading towards goal, Howard was already falling over. Had Howard been able to stand up tall as the ball was headed, he probably would have been able to prevent the goal. Hopefully Tim's form will return to a much higher level for the stretch run.
Next up for Everton is an FA Cup Third Round match against Scunthorpe at 10 am, the question will be what side gets run out for this match, especially with the second Merseyside Derby of the season being played on the following Sunday and the number of fixtures the squad has played in over the past 2 weeks. Currently we sit 11th in table on goal differential, so until next time COYB!
Silly Season
With the start of a new year comes the start of a new silly season as teams look to strengthen their side for everything from a push for European qualification, to secure their top flight status for another season. This time around Everton will be looking for any sort of goalscorer that is available. A quick roundup of the same of the names that are rumored to be coming and going from Goodison Park this month
Outgoing
Steven Pienaar: With a contract up at the end of the season plus Pienaar turning down a new contract this past summer, many speculate that Pienaar could be out of the door this month. Spurs had been mentioned as a previous destination in the summer, and for a small fee good old 'Arry could take Pienaar for the rest of the season, plus work on a new contract. Part of the problem with this is that Pienaar has not had good form this season which has diminished what little value he would have this month.
Yakubu: Yakubu had been of interest to West Ham over the summer, but their low bid in the area of 5 million pounds was quickly dismissed by Everton, and a potential move came of nothing. 6 months later the rumor mill is again churning as Yakubu has not been able to return to form even in a squad where the forward position has been abysmal, and he may very well leave for West Ham this month for some much needed funds.
Leighton Baines: Subject to rumor this past summer from Bayern, the club has thankfully confirmed that Baines had no desire to join their squad, and have stopped heir pursuit.
Incoming
There have been no solid rumors regarding who may be coming to Goodison Park this month. Landon Donovan ruled out any chance of a loan in December, as did Goldenmort. Some reports had linked Manchester United's Macheda to Merseyside, but his loan to Sampdoria.
One report did have Monaco striker Dieumerci Mbokani. possibly coming to either Everton or West Ham as he has failed to crack the first team after his 7 million pound move from Standard Leige.
Despite Louis Saha looking extremely dangerous today against Spurs, Everton could certainly use another striker or two in order to make what seems to be a possible if unlikely run at European qualification.
Outgoing
Steven Pienaar: With a contract up at the end of the season plus Pienaar turning down a new contract this past summer, many speculate that Pienaar could be out of the door this month. Spurs had been mentioned as a previous destination in the summer, and for a small fee good old 'Arry could take Pienaar for the rest of the season, plus work on a new contract. Part of the problem with this is that Pienaar has not had good form this season which has diminished what little value he would have this month.
Yakubu: Yakubu had been of interest to West Ham over the summer, but their low bid in the area of 5 million pounds was quickly dismissed by Everton, and a potential move came of nothing. 6 months later the rumor mill is again churning as Yakubu has not been able to return to form even in a squad where the forward position has been abysmal, and he may very well leave for West Ham this month for some much needed funds.
Leighton Baines: Subject to rumor this past summer from Bayern, the club has thankfully confirmed that Baines had no desire to join their squad, and have stopped heir pursuit.
Incoming
There have been no solid rumors regarding who may be coming to Goodison Park this month. Landon Donovan ruled out any chance of a loan in December, as did Goldenmort. Some reports had linked Manchester United's Macheda to Merseyside, but his loan to Sampdoria.
One report did have Monaco striker Dieumerci Mbokani. possibly coming to either Everton or West Ham as he has failed to crack the first team after his 7 million pound move from Standard Leige.
Despite Louis Saha looking extremely dangerous today against Spurs, Everton could certainly use another striker or two in order to make what seems to be a possible if unlikely run at European qualification.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)