Hibbert - the odd man out?

[pablo315]

As much as we are all made up with the strength and depth of the current squad, its nagging at me that our defense looks unbalanced. We are over loaded at RB and woefully short at LB. Neville will continue to be the managers number 1 RB and the potential of Coleman means he has to be the understudy on the bench. The amount the lad has played pre-season seems to back this up. Add to that Heitinger has played at RB for Holland and you can see where I am going.

Barring a repeat of last year (the worst injury crisis any team has suffered since the prem started) there should not really be a need to use to much of Tony Hbbert this season. The problem is the manager rewards certain players with unbreakable loyalty. Maybe this is the reason for the spirit in the camp but I think Moyes can take it a bit too far. Moyseys solution to the unbalanced defense has been to give Hibbert plenty of time at LB during pre-season. From the outside it looks as tho he's saying, dont worry Tony i'll keep you in the squad some how.

The problem as I see it is that we could well lose Baines to injury or suspension. Even if he is only missing for a few weeks Hibbert could find hmself on his weaker side facing the likes of Lennon or Nani. That just seems like a disaster waiting to happen to me. The best option for the good of the side surley has to be sell Hibbert and use the money to bring in an experienced LB to cover Baines. Surely any of the bottom 8 or so sides would jump at a player with Hibbert's experience. Teams down there are less concerned with his limitations in attack because they know he will be dependable and help keep clean sheets. I would be surprised if he didnt bring in about 2.5-3 million

I dont want this to sound like a Hibbert bashing because I dont think the lad has ever let us down. I think its too big a risk to to what is probably our best chance to do something special in years to start the season with just one LB. It's time for Moysey to see past the loyalty he has for some of his 'young managers' on the pitch and think of the balance of the team.

 

[ijjysmith]

Hibberts been the odd one out for about 3 years now but he's still here and loves the club. I hibbo bash as much as the next man, but could you imagine him in any other teams shirt?!


I couldn't and wouldn't want it.

 

[Cena]

Neville was very solid at LB against CD Everton and got forward to. If needed he could easily cover for Leighton if he got injured/suspended

 

[Muggins]

Some good points Pablo,

trust me though mate, this year, Hibbo, 10 goals nailed on.

Last game of the season against Portsmouth I thought he was gonna score on a couple of occasions. I actually thought that could be 'the' day, when 'we' riot.

He didn't score like, but on a serious note i reckon Moyes had a word with the team and told em' he needs goals from everyone, Hibbo included. So they were trying to play him in over and over again in a nothin match, so to speak.

Thats been one of our greatest strengths in recent years, loads of our players chip in with goals, instead of just 1 out and out striker scoring 20 odd goals.

Thats often overlooked.

 

[toffeestillidie]

hibbert has shown he can play alright at just about anywhere across the back four, at the very least he's there for cover. Coleman is still young, and i don't think it would be the right decision to make him a full on starter just yet.

now that we once again have numbers in defense, i wouldn't be too surprised to see neville move back into midfield (much to our collective chagrin), with hibbert playing right back, and occasionally giving way to coleman. if baines gets injured, I would move neville to left back (where he has often played for manchester, and a little bit for england). Since neville isn't the best going forward, it would make sense to play coleman at right back should Baines get injured, so we would have at least one attacking minded full back.

Even if neville goes down as well as baines, we know we can always stick hibbert at left back, as this preseason has shown us. So we do have cover for left back, which i pray we don't need; baines has proven himself one of our most important players. There's no reason to trade hibbert for left back cover. And if you think hibbert is surplus to our needs right now, I expect to have two decent cup runs this domestically, as we no longer have the excuse of Europe. Plus this is everton, bad luck will inevitably strike and no doubt we will find a need for a player like hibbert who can provide cover for the whole back line, though personally i think his best position is striker

 

[C-R-A-I-G]

There is nothing wrong with our defence. We have it well covered:

GK Howard
GK Mucha
GK Turner
RB Hibbert
RB Coleman
CB Jagielka
CB Heitinga
CB Yobo
CB Distin
LB Baines
LB Neville

 

[It's_Just_Not_Cricket]

To put it in Shawshank terms he is an institutionalized man now. Ok he probably wont feature as much now and probably wont improve much more but could be worth keeping as cover for the time being. Plus he is blue through and through and a good example to youth that they can also break in to the first team.

 

[Summerskin]

 

[Robert Jarvis]

FFS see the thread on our weak links.

 

[pablo315]

FFS see the thread on our weak links.

FFS maybe you should read the thread before you critisise it. The topic is whether Hibbert should be sold to create money t cover Baines, I am not calling him a weak link

 

[Robert Jarvis]

If you look at the thread you will see the general agreement is that he is not good enough and is a weak link. Conclusion should depart. But who would want to buy him??????? Champions league side which is his level. We would get very little for him.

IMHO as stated on that thread Hibbert, Osman, Neville and Distin should all go, their presence is blocking our younger players coming through.

 

[stinger]

If you look at the thread you will see the general agreement is that he is not good enough and is a weak link. Conclusion should depart. But who would want to buy him??????? Champions league side which is his level. We would get very little for him.

IMHO as stated on that thread Hibbert, Osman, Neville and Distin should all go, their presence is blocking our younger players coming through.

Shouldn't younger players climb the ladder by themselves first to kick them out? I understand that from a football perspective Hibbert is well under current Everton standards, but Osman, Neville and Distin are good enough to be rotation players for team like us.

 

[Cena]

If you look at the thread you will see the general agreement is that he is not good enough and is a weak link. Conclusion should depart. But who would want to buy him??????? Champions league side which is his level. We would get very little for him.

IMHO as stated on that thread Hibbert, Osman, Neville and Distin should all go, their presence is blocking our younger players coming through.

Opinions are great like, coz we all have em...

even if they are stunningly wrong...

 

[evilwebby]

It's good to see Moyes experiment with Hibbo in different positions (sounds kinky). It's hard to justify keeping him if all he can do is be 2nd/3rd choice RB, but if he can provide cover for LB and even CH then he's be worth keeping. With our constraints it makes sense to keep him - cost us nothing, has a few years left ahead of him, and can give us 10-15 games a season in a variety of positions.

 

[TX Bill]

Hibbert will spend his entire career at Everton.

Like it was said earlier. I couldn't imagine him wearing anyone else's shirt. He's Everton through and through.