Attacking movement: Life after Pienaar

For me, good attacking movement is the key to scoring goals in the Premier League. With teams so well prepared tactically, the ability of a player to create a yard of space to receive the ball or for team mates move into is crucial to creating goal scoring opportunities.

Quick players are more likely to appear to have good movement as their pace allows them to find space more easily. However, blistering speed is not essential in order for a player to have good movement. Steven Pienaar was a good example of this, whilst no slouch he is not exactly a pace merchant but his movement from the left side of midfield for Everton over the last few seasons has been crucial to the teams success. Until his recent departure it also played a huge part in the effectiveness of Leighton Baines this season. In the two most recent games without Pienaar in front of him Baines has looked a shadow of his former self.

In my opinion improving Everton's attacking movement is David Moyes' biggest challenge for the remainder of the season. This season must now be a write-off but if he can find a system and personel with the movement to hurt teams next year then it may not have all been in vain.

A new era for English football?

Is it just me or are we starting to see a general shift in playing styles within English football?

It's not so much the top 10 clubs in the Premier League that i'm referring to but those teams that might expect a Premier League relegation battle and even a number of teams in the Championship and League One.

The change in style i'm referring to is a move away from the defence-focussed, direct style of play that for several years, most teams below the top-10 in the Premier League felt the need to use. The style of play synonymous with Sam Allardyce, Gary Megson and even David Moyes early in his Everton career. At the time it was seen as the most effective way of achieving results on meagre resources.

Half-time in the transfer window

As we enter the second half of January, this transfer window suddenly seems to be hotting up. Everyone knew that City would sign Dzeko or a similar blockbuster but Aston Villa's swoop for Darren Bent yesterday took everyone by surprise. It's a real coup for Villa and reverses the recent trend of talent walking out of the door, though if it's offset by Young or Downing leaving it might not look so much of a good deal. That said, there's no commodity more valuable in football than goals and Bent guarantees them. Young and Downing, good as they can be on occasions, don't.

Which brings me to the blues. I posted back in December that I felt Moyes absolutely had to get some players in during this transfer window, and of course as it's Everton, I appreciated this would require players to leave. In that posted i suggested the best strategy may be to sell one 'big' player for mega-money and replace them with two or three.

Well, it doesn't look as though Davie thought that was the way to go. Instead he's opted to offload some fringe players and cash-in on Steven Pienaar before he left for free in the summer. This may give a small budget for transfer or loan fee's and more crucially free up some wage budget to accommodate new faces. So Yakubu and Pienaar gone, Vaughan on his way soon and the possibility of Heitinga joining him before the end of the month. And on the way in? Well, strong rumours of interest in two youngsters, Eric Dier of Sporting Lisbon and Dale Jennings of Tranmere but other than that nothing concrete. My guess is that Moyes has two lists of targets, one for the budget we have now (the two youngsters above + 2 loanees - striker+midfielder) and one for if we sell Heitinga (in which case the extra money would almost certainly go on a striker). One things for sure, this is at least going to be an interesting window for Everton. It could all be doom and gloom, but i'm a positive person. I think the squad needs freshening up and it'll do us no harm to shuffle the pack. Moyes has got a good record in the transfer market, especially when he's up against it and funds are tight. We'll see i guess.....

The flip side to managerial stability

It's been a crazy few days for managers in English football. Since Christmas there have been numerous sackings in the football league and this morning Liverpool announced that Roy Hodgson is leaving Liverpool to be replaced by Kenny Daglish for the remainder of the season. The timing of these sackings is obviously motivated by the desire to give the new men the chance to make decisions to sign/sell players during the January transfer window.

Two things jump out at me about the Hodgson sacking. Firstly, will Kenny be able to recreate his former glories? He's been out of football for best part of 15 years and as we know the game has changed a lot in that time. I'm not sure, letting the players know 'what it means to play for Liverpool' will really make much difference to them. Is it really just passion that Liverpool have lacked i wonder? No doubt it will get the fans going though so i'm half expecting an upset against United in the cup and of course the blues need to beware next week at Anfield.

The second thing it underlines for me is how difficult it can be for a club to move on after having had a long-serving manager. Invariably long serving managers have been  successful and stamped their mark on the whole club. By the time Benitez had left Liverpool in summer 2010 only Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher survived from before his reign and as late as 2007 Academy Director Steve Heighway had been replaced with Benitez's man. Long serving managers tend to have a vision that permeates through the whole club, from playing staff, to backroom staff and even to fans. When a manager goes, quite often their vision can live on elsewhere in the club for quite some time. I think it's this that Hodgson refers to when he expresses his regret at not being able to put his stamp on the squad. Liverpool aren't unique in struggling with the transition, Aston Villa are another example right now and i could cite Charlton Athletic post-Curbishley, West Ham post-Redknapp and Leeds United post-Revie as other examples.

Everton fans that have called for David Moyes' head this season need to be careful what they wish for. Inevitably even the most successful managers reach a point where it goes stale and they can take a club no further. Sometimes change is neccessary. But what Evertonians need to understand is that whoever comes in after David Moyes is going to have a very tough job on their hands. Whilst we may decide Moyes has taken us as far as he can we need to be aware that it may not be possible for anyone else to take us any further in the near future either. We may well go backwards before we go forwards again.

El Diego - a christmas treat for you

A couple of years back I was late for Christmas dinner at my mum and dads because i got sucked into a brilliant documentary about Diego Maradona that was on Sky Sports. Being a slightly contrary so-and-so i'd always rallied against Maradona-hate that is prevalent against most Englishmen. Watching that documentary only reassured me that I had been right to look past that handball and the drugs. He obviously did cheat, which is wrong, however there are plenty of Englishmen that have cheated to win over the years, perhaps in less blatant ways but that doesn't actually make him any worse than them.

So firstly, if anyone is able to tell me what the name of that documentary was I would love to know, i've searched but never found it.

Secondly, make yourself comfortable and have a look at this brilliant compilation of Maradona's goals at Napoli. Ok, some of the goalkeeping is woeful, but I swear to god this compilation includes about 5 of the best 10 goals you will ever see!

Hands up if you love christmas!

English football and Christmas. They are like two old friends living on opposite sides of the world. Spend some time apart and it’s easy to forget how well they complement each other, but when it’s time to meet up again it doesn’t take long before the old spark is reignited.

For all the good a winter break would do players I’d hate to lose the packed festive fixture schedule. All year most supporters have to wait a week between games, but come Christmas we can all enjoy the hectic high’s and low’s from playing every three days.

For Everton it’s the start of a particularly important period for our season. We play Birmingham, West Ham and Stoke between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. If we are to start making our way up the table we really need to be picking up 7 points out of the possible 9. We will also find out whether Moyes has figured out an effective way to beat teams that adopt a cautious approach against us. To follow it up we have tough games against Spurs and Liverpool with the FA cup third round sandwiched between.

January 1^st also see’s the opening of the transfer window. It is notoriously difficult to do business in this window but this year Everton really must do some. We cannot complete the season with a strike force this blunt and the news that Landon Donovan will not be coming in on loan means we also need to address the right-side of midfield.

With Steven Pienaar out of contract in the summer, rumours are circulating that he will also be sold, possibly to spurs with Nico Kranjcar coming in the opposite direction. As brilliant as the South African is, this has to be good business as we just cannot afford to let our players see out their contracts and leave for free.

As far as the right-side is concerned I think the key thing is to get someone who can carry the ball at pace and who is a ‘specialist’ in that position. We have to save money for strikers so I’m thinking someone at the Routledge, Eagles level rather than some blockbuster talent.

God knows what we’ll do about a striker, but I doubt we’ll get much of an improvement for spending less than £10-15million. We might just have to make do with a loan until the summer, unless we are able to get really good money for fringe players or choose to sell a big player.

Glory at Eastlands only underlines our problems

Another season, another fantastic win at Eastlands. City must be sick of the sight of Everton and Tim Cahill in particular.

As brilliant as Everton's 2-1 victory over Manchester City was, it only underlines where our current problems lie. When we can sit back and soak up pressure against a team that is coming at us we can get a result anywhere. Draws away against Chelsea and Spurs, the 3-3 against United, the easy victory over Liverpool and now a win away at City illustrate this.

Strange as it may sound, the issue we have is that the likes of City and Chelsea are in the minority! In order to improve we need to find a way to get three points consistently against the likes of Wigan and West Ham who will sit back and invite us to make the play. We need to refine our tactical approach to succeed in these situations and somehow find the right blend of players to execute it. The Everton that qualified for Europe in 07/08 and 08/09 easily dispensed with lower teams but failed time and again against the 'big 4', last year we evolved our approach and were hit and miss against both and this year we've hit the other extreme. What we need now is two Everton's!

Over to you Davey.....