Introducing a short passing style

With four competitive games now completed, Evertonians are starting to make judgements on the new era. Martinez has talked a lot about trying to combine the strengths from the Moyes era with a more a more attacking, possession-based philosophy. Most seem to agree that it's early days and the Roberto's Everton are currently very much a work in progress.

As an Evertonian living in the south of England I have to watch most of Everton's games on TV and therefore to get my fix of live football i've regularly been watching my local team, Brighton and Hove Albion over the last couple of seasons. For those of you unfamiliar with Brighton, the club underwent something of a cultural revolution four seasons ago when Gustavo Poyet took over the management reigns with the club under threat of relegation in League One. Poyet left the club this summer, but in his 3.5 years in charge embedded a possession based ethos on the team that is similar in a lot of ways to the things Martinez is trying to implement at Everton.

I thought it might be interesting for Evertonians to read a few observations on Brighton's style of play and how it might be relevant to Everton.

Defenders don't just defend

Brighton under Poyet liked to play the ball out from the back whenever possible. I believe this was for two reasons, firstly as the team had a better chance of retaining possession this way but also because it could be used to draw the opposition out of a defensive shape and higher up the pitch, leaving space to exploit behind opposing defences.

In Poyet's system central defenders split to receive the ball from the goalkeeper in more of  a 'full back' position and full backs therefore moved very wide and further forward. As the central defender split, one of the central midfielders dropped deeper to fill the space and provide a passing option the central defender who had just received the ball from a short goal kick or roll out. The central defender then had the option of passing back to the keeper, the full back on his side of the pitch or the central midfielder who was deep.

Obviously this system requires a goalkeeper, defenders and central midfielder who is comfortable passing the ball but as much as that, these players also need to be comfortable receiving the ball under pressure as all will find themselves being closed down quickly by the opposition. Staying calm, turning quickly with the ball and being able to retain it were therefore crucial traits for all Brighton's of Brighton's defensive players.

Risk vs reward

Playing this way is a dangerous game. It took fans a long time to get used to. On occasions Brighton's centre halves would find themselves dropping almost as far as the corner flag to get the ball from the keeper. Getting the ball here means the next pass is going to be very risky - one false move leads to a certain goal. When the ball came to the deep central midfielder they would often be under pressure, if they lost the ball the opposition would be clean through on the centre of goal, 25 yards from goal with centre halves still split. This led to some farcical looking goals conceded! Players in this system have to be very brave as carrying out their orders leaves them with the very real possibility they will look stupid when it goes wrong.

However, there is a reward for this risk.The more pressure you can withstand from an opponent yet still retain the ball the more you will have pulled them out of position and this in turn leaves space. Space which can be exploited for attacking means.

Getting the right players in the right positions

When the system was finally bedded in and the right personnel were in the right positions it really started to work well for Brighton. They won the League One title in Poyet's second season (first full season), narrowly missed play-offs in their first season in the Championship and made the play-off last year. This was a success given Brighton's relatively small budget for the division.

Centre back Gordon Greer was the first piece in the jigsaw. Always available for the goalkeeper he started almost every move. Liam Bridcutt was fantastic at getting space to receive the ball facing his own goal and then turning his man quickly to release the ball to the more attacking midfielders, taking opposition players out of the game. Having the right goalkeeper was also very important, it meant be willing to give the ball to team mates in positions that were risky, even if it was against their instincts. Poyet persisted with keepers Casper Ankegren and Peter Brezovan for two seasons despite numerous handling errors from each primariy because they contributed to the style of play Poyet wanted. Despite being the more assured goalkeeper Steve Harper's loan from Newcastle was not renewed, in my eyes mainly because he was uncomfortable playing from the back. Poyet finally found the long term answer last year in Tomasz Kuszczak.

The attacking phase

I've talked a lot so far about how Brighton move the ball from the back to the midfield but I haven't really addressed how they turn this into attack.

Under Poyet Brighton usually played with only a single striker, either Glenn Murray, Craig MacKail-Smith or laterly Leo Ulloa. There was usually a more advanced central midfielder, sometimes Vicente, but they rarely played through balls to the striker, more often their movement was lateral, looking to play one -twos with the wide players to get them in behind the defence. The wide players in Brighton's squad in this era were numerous -most were pacy and tricky like Lua Lua, Orlandi and Buckley. Their aim was to get round the back. For periods Ashley Barnes, a more conventional striker, played in wide positions using his height to match up to opposition full backs and arriving late in the box to finish moves from the opposite side of the pitch with a fair amount of success.

What this means for Everton

This piece isn't really intended to show how a team can be successful playing a total passing style. Brighton didn't win the Championship so they can't claim to be a blueprint for success. What can't be argued though is that they are a club who successfully implemented the style so that it became completely embedded through the squad and for that reason I think it's relevant to Everton.

I think Roberto Martinez will be looking to get Everton playing in a very similar way to this in the future. You’ll notice that I have focussed a lot here on the defensive phase, the reason being that is so crucial to this style of play and it’s what sets it apart from the way we have played in the past. We’ve always played good football higher up the pitch but working the ball in our own half was never really something Moyes looked for and as a result it’s where most changes need to be made to our current squad.

There are rumours this morning of Everton looking to sign another central defender, something a lot of Evertonians will be surprised by, but I think this fits with a need that Roberto Martinez has for a more ball-playing centre half in order to make his system work. You can see it’s importance by the fact that a lot of other teams looking to adopt this 'play from the back' mentality have ended up using midfielders in the traditional centre back positions (Mascherano at Barca, Martinez when he was at Bilbao). Speaking of midfield it looks like Fellaini will be leaving and we may find James McCarthy and Gareth Barry coming in his place. I think an overhaul here is also very necessary to make the new system work. You can’t deny that Fellaini has the ball winning/retention abilities of a classic defensive midfielder but what he lacks a little is movement and this makes it harder for him to provide a passing  option to centre backs who have just received a short pass from the goalkeeper. Barry is probably more adapt at this and I think he’d be a decent signing on loan and could rotate with Darron Gibson. McCarthy too has some experience of getting the ball from the defence at Wigan and so their acquisition should allow us to play the ball out from the back more effectively. McCarthy will probably be more of a replacement for Osman than Fellaini and his greater mobility should allow him to get forward and allow the team to move from the defensive phase to attacking more quickly, allowing us to capitalise on the opposition having been pulled out of shape than we do currently.

One huge thing I noticed in my time watching Brighton under Poyet is how important the goalkeeper is to the system. The keeper simply has to be able to pass the ball well when receiving it in open play. They are one of the main passing options a centre back will have when they are given the ball, if when the keeper receives a pass back they just kick it long then they may as well have just taken a long goal kick in the first place. Instead they will need to be comfortable controlling the back pass and moving the ball over to the other side of the pitch and keeping possession. In my opinion Howard has been an excellent goalkeeper for Everton and he deserves a chance to adapt to the system but as Martinez gradually builds his team and we move more towards this style of play I wouldn’t be surprised to see Robles being given a go. Robles has been victim of a few high profile ‘rics’ in his short career so far but the famous goal he conceded for Wigan kicking the ball into an approaching forward came from his insistence on looking for a short passing option on receipt of a back pass. This is exactly the type of scenario I saw at Brighton regularly, it’s heart of the mouth time for fans but it is actually a crucial part of the system so if we’re going to adopt that style expect to see something similar at Goodison over the next few months. If you can find a keeper who can do this effectively but at the same time be a good shot stopper as Swansea have done with Vorm then it can help set the tone for the rest of the team.

In the attacking midfield phase I think in Pienaar, Barkley and Mirallas we already have the right people to make the system work. I’d also suggest that if relieved of his defensive duties Osman can still be very effective in an ACM role where his physical limitations are much less of a problem so his strengths can come to the fore. What remains to be seen is whether any of our strikers are actually capable of bagging a goal. This is the thing that perplexes me most because unless you get very very lucky like Swansea did with Michu then we are unlikely to find a 20 goal a season striker within our measly budget. This worries me because even with the rest of the system in place we will still need someone to finish our chances and right now there’s no one in our squad that I’m convinced can do this. Fingers crossed Roberto pulls a rabbit out of the hat on that score today!

Deadline day arrives

As I write we are about an hour away from August 31st. Traditionally this is a date to strike fear into the heart of Evertonians everywhere - transfer deadline day. Darmesh Sheth, Jim White and Brian Swanson....the merchants of doom! This year however, I feel no fear.

To date this has been the best summer transfer window that Everton have had in ages. So far it appears we are building on the progress made in January and this positivity has been reflected in our excellent start to the season. We look a more balanced side than we have since selling Lescott. As this is Everton we can never completely rule out Baines or Fellaini being sold tomorrow but for once it would be a massive surprise.

Truth be told im so happy with our business so far that any extras are just a cherry on top. I fully expect a few loans to come in though - one of them a striker where we appear light in decent cover for Jelavic. But with all of this in mind I feel i'm in a position to really enjoy all of the ups and downs that deadline day will bring and i think it promises to be a very interesting one. With so many teams changing managers this summer there are a number of clubs rebuilding, which has led to some surprise sales and purchases already and it seems that this trend will continue tomorrow.

As we approach midnight on the 30th Aug here are the things that have interested/amused me most about this window so far:

- Brendan Rodgers openly touting virtually all of last years RS signings to anyone who will listen. They'll be paying them to leave by midday tomorrow.

- AvB sweeping out half of the spurs squad (there's got to be a few here we could take) and effectively writing off their season whilst the new team gels. P.s not a criticism, i think next year they'll be awesome if they dont bottle it like Abramovich did last year.

- Spurs having to put up with their chairman doing a Kenwright on them - holding out selling a prized asset til the last minute to get a top price and then going beserk trying to spend the money (in Bill's case half the money). This morning Sky sources had Levy flying to Marseille to open talks with Loic Remy, by the time i got home from work Marseille had denied all knowledge and AvB was saying they were never interested. Its a long way to go to get a no. I think Levy wouldve been better sending a delegation.

- Citeh signing Richard Wright

- Martin O'Neill spending £12million on Steven Fletcher in what I firmly believe is the WORST value for money signing in recent history. While i'm on MON i can see him leaving Sunderland in all kinds of mess - his tactics are outdated and his strategy appears to be to spend every penny he is given no matter how good the players available are. Expect him to flounce when the board eventually turn off the tap having realised theyve only gone one place higher in the league table in two years time. And then expect them to be in financial difficulties.

- QPR signing Julio Cesar, Esteban Granero and as i speak, it appears, ex-blues target Stephane M'Bia. They're going for it for sure but does bringing in this type of player to a club like QPR ever work? Or will it end in dressing room bust ups, player strikes, manager sacking, relegation and then administration. Sure they're being bankrolled by some very rich folk and Fernandes is by all accounts a decent bloke but then billionaires seem to have a nack of seperating themselves from the football club entity when things go pear-shaped - see Sasha Gaydamak, Craig White, Carson Yeung, West Ham's Icelandic owners etc etc.

- West Ham and Southampton, two teams with recent history of financial mismanagement taking the opportunity to spend ridiclously beyond their means again the minute the opportunity has arisen. Southampton in particular apparently spending 11.6m on Gaston Ramires seems ridiculous (if it actually happens). He could be amazing but f**k me he's one player - unless he's Messi he wont keep them up single handedly. Surely they couldve spent that money more wisely on a few more modest signings throughout the team?? Did they not learn that the two teams who kept the most consistency from their championship teams last year (Norwich and Swansea) were the ones who stayed up easily, whilst QPR who spent all over the shop narrowly escaped relegation on the final game of the season.

So anyway, fingers crossed for tomorrow. Ive got this image that Moyes will be sitting there watching and ready to pounce on one of the quality players that will no doubt make a surprise move tomorrow. We can only hope.

Looking ahead

Well that was a long old break eh?! Been busy with other things so the blog's had to take a break but started to wonder tonight about what the summer might hold for the blues.

Traditionally transfer windows have been a time to dread but since the phenomenal business that we did during January I must say that i've become much less twitchy about the next few months.

First up I think it's more or less certain that we are going to lose one of our 'big' players this summer. This article in the Telegraph paints a very vivid picture of why that's the case. So who to go? A lot of the talk suggests it might be Fellaini but I think we'll get another year out of the big Belgian, sadly I fear that it will be Leighton Baines that bids farewell to us this summer. Now firmly established as the heir to Ashley Cole's spot for England and as a consistent Premier League performer for several years he's a safe bet for any Champion's League side in need of an attacking left-back. What's more, the conspiracy theorist in me can't help but think his absence since our season effectively ended at Wembley isn't just a coincidence. Perhaps that's over dramatic but nonetheless, with rumours of interest from Bayern and Manchester Utd, I think he'd be coveted and we all know that an auction is the best way to get a top price.

As amazing as Leighton has been for us over the last few years if we've got to sell anyone i'd rather it was a defender. We know that Moyes can spot a defender, we know that Distin can play there and we also know we have two highly rated young left-backs coming through. Players like Baines don't grow on trees but if his sale could fund the purchase of a cheap, steady replacement and allow us to re-sign Pienaar and another creative midfielder or striker it would make up for the loss in my opinion. Baines has been our best attacking outlet for a long time but there are drawbacks to having your best attacker playing full back - it's an obvious defensive weakness for opponents to exploit, it's predictable and it also leads to a lot of crosses which I think (and i dont have the stats to back this up) isn't the most effective way to score goals. Any well drilled defensive unit can set up to deal with them quite easily.

I wouldn't even begin to speculate on who might come in with what's left over from our big sale. Well, i mean obviously Pienaar has got to be a good bet (hopefully we had some sort of first option/cheap buy-back clause when we sold him) but that aside anyone coming in is likely to come from left field. I still think we'll be in the market for a back-up for Jelavic as Straq will probably go back to Argentina and even if Pienaar does return we'll probably want to sign another wide, creative midfielder (possibly on loan). Oh and of course, a steady eddy left back who doesn't mind getting forward a bit.

One comment I would make about our targets is that more than ever a player's success in the Premier League seems to be dependent on their ability to fit into the system that a team plays. Just look at the players in the promoted teams this year - players like Hoolahan, Bennett, Allen and Brittan have been very effective despite playing most of their careers in a lower league. Brittan in particular is amazing in that he has played for Swansea in every division, for a player that has played that low a level to still be one of the most effective midfielders in the Premier League indicates to me that times are changing. Teams and systems trump individual brilliance more than for a long time and therefore finding the right type of player is more important than who the actual individual is. I would love to see Moyes scouring Europe and Championship for a very specific type of player - we all saw the effect Donovan had so let's look for the best copy we can find. Bit of pace, good tactical awareness and good movement. 15's for these rather than Donovan's 18's (in Football Manager speak).

So that's what I see happening. We'll see how it pans out but as ever I wouldn't have thought we'll see much action until about midday on the 31st August!

A corner turned?

It's been a strange week for Evertonians. After umpteen transfer windows spent praying not to lose players rather than looking to sign them and a lacklustre season on the pitch this week came out of nowhere. And it was good. No scrub that, it felt BLOODY BRILLIANT. For the first time in ages it feels to me like we might be at the start of a road back to the good old days.

Darron Gibson celebrates his first goal at the old lady

It's a long road of course and if I know Everton we'll get beat by Wigan tomorrow, but let's live for a second in the moment of Tuesday night and savour it. It's been a long long time and us blues deserve it.

The day started well with the signing of Nikica Jelavic looking a formality and rumours abound of several other deals in the offing. It took a slightly unexpected turn when the news of Louis Saha's departure to Spurs became known but despite coming out of left field for most it seemed to feel like the right move. As talented and lethal as he is on his day, this season Louis's days have become less and less frequent, in fact he probably hasn't really shown what he's capable of once. In any case, if there was a sense of loss for Saha it quickly dried up when rumours surfaced that we might see Steven Pienaar coming back as part of the deal.

So we came to 8 o'clock and attention turned from SSN to the match. What a cracking performance it was. The type of grafting, stoic performace that we had started to take for granted a couple of years back but which has been missing all season. Despite our lack of possession I thought we looked like a side with some self-belief again. We looked dangerous on the break and a lung-busting shift from the big Argentine Stracqualursi, full of confidence after his FA Cup goal last week, pressurised the City defence and allowed our attacking midfielders to get forward. Goodison was rocking, like only it can for a game under lights and with an hour gone it looked like City were starting to run out of ideas. I said to my mate on 60 mins that I fancied us to nick a goal now and within 2 minutes my premonition came true when a quick break from Drenthe, lead to a cross from Bainesey to Donovan who having miscontrolled had the presence of mind to lay the ball back to the onrushing Gibson who rifled a tradmark drive into the top corner of Gwladys Street goal. Pandemonium.

At the final whistle David Moyes was punching the air and smiling like a kid at Christmas. It was a fantastic sight! It brought home to me how long it is since we've seen that from him and boy have I missed it. For all his faults I've got love for that guy.

So to the cherry on top. The return of Steven Pienaar on a six-month loan which might turn into something more permanent further down the line. The finishing touch to my most satisfying day as an Evertonian in a long while. We have never replaced the movement that Pienaar gave us in his first spell and to my mind, movement is the absolute key to scoring goals in the premier league. I see no reason why Pienaar wouldn't be able to slot straight back in. He's hungry after barely getting a kick in the past year and we all now how well he worked with Baines and Cahill last time. We could have some delicious attacking midfield options choosing three from Pienaar, Cahill, Osman, Drenthe and Donovan in a 4-2-3-1.

Oh I can feel it. Optimism and excitement. And i don't think i'm the only one. I saw it in David Moyes' eyes during his post-match interview. As a team i've always felt we mirrored our manager. I think Moyes is a character who can get depressed and negative, he can be aprehensive and when that happens it comes through in his team. At times this season we have looked straight out terrified - to attack, of making mistakes, of daring to try something and it not coming off. But when Moyesey is buzzing I see a different team, one full of effort, verve and self-belief. That Everton dicked on Newcastle to qualify for the Champions League. It dominated the shite over two legs when they were actually a good side. And it took United and Chelsea to pieces within a matter of weeks in 2010.

I know this is all a bit much off of one performance, but what I also know is that we can beat anyone when we're on our bipolar highs. I feel now that we might finally be starting out on the road back to those days. We're a long way off of cup finals and Europa league nights but we had to start somewhere and if this is that first step, then I want to get the fuck on board.

Come on you blue boys!!!!

A brick is laid....

Everton signed a player today. Yep, you read it right. Everton signed a player. And not a 17 year old, a real one who can play tomorrow and everything.

He may not be the centre-forward we are all yearning for but the arrival of Darron Gibson today from Manchester United for a knockdown fee of £500k that may rise to £2 million is a start at least.

As i said in my post from a couple of weeks back, David Moyes has to start rebuilding the Everton team and doing so with players a few years short of their peak, who have been written off elsewhere. Gibson fits this bill perfectly. I just hope we can get a couple more in to join him, even if this means letting some deadwood go.

Of course, the chances are Gibson isn't going to be the new Arteta overnight but it feels to me like the first step back in the right direction. The first brick in Moyes' big rebuild. I hope it continues but this is Everton so someone will probably come and piss on our new wall by the time Monday comes.

A long road back

I'm not normally one to knee jerk but tonights 2-1 defeat at home to Bolton Wanderers summed up all of Everton's current problems. It brings to the end a run of four games unbeaten. On the face of it, a positive run but one that anyone who has had the dubious pleasure of watching the games knows has been achieved in the most pragmatic and unnattractive style imaginable.

 I LOVE this guy but should he have been sold?

Injuries to three key players did us no favours whatsoever tonight but even before then there wasn't a lot to suggest that we were going to improve on our recent performances. In fact, I can only think of the Aston Villa game this season where we have looked a genuinely good team.....that was the 4th game of the season.

That we have been able to play so poorly yet still pick up enough points to have a chance of making a Europa League place says a lot about the mental strength of our team, our preparation and also about Moyes' match craft. But to my mind our squad is now back to a similar level (in comparison to the rest of the league) to the one that Moyes inherited in 2002 and as a result he's adopting the same, grinding approach that characterised his early years in charge. In those days most Evertonians were happy to take the points however they came, but after the highs of the 2007-2010 era this feels like a mighty big fall from grace.

Football punditry: The good, the bad and the ugly.

The role of the football pundit is a weird one. Clearly most of the viewers or listeners are tuning in primarily to watch the game. Yet you only have to look at twitter during a live game or listen to a lounge full of viewers to know that the co-commentators and pundits can make a massive difference to people's enjoyment of the game.

No doubt who you prefer to listen to depends on your taste. Are you looking for someone who will hype up the excitement? Someone who will add some real insight to the action taking place? Someone with a soothing voice?

For me the best pound-for-pound pundit working on tv/radio is Pat Nevin. When he's co-commentating he's adds insight as well as describing the action in a way that's easy on my ears, when he's in the studio he'll nearly always highlight something interesting from the game and on magazine programmes he's able to be both interesting and do the amusing banter the genre requires. I'd like to think these observations aren't coloured by the fact I know he's got some Everton in his heart.

Coming up on the rails is new boy, the freshly retired Gary Neville. He's contributed more to my enjoyment of Sky games in the last four months than Jamie Redknapp has in the last three years. Aside from Neville (and Redknapp) Sky have some other half decent analysts - Graeme Souness can be interesting when he's not being partisan and Ray Wilkins has a lot to add despite the far too regular shouts of 'my word'! At least he's stealing from a broadcasting legend I suppose!

Where things go really downhill are on our main two terrestrial channels. Somewhere along the line the producers on these channels must have decided that anything too complex will cause the masses to turn-off. The worst two in my book are Jim Beglin and Alan Hanson. I can only assume they must have made a pact to provide shit punditry during retirement over a half-time cuppa in the Anfield bootroom at some point in 1983. If they did, they've stuck to their word.