Derek Mountfield's Tash
Player Valuation: Free Transfer
Evening/Morning Blues, depending on your part of the world!
I'm a new member to the forum, and as well as wanting to get involved in some decent discussion about our team, I also am currently hoping to get into some sports journalism. I have a real passion for writing about Everton FC and due to the stress of the start of the season/transfer window i have written a piece focusing on what seems to be a transitional period for the club and trying to forget all about the window nonsense. i apologise if what i post is going over old ground and bores the life out of you, but i was hoping to also gauge some opinion on my writing prowess and who better to ask than some fellow blues. i admit that i have some selfish motives here in posting this up, but if its truly awful i can throw the towel in now! please let me know haha! At the least i hope to get some decent debate going.
i havent really come up with a name for it but:
Where do YOU realistically see Everton finishing in the league this year? This is the question that many fellow blues (and none blues) have posed to each other following a summer of change at Everton Football Club. The start to our current campaign has only added further emphasis to this conundrum that presents itself to the World footballing community. Seemingly the key issue in deciding where we finish comes down to how the squad will cope with the ‘transition’ of coming to terms with Roberto Martinez’s preferred style of play.
For a moment let’s try to forget the issues of transfer window b0ll0ks of ins and outs and treat this ‘transitional issue’ as our primary concern.
We essentially have the same talented core group who performed admirably under David (koff) Moyez for the past few seasons. All Evertonians can acknowledge the previous ‘transition’ that took place in the style of play during Moyes’ decade tenure as boss. In particular the last few seasons saw us playing some lovely stuff, and going back as far at the 07/08 season, I would like to recall such randomly selected wonderfully worked goals as Leon Osman’s effort against Larissa in the Uefa/Europa/insert name here cup. And a few years later we saw Mikel Arteta silence all them mancs in the Etihad by finishing off a killer move to show that money isn’t everything. The most recent season in our history saw more flowing football than ever during Moyes reign, rather than the odd moment here and there, thus leading to some brilliantly crafted goals. I would like to pick out two perfect examples that show the quality evident in the squad: Anichebe’s goal away at Newcastle, (a game mostly remembered for Baines’ individual brilliance), yet it also showed an example of a perfect passing break away, made up of a combination of some one touch, direct and clinical passing/finishing. The other example would be the final home game against West Ham where our Super Kev finished off an intricate ‘tiki taka’ passing move to slot home cooly. So WE all know that we are capable of producing boss football, but do the players know that at the moment???
The squads’ quality has not disappeared overnight, yet there seems to be a lack of something at the minute. Is it the confidence to take the initiative maybe? To go true Barca style and kill teams off?
The first four games of this new season have proved to be frustrating, but I think the potential is there for all to see. Obviously we have dominated possession to no avail so far, but we can at least take positives in that we have the ability to control games. (Can’t we?!!! Or am I clutching at straws?!. . .) I think in combination with a dip in confidence, we have lacked the killer instinct, which was so evident last season at times and this is partly because we should be more direct in our play. But will Martinez adapt this? Is he the tactical chameleon that we all hope he is? Can we expect that the ability to pick teams off will come with time?!
So many questions . . .
This yet again brings us to discuss where we will finish!!! How much time do we have?? Are we to struggle on till Christmas, gaining a series of underwhelming draws and potentially some 1-0 wins, (that will still leave us feeling disappointed because we should have scored more!), to then go on a bit of a run in the new year to scrape the top ten? Or are we merely suffering our usual crap start to the season, which will soon lead to us bashing teams left right and centre by October time??
I disagree with the likes of the absolute bone head ‘pundit’ (used in the loosest of terms) David James who (after somehow getting a job for BT) has tipped us to finish in a below par middle table position. I think we can easily finish inside the top 8. In response to all these bigoted pundits: Christ on a bike we are Everton FC!! We are better than most of the overhyped and overspending mediocre teams that accompany us in what we are repeatedly told is ‘da best league in da welrd’. And just for good measure, we are equal, if not better than the shower across the park. In my humble opinion we have enough quality to comfortably finish in the top eight at the worst, as I still have enough early season optimism left in me to feel so*.
*(come the morning of Tuesday 3rd of September I will probably be feeling a lot different. . .)
But let’s hope that after the horrifically timed international break that some of our questions will be answered and we will get this season rolling!
I'm a new member to the forum, and as well as wanting to get involved in some decent discussion about our team, I also am currently hoping to get into some sports journalism. I have a real passion for writing about Everton FC and due to the stress of the start of the season/transfer window i have written a piece focusing on what seems to be a transitional period for the club and trying to forget all about the window nonsense. i apologise if what i post is going over old ground and bores the life out of you, but i was hoping to also gauge some opinion on my writing prowess and who better to ask than some fellow blues. i admit that i have some selfish motives here in posting this up, but if its truly awful i can throw the towel in now! please let me know haha! At the least i hope to get some decent debate going.
i havent really come up with a name for it but:
Where do YOU realistically see Everton finishing in the league this year? This is the question that many fellow blues (and none blues) have posed to each other following a summer of change at Everton Football Club. The start to our current campaign has only added further emphasis to this conundrum that presents itself to the World footballing community. Seemingly the key issue in deciding where we finish comes down to how the squad will cope with the ‘transition’ of coming to terms with Roberto Martinez’s preferred style of play.
For a moment let’s try to forget the issues of transfer window b0ll0ks of ins and outs and treat this ‘transitional issue’ as our primary concern.
We essentially have the same talented core group who performed admirably under David (koff) Moyez for the past few seasons. All Evertonians can acknowledge the previous ‘transition’ that took place in the style of play during Moyes’ decade tenure as boss. In particular the last few seasons saw us playing some lovely stuff, and going back as far at the 07/08 season, I would like to recall such randomly selected wonderfully worked goals as Leon Osman’s effort against Larissa in the Uefa/Europa/insert name here cup. And a few years later we saw Mikel Arteta silence all them mancs in the Etihad by finishing off a killer move to show that money isn’t everything. The most recent season in our history saw more flowing football than ever during Moyes reign, rather than the odd moment here and there, thus leading to some brilliantly crafted goals. I would like to pick out two perfect examples that show the quality evident in the squad: Anichebe’s goal away at Newcastle, (a game mostly remembered for Baines’ individual brilliance), yet it also showed an example of a perfect passing break away, made up of a combination of some one touch, direct and clinical passing/finishing. The other example would be the final home game against West Ham where our Super Kev finished off an intricate ‘tiki taka’ passing move to slot home cooly. So WE all know that we are capable of producing boss football, but do the players know that at the moment???
The squads’ quality has not disappeared overnight, yet there seems to be a lack of something at the minute. Is it the confidence to take the initiative maybe? To go true Barca style and kill teams off?
The first four games of this new season have proved to be frustrating, but I think the potential is there for all to see. Obviously we have dominated possession to no avail so far, but we can at least take positives in that we have the ability to control games. (Can’t we?!!! Or am I clutching at straws?!. . .) I think in combination with a dip in confidence, we have lacked the killer instinct, which was so evident last season at times and this is partly because we should be more direct in our play. But will Martinez adapt this? Is he the tactical chameleon that we all hope he is? Can we expect that the ability to pick teams off will come with time?!
So many questions . . .
This yet again brings us to discuss where we will finish!!! How much time do we have?? Are we to struggle on till Christmas, gaining a series of underwhelming draws and potentially some 1-0 wins, (that will still leave us feeling disappointed because we should have scored more!), to then go on a bit of a run in the new year to scrape the top ten? Or are we merely suffering our usual crap start to the season, which will soon lead to us bashing teams left right and centre by October time??
I disagree with the likes of the absolute bone head ‘pundit’ (used in the loosest of terms) David James who (after somehow getting a job for BT) has tipped us to finish in a below par middle table position. I think we can easily finish inside the top 8. In response to all these bigoted pundits: Christ on a bike we are Everton FC!! We are better than most of the overhyped and overspending mediocre teams that accompany us in what we are repeatedly told is ‘da best league in da welrd’. And just for good measure, we are equal, if not better than the shower across the park. In my humble opinion we have enough quality to comfortably finish in the top eight at the worst, as I still have enough early season optimism left in me to feel so*.
*(come the morning of Tuesday 3rd of September I will probably be feeling a lot different. . .)
But let’s hope that after the horrifically timed international break that some of our questions will be answered and we will get this season rolling!
