EPL Talk » Everton

Everton Unable To Take Revenge On Benfica

footballnewsblog — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:55:44 +0000

This season has not started the best for Everton, so far they have been unable to recapture the form they showed last season in the league and sit a lowly 13th. Couple this with two heavy defeats and the hands of Benfica in the Europa league and things aren’t looking so rosy for David Moyes and his men.

Last night Benfica beat Everton 2-0 at Goodison Park and although this is an improvement on the 5-0 defeat last time round it was still a poor night for Everton with Benfica deserving the win. Javier Saviola opened the scoring for Benfica with a low finish early in the second half before Oscar Cardozo finished in the bottom corner.

It s hard to criticise Everton too much this season due to the number of players they have on the sidelines. They don’t have the depth of squad that is available to other Premiership teams and last night with key men like Mikel Arteta and Phil Jagielka missing from the team, who were arguably the best players in an Everton football shirt last year, it is not surprising that the team aren’t on their best form at the moment.

Everton are still sitting in a good position in the Europa league are still favourites to qualify from the group along with Benfica. Everton sit second with 6 points, 3 behind Benfica and 2 ahead of BATE and AEK Athens. Although they have hard games to play they should still qualify for the next round when they will hopefully have some of their players back from injury and back in the squad.

Although Everton are in 13th place in the table the teams around them are all very close together and a few wins could see them quickly jump up the table and get them back to where we are used to seeing them over the past few seasons.

Written by Danny Watson a Sports writer who also blogs about football kits.

Everton’s Painful Wait

Tom Mallows — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:52:57 +0000

David Moyes - Management is a lonely job at times

To say it was a week to forget for Evertonian’s is an understatement.
Three games, three defeats, 10 goals conceded and a casualty list befitting a small battlefield, it is no wonder Toffees fans are wearing concerned expressions at the moment.

What makes it more galling for Blues fans is its predictability and familiarity. This time last year they were actually three points worse off, without a win on home soil and dumped out of Europe and the League Cup. This had come off the back of a frustrating summer where Moyes was hamstrung in the transfer market and had to be content with a clutch of last minute deadline-day signings.

Fast forward to the summer of 2009 and things began to take a familiar path.

Once again Moyes struggled to make an impact in the transfer market with much of the transfer talk involving the protracted departure of Joleon Lescott. This disrupted and fractured summer no doubt affected the side as they crashed 6-1 on the opening day to a rampant Arsenal.
Ironically, part of the recovery process last year, which culminated in a second consecutive fifth place finish and a FA Cup Final appearance, was injuries to all of David Moyes’ first choice strikers. Tim Cahill and record signing Mauroane Fellaini were pushed further forward and all of a sudden results started to return.

A brief upturn this year saw European progression and a six-game unbeaten run, but Everton’s injury curse struck again and any momentum has screeched to a shuddering halt.
It was interesting to hear Rafael Benitez’s comments in the build up to the Manchester United game last week regarding the injury ‘crisis’ at Anfield , particularly to key players Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres – ‘the worst he had ever known’ he said.

Well across Stanley Park Everton fans feel Rafa’s gripes are trivial compared to what they have had to deal with. They have been without star midfielder Mikel Arteta since February with a serious knee injury. Phil Jagielka suffered a similar injury in April and is yet to return. Twenty goal striker Yakubu ruptured an achilles last November and has only just comeback while young striker Victor Anichebe has also been sidelined for eight months.

But the Blues had shown they could cope with these setbacks last season as they defiantly marched onto Wembley in May. But with a squad already at breaking point Moyes knew he needed to increase quantity as well as quality in pre-season. He didn’t, and Everton are paying the price.

The knee curse struck again when captain Phil Neville was sidelined for three months in August. Steven Pienaar has been out for the past month after being caught late on the, you’ve guessed it, knee, down at Portsmouth, while injury-plagued forward James Vaughan once again had to go under the surgeon’s knife.

It has proved one injury too many and with an entire XI out against Benfica, their lack of squad depth was ruthlessly exposed as they were taken apart by the dominant Portuguese at the Stadium of Light last Thursday.

So what lies ahead for Everton?

Well they have to play the waiting game.

The inspirational Arteta and reliable Jagielka – the duo most Toffees fans would say have been missed most – are not set to return till the end of November and with matches coming thick and fast, those who remain will have to soldier on.

But having already been dispatched out of the Carling Cup, that sobering defeat in Lisbon and lying a lowly 14th in the league. Will Everton’s pre-season ambitions be irreversibly damaged by the time they return?

Heitinga Transfers to Everton

Sam Hiser — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:03:46 +0000

photo: Yiorgos Karahalis | Reuters

Dutch international right back, Johnny Heitinga, has accepted a transfer from Atletico Madrid to Everton, completing a physical just under the transfer window deadline which closed at 5pm yesterday.

It’s a loss for Atleti and a serious loss for the Champions League competition (Everton competes in the Europa League but Heitinga is cup-tied for even that). I was looking forward to the rebels — “Los Colchoneros” (”the Mattress-Makers”) — of Madrid making a strong showing this year. Perhaps not.

Heitinga — a product of Ajax — is one of the quality right backs who’s lithe movement reminds a little of Cafu in his nimbler days. A skilled handler of the ball who gives firm ball on the ground and who is capable of launching stinging balls early across the 18 from wide space. He is clever, unpredictable, not easily read and not prone to tendency. He’ll set you up going outside then, later in the match, kill you driving inside. Unlike Ashley Cole, for example, Heitinga is the kind of wide back who keeps his wide opponents busy in their own end.

Moyes brings in Heitinga to replace Joleon Lescott who was snatched by Mark Hughes & Manchester City near the deadline. Lescott is a strong player, but this is at least a fair swap for the Toffees if Johnny can stay fit.

Heitinga rejoins his old teammate, Steven Pienaar, alongside whom he played at Ajax for five years. Said Heitinga, “I am looking forward to linking up with him again because he is a good player.”

Apparently, Heitinga was on a high salary in Madrid which Everton could not match (yet he now supercedes Mikel Arteta as Everton highest paid player). Nor can Everton offer Champions League competition this year. Even with these deficiencies in the bargain, a fine Dutch footballer feels the pull of the Premiership and the aura of living in Liverpool & environs.

My guess is Heitinga will take Tony Hibbert’s position wide-right; in which case it is unclear who among Baines, Yobo or Jagielka and others are best suited to partner Sylvain Distin in the middle of the back. It’s the kind of signing the effects of which will ripple through a side having its difficulties not a few months after just tasting the Wembley stage of an FA Cup Final.

[TweetBeat] Joleon Lescott Edition

Phil McThomas — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:35:01 +0000

Photo credit: Wonker (Flickr)

TweetBeat takes the pulse of fan opinion and reaction – the emotional, the insightful and the trivial. But mostly trivial though.

Let’s start with a comment from the BBC Sport’s chief football writer, Phil McNulty, which induced varying opinions from a couple of Everton fans:

philmcnulty: Time for Manchester City to make that next Joleon Lescott bid. And time for David Moyes to accept it and move on. Damaging saga for Everton.

TennyKarim: @philmcnulty why can’t man city go to Europe for better center halves and they are cheaper they don’t need all this lescott drama.

scouserachel: @philmcnulty Why exactly when the only parties who will benefit are City and Lescott? No time to buy better replacement. He’ll go nowhere.

Support for Lescott seems to be in pretty short supply on Merseyside:

manch1985: would be quite happy to see lescott rot in the reserves, well done moyes for dropping him

evertonyian: Lescott,wherever u maybe,f*** off to manchester city we hope u go there cos it will end in tears they hav’nt won a thing in fifty years

Lawrance10: RT @MCFC_headlines Joleon Lescott dropped by Everton – He’s surely on his way now? Not sure I want him anymore after Saturdays 6-1.

DHWizzo: Looks like Man City are getting Lescott now. When will the madness end? ‘Run for the money – you only run for the money’.

Has the saga turned into a lose-lose for all concerned? Some seem to think so:

thetruefootball: Lescott all but gone to City. Poor Toffees. Poor City.

Monkey_Nuts: I’m getting very tired of man city persuit of Lescott, we should give up and move on to other targets!

I’ll leave you with proof that not everything on Twitter is pure fluff. It may not parse well, but I think we should all do a little soul-searching after reading this next one:

joemisika: Is it rite that players r getting more power, Essien forced his move to chelsea. Now Lescott wants to force his to Man City? Is it good?

Phil McThomas runs CleverFootball.com, a site that lets football fans get their news fix with the minimum amount of fuss. Man City fans will want to keep their eye on the Man City news page. Toffee fans can track Everton news here…if they dare.

Time For The Other Big Four To Step Up Next Season

Paul Bestall — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:50:48 +0000

With another season drawing to a close and the usual suspects in their normal places in the top four, isn’t it about time that the second level of teams finally pushed up to join them? With Everton once again in a Europa League place, Villa making massive strides, despite the fall away they suffered after Christmas, Harry Redknapp finally making Tottenham hard to beat and Manchester City getting ready to add to the squad to make them more consistent, next season may finally see the gap between the big 4 and the other 4 draw a little bit closer.

Next season is crucial in the development of all 4 clubs for a variety of reasons, with varying degrees of pressure on each incumbent of the managerial hotseat. There’s no doubting the influence or the excellent job that David Moyes has done restoring Everton to a safer area of the Premiership since he came in during 2002, ultimately saving the club from relegation. Since his appointment, Moyes has continued to build on his early success, the 2003-3004 season apart, highlights include finishing 4th in 2005 and getting to this seasons F.A. Cup final. All he needs is his strikers to stay fit and a bit more width in the team to make a concerted push. Moyes’s job is secure; his chairman isn’t backwards in praising him to the heavens at any given moment.

Over at Aston Villa, since Martin O’Neill returned to the Premiership, he’s overseen steady progress at Villa Park, helped in no small way by the takeover of Randy Lerner and a major investment in the playing staff. Finishing 11th, then 6th last season, the worst they can finish this season is also 6th but perhaps some fans may feel a tad disappointed. They started the season so well, flirting with a top three finish before falling away over the later part of the season.

O’Neill’s tendency to stick to a counter attacking style and his sometimes baffling decision to play players out of position even when he doesn’t have to could make it a difficult job to improve though. They really do need a plan B other than humping it forward when chasing a game. He’s facing a big dilemma over how to replace Martin Laursen and the likelihood of another summer of trying to keep Gareth Barry at the club. Those two decisions as well as adding a couple more players will be crucial for Villa to build on the last 3 seasons.

Another club that often have the knack of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory are my beloved Tottenham, a blessing and a curse in equal measure. After the disgraceful removal of Martin Jol, the ineptitude shown by his replacement Juande Ramos was stunning in its extreme with Spurs bottom of the Premiership after 8 games with 2 points. Major surgery was required and Harry Redknapp rode to the rescue. He hit the ground running and has slowly pulled Spurs to the brink of European qualification, almost unthinkable back in October.

Sitting in 8th, Redknapp can be pleased with his work this season, but he’ll know that Spurs have to get back to the level of consistency they showed under Jol and push them back in the mix further up. With several of the Ramos misfiring signings looking likely to leave, Tottenham will probably have a summer of wheeling and dealing and may have to settle for 7th or 8th again. Amazingly, Spurs now have their best ever defensive record at home in a season, remarkable considering what has gone on at White Hart Lane over the last 9 months.

Finally, Manchester City’s owners have already said they want a top 6 finish next year but would top 8 be such a failure for them? Couple with a good cup run, one thing is certain that this summer they’ll be bringing in new faces, maybe even up to 7 or 8 players. The question is, can they bring in the quality of player the owners want to propel them up the league?

Hughes has received the backing of his owner, with £80 million already spent this season alone and it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if they top that figure in the next transfer window alone. Now able to compete with any club in Europe financially, only the lack of European football may hinder them. For once, a club may finally be disappointed to see the Intertoto Cup has passed away.

These 4 clubs certainly have the potential to make next season even more exciting at the top of the table, with them jostling for position to capitalise on any mistakes in the ranks of the big 4. Yet they all need to temper their ambition with realism, a cup would not go amiss for any of them, tallied with a top 8 finish would represent an excellent season. Question is, will one of them finally push back into the top 4, forcing one of the big boys out for the first time since 2005?